So, a couple of days ago we finally got around to seeing Avatar for a second time, after digesting it for a few weeks. Found it every bit as impressive as the first time. And that was the day that it reached $2 billion in worldwide gross. And now we learn that it’s received nine Oscar nominations, including Best Picture, where it will be competing with several other of my favorite movies this year–The Hurt Locker, District 9, and Up. (If you want a prediction, I’m guessing Avatar for best picture and Hurt Locker‘s Kathryn Bigelow for best director.)
So, what could I possibly contribute to the massive global swooning over James Cameron’s latest juggernaut? Well, one thing that occurred to both me and my spouse is that Avatar may well be the first science fiction film with a richness and complexity of worldbuilding that equals the best science fiction novels. I see nothing in the second viewing to contradict this. The physics, biology, and anthropology of Pandora are worked out to a degree that one seldom sees outside of, say, Sheri Tepper or Frank Herbert. Cameron spent a good fifteen years thinking about this world, and it’s all there on the screen.
But it wouldn’t have been up there if the filmmaking technology weren’t also up to the task. Cameron wisely delayed making Avatar until it became technically possible to show exactly what he had in his head. As a result, the film has enough detail to flesh out the world without overwhelming the viewer. Such little things as the light shining pink through the Na’vi’s ears, or the bioluminescence under their feet. The first commandment of worldbuilding is “show, don’t tell”, and Avatar shows us plenty.
Now, of course, this was only possible because Cameron had essentially unlimited resources to throw at the problem. But think you on this: what he can do today with $300 million, a major movie studio, and several high-tech companies’ R&D departments on his side, your average pimply teenager will be able to do on a desktop in a decade. Meaning that we’re going to have far, far freakier science-fictional visions to deal with in the near future.
Not that all of them, or even many of them, will be anywhere near as intelligently thought-out and executed. But some will. And those films to come will show us things that we could never have seen before outside of our own imaginations.
Anyway, yes, I loved Avatar. But I’m even more excited about what will come after. Cameron wanted to reinvent the movies, and damned if he didn’t pull it off.
