Climbing Higher Pictures

What does a director do after making the highest grossing film of all time? He takes a break for a while. It’s been a decade since the last time a feature film appeared in theaters with James Cameron‘s name listed as its director, though considering the last time it was attached to the end of Titanic, it’s no small wonder that his latest project has accumulated this level of hype. What do you do to follow up one of the most successful films ever released? Cameron seems to think the answer lies in state of the art digital technology and the application of such special effects to a sci-fi adventure on a truly epic scale. He also made it in 3D. Ambitious? Clearly. Does it pay off? Find out:

Avatar Review

By Ryan Hamelin

Movie Grade: A+

Robert Zemeckis, eat your heart out. I have never been the kind of person who is prone to the use of hyperbole. Sure, something will be “awesome” or “fantastic” or “terrific” but I never think anything is so great as to be crowned “best ever”, “most innovative”, or “phenomenal.” Today I was proven wrong. Today I saw the future of cinema, and its name is Avatar. The kind of movie that defines not only the time period of its release, but an entire generation of moviegoers. An experience the likes of which I have never had before, with any movie, and I can only theoretically compare to what it must have been like to see the original Star Wars back in 1977. To walk out of a theater and know, as strongly as I do now, that there is an almost limitless possibility resting just beyond our grasp, is not something I can find words for. James Cameron has seized the curtain and thrown it wide, letting the light pour in upon the unsuspecting masses. My only regret is that it will be another 2-3 years before anyone else has the confidence to attempt to follow in his footsteps.

For the first time, the concept of a 3D movie has a worthwhile reason to exist. The world that Cameron has created here is unparalleled by anything celluloid has presented before, from the dark recesses of the jungle to the blinding cloud cover in the mystical floating mountain ranges. It’s all beautiful, and completely realistic, despite your brain attempting to process that everything you are seeing was manufactured as a series of zeros and ones. The first few minutes are a bit of an adjustment period, and Cameron knows this, concentrating on grounded and emotional beats that bring the dimensionality of the 3D to an appropriately relevant level. As everything settles down, you feel yourself letting go of your own reality, sliding seamlessly into the universe in front of you.

And what an amazing place Pandora is. From the countless animals to the gorgeous plant life as far as the eye can see, this is a planet which could only exist in the mind of a true visionary. We are all guests to Cameron’s imagination, and I look forward to snatching as many tickets back as I can get my hands on. It’s a living and breathing world, and you cannot see where the lines meet. The virtual and the real have become forever blurred through a combination of incredibly detailed art design and a dedication to performance which puts all other “motion-capture” exercises to shame. I hate to hold this film up to something like A Christmas Carol because they’re not even playing the same sport at this point. If Spielberg intends to utilize these techniques for his Tintin film, that particular project will have jumped to the top of my Most Anticipated list.

The actors are all wonderful. Sam Worthington has officially earned his place as Hollywood’s newest powerhouse lead, and Zoe Saldana is a treat to watch, even if we never see her in the flesh. Sigourney Weaver and Giovanni Ribisi have an incredible chemistry in their few scenes together, and there is no doubt in my mind that the film could never have worked to begin with were it not for the acting talent on hand. When so much detail is captured by a computer, it makes the animation team’s jobs undeniably easier, and you can tell from the results that every frame has been lovingly composed to recreate the original actor’s performance. The story works in much the same way, retaining a wholly classic framework with all the necessary narrative beats while rearranging and reorganizing the sequencing of those scenes so as to appear spontaneous and surprising at almost every turn. You won’t know what will happen next, but as soon as it does happen, it will feel perfectly right on every level and you’ll wonder how else anyone would have thought of writing it. The script is that good. After almost a decade in development, we’d rather hope it would be.

Avatar is the real deal, the kind of epic advancement in filmmaking that only happens when an amazing creative team is paired with an equally talented and driven group of researchers and technicians who work around the clock to bring the dream to life. As Cameron is fond of saying “we pushed the envelope, and the envelope pushed back.” The film is a testament to that final success, a wonder of storytelling and special effects wizardry that will leave you feeling transported, elated, and in love with movies all over again. It’s been a long time coming, but the next great movie masterpiece has finally arrived.