James Cameron (Director and Writer) Blog #3

Choose a particular international film artist, director or producer.  Write an analysis of his or her contributions to cinema, including a consideration of later films or artists who have been influenced by your subject.

The creator of Avatar, was the Director that I have chosen. James Cameron was born in Canada on August 16, 1954. He changed films in many ways, making some of the most famous movies still today, including the Terminator movies and the Titanic. As a major genius, movies even coming out proceeding avatar would not be the same if it were not for James Cameron.

3D movies were not yet popular before the release of Avatar. Every movie that was in 3D was either a short film, or something that was made a joke out of. One example is my bloody valentine. This movie was a joke as many theaters didn’t even show it in 3d. It was obvious that the directors did not know what they were doing, as rotten tomatoes even gave it a 56%. http://www.rottentomatoes.com/m/my_bloody_valentine_3_d/  Every scene that was supposedly scary had to have someone coming out at the crowd with a chainsaw or something flying out to the crowd to scare them.

After the release of Avatar, many movies have been in 3D and they are supposed to be serious, even though they still never compare. Resident evil was an example. In this movie, there are many scenes where something is trying to come out at you just like in my bloody valentine, but in this movie, it was only for the special effects, not to scare anyone. Unfortunately, this director has not yet realized that an audience is not always completely stupid, as it takes away the sense of realism when someone is shooting at the screen just to make it look cool. This would explain the 25% that critics gave it http://www.rottentomatoes.com/m/resident_evil_afterlife/.

Avatar had the budget that it needed, showing that it’s not the technology that isn’t there, it’s that the technology is expensive, and if they are not willing to spend the 280 million that was spent on Avatar,( http://www.vanityfair.com/online/oscars/2009/12/how-much-did-avatar-really-cost.html) in this day in age, the critics will look down upon it.

Even random movies are now being made in 3D. Jackass was an example. I did enjoy this movie, but I was wishing that they did not do the 3d effects. Instead of doing their normal acts that are usually really funny, they did more things like slingshotting themselves at the camera. This just looks dumb and really wasn’t as funny. In Step up, they did a lot of dance moves that were also kind of stupid, as you could tell that they were only doing it toward the screen to make it pop out at you.

Obviously films are being influenced as a result of this movie, seeing that people noticed the profit that was made from this movie. Almost every movie tries to imitate the 3D aspect. Which many fail but I am sure many movies will be made in the near future that will show a whole new potential to films. Just like we are now analyzing how color made a huge difference back when it was new technology, 3d might one day make a difference.