13 years after “Avatar – Departure for Pandora”, the wait for the sequel to the most successful film of all time was finally over last December. But ‘Avatar: The Way Of Water’ marks a return not only to Pandora, but also to director James Cameron’s roots.
He has always shared a fascination, almost an obsession, with water. His first feature film was set in or on cold water – and although ‘Piranha II – Flying Killers’ was ultimately remembered as a messy curiosity, the low-budget animal horror shows that Cameron tried from an early age to use water as an environment a new way.
He stages water as both a threatening force of nature (“Titanic”) and as an elixir of life (“Avatar 2”) – and has strived for decades to make the power of water more tangible for cinema audiences. Perhaps the most impressive example, however, is by far the legendary director’s most unknown film: The science fiction adventure”Abyss – abyss of death“ about a rescue mission in the depths of the ocean – which you can see today, March 11, from 10:10 PM on arte – and will soon celebrate its long-awaited premiere on Blu-ray and 4K Blu-ray:
“Abyss – Abyss of Death”: the black sheep among Cameron films
Although James Cameron is known for cult classics such as ‘Aliens’, ‘Terminator’ and ‘Terminator 2’, but of course also for ‘Titanic’ and the ‘Avatar’ films, ‘The Abyss’ leads to an outsider existence. The sci-fi epic only grossed just under $90 million at the worldwide box office in 1989, keeping it from being a financial high-flyer, which is atypical for Cameron – and Compared to his great classics, it is still considered an insider tip today.
For comparison: on the movie rating platform The film currently has just under 100,000 votes, while ‘The Way Of Water’, which was released just a few weeks ago, already has well over a million votes. Increasing trend. In terms of popularity, ‘The Abyss’ is clearly at the bottom of the ultimate Cameron rankings if you summarize his films from the past 40 years. This is also visible in the home cinema market:
“The Abyss” is not currently available from a single streaming provider – neither as a subscription nor as a purchase or rental VOD – and has so far only been released on DVD (as before, of course, on videocassette). This means: while even bizarre niche films and trashy films are now available on Blu-ray or even 4K Blu-ray, in the case of the visually stunning Cameron highlight we still have to make do with an outdated SD version. Until the freshly restored version finally appears in UHD on April 26.
“The Abyss”: One of the most complex film shoots of all time pays off
The film may be 34 years old, but the footage is still one of the most spectacular in film history. The effort that Cameron and his team once made to provide the most authentic deep-sea spectacle possible demanded everything from everyone involved – as becomes more than clear in the repeatedly speechless making-of documentary ‘Under Pressure: The Making Of The Abyss’ . Only so much can be revealed: at one point, much of the crew suddenly started going blonde or even losing their hair!
“Abyss” is a good example of visual filmmaking. Not only did James Cameron leave jaws dropping at the time with his groundbreaking special effects (for which he won an Oscar, by the way). He also uses visual storytelling to perfection. The way the tension is gradually built up here, while there is hardly any dialogue, is great old-school cinema – and could even work excellently as a silent film. The performances of the excellent cast around Mary Elizabeth Mastrantonio, Ed Harris and Michael Biehn would probably suffer…
Incidentally: Fans of “Avatar” and “Avatar 2” will likely find major parallels with the Pandora adventures in “The Abyss” – especially visually. Of course, we don’t want to give too much away at this point – as already mentioned, even many Cameron fans have probably never delved into the “abyss of death” – but especially when it comes to design, the film clearly bears James Cameron’s unmistakable signature. Yep, if you didn’t know any better, you could easily think that individual shots came from an “Avatar” movie…