One podcast I listen to made an interesting comparison between Avatar and Star Wars. Each movie raised the bar for blockbusters, as well as working in a genre that can be described as Space Opera. A little too easy and facile for Science Fiction, but set in a future universe. In fact, both movies rely heavily on the mythology of the American West as background, though Star Wars uses a lot more Eastern martial arts iconography as well. But the real comparison was about the effect the movies had on the industry. It’s undeniable that movies before Star Wars, or many that are actually contemporary, but were in production before Star Wars broke all box office records, look cheap now. No matter what your memory is of the special effects, if you go back and see it now, it will look fake.
No doubt that’s what Cameron meant when he talked about his movie. Hopefully he was not talking about the story. So, will every movie in the blockbuster/space-opera genre be in 3-D with flawless CGI? Will budgets continue to push upwards of $400 million dollars? Seems likely. On the other hand, will Avatar go down in our collective memory the way Star Wars did? I find that very doubtful. Technical advances may have had a great influence at the time Star Wars came out, but that’s not why we remember it now. After all, as soon as it was out, everybody else set out surpassing it. Matrix made a similar leap in visual technique, but little else about the movie has lasted.
Star Wars had something else that was special, something that even George Lucas could never find again. Though nobody could call the acting great, the relationships between the characters were inspired. Obi-Wan is still an archetype, and Darth Vader is synonymous with ultimate bad guy. Princess Leia was the perfect damsel in distress, who could also kick some ass. But the key was really the hero. Instead of just focusing on the “chosen one”, Star Wars kept balancing Luke with Han Solo. Han Solo was fun in a way that Luke could never be. Neo was never fun, the hero of Avatar could never catch that magic. Nobody in the sequels had it. Maybe it was just Harrison Ford, but I also think the character of the co-hero lifted some of the seriousness that oppresses adventure movies when the film-maker starts thinking about making art. Lucas could be as serious as he wanted about the Force, destiny, and the themes of good and evil and fatherhood, without drowning the old-fashioned serial-movie fun, because Han Solo was always there.
It seems odd that one movie could have given the modern standard examplar of three cultural archetypes, but Star Wars did it. Darth Vader, Obi-Wan, and Han Solo are always with us. You can pull out any of those names and describe someone, and you’ve covered that topic. I can’t imagine any character from Avatar will be that memorable even a year from now.