Tuesday, December 29, 2009

James Cameron’s Avatar | The Most Original Movie With The Least Original Story

The motion picture Avatar was such an enormously plugged movie that you might think after it you might as well die and save yourself the disappointment of watching any other films/sunsets/your fist child being born, because nothing will compare to the singular visual experience that is Avatar. Well, no. What this movie is though is among the best of 09’ and by far the most original… in a way. You see, so many freaking movies these days are based on other – that is financially proven, stories whether it be a comic book or TV series. The only way you can get a movie made these days is if you have some help from Marvel or Gene Rodenberry. That is what makes Avatar a pure and original film, it went from James Cameron’s brain to the big screen, plus a few decades in between, but for all intents and purposes THE FILM is original. On the other hand though, the story is very familiar. The movie plays out much like Dances With Wolves, lest Kevin Costner. Not to mention in Dances With Wolves, the back drop as beautiful as it was, can not compare to the magical world of Pandora. Every thing in this world is new, or a slight variation on what we have on Earth, most of the beasts of burden on Pandora are six legged, or dragons. The thing which makes the planet interesting to experience is its unpredictability. So much though has gone into the interactions of characters and the surrounding plants and animals, it is astonishing to watch on its own. The fact is anything on Pandora is more interesting than anything on Earth, in terms of visual aesthetics.
The Art of Avatar: James Cameron's Epic Adventure

The Na'vi are the race of humanoids that live on Pandora. They look like a mixture of cats and people, if they had the skin of blue dolphin. The weird thing is they are kind of sexy in a beastiality kind of way. They have large eyes, small wastes and are 10 feet tall. It’s important to note that this description is the same as that of a supermodel and don’t think Cameron did know that. The wonderful thing about this new technique used to make this film allows you to forget that you are watching manufactured images. Cameron used head mounted cameras to capture the expressions of the actors while they played out each scene, really bringing to life the digitally rendered avatars. You can really see emotion in the facial expressions and most importantly the intensity of the eyes. The connection the Na’vi have with nature doesn’t seem to get preachy either. The eco-fighter undertones of the story are superfluous. The go green or good home mentality is more of a story mover than a weepy ballad for the Greenpeace type. The film may be set on the distant moon of Pandora but the story is as earthbound as the come. It’s the classic story of boy occupy’s the mind of an alien avatar (body), and then meets alien girl who he then falls in love with… the oldest story in the book. In all seriousness though, the story as simple as it is allows for the world in which it is told, to tell a story of its own. So, in actuality the film shares its time telling a story of adventure and romance while allowing the audience to experience the other, grander overall story with is the world of Pandora.

What of the 3D? Well, as impressive a feet Avatar is, the 3D element is hardly a key part of the experience. Having spent the extra coin to see the film in 3D I can say that after the hour it takes for your eyes to adjust to the effect it goes mostly unnoticed aside from a few exceptional sense where the barrel of a gun seems to leave the screen entirely and during a scene where the ash and embers which rain from the sky seem to be peppering in rest of the theater. However, all of the hype surrounding the films release in 3D seems to have just been a ploy to get asses in the seats. If anything the avid moviegoer should be exited about seeing Avatar in theater in an IMAX or digital HD theater, so they can see every detail of the world so carefully created by Cameron. It looks unlike anything you have seen on the big screen before.

Most importantly, Avatar has one of the greatest action sequences of recent years. Dragons versus Helicopter Gunships… need I say more.

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