Funny thing is, as much as it's a cinematic marvel, it still boils down to story and character. The thing that movie making has been about since, well before it was moving-making. Theatre turned into filmmaking, right? (Though, obviously, we still have theatre), and the fundamental core of theatre and films is still true - it's about story and character.
James Cameraon and Pixar seem to know this better than anyone else making movies today. They both develop story so thoroughly that when they get to their very masterful use of animation and digital techniques, the story still holds true.
One of my good friends said she felt like Avatar was the re-telling of what happened in early colonial America, only with the Native Americans as victors.
I sort of like that. Sure, it would've changed our world dramatically, but I feel saddened by what was done to Native Americans. It's easy to idealize their culture (for me - even though I love and appreciate indoor plumbing), and difficult to know for certain how flawed their culture might have been. To me, it seems they lived more in harmony with nature than those of us who now populate most of the land they inhabited for potentially thousands of years. I wish we would adopt more of their lifestyle and philosophies; though I'm as guilty as anyone as I live in and participate in this modern world. I suppose it would be different if I were brought up as Native children were. It would have to be. I wouldn't know anything different.
But I digress. Back to Avatar.
If you're like me, you were not only susceptible to the story, but also to the gorgeous world of Pandora and the Native humanoids. I found myself wanting to ride on flying dragon- and horse-like creatures, and have the agility they did, being able to run and jump and fight like a 9-foot-tall warrior. Cool! I want to be a tall, blue, bow and arrow wielding, tail swinging cat-monkey-human hybrid. That sounds like a lot of fun. I bet they're built to tolerate insects better too. (I loooove the forest, but the mosquitoes, chiggers, and tics do act as a deterrent for actually living in the forest.)
For now, I'm stuck in my non-blue, non-tailed, not even six-foot frame. I suppose I could do parkour (freerunning), though my bones are not reinforced with naturally occurring carbon fiber, so it seems a bit more sketchy. For now, I do my best to stay fit and agile in the event that I get the opportunity to act like a big blue alien.
So...Here are the characters from Avatar next to the non-carbon-reinforced humans who played them. The way James Cameron had the actors play their parts and then transformed them into animated creatures is called Performance Capturing, by the way, and it's a brilliant way to literally capture the performance but utilize all that CGI and digital technology has to offer to create a completely manufactured and dream-like world.
One last note before the pictures. Scenes from the glowing Avatar forest reminded me of glowing deep-sea creatures. Actually, the way they glowed and floated through the air seemed straight out of some deep sea dive. Well, apparently the deep seas provided serious inspiration for James Cameron. See Aliens of the Deep when you get the chance. I admire the fact that James Cameron took time off blockbuster-filmmaking (between Titanic and Avatar), to make films about deep sea exploration. Ghosts of the Abyss, Cameron's other deep-sea documentary during his hiatus, is next on my netflix. Cameron actually went down in the deep-sea pods. Heck, i would've too. I suspect there's a little wanna-be-alien/explorer-warrior in James Cameron too.
Below you will find pictures of the Avatar cast - as humans and Nav'i. Also, trailers of Aliens of the Deep and Avatar follow the pictures.
Sam Worthington as JAKE SULLY
Zoe Saldana as NEYTIRI
Sigourney Weaver as DR. GRACE AUGUSTINE
Joel Moore as NORM SPELLMAN
Wes Studi as EYTUKAN
Laz Alonso as TSU'TEY
CCH Pounder as MOAT
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, which is a deep-sea documentary Cameron did between Titanic and Avatar. Did anyone else notice he didn't really make any big motion pictures between Titanic and Avatar? Anyway, I heard an interview with Cameron in which he states, "I'm still young enough to do the more active things like going in rovers and doing deep sea photography, so I took ten years off after making Titanic to do those kinds of projects.