Why Avatar worked

Since its release in December 2009, the ten year passion project from Academy Award winning director James Cameron (Titanic, Terminator, and The Abyss) went on to make as of April 19th, 2010 $745,115,019 domestically, scoring such titles as Best Picture nomination, 10 consecutive weeks at number one, the fastest to $500 million dollars, and it didn’t do that just because. Face it: Avatar worked, because James Cameron gave us a spectacle. In the age of 1080p, 240Hz affordable TV sets, Blu-ray, and even the increase of downloads, not even a tanking economy kept audiences away from a film they kept going back to, week after week.

Why Avatar worked? It’s simple. We wanted spectacle and Cameron gave us one.

While he might have been touting the horn of a possible hit, Fox Filmed Entertainment co-chairman Jim Gianopulos remarked the basic answer back in 2007 to the New York Times, why Avatar worked: “Every one of his films have pushed the envelope in its aesthetic and in its technology.” Now, even back then film websites and fans were curious, and even maybe a bit hesitant to what Cameron was working on. But in order for Cameron to bring Avatar‘s world to life, he needed to improve upon current film making technology. With that, he developed, along with Vince Pace a new Fusion Camera System – Reality Camera System 1 -  that allowed him to craft a stage worthy of only one screen in the world, the IMAX.

Having a new camera in place also allowed a smoother transition for him, as he implemented Augmented reality technology to motion capture the actors in the avatars and the Na’vi. The results are stunning. “Ideally, at the end of the of day, the audience has no idea which they’re looking at, says James Cameron. Isn’t that the end goal for any special effect? One would think, but perhaps film goers have become far-too sophisticated in FX appreciation. A special effect is only as good as a FX artist has time to finish and the story the FX inhabits. Countless films since the CGI boom in the mid-1990′s, have relied strictly on the FX to sell the movie, and more often than not, the CG looked rushed and the end result was a lackluster film. This happened time and time again. Think of all of the CG-laden duds since, say, 2000?

Never in a James Cameron film, since Cameron knows how to merge FX into the story (look at the early CGI game changer in Terminator 2: Judgment Day), as neither one overpowers the other, but when combined it whisks people away into the story. This is what Cameron has been doing since Aliens. With this stunning use of advance mo-cap technology, Zoe Saldana became not an effect talking, but a living, breathing character as Neytiri. With this, audiences were easily captivated by the film’s spectacle, something that made it an event, especially when seen on the IMAX 3D screens.

With some of the most realistic CG characters in place, the 72 ft. x 53 ft. IMAX screen was the only venue fitting for the film. Capitalizing off of the latest and best use of 3D around, Avatar gave us back what many films have promised, but failed to deliver: an event. You don’t make a billion dollars off of box office receipts for nothing. You earn that because you gave an audience a reason to shell out the $15 ticket price-multiple times. The simple story was made even more special in the world class venue, seen in 3D, and hitting a chord with people with its deep environmental and political themes, Avatar is the event movie we really didn’t get with the Star Wars prequels.

Avatar is the next evolutionary step in film making, plain and simple. It might not take too much time for others to ape the camera and use of CG. Currently, Disney’s Tron Legacy and Screen Gems’ Resident Evil: Afterlife have used Cameron’s and Pace’s camera for their films and the 3D. The latter even proudly touts that fact in the trailer with huge, white letters letting us know the film was shot with Avatar‘s camera! And the TV 3D craze? Every television company is aiming to make Avatar an exclusive for their set (read more about that here), because stunningly and convincingly, it is the best 3D film out. It’s a game-changer. Alas, it is all about the marriage between story and FX, but Cameron has stepped up his game, nonetheless and regardless of the other films using this technology. Whether or not James Cameron can improve on the film and technology for its sequel, will remain to be seen, but if anyone is going to do it, it will be James Cameron.

Thoughts? Feel free to comment below! Avatar is currently out now on Blu-ray and DVD.