Thirteen years after it was released in theaters, Avatar has a solid 82% score on Rotten Tomatoes and is "Certified Fresh" on the review aggregator. In no way does that make it anything other than a movie that was extremely well-received by critics, but it can be easy to forget that.
Why? Well, while it's true that Avatar seemingly borrowed ideas from other famous stories (it's frequently dubbed a "rip-off" of movies like Pocahontas and Dances With Wolves), the narrative around it would make you think it was one of the all-time worst blockbusters. This is simply not the case, but Avatar is frequently ridiculed and by no means treated like a classic.
If nothing else, those jaw-dropping 3D effects deserve some respect, and it sounds like director James Cameron has had enough.
During a recent interview with Empire (via SFFGazette.com), the filmmaker hit back at those who don't feel there's any need to continue the story with this December's Avatar: The Way of Water. In fact, he seems sure that those who hate on the movie will be silenced once they revisit the remastered version in theaters this September.
"The trolls will have it that nobody gives a sh*t and they can't remember the characters' names or one damn thing that happened in the movie," Cameron explains. "Then they see the movie again and go, 'Oh, okay, excuse me, let me just shut the [frick] up right now.' So I'm not worried about that."
We can appreciate why Cameron is so protective of the Avatar franchise as it's a passion project he's put a huge amount of time into. The movie does appear to be one that people remember is actually pretty damn good when they sit down to rewatch it, and while the filmmaker isn't mincing his words here, we do see where he's coming from.
Set more than a decade after the events of the first film, Avatar: The Way of Water begins to tell the story of the Sully family (Jake, Neytiri, and their kids), the trouble that follows them, the lengths they go to keep each other safe, the battles they fight to stay alive, and the tragedies they endure.
To whet audiences' appetites, Disney/20th Century Studios will re-release Avatar in theaters on September 23. As for Avatar: The Way of Water, that arrives in theaters worldwide on December 16.