James Cameron's Avatar... it's still only a movie.

Here is an interesting and relatively spoiler-free look at Jame Cameron's Avatar. I've avoided most articles on this one, although it was awfully nice of Michelle Rodriguez to drop a massive spoiler during her otherwise unrelated press junket for Fast & Furious. Other than that, I know next to nothing and the cryptic little bits and pieces are fascinating.

I sincerely doubt that the movie will be as revolutionary as the article implies or hopes. The piece by Michael Cieply makes the picture seem like a new kind of mind-altering drug. I sincerely doubt that it will completely change the landscape of movie going for all time. I recall pundits saying similar things about The Matrix Reloaded. In the end, that anticipated sequel was only a movie, a thoughtful, vastly underrated and misunderstood science fiction film, but just a movie none the less. Whether or not this revolutionizes movies and becomes the next-generation equivalent of The Jazz Singer, or whether it's just a terrific science fiction adventure picture, Cameron doesn't do anything half-assed, and he has yet to make an even remotely mediocre film since breaking out with The Terminator in 1984.

Anyway, don't believe anyone who tells you that this film is any real threat to the $1.8 billion worldwide total that Cameron set over eleven years ago. Titanic, which opened on the same date - December 18th - that Avatar will open, was an anomaly. The factors that were at play are unlikely to be repeated again. Much like how television viewing habits have changed to the point that nothing will ever top the ratings for the MASH series finale, the movie going experience no longer has a place for major films that run nonstop for months on end.

And don't believe any of the hand-wringing that goes on while discussing the film's sure to be monstrous budget. James Cameron has broken the record for the most expensive movie of all time each of the last four times he's made a film. The Abyss cost about $80 million, Terminator 2: Judgment Day cost $100 million, True Lies cost $125 million, and Titanic ended up costing $200 million. And, with the exception of The Abyss, each film has been a major short term profit machine, and I'm guessing The Abyss has long made its money back over the last twenty years. Come what may, Cameron has earned the benefit of the doubt to spend what he wants, as he always delivers the goods.

Avatar - the next evolutionary step of movies, merely a top-notch adventure film, or the science fiction equivalent of Eyes Wide Shut? We'll see.

Scott Mendelson