Ever since I saw an IMAX 3D screening of Avatar last night I had been trying to put my finger on what was it that made this movie -nay, this experience- so engaging, so appealing, so emotionally arresting. After much deliberation and analysis, I see it now! I see how they did it, and it’s absolutely brilliant. It’s psychology. I’d almost say it’s a trick, if it weren’t for the fact that James Cameron, WETA Digital and Co. have obviously put in an impossibly massive amount of work and love into making this movie.
Now, this is isn’t a review. There are plenty of reviews out there, and you should read those if you haven’t seen the film and need an objective opinion. What follows here is a set of observations that lead me to believe that James Cameron is a genius at what he does and how unfortunate we are that his work is so infrequent.
So where to begin? Psychology of course! We’ve all seen other 3D films. I’ve seen IMAX 3D movies on the Galápagos Islands, the Deep Sea, Dinosaurs, as well as a few Hollywood flicks. In most of these, 3D is often used as a gimmick: You’ve got things flying at your face, stuff popping out of the background that gives you the illusion that you’d be able to touch it, etc. This gimmick gives 3D movies a corny sort of feel to them and thus, ironically detract from the immersion and overall experience.
What makes Avatar amazing is the fact that 3D is unobtrusively embedded into the entire film. You’ll never see a frog leap into your face or objects paraded in front of you to trick children into reaching out to touch them. And this is the first brilliant choice made by Cameron. The natural occurrence of 3D in the entirety of this film, finally, makes you feel like you are actually there.
When you see the heroes running along the jungle, climbing rocks and dangling on shrubbery, the experience isn’t that of watching through a glass; you feel like you’re there with them, following right behind them as they pirouette around on their flying mounts or converse while brushing through glow-in-the-dark foliage. You’re not watching a BBC documentary on the beauty and biodiversity of Pandora: You’re visiting it.
But it’s not only the 3D that creates this illusion. Cameron and his crew have thought up the world of Pandora down to the very last detail. Biologists created a plausible evolutionary scenario in which all life on the planet is intricately related. The creatures were imagined taking in consideration how life on that planet may have evolved. Although completely fictional, everything seems to fit into place. It is, by all means, plausible to have six-legged animals along with sentient 12-foot beings that are equally connected to the environment as these animals are. WETA Digital’s team of magicians created an amazing array of vegetation and animals that go far into the realm of imagination but close enough to remain credible.
All of this helps create an experience that is the closest to “being there” as we’ve ever gotten. This experience does several things: First, it creates an emotional connection between you, the audience and this wonderfully and stunningly beautiful but ultimately fictional world. This emotional connection is the foundation of the experience Cameron aims to create. It makes us feel Jake Sully’s conflict and agree with his decision to go against his own race in order to preserve the integrity of the planet. It makes us, oddly, root for the destruction of the human beings for the salvation of Pandora.
Psychologically speaking, it’s a lot easier to change your persuasion if you have a personal first account of what’s going on. Consider this: In December 2004, when the tsunami killed more than 230,000 people near the Indian Ocean, although it was definitely shocking, I felt nothing. Aside from some pictures of the devastation and news of the huge amount of casualties, there was nothing there to connect me to the actual event; to make me feel its atrocity. If I had been there, though, I’d be singing an entirely different tune: I’d have an emotional correlation with the event and I’d be furious at anyone who dared undermine its immeasurable impact upon my view of the world.
This is important (and what makes Avatar brilliant) because the story of Avatar is only so-so. It’s definitely been told before (the easiest references would be Dances With Wolves, The Last Samurai). While it was executed quite well, it suffers from several shortcomings, one of them being the not-so-subtle jabs at corporatism and greed, environmental protection messages and preachy ideologies involving native americans. Now, all of these issues exist today and they should be discussed, but not at the expense of good storytelling, which is my main gripe with the movie’s story.
What’s a remarkable achievement for Cameron and everyone involved with this project is that these issues hardly matter in the grand scope of the movie. The experience was so out of this world, so to speak, that you are completely emotionally invested in the characters, the world, and the story. Anything negative about the movie is ignored and/or forgotten, because you were there. You saw those bastards destroy the Na’vi’s home! You witnessed the intricate connection they had with all living things in the planet. You, through the eyes of Jake Sully, if only for a short time, became one of them.
After all was said and done, I had an amazing time visiting Pandora, and towards the end of the movie I was saddened by the thought that, in a few minutes, my brief visit to Pandora would come to an end and movies would never be the same again.
