Troy Stiffler

The SNL sketch is still great 10 years later.

I am still looking forward to these. Sometimes gestating ideas about specific moments can yield great results.

Draven

Yikes, they are still working on this? You know what movie I never hear anything about these days? Avatar. Five sequels with dates? Ok James Cameron

Maybe put out True Lies digitally in your downtime.

Why So Blu?

I do like when folks dog out Avatar by saying that it's not popular. Every time someone says that, guess what, it IS popular. People can't stop talking about it even in a negative light.

GoldenJCJ

You would have thought that somewhere in the last 6 months of quarantine, when all productions were shut down, Cameron could have found a few hours for someone to send him a copy for his approval.

Draven

I think it’s a rare film franchise that warrants five sequels. Avatar is not one of those.

Maybe make one sequel and see if the public cares?

Why So Blu?

They/they'll care. They cared enough to make the first film the biggest film of all time. Folks just want to save face that they liked it but wasn't "original." It's fine but it amuses me how people "hate" the film so much they can't just stop talking about it.

Troy Stiffler

I've loved every James Cameron film to some degree. I personally think he's geared up for delivering his defining work. Like Peter Jackson and the Lord of the Rings movies.

DJariya

I think some people say they don't care about Avatar because of the amount of time that's already passed since the 1st movie.

12 years will have passed since the 1st movie when this does come out. And the pop culture landscape changes so damn much.

I admit, I'm not excited for this like I would be for an MCU movie. But Cameron is one of the most talented filmmakers of our generation, even though he's spent too much time on Avatar, and I think he will deliver a solid movie. Whether it even warranted 4 sequels, that's another story.

Draven

I was pretty adamant after seeing Avatar in the theater that it was okay at best. I wasn’t even impressed with the 3D. It has only aged poorly in my opinion.

And it’s so far out of the pop culture landscape that I cannot believe there is desire for FIVE sequels to a glorified tech demo.

Koby

I'm down for 4 more. Avatar was the first film that made me make the jump to Blu-ray discs and is still one of my favorite films aesthetically of the past two decades.

rennervision

I remember before Terminator 2 had come out there was a lot of publicity about the movie's budget and whether it would be able to recoup its costs. While filming The Abyss, Cameron got a lot of negative press about how the movie was over budget and going to flop. (It didn't.) Then when he was making Titanic he again got a lot of negative press about the then-unheard of budget and how it was going to be a financial disaster. (After which he laughed all the way to the bank.) I can't keep falling for the same joke over and over. This time, no matter how tempting it is to pile on, for once I'm going to say I have faith he knows what he's doing.

Michael Corvin

It's four sequels and you sure do post a lot in here for not giving a shit. I thought I quoted 3 different people getting the number wrong until I went to edit the posts.

This guy gets it. Four.

Avatar was gorgeous, the 3D was decent enough when it came out, and it's a fun enough movie. We watched it again sometime last year. It holds up just fine. When it first came out the "Pocahontas" ripoff bothered me but it's easy to overlook after seeing it a few times.

I've been finishing my basement/theater this year and I've been wondering what movie we should queue up first. Fifth Element and Wonder Woman came to mind, but cranking up Avatar with the new speakers might not be a bad choice either.

Alan Smithee

Not a big fan of Avatar but hope the sequels do well enough for TV manufacturers to bring back 3D and add high frame rate to it also. Then make copies of them available without packaging it with equipment, which made the first one hard to get.

Jay G.

The problem is that UHD Blu-ray doesn't include 3D in its spec, and Blu-ray 3D only allows 24fps for 1080p content.

There's been a retail release of Avatar since 2012

milo bloom

How many people can name the characters off the top of their head?
How many memes do images from Avatar get used in?
On the fanfiction sites, how many stories does it have?

Culturally, it's dead as a doorknob.

Michael Corvin

Jake Sully, Neyteri and Grace. Can't recall the dorky dude's name, the General or Michelle Rodriguez's character.


I'd argue the daily (pre-Covid) 3 hour waits for Avatar Flight of Passage in Disney World begs to differ.

Jay G.

Guys, it worked! We found the one person still emotionally invested in Avatar!

Alan Smithee

That's why I'm hoping Avatar 2 does well enough to change that. Cameron wanted glasses-free 3D in theaters for it also, but I'll be surprised if that happens.

Michael Corvin

Just watched it last year before going to Disney World.

Troy Stiffler

Question for older guys on here: did people still care about Terminator before T2? I remember JC saying he wasn’t too excited about making another but the execs recommended it and that’s where it started.

What really matters is that his movies usually end up being amazingly entertaining. The buzz starts there and people watch. I remember Titanic having a respectable but not ground breaking opening.

Jay G.

The only reason why studio execs ever recommend a sequel is because they think a sequel will make a boatload of cash.

I was a kid when T2 was release, and there was a massive amount of hype around Arnold reprising his iconic role. There's a reason "I'll be back" became Arnold's catchphrase that he used in many other movies, not just the Terminator series.

If T2 had never come out, The Terminator would still be up there with the great 80s action films, including other Arnold films like Predator and Commando. I think it embedded itself into the cultural consciousness far more than Avatar has managed to.

This was the teaser released a year before the movie, using basically nothing but the Terminator endoskeleton, Arnold, and his catchprase to sell the film:

Hell, a year before was the trailer for Kindergarten Cop. Note the trailer music at the beginning and the narrator calling Arnold "fearless, unstoppable."

Josh-da-man

Yeah, from what I recall back then, The Terminator was a pretty popular movie. One one hand, it was definitely a cult/sci-fi hit. And on the other hand, it was the movie that made Arnold into a superstar. (Moreso than Conan the Barbarian did.)

On a popularity scale, I'd put it behind Alien, but ahead of Robocop and Predator.

It was also a big enough deal to have been licensed by two independent comic book publishers before T2 was released... Now Comics in 1988, and Dark Horse in 1990. (Dark Horse was, at the time, also home to Aliens and Predator.)

I agree about Avatar not feeling like a cultural touchstone... these days there are so many franchises out there that Avatar, with only a single movie (and a ride at one of the big theme parks, I believe) just doesn't seem to have the cultural cachet that other franchises like others do.

I really can't say what the Avatar sequel(s) will do. It wouldn't surprise me if they fizzled at the box office, but I also wouldn't be shocked if they were big hits. Audiences can be really mercurial these days.

bluetoast

This will be the first movie to utilize de-aging technology on actors to match footage shot from earlier in the production cycle

Michael Corvin

A co-worker asked me out of the blue today if Avatar 2 was a real thing. Said he saw a news blurb last night somewhere.

OldBoy

Does anyone seriously care about these anymore? Sure, it was a one time phenomenon and what I thought was the best 3D theatrical viewing I ever had, hands down (and great movie, at time imo). And regular ole Real 3D, no imax or anything, but that was over 10 years ago. The movie I think diminishes on repeat viewings (and the Blu-ray 3D is certainly not same as the theatrical experience, very good and real and not conversion, but not the same. I usually think home 3D is better experiences for me) and not really interested and not sure people gonna remember the blue people from 2009. Sam Worthington, where’d he go? Just imo...