Even after the century known for its astonishing
technological advances, the human inclination to revert to a childlike state in
innocently going overboard with the new toys proffered by still more advances as
the twenty-first century gained its own footing. With regard to film,
revolutionary special effects based on computer technology far outstripped any
directorial investment in depth of story, including the characters. Even before
the advent of computer special-effects way back in the 1970s, Charleston Heston
starred in Earthquake, a film worthy of note only for the creation of
an “earthquake-like” experience for viewers thanks to surround sound with a lot
of base. The narrative was bland and the characters were mere cut-outs.
Years later, as part of a course at a local public-access
cable studio, I concocted a music video out of footage the instructor and I had
shot of a salsa band playing in-studio. After too many hours in with the
computerized editing machine, I proudly emerged with my new Christmas tree only
for the instructor, Carlos, to hand the tapes back to me. “Now make one without
going over-board on all the bells and whistles,” he wisely directed. I had
indeed put in just about everything I could find. Back in the small editing
room, I used the fun fades sparingly, as good writers use adjectives.
For years after that course and some experience shooting and
directing public-access programming, I would recall the lesson each time I saw yet another film sporting the newest in film-making technology yet otherwise empty of
substance. James Cameron was a notable exception, centering Titanic (1997) not just on the obvious—the
sinking (by means of a real ship in-studio)—but also on a romance undergirded
by substantial character development. The next film to successfully do justice
to both technological development and depth of characterization along with a darn
good story was Cameron’s own Avatar (2009).
That Cameron accomplished such a technological leap in film-making without
sacrificing characterization and narrative says something rather unflattering about
all the technological eye-candy that has brought with it huge cavities in
narrative and characters.
In spite of the release date of Avatar 2 being in 2016, David Cameron has put out a preliminary trailer.
It was not until I saw Gravity
(2013) that I discovered a litmus test for determining whether a
film-making advance has come at the expense of narrative substance. Sandra
Bullock gave such an authentically-emotional performance that at one point I
found myself oblivious to the stunning visuals of Earth from orbit. In watching
Avatar, I had become so taken with
Neytiri’s eye-expressions that the technologically-achieved visuals on Pandora
receded into the background. As a criterion, the re-integration of dazzling
technologically-derived visuals back into the background as emotional-investment
in a character re-assumes its central place in the foreground of the suspension
of disbelief can separate the “men from the boys” in terms of film-making.
