In between stepping on a deserved landmine about feminism and over-promising a return to greatness for his signature series, James Cameron has apparently been spending the past eight years honing his talents for not one, nor two, but FOUR sequels to his CGI Dances with Wolves property. Granted, Avatar is somehow the highest grossing worldwide film but the demand for these additional sequels is ... what’s the opposite of palpable?
The Dissolve had a great piece back in the day about the disposable nature of Avatar and it’s legacy only a few years after its release. For such a huge movie-going experience, no one talks about Avatar except for the promised forthcoming sequels. Have you seen any Avatar cosplay recently? Any Halloween costumes since Obama was elected a second time? Avatar is currently at its nadir of pop-culture relevance.
And yet, we still supposedly have four ... more ... sequels coming sometime in the next five years.
But Jim Cameron, as much as I love your earlier work including the good Terminator films and Aliens, I could not give less of a damn about any more Avatar movies. To this day, I still have not seen the first ... and I plan on sticking to that.
In the meantime, Terminator is changing hands (again) to producers who promise a return to form (again) albeit with you in the producer’s chair to steer the ship. While I am over the substandard Terminator films we’ve gotten since 2003, that is a franchise that has remained in the public conscience, even if the stories have long since run out.
But what about your existing projects? The Abyss has not had a proper video release in the past 17 years (although one is rumored to be coming). One of my favorite of yours, True Lies, hasn’t even gotten that much attention. Clearly, you are a hands-on guy with video releases and making sure they are on-par with your original vision. So, can you divert some resources to these?
Given the creative talent you have, how about tackling a new property or unleashing some new technological breakthrough like you did with Avatar’s 3D? Instead of going back to the same boring well of white men saving inter-dimensional species, surely there is another story or genre that you can lend your abilities to.
At the very least, I guarantee that Avatar 2, 3, 4, or 5 will not match the box-office gross or the cultural impact of the original. So please James, free yourself. Team up with Arnold again and knock our socks off. I bet it will be more fulfilling in the long run other than the Scrooge McDuck-style vault of money you undoubtedly have.
Love,
Puck
Comments
Post a Comment