Chrisicisms: Don't roll your eyes at 'Avatar 2' just yet
Never underestimate James Cameron.
Dances with Smurfs. The live-action Ferngully remake. I remember all the jokes hurled at Avatar when its first trailer debuted in 2009.
It was a joke, right? James Cameron, who at the time hadn’t made a feature film since the Oscar-winning box office behemoth Titanic in 1997, spent untold hundreds of millions of dollars and developed brand-new technology to create what looked like a living cartoon, a folk tale mixed with sci-fi that seemed to reek of self-importance. Surely the self-declared “King of the World” was heading for a major disaster.
Everyone ridiculed Avatar; even South Park poked fun at it with an episode that aired a month before the film’s release. And, of course, Cameron had the last laugh. Avatar debuted in December 2009 and stunned audiences with its ravishing imagery.
There’s an entire generation of filmgoers that missed Avatar and, 13 years after its release, find it hard to believe that the 3-hour movie about blue aliens could have been remotely popular. But it was. It was huge. It spent seven weeks as the top-grossing movie in the United States (which is dwarfed by Titanic’s unfathomable 14 consecutive weeks, but still unthinkable these days, especially for a movie not based on pre-existing IP). It was nominated for nine Academy Awards, including best picture and best director. It was the highest-grossing film in the world for a decade, when it was briefly surpassed by Avengers: Endgame, only for a re-release in China to push it back on top again. And sure, the MCU is popular, but did people suffer depression because they couldn’t hang out with Tony Stark? Avatar was an event; there’s a reason Disney spent a fortune to re-create Pandora at one of its theme parks.
I thought about that this week as the trailer for Avatar: The Way of Water was released (yes, I broke my resolution for this one). After more than a decade of Cameron promising that a sequel was on its way, there was finally proof that it exists. And the result seems to be, at least based on my Facebook and Twitter feeds, a collective shrug.
And I kind of get it. Avatar is a film that many people likely haven’t revisited consistently over the years, and it’s legitimately difficult to tell how much of the footage is new and how much is from the first film (I believe it’s all new footage). There’s no shocking cameo, plot twist or character return to hang its hat on; there’s only sparse voiceover and not much of a hint of the plot. It features Na’vi, banshees, jungles and water. It’s all on brand, but hinges on familiar images, far removed from our Easter Egg-craving fan bases. I’ve heard some say it looks like Disney may have a massive flop on its hands, and that Cameron overestimated audiences’ fondness for the material.
I say don’t roll your eyes just yet.
Like I said, this is the same reaction that greeted Avatar upon its release. And even that’s not the first time Cameron faced this kind of skepticism. I’m old enough to remember when Titanic was predicted to be an all-time fiasco that would ruin Cameron’s career and bankrupt 20th Century Fox. It was too expensive, starred two leads who weren’t box office draws, had a contentious shoot, and was too long and depressing to hold audience interest. And to this day, I have never seen a film that was as much of a phenomenon as Titanic was. Going to see it (which I did, three times) was a cultural event, and even those who still like to poo-poo it as overrated are, to put it bluntly, wrong. Titanic is big, sweeping, populist filmmaking, the rare film designed to earn the raves “you’ll laugh, you’ll cry.” Even The Avengers can’t boast that film’s emotional impact.
The simple rule is to never underestimate James Cameron, a filmmaker who repeatedly takes big bets that seem destined to fail and more often than not, pulls them off. Centering a scrappy sci-fi thriller on a weightlifter with a near-indecipherable accent? Pulling off a sequel to Alien that promised to be bigger, meaner and scarier than Ridley Scott’s original? Returning to The Terminator universe for a sequel that was, at the time, the most expensive movie ever made without the cushion of a PG-13 rating? Building a sweeping love story amidst an historic tragedy and trusting the audiences will show up for its mix of disaster movie and teen romance? Cameron knows what people want; he knows how to deliver it, and it’s best not to bet against him. Even his one box office disappointment, The Abyss, has a fervent cult following.
And I know people will counter with the argument that Avatar has left very little of a pop culture footprint. I know that argument; I once had an email read on the Filmcast podcast arguing that Sister Act had more of a cultural impact than Avatar. And it’s true, Avatar hasn’t spawned the spinoffs, novels, TV shows, merchandise and other ancillary artifacts that Star Wars and Marvel has. People aren’t quoting it. I had to look up who the main protagonist was (Jake Sully, played by Sam Worthington).
But it doesn’t have zero cultural impact. In fact, Avatar is hugely popular in international markets; just look at the numbers that rerelease in China did. And while I don’t see kids dressing up as Na’vi for Halloween or anticipate a Disney+ spinoff anytime soon, the World of Pandora at Walt Disney World has been very popular, proving that there’s still appeal to the world Cameron created.
Avatar is that rarest of things in our days of franchises and streaming spinoffs: a movie first and foremost. Seeing Avatar was an experience; there was nothing like it. The motion-capture is still unparalleled, and the 3D and Imax experience is still one of the best I’ve ever seen (eclipsed maybe only by Gravity, another film I don’t think about a lot but that I would jump at the chance to see again). Cameron created a world that was tactical, lush and inviting; people returned to Avatar not because of the emotion of its story (which, let’s be honest, is extremely derivative) or the depth of its characters. They went because, for three hours, Cameron transported them to a world that could only exist and be properly experienced on the biggest, loudest screen.
Do people watch Avatar on Disney+? I’m not sure; like most streamers, it doesn’t release viewership numbers. I know that my son’s asked about it; he’s aware that it exists. And I’m willing to bet that when Disney re-releases the original film into theaters this September, an entire new generation will marvel at what Cameron created, and anticipation will be huge for the sequel. That’s also likely why the trailer was met with a “meh.” First off, there isn’t a ton to go on. And while some were able to see it in front of Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness, many saw it for the first time on their laptop or (sigh) mobile phone. Which, of course, is far from the optimal way to experience this.
And I could be wrong. Maybe the moviegoing experience has been altered enough since 2009 that people don’t want an experience not based around Easter eggs, popular IP, and twists. Maybe Avatar: The Way of Water will be gigantic failure. But I don’t think so. I think there are people out there who will suddenly find themselves interested in chasing that experience on Pandora again, and even many of the naysayers will go out of morbid curiosity. Again, don’t bet against James Cameron. He tends to win.