Avatar — Initial Thoughts

James Cameron’s AVATAR is the most important movie made since SNOW WHITE.

James Cameron’s AVATAR is the most important movie made since SNOW WHITE.

There I said it.

This vision that AVATAR has given the world will change the way we watch movies and will change what we expect from the studio’s involvment. It seems that every 10 years the film industry gets slapped across the face with something new. This happened with THE MATRIX, and the bullet time effect and cutting edge visuals that people still refer to. Now with AVATAR we have a new push pin inserted into the time line of film. If things were to move forward for creative visions and people behind the scenes backing them in order to put out phenomenal work, we will enter into a new golden age of cinema, one where the experiences of BEN HUR or BLADE RUNNER and now AVATAR will resonate long after we are gone.

I think this film will never be able to be entirely duplicated by some fly-by-night production trying to cash in on the success gained by this film. Jim Cameron is one of the few people in the film industry that could take the reigns on this project. True, he did write and direct it, and I’m sure if your pockets are deep enough you could spend just as much. But all we will see moving forward will be watered down interpretations. The budget will never be large enough and the talented artist on those shows, will never have enough time to bring the product up to snuff.

Rather than harp on the inevitable, I’d like to say a few things about this films amazing universe, spawned by Jim Cameron’s amazing mind.
The scope of the universe is staggering by its pure beauty and complexity. I think that the technology to pull this off in a feature length film is barely with us now, just look at how long the film sat in a drawer waiting to the right time to get made — five years! However, the type of work seen in it has been around for quite a while. Just look at sites like cgtalk or mattepainting. The caliber of work has existed by some amazing artist chugging away in a darkened room, with the only light coming from their monitor and presented to the visual effects community for years, however it could only come to the mainstream by someone with a script to warrant it, and a director with enough clout and monetary backing to bring it to the masses. I am so happy that I was able to witness this film first hand, and I applaud the army of artist that brought it to the screen to show what passion for your craft can be. I personally wish I could have been apart of this production. I have heard crazy stories of 16 plus hour days, seven days at a time towards the end of production. I can just imagine that now, after it is all said and done and the dust has settled, that the men and women involved have something to really be proud of in AVATAR, something that very few people in a creative capacity can say they have experienced.

Bravo.

See all the trailers here
Official Site

Leave a Reply

Submit