If you’ve read The Beefboy Rants for a while you know that I’ve been riding James Cameron for making Titanic then taking a dirt nap for twelve years while he boned model Suzi Amis and did deep sea dives and put his vacation footage on screen. So, it’s nice to see a return to FILMMAKING after a decade-plus absence.
Why do I care if that guy wants to sit on his millions of dollars and slam models for a living? Simply because, before Cameron cursed us with Titanic, he was instrumental in moving sci-fi forward three times in the 80’s and 90’s. Terminator forever changed the action and horror genres by giving us the multiple “death” scenes of the villain and taking us on a wild ride in the process. With Aliens, Cameron took a horror franchise and made it into one of the best action films of all time. Directors are still copying the scenes from Aliens after nearly 25 years. Finally, Cameron moved both sci-fi and the action film forward again with Terminator 2. People forget how amazing and revolutionary (and expensive) the morphing liquid metal Terminator was at the time. So excuse me for getting upset that someone with that track record made a sub-par romance movie for 13 year-old girls, and then fucked off for half a generation.
So… finally (FINALLY) Cameron returns to sci-fi movie making with the much anticipated Avatar. Friday night was “Avatar Night” at several IMAX theaters where the 3-D experience was in full effect with a number of clips from the film. Reaction is mixed, although it seems mostly positive. From looking at the trailer (below) I have two thoughts. It’s tough to pull off a realistic looking computer animated character who runs around with flesh and blood actors, and I think we’re still not there yet. Even Cameron can’t pull it off.
With that said, Avatar looks like an incredibly ambitious film and potentially a lot of fun if you can just get lost in the moment (most people who have seen the 3-D version say the experience is immersive). We’ll know for sure later this year when Avatar is released. Until then, enjoy the trailer, and tell me what you think below.
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I assumed that Avatar was based on the cartoon series Avatar: The Last Airbender, but after some research I came up with a negative on that. Since there is no dorky throng waiting to pick James Cameron apart for the way he didn’t really capture the main character or the way something was different in the original series, I can’t make any sense of why the trailer says nothing at all about what the movie is about. A blue dude boning a blue chick? Some frat boys releasing a blue dude from his stasis bath and the wacky hilarity that ensues? Sucky trailer, James Cameron. Better luck next time.
The Last Airbender is actually going to be a movie too (see trailer here: http://www.thelastairbendermovie.com/) and it’s directed by M. Night Shyamalan, so it has a good chance of being incredibly fucking cool.
As for Avatar, there is a plot, but the absence of a clear storyline, and some reportedly sub-par dialogue are some of the gripes I’m reading, so you’ve nailed the big dark secret, Danger Darling. Of course, no one has seen the whole movie yet, but it seems that the “star” of Avatar is the immersive 3-D environment and the visuals in general.
While that’s neat and all, I would expect more from the dude who gave us the biggest movie of all time and all the great films I listed above. If he had made Avatar two years after Titanic, then I’d be more willing to cut him some slack. To his credit though, if you check out Cameron’s IMDB development list, he does seem to be rising from his slumber.