$387 million and worth every penny.
Well before James Cameron made headlines around the world with the staggering $1.8billion gross of Titanic he wrote a script for a sci-fi movie named Avatar. However in 1994 the technology simply wasn’t there. Only when Peter Jackson and Weta wowed the world with the technological marvels of Gollum and King Kong did Cameron know he was finally able to shoot it.
With such a long gestation Avatar has had its fair share of doubters. 12 years is a long time between movies so could we really be sure Cameron still had it in him? Early footage that was meant to wow was greeted with indifference, some people even writing the Na’vi off as CG smurfs. I only became excited after catching 16minutes of footage at Avatar Day but even that didn’t leave me speechless. Ridiculous production costs didn’t do it any favours either. Nothing less than a masterpiece would do from the self-proclaimed king of the world. And by damn did he do it.
Avatar is so good that Roger Ebert, esteemed critic of the Chicago Sun Times, compared it to watching Star Wars for the first time. For me, only Return of The King has given me the same effect that I experienced watching Avatar. It’s not often that you think to yourself while watching a movie, “This is unlike anything that has come before it.” And indeed with what Cameron has achieved cinema may never be the same again. He sure as hell puts every other 3D effort released so far to shame.
For those of you yet to be hit by the $150million marketing blitz Avatar is set in 2154 on the jungle-world of Pandora. Humans have come to mine ‘unobtainium’, a cure for the energy crisis back on Earth and a resource so valuable it sells for $20million a kilo. The only problem is that Pandora has an indigenous population called the Na’vi whose home is located right ontop of the richest deposit of unobtainium on the planet. While the military are preparing to take the place by force an ‘Avatar’ program, whereby humans can link into and control a genetically engineered Na’vi body has been trying to convince the natives to relocate peacefully.
This Avatar program, led by Dr. Grace Augustine (Sigourney Weaver) is what Jake Sully (rising Aussie star Sam Worthington) gets drafted into after the original trainee (his twin) dies en route to Pandora. It’s an attractive proposition for Jake, who is offered an operation to restore his paralysed legs in exchange for helping out. Initially hired as security for the biologists Grace and Norm (Joel David Moore) he is also tapped by Colonel Quaritch (one mean SOB played by Stephen Lang) to get intel on the Na’vi and learn their weaknesses.
It’s in one of Jake’s first outings in his Avatar body that the group is attacked, leaving him stranded in the Jungle. Rescued by a real Na’vi, Neytiri (Zoe Saldana) he is taken back to their ‘hometree’ and, as a human warrior of the ‘fallen jarhead’ clan is allowed to learn their ways. I won’t say much more about the story but if you’re thinking Dances With Wolves you’re on the right track. I loved it because at its core there is a deeply environmental message with strong anti-war sentiments. It’s impossible to watch Avatar and not see parallels with our current situation. How you feel about geopolitics today will shape your reaction.
The pro-green storyline and respect for indigenous populations may not do it for everyone but no one can walk out of Avatar without marvelling at the technical achievement. Everyone involved in this movie has to be applauded for producing the greatest special effects extravaganza ever seen on screen. The level of detail that went into the production more than warrants the massive budget. Cameron even hired linguist Paul Frommer and ethnomusicologist Wanda Bryant to create a fully-fledged language and music culture for the Na’vi.
The visual effects are breathtaking and completely photorealistic. The landscape of Pandora is lovingly rendered from the grand scale of the Hallelujah Mountains to the smallest organisms. The Na’vi themselves are the biggest highlight. They are not 12-foot smurfs as first thought but a fully realised living civilisation with a culture far more in-tune with nature than modern-day humans could ever aspire to be. It’s incredibly refreshing watching the Na’vi at play in this natural environment, almost a spiritual experience. Their appearance might take a moment to get used to, that is until you realise that every micro facial expression and gesture is captured, making them as real as any indigenous population on Earth. They even make Neytiri look hot.
None of this could have been done without the technological marvel that is Cameron’s performance-capture stage. Nicknamed ‘The Volume’, the stage uses 120 stationary cameras combined with full body motion capture suits to map every movement of the actors in 3D. The real game changer about the stage is that special cameras allowed Cameron to view this performance on monitors within the CG environment of Pandora. Imagine Peter Jackson and Spielberg using this technology.
I can make almost no bad comments about Avatar. You couldn’t ask for a better sci-fi action flick. The story is perhaps a bit too blunt in its environmental message and the final act turns into balls to the wall action but that doesn’t matter because the story is strong enough to make you care about the characters taking part in the battle. In Transformers 2 I was asleep in the last 30minutes, in Avatar I was in tears.
You really do have to watch Avatar in 3D if you can. The 2D experience cannot recreate the level of immersion you get while watching the film in 3D. No flashy breaking of the fourth wall here folks. The 2hours 43minutes runtime breezed by as I was transported through the glasses into the glorious world of Pandora. If you only see one film this year at the cinema, Avatar should be it.
Now Mr. Cameron, Please sir, can we have some more?
*****