You may remember the films Titanic, Aliens or Terminator, or the sequel to Titanic, Waterworld. (Don’t sue, it’s a funny joke) These films pushed the limits of movie making and rendered studio executives bed ridden with anxiety as their budgets ballooned like mushroom clouds in the pursuit of perfection. The funny thing with James Cameron though, is that he never fails to deliver on even the most herculean risks. Titanic lived up to its name with accolades and over a billion clams at the box office while the Terminator films are two of the best loved sci-fi action movies of the past 25 years, Aliens raised the bar for all sci-fi films to follow.  Must be that good old Canadian work ethic he brought to Hollywood.

In his newest film, Avatar, Cameron once again had to pioneer new methods and film technology in the pursuit of perfection. The challenge this time? Bringing the very convincing lifelike digital characters out of “Uncanny-valley” the term given when computer generated characters just look  a little bit off,  not quite convincing, or downright awkward. In the pursuit of creating genuine human moments between digitally rendered characters, Cameron had his cast members wear motion capture cameras close to their faces, capturing every muscle twitch and nuance.  Then some guy who went to film school because he thought he’d be making awesome movies like Avatar sits for months on end engaged in a pedantically thorough recreation of every tiny pixel of the face. I’m sure they have some logarithmic computer program that he gets to hang out with and collaborate with though. Each frame took 50 hours of work.

Some critics have posited that the film may completely revolutionize the way we make and watch movies. In complete 3-D Cameron tastefully (i.e. without the obvious hurling asteroids and 100 ft monsters rushing at you) invites the viewers into an alternate reality,  so lifelike it’s absurd. I searched online but I couldn’t seem to find any reference to Avatar 3-D glasses which I figured would be an obvious marketing tool.  In fact some have criticized the producers and studio for not putting enough money into marketing the film, with $500 million going into the project it is the world’s most expensive movie ever made and I’d be making good and sure people were being banged over the head with the marketing mallet in anticipation of the release if I was at the helm.

The Avatar premiere in London two days ago was a success, wowing critics and normal humans alike. The film launches world-wide next week.