Avatar, At Last

Avatar, At Last

Jan 09

I’ve followed the ongoing mystery surrounding exactly what James Cameron’s next project would be for what seems like years. Actually, it doesn’t seem like years; it HAS been years.

Finally, Cameron has announced the film that will be his follow-up to Titanic: Avatar. Rumored for years but only now set in stone, the flick will use some kind of fancy new bleeding-edge technology to marry reality and “reality.” In other words, Cameron is at long last rushing in where many have foolishly tread, most notably Senor Jorge Lucas: The computer-generated film.

Of course, Titanic pioneered CG effects, but it was really Lucas who bust the door wide open. Since then, we’ve had every blockbuster director in town, from the new guard to the old, stepping up to play in this virtual sandbox, to the point where CG effects aren’t a groundbreaking novelty anymore–they’re mostly the norm.

And yet, I remain VERY intrigued and excited to see where Cameron will go with this. Robert Zemeckis combined motion capture with CG animation for The Polar Express, and to me, the end result was creepy as hell. Only time will tell whether Cameron’s effort can bust that creepy barrier and truly transport viewers–it will no doubt help that he’s hired two unknowns for his leads (the animated Tom Hanks may have been the creepiest of the creepy in Express).

Here’s what I know: James Cameron isn’t just a pioneer of special effects technology–he’s a MASTER of it. When the T-1000 melted into metal in T2, it was not an effect being tried out just to see how things would go–it was fully realized, complete, masterful technology married to thrilling filmmaking.

Break me off a piece of THAT again, Jimmy.