The Smurfs are looking pretty good these days... and on the seventh day, James Cameron created Avatar. That man has the right to be called a God with a capital G. There is no other name to give one who creates a brand new world, full of new species of flora and fauna; luminescent moss that lights up when you step on it, tiny glow-in-the-dark insects, majestic horse-like creatures with six legs. Charles Darwin would have had a blast roaming around Pandora with his specimen jars. He'd be as giddy as a school-girl finding out that Robert Pattinson would be working in the tuck-shop for the rest of her academic life.
'You're not in Kansas anymore,' declares Colonel Quaritch, resident bad-ass and ready-made action figure (now with bendable limbs!). He's dead right, you're not in Kansas, you are in a world designed by James Cameron and you WILL be awestruck!
Naturally, I saw Avatar in 3D, you must give this movie the respect it deserves, see it the way that Cameron wants it to be seen. Dang, he spent years perfecting the art of capturing his actors every move and making his characters really come to life, it's the least you can do for him in return. Gone are the days of awkward make-up jobs or CGI faces that just don't quite look right, Cameron has mastered this, there's no excuse for anyone else!
I sat pretty close to the front (4th row back actually) to totally immerse myself in this brave new world. The trees and animals seemed to come alive around me. For moments, I believed I was actually watching ten foot, blue actors and not computer generated images. It really was truly remarkable. Other CGI characters lack that sparkle in their eyes or a certain texture in their skin, Cameron nails that and even has the balls to add to it with luminescent freckles that mimic the surrounding world and tie in the oneness with the environment the Na'vi hold so dear.
I'm not going to think about the plot too much. Yes there were the stereotypical bad dudes that probably could have been played a different way, but maybe that adds to the message Cameron is trying to get across by shoving it in your face. Who are we to say who gets to live where. In a world where people are being displaced in the millions and the land they lived on for thousands of years is being stripped bare and turned into mines, uninhabitable for generations to come, Avatar brings a story of hope. No matter how big or how well armed the bad guys are, all it takes is for people to believe in something strong enough for good to prevail. Because good always prevails.
I don't think there will be another movie quite like this one for a while, although Tim Burton's Alice in Wonderland (also in 3D) is looking pretty darn good! Drink this one up, watch it a few times, I think it's the kind of movie that will take a few sittings just to capture everything that is on the screen and for our new God's sake, watch it in 3D!
Avatar is pure magic and James Cameron is one hell of a wizard.
Not to disagree with you, but...
ReplyDeleteJames Cameron is little more than a grade 12 student...ok, perhaps more like a first year uni student. One who has been given a heavily weighted assignment (read: extremely large bag of cash) with a six month deadline, who then proceeds to immerse himself in the usual activities: i.e. spend 5 of the 6 months watching dvd's (or videos for those who still remember), followed by the afternoon kids' shows and rounding off the evening with friends (friends = people plus alcohol and/or other expensive condiments) uttering sentences like:
'You know what would be really cool? Take one line from every movie you ever made and just make one epic movie. Like I'm talking James Cameron Epic here, not some George Lucas recycled crap that relies on Industrial light & Magic to CGI over the unbelievability of it all.'
'I've even heard you can buy some really good plot elements and climaxes on eBay. Y'know, the ones where you think the main character's about to be killed but then their semi-hapless friend or love-interest who you thought would never get out from under that thing that fell on then squeezes free just in time to save them), throw in the requisite amount of explosions and you wont have to give the arts grant money back so we can spend it on beer'
Before continuing I will say thisit must be stated: JC did learn his lesson from Titanic. There were no people falling into foam pylons in this movie :)
It would seem J.C (Not his real initials and not a coincidence) is in fact a genius. I'm willing to bet his pitch to the studios was: "Think Micocosmos (attention to detail) meets Pocohontas (falling in love with a different culture) meets Twins ('I'm fortunately genetically identical to my brother so the plot is saved') meets Dances With Wolves (natives with spears but not guns) meets Happy Feet (gots to protect nature, especially the trees) meets Teletubbies (awesome, look at all the pwetty colours...) meets Die Hard (quick. Blow stuff up before the parents see through the plot holes) meets Star Wars (because you can't do this sort of thing on earth...ever...period!!!) meets Titanic (Oscar follows the big ships sinking/crashing?) meets Terminator (Thou shalt not maketh a movie sáns robots, of which we'll get to in a few moments) meets Rambo (because there's only ever one man who's capable of taking on the evil empire... sorry, company...sorry, alien...sorry, bad guy in giant robot suit during the big finalé) meets ...ahh, bugger it...whatever movie it was where the guy you thought was dead comes back to life just when everyone's given up. Yeah, I know that didn't happen exactly but they came pretty close.
(Continued in the other comment)
The only cliché left out was the narrow escape through a closing door/cave/mountains close together, though I may have missed it while I was outside waiting for the originality to arrive.
ReplyDeleteSo let's see if anyone in the audience stands up shouting "Wait a minute!!! You left out the Chosen One archetype!!!
Actually I didn't. Harry Potter had contractual obligations elsewhere and couldn't appear in my diatribe here today, sorry.
One last thing: Omg, I just can't pass up the opportunity to say "Really James? You could only come up with just enough imagination to plagiarise other Hollywood cash cows? Could you seriously not find some Indie or foreign flick to steal from? At least then people may have thought you still had one creative bone left.
The only people that deserve credit for making such an awesome film were the people who wrote all the original stories on which Avatar was based, extra cred goes to the people who evolved the 3d glasses into the sheer magical brilliance they should always have been and finally, the animators. Without these people this movie would have been another Disney classic only.
Oh yeah, the guns used by the guys in the robot suits... So the robot suit arm and torso are controlled by arm and torso movements. Firstly, what controlled the legs and feet, and; Secondly, the robot suit pilots are using the same invisible gun pose that kids playing cowboys and indians do. Does this mean that the entire robot suit is controlled by the movements of the pilot? If so, how come they're not running on the spot in the cockpit to make the robot suit move?
If the wookie doesn't fit, you must acquit.
All of the above notwithstanding, Avatar is the most exciting movie release of the past five years, if only for the promise it offers for a future in which movie-makers believe in fairies again.
Nice writing though, L.
I do agree, the plot was pretty ordinary. I think I might try watching it on mute when it comes on dvd and just sit and watch the pretty shiny things.
ReplyDeleteThere weren't people falling into foam pylons but there were people falling from their birdy-planes into the depths below. Maybe there were foam pylons just below the low lying clouds.
Word is this is part of a trilogy so you might just get your "narrow escape through a closing door/cave/mountains close together"
Be careful what you wish for.