It seems that James Cameron needs some space to express his thoughts on human affairs to the world at large, and what better way to do that than to make three sequels to his hit film Avatar? Never mind that the films are going to cost 20th Century Fox a total of $1 billion, rounding out to more than $300 million per movie. James Cameron has a lot to say, and boy does he need to say it!
The Avatar sequels will be hitting cinemas in 2016, 2017, and 2018, and with them will arrive some much needed insight into James Cameron’s concern for the world and humanity. In a recent interview (via Collider), Cameron let it be known how he intends to approach these massively expensive sequels to a massively expensive original film:
There’s nothing I need to say as an artist about the state of the world and human affairs that I can’t do through the lens of the ‘Avatar’ universe.  We’ve had a couple of years to think through the story arc of the next three films, and every day that goes by, I believe in the stories I’m telling more and more.  We’re not coming out of the block fast to capitalize on the last film.
To give Cameron some credit (and believe me, it is hard), he has not rushed into making the sequels after the mammoth success of the first film. The whole plot arc has been planned out as a single entity that was then split into individual films for which different writers are responsible. This will hopefully mean that the films will hang together as a whole rather than a meandering compilation, which is so typical in sequel films right now.
Of course, all of this is dependent on whether or not you actually liked the first Avatar to begin with. The film was criticized for being little more than a spectacular technical exercise, limited in narrative scope and characterization. While all the flashy special effects and bright scenery were pretty amazing in their own right, I honestly do not feel an overwhelming urge to return to Pandora in another search for unobtainium.
James Cameron has his vision, though, and 20th Century Fox is obviously putting faith in it. It seems to me that the Avatar sequels will likely make back their investment in the end, whatever the final product.
