Everything Old is New Again

Rating: 10/10 (16 March 2010)

About 120 years ago Thomas Edison received the first U.S. patent for a motion picture. There was not much plot. The audience saw nothing more than an Edison employee sneezing. But they SAW it, were amazed by it, paused to watch it again and again. It was early evidence that a new visual technology could be much more fascinating than the content it presented.
Almost a hundred years later, the curtain rose for the first time for Andrew Lloyd Webber's Phantom of the Opera. It was an old story by Gaston Leroux, first told in 1909 and adapted so many times and in so many ways that even children knew the mechanics of the plot. Critics generally panned the production but everyone I've known who saw it on stage described it as breathtaking and unforgettable.
I offer these comments as evidence that Avatar is not the first visual adventure to capture a worldwide audience while critics dined on cold crow in the lobby. On two occasions now, James Cameron has taken simple, populist, and fascinating themes and used technology and storytelling abilities to attract audiences around the world in numbers never believed possible.
My message is simple: Watch the movie. Set aside the nonsense about stories told before, weak plots, and sour grape attitudes. Watch creatures you've never imagined, run through tree tops, let a brave new world reveal itself. Put away cynicism and blasé expectations. Understand going in that this is not Hamlet or Citizen Kane or the English Patient but the same conflicts are at work. It is a simple story told in a remarkable and fascinating way using technology and techniques that will change movie making for years to come.