What James Cameron’s 'Avatar' is all about

By this time in December, much has already been said, good and bad, about James Cameron’s latest film, Avatar.  That’s what happens when you are following up highest grossing movie of all time.  

Yet, besides the pedigree of the writer/director and its gargantuan budget, one may wonder what makes Avatar such a unique endeavor.

Avatar follows Jake Sully, a paraplegic veteran who, through a desperate situation, gets the chance to work for a corporate conglomerate called the RDA (Resources Development Administration) on a far-off moon dubbed Pandora.  The RDA is on Pandora to mine for a valuable mineral unavailable on Earth, but one of the obstacles to drilling is the natives (the Na’vi) who inhabit the land.  To figure out a peaceful solution, the RDA creates the Avatar program whose sole purpose is to befriend the Na’vi before, of course, taking their land for all it’s worth.  The Avatar program does this by mixing Na’vi DNA with DNA selected humans, creating a human/Na’vi hybrid. Through developed technology, these humans use a computer system to project their consciousness onto their Na’vi counterparts, controlling them remotely.  Jake is one of the avatars.

Depending on what source one reads, the budget for Avatar stretches anywhere from $200 million to $500 million.  What isn’t debatable, though, are the reasons behind the huge budget: namely, the development of a twin-lens camera system that allows Cameron and his cinematographer, Vincent Pace, to film in stereoscopic 3D. 

“Technology has finally allowed (Cameron) to shoot his epic in the fashion he wanted, namely performance capture and stereoscopic 3D. He helped invent the 3D cameras that are being used for the picture,” said Jim Dorey, editor of MarketSaw, a blog that reports on all forms of entertainment related to stereoscopic 3D. 

“Other directors are changing their own career paths because of what they have seen from the set of Avatar: (Steven) Spielberg, (Peter) Jackson and Ridley Scott have all committed to (stereoscopic) 3D,” Dorey said. 

“It is already changing Hollywood and it is not even out yet.  (Stereoscopic )3D is not for gimmicks.  It is for immersion (within) the story and Cameron will ensure that you walk away from the movie remembering the content and not the 3D - a good (stereoscopic) 3D movie has you forgetting that it is in 3D after a few minutes.”

Jon Carson saw 15 minutes of Avatar during an international promotional gig set up Twentieth Century Fox dubbed “Avatar Day,” where select people saw scenes in stereoscopic 3D.  “(Avatar) was awesome,” said Carson. “It had a freshness to the scenes that I haven’t felt with blockbusters recently.  (It’s) like Jurassic Park or Star Wars or something along those lines.”

Nick Corpstein, also in attendance, agrees. 

“Is this high art cinema?  Maybe not,” said Corpstein.  “But if Citizen Kane is like a pretty woman who you’ll stay with for 70 years, then at least Avatar will be the hottest one-night stand you’ll ever experience.”