ericellenberg

Augmented Reality and Avatar (Part One) « THE HYDRA - A two-part article on the relationship of the real and the virtual in James Cameron’s Avatar. I’m linking to this article not because it’s exceptionally well-written (it isn’t), but because it attempts to explore the layers of reality and simulation carefully integrated into Avatar’s story and its production. In that regard, it does a good job of making points to think about.

‬

I’ve yet to read an article about this relationship that was written skillfully enough to not confuse the reader. But, this one did have a good line in it worth mentioning (in part 2):

To see and understand Avatar is, glibly speaking, to ‘experience’ its technology: there is no easy means of saying anything critical about a movie that is simultaneously, confoundedly, unoriginal and innovative.

That sums up my feelings about it, and I would assume the feelings of many other curious Avatar spectators, perfectly.

To Cameron, making a movie is going to war, and he is a Spartan general: he comes home carrying his shield or on it. It is a posture that requires a good deal of self-parody. Before beginning production on “The Abyss” (1989), the most ambitious underwater movie ever attempted, he went to see Leonard Goldberg, then the president of Fox, which was financing the film. “He said, ‘I want you to know one thing—once we embark on this adventure and I start to make this movie, the only way you’ll be able to stop me is to kill me,’ ” Goldberg told me. “You looked into those eyes and you knew he meant it.”

James Cameron and “Avatar” : The New Yorker

If you have even the slightest interest in the man who brought us Terminator 2, Aliens, Titantic, and now Avatar, this is an article you must read.

The man has an amazing track record that involves constantly pushing the technological envelope in filmmaking while telling good stories that appeal to mass audiences. Cameron’s not a Godard or a Kubrick by any means, but he is unquestionably an auteur, a filmmaker with a vision, and that’s why I believe if you care about movies or filmmaking, reading this bio piece about him is a must.

On a side note, I kept thinking while I was reading this that Michael Bay must wake up every morning wishing he were as badass as James Cameron.