[Nick Zwar]

Ah, ja…. AVATAR. I remember. December 2009 was one of those moments. I walked into a theater, sat down, and James Cameron shoved a pair of plastic glasses onto my face. AVATAR wasn’t just another blockbuster, it was a shift. The first 3D movie in a long time that actually mattered. Before Cameron, 3D was a gimmick. After Cameron, it was gospel. Everybody wanted 3D. Studios scrambled, theaters retooled, and suddenly every popcorn flick wanted to leap off the screen. The before-and-after line was drawn with these tall blue people.

At that time, Cameron had already made the most successful movie ever made, TITANIC. I remember how before TITANIC came out, everybody thought Cameron was nuts to make a superexpensive film about the TITANIC, as all previous movies based on the TITANIC had been flops. Cameron proved them wrong. Before AVATAR hit the screen, everybody thought Cameron was nuts to make such a superexpensive science-fiction movie that had no established pre-base, like Marvel or Star Wars. Cameron proved them wrong again. AVATAR became the most successful movie of all time.

But why? That’s the interesting thing… why? Because, as Thor points out, “they have their fair share of haters”. Probably more than most other hyper successful franchises. Sure, Marvel Superheroes or STAR WARS etc. all have their detractors too, but they have nevertheless all also their fanbase who is ready to step in and defend these movies. Who defends AVATAR (besides Thor)? These movies are so hyper successful, yet pop-culturally, they practically left no imprint. People either seem to hate them or shrug them off, but they have not weaved themselves into our cultural fabric. We know quotes like “I am your father”, “I can see dead people”, “Hasta La Vista, Baby”, “We gonna need a bigger boat”, “Why so serious”, “My precious”, and so on, and we immediately know which movie is meant. Is there a single quote from either AVATAR movie that has become a pop-cultural reference marker? I cannot think of one.

Again, I wonder why? I simply wonder why because Thor has opened up the thread here, so I try to grapple with the question while I write this.
So let’s look at the story of the first AVATAR movie. It is ridiculous. It is DANCES WITH WOLVES light in outer space, with lanky blue aliens preaching ecological sermons while riding dragon-birds instead of horses. It was silly, yes… but silly in the way a carnival ride is silly. You know it’s absurd, but you strap in anyway. Because Cameron, I have to concede, knows how to sell spectacle. And what spectacle it was: Pandora glowing like a fever dream, every leaf and vine painted with phosphorescent precision. Man, that movie looked just GREAT on the big screen in 2009, it was feast for the eye. And James Horner’s score soared above it all, a symphonic halo that made even the most derivative plot beats feel mythic. Yes, I really love Horner’s music for AVATAR.

Fast forward thirteen years. AVATAR: WAY OF THE WATER. Cameron doubles down. People wonder, is Cameron nuts? AVATAR was surely a one-trick pony, a mostly forgotten hit of its time that took people in just because of its then daring 3D. No one would care. Cameron proved them wrong. Again. I have to admit: hats off to you, Mr. Cameron! And I enjoyed AVATAR: WAY OF THE WATER. Even more than the first film. True, sadly it didn’t have another James Horner score, I’d have loved that, but the visuals? More gorgeous, more intoxicating than the first movie. The ocean sequences shimmer like liquid jewels, every ripple a hymn to technology and obsession. The story? Just as ridiculous, just as silly as the first movie. Gimme a break. Some more evil Earth people with lots of machines (that’s what tells you they are “evil”) exploiting the planet and stealing the land of the indigenous tall blue Indians… I mean Native Pandorians, who live in peace and absolute harmony with absolutely EVERYTHING. Except for the evil Earth people with machines. Sheesh…

But here’s the trick: it doesn’t matter. Watching WAY OF WATER felt less like a movie and more like a vacation brochure for paradise. I wanted to stay forever on those beaches, swim with those creatures, breathe that impossible turquoise air. Cameron built a Paradise resort planet and charged admission in IMAX. I don’t know if it’s correct to say I love the movie, but it is correct to say I loved watching it. I loved to spend the time on this fictional planet. I did’t much care about the plot, my favorite scenes were just the Pandorians living on the beach, swimming, boating, and having a great time. I want to GO there. And Cameron let’s me stay there for a couple of hours.

Now I haven’t seen FIRE AN ASH, but something I already noticed from the second movie is now even more obvious with the third movie coming Because something curious stirred. Watching the water tribes, I couldn’t shake the déjà vu. The sleek aquatic people, their rituals, their shimmering architecture… did I not see something like that before? Ah, yes, it felt lifted from Nintendo’s very successful THE LEGEND OF ZELA: BREATH OF THE WILD. These water Pandorians were like the Zora. And now, with the next installment promising fire and ash, the parallels sharpen. If the water people were Zora, then surely the fire clans will be Gorons. Nice. What’s next? The Rito as Pandorian sky people? Or better yet, the Gerudo as desert Amazon Pandorians. 🙂

But that’s fine, I’m not saying Cameron “steals”. The AVATAR movies obviously just “absorb”. They are a very simple mythological playing field, filled with the familiar and known, processed with expert CGI and industrial imagination until it comes out bigger, louder, shinier. Cameron is an architect of sensation, and I’m sure he knows the story on which he hinges all of this is silly. Or maybe he doesn’t, I don’t know. Maybe he doesn’t care. I know I don’t really do either. Because he’s selling immersion, not narrative. And he’s good at it. The first two movies were immersive. He let’s me spend a couple of hours on a dreamlike planet where life is better. And I like to spend the time there. That’s the genius of AVATAR.

(And it inspired me to write a lengthier than normal forum post…)