In a recent interview, Cameron talks about the tension between him and the Disney Studio regarding Avatar 2’s massive 3 hours, 12 minutes runtime.
The visual spectacle of James Cameron beats all the other major films of recent years when it comes to the runtime, including Avengers: Infinity War (2 hours, 29 minutes), Black Panther: Wakanda Forever (2 hours, 41 minutes), and Top Gun: Maverick (2 hours, 10 minutes).
Just before the release of Avatar: The Way of Water, Cameron made a joke about the run time. He was asked about the film and when the audience can take bathroom breaks. The director responded by saying they could take the break “anytime they want” as they could “see the scene they missed when they come to see it again.”
Despite being in a joking mood about the runtime, Cameron opens up about his feud with the Studio in a recent interview with Entertainment Weekly.
The Director said that Avatar 2 was initially pitched to 21st Century Fox as a 3-hour-long movie. When Disney bought Fox in 2017, he reportedly felt morally obliged to preserve the film’s original intention, thereby causing friction between himself and the studio.
Check out his comments here:
I think there was a lot of tension around length. And because it’s a complicated linear narrative, which is the worst scenario for trying to shorten, you’ve got a complex story servicing a lot of characters, and it’s like dominos falling: This has to happen for that to happen. You’re not following a bunch of parallel plot lines in a way that you could take a lot out. The hardest thing when you’re trying to shorten a film is to hold onto the things that don’t advance the plot, that are beautiful or scary or suspenseful for their own sake. Things came out, and then if I felt the pacing was off, we put things back in.
Many reviews point towards the fact that Avatar: The Way of Water is a visual spectacle but needs a worthy plot to back it up.
Cameron does excellent work in preserving the beauty, but the plot apparently leaves more to be desired.
What these critics missed, however, is the beautiful character developments in Avatar: The Way of Water. The movie devotes almost an entire hour to developing character dynamics and establishing new, complex personalities.
The movie establishes characters like Lo’ak, the outcast brother craving redemption, and Kiri, who was adopted by the Na’vi. While it is true that the plot lacks gun fights and mortal peril at every nook and corner, its characters’ immense depth and backstory keep the audience engaged for the entirety of its runtime.
James Cameron now has a big job of mapping the runtime of the future Avatar movies as he makes a blueprint for Avatar 3, 4, and 5.
Avatar 2 has outrun its predecessor by 30 minutes. Cameron might continue this trend of creating long extended narratives for future installments as well.
Only time will tell us if Avatar 3 will have a longer runtime as it continues its development, leading to a December 2024 release.
About Avatar: The Way of Water
Avatar: The Way of Water is an upcoming American epic science fiction film directed by James Cameron and produced by 20th Century Studios. It is the second film in Cameron’s Avatar franchise, following Avatar (2009).
Cameron produces with Jon Landau. Cast members Sam Worthington, Zoe Saldana, Stephen Lang, Giovanni Ribisi, Joel David Moore, Dileep Rao, CCH Pounder, and Matt Gerald are all reprising their roles from the original film, with Sigourney Weaver returning in a different role. New cast members include Kate Winslet, Cliff Curtis, Edie Falco, Brendan Cowell, Michelle Yeoh, Jemaine Clement, Oona Chaplin, Vin Diesel, and CJ Jones.
Avatar 2 revolves around a universal concept of family and follows Jake Sully and Neytiri 14 years after the first film as they focus on protecting their child. However, they are forced to leave their home and explore the different regions of Pandora when an old threat returns to finish what they started. Jake has never faced a bigger challenge.
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