If you’ve been following the entertainment industry for the past few years or at most 2 decades, then theirs is one man whose name dominated the box office: James Cameron. The Canadian born director has made many hits over the years and has gotten some of Hollywood’s biggest names involved with his movies, including Arnold Schwarzenegger for the killer T800 robot assassin in Terminator and Leonardo DiCaprio as the master of flight and apparently drowning in frigid waters, Jack Dawson.
Cameron’s movies have included Terminator and Titanic, the latter became a box office smash and became the highest grossing film of all time. Cameron, being the less than humble narcissist ass of a human being that he is, referred to himself as being the “King of The World” in an Oscar acceptance speech, a reference to a line uttered by DiCaprio’s character in the film, although with 14 Oscar nominations for that film alone, can you blame him?
The 1997 hit wouldn’t find itself sinking for many years to come, however this all changed 12 years later with the release of his film Avatar in 2009. Then, Titanic would become the shadow of Avatar in as the 2nd highest grossing film of all time. So, for over 22 years, James Cameron Dominated the top spot at the box office, but he would later find himself stepping aside from that in 2019 when Avengers: Endgame surpassed both, with a surprisingly humble response from Cameron on Twitter, congratulating the directors and the teams at Disney and Marvel Studios, saying this:
“An iceberg sank the real Titanic. It took the Avengers to sink my Titanic,” He wrote, going on to say: “Everyone here at Lightstorm Entertainment salutes your amazing achievement.”
When Endgame toppled Avatar, everyone seemed to expect Cameron to have something petty to say in response, and he remained surprisingly Calm, although this is perhaps because of the fact that he has confidence in the sequel to Avatar which is set for release in December of 2021. So, what’s so good about Avatar? Well, no one really seems to know.
Part of it was likely the Sci-Fi aspect of things, as this was the same guy who brought us the Austrian Cyberdyne head-hunter drone, the Terminator, and the with all the money that he made with Titanic, it was likely going to have a big budget. And it did.
So, besides having a fat wallet along with a dual citizenship and home in New Zealand, James Cameron has 2 more Avatar films planned, but the problem is that it maybe hard to get people hyped after waiting 12 years to make a sequel. Obviously, people will likely point out that Star Wars went without making movies for long gaps between trilogies, but the reason why Star Wars did so well after many years of hiatuses is because it managed to stay both culturally relevant and it also had done 3 movies at a time before going on the long hiatuses I referred to, which is plenty of time to get us acquainted to the characters and emotionally involved with them. One movie doesn’t often do that, although Titanic did, but that’s because Titanic was based on true events, whereas Avatar is a complete fantasy that has blue cat people and honestly, despite it being the highest grossing film of all time up until Endgame, can you even name a single character from it? If it was so iconic and popular then I’m damn sure someone besides the people involved with the movie know the characters, because if I walked up to you right now and asked you to name at least two of the Avengers, chances are you’d have no problem with that. Avatar on the other hand? No.
So my challenge is without Googling the answer, write down the name of a character from Avatar, and give me the piece of paper, along with the names of the main core members of the Avengers, or at least 4 out of the 6, and I will do whatever topic you want to suggest in next week’s article. I’m a man of my word, and if you want to take me up on this offer, text (204) 730-8733.
In all seriousness though, Avatar 2 may seem promising until you get back to the reality of the situation. It’s got a forgettable line of characters and an egotistical nut directing it who holds a grudge like Thanos holds an Infinity Stone.
I don’t see it doing all that well, but there is promise in at least one area. Actress Zoe Saldana is slated to play a role in the sequel, as she was in the first, and she also appeared in the Guardians of the Galaxy movies as well as both Avengers: Infinity War and Endgame, with her star power being a powerful magnet to sci-fi fans, especially those who are wanting a change from seeing her as a green alien to go as a blue one.
If James Cameron does manage to get more big stars, he could do well in that sense, but it takes more than just a star studded cast to make a good movie, and with some of the bad terminator sequels, he should know that a little creativity goes a long way, not just depending on a guy who yells “CHOPPA” and “I’ll be back” and most notably: “I’m Arnold Schwarzenegger and you’re watching the Job Terminator, otherwise known as the Celebrity Apprentice.” (That last one isn’t one of his quotes, but looking back, it seems like a missed opportunity for them to use that as a slogan.)
So, I guess we’ll just have to see how this one plays out.