Case study

Avatar


This film is one of the best films of the decade. Directed and written by James Cameron who has done other film like Terminator 3 Rise of the Machines and he is now directing the new Terminator 5. Avatar was released on 17th of December 2009. When it first hit the screens it amazed the whole with the out of this world graphics but it did take 8 years. With massive gross revenue of 1.3 billion and as it is still at the cinemas they will be earning more and more money. More money will be on it way when the film goes on to DVD. This film was made in England and then it was distributed by 20th Century Fox.



This film that I saw late last year was one of the best films ever in my eyes and with the 8.7/10 and also every but very few people think this film is also one of the best this decade or of all time. The first review that I read had the catch line of Best movie experience of the last 30 years. The person says he was one of the lucky people to see the pre viewing. He said that 80% of the people who where in the room where totally blown away. The rest of the people where complaining about the characters or the popcorn. He then says to all of you people who can to expect a thriller like Alien. He says nobody wants to see people dieing anymore. People want to see great animation. I have now just seen a 1/10 review which says half way though, Why it sucks? The reason are very simple, he thinks it has copied the plot of an old film from the 70s. He then says the script could have been written by any one. He then goes on to say why the hell do we need actor because we have CGI to do that for use, all we need is some old random guy in a black suit with white stickers all over him. My last quote ha caught my eye because it has the title/ catch line which says “The best Block Buster in Years – The master is back”, this blatantly show that his review is going to be positive. He gives it a 9/10 star rating, he starts his review talking about the director and writer James Cameron, he says that this film has been a long time coming and it was a long 12 year since Cameron’s last master piece which was the brilliant Titanic. He then says that, “Avatar has turned out to be the biggest and best event movie of the year, perhaps the decade.” A massive appraisal but I can see why he is saying this after I have been to see it on the big screen, this possibly does concluded that Avatar should be named in the best 10 times of all time with other personal great like the other big hit this decade which was Batman and The Black Knight. There is one thing I did not like to the film and that was the slight bit of predictability of it, soon as I saw the part where he had to pick his Mountain Banshee and he was then told about the larger Toruk which only the leader or savers could ride which is the same old stuff in every fantasy film. Soon as I saw this I predicted to near perfection the next 30 mins of the film.

Technological Advancements

This film is unarguably the best CGI film ever made; this is probably because it took over 8 years to make with the best CGI equipment to date. CGI has been around since the early 1970’s but it near really hit the big screen until Star Trek II but it was only use in a small part of the film. The first real big hitter was the 1993 master piece Jurassic Park, this film use it though out the film to make the dinosaur with other beast come to life with the best life likeness they could get. This film single handily caused Holly wood to dump all old techniques and pick up digital techno to improve there films. There first real go was in the film Forest Gump where it was used in the historical parts of this film. CGI then single handily create a new type of film which is animation, animation had been done before using clay but CGI made it possible to make a film on a PC with no need for Clay or any other materials. Films like Beauty and The Beast where the best from the 90’s but Toy Story in the early 2000’s made the biggest impacted.


Avatar was started to be produced around this time and it ended an 8 year wait in 2009. They did not start from scratch, they actually use the Hallelujah Mountains as there bases for there set. They also use actor’s faces as bases for the characters. Some of things I have read say it took so long because they had to do every thing so perfect, the new land/ planet where they where shooting this was men to have different colour for nearly every thing, the big shot of where they are in the tree tops and you can see the floor took the most time best every part of the floor had to be changed to be beautiful but also not to distracting.

Mise on Scene

The outfits / skin of the characters in this film is very good in the senses of what they are meant to represent. Take sully, he is blue all over and that could repent that he is a calm and passive person, He also has black line all over him which could represent he is also a bad person in some ways and he is also very capable at fighting. This seems to go for all of the Avatars as they all seem to look basically the same. Next we have the Military Leader, he seems old so that could show that he is experienced, also he is in black which represents that he is evil and possibly he is going to be a bad guy combat outfit which represents that he is going to be up for a fight and he may even fight to the end. Next you have the non Avatared Grace who is a science person who is trying to build relationship between the human and the avatars by creating replicas which are controlled by special people. She is always seen wearing a normal white coat which all doctors / professors seems to where in films and also in normal life. The white may represent that she is anti violence; also this may represent that she is a very nice and calm person who is the correct person for the job in hand, the fact that she is wearing a doctor’s coat may also show that she is very professional and it could also show that she has some authority.

This film is meant to be set in space but as I have already said it, it is based on the Hallelujah Mountains, with some brilliant CGI they have got there set for a master piece of a film. I think in this film they used no prop accept from the ones they may have made on the computer. This film was perfectly light because it was all made digitally so they could edit the light every tiny shot to create there perfect shot and also to create the atmosphere they desire.

Conclusion

I think this film is a very good film which is flying towards picking up many awards, I think to not make a sequel to his film is stupid because this could become bigger than lord of the rings, the wait for the next film maybe 5+ years but I am sure that people who love the first one would not mind waiting for the second, I think this film should be the start of a trilogy because I think 3 film are right unless you have a book already out like Harry Potter or like Star Wars which is going on for there 6th or 7th film. Other film like the Lord of the Rings are a trilogy an they are the best film to be set in that manor of thinking, yes the Hobbit is coming out but that is set in a time before the Lord of the Rings and I think it is the start so some think new. The possible Avatar 2 will be brilliant because the graphics will be better, also by then cinema screens may be improved so the graphics could be improved even more. Also with new improvement sound could be improved like it is after every film to the next. I even have a idea for the title to the next film, Avatar 2 – The Humans Revenge, I know a bit cheesy but don’t we do love a cheesy film.

By Tyler. E. Davison