Absolutely nothing about James Cameron’s film desires to be ignored. And while for the moment nothing deserves to be, the film’s longevity will certainly be more attributable to its form. After more than a decade absence from the feature filmmaking world, Cameron makes his return, satisfied that the technology he relies on so heavily is ready to serve his purposes. Make no mistake, however, these purposes are well validated and to a certain degree quite worth waiting around for. The fact of the matter is that the movie will make a lot of money. It will also raise the bar as far as audience expectations. I will not claim it anywhere near flawless, my aversion to computer animation aside, but it is by no means anything but amazing.
For a film based so heavily in the future, it remains grounded in the present in every form. The machinery is not anything we have not already seen; bulldozers and helicopters on steroids. It is a story of good versus evil, one that we have seen repeated over and over. If anything, it is a film that returns to the most primal instincts of our species. In direct opposition to its existence, the film maintains a strict fascination and fear with the technology it displays. It flaunts the achieved abilities of our entertainment in form while prophesizing their invasive and destructive eventualities. I can only hope hard enough that the irresponsibility of the characters will be a jarring realization to those that watch them. With its conclusion, it seems to suggest that we too shall return to the earth, a place we so consistently and naively neglect.
I seem to forget that the movie just came out. In 2145 our species has traveled to Pandora, a lush and exotic planet with floating mountains and a chemical-electro life force connects all that inhabit it. The flora and fauna have a familiar originality, as if based on our known and realized by our unknown. If the creatures lack the prevalent extra set of legs or eyes, then they are undoubtedly bathed in a psychedelic skin. We never forget that the much sought after creation of something completely novel is inhibited by our ability to forget what we perceive. The hammerhead rhinos and dragon-roosters are indeed the brainchild of a desire to play God, a desire (as of now) only emulated digitally. Yet within this environment, itself no more spectacular than what is already around, there is also a desired specificity of life. The cornucopia of bioluminescence creates what we could only imagine the animation of neon lights to be. The weeping fiber optic trees and delicate flying jellyfish remind us of what we know and what we want to know. Nowhere else can we take control of powers that we do not have, flight, as usual, being the ultimate. Yet for all the wonderful and captivating beauty, all the visually intoxicating experiences that truly satiate our most sincere scopohilic desires, the film is but a film.
We are not on Pandora. And I, unlike others, did not forget that I was watching CGI. And good does not triumph over evil. And chances are, that when we do discover a truly majestic and beautiful world, we too will mine it for some pointlessly valuable resource despite what life we destroy in the process. It becomes most interesting that the life is us. On the surface they are much different; blue monkeys drawn from a human referent living in a world drawn from recognizable referents. The problem is we don't recognize that savage and brutal and natural species we used to be in the stark contrast of a savage and brutal and mechanized species we have become. Fueled by survival and powered by machines we have the capability, and the desire, to conquer all. Yet the one thing we cannot seem to conquer is ourselves.
Avatar is, in all senses, the experience it sets out to be. It even goes as far as to give us a story we can follow, one that points out the world it occupies. What it also seems to do, and believe I know the importance of suspension of disbelief that movies rely on, is ignore the world we already reside in. This is evident in the amped-up and super-charged robotics and organics that both native and foreign Pandora inhabitants represent. The film is epic in scope, both in and out of the story world. But what we need most from the film is its reflection of the animal we are, a realization of just what and where we are in the world. Maybe then we can truly think.
First of all, I can't quite determine from this review if you liked the movie or not. Perhaps, like me, you are unsure of your feelings toward it and therefore chose to provide an ambiguous review for the film. Also, what do these sentences mean, "Absolutely nothing about James Cameron's film desires to be ignored. And while for the moment nothing deserves to be, the film's longevity will cetainly be more attributable to its form?" I'm not sure at all what you're getting to here.
ReplyDeleteFirst of all, I don't feel that I need to state whether or not I like a movie in order to talk about it. I loved a lot about this film in its ability to make me want to experience the world yet at the same time was not impressed with certain aspects. This passage means that the film has an inherent desire to be seen, as does any movie. But Avatar is such a large film, both in technical prowess and content, that it literally wants to make its presence known. And for the moment, until the buzz dies down and other films accomplish what it does, it will hold the limelight. I am getting at the point that the film advertises itself as an experience and it certainly is. However, we are not going to remember it for a well constructed narrative with captivating characters but we will remember it for its spectacular visuals and for raising the bar in what audiences want.
ReplyDeleteI suppose I can agree with this.
ReplyDeleteDo you believe that the audience wants to experience this movie in theaters? Will it be as desired on DVD or Blu-Ray or even MPG? Can the home 3-D experience be as powerful as the theaters? Will big movies like "Avatar" be the only thing people want to see in the future?
No home movie experience will ever be as powerful as the theater experience. With a film like this, that relies so heavily on the created story world, audiences may still yearn to return in their living rooms yet will find it extremely hard to let it capture them like it does in theaters. James Cameron certainly wishes that the film creates demand for the huge movie, whether or not it does has yet to be seen.
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