James Cameron defends Avatar 2’s run time: “People forget to put beauty into a film”
By Daniel Roman
Avatar: The Way of Water continues its hot streak, surpassing $1 billion earned at the global box office. Yet despite the film’s success, there have been complaints from some viewers about the The Way of Water’s three-hour runtime. Some of that can be pinned on the movie’s “hangout” sequences, as we spend a decent portion of the middle chuck with the Sully family as they adjust to life among the Metkayina clan.
But director James Cameron isn’t too worried about those criticisms. He didn’t make those slice-of-life scenes for the people who would be bothered by them, but for those who would love slowing down and just spending time on Pandora.
“Let’s just be here, right? I mean that’s, I think, what the film is saying. You liking what you see? Let’s hang out,” Cameron told TheWrap. “Let’s just hang out, look around, smell the roses. Movies don’t do that.”
James Cameron recalls fighting for more flying scenes in Avatar
Cameron has been at this whole movie thing for quite a while at this point, so he’s no stranger to criticism. He recalled discussions surrounding the first Avatar where he had to push back against studio execs who wanted to trim out some of the film’s wondrous flying sequences.
"We got into a big conflict with the studio brass at Fox on the first film because they kept saying stuff like, ‘Well you can cut out all that flying stuff, we don’t need all that. That doesn’t advance the plot.’ I’m like, ‘You’re absolutely correct, it doesn’t advance the plot. It’s doing something completely else. It’s allowing people to enjoy the moment.’"
The idea of allowing people to “enjoy the moment” clearly carried over to Avatar: The Way of Water. “People forget to put beauty into a film,” Cameron added. “There’s a lot of snark, there’s a lot of sarcasm, there’s a lot of cutesy jokes in movies. There’s a lot of people playing things off as if they’re super cool and therefore diluting the sense of stakes, the sense of jeopardy. I go straight at just being earnest. If there’s jeopardy, it’s real. People could die. And if you like what you see, let’s just hang out for a bit. Let’s not rush through this because of artificial concepts like ‘plot’ [laughs]. It sounds dumb but it works.”
As for those who were bothered by The Way of Water’s extended scenes of the Sully kids kicking around the coral reef or Jake learning to ride a skimwing, Cameron is aware that those parts may not resonate with everyone. But the fact that so many people have enjoyed them is all the endorsement he needs that keeping them in the film was the right call.
“It’s funny, the scenes they complain about being too long are the same scenes they love. It’s just not the same people that are complaining and loving it,” he said. “‘Too much swimming!’ Yeah, OK, for you, but not for all these other folks over here. So ultimately you have to kind of arbitrate between the conventional ruleset and the experiential ruleset.”
Avatar: The Way of Water is out now in theaters.
Do you have to see Avatar 2 in 3D?. dark. Next
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