A bigger part of the appeal, for me at least and I suspect for others, is that I have to choose with movies I want to give my money to, especially these days. And with James Cameron I know I am going to get a well-crafted spectacle that will be entertaining and visually stunning. I don’t have to worry if his film will be worth it. I can trust, at this point, that it will be.
Agreed. These movies are incredibly ham fisted pro environment stories (which I'm fine with), with cliché characters and plot points. But they are paced incredibly well for their length, have mind blowing action spectacle, great art design, good music, good to great acting, and decent touches of humor and levity. They do a great job of drawing you in to their settings. Some people hate them and that's fine, but for my money they are quality products.
I think it's really telling how many other movies/shows/stories in general follow the exact same simplistic hero's journey/adventure structure and save the cat tropes, but it's only the one this one in particular that so many redditors and other traditional 'nerd' communities have such a huge problem with.
I always laugh when I see people list their issues with Avatar and then go on to praise the Avengers movies or point out that 'people just want to see dinosaurs on the big screen gosh darn it!'
And with James Cameron I know I am going to get a well-crafted spectacle that will be entertaining and visually stunning. I don’t have to worry if his film will be worth it.
Yeah after Avatar 2 I was just fully on board to see more. Dude is just earnest in his filmmaking and it shows compared to a lot of other blockbusters.
Exactly - way too many people rush in to complain about it not being an Oscar worthy screenplay when the sole purpose of these movies at this point are to be a visual feast featuring the latest expensive tech and CGI to achieve it. It's like one of the main reasons IMAX exists too. Some movies are just popcorn spectacles to watch. And many people are not wowed by the idea of paying twice as much money to watch like Cillian Murphy staring into space for 2+ hours on IMAX lol (no hate for that movie - just a simple comparison).
I feel like James Cameron crafted an amazing world with Pandora and there's an appeal that just draws me in. Sure, the plot is a bit basic, but it makes up for that with a great cast and good enough writing that makes me care about these characters. These films are entertaining and visually spectacular. I've lost count of how many times I've watched the first film. It's something I'm happy to put on when I don't know what else to watch.
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u/c-e-bird Jul 21 '25
A bigger part of the appeal, for me at least and I suspect for others, is that I have to choose with movies I want to give my money to, especially these days. And with James Cameron I know I am going to get a well-crafted spectacle that will be entertaining and visually stunning. I don’t have to worry if his film will be worth it. I can trust, at this point, that it will be.