Figure 1: Avatar - Theatrical Poster (2009)
Avatar directed by James Cameron and produced by James Cameron & Jon Landau. It was released in 2009 and was one of the most successful 3D and motion picture films to date. The production and visual effects used for this film are outstanding and have not been matched yet for its originality and time taken to create such a masterpiece. The plot is about a handicapped marine who was undermined by his brother who has now died and he has to take his place for this Avatar program, he soon gets his own Avatar and earns the trust of the Navi tribe on the planet off Pandora. His affections grow for this species as he now defends them against the humans, betraying his own race in a full-fledged war between the two species. The time and effort that has been put into this film has worked perfectly for the benefit of Cameron and viewers across the world. Imagine the film as a brick wall, the story is the bricks and the visual effects and motion capture is the mould that holds the wall up and keeps it strong, the story is not strong enough to hold up on its own by how common it seems its practically Pocahontas in space. Huddleston states that, James Cameron is so in love with the technology, with the possibilities, that he never pauses to reflect upon the practicalities of cinema, of storytelling, of connecting with an audience. (Huddleston, 2009). The audience is so amazed by the flashy visual effects that the story to it doesnt get frowned upon to non-critical audiences as they would believe that Avatar is an amazing film but that just implies they are saying that just because of the visual effects if you asked them about the story it would probably get an ok response.
Figure 2: Environment Film Still (2009)
The films environment which has briefly been explained will now go further into detail. The film still above is a scene from Avatar when Jake (Sam Worthington) is following Neytiri (Zoe Saldana) deeper into Pandoras jungles at night. This scene is iconic by how its strong structure and rich glow of the light and life at night on the planet by how the audience feels every moment of this scene from when Jake and Neytiri interact and when the glowing spirits descend onto Jake as the story actually starts to unravel between the two characters We need hardly be surprised by this every Cameron film, even True Lies, has a love story at its core but the surprise here is how effective Avatars central coupling is, the emotion between Jake and Neytiri earthed by Wetas astonishing digital effect. (Hewitt, 2009). From a general perspective it doesnt seem that the emotion between two was not as effective as the digital effects, in Titanic maybe for its story was the key to its success but compared with Avatars visual effects its debatable.
Figure 3: Jake and Neytiri Film Still (2009)
Looking at this film in a theoretical term could be an film adaptation of what Cameron wants to portray us humans as destroyers of worlds for example humans want to take over Pandora for the riches of the planet to harvest and take what we can to benefit us. Environmental Issues states The movie is a very artistic and fantastic analogy of what is happening right now to our planet, and what the consequences could be if we dont stop the devastation of our nature. (Environmental Issue, 2011). This states a good question as we unknowingly watch the film for entertainment our world around as is being destroyed slowly by corporations and humans selfish needs for money and wealth which is quite relevant to what happens during the film and gives off a good idea of what could happen to our planet if we do not act soon and defend it like Pandora.
Bibliography List of Illustrations:
Fig 1: Theatrical Poster (2009) From: Avatar. On [Link] [Link] (Date Accessed: 08/02/2012) Fig 2: Environment Film Still (2009) From: Avatar. On [Link] [Link] (Date Accessed: 08/02/2012) Fig 3: Jake and Neytiri Film Still (2009) From: Avatar. On [Link] [Link] (Date Accessed: 08/02/2012)
Sources:
Environmental Issues. (2011) Avatar and the Environmental Analogy. [Link] (Date Accessed: 08/02/2012) Hewitt, C. (2009) Avatar: Movie Review. In: Empire [Online] [Link] (Date Accessed: 08/02/2012) Huddleston, A. (2009) Avatar: Movie Review. In: Time Out London [Online] [Link] (Date Accessed: 08/02/2012)