Avatar: Why is James Cameron’s movie an absolute must-see in the theater again?

13 years passed between Avatar and its sequel, Waterway. Therefore, Disney offers the public to (re)discover the first opus from September 21 in cinemas, while waiting for the second part, which is scheduled for December 14.

Recall that this story introduced Jake Sully, an ex-marine who was immobile in a wheelchair. Despite his paralysis, he remained a fighter until the end of his life. Jake is invited to travel light years from Earth to Pandora, where powerful industrial groups are mining a rare ore to solve Earth’s energy crisis.

Because Pandora’s atmosphere is toxic to humans, they created the Avatar program, which allows human “pilots” to connect their minds to the Avatar, a remotely controlled biological body that can survive in this deadly atmosphere.

These Avatars are hybrids created by genetically interbreeding human DNA with Na’vi, the DNA of the natives of Pandora. In his avatar form, Jake can walk again. He is assigned a mission to infiltrate the ship, which has become too important an obstacle to the exploitation of the precious ore. But everything changes when Neytiri, a very beautiful Na’avi, saves Jake’s life.

Why should I (again) see it?

First of all, you should know that Avatar will be released in cinemas in an unprecedented remastered version, enhanced with an exceptional 4K HDR image, as well as a wide selection of immersive 2D and 3D formats.

As James Cameron himself says, it is especially for the younger generation to discover the film in cinemas. “I hope the youngest audience will discover it in the cinema”. Indeed, according to the filmmaker, the latter watched the film on streaming or Blu-ray and did not have the opportunity to fully immerse themselves in the world of Pandora.

“Even though they think they’ve seen Avatar, they really didn’t enjoy it. I was pleasantly surprised not only by how well the movie has aged, but how beautiful the remastered version is.”The director hammered into the microphone THR.

“Audiences are hungry for cinema. Things are slowly recovering. Part of the decline is due to a lack of high-profile titles that might make people want to go ahead. But Avatar is the epitome of that phenomenon. It’s the kind of movie you have. You have to see it in a theater.”claims the film director.

A revolutionary film

True to his habits and obsessions, James Cameron pushed the boundaries of technology with Avatar, redefining the way to approach blockbuster production. For example, the Canadian did not want to use makeup to create his aliens. For decades, humanoid aliens have been played by fictional actors.

For the director, this process has many limits. Eye size and distance cannot be changed. Body proportions remain identical, as does the overall size of the characters.

In addition, make-up based on rubber or silicone prostheses limits the performance of actors because it acts as a barrier between the actor and the camera lens.

Avatar featured photo-realistic characters in an entirely computer-generated world that looked absolutely real. Each plant, tree, rock was invented by computers from WETA Digital in New Zealand, the company to which we owe the special effects of Peter Jackson’s Lord of the Rings saga.

Incredible progress has been made in terms of lighting, shading, texturing, dressing, rendering… all this has allowed WETA to create a world with photorealism, alien in detail, but completely natural at first glance.

In addition, WETA had to work in 3D to render the scenes in CG (as did the other visual effects studios that contributed to the film, including ILM), but the live-action scenes also had to be shot in 3D.

For this, James Cameron used the Fusion Camera System, which he developed with Vince Pacey. It took seven years to develop this stereoscopic camera system, the most advanced in the world. These ingenious cameras allow live-action scenes to be seamlessly combined with CG footage to create a cohesive whole.

Because of the many technologies developed specifically for this film, Avatar represents the biggest challenge James Cameron has ever faced in his career.

“I’ve always tried to push the limits of technology, but this time it often resisted and we had to push even harder…making this film was like jumping off a cliff and sewing a parachute on the way down.”he confided.

captive performance

By that time, all these drawbacks had disappeared with the revolutionary method of “capture performance”. Although the CG characters in Avatar resemble the actors who play them, their basic proportions are different.

For example, a boat’s eyes are twice the diameter of a human and are much further apart. The Na’vi are also much slimmer than the male, sporting an elongated neck. In addition, the skeletal structure and muscles are not the same as their three-fingered hands.

As computer-generated characters, navies and avatars can be much taller than humans. Blue makeup would give opaque skin. Thanks to computer-generated images, the characters have transparent skin that looks like real skin.

The surface pigments do not mask the reddish luminescence of the blood flowing down, for example, when a bright light shines on their ears from behind. All these subtleties combine to make it possible to perceive beings that create an impression of real living beings.

From Terminator 2 to Titanic, James Cameron has always made it a point of honor to advance technology, invent new ways of filming, and revolutionize cinematic techniques.

Plus, if you go see Avatar at the movies, you’re in for a nice surprise! At the end of the credits, the public will be able to discover some new and exclusive scenes from La Voie de l’eau!

Note that the audience at Club AlloCiné was able to (re)discover this magical work in the Dolby room of the Pathé Beaugrenelle, an elevated setting to host this spectacular feature film. And the audience won.

As a reminder, after this release, Avatar: The Waterway will be released in theaters on December 14.