NEWS > ENTERTAINMENT > JAMES CAMERON STILL WANTS TO CHANGE FILMMAKING DESPITE FAN INDIFFERENCE

JAMES CAMERON STILL WANTS TO CHANGE FILMMAKING DESPITE FAN INDIFFERENCE

August 21 2009

Hollywood, CA – Even before ‘Titanic’ James Cameron had a directing career matched only by a handful of others. Hits such as the Terminator franchise and ‘Aliens’ had helped Cameron carve blockbuster niche which earned him both critical
acclaim and massive financial success. Since the release of what is still the biggest film of all time Cameron’s career has been in a kind of netherworld, neither here nor anywhere. With that drought about to end many are hoping for a return to the Cameron of old, something the director himself has been promising.

For more than fifteen years Cameron has been nurturing his pet project, ‘Avatar’, waiting for the time when the technology would exist to allow him to achieve his vision for the film. With the technology finally ready, ‘Avatar’ began production in 2007 and has now finally seen the light of day. The first trailer for the film was released to much fanfare and a very dry response with many feeling underwhelmed by the onscreen action. Still Cameron, who has been promising that the film will be the most revolutionary picture ever made, is sticking to his guns and telling everyone who will lesson just how spectacular his movie will be, no matter what they think.

“This has been a dream project for me because as an artist, as someone who is always scribbling, always doodling in sort of Math and French class you know in, uh high school, and uh reading a lot of science fiction and creating all these creatures and robots and spaceships this was the film I always wanted to make,” said Cameron. “From the time I saw 2001: A Space Odyssey and saw something that blew my mind in the movie theatre I wanted to do something that would blow other people’s minds in a movie theatre, and so in a way I’ve sort of being building up to this. Building the technological tools, building the sort of muscle of how you make this time of film.”

Cameron, as well as fellow filmmakers Peter Jackson and Steven Spielberg, have long claimed that ‘Avatar’ will fundamentally alter film forever, though such revolutions were not on display in the teaser shown to the world. 

“There is always a risk with too much hype when it some to movies. Inevitably a lot of people will be disappointed, particularly people who have made the movie into their reason for being. Such people who are looking to the film to provide them with all the answers that they have been longing for will ultimately be disappointed when the film is not able to satisfy their existence,” said Scrape TV Entertainment analyst Tracey Temple. “Of course no movie will ever be able to do that.
Film has been around for a little over a century and if it was going to provide the meaning of life it would have done so by now. Millennia of art, philosophy, and religion have not given us a true answer to the reason for existence and it’s very unlikely that a James Cameron movie will be able to succeed where those things failed, no matter how much it costs to make.”

Exact numbers have not been released but it is believed that ‘Avatar’ will be the most expensive movie ever produced. Previous record holders to the title, including Cameron’s own ‘Titanic’ and ‘Terminator 2’ have also not given the answers to life and the meaning of existence.

“Luckily the majority of film goers will just see this as another movie. Cameron has been promising quite a bit and the 3-D experience may well be a true revolution in that realm but it’s unlikely that the movie will change the medium of film forever, at least judging from that trailer,” continued Temple. “Granted there was little shown but it does seem fairly stock as far as science fiction goes. It seems to hearken back to the early days of the genre, something that Isaac Asimov might have written about. Other than that there will probably be a love story, a bunch of Aliens will be killed, an outsider will learn about tolerance, and a major character will die at the end. All in all just what you would expect from Cameron, no matter how revolutionary he insists the movie will be.”

All along Cameron has made a point of how spectacular the effects and technology will be, but has made no mention of the same in respect to the storyline, dialogue, or characters.      

Samantha Dryden, Entertainment Correspondent

NEWS > ENTERTAINMENT > JAMES CAMERON STILL WANTS TO CHANGE FILMMAKING DESPITE FAN INDIFFERENCE