James Cameron on His Opinion of Thanos Compared to Avatar 2!
James Cameron, the director of ‘Avatar: The Way of Water’ has revealed in a recent interview that the phenomenon of digital filmmaking has progressed remarkably due to the CGI used in the films made by Marvel.
James Cameron’s analysis does not come off as a surprise given the fact that he had spent ample time ensuring that the Avatar sequel has immaculate effects.
The academy-award-winning director is popularly known to be the mastermind behind films like Titanic (1997), The Terminator (1984), Terminator 2: Judgement Day (1991), Aliens (1986), The Abyss (1989), and the critically acclaimed Avatar (2009). His unique approach towards the use of interpenetrated Practical and CGI effects is lauded globally. But he has revealed that the ‘old-school’ practical techniques do not work anymore and it is all digitized. After achieving this very goal he is looking forward to pushing the limits of this technology even further.
Cameron has been in this business for over thirty years and also founded ‘Digital Domain’ a digital production giant company in the 90s. This project of his has brought some extraordinary digital settings to our screens. According to Cameron, Digital Domain also has the honour of transitioning completely to digital composting while its competitors were stuck with the old-fashioned optical printers.
James has always opened up new horizons in order to bring his vision to life and he is delighted with the outcome of the latest Avatar. He gives credit to the visual digital effect organization Wētā FX for bringing back Pandora: the fictitious satellite of planet Saturn.
MCU: A Cornerstone
A few months ago James Cameron took a slight dig at Marvel and DC characters and said that they acted as if they were college-goers and that the comparisons are irrelevant. He has since then jokingly pledged not to diss comic universe characters and has even appreciated the comic-based franchises for stepping up their game and bringing massive opportunities for the artists involved.
James Cameron is still convinced that none of MCU or DCU works could even come close to that of the digital Avatar characters. He explained with an example that the antagonist of Avengers: Infinity War and Avengers: Endgame ‘Thanos’ who is supposed to be the best CGI-based villain has absolutely no comparison with Avatar’s characters. He elaborates that Thano’s facial expressions are not even close to what people will experience in this franchise.
The digital Avatar characters are conceptually a human hybrid so their faces are immensely difficult to construct. Each muscle movement and emotion should mirror that of a human which is why making it look believable and accurate is a huge task in itself. It is being said that the team working on The Way of Water has produced some hyperrealistic computer-generated characters.
All Praises for Wētā FX
Ever since the project had wrapped up James Cameron has done nothing but professed his admiration for Weta Digital now commonly known as Wētā FX. It is a visual effects (VFX) company that worked on many MCU and DC projects in the recent past and has worked on ‘The Way of Water’. He even went a mile further and praised its team for having the best artists in the pool right now.
James Cameron reiterates that Wētā FX has better credibility in comparison to ILM. He said that even though ILM has some great projects under its credits still they are not able to produce characters that can emote facial expressions in the same way.
He was also impressed by how the VFX company has progressed over time in terms of commuting different expressions of characters in different frames and being able to capture the essence of the character’s inner monologue that is reflected on their faces.
Additionally, he said that even though some scenes were shot underwater but still most of the dialogues take place without water giving the visual artists even less of a filter to work with.
The Use of AI for Future Spinoffs
James Cameron has strongly advocated for the use of Artificial Intelligence in the coming years on the condition that a lot of machinery is invested to reduce the time for rendering the final cuts of a project. He explains that since Avatar’s characters are all photoreal CGI-ed, they are harder to incorporate into the realm of television. Since some productions are creating animated shorts in less than a month while making use of real actors, James remains hopeful.
James Cameron’s Future Commitments
James Cameron also directed the 2006 Aquaman, which led the interviewer to ask him about his potential plans of directing either another comic film or bringing Avatar spinoff films and series to big screens. To which he had commented that both situations are pretty “unlikely” to happen even though he would have loved to direct films like spiderman. Till then his fans can look forward to appreciating his work in Avatar 3 which is to release in 2024 and is co-edited by him.
FAQs
Why did Avatar 2 take so long?
James Cameron, being a perfectionist, demanded certain prerequisites regarding the CGI technology that had a higher frame rate and better 3D visuals that weren’t available 13 years ago. Some cast also had to film underwater scenes: a time risk that James was willing to take. Additionally, James wanted to finalize the scripts of the other part (2,3,4) before the production started.
Is Avatar: The Way of Water on Netflix?
Unfortunately, Avatar 2 would not be released on Netflix or any other streaming platforms straight away but would rather complete its box-office run first. It is expected to be released on Disney+ since 20th Century Studios belongs to Disney.
Why is James Cameron so famous?
He is widely known for his vision regarding special innovative VFX and his commitment to films like Titanic and Avatar, two of the most commercially successful and critically reputed films.
Is there a new Avatar 3 movie coming out?
Reportedly Avatar 3 has already finished the majority of its shooting and is set to release on December 20, 2024. There is also a part 4 set to release in 2026.
Why did Avatar do so well?
It is simple, the Avatar franchise pushes the blending of cinema and technology to the very next level. James Cameron’s production has created a type of motion technology that is computer generated and transfers the movements of the real actors to that of animated ones. Something that was hard to imagine, even harder to execute more than a decade ago and highly appreciated.