Is There Room for Avatar Anymore?
Words by Liam Horgan
Some films have a long-lasting legacy. Some films dominate pop culture and become references in and of themselves. I’m talking about Star Wars, Inception, the Matrix. Big Pop Culture icons. Everyone knows the term ‘a glitch in the Matrix’ even if they haven't seen the sci-fi classic. ‘Use the force’ and ‘I am your father’ are practically holy texts at this stage. So, why isn’t Avatar? No, I’m not talking about the iconic kids’ cartoon, I’m talking about the other Avatar. You know the one that was (and still is) the highest-grossing film of all time Avatar? The blue aliens, who have sex with their hair and ride giant blue dragon birds? Yeah, THAT Avatar.
You may have recently seen that Avatar reclaimed its crown as the highest-grossing film of all time at the box office. Yes, it seems that James Cameron is bringing back his box office success with a vengeance. Re-released at the Chinese box office on March 12th, Avatar officially out-grossed reigning champ Avengers: Endgame. According to Deadline, Cameron’s film has added an estimated RMB 80M ($12.3M) to its already massive gross. Avatar’s worldwide gross is now estimated at $2.802 billion versus Endgame’s $2.797 billion. Yet, despite all this, the film has made little to no impact on us pop culture-wise. Jordan Peele’s Get Out only made 255.4 million USD at the box office, yet culturally Peele’s film has had more of an impact. Following this line of thought, it’s surprising to see Avatar back at the top spot again. The film’s legacy seems to only be that it is the highest-grossing film of all time. It’s like a giant fever dream that we collectively experienced but swore to never discuss again. Thus, it got me thinking, is there a place for the Avatar sequels in the cinematic landscape of today?
For starters, Avatar is an interesting example of audience backlash. Soon after the box office was run dry by Cameron and his 3D technicolour vision, the flaws in Avatar appeared, though if we’re being honest they were always apparent. Many critiqued its obvious political messages, its borrowed plot elements and its story stucture. Was Avatar a science-fiction spectacle? Undoubtedly. A technical masterpiece? Sure. A great film, worthy of the No.1 spot? Personally, no. While I acknowledge that Avatar is a well-crafted science fiction film, it’s not an intelligent one. Broadly speaking, Cameron’s film suffers from obvious plot points, favouring spectacle over character-driven story. Now I will confess, I have a guilty love for Avatar, it’s an attempt at creative world-building, and for the most part, succeeds. Pandora is a luscious, creative world full of unique creatures. Setting this aside, however, Avatar is for sure missing the more complex beats of more modern science fiction works.
Indeed, today, science-fiction has evolved far from the muddled noughties era. Back then, big science-fiction projects favoured giant spectacle, with the likes of I-Robot, Minority Report, and The Matrix Reloaded demonstrating this. They’re not all bad films, just products of their time. In comparison, the most acclaimed sci-fi projects in recent years have been ones that have taken a unique approach to the genre. Films like Arrival, Ex-Machina, Inception and Mad Max: Fury Road were praised for their innovative and intelligent takes on a well-worn genre. These films took their premises to their zeniths to satisfying results, never once holding the hands of their viewers. Avatar fails at this. The story of Jake Sully trades intelligent storytelling for spectacle. The film's story is slightly too predictable, too shallow and most of all tries and fails to lend greater existential depth to its core elements and subplots. Ultimately, Cameron’s film is empty. It doesn’t say anything that Ferngully, Pocahontas, Dances with Wolves and various other similar media didn’t already say. That’s one of the film’s main issues. It ultimately forgets that one of the key aspects of a great science fiction story is its ability to parallel aspects of our own culture.
Left: Cameron’s poster congratulating Endgame Right: The Russo Brother’s Poster congratulating Avatar (designed by Bosslogic)
Take Avengers: Endgame as an example. Yes, unlike Cameron’s film, it had a decade’s worth of storytelling as background, but it still feels more satisfactory than Avatar. For the most part, the character storylines make sense *Author’s note Thor this does not apply to you*. The story brings it back to the Avengers who started it all. Iron Man’s sacrifice makes sense, as does Natasha’s. But the Marvel film takes it a step further, by showing what happens when heroes fail, what gets left behind in their absence, and ultimately telling a story of grief. Through all the spectacle, all the explosions and CGI, there’s something we can appreciate in Endgame, a kernel of truth. In comparison, Avatar needs to do more. It just needs that extra push. Look, Cameron’s style of science fiction isn’t awful, far from it, but I just think it could be better. I'm not asking for him to turn the Avatar sequels into some art-house science fiction experience that would take us years to untangle, but it’s surely not too much to ask for a bit more attention to detail. You created an alien race who can literally bond with their planet, who can feel the pain of ecosystems destroyed by modernisation. So show us this, focus it in more! Give us that moment that we can reference for eternity. Not something that can be easily turned into a Disney attraction. But I digress.
Cinema is a medium that has delivered truly wonderful experiences, surely the sequel to the highest-grossing film of all time should do this? Or would we rather retread the narrative steps of a genre which can offer so much more? Then again, as Avatar has shown us at the Chinese box office, maybe we still just want to watch blue aliens fighting the military? Nobody knows where Cameron will ultimately go with his franchise. Wherever it is, I’m sure someone will like it. That someone just might not be me.
