Review on James Cameron's Avatar

My Review on James Cameron's Avatar

 

One of the most expensive films created is Avatar with so much special effects and wonderful scenery in every part of the film, as mentioned by Kevin Maher in a 2009 review on The Sunday Times 'James Cameron’s film is obscenely spectacular: $300 million of production budget, 14 years of development and the keyboard skills of 800 special effects technicians have produced a movie that is, for the first half at least, a series of ever more audacious visual tableaux.' (The Sunday Times) For such a high grossed film there was a gamble as to whether or not it would be a success or a complete disaster as explained by Wendy Ide in a 2009 review on The Sunday Times. 'The success or failure of this high-stakes gamble of a movie will send seismic ripples throughout the film industry. If it tanks, Avatar could pose more of an immediate threat to the Hollywood infrastructure than the San Andreas Fault.' (The Sunday Times) With its $300 million gamble the film was a complete success and has amassed just over $1 billion after only three weekends as described on Guardian.co.uk. 'James Cameron's sci-fi extravaganza stayed atop the US charts after holding on to the box-office crown thanks to an estimated $68.3m (£42m) haul. Avatar has now amassed $352.1m (£217m) in North America after only three weekends and, combined with the $670.2m international run, stands at a jaw-dropping $1.018bn worldwide.' (Guardian.co.uk)

For such a long time for a film to be made, Cameron had to wait until technology had evolved enough before he could create the spectacular scenes in Avatar. This is said in a 2009 review by Todd Mccarthy on Variety 'Cameron reportedly wrote the story, if not the full script, for "Avatar" at least 15 years ago but decided he had to wait until visual effects capabilities advanced sufficiently to credibly render his imagined world and its inhabitants.' (Variety) For a simple story about humans coming to an alien world to harvest a mineral and destroying the native's homes and the forest while doing so works well. Making a complex story with all the happenings of the special effects and CG creatures may of made the film's viewers draw their attention away from a complex story and more to the visuals of the film. 

Another reason why Cameron has made the story like this is so it reflects what humans are doing now to our own planet. It especially aims at the destruction of the largest rain forest here on Earth; the Amazon. This beautiful rain forest is home to indigenous people and filled with exotic animals and plants and we are destroying it. A 2009 review by Richard Corliss on Time agrees 'This is not only the most elaborate public-service commercial for those of the tree-hugger persuasion; it's also a call to save what we've got, environmentally, and leave indigenous people as they are.' (Time) This is the message that Cameron may have expressed in this film. We need to look after what we have got because once it has gone, its gone forever and we loose something special.