James Cameron is the Rick Steves of film

I had a chance to visit the EMP this weekend to see the Battlestar Galactica exhibit. Also on display was a special exhibit about Avatar. Both were fairly small but interesting. The impression I left with is that James Cameron is the Rick Steves of film. Sure, he's entertaining, talented, useful, informative, but ultimately safe and sanitized. Avatar was a fun picture, it was neat to see all the creature and plant designs, there were nice character bits. Ultimately, though it was cardboard. Cliche. Easily-digested.

Contrast that with Battlestar. Sure, different target audience, different format, but Battlestar was exciting, fun, popular, yet also took risks, showed unpleasantness, rawness and depth. I shrugged my shoulders at the Avatar exhibit and was deeply drawn into the Battlestar exhibit because of the richness of the show. It was also great to see how so many elements came together in that show. Like how the composer incorporated unusual instrumentation and themes for different characters and aspects of the show that really give it a unique feel and personality. That is the benefit of having really talented people who can take a project to the next level.

Cameron is great for the technology that his influence and desire brings into being. The virtual cam setup they used in Avatar was really extraordinary. Being able to point a device around a space and see the 3d environment and adjust that environment in real-time is an incredible technology. To capture one take and then be able to choose angles afterward opens up incredible possibilities for storytelling, as long as it's in a 3-d generated environment. Unfortunately, he seems to stop at the tech, and though more committed to human actors and performance than George Lucas, still seems to end up at basically the same place, a film short of real humanity.

Still, if this technology eventually trickles down into more filmmakers hands, the possibilities are really exciting.