When it comes to A-list directors naming some of their favorite movies, there have definitely been a few head scratchers over the years, and I absolutely love it.
Some examples I recently tackled: Martin Scorsese believing “The Exorcist II: The Heretic” is better than William Friedkin’s original, Paul Thomas Anderson loving “Men in Black III”, Stanley Kubrick calling “White Men Can’t Jump” one of his all-time favorites, Christopher Nolan endlessly quoting “MacGruber.” And, of course, we can never forget Terrence Malick’s unhealthy obsession with “Zoolander.”
Then there’s Michael Mann and “Avatar”…
Now, don’t get me wrong: that first “Avatar” movie, released in 2009, was genuinely jaw-dropping at the time, and that was mostly due to its astonishing 3D visuals, which blew my mind. The story? Not so much.
Over the years, I’ve tried to rewatch “Avatar” at home, on a 65-inch screen, without the 3D, and I just can’t get through it. The lure of the movie was never its “Pocahontas” meets “Dances With Wolves” story, but rather Cameron revitalizing 3D technology for an industry that desperately needed a boost at the box office. “Avatar” was an event—a roller-coaster ride whose plot barely anyone remembers.
Mann, on the other hand, is all in—on spectacle and story—and he loves all three “Avatar” movies. He’s a true “Avatard,” now going so far as to pen a well-written Variety tribute for “Avatar: Fire and Ash,” one in which he calls the third film a “massive achievement.” Here are some highlights…Jim Cameron’s third “Avatar,” ‘Fire and Ash,’ is a massive achievement. The towering originality of Jim’s visualization is a given; what makes ‘Fire and Ash’ so potent is its believability.
Throughout Jim’s propulsive narrative, we experience the Na’vi and humans as more complex people caught in a dire conflict zone in an alien future. And the authenticity of what he’s built makes it resonate with even more visceral power
Jim’s artistry, intellect and heavy lifting creates diverse alien biology, anthropology, mechanical engineering, politics, visualization and taut storytelling. It’s extraordinary. Jim began with a blank piece of paper. No writer-director I can think of has invented as large a three-dimensional world of his own imagining as has Jim.
‘Fire and Ash’ on its own is an incredible achievement. There are two more installments to come. From some point in the future, when regarded historically, the whole of “Avatar” will be seen as the magnum opus it truly is.
In a 2023 interview with Letterboxd, Mann named “Avatar” as “one of the best films ever made.” When the interviewer asked him for his “Letterboxd Four,” the “Heat” filmmaker replied by name-checking “Battleship Potemkin,” “The Asphalt Jungle,” “2001: A Space Odyssey,” and … “Avatar.”
Moreover, in 2012, Mann went so far as to select “Avatar” as one of his picks for the BFI’s prestigious Sight and Sound poll of The Greatest Films of All Time, a choice that turned some heads. Hey, I’m all for these out-of-the-box picks, and who knows—maybe Mann will be proven correct 20 or 30 years from now, and, historically, the entire trilogy will be regarded as a “magnum opus.”