Never Not A Nerd

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There have been very few times in this closing decade that a movie has come out which has furthered the dynamic vision of feature filmmaking. If anything, the past ten years have shown a declining slope in creativity for movies across the board with constant remakes, reboots, sequels, adaptations, and not to mention the summer blockbusters that have an utter disregard for storytelling. When James Cameron left features behind in 1999 to spend years filming the ocean floor, there seemed to be a rift in the industry. This changed the moment that test audiences began posting their reactions to the first footage of his follow-up to the most watched movie ever: Titanic. Avatar is the movie that everyone was raving about and that no commoner could lay there eyes on…until now. It seems almost poetic that in a decade filled with commercializing and capitalizing on terrible franchises, that Avatar arrives “five minutes to midnight” and absolutely changes the way that movies can be made, felt, and experienced. In the 1930′s, King Kong opened people up to the possibilities that movies had of offering a fantastic escape. Later, in the 1950′s the sci-fi renaissance once again impacted audiences in a way that it furthered the possibilities of special effects. In 2009, James Cameron has changed the name of the game with Avatar because everything else is simply just a movie.

Avatar takes place in the year 2154. Humanity has engulfed Earth in buildings and industrialization and has no choice but to scoure the universe for other planets to pillage. Jake Sully, a crippled space marine, has just buried his twin brother and is on a ship to the fabled Earth-like planet called Pandora. He has arrived on Pandora to join the “avatar” project: a top secret program where humans control 10 foot tall alien bodies that look like the indigenous people, called Na’Vi, that inhabit the planet. The program was founded in order to promote diplomacy between the Na’Vi people and the humans which wish to destroy their home in order to mine the planet for a mineral called “unobtainium”. On Jake’s first mission controlling his Avatar he is separated from the team and eventually saved by Nateri, a Na’Vi princess and is offered the opportunity to learn the ways of the people.  It’s basically like Dune or for you Costner-freaks, Dances With Wolves.

YAY

• First thing is first, this is an IMAX 3D film. Do not see it in the regular theater. James Cameron filmed the entire movie with a new IMAX 3D camera that creates the most immersive and personal experience that the world has ever had in a movie theater. The quality of the film combined with the accessible nature of the 3D visuals truly makes you feel that you are in the scene with the characters. Do not believe any garbage that this movie causes headaches or eyes to burn, because the only side-effect from this film is that you will fall in love with the planet of Pandora.
• The world of Pandora is just breathtaking. Cameron and Co. have not only created a world for the audience to take in, but a universe. As Jake Sully is educated about the planet from the Na’Vi people, you can not help but fall in love with the planet just as hard as he is. Nearly everything about Pandora is revealed to you in this three hour journey, from the nature of the food chain, to the biology of the plane,t to the legends of the Na’Vi people and all of it is enrapturing. By the climax of the film, I felt more in touch with Pandora than I feel with Earth. No longer did I want to see the great plains of Africa before I died, I wanted to scale the floating mountains of Pandora.
• The cinematography is really a great reminder of what astounding filming is. James utilizes the close-up to full effect, even if the character isn’t human. Whenever the scenery is beautiful, he pans the camera back for the audience to take it all in, and the actions scenes are frantically paced without shaking or twisting the camera in a fever of movement.
• Though many people would propose that the plot of the film is the weakest aspect of it, I would sorely disagree. Yes, it does borrow greatly from previous plots and it is predictable but the originality of the planet and everything in it make it vastly different. Not only is the environment well fleshed out by Cameron but even Jake Sully’s interactions with the planet upon first arriving. He can not help but touch every single plant to see what color it changes and he slaps every tree to see what the result might be. Its nothing short of enthralling.
• Avatar is a digital performance movie which means that it is not an animated film like the Pixar films. Instead, the actors were filmed in special suits to drive their Na’Vi character and deliver the performance, sort of like how Andy Serkis played Gollum, only this is way more advanced. Needless to say, the acting is top notch.  Zoe Saldana  blew me away with her performance as Nateri and Sam Worthington is continuing to prove that he is worthy of carrying these big budget films despite his short time atop the marquis.

NAY

• The main problem and arguably the only blemish on this experience is James Horner’s score. For those who do not know, he is responsible for the wonderfully over-played music in Titanic. His music for Avatar is pretty much the exact same damn music. Every single time Jake looks kindly at Nateri, I kept on hearing Celine Dion telling me that the heart will go on and on. Its pretty distracting and very disappointing. Why Jim? Why didn’t you get Hans Zimmer to do the music? Did you not hear his beautiful score for the Last Samurai, or the dark and unnerving Joker theme from the Dark Knight? For shame!

There you have it, now what are you waiting for? James Cameron’s Avatar is the most important film in a very, very long time. It changes nearly everything about the movie going experience. The only thing that there is to do is to go see it at your local IMAX theater and fall in love with the world of Pandora.

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