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Avatar  (2009)

The General story: About 140 years into the future, humans have colonised a moon, similar to Earth, called Pandora. With vast forests and lush landscapes, the world provides a natural mineral called Unobtanium, which mankind has discovered is the hottest new energy source in the galaxy. But to get their greedy hands on it, they will have to contend with Pandora’s natives, the Na’vi; nine-foot-tall, blue skinned and not fond of people. They put up a fight and refuse to relocate so humans can mine their world for all it’s worth. In a bid to create diplomacy and cooperation, Earth’s finest scientists have developed an initiative called the Avatar program. Creating full sized, alien bodies identical to the Na’vi, the Avatar program allows the consciousness of a human to be inserted into their Avatar counterpart, allowing them to walk, talk and run through Pandoras jungles. Paraplegic marine Jake, is chosen to be the guinea pig and enters his Avatar to become one of the locals. But he doesn’t contend with finding true love, discovering where he really belongs and joining the Na’vi to fight against his own kind. 

What influenced the movie? Avatar was the brainchild of James Cameron, who after the astronomical success of Titanic in 1997, took some time out from the movie game to play with his submarines. His follow up to Titanic, which was still the highest grossing movie of all time up until 2009, would have to be something special. He envisioned a new moviegoing experience for the audience, would show them a whole new world, a mostly original story, and revisit the dormant technology of 3D movies to dazzle us and change the history of movies…again. That was expected of him, and Cameron took up the challenge. The development of the film took over a decade, where special technology had to be invented to achieve the vision of the film. The story itself borrows elements from other well-known films such as “Dances with Wolves”, “Pocahontas” and “The Last of the Mohicans”, but visually speaking, Avatar was unlike anything we had seen before. 

How the movie influenced the 00's: Released in the final days of December 2009, Avatar was the last influential film of the 00’s. Just like it’s predecessor Titanic, the film made an absolute killing at the movies, breaking records in no time, and also amazed us all, the average person saw the movie at least twice at the cinema. 3D was back, and not just back but reinvented for the 21^st century. Proving the medium was more than just a visual gimmick, Avatar took the movie viewing experience into a place of immersion and reality never experienced before. Naturally, every big film in post-production or due to be filmed was hopeful they could cash in on the success of Avatar and were also released in 3D.

What makes it stand out as a film of the 00's? Avatar borrows many elements from other stories, and even if it’s visual design is completely original, the film is still a product of a post 9/11 world. Since 2004 or there about, almost every action or sci-fiction film would feature the US Defence Forces. The culprit or force they were facing would be large, powerful and everywhere (much like terrorists), and the motivation behind humans wanting to pull the mineral from underneath Pandora’s surface was like the pursuit of oil in the Middle East (the true reason for the 2003 war in Iraq). And of course, just to top off the relevant symbolism of the world after the terrorist attacks of September 11^th, the Na’vi’s home -  a humongous tree sitting on top of the largest depository of the mineral – is blown to pieces and falls down onto its inhabitants, similar to the World Trade Centre towers being attacked and collapsing to the ground below. So yeah, Avatar didn’t try to forget what world we were living in 2009, even if the movie did take us to an alien world far, far away. 

Impact of the movie still felt today: Avatar certainly left its impression, going on to become the new highest grossing film of all time, raking in over $2 Billion at the box office. It also broke new ground in terms of stunning visuals and imagination, hinting at what else was possible in the  movies to an audience who thought they had seen it all. The downside of it’s influence, was the slew of films that decided to go 3D upon their release, especially in the years 2010 and 2011. Films that were not even being filmed in 3D were converted to 3D in post-production, trying to cash in on the latest craze, and make more money given tickets for 3D sessions cost more. Some films used their third-dimensional tricks well, but most just came across as cheap imitations and cash grabs, that looked cheesy and over-done. Ironically, the very technology that was reinvented to get people back into the movies, became the new thing to drive them back out again. 

Theatre goers were tired of paying well over $20 for a ticket to watch 3D movies that were not even convincing and caused headaches more than awe and wonder. So slowly, the amount of 3D films died off, as once again, Hollywood was left dumbfounded as to what exactly today’s audiences wanted. Turns out, we were happy enough with a good story, and the overuse of visuals just distracted from the experience of watching the movie. 

So what does that mean for James Cameron's four planned sequels to Avatar? How will he get us to like 3D again, and show us something we've never seen before? We'll find out when Avatar 2 hits theatres in December 2020, with part 3 in 2021, then a two yea hiatus before Avatar 4 and 5 in 2024/2025 respectively.  Get ready to go back to Pandora, again... and again... and again.  

That's it for this series of reviews. Thanks for reading "Most Influential Movies of the 2000's". 

Brian 
"Love the Movies" 

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