(originally written on December 19th 2009)
Got back from the theater yesterday in a state of bewilderment, sheer awe and feeling sensations that the movie-watching parts of my brain have not experienced since 1999 when I felt something similar as I walked out of the theater having watched The Matrix. In both cases, It wasn't just the special effects, or the cool sci-fi story with whiz-bang action scenes, it was those combined with a story that could have only been told with those effects, at that point in time, and with new leaps in technology specifically created to tell that story, by visionary directors. I have felt something similar after watching the Star Wars saga for the first time as well as The Indiana Jones movies, to a lesser extent. However, as a milestone of technical innovation married to amazing storytelling, there is Star Wars, then The Matrix and now, Avatar 3D.
The one thing that separates Cameron from Lucas, however, is that Cameron doesn't lose sight of the fact that even for epics, good story-telling and believable characters are a necessity. He is a master of the craft, having honed his skills on progressively bigger budgets, always providing a compelling storyline as a backdrop to aliens, futuristic robots, secret agents, or lovelorn couples aboard sinking steamers. Like Lucas, there is myth and allegory about human nature and the consequences of technological advancement without moral progress in the Terminator movies and in Avatar, but unlike Lucas, the characters have more depth than the "action figurines spouting sound-bites in deaden monotone" that populate the last three installments of the Star Wars universe.
The story itself is simple. Greedy miners from Earth land on a planet called Pandora trying to strip mine unobtainium (yeah !) and think of the local native humanoid native race, the Na'avi, as a nuisance to be eradicated so they can get their grubby hands on the ore. The hero is a Marine with no legs that can 'jack' himself into a body that was created by combining human and Na'avi DNA so he can act as cultural ambassador between the humans and the natives, but also to to do recon for the head military honcho of the mining operation. The hero encounters exotic beasts in the jungle, falls for the local hottie, who conveniently happens to the be chief's daughter. At the moment of showdown between humans and the Na'avi, our man choses sides against the humans.
However, the story itself doesn't do any justice to the movie at all. It's well known that Cameron took a 12 year break after Titanic, and worked almost exclusively on not just the Avatar movie, but also on the 3D technology that he needed to be able to make the film the way he wanted it to be. If I had any doubts about the 3D, they vanished soon enough, once the jaw-dropping scene of spacemen waking out of their hibernation pods unfolded. This is not your daddy's 3D, folks. For one, the effect extends inwards so there is a feeling of looking inside an aquarium. The stuff popping out towards you, as with 3D movies of the past, still exists, but not in the gimmicky sense. We now have a sense of depth so objects in the background appear "in there" as opposed to the stuff that pops out which is a contrast and forms the "out here" component of the 3 dimensional screenscape. It is the closest thing to having a holographic image projected out in front of you.
The genius of Cameron is that he understands that this situation requires a complete re-think of composition, framing, and movement within the frame. This would have stymied a lesser director, but in this case it simply provides more degrees of freedom to innovate. Cameron understands that a new idiom is now needed for the placement of actors. Along with the use of the standard rule-of-thirds to place the character in a vantage position, one now has to sandwich her in the "middle" of the 3D screenscape and have the scene unfold without any of this technical wizardry taking away from the narrative. This has been achieved with near flawlessness.
Once you get past the technology itself, the story is so compelling that within about 10 minutes, I forgot all about the technical stuff and just got involved in the action unfolding on the screen. I mean, I was aware i was watching something special, something akin to the first glimpse of "The Wizard of Oz" in color for audiences who had only seen black and white up to that point, but I was more interested in the story. The digital effects are the best I have seen so far, and the creation of a whole new world, with an entire ecosystem of flora and fauna to match is an achievement in and of itself. The forest is lush, enchanting, but when the fierce creatures arrive on screen, the menace and sense of danger is palpable. This is, after all, the man that directed Aliens.
The best use of 3D is the breathtaking scenes overlooking waterfalls, ravines and others places as seen from a height. You actually feel like you're watching from high above enough to make you giddy. However, to only talk about the movie as technical masterpiece is to undermine Cameron the storyteller. There are not-so-subtle references to the Iraq war, American colonization driven by oil and other natural resources, modern man's greed and disdain towards indigenous people and their habitats as he moves relentlessly towards buried treasure. The deeper meaning, of spirituality, the oneness of all of life, everything coming from and going back to the one source is an amalgam of the gist of all great traditions, similar to the concept of "The Force" Lucas uses in Star Wars, his re-telling of myths and archetypes , influenced by the work of Joseph Campbell, or the Wachowskis Matrix saga influenced by the Integral vision of Ken Wilber. I am curious to hear about that aspect and his motivations if Cameron ever talks about it in interviews.
I walked out of the theater a satisfied customer. The 12 year wait was finally over. My man had delivered a masterpiece as promised. I just hope I don;t have to wait another 12 years for his next one. I would like to see the word prolific attached to his name for the rest of his career.
Cheers
Vivek
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