Post on 2024/6/29

By Billy Song

Everyone will be familiar with the Avatar series, which currently has two installments. Released in 2009 and 2022, respectively, and directed by James Cameron, the Sam Worthington , Zoe Saldana and others in the lead roles. Both productions did quite amazingly well, ranking first and third at the box office in movie history, respectively. Being two such phenomenal productions, their worldwide fireworks back then are still fresh in our minds. Almost two years after the release of Avatar: Waterways, it's time to go back and analyze these two films and see what's different.

The Avatar's setting can be very simple and can even be said to have little scientific basis. On the planet Pandora there is a completely different ecology and resources from Earth. Most of the planet's indigenous Na'vi are close to three meters tall, blue in color, and have structures at the end of their braids that resemble nerve synapses. In order to compete for resources, human beings have artificially bred avatars that can be manipulated by human will using Naomi DNA. The above is the main setting of the movie, very simple and easy to understand, but also because of which there is not a lot of specialized knowledge and principles to be these two movies broader audience. In contrast to the Avatar setting, I think it is the ecology of the planet Pandora. Many of the creatures on the planet have "synapses" that allow them to connect with the nanites, allowing them to share memories and emotions and even tame them. A very special one is the Tree of Souls, which is connected to all creatures on Pandora, and through its branches, the Na'vi can communicate with Ava, the mother of the earth, and obtain the resonance of the gods. This setting is very interesting and has the potential to go deeper. It not only enriches the ecology of the planet, but also deepens the culture of the Na'vi. Overall, Avatar's sci-fi setting is hardly amazing, but it's genuinely interesting and engaging.

There is no doubt that the plot of both Avatar films is very simple, something Cameron himself has admitted. But at the same time, Cameron also mentioned that the simplicity of the surface narrative does not mean that there is no place to dig deeper. In my opinion, the hero is a very special individual, and what makes Avatar different from other similar movies is that humans can choose to become Na'vi, but only some of them have that choice. In other movies, humans don't have the choice to become nature or another race. I think Cameron is telling us not to jump to conclusions, but to try to step into a group and feel what they are about before making our own decisions. In terms of viewing, Cameron's greatness shines through, as he is able to make a simple plot very engaging. This is very rare, and in the first movie he has a good handle on the pacing without boring the audience, with good portrayals of key characters. But to the second part, more than three hours long, although the rhythm is also good but still can not resist the fatigue of a long time to watch the movie, coupled with the final duel of the degree of excitement is not even as good as the first act or not as good as the second act of some of the clips of novelty. The overall feeling of the movie is not strong enough. In contrast, the landscape of the second movie is actually shrinking, from the first movie's focus on the fate of races and planets, to the second movie's focus on family emotions. The benefit of this shift is that it makes the movie more fleshed out and more empathetic to the viewer. At the same time, it's also less epic and grandiose, and makes the simpler plot seem more "family-friendly". In addition, you may find that the two films share some common problems, such as the lack of reasonable character motivation. With all these problems, why is Avatar still a good movie? In addition to the director's mastery of narrative, there is also a very important factor - visual effects.

Compared to Avatar's controversial plot, its absolute technological leadership is unquestioned. The first and foremost is 3D technology, although 3D technology is not since Avatar, but really let 3D into the public eye, also set off the "3D is a blockbuster" trend, but those are the words after the fact. Can cause such an impact on the industry is also because of the Avatar in the 3D really do make the audience more immersive, so that the sense of immersion in the movie is stronger. In addition to this, motion capture technology has been developed even more through Avatar, which has really led the industry in this regard. Prior to this, motion capture was only used for the general movement of characters or supporting roles in some scenes. But in Avatar, high-precision motion capture technology was used throughout the movie and on the main characters. This was made possible by having hundreds of sampling points on the actor's face and by having the camera pointed at the actor's face through a helmet, so that a large amount of raw data could be obtained. Cameron also used special cameras to get a rough idea of what the finished film would look like, which allowed him to make real-time adjustments to the shots on set. Cameron also utilized a lot of new technology during the filming process, and the countless new ideas resulted in visual effects that wowed everyone. Although more than a decade has passed, Avatar's special effects are still timeless, and still provide us with a marvelous visual and audio feast.

Anyway, in my mind Avatar is not ranked first in the science fiction film, but no one can deny that Avatar is rich in film presentation techniques, so that more wonders in the future to appear on the big screen, you can feel that it is a simple story, you can feel that it is set to mediocre or even criticized it in some of the details of the character portrayal is not in place, but no matter who can not deny that it is in the history of the movie But no one can deny its status and leading role in movie history. Thinking about it, all we can do is to pay our sincerest tribute to director Cameron and everyone involved in the filming and production of the movie, thanking them for their contribution to the sci-fi movie industry, which is still helping the whole industry to progress.