After seeing “Avatar” yesterday for the second time in 3-D, I have come to this conclusion: it is the only 3-D movie that has not given me a headache or made my eyes hurt.
I don’t know if I have just been broken into the technology that much more or if James Cameron’s movie has really raised the standard that much.
Does anyone know? Seriously, let me know in the comments!
It takes more than just gumption and chutzpa to get up on one of the world’s biggest stages and declare yourself king of the world; it takes conviction. When James Cameron did just this at the Academy Awards in 1997 after “Titanic,” it was shocking to some and bombastic to others (I’m too young to remember the occasion). What had he really done to gain the title “king of the world?” What separates him from the dozens of directors who stood in the exact same place as he had? What is the legacy of “Titanic” other than a firm position in the highest echelon of box office performance and a hefty loot on Oscar night? According to IMDb, it is now the lowest rated of the five Best Picture nominees that year. From what I understand, the movie electrified the people and was simply too popular to ignore.
Fast forward 12 years to today where James Cameron has just released “Avatar.” If he got up on national television and screamed, “I’M KING OF THE WORLD,” I just might buy it. His latest project is one fifteen years in the making, and he may have just sparked a revolution in cinema. “Avatar” is breathtaking moviemaking at its finest, with astonishing visuals that are designed to do more than just floor you. They engulf you and transport you to Pandora, a land of untold beauty complete with its own indigenous people, language, and wildlife, for an exhilarating ride and fascinating experience.
I knew the effects would be a slam dunk victory for Cameron, but I had my doubts about his ability to craft a story after “Titanic,” whose melodramatic plot I can usually summarize in one sentence (Leo and Kate have a lot of fun and the boat sinks). Much to my surprise, Cameron actually constructs a very engaging story with undertones about the dangers of imperialism. Cynics might call it the Smurf County production of “Pocahontas,” but the story still feels fresh even though it is a bit recycled. Jake Sully (Sam Worthington of “Terminator Salvation” fame) is a paraplegic Marine who is torn between the two competing human forces on Pandora after he develops a special bond with the native Na’vi. The scientists, led by the sassy cigarette-smoking Grace (Sigourney Weaver), want to discover how the Na’vi think in order to live in harmony with them. The military operation, commanded by the hulking Colonel Quatritch (Stephen Lang), works in tandem with the financial side of the project, run by a thundering businessman doing his best Ari Gold impersonation (Giovanni Ribisi), to figure out the best way to get their hands on the bonanza underneath the sacred tree of the Na’vi. They would prefer relocation but are not afraid to resort to subjugation if the natives prove to be a handful. While Jake tries to serve two distinctly different agendas, he becomes quite taken by the Na’vi and the way they live in cooperation with nature – and not to mention quite smitten by the Amazonian Neytiri (Zoë Saldana). Soon, the two forces tugging for Jake becomes not scientists vs. military but Na’vi vs. humans. Read the rest of this entry »
Charles Dickens’ “A Christmas Carol” gets the title “timeless” bestowed on it because every year at Christmas, some new version of his story is spawned. Robert Zemeckis is the latest filmmaker to take a stab at the tale. Rather than revamp, retool, or recondition the story, he simply uses modern technology to retell it in a fun way that stays true to the source material and keeps the soul intact. His “A Christmas Carol” bottles up the real spirit of the holiday season like no recent movie and spreads it through the audience. It really is an empowering feeling to walk out of a movie inspired to put that twenty-dollar bill in the Salvation Army bin, not in the cash register at the mall.
The story of Ebenezer Scrooge is probably the second most well-known holiday yarn, weaved into the very fabric of the holiday season itself. We all know it: the old miser with a heart colder than the snow packed on the London sidewalks gets a wake-up call that changes him. Prior, Scrooge scoffed at Christmas with a “bah, humbug.” He scorned those who wanted to care for him and refused to give care to the people that need it the most. He treats his employee like dirt and gives him wages that amount to little more than that. But Scrooge gets a visit from three ghosts – the Ghost of Christmas Past, the Ghost of Christmas Present, and the Ghost of Christmas Yet to Come – that change his perspective by reminding him of the joy that the season used to bring, the plight of those less fortunate, and the bleak future that awaits him if he doesn’t change his ways. The result is a more tender-hearted man who appreciates Christmas and the giving spirit that accompanies it.
It has been 12 long years since James Cameron’s “Titanic” took the movie world by storm, becoming the sixth highest selling movie ever (NOTE: I didn’t say “highest grossing” movie because ticket prices have fluctuated so much over the years that the most fair way to gauge a movie’s success is through its adjusted gross. This method takes the amount of tickets sold and multiplies it by the ticket price in the current time). With “Titanic,” he got girls to come back week after week, swooning at Leonardo DiCaprio for over 3 hours.
Now, Cameron is aiming for a new group of moviegoers: the visual effects nerds. “Avatar” has been hyped for years, and now we are finally getting to see what Cameron has been crafting for over a decade. He has had the idea for quite a while, but he wanted to wait for the technology to be developed to make the movie the marvel that he imagines. Because Cameron so deeply values the role of technology in making movies, I figure I should briefly explain how they are making this fantasy world. The movie uses an advanced version of the motion capture technology used for movies like “The Polar Express,” allowing Cameron to see and control the virtual environment, normally added later, alongside the actors on the virtual stage. They are also experimenting with allowing the actors while they are on the motion capture stage to interact fully with computer-generated characters. The team has also made improvements to the motion capture technology, making the characters and their expressions look even more real.
The project has been mysterious for many years, and the first time that the general public really got a glimpse at it was at Comic-Con in San Diego a few weeks ago. It was there that Cameron announced that he would be screening 15 minutes of the movie in select IMAX 3D theaters across the country, calling it “Avatar Day.” That was yesterday, August 21st, and I was fortunate enough to view it. The first official trailer for the film was released the day before, and all of a sudden, “Avatar” is everywhere. Yet due to the project’s enigmatic nature, many normal moviegoers have no idea what all the buzz is about. So, hopefully I can answer the question I posed in the title of this post. Read the rest of this entry »
Marshall and the Movies 
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