Last night marked the release of James Cameron’s long-awaited futuristic drama, Avatar, and with early acclaim and award nominations, it’s sure to rival everyone’s favourite Cameron saga (cough-Titanic-cough) at the box office.
Though word on the street is that the film’s storytelling pales in comparison to its technological achievements, the terms groundbreaking and industry changing seem to overshadow tiny factors like plot and character development. No biggie.
The thing is, now that Avatar‘s out in full force, we can expect a surge of wannabe Cameron films that will promise to be nothing but horrible. The movie is enticing because it’s different (think Toy Story circa 1995), but its charm will quickly be lost as various poor-men’s versions begin springing up faster than the women linked to Tiger Woods (zing!).
Though a backlash will undoubtedly ensue (not that I’m a cynic, but by the time Titanic made its way onto VHS, the world cursing it collectively), sci-fi fans and film aficionados can have a field day about the 3D computer-animated adventure. In the meantime, while some of us may not line up for the futuristic fantasy (I think I’d be more partial if the title characters were named Jack and Rose), we can still savour the we were alive when . . . factor of this pop culture phenomenon.
