Five-star cast, advanced technology and diving baptisms: Avatar 2, the film of all excesses

A cult blockbuster and green fable with staggering special effects,

(2009)

by James Cameron, (whose remastered version is in theaters) is the biggest success in cinema with its 2.8 billion dollars (2.7 billion euros). euros) collected when it was released in 2009. Thirteen years later,

takes us back to the enchanting universe of the planet Pandora populated by friendly blue giants, the Na'vis, extraterrestrials connected to nature fighting to defend their lands threatened by humans, who want to extract a mineral to send it to Earth.

And the Na'vi goes.

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A monster movie

The craziest project of a Canadian demiurge specializing in delusional projects –

(1984),

(1989),

(1997) –

is the film of all records.

With a budget of around 240 million dollars, it slips into eleventh place, very honorable, of the most expensive feature films in the history of cinema.

Its shooting will have lasted four interminable years, the time to develop a new, more efficient digital image technology (and for one of the members of the production team to have two children!).

A monster film that has become a cult film, and the first opus of a saga that James Cameron would like to be comparable to that of

(1977)

by George Lucas: three other sequels, already written, should be released every two years, either in 2024, 2026 and 2028. Thirteen years later, the long-awaited

, three hours and ten minutes long (compared to two hours and forty-one minutes for the first

), could overshadow Marvel superheroes with its crazy images shot underwater, which required the actors to pass their diving certificate.

Kate Winslet and Sigourney Weaver (present in opus number one, she embodies a new character) will thus have had to hold their breath for six or seven minutes for a scene.

Techno galore

In 2009, when the film was released, some media did not go with the back of the spoon to praise James Cameron's audacity and desire to "revolutionize technology", "boost the industry", even "reinvent cinematographic art.

One day, all the films will be in relief , even prophesied Jon Landau, the producer of the film, alluding to its images in 3D.

If this revolution has not taken place (and the commercialization of 3D televisions has made pschitt), the technology used by Cameron in his masterpiece remains as effective and spectacular as ever.

This is

, a system that he and his team have specially developed.

As before, the movements of the actors (on a green background, in suits equipped with electronic sensors) are reconstructed in virtual images, but, in addition, a helmet equipped with a camera pointed at their face also captures their expressions.

And to further complicate an already complex process, a virtual camera, Fusion 3D, simulates a control screen allowing you to see the virtual characters evolve live.

All this contributes to making the Na'vis deeply human and moving, and the mixed couple formed by Jake Sully (Sam Worthington) and Neytiri (Zoe Saldana) and their two children, who are at the heart of the action of

.

Because if in this second episode the human mining society threatens the peaceful world of the Na'vis again, another theme, that of "mixed-race adolescents seeking their place in the world", would emerge from the story, according to Jon Landau.

The life of the Na'vis can also sometimes strangely resemble ours.

Ecological fable

Lush jungle, mountain range floating in the air, sparkling waterfall and luminescent forest: on Pandora, the landscapes are of unreal beauty, and the Na'vis live in spiritual harmony with nature.

Thanks to the Tree of Souls, a gigantic tree-house, they can even communicate with their ancestors.

For Cyril Dion, who presents the documentary

on Arte (available on arte.tv until May 13), the film is clearly the "first eco-friendly blockbuster of the 2000s which is not catastrophic".

For me, the film tells this: our loss of contact with nature, to which we nevertheless owe our lives

Cyril Dion

“And the scene where humans destroy with helicopters and rockets the great Tree of Souls is an allegory of what we are doing to the living world on Earth.

For me, the film tells that: our loss of contact with nature, to which we nevertheless owe our lives.

And our interest in an extractivist policy, which consists of extracting minerals from the ground to fuel the production of energy on Earth and to destroy the environment without remorse.

The scene where the tree breaks in two and where the Na'vi in ​​distress start crying and shouting illustrates this situation in a striking way.

It's quite finely thought out to have deported the action to another planet and to have played with all the codes of the blockbuster to get this green message across.

Obviously for Cameron, inventor of this dark and desperate fable on the future of our humanity, who would have preferred, he had entrusted to the journalists, to live on Pandora in the skin of a Na'vi than on our planet.

With

, the visionary director this time looks at the unenviable fate of our oceans.

And uses, more or less, the same words as Cyril Dion to alert us to the imminent dangers of climate change.

“A lot of people, like you and me, live in cities, and that tends to cut us off completely from nature.

We have to force ourselves to return regularly to the woods, to the heart of the oceans… One of

was, I hope, to reconnect people with this notion of being part of a whole with plants and animals,” he confided recently.

This is the miracle of

.

Avatar: The Way of the Water,

by James Cameron.

With Sam Worthington, Zoe Saldana, Sigourney Weaver, Kate Winslet.

Released on December 14, 2022.