Fire and Water: Making the Avatar Films: Movie Review

A two-part documentary series that, at times, feels like an extended DVD extra (remember those?) Fire and Water: Making the Avatar Films opens and closes with a heartfelt plea and an impassioned call from both director James Cameron and actress Kate Winslet that AI is not the future and it's the humanity of those who make the films that shines through.

It's a fascinating conundrum that in truth feels a bit like the hurt ramblings of a wronged creative, who worries his franchise has been dismissed as cartoon blue aliens on another planet.

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While the Avatar film series are visual spectacles, nobody could really argue that their pools of creative endeavour are particularly deep, with their simplistic plots and basic characterisation.

But what Fire and Water: Making the Avatar Films actually does is leave you feeling something entirely different: it makes you remember what the magic of filmmaking can do and what human touches and problem-solving can bring to the world of films like this. And as such, the calls that James Cameron is a visionary are rightly placed.

There are moments in the first part of the doco (which runs at 48 minutes) that make you genuinely marvel at what was achieved. From problem solving issues such as what to do when filming underwater when the water reflects to mastering how to use a water-based jet pack pioneered in New Zealand, the creative spirit flows deeply here and you can easily end up buying into Cameron's visions for the film - and the esteem he holds his crew in and those he trusts to make it happen.

With insights from the likes of Sam Worthington, Zoe Saldana (who reveals her hatred of the water) and the likes of the much-missed Jon Landau, as well the dive teams and footage of various tanks being made, the first part is essential viewing for anyone interested in how a film like this is made.

Although the second one concentrates more on the actors' reactions to their characters in the second Avatar film, The Way Of Water, the 33-minute doco shows once again that this world is here to stay and that the technology really doesn't work without the human touch.

But there's much to be said about the scale of the production, the depth of knowledge and the infectious passion that the occasionally monotone Cameron passes on and inspires - it's a heady, compelling mix that shows filmmaking as an art-form will never be surpassed by the likes of AI.

Perhaps, at the end of the day, that's really what Cameron and Winslet wanted to achieve with this - it's a testament to human ingenuity, problem solving and really does make you reconsider any opinion you may have of the shallowness of the technically marvellous world of Pandora and its inhabitants.

Fire and Water: Making the Avatar Films premieres on November 7 on Disney+