When director James Cameron decided to make Avatar, he wanted to make the first fully-integrated 3D movie and show people just how immersive the technology could be. With the success of that first movie and the sequel, he now stands on the brink of what comes next. Perhaps this next phase should create a different type of story. The story of Pandora.
The director has confirmed there will be at least three more installments in the Avatar franchise, but maybe what he needs to do is create a pseudo-documentary showing off the world he’s created.
Avatar Reminded Us of Cameron’s Love For Visual Effects
20th Century/Lightstorm Entertainment
If Cameron has done one thing, it is to prove to everyone that he has the vision to create and execute a large-scale, decades-long plan. The entire lore behind Avatar was that he’d had the idea for his movie but was waiting for the technology to catch up. Even then, when it hadn’t caught up, his team designed and built the technology to get things moving.
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However, this director wants spectacle. He has never been one to shy away from a challenge. In fact, he has been at the forefront of utilizing new innovations to create memorable movies where CGI felt integrated but not blue-screened. Cameron has directed nine feature films, five of which have earned him Academy Awards for best visual effects: Aliens, The Abyss, Terminator 2: Judgment Day, Titanic, and Avatar. No word yet if Avatar: The Way of Water will earn him another Oscar for his work.
These films all have basic plots, often involving technology gone wrong or some sort of high-stakes sci-fi battle. Even Titanic, a sweeping love story, was more about the boat and its unbelievable visuals. Twenty-five years later, Cameron even went so far as to find scientific proof that Jack could never have fit on the door with Rose.
In the end, stories are great, and action is amazing, but film is a visual medium. For a man like Cameron to continue innovating, it may be time to take one of his longest passion projects and turn it into something else.
Continuing to Conquer the Documentary
James Cameron is no stranger to documentaries. His love of adventure and specifically deep-sea exploration coupled with his absolute need to film cool stuff has given us a handful of artfully directed and genuinely interesting movies. Consider just a handful of his documentaries, like Ghosts of the Abyss, Aliens of the Deep, andThe Last Mysteries of the Titanic. There are others as well. Cameron is not one to sit back and ignore his passions. With these in mind, it is clearly his favorite side project. His need for exploration and creative outlets may be the key to the next phase of his career.
Instead of brainstorming plots for action movies set in cool places he dreamed up, why not make a series focusing solely on aspects of that place? This is a man who can dream up entire worlds and probably has a film bible the envy of King James. It’s time to take his mind off of avatars and straight to Pandora because it has become his personal sandbox.
The world of Pandora has already been explored in the films with beautiful establishing shots that show the true scope of living creatures. They exist in a delicate balance, all linking together as a hive mind of sorts.
In the first film, we met the Na’vi, who we are led to believe are the most evolved, forest-dwelling bipeds. However, this Omatikaya clan is just one type of Na’vi. In Avatar: The Way of Water, we are introduced to the far more aquatic Metkayina clan. These “cousins” have evolved specifically to be in and around water. Their arms are more fin-like, their braids thicker, and they can hold their breath for long periods of time. These are just two parts of a species we have only just begun to understand.
The two Avatar movies have explored the culture of these species but have largely left the planet’s mix of flora and fauna as a way of keeping the eye moving and alert. Every creature in the forest has impeccable camouflage and when we see them, the camera often “finds” them in a nature documentary style.
It is no stretch to imagine Cameron creating a series of documentaries about this world he has discovered. It may even be an interesting journey into the prehistory of the planet itself. He could make a scientific documentary series about the various climates and the creatures that live in them. There could even be a documentary from the human perspective looking at why they have come to Pandora, what they expect to do there, and how they are doing it. This type of pro-human propaganda film could be created as a way to hype up all the things that Resources Development Administration (RDA) is doing for the people back on Earth.
Why Cameron Should Concentrate on World-Building
James Cameron is a skilled storyteller and an imaginative mind. He is also said to have a drive and skill set that rival most other directors. We often see this type of mindset when talking about documentarians. They have a need to search and discover. Their entire life’s work could be focused on the lifecycle of a single creature.
For Cameron, the idea of documenting an entire planet, with its ecosystems, plants, and animals, could be the concept he’s been looking for his whole life. If this planet exists, what makes it so special? What was it like before humans decided to make it their own?
These are all questions that Cameron could answer in a style that could continue to utilize new technology and maybe even help people create real documentaries. It is an outlet he has only begun to explore, but it might be time for him to finally shift his focus.
