$1 Billion Gamble

Tonight on ABC's World News Tonight, there was another swipe at James Cameron's "political" new film. It has gone beyond silly when a supposed reputable station, ABC, will take broadcast news pot shots at a director over his fantasy based film. I thought that was reserved for the "wing nuts" and "crackpots", the extreme right and left. It's time to stop squabbling like children over a perceived political message, Kiddies. If you do not want to see the movie, don't, but stop trying to cause a ruckus for those who do.

It is a bit ironic that the same people that are complaining about "Avatar" seemed to be really gung-ho about Peter Jackson's "Lord of the Rings" movies. The far right were trying to compare Saddam to the character "Sauron" (the evil maker of the Ring of Power) who wanted to rule all of Middle Earth. In truth, America sent hundreds of thousands of troops to descend on Iraq, kind of like the Orks and Uru-Kai descended on Gondor and Minas Tirith. Saddam, at one time was supported by the U.S as long as he attacked Iran like we wanted him to so Saddam was more like Saruman (the evil wizard) and the U.S. government (with Cheney in the lead) was Sauron.. If anyone looked like the bad guys, it was us.

In the segment, reference was made to his "overly inflated" self importance as a clip of the awards for "Titanic" were shown in which Cameron exclaimed "I'm the king of the world!" after accepting his award. In case those at ABC have not seen "Titanic", or have seen it and can't remember it, the hero of the film stood on the railings of the ship and yelled out over the ocean "I'm the king of the world!". Cameron was not displaying over confidence in himself or arrogance of any kind. He used a line from one of his two major characters in the movie to demonstrate his euphoria over winning the award. ABC News is seemingly leaning more and more to the right over the past few months and are not looking so unbiased anymore.

Cameron is not going to be bothered by anyone's disdain anyway. Avatar opened on December 18, and has already cleared the $1 billion mark, that's 17 days, folks. You can complain, throw a perpetual fit, imagine your conspiracy theories and try to breath life into them or even continue with the unappealing and pathetic "Smurf" jokes but, just so you know, in the grand scheme of things your displeasure will not make a difference at all. The movie cleared roughly $232 million in it's opening weekend. China hasn't even gotten to see it yet so as the nutcases in the U.S. complain, the money keeps rolling in and Cameron is laughing all the way to the bank.

Most of those who have seen the movie or have plans to see it seem not to be worried about politics. They are more interested in the fantasy of "Pandora" and it's people. One of the biggest draws of the film is the new technology created to make the film. We have these really wild looking, ten foot tall, blue indigenous characters that live in a world where the mountains are floating. That would be awe inspiring enough but we get it delivered to us in 3-D. The actors and actresses that bring the native characters to life on "Pandora" actually are rigged in special equipment that films them and at the same time shows the character's image on the video screen. HBO gave us a sneak peek into the making of "Avatar" before it was released in the theaters. It is a brand new concept in movie making and Cameron deserves a good deal of credit for the gamble he took with this production. He has been working with the ideas behind it for several years, only now having all resources necessary to turn his dream into reality.

Most of us know what the 3-D experience is. The first 3_D movies saw theater patrons wearing really funky cardboard glasses with two different color plastic lenses. The glasses have changed a great deal over the years but now the cameras that are used are specifically made to film in 3-D by using two cameras at a time in an attempt to simulate how we see through our own eyes. There is a very informative video that describes the process in more detail on YouTube. The cardboard 3-D glasses we are used to have been replaced by what looks like modern sunglasses with specially polarized lenses.

The making of "Avatar" could honestly be considered a "pioneering" achievement. It is the first time this type of technology has ever been used and movie making will never be the same.