Posted on 10/26/2022 9:50:06 AM PDT by Red Badger
Acclaimed director James Cameron had some harsh words for comic book characters, claiming that Marvel and DC superheroes are emotionally immature.
The 68-year-old “Titanic” director told The New York Times that because the characters in these universes don’t have the responsibility of marriage and fatherhood, they’re often not as evolved as they could be. They also act in immature ways because of it.
“When I look at these big, spectacular films — I’m looking at you, Marvel and DC — it doesn’t matter how old the characters are, they all act like they’re in college,” Cameron told the publication.
“They have relationships, but they really don’t,” the “Avatar” creator continued. “They never hang up their spurs because of their kids.”
“The things that really ground us and give us power, love, and a purpose? Those characters don’t experience it, and I think that’s not the way to make movies,” he said.
Cameron is working hard to promote his highly anticipated film, “Avatar: The Way of Water,” which premieres in theaters on December 16.
The sequel is dropping nearly 15 years after the original “Avatar” shattered box office records, becoming the highest-grossing film ever made with a whopping $2.8 billion in sales. Fans are excited to see the newest version, which Cameron says will have a more mature storyline that includes parenthood for the main characters.
“Zoe and Sam now play parents, 15 years later,” Cameron told the NYT. “In the first movie, Sam’s character leaps off his flying creature and essentially changes the course of history as a result of this crazy, almost suicidal leap of faith.”
He continued: “And Zoe’s character leaps off a limb and assumes there’s going to be some nice big leaves down there that can cushion her fall. But when you’re a parent, you don’t think that way. So for me, as a parent of five kids, I’m saying, ‘What happens when those characters mature and realize that they have a responsibility outside their own survival?’”
Sam Worthington, who plays Jake in the new “Avatar,” also praised the storyline, saying Cameron brought more depth to the characters that will resonate with fans.
“Jim wrote this family in a great way where not only are the stakes life and death, but the conflicts are quite domestic,” the actor said. “You’re still having these arguments with kids that you have every day, like, ‘Pick up your clothes, eat your food,’ even though the world is at war.”
I would say it’s more that the Marvel superhero teams are so jokey, jokey, jokey all the time. It’s cut from the same pattern in picture after picture and it gets tiresome after a while.
Also, aka Pocahontas in Space
They should take a tip from the 60’s TV show Batman, and put >BAM!< and >PUNCH!< and other odd thought balloons on the screen...............
Yep and recent Superman has developed the marriage with Lois to where they went off-planet to allow her to have kids and that has even made it onto the recent CW TV show to a great degree.
Methinks Cameron protests too much.
Comics started suffering when distribution was changed to eliminate the drug store, supermarket, general store sales on the spinner racks. Now everything is either direct sales through subscription or comic shops OR large bound volumes through book stores. The average kid has no exposure unless someone in the family collects or there is a shop nearby that someone takes them to.
It’s one of my hobbies with over 60k volumes ranging from a 1901 Secret Service pulp to recent bound volumes and I miss the day of visiting the local drug store to browse the spinner rack....sigh...
Says the man whose dialog reads as coming from 14-year olds.
Who is clamoring for an Avatar sequel 15 years after the original (which was a POS in my opinion, a hybrid of Pocahontas and Dances with wolves)?
Well, I would say True Lies but why quibble.
The characters on the network “first responder shows” (Fire, Med and P.D.) act like Head Start dropouts.
Why did they do another reboot of Batman? "Batman Begins" with Christian Bale, Michael Cain, Morgan Freeman brought the character to life with how he shunned society and did his training with Liam Neeson. It was far beyond the earlier silly Batman movies geared towards teenage boys.
Warning: Do not bother with the "Samaritan". It's a typical vengence movie with Stallone just walking through his lines. I couldn't believe how bad it is and I love Stallone movies. My Wife said maybe he had to accept the script because Stallone's wife took him to the cleaners in their divorce. She says they had no pre-nup. Who knows? It's an awful movie and I love vengence movies like the first John Wick, The Punisher, The Equalizer, and such. "Samaritan was a weak copy of those movies for young boys.
Hell, I'd rather watch a Rom-Com with good dialog or an independent that has a new story. "Ole Henry" is interesting if you like westerns with a lessor known character actor as the star. Big surprise at the ending.
I'm so sick of hollywood rebooting movies or copying the same concepts. Does no one in Hollywood read books? There are thousands of scripts out there waiting to be written. They need to feed the boys/young adults their fantasies?...there are plenty from Sci-Fi writers.
I would agree with that.
Starting to see a theme....LOL
Every ‘Rom-Com’ has the same plot:
Boy meets Girl.
Boy loses Girl.
Boy gets Girl back.
But every now and then they change it up, just to keep it interesting:
Girl meets boy.
Girl loses Boy.
Girl gets Boy back..........
HARD PASS ON ALL THE AVATAR MOVIES, I NEVER EVEN WATCHED THE ORIGINAL, JUST WASN’T INTERESTED.
Hawkeye hung up his spurs because of his kids. Then they got blipped. But also keep in mind their “spurs” are saving the world. Can’t really not save the world for your kids.
If you ever saw ‘Dances With Wolves’ you saw Avatar. Same story, just 12 ft tall blue space aliens with long tails, that dress like Indians........................
Cameron is universally known to be one of the largest a-holes in the business. If it wasn’t for the success of his films, actors would run screaming from him — and many have even after signing on. Ed Harris nearly beat him to a pulp during the filming of the Abyss.
No fan of DC or Marvel, but Cameron doesn’t hold much sway for his opinion in my book...
” because the characters in these universes don’t have the responsibility of marriage and fatherhood...”
Tony Stark (Iron Man), Hawkeye, and Ant Man are all married, with kids (divorced in the case of Ant Man), and that fact was featured somewhat prominently in the various Marvel movies.
So....Cameron’s superhero should get out of the superhero business altogether. If you have to stop to weigh the consequences, you’re dead already.
John McClane (Willis) had a family but he still did what had to be done.
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