Fox, James Cameron Announce 'Avatar 2,' 'Avatar 3'

[AsburySkinsFan]

I think Cameron has earned more than a little trust.

I totally agree, Cameron is not one to do things half way, and as someone stated earlier he is one of the few directors that produces sequels that are better than the originals, I honestly hope that continues with Avatar. I think one big positive is that this isn't due until 4 years from now, I would be very much worried if they were planning a release next summer...that would have sent me hiding.

[Homercles82]

Not to mention Xameil that Star Wars is just a Western, and it's not like the plot for A New Hope was extremely deep either. I think one of the main reasons that most people don't like Avatar is because of the message that Cameron tells in the story, although I will be the first to admit that recycling the Dances with Wolves script might not have been the best idea.

I dislike Cameron but have loved a lot of his movies. I went into Avatar hoping for a fun actions movie but left wishing half the dialogue was cut from the movie and the action was left in place. My friends and I were rooting for the Marines when they were attacking the Navi at the end of the movie.

[Pick6]

I did not see the first pile of **** and won't waste my time with the other two. How about making another Hurt Locker movie? There is quality and then there is crap used to speak down to the average American to make money.

[AsburySkinsFan]

I did not see the first pile of **** and won't waste my time with the other two.

So you didn't see the first one and yet you have a very strong and well defined opinion regarding it? That's some wonderful objectivity you have there.

[DjTj]

Not to mention Xameil that Star Wars is just a Western, and it's not like the plot for A New Hope was extremely deep either. I think one of the main reasons that most people don't like Avatar is because of the message that Cameron tells in the story, although I will be the first to admit that recycling the Dances with Wolves script might not have been the best idea.

I don't know why "Dances with Wolves in space" is such a big criticism. Dances with Wolves was a good movie. I think Avatar would have actually been better if it were more like Dances with Wolves (i.e. if there were a little more depth to the main character).

I dislike Cameron but have loved a lot of his movies. I went into Avatar hoping for a fun actions movie but left wishing half the dialogue was cut from the movie and the action was left in place. My friends and I were rooting for the Marines when they were attacking the Navi at the end of the movie.

This seems like an odd criticism. I thought the action was actually very good. For a large scale aerial battle, the dragon/helicopter/flying mountain scenes were about as good as anything in any action movie. And the 3D really did enhance those scenes.

I thought Avatar was a very solid movie. The effects were incredible, the plot moved along at a brisk pace, and at the end of the day I was entertained. There wasn't anything really deep or emotionally moving about it, but it was fun to watch - I think people expect too much. I am not sure that a sequel will be all that great, but I'd probably go see it.

[WVUforREDSKINS]

My friends and I were rooting for the Marines when they were attacking the Navi at the end of the movie.

Any good American would be

[Zguy28]

Not to mention Xameil that Star Wars is just a Western, and it's not like the plot for A New Hope was extremely deep either. I think one of the main reasons that most people don't like Avatar is because of the message that Cameron tells in the story, although I will be the first to admit that recycling the Dances with Wolves script might not have been the best idea.

I never really thought about Dances with Wolves (makes sense now). I thought it reminded me of Disney's Pocahontas.

[AsburySkinsFan]

I don't know why "Dances with Wolves in space" is such a big criticism. Dances with Wolves was a good movie. I think Avatar would have actually been better if it were more like Dances with Wolves (i.e. if there were a little more depth to the main character).

I agree DwW was a good movie, the criticism comes in because Avatar was such a blatant recycling of the script; remember though I loved the movie but I can even see where Cameron went wrong with the script. With that said, if you asked me how the script should have gone I'd just have to shrug...but then I'm not a Hollywood script writer.

I thought Avatar was a very solid movie. The effects were incredible, the plot moved along at a brisk pace, and at the end of the day I was entertained. There wasn't anything really deep or emotionally moving about it, but it was fun to watch - I think people expect too much. I am not sure that a sequel will be all that great, but I'd probably go see it.

Agreed.

[Homercles82]

This seems like an odd criticism. I thought the action was actually very good. For a large scale aerial battle, the dragon/helicopter/flying mountain scenes were about as good as anything in any action movie. And the 3D really did enhance those scenes.

I thought Avatar was a very solid movie. The effects were incredible, the plot moved along at a brisk pace, and at the end of the day I was entertained. There wasn't anything really deep or emotionally moving about it, but it was fun to watch - I think people expect too much. I am not sure that a sequel will be all that great, but I'd probably go see it.

Well, maybe I don't know what I am trying to say. I do know that afterwards I wanted my $15 back.

[RichmondRedskin88]

The movie was freakin awesome!!

[AsburySkinsFan]

For those knocking the creativity of the script, do you also see any creativity in the script?

For me it's the use the the actual Avatars, something I think we tend to forget as we watch the movie.

[Bang]

That's what it is. The Predators come to Pandora to hunt Aliens and Earth sends Terminators to take out the blue folks. They all meet in the floating mountains for a battle royal.

Now THAT would be cool.

I can't figure out how they're going to plausibly continue the story.

The original is self contained, and going beond this story with these characters would seem to be to be a bit trite.

The only way I can see is to remove the corporation or earthlings altogether, focus on some other threat that is not from off-world.

Another avatar based spy would be too repetitive.

~Bang

[DjTj]

Now THAT would be cool.

I can't figure out how they're going to plausibly continue the story.

The original is self contained, and going beond this story with these characters would seem to be to be a bit trite.

The only way I can see is to remove the corporation or earthlings altogether, focus on some other threat that is not from off-world.

~Bang

I think what might actually be good is to have prequels. I think there is some fertile ground in the backstory of the Sigourney Weaver character - why she was there in the first place, how she developed the Avatars, the shifting politics between the humans and the Na'vi.

Go back to when humans first discovered Pandora, where the first expedition crashes on the planet, almost gets wiped out by 6-legged panthers, and Sigourney Weaver is the only survivor who is saved by the Na'vi. And then the third movie could be like "Aliens," where they first start mining operations, really piss off the Na'vi by blowing up the wrong tree, and then have to survive an all-out attack before backup can arrive.

[Springfield]

I didn't really post in this thread other than the OP.

I liked Avatar. It was a quality movie that pushed 3D to the forefront. Now we have all sorts of imitators out there. Every new 3D movie wants to be an "Avatar killer", nobody has yet to top Avatar. It definitely deserves a sequel. James Cameron doesn't make bad movies, so I believe that the next two Avatar movies will be good and even more groundbreaking than the first. The fact that Cameron is taking his time on this means that it doesn't seem like it will be rushed.

I'm hopeful.

[HighOnHendrix]

James Cameron made Terminator 2, and Aliens, both amazing sequels that are considered better than their predecessors

Not only was T2 not better than the first one, The Abyss was a better Cameron movie. Same effects, better story etc., etc. Remember that all those films were made around 20 to 25 years ago when he was still a hungry young director with relatively limited resources and lots of studio oversight. Now he has enough clout to have free reign to run amok. Call it the 'George Lucas effect'. The parallels are uncanny.

[Homercles82]

Not only was T2 not better than the first one, The Abyss was a better Cameron movie. Same effects, better story etc., etc. Remember that all those films were made around 20 to 25 years ago when he was still a hungry young director with relatively limited resources and lots of studio oversight. Now he has enough clout to have free reign to run amok. Call it the 'George Lucas effect'. The parallels are uncanny.

If you were to ask me I would say The Abyss is his best work. And your George Lucas comparison is very true.

[AsburySkinsFan]

Not only was T2 not better than the first one, The Abyss was a better Cameron movie. Same effects, better story etc., etc. Remember that all those films were made around 20 to 25 years ago when he was still a hungry young director with relatively limited resources and lots of studio oversight. Now he has enough clout to have free reign to run amok. Call it the 'George Lucas effect'. The parallels are uncanny.

I don't see it as much "reign to run amok", instead I see it more as George Lucas and James Cameron have earned the credibility for the studios to trust their artistry. The thing about artistry though is that not everyone is going to appreciate the art.

That being said, Jar-jar Binks is not art.

[nonniey]

Problem is that Avatar wasn't really that good a movie, while the examples you cite were. Avatar was fun to watch the first time, gets little stale the second time, shear boredom the 3rd time. So we're all having trouble seeing how he can create viable sequels from such a weak foundation.

[thebluefood]

Yeah...I'll be skipping this one.

[Spanky22]

I think Cameron has earned more than a little trust.

That said, I hope its not like the Wachowski sequels to the Matrix.

The Matrix and its awful sequels were my first thought as well. You know the thought process behind that was "damn, that first movie really made a TON of money. Think we should make a couple more? I bet people will pay to see it because it has the same title and characters!" I bet this idea came about the same way.

/thought Avatar was entertaining and fun, but not a great movie

[mjah]

Hopefully they'll call the sequel "Avatars," and instead of lifting the Pocahontas/Dances With Wolves storyline, they'll have several Avatar-based heroes instead.

That way they can lift the "Three Amigos" storyline instead. Totally different film.

Unrelated note: I'm one of the (apparently) few people who found the first Matrix film to be a largely uninteresting rehash of moldy ideas with a very shallow but seductive visual-effect twist -- much like Avatar turned out to be. And not in the standard "every movie rehashes old ideas" style, either. It was an aggregator of poorly glued-together sci-fi notions and semi-philosophy, plus a bolt-on love story literally in the last five minutes of the film. Oddly, I ended up identifying strongly with Neo as it wrapped up: confronted with the fact that the messy pile of plot was about to get (ostensibly) untangled and resolved due to some Huey Lewis style "power of love" magic, I wanted to just calmly hold my hand up to the screen and mutter, "...No."

Great looking movie, though. As a 15-minute trailer of special effects, it would have been spectacular. At least Avatar didn't take itself quite so seriously... it was content to be summer spectacle without striving for any additional, unattainable importance.

[China]

3D porn film beats Avatar's record in Hong Kong Hong

James Cameron's Avatar was a highlight for the 3D film industry, but it was missing something...

Sex. That's what Hong Kong's latest three-dimensional flick, 3D Sex and Zen: Extreme Ecstasy, brings to the table. In its first day, it brought in 2.79 million Hong Kong dollars, or roughly around $360,000. Meanwhile, as the Hollywood Reporter pointed out, Avatar's opening day only grossed HK$2.5 million.

[Dan T.]

Am I the only person on the planet who has not seen Avatar?

[MattFancy]

Am I the only person on the planet who has not seen Avatar?

Not really missing anything. Sure the visuals in 3D were done really well. But he story line was far from good or even original. If you've seen Pocahontas, then you've seen Avatar.

[thebluefood]

Am I the only person on the planet who has not seen Avatar?

High on visuals, criminally low on story.