Avatar has been James Cameron’s passion project for decades. He wrote a treatment for the first film in the mid-’90s, but he had to wait a long time for technology to catch up with his ambitious vision. Once it did, Cameron finally realized his dream sci-fi epic, turning it into one of the most successful blockbuster franchises in Hollywood history. Since Avatar was first conceived, the concept has evolved, and it’s now a series consisting of three installments (including this December’s Avatar: Fire and Ash), with two more planned. Unsurprisingly, Cameron’s approach to telling this sweeping story has changed over the years, and he’s turned Avatar into something of a cathartic personal experience.
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In an interview with ComicBook to promote Avatar: Fire and Ash, Cameron discussed how Avatar has evolved. “To me, the most obvious answer that comes to mind is I was telling a love story between two young people in the first film, and a journey of discovery of Jake as he goes into this world that he never could have imagined, falls in love, and earns his place in that world,” he said. “Cut to the two sequels … now they’ve got a family. So that’s a huge leap. But it also kind of tracks to my life. When I was writing the scripts for Way of Water and Fire and Ash, which was roughly 10 years ago, I had [teenagers], and that’s a very fraught time, emotionally both for the kids and the parents. It’s very challenging as they individuate and they push back and they rebel, and we have to navigate that in a way that’s loving and helpful and constructive for them, but still sets boundaries.”
He continued, “Jake sort of emerges in the story as a hardass son of a b****. And Sam [Worthington] and I talked about this. I said, ‘I want The Great Santini. I want a guy that just doesn’t get his sons and he knows we’re at war, and he’s got hard and fast rules.’ This is based on my experience, Sam’s experience with his father … my impulse as a director to try to control everything in the family, which you can’t … sometimes writing it out in the form of a story is actually cathartic.”
Avatar Has Always Told An Emotional Story
It goes without saying that the visual effects are the biggest selling point of the Avatar movies. In an era where CGI has made so much possible — to the point where some viewers are desensitized to blockbuster VFX — Cameron and Co. have crafted unprecedented theatrical experiences that push the boundaries of moviemaking technology. For some, the actual story Avatar tells struggles to compare to the breathtaking spectacle, but the films have always had a beating heart, using high-concept sci-fi to explore relatable and grounded topics through characters who are very memorable.
Cameron continues to take filmmaking technology to its limits as the Avatar series moves along, but he’s also constantly looking for ways to evolve the narrative. For Avatar: Fire and Ash, Cameron made a point of doing a deep dive into grief, which is something he feels Hollywood blockbusters struggle with. Grief is something that all people deal with, so this thread (following up on the tragedy of Neteyam’s death in Avatar: The Way of Water) is an organic way to continue Avatar‘s tradition of using sci-fi to tackle themes and angles that highlight different parts of the human condition. Fire and Ash is unsurprisingly earning raves for its action and visuals, but these narrative beats will hopefully elevate the third Avatar film and make it something truly special.
It’s important for Cameron to continue to evolve Avatar from a storytelling perspective because that’s the way the franchise will remain one of Hollywood’s premier properties. At a certain point, the novelty of the visual effects wear off and spectacle alone isn’t going to be enough to draw people in. It made sense for the first Avatar movie to be relatively simple in its plotting, as it had the gargantuan task of getting people onboard with a whole new world and culture, but now that audiences have been acclimated to Pandora, the narratives can become a bit more complex, allowing them to balance substance and style in compelling ways.
The extended wait for Avatar: The Way of Water became a bit of a punchline in some circles, but the gap might have helped Cameron tell stronger stories. The time jump between installments provided a gateway to approach the narrative from a different perspective, introducing Jake and Neytiri’s kids, which presented a whole new set of challenges they had to deal with. It isn’t surprising to hear Cameron plans for there to be another time jump between Fire and Ash and Avatar 4. He’ll be able to pull from whatever other experiences he’s had since writing the first two Avatar sequels, informing the next stories with a personal touch so the franchise keeps evolving.
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