Essay On Avatar

612 Words2 Pages

In many ways, James Cameron’s Avatar closely resembles the common, safe “top-echelon” blockbuster described by David A. Cook in “Formative Industry Trends” (347). The film is definitely high concept; the plot is simple and easy to describe, is multi-genre, and relies on spectacle. It also featured saturation marketing, as was described by Jesse Algeron Rhines in “Blockbusters and Independents: 1975 to the Present” (414). There are Avatar books, video games, action figures, postage stamps, and even a future theme park (Cody). Marketing helped Avatar do exceedingly well in the box office, which is one requirement of a blockbuster according to Thomas Schatz in “The New Hollywood” (371).
However, Avatar stands out from the sea of blockbusters made by Hollywood both financially and aesthetically. In terms of aesthetics, Avatar was revolutionary. The equipment used to film Avatar was itself new. Avatar was shot on a motion-capture stage that was much larger than any previously used (Terdiman). The film also used animation motion capture technology that Cameron, himself, had helped develop ...

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