Whether we like it or not, there’s going to be a lot of Avatar sequels coming at us in the next few years. That news has some people excited and other people… not that excited. Over on the subreddit r/movies, cinema fans couldn’t quite seem to agree on how they felt about the impending Avatar-pocalypse.
User Impossible-Animator6 posed the question: How excited are you for Avatar 2?
“The last one was released 13 years ago. Apart from the CGI, the story was standard, hero crosses from evil to the good side after his conscience takes over. There was nothing left to tell. Was content with ‘and they lived happily ever after’ story. After watching the trailer, new film seems to be the same old – greedy humans vs honest aliens. With almost the same star cast and blue aliens I am not excited for the latest iteration. I am not buying tickets just to watch good CGI.”
OP’s argument is basically that the story doesn’t need a sequel, much less four of them. Many agreed, like user BreadRum, who said “Not really. I saw the first one felt like I saw everything that universe had and don’t feel the need to revisit it.”
User rostron92 shared a similar sentiment, saying that “my theater experience of the first one was ruined because I got a massive headache from wearing those 3d glasses and when I saw it again at home I was bored out of my mind. So I don’t have any connection to that world or those characters.”
So far not good. User Twigling said “On a scale of 0 to 10 …….. I think 0.5 is an accurate representation of my excitement.” User Ebolatastic said they wished director James Cameron would make literally anything else.
“I wish James Cameron was finishing out his career making movies instead of hatching CGI riddled cinematic universe bullshit.”
Isn’t anyone excited about it? User OfferOk8555 kind of is. “I guess I’ll watch it. It’s hard to doubt James Cameron. I’m not even a fan of Titanic or Avatar… but every time he’s about to come out with something everyone is like “this is dumb” and then it makes like 20 trillion dollars.”
Another user said it’s all about the visuals and who cares if the story is good.
“It looks fantastic, I’m excited to see on a giant screen what crazy new visuals and effects Cameron has come up with. I don’t care about the characters or story. It will be spectacle.”
The people who were excited about the movie didn’t seem to be excited about the movie itself, but more for the spectacle of the whole operation, like ThrowawayCIquestion.
“I’m excited because I like going to blockbuster events. Everyone stomping their feet, clapping, and just pure energy in unison was the best part of No Way Home for me. I’m in no way excited for the actual story of Avatar 2.“
User TheLastJediSux made a salient point: it’s never smart to count out James Cameron. “How do you possibly know there is nothing to tell? And how do you know the plot based off that small teaser anyway? But yes – I am excited to see what James Cameron has been up to for the past several years. He doesn’t really make disappointing movies.”
So where does this leave us? No one seems to be excited about the story, but everyone knows it’s going to be a spectacle and will probably go see it anyway when Avatar: The Way of Water arrives in theaters on December 16, 2022.