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Blue Movie |
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Avatar Special |
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How James Cameron created a fictional world that has changed the real one we live in.
I’m the king of the world!” declared director James Cameron at the 70th Annual Academy Awards ceremony in 1998, after his beloved movie Titanic blitzed the competition to win 11 Oscars and went on to become the highest grossing movie of all time at the worldwide box office.
Cameron wasn’t so lucky at the 2010 Oscars ceremony; his 3-D science fiction blockbuster Avatar was up for 9 awards including the coveted Best Picture and Director trophy, but only received three Oscars in the technical categories it was always going to win – Cinematography, Art Direction and Visual Effects.
Cameron may no longer be king of the world but Avatar reigns supreme, having dethroned Titanic as the planet’s biggest movie moneymaker ever – in Australia it has almost doubled that film’s $57 million record at the time of writing. But let’s take into consideration that the price of movie tickets is more than the cost of a DVD these days, certainly pricier than when Titanic came out in 1997. And the cost was higher if you saw Avatar in 3-D or at an IMAX theatre.
Avatar has not only been a financial success story but has also left an indelible imprint on popular culture and the public consciousness. There have been the inevitable spoofs, political cartoons and porno version (reportedly called ‘Ave-it-ard’!), but the film’s colossal impact has been even farther reaching.
Websites have sprung up offering online counselling and support groups for those suffering the, er, blues after a trip to Pandora at the movies.
Why would Avatar leave you depressed, you might well ask? Well, apparently some have been unable to cope with “the dream of Pandora being intangible” and can’t handle the crash back to earth once the film is over.
Perhaps it’s these sad souls that need to get real. The latest trend is ‘Avatising’, in other words turning celebrities into Na’vi via some clever Photoshopping (Amy Winehouse being an inspired choice).
Then there are the role-play groups who paint themselves blue and get back to nature. Moreover, the Na’vi language has become the new Klingon and Elvish, with many eager to learn how to speak the alien tongue.
Cameron’s epic has also stirred up controversy for its environmental message; right wing media commentators labelling it a blatant bit of greenie propaganda.
Sigourney Weaver’s smoking has also ignited debate, and of course the Vatican has added further fuel to the anti-Avatar fire by frowning upon the film’s theme of worshipping nature over religion.
There have even been allegations of racism (!), but if it’s to be accused of anything, then Avatar is ‘anti-human’. The movie can even be hazardous to your health; a Taiwanese man died from a stroke triggered by over-excitement during a screening, and some viewers have reported nausea, headaches and epileptic seizures induced by the film’s visual stimuli and rapidly edited action sequences.
Then came the inevitable ‘style over substance’ grumblings from film critics and detractors. While the story itself may indeed be what South Park’s Cartman would call “a bunch of tree-hugging hippy crap”, and the socio-political message is about as subtle as the one at the heart of Neill Blomkamp’s recent District 9, there’s no denying the struggle between the Na’vi and the sky people struck a resonant emotional chord with every conceivable human demographic.
Just like Titanic, this was a movie for mums and dads, kids and grandparents. Comparisons with Pocahontas and Dances with Wolves are unavoidable but Avatar’s closest sci-fi relative is in fact Frank Herbert’s Dune, in which a planet is exploited for a valuable natural resource and an offworlder ultimately becomes a hero and leader of the native people, taming a legendary beast which he rides into battle against his own race.
There’s more than a nod to Cameron’s own Aliens, too, not only in Sigourney Weaver’s tough character but in the design of the AMP combat suits (powerloaders anyone?), presence of an evil company man (Giovanni Ribisi) and a fetish for military hardware.
Most important perhaps is Avatar’s impact on the future of filmmaking. Cameron began his script treatment for the film back in 1994, but production wouldn’t commence until technology was sufficiently advanced to accommodate the visual effects and three-dimensional photography demands required to fully realise his ambitious vision.
In the interim Cameron dabbled with the 3-D process on a pair of IMAX documentaries, Ghosts of the Abyss and Aliens of the Deep, refining the process and promising that Avatar would be far removed from the unfocused 3-D of the 1950s and ‘80s, and would transport the audience into another world.
Avatar delivered on Cameron’s promise, eschewing the traditional ‘comin’ at ya’ gimmick for a more immersive 3-D movie experience of incredible depth and clarity.
Seeds from the sacred tree drifted into the cinema, the audience became part of the crowd scenes and flew on the back of a banshee.
The film’s technical triumph has already resulted in a 3-D boom with every other event movie now boasting an extra dimension – and there’s more to come, including 3-D TV sets in our very own homes.
3-D element aside, Avatar has also taken CGI and photorealism to the next level, particularly in advancements to the motion capture system used to create ‘virtual’ characters like Gollum in The Lord of the Rings.
It comes as no surprise then that New Zealand FX company Weta Digital are among the effects wizards behind Avatar’s groundbreaking look.
One of the most anticipated films of the last decade, Cameron gave industry insiders and media a sneak peek at 20 minutes of footage in August 2009, an event that became known as ‘Avatar Day’.
Reaction was mixed, with some describing what they saw as “cutscenes from Halo”. Indeed, early trailers resembled a video game and the skeptical questioned whether the film would return on its mega-budget, reported to be in the vicinity of USD$237 million.
The film opened worldwide mid-December 2009, the rest is history. Now Avatar is ours to own on DVD, and it will put the blue into Blu-ray. Every home should have one, and although a 3-D version is still some time away it’s a credit to Cameron’s achievements that the film remains an effective, involving and impressive experience in its 2-D alternative, allowing for closer scrutiny of the incredible FX work and the creation of a believable alien culture.
Given Cameron’s past penchant for longer cuts of his films on video (Aliens, The Abyss, T2), it’s possible that an extended version of Avatar could one-day surface. The director has already confirmed a deleted Na’vi sex scene – in which Jake and Neytiri join braids – could be restored for a future release. Watch this space.
Discover Avatar on DVD and Blu-ray at JB Hi-Fi » |
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