I have to confess… I used all my connections in Russian film distribution to become a part of the crew who filmed James Cameron on his Moscow press day ahead of the Avatar premiere. I was arranging chairs and passing Betacam tapes to cameramen to spend three hours with the director of the world’s most successful movie – Titanic – and listen to all he had to say to the media.
After the end of all the interviews, I had the chance of a small chat with the man, while he was signing a VHS copy of Terminator 2: Judgment Day for one of my colleagues. I thanked him for all his great films – The Abyss, Aliens, Terminator and others, and also gave him one promise, which I was very happy to keep.
I said I have not seen Avatar yet, but just couldn’t wait for December 17. Cameron’s answer was: “I hope you’ll like it,” and I could only reply with: “I am sure I will”.
(And yes, it was December 17, as Russia saw Avatar one day before the rest of the planet.)
If I was 7 years old I wouldn’t have survived this movie, having died of joy somewhere in the middle. I am older, but I really felt like a kid, because Avatar is absolutely amazing and cinema will never be the same again after its release, especially, the type of films we call blockbusters.
Of course you all know the plot, in which handicapped marine Jack Sully (Sam Worthington) arrives on the remote moon of Pandora. Humans are mining valuable minerals there, but the local population of Na’vi strongly oppose the intruders’ actions. Jack is sent to spy on the aborigines using his brand new, genetically-bred human-Na’vi body known as the Avatar. But after encountering the Na’vi’s eco-friendly culture and falling in love with a local girl – Neytiri (Zoe Saldana), he realizes that they are not violent savages, as he was told, but victims in need of his protection in order to survive.
Cameron wrote this script back in 1994 and for over a decade waited for the development of the technologies that would allow him to fulfill his ideas in full. But now – with the current level of CG – he said: “We can do anything”, and he wasn’t exaggerating.
Avatar is the first movie in history of the industry, where the director’s imagination was not limited by technology in any way.
Now I know why God gave me my eyes – to see the beauties of the Pandora jungle and its three-meter-tall blue-skinned inhabitants. I tell you, the CGs have never looked so real, and you just forget that you are looking at computer generated images.
And it would be a crime not to watch Avatar in 3D because the Fusion Camera System makes you part of the action, but not just a beholder. (Ever wondered of the origins of Cameron’s surname? I think it comes from the word ‘camera’.)
I wear glasses, so I usually have some problems watching 3D-movies, because I have to put on 3D glasses on the ones I already have (and I can be called “six-eyes” when that happens), but it took me just a few minutes to leave all the inconvenience behind.
And despite paying so much attention to the visual part, Cameron didn’t forget about the story. Because he’s always been a great story teller, not only a special effects supervisor, like Michael Bay, for example.
The plot focuses on three main characters – Jack, Neytiri and the moon Pandora itself – and all the others are there only to help develop them, including those played by Sigourney Weaver, Michelle Rodriguez and Stephen Lang’s evil SecFor Colonel.
And the relations within this trio deliver everything a moviegoer can ever desire – action, drama, comedy, some PG-13 erotic and moments to make your eyes wet.
Cameron feared that Avatar would be ignored by the female audience, as the stakes were put on action scenes in the promo campaign. But there’s a love story in the film, which can easily challenge the one in Titanic. And James shouldn’t worry: there were a lot of ladies in the theatre.
The 161-minute-long movie consists of two parts. The first is a slow one, which looks more like a Discovery Channel program on Pandora’s colorful, but dangerous wild life, and the Na’vi culture, while the second is an epic battle in the air and on the ground, in which bows and arrows go against guns and armored vehicles.
Humans, who won’t hesitate to destroy and kill in order to get what they want, are pictured as forces of evil in Avatar, which you won’t see very often.
But, according to Cameron, in his film the marines represent the bad features of mankind, while the Na’vi are there to show its brightest sides.
Unlike many blockbusters Avatar has a message, which is very clear and simple – if we won’t start solving our ecology problems we’ll be in big trouble. And of course, those who watch the news on regular basis would find the scenario, in which a strong race invades a weaker one for its resources, annoyingly familiar.
It’s always good to criticize in order to make your readers disagree and as a result receive more comments, but I am having serious problems in finding anything to attack in Avatar.
Maybe it’s only side effect is that it makes you feel sorry for the ordinary life you lead and the boring environment around you. Especially, when you leave the cinema and find yourself in a snow-covered Moscow street, with the temperature at minus 20 Celsius (where the only analogy with Pandora is the color of the local resident, who are also blue… because of the cold.)
Cameron and Co. promised to show us something we’ve never seen before and they did it.
Avatar is not a movie, but an adventure – a flight to another universe for a price of a cinema ticket. An absolute must see.
Thank you, James. Thank you very much.
Other RT's materials on Avatar:
Interview with Sam Worthington
Interview with Zoe Saldana
Interview with producer Jon Landau
09 April, 2010, 07:32
Avatar was visually stunning, the plot was easy to follow and the message was pretty obvious. Although the allusion to American "imperialism" was fundamentally flawed, as was the morality statement about the enviornment.
First, whether or not you consider the Iraq war to be justified in regards to the reasons the American govt. gave, the Iraqi regime was corrupt and did have a history of human rights violations including the use of chemical weapons against the Kurds. During the Taliban's seven-year rulei Afghanistan, the people experienced restrictions on their freedom and violations of their human rights. Women were banned from jobs, girls forbidden to attend schools or universities etc. Now correct me if Im wrong but I dont remember the natives in Avatar committing these kinds of atrocities, and if they had I doubt anyone would be willing to cast them as the heroes.
Second, the only reason the movie made a rationally cohesive argument that expolitation of natural resources is in fact intrinsically wrong is that the planet was cast as being literally sentient. This anthropomorphic casting of the planet gave it intrinsic value that just does not parallel Earth.
This being said if the point of the movie had been taking away of the homes of the natives was wrong because it violated their inherent property rights (which existed as a result of their use of the land as their home) I would support the message. I think that the best argument as to the immorality of America's treatment of the Native Americans can best be couched in such terms and this movie could have but failed to make that message.
24 December, 2009, 08:36
Hello,
Firstly, I would like to say that this film has done very well what it set out to do,
which is use the latest technology to enhance the cinema goer's experience
and entertainment.
But also, I would say, in my opinion, that this film has two important messages:
1. Stop destroying our environment before its too late.
2. Get more in touch with our "spiritual side".
There is a delightful film, called "Local Hero" (1983), in which a small Scottish coastal village and the local coastline
is threatened by an oil corporation who discover oil close by. It is a much more "gentle" approach than the modern
Hollywood blockbusters, and it is the owner of the oil corporation himself (played by Burt Lancaster), who gets in touch
with his spiritual side and finally decides to build an "oceanography study center" instead.
So, if we work on point 2 first, then point 1 will be much easier (public opinion can lobby their leaders, politicians and
influence those in power in industry). But it also needs those who are in "power" now and those who will be in power in the
future, to work on this as well.
Utopic? How about 50% reduction of contaminant gases by 2050?
Best Regards,
David.
22 December, 2009, 22:40
You rock Mitiay!! I loved insane Aliens and Avatar will join my collection of movie stunts to be sure:))good luck with the column!!
20 December, 2009, 02:31
Please do not say HUMANS were mining, PLEASE say Americans were mining! You and I know that only the Americans steal resources of other planets and countries!
17 December, 2009, 23:24
amazing film saw it 2nite i want to be an avatar i hope the planet exists
17 December, 2009, 20:55
People will believe anything if it is told them enough times