While the plot structure held no promise, and the dialogue was that of any brain-melting blockbuster, the visual effects were certainly something to be seen. Watching the film in 3D put you into the action, able to enjoy the scenery, and share in the devastation the terrible humans brought. And enjoy the mass confusion of the audience when Jake Sully brought together the other 14 clans of Na'vi- where were they the rest of the movie? Couldn't they have made an introduction and helped fight off the humans prior the the demolition of the main clan's home? Either way, I have one thing to say to James Cameron, " Jimmy, you make a fantastic Hollywood director, and the effects in this film were truly life altering, but maybe you should leave the script writing and concept construction to someone else?"In having this film come to fruition, James Cameron encountered a few problems, one of the most prominent certainly being the budget. If he was going to make this movie, he was going to do it right. Cameron dreamed up the movie way back when Titanic was released, but refused to make it, claiming that the right technology was not available. The new technology used to create the realistic animation effects just recently came about, giving Cameron the perfect way to express this concept he dreamed up- most likely in the lobby of a Communist rally while under the influence of LSD, judging by the not-so-subtext of Avatar. Another problem James Cameron encountered while making Avatar: The La- no, I mean just Avatar was, creating an entirely new language. The Na'vi speak an inhuman language which James had to recruit a language specialist to help create.
The main idea of having the planet- Pandora- look the way it does in the film, was to show what us Hu-MANs on earth are missing out on. The entire planet is filled with beautiful forestry and everything is connected with a web of mythical communication, the planet itself is alive, and it gives and speaks to the native people. The process of creating Pandora consisted of making a virtual world, with actual world elements, they used ideas from dinosaurs to present day horses to make people feel connected to this alien world.
In motion capture, only the bodies of the actors are captured and put into the animation process, and while that is great, there was always one problem- the animation's face. No matter how high quality the picture was, you could always tell it was fake by the lack of sincere emotion of it's face. Now with performance capture, that is no longer an issue. The actor's faces are now recorded to portray extremely realistic emotion throughout the film. This changes the elements of animation and special effects because it is now becoming almost impossible to distinguish what is real and what isn't. Also, because of the severity of the new technology, the actors are in full body suits in a green screen warehouse, which allows them to become full absolved into their character, bringing out a much stronger performance. Almost as if the animated characters were the actor's Avatars.
Now, I'm sure everyone knows that creating Avatar was not only a bitch physically, but also financially. On advertising alone, Mr. Cameron's puppet masters shelled out enough money to make a nun swear- and that is not an easy task. Half a BILLION dollars were spent on creating the film altogether, and about 1/5 of that was spent on marketing. News Corps- the proverbial 'puppet masters' of the movie world- were a little nervous when handing over the dough, because if the movie was a flop (like the case with Babylon AD) then they would lose all of this money. They were so paranoid, that NC decided if it didn't totally PWN every other movie it's opening weekend, that they would write it off then and there. But, no need to fear, many people and critics are now bowing to the god that is Avatar. Now, let's not forget that there is a message here people- a very well funded and promoted message- that we, as people of this earth, need to start treating the ground we walk on better, or we indeed may be in search of a Pandora in the future. And of course that message still holds strong, even through the facade of the media induced blockbuster frenzy.
As I mentioned above, the plot to this movie was nothing to dance about, in fact, some critics say it was the exact same plot as Pocahontas only with marines instead of settlers, and giant blue aliens instead of Native Americans. In the movie, the big bad Corpo's come in and tear shit up, effectively causing a feud with the native people and taking their land whilst destroying their lively hood. Then, a man is sent out, but he gets lost in the forest, only to be rescued by the princess of the clan. She then falls for him, teaching him the ways of her people and letting him become part of the culture ( any of this ringing a bell yet?). At the end of the movie, that bad guys move in, and the 'alien' turned friendly saves the day, and lives out his happily ever after. This recycled plot, while very boring and recognizable, was a good move on the Avatar's crew's part. If they were going to spend an insane amount of money on this film, they wanted to make sure people would LOVE it, not just kind of like it, but bow down before it-literally. The film was meant to be a monster blockbuster; appealing to the Romance lovers with Jake and Natiri, appealing to the War mongers with the Americans coming in to kill everything. There was something for everyone to love in this film, any deeper message they were trying to show here disappeared long ago. The movie is beautiful, so appreciate it at face value for what it is- and don't try to go searching for meaning, that's like asking the hottest sorority sister what the M87 black hole is, a waste of time.
Comments
Post a Comment