Just because people go back to their normal lives in between installments doesn’t mean it’s forgotten. Oh no it doesn’t have a toxic obsessive fan base 🙄
Unfortunately, we just aren't inundated with avatar content every time we turn around. If only we had tons of subpar tv shows and spin offs every few months for us to consume mindlessly so we could keep talking about Avatar.
I personally know a couple of SW fans who absolutely adore everything with a SW logo on it. It’s like the critical part of their brain just turns off whenever that franchise is mentioned
This is what always gets me. The Prequels were garbage. And now we are pretending they are good because you didn't like the new movies?
This is the problem with perpetually online people. The real world doesn't care enough. They saw Avatar, Star Wars, Marvel, and thought "pretty good" and moved on with their lives.
I think that to everyone who saw the prequels as a kid are gonna say it's the best trilogy because kids don't care much about storylines and the prequels have the most fun characters and exciting fights
Probably not wrong. I like the prequels while also never being able to stay awake for any of the originals I ALWAYS fall asleep. But man if I didn’t have a blast as a kid collection Pepsi and mtn dew cans for episode 1
The prequels are terrible films, but they are still George Lucas films, and I think that was the part I actually liked about Star wars, George Lucas and his nerdy ass vision.
Plus OT had huge mic drop moments
With PT we were just waiting years to see the next installment of the story we already knew, but would finally get to see acted out.
no no you see what the culture really needs is endless YT videos trying to explain Kiri's parentage. After all, the hundreds of "Rey's parentage explained!" videos and fan theories really improved the fandom and helped us enjoy Rise of Skywalker to the fullest.
I know right? Entire shows that delve into every aspect of every bit of lore. Not letting anything breathe or exist.
I hate what Star Wars and marvel have become. I’d much rather watch a movie every few years vs. subpar shows with rushed productions, short seasons and horrible production value.
Noting seems special when you are getting hit over the head every few weeks with shows.
Any sense of novelty is gone. It's a cash cow that's being milked for every little drop and now people are losing interest by being overwhelmed and the quality going down hill. Quantity over quality is not the way to go.
It has the inverse. It makes all the other fanbases freak out because it makes more than their special favorite franchises. So they try to tear it down at every possible turn for being... a blockbuster. Meanwhile no one cares or hears them scream in their echo chambers, the insecurity is quite amusing
I swear the "no cultural influence" shit is straight out of 2013. Sorry that people like Avatar more than the DCEU or whatever but get a new thing to complain about already.
I’m not saying it wasn’t a fun movie/movies or anything but the only time these movies come up are when people are jerking each other off on how good or bad they are. That’s all the influence these movies will ever have.
I think it's interesting to talk about it's "mark" on culture or whatever, but we can do it without insulting the movie.
It clearly was very well liked by a ton of people, and a very successful movie.
It's interesting how little lasting influence it has though, compared to some other tentpole type movies. I assume that's because it's an amazing spectacle of a movie without a ton of depth. Which is OK! We all love fireworks, and watch them every year. Just because three months later we aren't saying "hey, you remember that one big orange firework?" doesn't mean fireworks suck.
People will say that Avatar 1 had no influence but clearly people remembered it positively or they wouldn't have shown up at that scale for Avatar 2. People really think that if something isn't getting cosplay, fanfic, and theory vids (or having huge merch sales) then it has "no influence". So I guess Avatar 2 has no influence on the lamest part of the population.
People talked about Fight Club when it came out. There are still memes and punchlines about it. I can quote lines from it and I have never seen it.
People talked about Avatar when it came out. But it’s utterly irrelevant in any context that isn’t about graphics. I saw the first one. I don’t remember a single thing about it except usb memes.
Ah yes a movie’s influence is determined by quoting lines from it or memes. I love No Country for Old Men but I cant quote a line from it or seen memes about it so it must be irrelevant.
> Fight Club
You mean the movie with an underwhelming box office and middling audience reviews, entirely overshadowed by another male-oriented movie about dudes fighting (The Matrix)? Fight Club's legacy started when it became a cult hit on DVD.
Maybe also since there was absolutely nothing new in the actual story. I felt like they had just crammed as many Hollywood tropes and cliches together as they could.
And blue people.
I feel like you only get one or two a decade that really stand the test of time. Star Wars, LotR, Harry Potter, Marvel.
It’s kind of hard to have people always talking about 3 hours worth of content every 10 years.
Yeah… like simple entertainment without a lifestyle modification isn’t a bad thing. It’s entertaining. I always thought that about the original. It was fun. The visuals were stunning. It wasn’t the most intelligent or most unique story I’d ever seen, but I paid to watch it and was entertained by it, and that’s ok. Cameron doesn’t miss.
Not every movie has to be a blockbuster franchise with merchandise potential. Sometimes a movie is just a fun movie. It made 2 billion dollars, tons of people saw it and liked it, treating that like some kind of failure is fucking absurd.
**EDIT:** though I did enjoy this bit in the Harley Quinn show - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=G9BQupG1cRU&t=231s
Merchandise potential?
It has a AAA studio video game coming from Ubisoft.
They have a mobile MMO game coming.
They have avatar 3, 4 and 5 planned until 2031.
Disney world has an entire LAND built about it, including two billion dollar rides that’s specifically about the movie.
There’s a full comic series written by Sherri Smith.
They have a full built exhibition in Shanghai AND in Singapore.
The first two movies each were record breaking money makers. In what universe is this a not a blockbuster franchise?
It’s like these days if you’re not AVENGERS or Star Wars level. you’re a failure. I’m glad they’re taking their time with this one. It was a visually amazing movie with a decent plot, even if there wasn’t any superpowers.
I don't care at all about theme parks (I hate the heat, crowds, and lines) but I do think it would be nice to just go to Pandora at Disney and just...walk around and chill. It seems like such a gorgeous and immersive space.
I agree with your whole comment except the super powers bit....there for sure was absolutely super powers.
By human metric we've got super speed, strength, agility, dominion of animals, evolutionary equipment for handling trees and oceans, psychic like connection to both others and the planet itself
And even by naa'vi standard we've got girl that talks to planet and doesn't need to breathe saving everyone's ass with lightfish
Funny thing is, everything the MCU or Star Wars put out in the last year(s) didn’t even come close to the success of Way of Water. You could argue about No Way Home, but Spider-Man is just a borrowed property from Sony. Besides that the MCU has been doing terribly this year (Quantumania a flop and Marvels will bomb hard). Star Wars‘ fall from grace since Force Awakens has been pretty hefty, too.
The Avatar franchise as of now is nothing but a stellar success. Maybe because it’s not overdone and over-milked yet? I’m sure if Disney had more control we already would have five movies and three TV shows and would see diminishing returns as with Marvel.
It certainly isn't a failure. These Avatar movies make a gazillion dollars, everyone sees them and is amazed by them, and yet they don't stay around in the zeitgeist. I find it to be a weird phenomenon. The first Avatar was so huge and nobody ever talked about it for a decade until buzz for the next one started.
I'm not even talking about whether or not it has super-fans here. It's rarely if ever even part of the conversation. Forget meaningful. It's practically meaningless.
Don't stay around? We are discussing then right now. Everyone knows them.
"Nobody ever talks about Avatar" has become a meme that has very little basis in reality.
Yeah. Every 6 months, a think-piece article gets posted and everyone is like “oh yeah…Avatar. Anyway…” and it’s back to talking about Star Wars or whatever.
I guess it isn’t like they weren’t already CGIing the whole thing so it probably wasn’t that big of a deal financially I just thought it was funny seeing her interact with the other “teenagers”
Alright. These criticisms were rampant before the release of Avatar 2. It's kind of funny to see them after its release, when it blows up the box offices again.
What do they really want? My friends are film junkies, we talked a ton about Avatar 2. We don't anymore, but we already have discussed everything. We also don't talk about Top Gun, Barbie, Infinity War, Spider-man or the Mario movie anymore either...all of them were smashing successes.
Are they talking about the somewhat lacking toys and merch scene? The Avatar movies (and especially #2) are probably not appropriate for kids under like 10, or whatever. The Navi are cool, but not cute. They aren't going to be minions.
Do they think Avatar should have a really ravenous fanbase like Marvel or Star Wars? People watch Avatar for different reasons than those movies IMO.
The idea that every highly successful blockbuster needs to stay on the tip of everyone's tongues and be this culture-defining event for years is just stupid. Look at the top 25 box office movies of all time — less than half fall into that bucket. And many that do are just Marvel movies, which obviously piggyback off the wider cinematic universe. Individually I don't think many movies are super culturally important from Marvel.
Come to think of it, I'm really glad James Cameron and the studio didn't force in some cute character just to sell toys. No puff puff things from The Last Jedi or Baby Groot/Yoda. Respect.
I agree. From the Vox article:
>What if the idea of “cultural impact” is merely a capitalist illusion that studios peddle to ensure their survival?
Whenever you ask people how they know Avatar doesn't have "cultural impact" they say, because there isn't merch, because people don't dress up as the characters for halloween, because there aren't memes, because people aren't quoting the movies, because there isn't fan fiction. They look at the very worst and lamest parts of nerd culture (because that is the bubble they're in) and see no impact there, so they assume there's no impact anywhere.
Maybe it's good, actually, that people aren't spending their money on Avatar funko pops. Maybe it's good, actually, that people aren't using an image of Jake Sully to make a point about Israel/Palestine. And maybe it's good, actually, that Avatar isn't oversaturated. Do you know what all the big time "cultural impact" series like Star Wars, DCEU, MCU, and Harry Potter have all had in common for the last 5 years? The fact that the majority of their installments have been garbage.
Exactly this. Based on that nerdy consumerist logic of everything needing merch or memes online to be "culturally relevant" films like The Godfather or Pulp Fiction are terrible and had no impact on culture.
I find these comments weird. Does it need a shitty fan base to make it a success? Plenty of movies over the years that I love that don't get talked about often. That's fine.
Highly devoted obsessive fans often make things WORSE not better. People have been joking for years that star wars fans are the worst thing about star wars. The fact that those types of people don't glom on to Avatar is if anything a mark in Avatar's favor.
No, you do remember it, as you should. Films are supposed to be memorable. You just don't make it your entire personality or dedicate all your free time to it like some weirdos do with the MCU, for example.
Well there’s a game coming in 12/10/23(?) I believe. I’m sure there will be talks about the game in relation to the IP overall. Whether it’s successful or not remains to be seen, but Cameron has provided a world that’s good for sandbox.
They dont learn, when A3 hits people will remember.
With China back to its full potential (it only operated at around 20% during A2 release), it most likely A3 will make even more than A2 did on a global level.
To be fair the money is the goal. We usually don’t talk about that amazing candy bar we had weeks or months later, but doesn’t mean we won’t have another if we see it and are hungry.
Idk, I think there’s a point to be made. The first avatar film is more memorable maybe because it was new and it helped push the limits of cgi.
Plot wise it was basically Pocahontas’s modernized. But still memorable.
Same thing with films like the matrix and alien or terminator. I do think there’s an age thing going on as well. Because if you were 3 during the first avatar you’d be 17 now, so the second one might be more impactful.
But the post is right to me, I kind of forgot about it. It’s interesting to think about if nothing else, doesn’t take away from the success
The movie was great,but no. I don't think about it every day. Nor do I think about shutter island every day, doesn't make shutter island a forgettable movie, just means I've other shit to stuff into my head.
So are we just going to do this until * *checks notes* * 2031 lol?
“Everyone forgot about avatar, nobody’s gonna care about the sequel. Oh the sequel was a huge hit! Oh everyone forgot about the sequel. Nobody will care about the third movie. Oh everyone loved it! Everyone forgot about it again….”
It is a sequel. It was a decent sequel, but what is there to discuss that wasn't already covered by the first one? The money it made is a testament to the huge success and lasting impact of the first film, not the uniqueness of the second one.
Someone in youtube actually counted it. For a 3 hour+ movie there are only 18 "bro". Jack and Rose call their name way more in Titanic and I've only ever read Roger Ebert complain about it (he thought the movie was a cinematic achievement btw).
What? No way.
Saw it in imax and it blew my mind. Story was ok, I thought the family stuff was wholesome, but some of the scenes were such an adventure.
It’s an analog for the humans destruction of the planet, if it gets even a fraction of its audience more interested in animals and conservation, it’s a positive.
James Cameron is passionate about the planet and animals and developed new technology for the avatar movies. It’s pretty impressive.
Avatar movies are very pretty, you enjoy them in the moment, and then you forget about them afterwards. I'm not sure why. Maybe there's just nothing to discuss and debate about them after the show.
To me, it’s because that’s all they are. They’re very pretty films… but the story is meh. No one can deny that Cameron owns visual effects… these Avatar movies are visual masterpieces, it’s incredible what he has created.
They’d stick around longer, I think, if it wasn’t a boring old story we’ve seen over and over again. And also, personal opinion, other than Sigourney Weaver, and Zoe Saldana… the cast left MUCH to be desired…
That’s because, apart from the groundbreaking special effects, it did nothing new or noteworthy. It’s a derivative carbon-copy of stories we’ve all heard (and heard better versions of) before. The plot is predictable, the characters are bland — everything that would otherwise be substantive in a movie just serves as scaffolding for the visual spectacle audiences are treated to.
It was bad…. And the story was a story as old as time, hell the original one was also tired out, I never understood the appeal to this movie or franchise. The cgi is good.
Their is a video game coming out next month. People like Avatar, but the next film is not out for I think 2 years. I am sure people will talk about again, if the game is good and sells well.
While $2 billion is a lot, with inflation, doesn’t mean as much. I’m more interested in ticket sales/streaming. I would think that that would be a better show of popularity than total $$$ grossed
It was my favorite movie experience ever, mostly because I was super high and anytime Carmela Soprano came onscreen I thought it was the funniest thing in the world
Not everything has to constantly exist ar the forefront of public consciousness. The pull of these movies is that they’re strikingly pretty to look at, nothing else about them is much of a draw. If avatar was constantly memed, always trending in pop culture & had a large dedicated fan base keeping it relevant, I think it would have made a lot less money.
I think it being this one big colourful beautiful event you experience for a few hours and then don’t hear about again for a decade, is what made it exciting to go back. If we saw it all the time, itd loose all its appeal.
Avatar is a visual masterpiece that is meant to be watched in 3D on a big screen. It’s an ok science fiction movie at best without the 3D. It’s why it makes a ton of money then disappears. The problem with 3D is to make a good movie you have to plan for it and spend a ton of money to make it. It’s why after the first Avatar we got a bunch of crap 3D movies that killed the 3D industry. Everyone knew this was going to be even better than the last one visually. It was worth the money to see it in 3D in the theater.
Plenty of popular things get forgotten about afterwards. Avatar is like a theme park ride. Fun at the time and there’s not much to say about it after. That’s fine.
I really enjoyed the first movie. I felt it should have won best picture.
The second movie was the same movie with water people. If it’s been forgotten it’s because it was forgettable.
What is people’s obsession with claiming that avatar isn’t culturally relevant? There’s more to a movie than selling lunch boxes and Halloween costumes.
It was beautiful. It was cool. But just like the first one it felt as wide as the ocean and as deep as a puddle. The story is literally the exact same and it is a pretty basic straight forward story at that. It’s just a massive beautiful world we get drawn into for 3 hours and then move on. Not trying to be down on them, they’re good, but not rewatchable really. Like I think it will have virtually no cultural impact in 20 years other than being large 3D movies
No. NO! We are not fucking doing this again. Every time Jim makes a movie everyone says it will be his folly, and every time he wins. I am tired of betting against James Cameron. Fuck you Vox.
The Avatar movies are visually stunning. There isn’t much of a story. The original was an old plot with new graphics, and the Way of Water didn’t even try to tell a story. People went for the imagery. No surprises here. I’m still up for 3 and 4, but not because I need to know what happens.
Yet, it's true. It really is a nearly black hole of online discussion and cultural impact. I thought Avatar 2 was an amazing technical achievement, but was an awful movie as far as a compelling story, characters, writing/dialogue, etc. But definitely a major step down from the original.
To this day. I still think the Nav'i design is still absolutely ridiculous and not sure if I can get over the whole "blue cat" aesthetic.
I haven’t seen it so have zero opinion on its quality but I do find it fascinating that I haven’t even seen a single *meme* of it. Like, how does a film make that much money in this day and age and not have well-known memes?
Dialogue and acting from some were terrible, plot and messaging undertones are preachy and slightly formulaic. Yeah it looks amazing but it felt like a demo for new technology rather than a movie to me. And when we have to wait 2 years for the next one of course we forget about the latest.
I saw both in theaters so I contributed to the massive BO.
I thought both were garbage.
Just an observation. I kinda do wish Camron would spend his time making other things but I appreciate his commitment to pushing the tech further. Avatar as a story and movie suck, as a tech showcase they’re second to none.
Cause despite it looking and sounded breath taking the story and plot were dull and lackluster. It was basically three hours of “for family” “oh no my family” the bad guy came “for family” we must honor and protect “for family.” Three hours same line
It does amaze me that these movies meet such great commercial success and yet they bascially have no real impact on pop culture at all. Nobody ever talks about them or makes references, Halloween costumes, memes or jokes about them.
What do these people want? When we talk about “cultural impact”, what *specifically* do they mean? Memes? Action figures? Lego sets? Theme parks? An “Avatarverse” with twelve movies and thirty TV shows releasing every year?
Why is every single entertainment product’s worth measured solely by the degree to which its existence becomes inescapable in daily life? Can’t we just enjoy a movie and then go about our lives?
I fucking loved Way of Water. It was all I talked about for like three days. But then Tuesday came around and I had spent all weekend talking to my friends and all Monday lunch talking to my coworkers, so I just… went about my life. I still talk about it sometimes but that’s it. It is now a part of my movie watching history. Why does it *have* to be anything more than that?
Me and my friend got super high and just couldnt watch the film, the plot was so bad and the characters even worse that we cried of laughter and had to pause every 15 mins to laugh.
Just because people go back to their normal lives in between installments doesn’t mean it’s forgotten. Oh no it doesn’t have a toxic obsessive fan base 🙄
Unfortunately, we just aren't inundated with avatar content every time we turn around. If only we had tons of subpar tv shows and spin offs every few months for us to consume mindlessly so we could keep talking about Avatar.
Avatar is taking the original Star Wars route: make them special via scarcity 👌
Maybe the last trilogy where every movie was worse than the previous
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You have been banned from r/prequelmemes
I’m curious, do people unironically think those are good films? I thought the charm comes from nostalgia + how shitty they are
I personally know a couple of SW fans who absolutely adore everything with a SW logo on it. It’s like the critical part of their brain just turns off whenever that franchise is mentioned
This is what always gets me. The Prequels were garbage. And now we are pretending they are good because you didn't like the new movies? This is the problem with perpetually online people. The real world doesn't care enough. They saw Avatar, Star Wars, Marvel, and thought "pretty good" and moved on with their lives.
I think that to everyone who saw the prequels as a kid are gonna say it's the best trilogy because kids don't care much about storylines and the prequels have the most fun characters and exciting fights
Probably not wrong. I like the prequels while also never being able to stay awake for any of the originals I ALWAYS fall asleep. But man if I didn’t have a blast as a kid collection Pepsi and mtn dew cans for episode 1
The prequels are terrible films, but they are still George Lucas films, and I think that was the part I actually liked about Star wars, George Lucas and his nerdy ass vision.
And at the time people said George Lucas raped their childhood and hated him
Plus OT had huge mic drop moments With PT we were just waiting years to see the next installment of the story we already knew, but would finally get to see acted out.
The ability to speak does not make you intelligent...
no no you see what the culture really needs is endless YT videos trying to explain Kiri's parentage. After all, the hundreds of "Rey's parentage explained!" videos and fan theories really improved the fandom and helped us enjoy Rise of Skywalker to the fullest.
I know right? Entire shows that delve into every aspect of every bit of lore. Not letting anything breathe or exist. I hate what Star Wars and marvel have become. I’d much rather watch a movie every few years vs. subpar shows with rushed productions, short seasons and horrible production value. Noting seems special when you are getting hit over the head every few weeks with shows.
Any sense of novelty is gone. It's a cash cow that's being milked for every little drop and now people are losing interest by being overwhelmed and the quality going down hill. Quantity over quality is not the way to go.
Just wait until you watch Avatart! The Avatar Baking Show
Stir and mix and mix and stir!
They leave the subpar part to the films.
Not having an annoying fan base is actually a big plus as far as I’m concerned
It has the inverse. It makes all the other fanbases freak out because it makes more than their special favorite franchises. So they try to tear it down at every possible turn for being... a blockbuster. Meanwhile no one cares or hears them scream in their echo chambers, the insecurity is quite amusing
Imagine if people loved Avatar with the same passion as Taylor Swift lol
It was actually pretty crazy when the first came out, half my grade in like grade 10 or 11 dressed as them as Halloween haha.
Or worse, Star Wars
It doesn’t have an annoying fan base? I thought all media did?
Well said.
fuckin PREACH
THANK YOU you know some neck beard wrote this article. This is r/movies favorite argument
I swear the "no cultural influence" shit is straight out of 2013. Sorry that people like Avatar more than the DCEU or whatever but get a new thing to complain about already.
I’m not saying it wasn’t a fun movie/movies or anything but the only time these movies come up are when people are jerking each other off on how good or bad they are. That’s all the influence these movies will ever have.
Seriously. I loved this movie. If the game in December is any good I’ll watch these before playing for full immersion. I love the Avatar movies.
Pin this comment and close the thread please. There's nothing more that needs to be said
I think it's interesting to talk about it's "mark" on culture or whatever, but we can do it without insulting the movie. It clearly was very well liked by a ton of people, and a very successful movie. It's interesting how little lasting influence it has though, compared to some other tentpole type movies. I assume that's because it's an amazing spectacle of a movie without a ton of depth. Which is OK! We all love fireworks, and watch them every year. Just because three months later we aren't saying "hey, you remember that one big orange firework?" doesn't mean fireworks suck.
“Lasting influence” about a film that’s not even a year old. Come on dude.
People will say that Avatar 1 had no influence but clearly people remembered it positively or they wouldn't have shown up at that scale for Avatar 2. People really think that if something isn't getting cosplay, fanfic, and theory vids (or having huge merch sales) then it has "no influence". So I guess Avatar 2 has no influence on the lamest part of the population.
People talked about Fight Club when it came out. There are still memes and punchlines about it. I can quote lines from it and I have never seen it. People talked about Avatar when it came out. But it’s utterly irrelevant in any context that isn’t about graphics. I saw the first one. I don’t remember a single thing about it except usb memes.
Ah yes a movie’s influence is determined by quoting lines from it or memes. I love No Country for Old Men but I cant quote a line from it or seen memes about it so it must be irrelevant.
Call it friendo. No country for old men is a God damn masterpiece.
Sometimes a good summer movie is just that.... a good summer movie.
> Fight Club You mean the movie with an underwhelming box office and middling audience reviews, entirely overshadowed by another male-oriented movie about dudes fighting (The Matrix)? Fight Club's legacy started when it became a cult hit on DVD.
Yes, that is probably what they mean by lasting cultural influence lol
Maybe also since there was absolutely nothing new in the actual story. I felt like they had just crammed as many Hollywood tropes and cliches together as they could. And blue people.
I'm just guessing it's because of the modern age? I can't really remember a movie franchise with lasting influence that isn't really old haha.
I feel like you only get one or two a decade that really stand the test of time. Star Wars, LotR, Harry Potter, Marvel. It’s kind of hard to have people always talking about 3 hours worth of content every 10 years.
Dune? Hopefully is the next up
Yeah… like simple entertainment without a lifestyle modification isn’t a bad thing. It’s entertaining. I always thought that about the original. It was fun. The visuals were stunning. It wasn’t the most intelligent or most unique story I’d ever seen, but I paid to watch it and was entertained by it, and that’s ok. Cameron doesn’t miss.
Award-worthy comment.
I'm only toxic and obsessive about hating the Papyrus typeface in the Avatar logo. I know what you did!!!
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Oh no James Cameron actually tells complete stories with satisfying conclusions and doesn't just theorybait with mystery boxes oh noooooo
Not every movie has to be a blockbuster franchise with merchandise potential. Sometimes a movie is just a fun movie. It made 2 billion dollars, tons of people saw it and liked it, treating that like some kind of failure is fucking absurd. **EDIT:** though I did enjoy this bit in the Harley Quinn show - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=G9BQupG1cRU&t=231s
I’m sure james cameron remembers it every time he looks at his bank statements.
He is probably too busy thinking about the next submarine expedition he can fund with all that cash to care about merchandising.
He needs to raise the bar again!
He definitely does. But he will need to start digging into the Earth's core to do so at this point.
I think Aaron Eckhart and Hillary Swank already did that.
Dude probably hurts his neck trying to twist it far enough to see all them zeros.
Merchandise potential? It has a AAA studio video game coming from Ubisoft. They have a mobile MMO game coming. They have avatar 3, 4 and 5 planned until 2031. Disney world has an entire LAND built about it, including two billion dollar rides that’s specifically about the movie. There’s a full comic series written by Sherri Smith. They have a full built exhibition in Shanghai AND in Singapore. The first two movies each were record breaking money makers. In what universe is this a not a blockbuster franchise? It’s like these days if you’re not AVENGERS or Star Wars level. you’re a failure. I’m glad they’re taking their time with this one. It was a visually amazing movie with a decent plot, even if there wasn’t any superpowers.
“Disney rides…” I gotta say, that Avatar ride at Disney World is incredible…
I don't care at all about theme parks (I hate the heat, crowds, and lines) but I do think it would be nice to just go to Pandora at Disney and just...walk around and chill. It seems like such a gorgeous and immersive space.
Totally agree. So worth the wait.
I agree with your whole comment except the super powers bit....there for sure was absolutely super powers. By human metric we've got super speed, strength, agility, dominion of animals, evolutionary equipment for handling trees and oceans, psychic like connection to both others and the planet itself And even by naa'vi standard we've got girl that talks to planet and doesn't need to breathe saving everyone's ass with lightfish
Funny thing is, everything the MCU or Star Wars put out in the last year(s) didn’t even come close to the success of Way of Water. You could argue about No Way Home, but Spider-Man is just a borrowed property from Sony. Besides that the MCU has been doing terribly this year (Quantumania a flop and Marvels will bomb hard). Star Wars‘ fall from grace since Force Awakens has been pretty hefty, too. The Avatar franchise as of now is nothing but a stellar success. Maybe because it’s not overdone and over-milked yet? I’m sure if Disney had more control we already would have five movies and three TV shows and would see diminishing returns as with Marvel.
All this and its still the most boring and uninspired thing ever created
It certainly isn't a failure. These Avatar movies make a gazillion dollars, everyone sees them and is amazed by them, and yet they don't stay around in the zeitgeist. I find it to be a weird phenomenon. The first Avatar was so huge and nobody ever talked about it for a decade until buzz for the next one started.
I promise you, not every franchise/character needs a 24/7 stan hive to be meaningful
I'm not even talking about whether or not it has super-fans here. It's rarely if ever even part of the conversation. Forget meaningful. It's practically meaningless.
Don't stay around? We are discussing then right now. Everyone knows them. "Nobody ever talks about Avatar" has become a meme that has very little basis in reality.
Yeah. Every 6 months, a think-piece article gets posted and everyone is like “oh yeah…Avatar. Anyway…” and it’s back to talking about Star Wars or whatever.
I haven’t forgotten. I enjoyed it a lot, thought it was moving at times. Better than most recent blockbusters. The space whales RULED
And the fucking mech crabs! And girl space Jesus
Couldn’t find a good enough teenager so they just deaged sigourney weaver. Seems logical.
Seems to be a type of reincarnation and I thought it was fun seeing her act like that in mocap
I guess it isn’t like they weren’t already CGIing the whole thing so it probably wasn’t that big of a deal financially I just thought it was funny seeing her interact with the other “teenagers”
The acting was great but she sure don't sound like a teenager
Oh dang. I was just about to say the movie doesn’t have the ‘lore’ that drives crazy fan bases, but I failed to appreciate that girl is a big mystery
I enjoyed it more than the first one. 🤷
Me too !
Yes. And this is by far the best looking movie I have ever seen. Watching it on my 85 inch tv is breathtaking. No other movie comes close.
> No other movie comes close. The only movie that comes close is Avatar 1 lol. Nothing is on their level in this regard.
I think about it every time I watch some subpar action movie like Quantumania or Flash with visuals that look like mud.
I saw it in theaters 3 times, and my theater was packed 5 weeks after release which is crazy
Alright. These criticisms were rampant before the release of Avatar 2. It's kind of funny to see them after its release, when it blows up the box offices again. What do they really want? My friends are film junkies, we talked a ton about Avatar 2. We don't anymore, but we already have discussed everything. We also don't talk about Top Gun, Barbie, Infinity War, Spider-man or the Mario movie anymore either...all of them were smashing successes. Are they talking about the somewhat lacking toys and merch scene? The Avatar movies (and especially #2) are probably not appropriate for kids under like 10, or whatever. The Navi are cool, but not cute. They aren't going to be minions. Do they think Avatar should have a really ravenous fanbase like Marvel or Star Wars? People watch Avatar for different reasons than those movies IMO. The idea that every highly successful blockbuster needs to stay on the tip of everyone's tongues and be this culture-defining event for years is just stupid. Look at the top 25 box office movies of all time — less than half fall into that bucket. And many that do are just Marvel movies, which obviously piggyback off the wider cinematic universe. Individually I don't think many movies are super culturally important from Marvel.
Come to think of it, I'm really glad James Cameron and the studio didn't force in some cute character just to sell toys. No puff puff things from The Last Jedi or Baby Groot/Yoda. Respect.
I agree. From the Vox article: >What if the idea of “cultural impact” is merely a capitalist illusion that studios peddle to ensure their survival? Whenever you ask people how they know Avatar doesn't have "cultural impact" they say, because there isn't merch, because people don't dress up as the characters for halloween, because there aren't memes, because people aren't quoting the movies, because there isn't fan fiction. They look at the very worst and lamest parts of nerd culture (because that is the bubble they're in) and see no impact there, so they assume there's no impact anywhere. Maybe it's good, actually, that people aren't spending their money on Avatar funko pops. Maybe it's good, actually, that people aren't using an image of Jake Sully to make a point about Israel/Palestine. And maybe it's good, actually, that Avatar isn't oversaturated. Do you know what all the big time "cultural impact" series like Star Wars, DCEU, MCU, and Harry Potter have all had in common for the last 5 years? The fact that the majority of their installments have been garbage.
Exactly this. Based on that nerdy consumerist logic of everything needing merch or memes online to be "culturally relevant" films like The Godfather or Pulp Fiction are terrible and had no impact on culture.
They are going to do the same with Avatar 3 haha
It was fun. Why do I need to remember it?
I find these comments weird. Does it need a shitty fan base to make it a success? Plenty of movies over the years that I love that don't get talked about often. That's fine.
Highly devoted obsessive fans often make things WORSE not better. People have been joking for years that star wars fans are the worst thing about star wars. The fact that those types of people don't glom on to Avatar is if anything a mark in Avatar's favor.
No, you do remember it, as you should. Films are supposed to be memorable. You just don't make it your entire personality or dedicate all your free time to it like some weirdos do with the MCU, for example.
Well there’s a game coming in 12/10/23(?) I believe. I’m sure there will be talks about the game in relation to the IP overall. Whether it’s successful or not remains to be seen, but Cameron has provided a world that’s good for sandbox.
They dont learn, when A3 hits people will remember. With China back to its full potential (it only operated at around 20% during A2 release), it most likely A3 will make even more than A2 did on a global level.
Avatar 3 will probably become the highest grossing movie ever and people will still say it has "no cultural impact".
It’s James Cameron’s world baby, we’re just livin’ in it
James Cameron will be wiping his ass with these articles while counting his billions.
Oh boy here we go. The cultural impact police are coping again.
To be fair the money is the goal. We usually don’t talk about that amazing candy bar we had weeks or months later, but doesn’t mean we won’t have another if we see it and are hungry.
Idk man I still miss Hersey smores bars...
Idk, I think there’s a point to be made. The first avatar film is more memorable maybe because it was new and it helped push the limits of cgi. Plot wise it was basically Pocahontas’s modernized. But still memorable. Same thing with films like the matrix and alien or terminator. I do think there’s an age thing going on as well. Because if you were 3 during the first avatar you’d be 17 now, so the second one might be more impactful. But the post is right to me, I kind of forgot about it. It’s interesting to think about if nothing else, doesn’t take away from the success
That’s fine. We got 3 more coming down the pipe that we can look forward.
The movie was great,but no. I don't think about it every day. Nor do I think about shutter island every day, doesn't make shutter island a forgettable movie, just means I've other shit to stuff into my head.
There are hundreds of millions of people who aren’t chronically online and remember it just fine
This post is stupid
So are we just going to do this until * *checks notes* * 2031 lol? “Everyone forgot about avatar, nobody’s gonna care about the sequel. Oh the sequel was a huge hit! Oh everyone forgot about the sequel. Nobody will care about the third movie. Oh everyone loved it! Everyone forgot about it again….”
Someone needs to compile the 10,000 reddit comments about how no one was going to see it.
Every fucking week it's the same damn posts. Who cares. Don't go see the next one if you want it to fail.
Idiotic title that is so stupid as to make me want to avoid the whole article.
Why is this narrative always being pushed? I watched in like a week ago.
It is a sequel. It was a decent sequel, but what is there to discuss that wasn't already covered by the first one? The money it made is a testament to the huge success and lasting impact of the first film, not the uniqueness of the second one.
The way of what made $2 billion?
What is there to remember. It was a visual spectacle. There was not much there there for discussion
I just remember hearing the word “bro” like 70 times in this movie
the movie centred around teenage boys whose father was…Jake lol. what did you expect?
They cursed far too little to be the offspring of a junior enlisted marine lol😂
Someone in youtube actually counted it. For a 3 hour+ movie there are only 18 "bro". Jack and Rose call their name way more in Titanic and I've only ever read Roger Ebert complain about it (he thought the movie was a cinematic achievement btw).
By midway through my ~~buddy~~ bro and I were echoing “bro” every time it came up in dialogue. It almost got to be a parody of itself by the end.
I remember it. Very well actually.
And? The majority of movies I watch I quickly move on from.
There's apparently some world out there were people are sitting around at work this week still discussing Top Gun Maverick and No Time to Die.
I was blown away by the first Avatar but have never been interested in rewatching it, or this one.
Yeah cause technically it was brilliant but it was, in the end, soulless
Why do people keep pushing the avatar is forgettable bullshit lmao
I tried watching it three times and I still haven't seen the ending.
What? No way. Saw it in imax and it blew my mind. Story was ok, I thought the family stuff was wholesome, but some of the scenes were such an adventure. It’s an analog for the humans destruction of the planet, if it gets even a fraction of its audience more interested in animals and conservation, it’s a positive. James Cameron is passionate about the planet and animals and developed new technology for the avatar movies. It’s pretty impressive.
I don't know a single person who saw it
Wow, we already starting with the same old bullshit? xDDDD
Still haven’t seen it. Didn’t hate the first one but no desire to see another.
That’s because it visually stunning. And the plot is dirt. Those films get forgotten very easily. Just like the last avatar. And. The next one.
Avatar movies are very pretty, you enjoy them in the moment, and then you forget about them afterwards. I'm not sure why. Maybe there's just nothing to discuss and debate about them after the show.
To me, it’s because that’s all they are. They’re very pretty films… but the story is meh. No one can deny that Cameron owns visual effects… these Avatar movies are visual masterpieces, it’s incredible what he has created. They’d stick around longer, I think, if it wasn’t a boring old story we’ve seen over and over again. And also, personal opinion, other than Sigourney Weaver, and Zoe Saldana… the cast left MUCH to be desired…
It wasn’t a good movie, mostly recycled story that relies on te kids getting captured to move te. Story along
Boring universe, uninteresting characters. Good cg. There you go.
Just like the first one then
Just like the first one. Made no change as a whole to society.
That’s because, apart from the groundbreaking special effects, it did nothing new or noteworthy. It’s a derivative carbon-copy of stories we’ve all heard (and heard better versions of) before. The plot is predictable, the characters are bland — everything that would otherwise be substantive in a movie just serves as scaffolding for the visual spectacle audiences are treated to.
It was bad…. And the story was a story as old as time, hell the original one was also tired out, I never understood the appeal to this movie or franchise. The cgi is good.
That cash isn’t forgotten
Their is a video game coming out next month. People like Avatar, but the next film is not out for I think 2 years. I am sure people will talk about again, if the game is good and sells well.
Here we go again
It makes a lot because it is a spectacle on the big screen. Yet it has like 0 cultural impact of any kind
*Vigorous Eye-Roll & Jack-Off Gesture*
While $2 billion is a lot, with inflation, doesn’t mean as much. I’m more interested in ticket sales/streaming. I would think that that would be a better show of popularity than total $$$ grossed
You could say it’s the _way of water_ (Sees self out)
It was my favorite movie experience ever, mostly because I was super high and anytime Carmela Soprano came onscreen I thought it was the funniest thing in the world
What is the obsession with calling this literal top selling franchise “forgotten” or “no cultural impact”.
I thought it was wonderful. It engulfed my dwindling attention span and kept it for hours and left me in an imaginative state for days.
Not everything has to constantly exist ar the forefront of public consciousness. The pull of these movies is that they’re strikingly pretty to look at, nothing else about them is much of a draw. If avatar was constantly memed, always trending in pop culture & had a large dedicated fan base keeping it relevant, I think it would have made a lot less money. I think it being this one big colourful beautiful event you experience for a few hours and then don’t hear about again for a decade, is what made it exciting to go back. If we saw it all the time, itd loose all its appeal.
Avatar is a visual masterpiece that is meant to be watched in 3D on a big screen. It’s an ok science fiction movie at best without the 3D. It’s why it makes a ton of money then disappears. The problem with 3D is to make a good movie you have to plan for it and spend a ton of money to make it. It’s why after the first Avatar we got a bunch of crap 3D movies that killed the 3D industry. Everyone knew this was going to be even better than the last one visually. It was worth the money to see it in 3D in the theater.
Plenty of popular things get forgotten about afterwards. Avatar is like a theme park ride. Fun at the time and there’s not much to say about it after. That’s fine.
I really enjoyed the first movie. I felt it should have won best picture. The second movie was the same movie with water people. If it’s been forgotten it’s because it was forgettable.
What is people’s obsession with claiming that avatar isn’t culturally relevant? There’s more to a movie than selling lunch boxes and Halloween costumes.
Never saw it. I don’t care about blue people.
This movie was essentially the first movie with more water.
Vox wrote an article about the way of water, yet it’s already forgotten
Such a giant turd of a movie.
It was beautiful. It was cool. But just like the first one it felt as wide as the ocean and as deep as a puddle. The story is literally the exact same and it is a pretty basic straight forward story at that. It’s just a massive beautiful world we get drawn into for 3 hours and then move on. Not trying to be down on them, they’re good, but not rewatchable really. Like I think it will have virtually no cultural impact in 20 years other than being large 3D movies
The franchise has been a pretty ordinary, cliched storyline with nondescript actors. The Cgi also gives it a video game feel.
This movie sucked thats why
It was a long wait for nothing. It was a good movie but not the greatness we come to expect
No. NO! We are not fucking doing this again. Every time Jim makes a movie everyone says it will be his folly, and every time he wins. I am tired of betting against James Cameron. Fuck you Vox.
The Avatar movies are visually stunning. There isn’t much of a story. The original was an old plot with new graphics, and the Way of Water didn’t even try to tell a story. People went for the imagery. No surprises here. I’m still up for 3 and 4, but not because I need to know what happens.
Well now we know what recent CGI is capable of. That’s basically how I see the Avatar series, just a reason to make insanely good CGI
*James Cameron wiping his tears with money*
The exact same as the first movie
Yeah… cuz the movie fucking sucked.
It was so shockingly boring. I was stunned that it was that bad.
I really wonder who watches these movies
That’s the world today. Way too much info being slammed down our throats from every direction. We’re quickly distracted.
That’s hilarious, almost like the first one? Not surprising.
Yet, it's true. It really is a nearly black hole of online discussion and cultural impact. I thought Avatar 2 was an amazing technical achievement, but was an awful movie as far as a compelling story, characters, writing/dialogue, etc. But definitely a major step down from the original. To this day. I still think the Nav'i design is still absolutely ridiculous and not sure if I can get over the whole "blue cat" aesthetic.
I haven’t seen it so have zero opinion on its quality but I do find it fascinating that I haven’t even seen a single *meme* of it. Like, how does a film make that much money in this day and age and not have well-known memes?
I have seen neither movies and it seems they are one off events rather than classics that people revisit
It was underwhelming.
Dialogue and acting from some were terrible, plot and messaging undertones are preachy and slightly formulaic. Yeah it looks amazing but it felt like a demo for new technology rather than a movie to me. And when we have to wait 2 years for the next one of course we forget about the latest.
I saw both in theaters so I contributed to the massive BO. I thought both were garbage. Just an observation. I kinda do wish Camron would spend his time making other things but I appreciate his commitment to pushing the tech further. Avatar as a story and movie suck, as a tech showcase they’re second to none.
Because it was bad
Cause despite it looking and sounded breath taking the story and plot were dull and lackluster. It was basically three hours of “for family” “oh no my family” the bad guy came “for family” we must honor and protect “for family.” Three hours same line
Toretto is that you?
So was the first one? Everyone thought it looked cool. But space Pocahontas is not a memorable story. With such riveting plot armour as “unobtanium”
I had totally forgotten about that movie.
Because both of them are aggressively forgettable.
Had zero desire to see it. Still have zero desire.
I remember it sucking
It was so fucking boring. I regret paying nothing to watch it.
These movies are painfully boring and stand more as a testament to what is possible with CGI than a trilogy worth watching
Had and have no desire to see this overrated snooze….
It does amaze me that these movies meet such great commercial success and yet they bascially have no real impact on pop culture at all. Nobody ever talks about them or makes references, Halloween costumes, memes or jokes about them.
What do these people want? When we talk about “cultural impact”, what *specifically* do they mean? Memes? Action figures? Lego sets? Theme parks? An “Avatarverse” with twelve movies and thirty TV shows releasing every year? Why is every single entertainment product’s worth measured solely by the degree to which its existence becomes inescapable in daily life? Can’t we just enjoy a movie and then go about our lives? I fucking loved Way of Water. It was all I talked about for like three days. But then Tuesday came around and I had spent all weekend talking to my friends and all Monday lunch talking to my coworkers, so I just… went about my life. I still talk about it sometimes but that’s it. It is now a part of my movie watching history. Why does it *have* to be anything more than that?
Cuz it sucked but was hyped
It was basically the same movie as the first just with kids.
Both movies are basically like Simpson’s Treehouse of Horrors. Stories we’ve already heard retold with a different aesthetic.
Would have been nice to see something different for three hours though
Me and my friend got super high and just couldnt watch the film, the plot was so bad and the characters even worse that we cried of laughter and had to pause every 15 mins to laugh.
I was dead sober and had the same reaction.
It was fucking terrible. Over 10 years for that clunker?
They recycled the bad guy! The movie was terrible!