Avatar Pills
Why do I feel vaguely bummed out by Variety‘s totally-confirmed report that James Cameron has committed to making two Avatar sequels, to hit theatres in December 2014 and December 2015? I can roll with it, but my first reaction was “oh, gee….that’s not the greatest idea.”
It’s a downer because it’s basically a corporate cash-grab move. (Rothman and Gianopulos: “They’ll pay to see this again…twice! Revenues! Hah-hah-hah!”) Because it’s a creatively lazy enterprise for Cameron as it’ll be no great feat to come up with a prequel and a sequel. Because Avatar was a great four-course meal, and I’m not feeling a need to go there again. Because the ending of Avatar was perfect (i.e., the opening of the transformed Jake Sully’s eyes), and I’m thinking “leave it there.”
And because a guy like Cameron committing to a two-movie, four-year rehash project that is primarily about making money (i.e., certainly on 20th Century Fox’s end) is a kind of capitulation to the golden-calf mentality.
Cameron is an adventurer — I get that. And I realize that he’s doing this because the task will be technically challenging and thrilling and draining and fulfilling in a whoo-hoo! sort of way, but what Avatar fan believes that the Avatar world needs to be re-visited two more times? C’mon, be honest.
There are two kinds of money that we enjoy in life — fresh and vibrant money from hard work and inspired enterprise, and rote somnambulent money that comes from some idea or conquering that somebody thought up or accomplished years or decades ago. All real adventurers understand that there’s something vaguely soul-killing about the second kind of money, however plentiful and comforting it may be. Every day God tells all living things that they must find fresh fruit, climb new mountains, and dig into fresh earth. This is the only way to live.
With so many stories happening in the world that he could explore as a director, and with so many tens or hundreds of millions in his bank account, why would Cameron, savoring the last four or five years of his sixth decade and in the creative prime of his life, want to do this?
What would have been the reaction to the idea of a Titanic prequel and sequel? The separate but fated-to-be-interwined adventures of Jack Dawson (kicking around in Paris) and Rose DeWitt Bukater (quietly miserable in English schools), and then a sequel in which Jack’s ghost gives counsel and support to Rose as she makes her way through her 20s and 30s? I’ll tell you what the reaction would have been. People would have jumped off bridges.
If I was Cameron and Fox had told me they’re making a couple of Avatar sequels with or without my participation, I would have agreed to produce — no more than that. This would give me the time and freedom to create the next fresh movie. But no. Cameron has decided to be the Super-Sequel Guy.
Seriously. How much more money does Cameron need anyway? I do agree that he’d do it for the challenge, but I’d love to see him tackle some other genre.
When you have the ability to create your own universe and you do just that, why let all that background material go to waste? I would imagine a contemporary drama set in Paris and London would have Cameron falling asleep before you reached the end of the pitch. He’s a sci-fi geek and a creator of worlds; there are more things in Heaven and Earth than are dreamed of in your philosophy, Jeff.
Thing is, Cameron is absolutely convinced he made one of the greatest films of all time in Avatar. He’s the only person above 14 years old to think that, of course, but I’m convinced he does. So for him, that is a natural artistic progression, to dive deeper in this absolutely amazing world he created.
Sad for me, Cameron superfan, because I thought it was the worst thing he’s directed since Pirahna 2.
Oh, c’mon…that’s not true.
Still can’t figure out why you think these people have some kind obligation to you to only create new, artsy properties. On that note, do we need anymore fat/ugly people rants from you? Seems like a bit of a cash grab.
I’m kidding obviously, but the point stands, we can’t get mad at people for not being what WE want them to be.
He wants his own Star Wars. Cameron’s made some huge films, but his giant ego won’t be satisfied until he’s knocked George Lucas off his perch.
Anyway: Batman 3 title confirmed as “The Dark Knight Rises”. Works for me. Villain won’t be Riddler.
What happened to CLEOPATRA?
It’s not like he’s not doing anything else for five years. Battle Angel and Cleopatra are slated for 2013, right?
The only way this could be interesting is if Cameron engaged in serious world building and showed how bad a shape Earth still is. Avatar 2 doesn’t have the benefit of showing Pandora for the first time, so a totally original standalone, WITHOUT Jake Sully or the characters we already know, would be intriguing. If this is just a return to Pandora (which I assume the humans will return to as well, since one loss in battle won’t curb their hunger for, ahem, unobtanium), then Cameron is no better than Donald Trump with a camera.
We’ll probably see the Navis heading to Earth to teach the humans all about conservation.
“Every day God tells all living things that they must find fresh fruit, climb new mountains, and dig into fresh earth.”
He also says quit harping on about comic book movies.
The Avatar sequel news isn’t a surprise. But I’ll give Cameron the benefit of the doubt, as he made Terminator 2 – a terrific sequel to a film that on first look didn’t need one.
Okay, James Cameron made two great sequels with Terminator 2 and Aliens, so I’ll give him the benefit of the doubt…
Yikes. I was hoping he actually would step out of his comfort zone and direct Cleopatra in between the first Avatar and the inevitable sequel. Now we found out that not only is he going straight to Avatar 2, but there’s going to be TWO more installments? Talk about overkill.
Still trying to figure out how a guy who routinely bangs on Spielberg can so dig a simplistic, condescending piece of shit like “Avatar”.
Sequels.
The Republicans of movies.
I will roll with this if he pushes the performance capture to actually create subtle, emotionally complex characters. The characters in the first film we thunderously cliche, and the emotional content and dialogue were almost infantile, but that may have been a part of the process. If you don’t know if you can do something, start with something simple, and once you’ve achieved a certain amount of success, develop something much much more involved.
Technically speaking, scale and texture and detail have been conquered. Now bring that same level of scrutiny to emotion, story and character. Not sure that this is Cameron’s type of thing though, he’s never been known for creating characters who were all that complex. Ripley is the only one I can think of, and that was building on the work of someone else.
Travis- I agree with your take on Avatar (mostly), but it, at the very least, stuck the landing which is more than one can say for Spielberg since, what, I dunno Last Crusade?
Thing is, Cameron is absolutely convinced he made one of the greatest films of all time in Avatar. …
I think that Josh is on the money.
I thought that Avatar was fine, but that it’s going to be remembered in the same way that The Robe or The Jazz Singer is remembered: an accomplishment for its use of new technology, but ultimately not real interesting on its own merits.
Also, I’m of the opinion that every movie that Cameron has made has been worse than the one before it (with the exception of True Lies, which is terrible on all accounts), so I don’t like the odds of where this ends up.
Anyone who still dismisses Avatar as a “kids” film needs to get over their issues. A sequel would be okay as long as Cameron himself is involved and he is, so I don’t seen any problems there.
Cameron is already stated that at least one of the sequels will deal with Pandora’s oceans, and that he wants to film some of it in extremely deep water, like the Mariannas’ Trench. So at least that movie will let Cameron do what he likes to do best: create new technologies and spend untold shitloads of money (which, admittedly, all goes on the screen).
As for the third one, who knows? Maybe he’s anticipating that by 2015 there will be enough Space X flights to film the damn thing in outer space.
Mocap in SPAAAACCCCE
Cameron hasn’t given any reason to doubt his movie making ability. Who says the sequels will take place solely on Pandora? He probably has a lot of ideas he still wants to explore in this universe he created.
He has never been one to go after the money or sell-out. Maybe this will be a first for him, but at least give him the benefit of the doubt.
It took Cameron 10 years to write the script for Avatar 1 and he’ll spend just a year on Avatar 2 & 3 so I don’t think we can expect much improvement on the characters or the storyline. He said it’ll be underwater so we’ll get to see some piscine creatures and maybe some water-breathing smurfs. it could be quite dazzling but I would have been far more excited to see him recreate Alexandria.
I have a feeling “Avatar” and its sequels are related to James Carmeron, the real-life environmentalist. Cameron was all over the news in his native Canada during September.He flew in and toured Alberta’s controversial tar sands oil project and met with politicians, native leaders, industry representatives and Alberta’s Conservative premier.While watching tv coverage of Cameron’s meetings with concerned First Nations (Indian) people, I kept thinking of the Avatar parallels.
>Oh, c’mon…that’s not true.
Actually, Jeff, I think a pretty decent case can be made for Avatar being his worst film since Piranha II. I don’t agree, because I liked True Lies less than Avatar, but otherwise I’d say the rest of his ouevre is clearly superior — Terminator and Aliens are essentially perfect; the Abyss, despite a problematic third act, achieves the greatest emotional power of anything Cameron has done (the drowning scene); T2 is a master-class in action directing and has a fantastic villain; Titanic lumbers through some awkward scenes but arrives at a moment of transcendent spiritual lift in the conclusion.
Avatar, on a story level, felt competent but boilerplate. Not a bad movie but not up to Cameron’s best standards. Of course, on a technical level, it was formidable, and I suspect it’s the technical challenge of further fleshing out Avatar’s world and refining the motion-capture techniques that most intrigues Cameron at this point. I think that, not unlike Lucas, he gets a buzz from the idea of making movies that change the way movies are made. Only he’s retained his storytelling instincts much better than Lucas has.
And Cameron now says he committed to the sequels because Fox made a “huge” donation to his environmental fund so it’s still about money even if it comes in more PC wrapping.
“I think that, not unlike Lucas, he gets a buzz from the idea of making movies that change the way movies are made.”
He’s not even here! He’s a hologram!
Writing it ten years ago and taking 10 years to write it are two vey different things. The biggest problem with Avatar was that it seems like Cameron dusted off a draft from 10 years ago, got caught up in the tech and then started shooting before he remembered to look at the script. And I say that as someone who loves Avatar. I’d much rather see Battle Angel though than another two Avatar movies. It’s Cameron though, he’ll pull it off.
Have to agree that JC wants his name in the rarified air of George Lucas. Among filmgoers, directors, studios, actors, yeah – he’s at the top and has this certain perception and love-him-or-hate-him but he seems to know what he’s doing aura. But he needs the elevation that Lucas has in the entirety of the public domain. Lucas created another world in a much more massive, world-encompassing fashion. Lucas is a corporate symbol ascending ‘mere’ director/producer. He’s an entity – movies, techniques and technologies, FX, theme parks, TV, books, animation…the total package. JC won’t rest until he’s perceived in this same way.
What depresses me really is how the internet works in situations like this. A year ago when people started seeing footage from Avatar and the snarky talk was calling it Dances with Smurfs and all that foolishment, it became the cool thing for people to bash the film site unseen. Then it comes out and God forbid, people…the actual people who live and work in the real world….didn’t just like the film, they loved it and saw it again and again. The movie made a fortune and that pretty much sealed it’s fate among the hipsters and wanna be movie makers. There were a few people, like Nick Nunziata at CHUD and our very own Jeffery Wells who decided to admit that they liked the film and the hipsters be damned, but it’s become one of those things where the movie made a billion dollars and the blu-ray broke records on the day it was released but to judge the message boards on any given film site, you can’t find a single person who liked the movie. It’s like porn. Everybody watches it, but no one will admit to it. I’m nobody. I’m just a guy who loves film. Not just the IDEA of film or the way a camera moves or the construction of a scene, although I do love it on that level, but I also love the pure emotional rush that a film can inspire. Film can move you if you let it and I admit it: Avatar moved me the first time I saw it. The pure world building that was going on was awe inspiring. Any fool who says that Cameron is a hack is just being idiotic in the hopes that his dumb ass friends will think he’s cool. To call what Cameron did in the making of Avatar the work of a hack is to show a profound ignorance of how films are made. They aren’t made by a single person but rather an army of people…artists…all working towards a single goal. The fact that he wrote the script, went through the R and R to make the cameras and paid for it out of his own pocket, marshalled the talent behind and in front of the camera and gambled his entire reputation on something that every single person in the business NOT involved in the production said would fail is astounding. It’s easy for us to sit in our cubicles at jobs we hate, or in our apartments or to follow the cliche, in our parents basement and say what we would have done or what Cameron should do and how lame he is and giggle as we come up with things like “Dances with Smurfs” or other goofy titles and feel superior to that ‘hack’ Cameron or that ‘hack’ Lucas or that ‘hack’ Spielberg or that ‘hack’ Bay or that ‘hack’ Nolan or that ‘hack’ Snider or anyone of a thousand people the message board masses have decided aren’t as good as WE would be if we were given the chance and two-hundred million dollars. It’s been decided by people with no talent, no credits, no resume to back them up, that Avatar was a shitty film. The hipsters who sit in coffee shops with their mac books writing their tenth script that no one wants to read or buy have decried that James Cameron is soulless and spent creatively and that THEY are writing a screenplay or a novel that is important and says something ‘real’ about life and our place in it. They wear their lack of success as almost a badge of honor….it means they haven’t sold out and their hearts are still pure. When films like Avatar or Inception come along, they say those are movies the eloi masses go and see and they don’t even understand the irony of their own words. If the people who see these films are the eloi, what does that make them? By defintion, they must be the Morlocks. The filthy, ugly, resentful underclass that everyone hates. If you didn’t like Avatar or Inception, that’s fine. That’s your right. All art is subjective. The part I don’t understand is: Why do you have to tear down and belittle what you don’t like? Why do you have to rail against the people who DO like those films? Does it make you feel better to call someone who enjoyed Avatar and had a good time watching it an Avatard? Does it make you feel cooler? Does it make your friends laugh? Greg Berendt said something a couple of years ago that made me laugh and everyday I find it more and more true. He said the internet shouldn’t be called “the internet”, it should be called “Fuck you, you faggot” because it seems like every message board or chat or forum always devolves into that. Jeff keeps it pretty civil in here and that’s one reason I love this place, but most places are just sickening. If you don’t like Avatar, fine. Don’t buy it on dvd or blu-ray. Don’t go see the sequels. No one is making you. No one is holding a gun to your head and demanding you purchase a ticket. Personally I can’t stand Tyler Perry films. I can’t stand Glee on tv. The way I deal with it is remarkably simple: I don’t go see Tyler Perry movies. I don’t watch Glee. What I don’t feel the need to do is go online and berate people who like them. I don’t call them names and insult their family. I don’t watch every new episode of Glee and then get online and go to a Glee fan site and talk about how much tonights show sucked. It seems like people go out of their fucking way to hate something. I have read posts from people that said: I watched Spiderman 3 again last night….god that movie sucks!! Other posts that say: George Lucas should be tied up and stabbed to death for releasing the Star Wars films in 3D. Why? If you hate the movies so bad, why do you own the original trilogy, the special edition trilogy and the dvd’s? Why are you counting the days until the blu-rays come out? so you can rant again about how much you hate Lucas and these movies? That is at least as stupid as anything Lucas has ever done. Next Summer, the same people will line up and watch Transformers 3 and the ONLY reason they will is so they can think up a biting snarky quip on their way home and post it somewhere, probably here. It’s just ludicrus. I’m sorry to be writing a novel here, but sometimes it just seems so depressing to think that the majority of people who claim to “love” movies ever only seem to talk about movies they hate.
Without sequels, Avatar goes away. To cement it in the consciousness of the movie-going public, you need to franchise it. Classics like Star Wars, Godfather, Aliens, Indiana Jones, etc., would have all lost resonance if they never made sequels.
And the sequels still need to be good, see the diminishment of The Matrix, hence Cameron doesn’t want to just hand it off to Fox.
Also, I have no doubt that Cameron wants to post the 5 biggest BO numbers in history before hanging it up.
I liked Avatar, I thought it was one of the most genuinely amazing visual experiences I’ve ever had at a movie. My biggest complaint with it was Cameron’s use of such a worn out story left little room for any kind of surprise — you knew everything that was going to happen. Since the Jake goes native story has already been told, maybe the sequels will offer up something that is more satisfying narratively. Having said that, I wish Cameron was making his movie about free divers instead.
1. This isn’t new information. We knew the likelihood of two sequels months ago. Why the outrage now?
2. And uh…the sequels will be cash cows in ways the first wasn’t? Say wha?
“What depresses me really is how the internet works in situations like this. A year ago when people started seeing footage from Avatar and the snarky talk was calling it Dances with Smurfs and all that foolishment, it became the cool thing for people to bash the film site unseen. Then it comes out and God forbid, people…the actual people who live and work in the real world….didn’t just like the film, they loved it and saw it again and again. The movie made a fortune and that pretty much sealed it’s fate among the hipsters and wanna be movie makers. There were a few people, like Nick Nunziata at CHUD and our very own Jeffery Wells who decided to admit that they liked the film and the hipsters be damned, but it’s become one of those things where the movie made a billion dollars and the blu-ray broke records on the day it was released but to judge the message boards on any given film site, you can’t find a single person who liked the movie. It’s like porn. Everybody watches it, but no one will admit to it. I’m nobody. I’m just a guy who loves film. Not just the IDEA of film or the way a camera moves or the construction of a scene, although I do love it on that level, but I also love the pure emotional rush that a film can inspire. Film can move you if you let it and I admit it: Avatar moved me the first time I saw it. The pure world building that was going on was awe inspiring. Any fool who says that Cameron is a hack is just being idiotic in the hopes that his dumb ass friends will think he’s cool. To call what Cameron did in the making of Avatar the work of a hack is to show a profound ignorance of how films are made. They aren’t made by a single person but rather an army of people…artists…all working towards a single goal. The fact that he wrote the script, went through the R and R to make the cameras and paid for it out of his own pocket, marshalled the talent behind and in front of the camera and gambled his entire reputation on something that every single person in the business NOT involved in the production said would fail is astounding. It’s easy for us to sit in our cubicles at jobs we hate, or in our apartments or to follow the cliche, in our parents basement and say what we would have done or what Cameron should do and how lame he is and giggle as we come up with things like “Dances with Smurfs” or other goofy titles and feel superior to that ‘hack’ Cameron or that ‘hack’ Lucas or that ‘hack’ Spielberg or that ‘hack’ Bay or that ‘hack’ Nolan or that ‘hack’ Snider or anyone of a thousand people the message board masses have decided aren’t as good as WE would be if we were given the chance and two-hundred million dollars. It’s been decided by people with no talent, no credits, no resume to back them up, that Avatar was a shitty film. The hipsters who sit in coffee shops with their mac books writing their tenth script that no one wants to read or buy have decried that James Cameron is soulless and spent creatively and that THEY are writing a screenplay or a novel that is important and says something ‘real’ about life and our place in it. They wear their lack of success as almost a badge of honor….it means they haven’t sold out and their hearts are still pure. When films like Avatar or Inception come along, they say those are movies the eloi masses go and see and they don’t even understand the irony of their own words. If the people who see these films are the eloi, what does that make them? By defintion, they must be the Morlocks. The filthy, ugly, resentful underclass that everyone hates. If you didn’t like Avatar or Inception, that’s fine. That’s your right. All art is subjective. The part I don’t understand is: Why do you have to tear down and belittle what you don’t like? Why do you have to rail against the people who DO like those films? Does it make you feel better to call someone who enjoyed Avatar and had a good time watching it an Avatard? Does it make you feel cooler? Does it make your friends laugh? Greg Berendt said something a couple of years ago that made me laugh and everyday I find it more and more true. He said the internet shouldn’t be called “the internet”, it should be called “Fuck you, you faggot” because it seems like every message board or chat or forum always devolves into that. Jeff keeps it pretty civil in here and that’s one reason I love this place, but most places are just sickening. If you don’t like Avatar, fine. Don’t buy it on dvd or blu-ray. Don’t go see the sequels. No one is making you. No one is holding a gun to your head and demanding you purchase a ticket. Personally I can’t stand Tyler Perry films. I can’t stand Glee on tv. The way I deal with it is remarkably simple: I don’t go see Tyler Perry movies. I don’t watch Glee. What I don’t feel the need to do is go online and berate people who like them. I don’t call them names and insult their family. I don’t watch every new episode of Glee and then get online and go to a Glee fan site and talk about how much tonights show sucked. It seems like people go out of their fucking way to hate something. I have read posts from people that said: I watched Spiderman 3 again last night….god that movie sucks!! Other posts that say: George Lucas should be tied up and stabbed to death for releasing the Star Wars films in 3D. Why? If you hate the movies so bad, why do you own the original trilogy, the special edition trilogy and the dvd’s? Why are you counting the days until the blu-rays come out? so you can rant again about how much you hate Lucas and these movies? That is at least as stupid as anything Lucas has ever done. Next Summer, the same people will line up and watch Transformers 3 and the ONLY reason they will is so they can think up a biting snarky quip on their way home and post it somewhere, probably here. It’s just ludicrus. I’m sorry to be writing a novel here, but sometimes it just seems so depressing to think that the majority of people who claim to “love” movies ever only seem to talk about movies they hate.”
This.
What was the middle thing?
Avatar is remarkably cavalier about human life, clearly considering the aliens “better”. This is, I think, a toxic approach, as there’s almost no way for it not to turn out as “noble savage”. Which is what happens. And if the aliens are better, the humans are made to seem mostly bad, with a few good eggs. But the humans are actually there to SAVE EARTH. They need the unobtanium to survive. What Cameron is saying by denying them that is that humanity isn’t worth saving. Which I personally find repugnant. As a humanist, I really hate when humanity is just written off like that. It pisses me off just as much as the “we’re all poor sinners” crowd who think humanity is fundamentally evil and weak.
“It’s a downer because it’s basically a corporate cash-grab move. ”
And the first one wasn’t one?
“and rote somnambulent money that comes from some idea or conquering that somebody thought up or accomplished years or decades ago. ”
You mean like Harlan Ellison, Kevin Costner, and Don Bluth?
“What would have been the reaction to the idea of a Titanic prequel and sequel?”
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vD4OnHCRd_4
aris: “How much more money does Cameron need anyway?”
Hey, playing dress-up to protest development over land, rather than just buying the land as a preserve, costs money.
Eloi: “but his giant ego won’t be satisfied until he’s knocked George Lucas off his perch.”
If he wants to do that, then the first Avatar will have to gross as much as Episode IV, adjusted for inflation.
Jonathan: “Anyone who still dismisses Avatar as a “kids” film needs to get over their issues. ”
What issues? It’s a fucking remake of Exosquad.
Johnny: “Cameron hasn’t given any reason to doubt his movie making ability. ”
Again, Dark Angel.
“He has never been one to go after the money or sell-out.”
Yes, that’s why he only re-released Avatar in theaters a few months later after it got put on only the first of three editions of DVD/BD.
michael: “you can’t find a single person who liked the movie.”
Maybe ‘cus they never really did like the film, but didn’t want to act like they were stupid enough to buy the hype, so they lied about liking it so they wouldn’t be alone on it?
“The fact that he wrote the script, went through the R and R to make the cameras and paid for it out of his own pocket, marshalled the talent behind and in front of the camera and gambled his entire reputation on something that every single person in the business NOT involved in the production said would fail is astounding. ”
Not really. He had the dough for it, and he wasn’t exactly going for challenging material here. If it was rated R, and no exactly cookie-cutter writing, like Watchmen, then it’d be a risk.
“When films like Avatar or Inception come along, they say those are movies the eloi masses go and see and they don’t even understand the irony of their own words. If the people who see these films are the eloi, what does that make them?”
Actually, Inception was more of a risk than Avatar, even though it was at least guaranteed to make its money back, and even though it was a remake of Paprika.
“Does it make you feel better to call someone who enjoyed Avatar and had a good time watching it an Avatard? Does it make you feel cooler? Does it make your friends laugh?”
No, it just makes me feel like less of a sheep.
“What I don’t feel the need to do is go online and berate people who like them.”
Well, I don’t fault Tyler Perry viewers, ‘cus I understand where they’re comin’ from, given how few choices they have with films targeting them and made by them. And I even respect Glee for getting people into older classic songs, albeit bad covers of ‘em. But Avatar is a different beast entirely. It’s mostly built off the success of people who don’t care about challenging material, which is why the format’s biggest hits this year have been Jack-Ass 3, RE4, and Burton’s Alice. And then they wonder why the rest of the year has had such a crappy line-up. Here’s a hint: you subsidized it.
“George Lucas should be tied up and stabbed to death for releasing the Star Wars films in 3D. Why? If you hate the movies so bad, why do you own the original trilogy, the special edition trilogy and the dvd’s? ”
Well, people own the special editions, because that’s the only way to get the OT. And the reason they hate the idea of SW in 3D is because it defeats the purpose of the original series, which was to actually break FX barriers, not just cash in on the latest fad.
“Next Summer, the same people will line up and watch Transformers 3 and the ONLY reason they will is so they can think up a biting snarky quip on their way home and post it somewhere, probably here.”
I doubt anyone’s gonna line-up for TF3 after the punch-line the second one became, and the fact that even Shia and Megan admit that the movie and its director suck.
Mark: “Classics like Star Wars, Godfather, Aliens, Indiana Jones, etc., would have all lost resonance if they never made sequels.”
That’s such bullshit. By that logic, Apocalypse Now needed a sequel, and More American Graffiti helped the first film’s legacy. No, you do follow-ups when you have the material to make ‘em work.
“which is why the format’s biggest hits this year have been Jack-Ass 3, RE4, and Burton’s Alice.”
Toy Story 3
HTTD
RE4 has only made 60 million here. It’s made most of its money overseas.
“No, you do follow-ups when you have the material to make ‘em work.”
And who’s to say Cameron doesn’t? If The Godfather came out today, everyone would decry the sequel before it would get released
“No, it just makes me feel like less of a sheep.”
You are exactly the person Michael was referring to.
Rashad: Actually, Toy Story did better in 2-d than 3-D. And HTTD was a disappointment which managed to rebound. As for RE4, for a movie which was probably dead by the the third film, especially when you consider Andersuck’s failure with Death Race, that’s actually a pretty high take.
“And who’s to say Cameron doesn’t?”
If it took his ass ten years to come up with Dances with Smurfs, I doubt he’ll have anything new to say in half that time.
“You are exactly the person Michael was referring to.”
Not really. I don’t get off pointing out this stuff. I just point it out because it’s pretty sad that adults bought into the most cynical cash-grab since Pokemon. I mean, if Avatar at least exhibited a sense of effort and personal investment like that “Trip to the Moon” short, then I’d give it a pass. But it’s really lazy for a guy who had all the time in the world to do anything he wanted with it.
On a side-note, I think what bugs me about T2 is how it strip-mined a lot of material from Robocop 2: the rival robot character, the bad cop, the kid who fights with an older female character, the paternalist bond between the robot and the kid, etc.
BlueFugue,
you left Aquaman off your list…
Needless to say it is good news that two James Cameron Avatar sequels are in the pipeline for 2014 and 2015.reduce fat
Any fool who says that Cameron is a hack is just being idiotic in the hopes that his dumb ass friends will think he’s cool. To call what Cameron did in the making of Avatar the work of a hack is to show a profound ignorance of how films are made. They aren’t made by a single person but rather an army of people…artists…all working towards a single goal. The fact that he wrote the script, went through the R and R to make the cameras and paid for it out of his own pocket, marshalled the talent behind and in front of the camera and gambled his entire reputation on something that every single person in the business NOT involved in the production said would fail is astounding. It’s easy for us to sit in our cubicles at jobs we hate, or in our apartments or to follow the cliche, in our parents basement and say what we would have done or what Cameron should do and how lame he is and giggle as we come up with things like “Dances with Smurfs” or other goofy titles and feel superior to that ‘hack’ Cameron or that ‘hack’ Lucas or that ‘hack’ Spielberg or that ‘hack’ Bay or that ‘hack’ Nolan or that ‘hack’ Snider or anyone of a thousand people the message board masses have decided aren’t as good as WE would be if we were given the chance and two-hundred million dollars.
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Personally i love avatar, i just cannot get my mind off the sequel, i think it will be better then thye original one plumber long beach | plumber raleigh