Despite many audience members finding 2009's Avatar to be lacking in terms of narrative, writing and performance, the film still proved a hit and managed to become the highest grossing film of all time, mostly on the back of its digital mastery and reintroduction of 3D into cinemas.
The movie hasn't had much-staying power beyond this, however, and has failed to impact popular culture in the way that previous films of its kind have. Now, with director James Cameron working solely on four Avatar sequels, all of which are said to be filmed together like a TV miniseries, many are hoping that they fix their predecessor's shortcomings and deliver a quality narrative to go with its technical achievements.
Speaking at the Vivid light festival in Sydney, Cameron seemed more focused on the latter promising that the sequels will push the boundaries of 3D again, particularly in the area of the 30% light loss involved in the process.
From my own perspective since I'm not doing television production, I'm doing Avatar sequels - four of them. They will be, to the best of my ability, the best 3D that's possible to make. That includes collaborating with the people at Dolby Cinema, who have developed high dynamic range projection that could put 16 foot-lamberts of light on a 3D screen through the glasses, which is revolutionary. Normally you're looking at around three foot-lamberts. Sixteen is what you should be seeing. That's what movies should look like.
In the wake of Avatar and the higher ticket prices afforded to 3D films, studios rushed to retroactively convert their releases to 3D with less than awe-inspiring results. Indeed, even when treated with care many filmmakers and filmgoers deem the format a gimmick that does nothing but reduces the work of great lighting and cinematographers, adding nothing to the overall film and even taking some out of the viewing experience.
Cameron, a fervent champion for the format, is still invested in the future of 3D and continued at the Q&A in Sydney to reveal what he thought the next step for the process would be.
We need to see the roll out of these laser projection systems, so that we can fully appreciate 3D through glasses in cimemas. Then, we need to roll out the autostereoscopic screens - large panel displays, where you don't need glasses at all. You have multiple discreet viewing angles and all that sort of thing. Anybody that's geeking out on 3D knows what I'm talking about. It's all possible. It's just a question of will it happen or not.
With no film since Avatar making much of a case for the format, it may be up to Avatar 2 - 4 to make this future a possibility but with most conversation surrounding the sequel being one of apathy, it's unclear whether these follow-ups will be able to achieve the same success of the first.
What do you think? Are you excited about the AVATAR sequels? How do you feel about 3D films? Leave your thoughts in the comments below.