The end of the year has arrived before we know it. If there is any exciting new film in theaters recently, it is undoubtedly the upcoming "Avatar: The Way of Water" .
has over 100 million pre-sales and has been frequently searched. Although ticket prices have soared, it is still hard to get a ticket for the premiere.
It can be seen that even in the environment of repeated epidemics, everyone is still enthusiastic about the second part of " Avatar " that has been waiting for 13 years.
html No. 112, I received an invitation from Disney to attend the premiere of this film in China. Today I will talk about the highly anticipated "Avatar 2" without spoiling anything.
First of all, it must be mentioned that the reason why "Avatar" in 2009 triggered a phenomenon-level movie-watching craze around the world after its release is related to the background of the era when 3D and IMAX movies were not yet popular.
At that time, "Avatar" not only brought the novel experience of giant-screen 3D to the audience, but also led a wave of technological revolution in the industry. However, today, 13 years later, neither 3D nor IMAX screens are new things. Even if the film has improved in special effects technology, it is impossible to replicate the revolutionary viewing experience that the first film brought to the audience when it came out.
Therefore, viewers who hope to accept the "baptism of technology" again can adjust their expectations appropriately.
After accepting this, it can be said that "Avatar: Water Path" is a very exciting and shocking visual effects blockbuster.
The story of this film follows the previous work. After the male protagonist Jack Sally married Neytili, a Na'vi, they raised 4 children in 14 years.
Their lives were very peaceful at first, but humans soon came back with more advanced weapons and technology, trying to seize the Na'vi people's survival territory and avenge the male protagonist who betrayed his kind.
In order to protect his family and prevent Neytili’s tribe from getting involved in the war again, the male protagonist’s family began their escape journey.
They wandered around the planet Pandora, and finally came to a tribe that lived by the sea. There were hundreds of islands dotted here to provide them with shelter.
Although they have found a place to stay, the unfamiliar marine civilization, completely different lifestyles, and human beings' relentless pursuit have all presented them with new challenges.
It is not difficult to tell from the "Water Way" in the title. In this film, "Kashen" will lead the audience out of the forest and unlock another major ecosystem of Pandora - the ocean.
Exploring and photographing the mysterious ocean is what Cameron is most passionate about and good at.
In addition to being a film director, he was also the first person to pilot a single-man submersible to the deepest known point on Earth - the Challenger Deep. The experience of a professional deep diver and ocean explorer provided him with rich materials to construct Pandora's marine ecosystem, and also gave the film a layer of fantasy and realistic science fiction quality.
On the one hand, you will still see those highly imaginative fictional creatures and alien landscapes.
In the first part, the suspended mountain peaks in the sky, the "holy tree" Eva who connects all things with a huge neural network , and the "air overlord" Feilong, who relies on spiritual connections to find his master, are impressive;
In this part, the flying fish Iru, who lives in the sea and air, is a lively family, and the huge whale Tukun with extremely high IQ also brings a completely amazing audio-visual experience.
There are a lot of underwater scenes in the film, showing the wonders of the underwater world of Pandora in an all-round way.
On the other hand, when shooting scenes such as diving, whaling, and sea rafting, the details of the film are very realistic.When the protagonists face suffocation in the deep sea and humans encounter shipwrecks, the realistic disaster scene can even make you temporarily forget that this is a science fiction film set on an alien planet.
It is these detailed and believable details, as well as the consistent Pandora ecological rules from the first film, that make the entire "Avatar Universe" appear mysterious but not empty, strange yet real.
In Cameron's own words, it creates an ultimate "immersion".
To do this, he used underwater motion capture technology that didn't exist when the first "Avatar" was filmed, building a giant water tank, using pumps to create real waves, and combining camera tracks with water tanks that simulated the underwater environment.
Although only two shots in the entire film did not use special effects, all scenes involving underwater were shot in the water. The actors had to undergo free diving training for this purpose in order to achieve the effect of long-term activities underwater without using diving equipment.
Kate Winslet, who plays the priestess of the Ocean Tribe in the film, held her breath for 7 minutes and 14 seconds in front of the camera during filming, in exchange for a more natural and immersive underwater performance than relying solely on CGI special effects.
After talking about the audio-visual breakthrough, the film’s characters and script are also slightly different from the first film in terms of emphasis.
This part highlights the theme of family and further explores the emotional connections between people and between people and other living things.
When faced with the invasion of outsiders (human beings), there are actually differences within the protagonist's family. Some people think that they should rise up to resist, as running away cannot solve the fundamental problem, while others think that they should do their best to protect the safety of their families, even if they leave their hometown.
The confrontation between these two ideas runs throughout and reaches its conclusion with the outbreak of the war.
In addition, the film also focuses on depicting the emotional bond between a family member and the ocean giant Tukun. Through this branch line, it tells the survival philosophy of Tukun as a race, making it truly a character with narrative value, not just a "mascot" that contributes to spectacles. It completes the ecological setting of Pandora's planet where "all things are animistic" and all living things are interconnected.
Although looking at the whole film, the story itself is still very formulaic, and you can guess the ending when you see the beginning. However, looking back on the first film, the plot was also the shortcoming that was most criticized by the audience.
In my opinion, the stories of the "Avatar" series are indeed not amazing enough, and the reasoning is not profound. What makes it stand out is that it can capture these universal concepts that are even familiar to everyone, and make them moving.
As the highlight of the show, the audio-visual special effects serve exactly this point.
In this movie, when you were enjoying Pandora's beautiful fairyland landscape, spiritual creatures, and mysterious and harmonious ecological balance one second, you will witness the paradise-like scene being destroyed by the violence of human technology in the next second. The vibrant rainforest and calm and tolerant ocean were reduced to a smoke-filled battlefield in an instant. The spontaneous sense of tragedy can indeed bring emotional touches to people.
Cameron once said in an interview that after the first part of "Avatar" was released, many tribes and indigenous people told him through emails and letters that what happened to the Na'vi people in the film happened almost exactly in their lives. If it can be seen by hundreds of millions of people around the world through the movie, it will be a warning to people, even if it is just packaged as a fictional story, it would be a good thing.
After that, he actively participated in the cause of environmental protection and filmed many ocean-related documentaries. But the real reason for him to continue in the film industry is the opportunity to let more people see the "Avatar" universe.
This series not only satisfies his desire to explore, "creating dreams" through the technology of light and shadow, but also tells the facts that are close at hand, allowing people to reflect on their position in nature.
Speaking of the film itself, "Avatar 2" may not be comparable to the epoch-making first film, but from a technical perspective, it is still worthy of what a top-level commercial blockbuster should look like.
It is said that the filming of the third part of the series has been completed, and the fourth and fifth parts are also being planned.
I think all fans will hope that the "Avatar" series can continue to be filmed and show us the full picture of Pandora little by little.
