The movie “Avatar: The Way of the Water” will be released in theaters on December 14, 2022, James Cameron is preparing the ground. And during an interview with his cast for the New York Times, the filmmaker, well known for not having his tongue in his pocket, slipped in an excellent tackle to the Marvel and DC movies.
James Cameron begins promoting this sequel to the phenomenal success of 2009. Expected as a new cinematographic revolution, the stakes around the latest opus of the epic science-fiction saga are very high. Thus, in the pages of The New York Times newspaper, the filmmaker, along with his lead actors Zoe Saldaña, Sam Worthington and Sigourney Weaver, opened up about Avatar 2.
The journalists asked questions that addressed technical aspects as well as more personal points. And it is at the bend of a question on the fact of having children that James Cameron appeared the two feet taken off the ground to tackle the films signed Marvel and DC.
The director, James Cameron has a real talent for everything that concerns the technical aspects of cinema, but he also knows that without the characters and their development, any realization, however spectacular it may be, is only an empty shell. The family story of the Avatar saga, with the couple of parents formed by Jake and Neytiri, is thus at the dramatic center of its creation and its evolution is fundamental. So, to question whether being a family man has changed his relationship to risk, James Cameron answers but quickly moves on to his conception of a good character.
It’s true that when I was younger, I was a bit of a daredevil, and there are a lot of risks I wouldn’t take today. I see some of that in my own kids, and you don’t talk about certain things until you’re a certain age. But definitely having kids changes your whole outlook.
He also says, “When I see these big, spectacular movies – I’m talking to you, Marvel and DC – it doesn’t matter how old the characters are, they all act like they’re students.
They have relationships, but not really. They never hang up because they would have kids. That thing that puts our heads back on our shoulders, gives us strength, love and purpose? These characters don’t experience that, and I don’t think that’s how movies are made.
James Cameron is known for his outspokenness and punchlines, James Cameron suggested in a few words how little good he thinks of Marvel and DC superheroic movies, currently the “premier” genre in the industry. It’s hard to prove him wrong, since the characters in these films have a tendency to have childish and unserious interpersonal relationships.
The genial James Cameron then develops his reflection by starting from the parental dynamics that he has explored throughout his filmography.
It’s a question about what a writer and director does. I’ve learned that you have to have things that the actors can relate to, you have to be able to draw on their personal experiences. I knew when I wrote this story that Sam and Zoe were young parents and that it would resonate with them. And also, if you’re writing for a young audience, they need to be reassured that these kids, on another planet, 200 years in the future, are going through the same stuff they’re going through right now.
By invoking this rule of writing that concerns the authenticity of a feeling and its interpretation, James Cameron is once again poking at films of the superheroic genre – whose recipe is aimed at an audience of young teenagers and young adults -, suggesting in effect that identification with the characters can therefore only be superficial…
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