Now, I’m not a proselytizing man, and I swear that I don’t go around bringing up James Cameron everywhere I go, but do you happen to have a moment to talk about our lord and savior James Cameron? I wouldn’t be asking if it wasn’t necessary. If it didn’t have stakes that affect both you and me. But the fact of the matter is: these are serious stakes indeed—and it’s my responsibility to open the floor for an important conversation regarding an important project.
It’s about Avatar—and its reputed three sequels that Cameron was talking about over the weekend at Comic-Con. That’s three more films, as in four total, as in probably upwards of eight hours of new storyline tacked onto a movie that was criticized for not even having enough story to fill its initial 2:40 runtime in the first place. Not surprisingly, people are taking the opportunity to wisecrack once again about Pocahontas this, blue alien space monkey that.
But my friends, I ask you today: since when did we, as a public, lose our faith in the greatest blockbuster director of all time? Since when was a resume of Terminator, Aliens, The Abyss, Terminator 2, True Lies, and Titanic not enough to get a lifetime pass? Avatar maybe wasn’t the single finest film ever made, I concede you that, but it was also a hell of a lot better than its popular reputation would imply (critically, the film was actually well received, if you can believe it). And if this man wants to make three more of them, then I say let him.
Fact is, if Avatar represents Cameron’s worst work (besides, of course, the classic debut Piranha Part Two: The Spawning), then he’s still doing pretty damn amazing, relatively speaking, wouldn’t you say? When it comes down to it, I would wager that the Avatar resentment simply stems from a case of unfair expectations…and maybe just a little bit of motion sickness.
In the scope of film history, plenty of high-profile directors have been given a million chances to recover from stumbles far more severe than this (I’m looking in your direction, Ridley Scott). Avatar is a project clearly meant to push the boundaries of blockbuster filmmaking more so than fit the confines of what people are expecting—just the same as T2 was in its day. So what if Cameron didn’t quite reach a new benchmark on the first try? In the words of Dave Chappelle, “He made Terminator.”
Just chill out and let the blue alien space monkeys do their thing. It’ll be fun, I promise.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Irlt2L1AkiU
