Pandora or bust: is James Cameron wasting the rest of his career on ‘Avatar’?
As South Park famously said, James Cameron doesn’t do what James Cameron does for James Cameron. James Cameron does what James Cameron does because James Cameron is James Cameron. It’s repetitious, sure, but it also explains why he’s unlikely to direct another movie that isn’t an Avatar sequel.
For one thing, he’s probably not going to have the time. There was a 13-year gap between the first and second instalments, and while the third is scheduled to hit cinemas in December 2025, that’s hardly a guarantee when The Way of Water ended up releasing eight years after its originally-announced 2014 bow. There’s a fourth entry pencilled in for December 2029, and if everything goes according to plan, Cameron will be 75 years old by then.
Obviously, there’s no age limit on directing, but that’s based solely on the next two Avatar flicks hitting their intended targets, never mind the fact the first two arrived years later than initially touted, and the filmmaker has repeatedly teased there could be fifth, sixth, and seventh chapters to come. Nobody can argue with the franchise’s success from a box office perspective, but is it really the best use of his time?
The expansive sci-fi saga has pushed the boundaries of cinematic technology, with Cameron developing multiple techniques in order to realise his vision. It’s been the theme of his career dating right back to The Abyss, which he carried on through Terminator 2: Judgement Day, True Lies to a lesser extent, and Titanic, but returning to the same sandbox in perpetuity for the remainder of his days seems like a waste.
Ticket sales would disagree, but there’s been a debate raging for a decade and a half as to whether Avatar even has a cultural footprint. The films are released and deliver one of the most staggeringly immersive experiences that can be had in a theatre, and then that’s it. Of course, plenty of people see them multiple times, but beyond the initial eye-popping sense of wonder and awe, is Avatar or The Way of Water really spoken about in the same way as his two Terminator movies, Aliens or Titanic?
Since Titanic was released, Cameron has toyed with the idea of rebooting Planet of the Apes, remaking Fantastic Voyage, and adapting Dungeons & Dragons. He developed asteroid screenplay Bright Angel Falling, toyed with True Lies 2, acquired the rights to the investigative literary thriller The Informationist, passed Alita: Battle Angel off to Robert Rodriguez, and considered the biographical drama Last Train to Hiroshima about Nagasaki and Hiroshima survivor Tsutomu Yamaguchi.
The roadblock that prevented all of them from happening was that pesky Avatar universe, which has been his sole directorial focus for over 20 years. Cameron is among the very best at what he does, and his career has been defined by his groundbreaking artistry and sixth sense of knowing exactly what’s going to put butts in seats, but he remains unwaveringly committed to remaining exclusively on Pandora.
Anybody who has directed three of the four highest-grossing films ever made is allowed to write their own ticket, but instead of trying his hand at something new, Cameron seems happy to continue printing out the same ticket over and over again. Remaining laser-focused on Avatar gives him the leeway to indulge his many extracurricular interests, but what happens if the next two bomb?
They more than likely won’t. However, if Christopher Nolan spent two decades making nothing but Batman movies or Steven Spielberg churned out nothing except Jurassic Park sequels, audiences would be the biggest losers of all, considering what they’ve accomplished by trying their hands at new forms of cinema.
Cameron is happy doing what he’s doing, and that’s fair enough, but looking at the strength and variety of his back catalogue up to Avatar, it’s a loss that he’s not interested in doing anything else. The themes are important to him, and they’re impeccable on an aesthetic level, and yet, almost every franchise that’s ever existed has eventually succumbed to the law of diminishing returns.
It’s impossible to argue that one of the most successful directors in history is making a mistake, but on the other hand, there hasn’t been a non-Avatar Cameron film since 1997. He might have only made two since then, but his achingly slow development process has forced him to abandon any notions of venturing outside of his self-created wheelhouse, and it remains to be seen if familiarity will ultimately breed contempt.
