James Cameron’s Avatar might still reign as the single highest-grossing movie in the history of cinema 13 years after its release, and it still ranks as one of the most immersive and unforgettable experiences you can ever have in a theater thanks to the game-changing and groundbreaking technology, but the narrative did come under its fair share of criticism.
Everything from Kevin Costner’s Dances with Wolves to the animated Fern Gully were used as sticks to beat the storytelling into submission, with many plot beats and developments coming across as over-familiar. Of course, that’s entirely down to personal opinion, but we can infer from Cameron’s latest comments that he’s been actively seeking to tear up the playbook.
In an interview with IGN ahead of the first installment’s impending re-release and The Way of Water‘s December debut, the Terminator and True Lies architect guaranteed that the future of the franchise will be impossible for anyone to predict until they’ve had a chance to see the films for themselves.
“I guarantee you, you won’t be able to predict it. What people hate the most is to go and see a movie and say ‘oh… predictable.’ This is not predictable, I don’t think. I defy anybody to predict where this story goes.”
Those are bold words, but it’s not as if Cameron hasn’t spent pretty much his entire career being questioned and predicted for failure, only to consistently knock it out of the park to become one of the most revered filmmakers of the modern era. We’ve got no reason to doubt him, so Avatar: The Way of Water will surely throw up plenty of surprises.