Avatar may have been out for over a decade, but according to director James Cameron, if you haven’t seen it in a movie theater, you “really haven’t seen it.” With the release of the sequel Avatar: The Way of Water this December, Cameron’s original masterpiece is getting another theatrical run to reacquaint viewers with the world of Pandora. It returns to theaters on September 23.
Cameron’s own children are among those who were too young to see Avatar in theaters when it first came out. He’s watched the re-release of the first film with them, and was struck by their sense of wonder at its transportive 3D storytelling.
“Young film fans never had the opportunity to see it in a movie theater,” Cameron told The New York Times. “Even though they think they may have seen the film, they really haven’t seen it. And I was pleasantly surprised, not only at how well it holds up but how gorgeous it is in its remastered state.”
Avatar is the “poster child” for the movie theater experience
There are few creatives out there with as much clout as James Cameron, who has won multiple Oscars and created blockbuster film after blockbuster film; Avatar itself is the highest grossing movie of all time. Cameron has always seemed to have his thumb on the pulse of the industry, as well as a firm grounding in the artistic side of what makes movies so special.
The world has changed a lot since Avatar released back in 2009, something Cameron is acutely aware of. “We’ve got a turn of the world toward easy access in the home, and that has to do a lot with the rise of streaming in general, and the pandemic, where we literally had to risk our lives to go to the movie theater,” he said.
Yet now, with the pandemic stable enough that going to the theater is no longer a deadly risk, Cameron is optimistic about the “resurgence of the theater experience.”
"People are craving that. It’s slowly building back. Partly it’s been because of a dearth of top titles that people would want to see in a theater. But Avatar is the poster child for that. This is the type of film that you have to see in a theater."
I’ll agree to that: seeing Avatar in a movie theater is a genuinely different experience than watching it on a smaller screen. No movie before or since has ever utilized 3D in the way that that film did.
James Cameron doesn’t feel bad that Avatar “didn’t save the world”
Avatar tells a tale we’ve heard before, dressed in a new way that was exhilarating for movie-goers back when it came out. The story follows Jake Sully (Sam Worthington), a human who inhabits an “avatar” body so that he can interact more freely with the Na’vi aliens who inhabit the moon of Pandora. Over time, he falls in love with a Na’vi named Neytiri (Zoe Saldaña), and connects deeply with the way her people live as one with nature. At its core, it’s a cautionary tale about destorying the natural world.
Given our own modern day struggles with global warming, it would have been nice if we as a species maybe took some notes from Avatar. Despite wanting to send a positive message with the movie, Cameron also isn’t too hard on himself that his “movie didn’t save the world.”
“I certainly wasn’t the only voice back then, and I’m certainly not the only voice now, telling people that they have to change,” he said. “Asking people to fundamentally change their behavior patterns, it’s like asking them to change their religion.”
"Eventually, we will change or we’ll die out. Avatar is not trying to tell you what to do specifically. It’s just reminding us of what we’re losing. And it puts us back in touch with that childlike state of wonder about the natural world. As long as that beauty still resonates within us, there’s hope."
Avatar re-releases in movie theaters on September 23. Avatar: The Way of Water is due out on December 16.
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