James Cameron
Avatar

What has remained over the years, with a sequel released two years ago and a series of sequels already in the pipeline that will occupy, I believe for life at this point, James Cameron over the next ten years, from the first film released with fanfare in January 2010? (Actually released worldwide a month earlier, but here, as you know, one must not disturb the cinepanettoni which, willingly or unwillingly, keep the film industry of this Country alive). Well, I would say that the remains are just enough and certainly less than expected. Because those who were there at the time of "Titanic" (1997) know what that film was, the collective hysteria that ensued, and the sense of belonging to a group that had seen it at least ten times (I still remember the letter from a young girl who tearfully wrote to the Corriere della Sera saying she had gone to the cinema 56 times!), but in 2009, already in the social era (albeit much more moderate than today), with widespread streaming and piracy, "Avatar" did not have the same effect as "Titanic". It lasted more or less three months (which today is a lot), ended there, and people started talking about something else. We got rid of the "Titanic" after two years, not just three lousy months. Moreover, fortunately, the 3D trend (which is used excellently in "Avatar", it must be said) soon passed, and even the sequel released in 2023 had a very limited resonance, but today, as you know, only a few scattered brave souls go to the movies (with due exceptions, see "Barbie").

So, what's left? There remains the sensation of a megalomaniac, gigantic, immensely entertaining, adventurous film, directed not just well but impeccably, technically flawless, visually stunning, narratively very weak, and then? That's it, no one today (except myself) would include it in a ranking of the best films of all time (something that seemed essential at the time), no one talks about it much anymore, and the years, which pass for everyone, even for myths, seem to have passed like boulders over a film that those who are around twenty today already consider prehistory, having been yes and no 3 or at most 4 years old at its release. I mean, even "Gone with the Wind" is prehistory, actually worse, but you see, it has the seal of a classic, like Kubrick's films, Hitchcock's, Wilder's—they are there, they seem never to age, and every time you find something you missed before, "Avatar" doesn't, you watch it again, and it gives you nothing new, it hasn't even been able (or wanted?) to rise to the status of a classic. To say, "Titanic" is more of an evergreen, which, if we want, has more flaws and for at least an hour and a half makes you yawn (the first hour and a half).

Maybe because Cameron began thinking about "Avatar" in 1996, too soon, it seems it was supposed to cost more than "Titanic" (which was the most expensive film in the entire history of cinema, until then, later surpassed in record), and he had to wait 13 years for the technology to change, evolve, and become appropriate for the grand project. The blue giants (they do look a bit like Smurfs, come on) of planet Pandora, with their Tree of Life and the marines who want to kill them to seize the rich material present there, have always been somewhat laughable, and the story is indeed a western mixed with Pocahontas (but that's not an excessive fault, after all, all American cinema comes from the western), yet Cameron's visual capability is beyond any human limitation: the hunting sequences, the flight, not to mention the final battle, are otherworldly stuff, technically speaking, and the 3D increased the spectacular effect and vertigo effect. Motion capture is used in an exemplary way, to the extent that the actors (here reduced to a corollary of predominant technology) still manage to stand out, like the very talented Sigourney Weaver, who, as you know, thrives in science fiction.

It's three hours of pure spectacle, total escapism, imagination beyond any limits, to quote Walt Disney: "If you can dream it, you can do it." Yet today it's "Avatar," that movie with the blue things that create chaos, the Na'vi and that strange language they speak. Yes, right, I've seen it, who hasn't seen it?, but come on, put on "A Clockwork Orange," because that's a classic.

P.S.: The same discussion could be made with any Nolan film.