Recently in James Cameron Category

Y'all are probably on top of this by now, but the 2010 Oscar nominations were announced this morning, and the big fight of the evening looks to be blue cats versus bombs: Avatar and The Hurt Locker led the pack with nine nominations each. (Before the meme sets in, it should be noted that former married couple James Cameron and Kathryn Bigelow have been very supportive of each other's films from the start.) Anyway, some quick thoughts:

• Best Picture: Avatar. Out of the ten nominees, it's a two-movie race, and this particular picture didn't even make my personal top 20 for last year. There might even be a King of the World backlash after Titanic running the table in 1998. But I'm guessing, given its box office, that Dances With Thundersmurfs (in 3D) will win this pretty easily. Still, it's nice to see A Serious Man and District 9 get their due. The biggest WTF here is The Blind Side. C'mon now, really?


• Best Actor: Jeff Bridges, Crazy Heart. Oscar got four out of five right (Jeff Bridges, Colin Firth, George Clooney, Jeremy Renner), and of those, I'd probably go with both Firth and Renner over Bridges. But, if I had my druthers, Sam Rockwell would have been nominated and won for Moon. (He should've taken Morgan Freeman's Invictus spot.) Anyway, I'm guessing Bridges is a lock.


• Best Actress: Carey Mulligan, An Education.Unless voters factor in her youth against her, I'm going with Sally Sparrow. I haven't seen any of the other films in contention in this category, but I'm guessing Helen Mirren (The Last Station) and particularly Meryl Streep (Julie & Julia) will be considered already amply rewarded, and Gabourey Sidibe (Precious) will lose votes on account of...


• Best Supporting Actress: Mo'Nique, Precious. I haven't seen the film, but from what I can gather, this is a lockity-lock. Given that the Up in the Air vote will split between Vera Farmiga and Anna Kendrick, the only real competition is Maggie Gyllenhaal for Crazy Heart. (Consensus seems to be Penelope Cruz (Nine) has been nominated for the wrong film, and she should be here for Broken Embraces.)


• Best Supporting Actor: Christophe Waltz, Inglorious Basterds. Like the rest of the categories above, this seems pretty set to me already. With the possible exception of Woody Harrelson for The Messenger, it's hard to imagine any of the others getting close.


• Best Director: Kathryn Bigelow, The Hurt Locker. The consolation prize to losing Best Picture to Avatar, this Oscar will be richly deserved.


• Best Animated Film: Up. Again, seems like a lock, given that it's the only nominee also listed in the Best Picture category. Still, I'd rather see this go to Coraline or The Fantastic Mr. Fox.


• Writing (Adapted Screenplay): This one's more of a toss-up, and I get the sense it will probably end up being my bracket-buster. I kinda feel like I have to pick In the Loop, my favorite movie of 2009. But I could also see this being where District 9 or Up in the Air get their recognition for the evening. (Precious too might be a contender, but, again, will likely lose some votes on account of the Mo'Nique lock.)


• Writing (Original Screenplay): Mark Boal, The Hurt Locker. I'm glad to see the Coens on here, but they've won this before, as has Quentin Tarantino.


• Documentary Feature: The Cove. I want to see several of these, particularly Daniel Ellsberg: The Most Dangerous Man in America. But all word seems to point to dolphins in peril.


• Foreign Language Film: The White Ribbon. Haven't seen it yet, but I haven't heard any other contender mentioned as often.


• Music (Original Song): "The Weary Kind," Crazy Heart. Take it to the bank.


• Music (Original Score): Probably Up. It won the Globe, and it's the only one of these films whose score I can even vaguely remember.


• Costumes: It sounds like a two-movie race between Coco Before Chanel and Bright Star, although I personally wouldn't mind seeing this go to Imaginarium of Dr. Parnassus.


• Make-up: Really weird category this year. Of these three, I'll guess The Young Victoria edges out Star Trek.


• Technical Stuff: With the possible exception of Editing and maybe Cinematography (The Hurt Locker), I'm thinking all of this goes to Avatar.

"If I did Titanic today, I'd do it very differently. There wouldn't be a 750-foot-long set. There would be small set pieces integrated into a large CGI set. I wouldn't have to wait seven days to get the perfect sunset for the kiss scene. We'd shoot it in front of a green screen, and we'd choose our sunset." In Newsweek and Slate, James Cameron and Peter Jackson talk about the future of cinema. "Actors will never be replaced. The thought that somehow a computer version of a character is going to be something people prefer to look at is a ludicrous idea. It's just paranoia."

Hotter than reality by far? Well, maybe...I'd say more just (a) totally super serial. A decade in the making, James Cameron's Avatar, for all intent and purposes, basically turned out quite a bit like Peter Jackson's King Kong. (I was going to say The Phantom Menace, but I think that's too harsh.) The movie looks absolutely amazing, and...uh...well...did I mention it looks amazing? So if you're the type of person who can enjoy a ravishing visual feast on its own terms (and I am sometimes -- for example, Speed Racer), then I think you'll probably flat-out love it, and it's definitely worth seeing in 3D.

But -- and there's a big but -- if you're someone who can't get by on a feast of technological wonders alone, and for whatever reason I was that guy last night, then Avatar leaves something to be desired. It's got cat class and it's got cat style alright, but for all the visual inventiveness on display -- bioluminescent forests, hammerhead rhinos, insectile gunships, and the like -- Avatar is also a gorgeous three-hour cliché: The action may take place in three dimensions, but the story, alas, barely has one. As a result, Avatar has a bit of that too-much-frittering-around-the-edges feel of the Star Wars prequels. Yes, the six-legged equines and mercenary sidearms seem remarkably well-designed...but good god man, what about the plot?

About that plot, we've seen or heard the basic contours of this story a dozen times over, albeit not with blue felinoids: Warrior goes undercover, falls in love, goes native, and turns on his former and erstwhile masters. It's Lawrence of Arabia, Little Big Man, The Last Samurai, Dances with Wolves, and Dune, just to name a few variations of this theme. (If you're a WoW player with avatars of your own, Avatar also goes like this: Guy levels a night-elf and/or draenei in Zangarmarsh, really loves his flying mount, and eventually gets caught up in a lot of guild drama.) Now, I don't begrudge Cameron for retelling a hoary tale here. This story may be as old as the hills, sure, but, it's all in the execution. But execution-wise, Avatar doesn't really cut it in a lot of ways. It's just too broad and ham-handed most of the time. And there are too many absurd plot points (say, all the formerly Na'vi-eating animals turning into the eagles at Mordor in the third act) and reversals (say, all the Na'vi being so awed into submission -- after being screwed over and run out of their World Tree -- by an apparently easy-to-tame dragon. The Kwisatz haderach never had it so good.)

To be honest, I'm not really sure what happened here. I mean, the dialogue in Titanic is admittedly clunky as all hell, but damned if I don't feel right there on the boat every time the iceberg comes around. Terminator 2 also has a lot of "hasta la vista, baby" and "why do you cry?" drek to wade through, but it definitely works in the end. And I'd say Cameron's three best films -- Terminator, Aliens, and The Abyss -- all benefit from quality writing, memorably punchy dialogue, and well-rounded, believable characters. But somewhere here, it feels like Cameron got lost in his sea of pixels. The result is visually impressive to be sure. But -- at least for me -- it's not particularly engaging on any emotional level.

I'll give Avatar this -- the problem is not the CGI-rendering. As a feat of technology, the Na'vi characters here are, like almost all of Pandora, the next order of Gollum. They all look and act as photo-realistic as ten-foot-tall blue cats ever could. (In fact, they seem more lifelike than Sam Worthington, who turns in a mostly forgettable performance here -- As his respective military and scientific handlers, Stephen Lang and Sigourney Weaver, both looking extraordinarily well-preserved, resonate more.) And when the Na'vi are traipsing about their bioluminescent world like it's an alien nature docutmentary, Avatar is as good as it gets.

But, while they may be more Siamese than Sioux, the Na'vi are also somewhat condescending and even vaguely embarrassing noble savage stereotypes, particularly Zoe Saldana's character and her intended betrothed. (I didn't catch the name, and thought of him basically as cat-Billy-Zane.) This would probably rankle more if most everyone else in the story wasn't a caricature too. Giovanni Ribisi (overplaying it) is the weaselly corporate lackey. (He's Burke, a.k.a. Paul Reiser from Aliens.) Michelle Rodriguez (in her wheelhouse) is the tough-as-nails military gal with the heart of gold. (She's Vasquez, a.k.a. Jenette Goldstein, also from Aliens.) And so on -- Not one character does or says anything surprising over the course of three hours, and so Avatar, for all its visual grandeur, just plays out like an eye-catching, extraordinarily expensive, and maddeningly familiar Saturday morning (super-)serial.

Not to lose the Hometree in the forest, Avatar looks, really, really good. Beautiful, even. And, amid the shock-and-awe references and Zen-tastic Earth mother philosophy, there are glimpses of some interesting ideas interspersed throughout the cornball stuff. I get the feeling there might be some meta-commentary going on here about actors and "avatar" technology -- Sam Worthington the actor is stepping into a ten-foot-tall cat suit just as much as his character Jake Sully is -- although I could be over-thinking it. And a late moment involving Sully (in human form) and one of the Na'vi -- the Pietà scene in the trailer (which, by the way, Stephen Lang fell conveniently close to... and what happened to the nerdy sidekick guy who should've been in there at the time?) -- plays out like the Urtext image of much of Cameron's output over the years. (From Ellen Ripley to Sarah Connor, Cameron does love his warrior-goddess mothering types.)

Nonetheless, while probably worth catching for the 3-D ride experience, Avatar fell well below my expectations of the King of the World's vaunted return. More than most -- some might say all -- of his contemporaries, James Cameron has always had the knack for giving his technological marvels a human pulse: The Terminator, The Abyss, and Titanic are first and foremost love stories; In the midst of all the kick-ass, T2 and Aliens are also movies about (adopted) parents and children. But that gift for keeping humanity front and center in his sci-fi failed him this time -- For all its visual splendor, Avatar sadly falls into an uncanny valley of the heart. Simply put, it just feels a bit hollow.

They don't care what's in your character bank: Paraplegic veteran Sam Worthington rolls Draenei and goes native in the brand-spankin' new second trailer for James Cameron's Avatar, also with Zoe Saldana, Sigourney Weaver, Stephen Lang, Giovanni Ribisi, and Michelle Rodriguez. (Well, actually this trailer has been floating around in bootleg form for a few days now, but I figured this movie more than most needs to be judged and/or appreciated in hi-def.)

Anyway, so far, so good. Ribisi and Rodriguez seem a lot like Paul Reiser (Burke) and Jenette Goldstein (Vasquez) from Aliens respectively. And while a lot of the "Dances with Thundersmurfs" hectoring out there can be chalked up to the usual aggro-fanboy haterade, Avatar's whole central plot-line does seem pretty doggone similar to Dances With Wolves, The Last Samurai, Dune, or any other flick/book you can name where a good outsider throws in with the "noble savage" locals to beat back the massively superior technological firepower of the would-be colonialists. ("This is our land!!" It is? No, it's their land, buddy. Ease up with your bad self.)

Still, it's gonna make for some amazing eye candy, that's for sure. And as long as the Na'vi don't squeal like Ewoks or Gungans as they fight, I should be able to dig it.

"'This film integrates my life's achievements,' he told me. 'It's the most complicated stuff anyone's ever done." Another time, he said, "If you set your goals ridiculously high and it's a failure, you will fail above everyone else's success.'" On the eve of Avatar, the New Yorker's Dana Goodyear delivers a long and interesting profile of take-no-guff, autocratic auteur James Cameron. ("A small, loyal band of cast and crew works with him repeatedly; they call the dark side of his personality Mij--Jim backward.")

The whole thing is definitely worth a read, but this caught me eye further down the piece: "'We should ultimately have colonies on Mars, for purposes of expanding the footprint of the human race,' Cameron says. He shares with the Mars Society the opinion that NASA -- on whose advisory council he sat for three years -- has become too risk-averse. 'We've become cowards, basically,' he says. 'As a society, we're just fat and happy and comfortable and we've lost the edge.'" Listen to the King of the World -- he's dead on.

Since it's a lazy Sunday morning, which I'm about to spend watching football with one eye while catching up on work, and since it occurred to me earlier this weekend that the trifecta of Fame, Pandorum, and Surrogates just has to be the lamest movie weekend we've seen in many moons, here's the rest of the fall film schedule. If a movie is listed below without parentheses, it's on my must-see list -- Movies in paras are definitely-maybes. Also, some of these, particularly the ones in and around xmastime, may be limited release on the date given.

Out now: (The Baader-Meinhof Complex)

Oct. 2: A Serious Man. (Capitalism: A Love Story, The Invention of Lying, Whip It)

Oct. 9: (An Education, Zombieland)

Oct. 16: Where the Wild Things Are. (New York, I Love You)

Oct. 23: Amelia. (Astro Boy, Anti-Christ, Cirque du Freak: The Vampire's Assistant)

Oct. 30: (Gentlemen Broncos)

Nov. 6: The Men Who Stare at Goats. (The Box)

Nov. 13: (2012, Pirate Radio)

Nov. 20: (Red Cliff)

Nov. 25: The Road. (Nine, The Fantastic Mr. Fox, Me and Orson Welles)

Dec. 4: Up in the Air.

Dec. 11: The Lovely Bones. (Invictus)

Dec. 18: Avatar.

Dec. 25: The Imaginarium of Dr. Parnassus. (Sherlock Holmes)

While much of the geekglobe, including yours truly, are still happily grooving along this week to Felicia Day's elite-level earworm, "(Do You Wanna Date My) Avatar," the King of the World has upped the stakes by releasing the teaser trailer for his much-anticipated film of the same name. (Several stills have popped online too, including first looks at Sam Worthington, Sigourney Weaver, Michelle Rodriguez, Stephen Lang (late of Public Enemies), and Giovanni Ribisi. Notably missing: Zoe Saldana.) The Avatar trailer drops at 10am EST.

Update: Apple/Quicktime is failing at the moment, but French MSN has come to the rescue. So, wait, it's World of Warcraft Draenei replacing Dune's Fremen on the forest moon of Endor in 3D? Agh, screw it -- you had me at James Cameron.

Move over, dogs-playing-poker. A New Zealand ad company promotes the airing of the weaksauce AvP movies on SkyTV with some classic-yet-forgotten Alien v. Predator duels of yore. (See also the tetherball and chess matches -- Hopefully table tennis, foosball, and poker will get their day as well.)

"It is the most challenging film I've ever made." The Hollywood Reporter checks in with James Cameron on the status of Avatar, and the future of 3D. "'The real question is 'where does all this go?' Cameron said. 'Are we looking at a situation maybe 10-15 years out where most laptops are sold with 3-D stereoscopic screens, most montors are stereo compatible, most DVD players can run stereo content?...I can see this becoming much more pervasive that we are thinking now.'"

EW lists the top 25 sci-fi offerings (in tv and film) of the past twenty-five years. Pretty arbitrary, really, but it includes Brazil (at #6), BSG (at #2 -- these two should have switched places), Children of Men (#14), Eternal Sunshine (#17 -- same problem), Aliens (#9), The Thing (#10), The X-Files (#4), Galaxy Quest (#24), and Blade Runner (#3), so it's by no means a bad list. (Both Lost and Heroes should be replaced, however.) Just from what's missing above, you can probably guess #1...can't you, Mr. Anderson?

The King of the World? Director and documentarian James Cameron announces, for a forthcoming Discovery Channel special, that archaeologists have discovered the tomb of Jesus...and his son. "'How possible is it?' Pfann said. 'On a scale of one through 10 -- 10 being completely possible -- it's probably a one, maybe a one and a half.'"

As rumored a few weeks ago and in a bit of inspired casting, Aaron Eckhart looks set to join Christopher Nolan's The Dark Knight as Harvey Dent, a.k.a. Two-Face. And, also in fanboy casting news, the cast of James Cameron's Avatar fills out, with Wes Studi, Sigourney Weaver, and others joining Sam Worthington and Zoe Saldana for the 3D-epic.

"The Banshees and the other creatures are going to be about 90% or 95% animated. And with the humanoids hopefully we're going to be coming down to 95% capture with the exception of ears and like I said clothing and hair and stuff like that." I'm behind on this one -- Sorry, I've been saving up links to space out the flurry of movie reviews, and then overestimating how much I can actually get written on a given day -- but James Cameron has announced more details about Avatar (not to be confused with M. Night Shyamalan's Avatar, which I couldn't case less about) and granted AICN's Harry Knowles an extended interview on the performance-capture project. Set for a 2009 release, the film will "star" Sam Worthington (recently in the Aussie Macbeth update) and Zoe Saldana (late of Pirates of the Caribbean II.)

More James Cameron news: Harry of AICN has a wide-ranging conversation with the director which, if you can get past the usual Knowlesisms, reveals that Project 880 is in fact Avatar, and that Cameron has been working with NASA on a "Live Video Stereo Motion Image" (3-D) camera for the next Mars Rover.

The King of the World adds another project to his very full plate: Apparently, post 880, James Cameron will take on The Dive, "the true, tragic love story of freediver Francisco "Pipin" Ferraras and his wife Audrey Mestre."

Sorry, Battle Angel Alita and Aquaman: James Cameron announces the secretive Project 880 will be his next film. "'We've moved "Project 880" into first position,' Cameron said. 'It's as classified as the Manhattan Project.' Many believe it is actually a version of Avatar, the director's oft-rumored love story set against interplanetary war." Both it and Alita (to follow) will be filmed in high-definition 3-D.