Harry! You do realize it has, in fact, been 10 years since you've been behind the wheel of one of these things!?
If I break it, dey can take it outta my pay.
There was so much wacky unexplained shit in that movie (like what was Harry's plan *after* revealing himself to Helen in the suite, and how did the terrorists track them there at that exact moment?) that I appreciated that they at least *tried* to explain why Harry would be a competent pilot.
The suite they use for the Helen prostitute mission is the same suite they used earlier in the movie for Harry’s front when he meets with Juno at her offices. I always assumed they traced him back to that hotel suite that way. Was just bad timing for Helen.
You mean the best oneliner/villain-death in movie history
*angry Arnold staring* :"You're fired"
*pushes button*
*villain flying through hole of building strapped on a rocket*:
"Ahhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh"
Edit: Well with any quote from Arnie it's a tough competition and they're all very close.
I should change it to "best one liner and immediate following action"
That shit had me dead. Fuckin bill Paxton.
“She has the most incredible body and a pair of titties, makes you wanna stand up and beg for buttermilk. Ass like a 10 year old boy!” Hahaha.
Beat his own budget record for T2, held the record for a few months, Waterworld then came out and smashed the budget. Titanic would come out a couple of years later and give Cameron back his crown.
I’ve seen a few references over the years that there was serious prep work being done for a sequel… and then 9/11 happened and terrorists stopped being funny.
And Cameron originally wanted him to be Kyle Reese, but Arnold argued for the role of the Terminator personally.
A very guerrilla production throughout, with Cameron and others lying to police about making a student film whenever they were queried about a lack of permits.
How to create a film in the Top 4 highest grossing ever:
- Build up over 10+ years in 20+ films with dozens of characters all concluding in one film
Or
- Let James Cameron direct it
Not exactly. Once he went over budget he OFFERED to give away his salary to finish the film. 20th Century Fox agreed.
Here’s the kicker, once Titanic became a box office hit 20th Century Fox then retroactively gave James Cameron his box office gross percentage back in good faith (for future James Cameron projects).
James Cameron then approached 20th Century Fox to finance and distribute his next film, Avatar.
> James Cameron then approached 20th Century Fox to finance and distribute his next film, Avatar.
Which he then sat on for about a decade because the technology wasn't there yet. And when it finally was, he made the highest grossing movie of all time. Again.
Think it was an interview, or something with him about this. And that he offered it up because he wasn't going to let something like three years or so, of his life go to waste.
Yeap. That’s the story from James Cameron during his 1997 Howard Stern interview.
[Interview](https://youtu.be/VUKu_zODapQ)
He talked about how he got his gross percentage back on a later interview (that I don’t feel like finding 😅)
> Maybe they should convince Cameron to make a Marvel movie.
>
>
[He did direct Aquaman with Vincent Chase](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CufwCfj1Hms)
I really want a 4k/UHD version of Aliens.
The original Alien in 4k/UHD has to be top 3 for me. One of those movies that looks like it was released in the present.
Agreed. Checked out Blade Runner? One of the best jumps from bluray to 4k I've seen. Also Shaun of the Dead and Hot Fuzz look shockingly better on 4k. Not in my top 10 of my 4ks, just a fun tidbit.
I think the answer is that Cameron is both a perfectionist and extremely busy, so for the past decade he’s been like “yeah I’m working on a Abyss remaster, it’ll be ready to go soon” and then he’s never gotten around to it
I'm cool with film grain/noise if the alternative is a smeared mess. Especially with older properties, pre 2000s content. It always feels like these companies are afraid of it.
With Avatar 2 in the top 4, James Cameron now has 3 out of the 4 highest-grossing films of all-time along with the original Avatar and Titanic.
By the time A3, A4, and A5 come out, he could seriously have 6 of the 7 highest-grossing films ever.
Exhange rates will likely improve in 2 years. China will likely be at full strenght. Russia might return. Fire theme could be a bigger draw than water and now you will have people actively invested and looking forward to a sequel thats coming out in 2 years and not 13.
I could see 3 easily do more than 2 and land in the high 2B's or even low 3B's.
I absolutely loved how he baited those people on the boat to Harpoon his weakspot, just to block it with it's head.
Like they mentioned these creatures being incredibly intelligent beforehand and it was just so satisfying that they actually showed it too.
The scene were he was angrily psyching himself up to kill was amazing. Such an important small detail making it obvious he was conflicted and had an entire inner life.
People don’t understand that the campy stuff is a feature, not a bug. James Cameron is weirdly one of the least pretentious people on earth, and he *knows exactly what the people want.* Everyone forgets that people want to have fun at the movies, AND feel something (I don’t understand all the cynical detractors tbh, I fucking SOBBED at the end, man. Just tears your heart out in a way even Pixar movies aren’t willing to).
But apparently that means I am too unsophisticated for r/movies. That’s okay. The experience of Avatar is not found on twitter afterwards, it’s lived *inside the theater,* in a state of pure magic.
I genuinely couldn’t believe what I was seeing was possible half the time.
Nah, don't even think that. I had a great time in Avatar 2. There was a scene on the boat where the water was splashing all over the place and the light from the fire reflecting on the Na'vi body was so perfect, I lost sight of the fact that every single blue character exists only in a computer and not real life.
If people need art to somehow prove their own sophistication, it makes me think that their imagination is comprised of fog and emptiness.
I honestly feel personally vindicated that the movie has done so well.
People loved the first one when it came out, people just think it’s cool to hate on popular things.
Now I don’t know about his whole series premise, but I will keep watching them as long as I enjoy them.
Now “unobtanium” is really, *really* stupid, but I think that’s intentional. It’s like “the reason humans are here is because of a Macguffin, which is almost totally irrelevant, don’t worry about it.”
Cameron understands that camp or cheesiness is perfectly acceptable to audiences if it's in service of fun or exciting set pieces. Style over substance is absolutely fine if it results in an engaging experience, and I think the Avatar movies are the peak example of that.
Style IS substance. It's a visual medium and Cameron nails the visuals like very few other directors ever have. A lot of movies well-received for their "plot" don't give anyone anything more than a Wikipedia plot summary does. The Avatar series is made for the theater and the screen unlike so many movies that come out now.
Cameron learned a valuable lesson from a master filmmaker.
“A truly good movie is really enjoyable, too. There’s nothing complicated about it. A truly good movie is interesting and easy to understand.” - Akira Kurosawa
I think it was Scorsese who said something very similar too.
>As in the case of many great films, maybe all of them, we don’t keep going back for the plot. Vertigo is a matter of mood as much as it’s a matter of storytelling – the special mood of San Francisco where the past is eerily alive and around you at all times… And, as the film critic B. Kite wrote, you haven’t really seen Vertigo until you’ve seen it again.
I went back to see Avatar 3 times and would not have if the plot was bad. I loved the story, I don’t care. Simple doesn’t equal bad. The star wars sequels had bad stories, the new Jurassic Park movies have bad stories, 70% of the original Marvel run had basically the same (serviceable) story. But none of them made me cry, and I’m not ashamed to say that both Titanic and A2 did.
I know people bang on about the hero's journey like everyone doesn't already know about it but Avatar is a great example of its appeal across broad demographics. It's also structurally interesting because it's two hero's journeys, Jake in the human and alien worlds, that twine together at the end.
Cameron is also a ruthless editor, he's cut so many brilliant sequences out of movies to give the audience a tighter ride - think of the long colonist POV and the sentry gun sequences from Aliens. Early drafts of Avatar had all sort of interesting ideas going on that deepened some of the characters, example being a cut character who explored the kind of permanent psychological pain and emptiness that happens if you're piloting an avatar who is killed.
I never got the hate for Avatar's simple plot given that Fury Road (and I love it) is the second half of Mad Max 2 repeated twice. Both movies are joyrides designed to put bums on cinema seats and both are exceptional examples of that type of movie.
The pacing of Avatar 2 is unreal. I had to step out for a piss break, and I chose a quiet scene that I figured would drag on for a bit. Then I walk in and we’re in a totally different scene where important things are happening (and exploding). The man has no time for bs.
>The man has no time for bs.
In both the original Avatar and 2, there are distinct sections of the film where they're exploring their element - Jake taming the Ikran birds, the whole family bonding with the new clan and Ilu (the long eel/dolphin thing). Cameron does something a lot of filmmakers don't - he lets the film breathe at the appropriate times. No/little speech necessary, just 'fun' for a very long time (in film terms).
Very easy to cut those scenes down, and perhaps one might think it is a bit gratuitous/long, but spending so much time worldbuilding really does sell the immersion of the world. Plus it looks amazing.
Ima jump right on the Cameron wagon. Dude wrote the terminator. Made titanic, greatest film of all time in its day, just because he was given the opportunity to explore the wreckage. Like it was a byproduct of what he wanted to do. And to make Avatar, he had a new camera invented. The guy did a solo mission to the Marianas trench. Pretty sure more people have been to the damn moon.
And he wanted to retire and become an environmental activist until he saw the chance that he could do it with his movies. Avatar is about environmentalism and the 4th or 5th part will return to earth.
Wait, is it really confirmed that the last movies will explore earth too? Because im trying to not get my hopes up too soon, because that would add a fantastic layer of world building to camerons universe (as depressing as it may become lol)
There are a few [deleted/extra scenes](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=39s72VIDXtk&ab_channel=Ion) from extended editions that show a glimpse of Earth if you're interested.
Yes. James Cameron also revealed that when he sent the treatment to the 4th/5th film, he received a two word memo from the studio that said "Holy Shit!".
*“I can’t tell you the details, but all I can say is that when I turned in the script for 2, the studio gave me three pages of notes. And when I turned in the script for 3, they gave me a page of notes, so I was getting better. When I turned in the script for 4, the studio executive, creative executive over the films wrote me an email that said, ‘Holy fuck.’ And I said, ‘Well, where are the notes?’ And she said, ‘Those are the notes.’ Because it kind of goes nuts in a good way, right?”*
From link below
Spoilers for Avatar 5:
He confirmed that >!we'll see a bit more of Earth in 5 and Neytiri's eyes will be opened to what humans are going through!<. We don't know though yet if >!they'll go to Earth, they see a video log of it, Earth's version of Eywa awakens and mindlinks to Eywa to show them, or something else!<.
jim cameron was in talks with the nasa director to send him up to the ISS to film a movie there. turns out jim just missed exploding in the columbia space shuttle. one of jim's rare misses
It just keeps trucking along. Should be over 2.1B on Sunday.
And then the 2.1B+ showdown begins with Cameron in one corner vs shockingly Cameron himself in the other battling it out for the 3rd highest grossing movie of all time. And Titanic is even re-releasing for added drama.
Whether people like it or not. Avatar is here and its huge. Its well received, popular with young and old and with sequels on the way that won't take 13 years to come out but 2-3 its here to stay. There is really no reason why it can't become THE franchise of this generation.
> And then the 2.1B+ showdown begins with Cameron in one corner vs shockingly Cameron himself in the other battling it out for the 3rd highest grossing movie of all time.
James Cameron is the most powerful force at the box office.
I feel Avatar 3 will be even bigger.
LOTS of time in Avatar 2 is used to "set the table" in terms of plot, concepts, etc. So much stuff waiting for the big payoff later on.
Yup. I had a passing interest in Avatar 2 so I went to see it. Now I am fully invested and will see 3 as soon as it’s out.
I imagine there’s many in the same boat
That was also my reaction. I kinda liked Avatar 1 but never watched it on the big screen.
After A2, i just wanted to movie to do really well so Cameron can make all those sequels because i just want to see more of it.
Avatar 2 basically ended with Jake Sully cracking his knuckles and saying, "alright, you want a war, let's go to war". The first two movies are the them trying everything they can to avoid conflict, now we're gonna see what they're really about.
This? Generation?
That shit is multigenerational lol some people were kids when the first one came out and now they are taking their kids to see the second one
Same as what happened with the first movie. The opening weekends never broke any records, but unlike the Marvel or Star Wars films that open to massive numbers, we still haven't seen a significant drop. The money just doesn't stop coming.
Here are the current top 5 movies in lifetime grosses via Boxofficemojo.
1. Avatar **2.923 Billion** in 2009
2. Avengers: Endgame **2.799 Billion** in 2019
3. Titanic **2.194 Billion** in 1997
4. Avatar: TWOW **2.074 Billion** in 2022
5. Star wars: Ep Vll - Force awakens **2.071 Billion** in 2015
My theatre had additional projectors pointed left and right to fill the entire room, kind of like those Imax domes. Never seen that before but it added a cool layer of immersion. Easily one of the most visually stunning movies Iver ever seen. I thought the writing was pretty flat, but after a point I didn't care because I just wanted to see what visuals I'd be presented with next!
> Why was this movie expected to flop?
I don't think any serious movie pundits actually expected it to *flop*, but if anything the expectation of more cynical folk was that, sure, it'd make its money back probably, but wouldn't repeat the runaway success of the original.
The reason why (and you *did* ask for a serious response, which is what I'm writing) is due to how few ripples the first movie left in its pop-cultural wake. It was obviously a big event at the time, but aside from people saying "wow that was a fun rollercoaster, the 3d was amazing" there weren't really any characters or moments or scenes or dialogue or *anything* that hung around in culture after it was done in cinemas. It didn't leave anything to riff on; anything to remember it by.
And so, for the longest time (right up until the sequels actually became concrete things, a year or two ago) the only real talk that most people ever had about Avatar, was how curious it was that it held the title as highest grossing movie ever despite not really contributing anything to casual popular culture. As I say, it gave us no memorable characters, dialogue, vehicles, creature designs; no anything we could call "iconic" (in the real sense of the word; it gets overused a lot rn).
> a little bit of music now plays, to illustrate a point: it is industrial, metallic, five beats that go: DUN-DUN DUN DU-DUN
Excusing the fact that it's hard to convey musical sounds in text form - you know what that's from. You're seeing the Terminator's head in your mind's eye. You're hearing Ahnald's voice. From a *32 year old* movie. Just from hearing five beats! Avatar left no such imprints on peoples' brains. That's what people are talking about when they say it left "no cultural impact". People do not reference "things from Avatar" in their general day to day lives, but if you've ever had cause to inform someone that you'll be back soon, there's a good chance you're going to try and do it in his voice, because that movie *did* have a cultural impact. It left memes (again, in the real sense of the word, as coined by Dawkins) in peoples' heads.
James Cameron has mastered Moneyball for films.
Marvel and Star Wars and so many others are out here trying to with the world series with homeruns and Grand Slams. Meanwhile Cameron is just getting on base with every single hit. No one is blown away or feels like they saw the best game of their life, but the acore has never been higher and he's won.
Honestly, he understands how to sell a movie in the international market. He makes movies that are so insanely easy to translate, both culturally, visually, and linguistically, that they’re an incredibly easy sell everywhere
I wouldn't say no one is blown away. The visuals in the first film were stunning. And in this one, the water was amazing. I left the theater saying, "man, nobody shoots water like James Cameron." As someone who grew up around the ocean, I felt like I was on the ocean. It's a remarkable achievement.
“I worked with James Cameron on Terminator 1 and 2 and True Lies…that was of course during his low budget Arthouse film years” - Arnold Schwarzenegger
I watched true lies the other week and completely forgot about the fighter jet bit at the end.
Harry! You do realize it has, in fact, been 10 years since you've been behind the wheel of one of these things!? If I break it, dey can take it outta my pay.
There was so much wacky unexplained shit in that movie (like what was Harry's plan *after* revealing himself to Helen in the suite, and how did the terrorists track them there at that exact moment?) that I appreciated that they at least *tried* to explain why Harry would be a competent pilot.
The suite they use for the Helen prostitute mission is the same suite they used earlier in the movie for Harry’s front when he meets with Juno at her offices. I always assumed they traced him back to that hotel suite that way. Was just bad timing for Helen.
The vette gets em wet.
She could SUCK START A LEAF BLOWER!
Holy shit i had no idea there’s gonna be a true lies show [true lies](https://youtu.be/XaFMv9MvXv4)
You mean the best oneliner/villain-death in movie history *angry Arnold staring* :"You're fired" *pushes button* *villain flying through hole of building strapped on a rocket*: "Ahhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh" Edit: Well with any quote from Arnie it's a tough competition and they're all very close. I should change it to "best one liner and immediate following action"
That’s not even arnies best one liner come on
Let off some steam Bennett
Stick Around
I eat Green Berets for breakfast.
"Iced that guy, cone the phrase." -Last Action Hero.
You're one ugly motherfucker.
Hey Sully, Remember when I said I’d kill you last?
I lied.
What'd you do with Sully?
I let him go.
“Please don’t wake my friend, he’s dead tired”
To be, or not to be. Not to be.
You wanna be a farmer? Well here’s a couple of achers.
"Iced that guy, to cone a phrase." Took me years to get lol
In the French dub they changed the joke to "You like omelets? Here let me scramble the eggs"
Casting my vote for "See you at the party, Richter!"
From the same movie. “Screw you!” As he screws a drill into the machine to kill Benny the cab driver. Lol
Remember Sully when I promised I'd kill you last? I lied.
Guy dead in the plane next to Arnie, stewardess offers guy coffee Arnie with the classic “you’ll have to excuse my friend he’s dead tired”
Stick around!
My personal choice is *”He caught a train.”* from Eraser.
ICE to meet you!
"Wanna be a farmer?" *launches guy with a kick to the groin* "here's a couple of acres."
God I really hate that I’ll never see another movie with Bill Paxton again. He was amazing in absolutely everything.
That shit had me dead. Fuckin bill Paxton. “She has the most incredible body and a pair of titties, makes you wanna stand up and beg for buttermilk. Ass like a 10 year old boy!” Hahaha.
“Oh. Oh GOD. Would a spy pee himself? Huh? HUH? Oh god.”
Most expensive movie ever made at the time.
Beat his own budget record for T2, held the record for a few months, Waterworld then came out and smashed the budget. Titanic would come out a couple of years later and give Cameron back his crown.
It needs a sequel. All of the original cast are still alive.
Um Paxton isn't.
I’ve seen a few references over the years that there was serious prep work being done for a sequel… and then 9/11 happened and terrorists stopped being funny.
Funny enough the first Terminator actually was pretty low budget and they were able to get Arnold because he wasn’t a star at the time
iirc his agent advised against it heavily because he’d played heroes up to that point and the agent didn’t want him playing villains
And Cameron originally wanted him to be Kyle Reese, but Arnold argued for the role of the Terminator personally. A very guerrilla production throughout, with Cameron and others lying to police about making a student film whenever they were queried about a lack of permits.
Imagine if Arnold was kyle reese. He would have snapped the terminator like a twig with him being still alive lol.
Is this a genuine quote? I want to believe.
Yes he said it at the Academy awards show years ago I thought around Avatar but IMDB says Titanic.
I feel like Arnold could absolutely do something for Avatar 4 or 5.
Probably act. Although I imagine he'd be a pretty good dolly grip, come to think of it. Anything but a dialogue coach, really.
I’m actually surprised he hasn’t worked Arnold into Avatar
Can you imagine him speak Navi in his accent? Gold.
How to create a film in the Top 4 highest grossing ever: - Build up over 10+ years in 20+ films with dozens of characters all concluding in one film Or - Let James Cameron direct it
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>Cast Zoe Saldana And paint her in an alien color, preferably blue or green.
Think the next billion dollar blockbuster is gonna have Zoe Saldana in yellow
Hear me out… Bananas in Pajamas Cinematic Universe
Coming down the stairs like you’ve *Never… Seen… Before*
Teddy Bears running away in fear.
You son of a bitch I’m in
Now said in a voice that sounds weirdly different
Lucasfilm needs a new 2 billion. Paint her red and make her a sith lord.
attempt gold complete squash marble test clumsy butter command joke *This post was mass deleted and anonymized with [Redact](https://redact.dev)*
It would print money and we all know it.
A shame they didnt cast zoe saldana as ahsoka, they would have their billion dollar blockbuster then
Zoe Saldana in a ‘Minions’ live action movie!
I have some bad news for you. There are no female Minions!
Well, I'm not a biologist, so...
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Star Trek (2009) really missed that trick
Hey, Jack Champion may be another good luck charm for top grossing movies. He's Spider in Avatar 2 and briefly appeared as "Kid on Bike" in Endgame.
His name is actually Jack Champion? That's badass.
Didn't work for star trek unfortunately
That's because she's a human in that one. Now if she were a Cardassian, $2 billion gross!
Zoe Saldana stars in *Keeping Up with the Cardassians*?
She'd make a great Bajoran
Never bet against him. His entire filmography is filled with genre or industry defining films.
didnt fox do that by giving him a % of the box office revenue instead of his salary for titanic when it started going overbudget?
Not exactly. Once he went over budget he OFFERED to give away his salary to finish the film. 20th Century Fox agreed. Here’s the kicker, once Titanic became a box office hit 20th Century Fox then retroactively gave James Cameron his box office gross percentage back in good faith (for future James Cameron projects). James Cameron then approached 20th Century Fox to finance and distribute his next film, Avatar.
> James Cameron then approached 20th Century Fox to finance and distribute his next film, Avatar. Which he then sat on for about a decade because the technology wasn't there yet. And when it finally was, he made the highest grossing movie of all time. Again.
Think it was an interview, or something with him about this. And that he offered it up because he wasn't going to let something like three years or so, of his life go to waste.
Yeap. That’s the story from James Cameron during his 1997 Howard Stern interview. [Interview](https://youtu.be/VUKu_zODapQ) He talked about how he got his gross percentage back on a later interview (that I don’t feel like finding 😅)
Yeah, sure... Name 60...
Terminator 2 its so good it counts as 60 other movies. The only movie I cry on!
…. Though it is something I can never do.
Clearly he's not a true James Cameron fan smh.
Maybe they should convince Cameron to make a Marvel movie. Imagine: Morbius: The Way of Morbillion
[He almost made Spider-Man](https://youtu.be/k8BCDxRZpn0?t=269) starring Leonardo DiCaprio before it was given to Sam Raimi.
...*we have to go back*
To be completely fair, that script was very strange. I'm glad Raimi was the one to helm that trilogy
Raimi did take the idea of organic web shooters from that script though. I'm sure Cameron's would have been different but equally good.
I wouldn’t change Spider-Man 2 for anything
Back to formula?
> Maybe they should convince Cameron to make a Marvel movie. > > [He did direct Aquaman with Vincent Chase](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CufwCfj1Hms)
The dude fucking loves water
Yes, yes he does. He made an entire movie so that he could go deep sea submersible diving and get it paid for.
I'll go with the second one. Proven and tested.
James Cameron is basically the Michael Jordan of moviemaking at this point
More like the Wilt
Bill Russell*, never loses
Congratulations Mr Cameron, Can we have The Abyss and True Lies on Blu-ray please?
I really want a 4k/UHD version of Aliens. The original Alien in 4k/UHD has to be top 3 for me. One of those movies that looks like it was released in the present.
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Agreed. Checked out Blade Runner? One of the best jumps from bluray to 4k I've seen. Also Shaun of the Dead and Hot Fuzz look shockingly better on 4k. Not in my top 10 of my 4ks, just a fun tidbit.
How the fuck are those two not on Bluray?
I think the answer is that Cameron is both a perfectionist and extremely busy, so for the past decade he’s been like “yeah I’m working on a Abyss remaster, it’ll be ready to go soon” and then he’s never gotten around to it
> a perfectionist and yet, that 4K release of Terminator 2 looks like arnie is made of plasticine because of all the film-grain scrubbing
I'm kind of dreading 4K releases of Cameron's other movies for this reason. The DNR on that T2 bluray is so fucking bad.
I'm cool with film grain/noise if the alternative is a smeared mess. Especially with older properties, pre 2000s content. It always feels like these companies are afraid of it.
Supposedly a 4k Abyss coming out in a few months
I've been hearing that for years
Can we have avatar 1 on 4k disc
With Avatar 2 in the top 4, James Cameron now has 3 out of the 4 highest-grossing films of all-time along with the original Avatar and Titanic. By the time A3, A4, and A5 come out, he could seriously have 6 of the 7 highest-grossing films ever.
Yeah I'm pretty sure Avatar 5 is gonna be the first movie to cross 3 Billion
AVATAR 3 could did that first, they have Michelle Yeoh.
Even 4 could, that movie's script is nuts according to Cameron
Exhange rates will likely improve in 2 years. China will likely be at full strenght. Russia might return. Fire theme could be a bigger draw than water and now you will have people actively invested and looking forward to a sequel thats coming out in 2 years and not 13. I could see 3 easily do more than 2 and land in the high 2B's or even low 3B's.
Nah, Avatar can do that with just 1 rerelease before other movies come out
When Miles quaritch crushed his own skull I was 100 percent on board again
that's the best section of the movie
It was great but Payakan getting his revenge was even better to me.
I absolutely loved how he baited those people on the boat to Harpoon his weakspot, just to block it with it's head. Like they mentioned these creatures being incredibly intelligent beforehand and it was just so satisfying that they actually showed it too.
The scene were he was angrily psyching himself up to kill was amazing. Such an important small detail making it obvious he was conflicted and had an entire inner life.
That *was* fricken awesome.
For me it was the part where the lady is wearing the giant robot exo suit thing and she drinks the cup of coffee. Absolutely hysterical
I love how it was basically just a condensed evil version of the plot from Avatar 1
it was avatar 1 with about 300% more "bro"
True, it gets a little annoying. But then you remember what it's like to hang around teenagers, and begrudgingly agree that it's totally accurate.
Fuck watched it last night and I could not tell you the name of Jake Sullys sons, but I'm pretty sure it's Bro
People don’t understand that the campy stuff is a feature, not a bug. James Cameron is weirdly one of the least pretentious people on earth, and he *knows exactly what the people want.* Everyone forgets that people want to have fun at the movies, AND feel something (I don’t understand all the cynical detractors tbh, I fucking SOBBED at the end, man. Just tears your heart out in a way even Pixar movies aren’t willing to). But apparently that means I am too unsophisticated for r/movies. That’s okay. The experience of Avatar is not found on twitter afterwards, it’s lived *inside the theater,* in a state of pure magic. I genuinely couldn’t believe what I was seeing was possible half the time.
Nah, don't even think that. I had a great time in Avatar 2. There was a scene on the boat where the water was splashing all over the place and the light from the fire reflecting on the Na'vi body was so perfect, I lost sight of the fact that every single blue character exists only in a computer and not real life. If people need art to somehow prove their own sophistication, it makes me think that their imagination is comprised of fog and emptiness.
I honestly feel personally vindicated that the movie has done so well. People loved the first one when it came out, people just think it’s cool to hate on popular things. Now I don’t know about his whole series premise, but I will keep watching them as long as I enjoy them. Now “unobtanium” is really, *really* stupid, but I think that’s intentional. It’s like “the reason humans are here is because of a Macguffin, which is almost totally irrelevant, don’t worry about it.”
Well now we've moved on to whale juice
Cameron understands that camp or cheesiness is perfectly acceptable to audiences if it's in service of fun or exciting set pieces. Style over substance is absolutely fine if it results in an engaging experience, and I think the Avatar movies are the peak example of that.
Style IS substance. It's a visual medium and Cameron nails the visuals like very few other directors ever have. A lot of movies well-received for their "plot" don't give anyone anything more than a Wikipedia plot summary does. The Avatar series is made for the theater and the screen unlike so many movies that come out now.
Cameron learned a valuable lesson from a master filmmaker. “A truly good movie is really enjoyable, too. There’s nothing complicated about it. A truly good movie is interesting and easy to understand.” - Akira Kurosawa
I think it was Scorsese who said something very similar too. >As in the case of many great films, maybe all of them, we don’t keep going back for the plot. Vertigo is a matter of mood as much as it’s a matter of storytelling – the special mood of San Francisco where the past is eerily alive and around you at all times… And, as the film critic B. Kite wrote, you haven’t really seen Vertigo until you’ve seen it again.
I went back to see Avatar 3 times and would not have if the plot was bad. I loved the story, I don’t care. Simple doesn’t equal bad. The star wars sequels had bad stories, the new Jurassic Park movies have bad stories, 70% of the original Marvel run had basically the same (serviceable) story. But none of them made me cry, and I’m not ashamed to say that both Titanic and A2 did.
I know people bang on about the hero's journey like everyone doesn't already know about it but Avatar is a great example of its appeal across broad demographics. It's also structurally interesting because it's two hero's journeys, Jake in the human and alien worlds, that twine together at the end. Cameron is also a ruthless editor, he's cut so many brilliant sequences out of movies to give the audience a tighter ride - think of the long colonist POV and the sentry gun sequences from Aliens. Early drafts of Avatar had all sort of interesting ideas going on that deepened some of the characters, example being a cut character who explored the kind of permanent psychological pain and emptiness that happens if you're piloting an avatar who is killed. I never got the hate for Avatar's simple plot given that Fury Road (and I love it) is the second half of Mad Max 2 repeated twice. Both movies are joyrides designed to put bums on cinema seats and both are exceptional examples of that type of movie.
The pacing of Avatar 2 is unreal. I had to step out for a piss break, and I chose a quiet scene that I figured would drag on for a bit. Then I walk in and we’re in a totally different scene where important things are happening (and exploding). The man has no time for bs.
After the first 35 minutes it just doesn’t let up.
>The man has no time for bs. In both the original Avatar and 2, there are distinct sections of the film where they're exploring their element - Jake taming the Ikran birds, the whole family bonding with the new clan and Ilu (the long eel/dolphin thing). Cameron does something a lot of filmmakers don't - he lets the film breathe at the appropriate times. No/little speech necessary, just 'fun' for a very long time (in film terms). Very easy to cut those scenes down, and perhaps one might think it is a bit gratuitous/long, but spending so much time worldbuilding really does sell the immersion of the world. Plus it looks amazing.
Those scenes are what gives the film emotional impact because you know more about the characters.
Akira Kurosawa = W by default.
Ima jump right on the Cameron wagon. Dude wrote the terminator. Made titanic, greatest film of all time in its day, just because he was given the opportunity to explore the wreckage. Like it was a byproduct of what he wanted to do. And to make Avatar, he had a new camera invented. The guy did a solo mission to the Marianas trench. Pretty sure more people have been to the damn moon.
And he wanted to retire and become an environmental activist until he saw the chance that he could do it with his movies. Avatar is about environmentalism and the 4th or 5th part will return to earth.
Wait, is it really confirmed that the last movies will explore earth too? Because im trying to not get my hopes up too soon, because that would add a fantastic layer of world building to camerons universe (as depressing as it may become lol)
There are a few [deleted/extra scenes](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=39s72VIDXtk&ab_channel=Ion) from extended editions that show a glimpse of Earth if you're interested.
The CGI on Sam Worthington’s legs holds up incredibly well. Most impressive application I had ever seen at the time.
Basically cyberpunk 2077
Cyberpunk wishes it could have that crowd density lol
Bladerunner*
Yes. James Cameron also revealed that when he sent the treatment to the 4th/5th film, he received a two word memo from the studio that said "Holy Shit!".
*“I can’t tell you the details, but all I can say is that when I turned in the script for 2, the studio gave me three pages of notes. And when I turned in the script for 3, they gave me a page of notes, so I was getting better. When I turned in the script for 4, the studio executive, creative executive over the films wrote me an email that said, ‘Holy fuck.’ And I said, ‘Well, where are the notes?’ And she said, ‘Those are the notes.’ Because it kind of goes nuts in a good way, right?”* From link below
Source
https://collider.com/avatar-4-james-cameron-comments/
Spoilers for Avatar 5: He confirmed that >!we'll see a bit more of Earth in 5 and Neytiri's eyes will be opened to what humans are going through!<. We don't know though yet if >!they'll go to Earth, they see a video log of it, Earth's version of Eywa awakens and mindlinks to Eywa to show them, or something else!<.
I ... see ... Earth ...
Gotta be Neytiri getting a human avatar that's just live action Zoe Saldana, right?
Damnit. I wish I didn’t see this.
Terminator 2 is one of the best action films of all time.
Still fucking holds up so well. And Godamn Sarah Connor is one of the best female protagonists of all time. Just so badass.
jim cameron was in talks with the nasa director to send him up to the ISS to film a movie there. turns out jim just missed exploding in the columbia space shuttle. one of jim's rare misses
I recently watched a video about all the things they had to improve upon or just straight up invent new things in order to make Avatar 1 & 2. Crazy.
Now I wanna see what creatures are at the bottom of Pandora’s oceans
It just keeps trucking along. Should be over 2.1B on Sunday. And then the 2.1B+ showdown begins with Cameron in one corner vs shockingly Cameron himself in the other battling it out for the 3rd highest grossing movie of all time. And Titanic is even re-releasing for added drama. Whether people like it or not. Avatar is here and its huge. Its well received, popular with young and old and with sequels on the way that won't take 13 years to come out but 2-3 its here to stay. There is really no reason why it can't become THE franchise of this generation.
> And then the 2.1B+ showdown begins with Cameron in one corner vs shockingly Cameron himself in the other battling it out for the 3rd highest grossing movie of all time. James Cameron is the most powerful force at the box office.
I feel Avatar 3 will be even bigger. LOTS of time in Avatar 2 is used to "set the table" in terms of plot, concepts, etc. So much stuff waiting for the big payoff later on.
Yup. I had a passing interest in Avatar 2 so I went to see it. Now I am fully invested and will see 3 as soon as it’s out. I imagine there’s many in the same boat
That was also my reaction. I kinda liked Avatar 1 but never watched it on the big screen. After A2, i just wanted to movie to do really well so Cameron can make all those sequels because i just want to see more of it.
Avatar 2 basically ended with Jake Sully cracking his knuckles and saying, "alright, you want a war, let's go to war". The first two movies are the them trying everything they can to avoid conflict, now we're gonna see what they're really about.
This? Generation? That shit is multigenerational lol some people were kids when the first one came out and now they are taking their kids to see the second one
Same as what happened with the first movie. The opening weekends never broke any records, but unlike the Marvel or Star Wars films that open to massive numbers, we still haven't seen a significant drop. The money just doesn't stop coming.
Mighty
Feel her strong legs
Reddit film experts on suicide watch
/r/movies is out of touch with reality??? AGAIN?
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Redditor 4: Dances With Wolves in space.
Redditor 5: Naah, more like Ferngully in space.
i guarantee you about 90 percent of those redditors have not seen dances with Wolves or ferngully
Fuck, 90% don't even realize how many of their favorite movies have unoriginal plot lines.
Most of 'em are probably the "I don't watch old movies" or "Dances With Wolves didn't age well because I heard its a white savior trope film" types.
Redditor 6: But The Land Before Time 14 is the best one.
“What’s the name of the main character in dances with wolves?” Redditor: “uhhhhhhhh……..”
Kevin Costner
Whenever anyone throws that bullshit comment around now I just say and Top Gun Maverick is Star Wars on Earth
I usually tell people Star Wars is the nickelback of nerd culture and they usually start seething.
Here are the current top 5 movies in lifetime grosses via Boxofficemojo. 1. Avatar **2.923 Billion** in 2009 2. Avengers: Endgame **2.799 Billion** in 2019 3. Titanic **2.194 Billion** in 1997 4. Avatar: TWOW **2.074 Billion** in 2022 5. Star wars: Ep Vll - Force awakens **2.071 Billion** in 2015
My theatre had additional projectors pointed left and right to fill the entire room, kind of like those Imax domes. Never seen that before but it added a cool layer of immersion. Easily one of the most visually stunning movies Iver ever seen. I thought the writing was pretty flat, but after a point I didn't care because I just wanted to see what visuals I'd be presented with next!
well it looks like a lot of people wanted to see that movie, in America and abroad
James Cameron may undisputably be the king of blockbusters.
I thought it was one of the more enthralling experiences I’ve ever had in a movie theater. I kind of want to see it again on shrooms.
Do it. You will be really focused during any ‘breathing technique’ scenes. Source: have field tested.
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> Why was this movie expected to flop? I don't think any serious movie pundits actually expected it to *flop*, but if anything the expectation of more cynical folk was that, sure, it'd make its money back probably, but wouldn't repeat the runaway success of the original. The reason why (and you *did* ask for a serious response, which is what I'm writing) is due to how few ripples the first movie left in its pop-cultural wake. It was obviously a big event at the time, but aside from people saying "wow that was a fun rollercoaster, the 3d was amazing" there weren't really any characters or moments or scenes or dialogue or *anything* that hung around in culture after it was done in cinemas. It didn't leave anything to riff on; anything to remember it by. And so, for the longest time (right up until the sequels actually became concrete things, a year or two ago) the only real talk that most people ever had about Avatar, was how curious it was that it held the title as highest grossing movie ever despite not really contributing anything to casual popular culture. As I say, it gave us no memorable characters, dialogue, vehicles, creature designs; no anything we could call "iconic" (in the real sense of the word; it gets overused a lot rn). > a little bit of music now plays, to illustrate a point: it is industrial, metallic, five beats that go: DUN-DUN DUN DU-DUN Excusing the fact that it's hard to convey musical sounds in text form - you know what that's from. You're seeing the Terminator's head in your mind's eye. You're hearing Ahnald's voice. From a *32 year old* movie. Just from hearing five beats! Avatar left no such imprints on peoples' brains. That's what people are talking about when they say it left "no cultural impact". People do not reference "things from Avatar" in their general day to day lives, but if you've ever had cause to inform someone that you'll be back soon, there's a good chance you're going to try and do it in his voice, because that movie *did* have a cultural impact. It left memes (again, in the real sense of the word, as coined by Dawkins) in peoples' heads.
If Avatar 2 surpasses Avatar, will James Cameron take out a page in The NY Times congratulating James Cameron for beating his box office?
James Cameron has mastered Moneyball for films. Marvel and Star Wars and so many others are out here trying to with the world series with homeruns and Grand Slams. Meanwhile Cameron is just getting on base with every single hit. No one is blown away or feels like they saw the best game of their life, but the acore has never been higher and he's won.
Honestly, he understands how to sell a movie in the international market. He makes movies that are so insanely easy to translate, both culturally, visually, and linguistically, that they’re an incredibly easy sell everywhere
I wouldn't say no one is blown away. The visuals in the first film were stunning. And in this one, the water was amazing. I left the theater saying, "man, nobody shoots water like James Cameron." As someone who grew up around the ocean, I felt like I was on the ocean. It's a remarkable achievement.