I still think he "borrowed" from Andre Norton's "Judgement on Janus".

Yes, Avatar has been discussed 'to death' here, I feel there is little to dispute that. However, one has to comment on the 60 minutes piece that really provided a window into why James Cameron would push a $400 million dollar movie (most of that hard green coming out of his own pocket) in 3D as hard as he can; putting so much of himself into it that even now, at the wire, he's still tweeking it, putting bell on top of whistle on top of bell.

I think the interview really drives it home that Avatar is for James Cameron what Star Wars: A New Hope was for George Lucas. It's the film that they have dreamed of making, the movie that will, in their eyes, define them. And, much like Star Wars, it seems Avatar is destined to be considered one of the greatest cinematic and story telling achievements of the modern movie era, or one of the most painfully expensive let downs of the same. I, personaly, have no reason to doubt James Cameron. Not once has he ever failed to deliver a film that set out what he wanted it to do.

Terminator made people fear for the future, Aliens (like it's predecessor) reminded us that Sci-Fi could still make you fear the unknowns of Space, and Titanic showed us the tragedy of human hubris. All the while all the aforementioned films blew us away with thier visual achievements. Avatar, I humbly feel, shall do the same. Will some see it as a modern master piece? Yes. Will others see it as a waste of not only 4 million dollars plus the price of admission? Yes. Of these two things there can be little doubt. However, given what Cameron has done, and the opportunity he has given both movie goers and a still unproven medium, Avatar more than warrents more than a few back ends in the chairs of movie theaters when the film releases. Hope to see some of you there.

I enjoyed the 60 Minutes segment but was amused at a thought while Cameron was talking about Avatar, being something he always wanted to do but had to wait for the technology to catch up with him.

He is a great film maker and has uses the latest technology to tell his stories which is great. But I couldn't help but be bugged by that statement. I thought of George Lucas and Star Wars, A New Hope from the seventies.

How much more does that say about Lucas if he was able to accomplish his vision with decades old technology?

Thankfully, Cameron's writing seems to maintained its intelligence over the years, while Lucas, still a brilliant special effects innovator, has given us the CGI wet dreams of the prequels with pretty crappy characters.

they look like the morlocks from the time machine.

Water World Part Duex.

Haha, even Water World made money eventually, so I guess Cameron has that to look forward to. :-p

GO BACK TO TITANIC!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Damn the overthinkers! Let someone make a movie worth watching. Not since the 90's have we seen a well written flick, and I am very hopeful that Avatar is that movie.

I need to sit through a Viagra ad to watch this? Ummm...no.

people make some stupid comparisons on this site, how the frak is it anything like water world?

i support this movie, what would u rather have a billion more 3d kids movies with ugly ass character designs

or a brilliant director doing a giant huge scifi movie? nope nerds complain and i hate nerds

Read the The Fading Sun trilogy by cj cherryh its pretty dang similar. Then again why not just call it Dances with aliens. I loved Dances with wolves and i enjoyed the Fading sun trilogy. That said i will watch the movie and enjoy it. After all it is escapism at its finest. Thanks James Cameron.

@ w0lfm4n

George Lucas said the exact same thing about technology catching up, which is why he's been screwing around with the original trilogy since digi effects became a reality, and is also why it took him so long to make episodes 1-3.

'TheTerminator' is Cameron's 'Star Wars' - stop motion effects, traditional puppetry etc.

@Daarck

I do recall hearing something about Lucas saying something to that effect, but I still maintain that ANH, Empire and ROTJ are visually way better than eps 1-3. CGI still has a slight disconnect that when mixed with live action is just barely out of sync. When it is really subtle, like Titanic, it is very hard to tell the distinguish, but other forms of Sci Fi are more obvious.

Some of the sublte tweaking being done with Star Wars was okay, but others should have just been left on the cutting room floor.

At least Cameron didn't go back and reedit Terminator, he moved on with a new vision. I am hopeful for Avatar, I just don't know.

As I recall, Lucas said he started with Episode 4 in the 70s because that film and the following two were the only ones feasible to make due to technology constraints. Similarly, that's why he waited so long to make Episodes 1-3—he had to wait for technology to catch up to his vision.

I WAS excited about the new James Cameron film, until I saw this footage on "60 Minutes"; it looks childish. Unless it gets good reviews, I don't think I'll see it.

"Titanic" was such a piece of crap. Give me nearly any other romantic drama, such as "Out of Africa", over that drivel any day.

Oh yea, I am absolutely going to be there. Also, I haven't been to a 3D movie since the 80s (blue and red glasses, eww), typically can't really afford to blow money on stuff like that and have been waiting for the right movie to try the new RealD stuff. This is the one.

You know it seems like all anyone has been bitching about lately around here is how everything is a reboot, a remake or a reimagining and how great it would be if someone would make an original movie from an original script. Well, here it is! For better or worse, we got what we asked for! Now, why don't we wait a few weeks and judge the friggin' thing on it's merits and not use it as a whipping post to up our fanboy geek cred. It's a wonder ANY ONE makes an SF movie these days the way everyone is so quick to trash it without even knowing what it is or how it's going to look or how good the story is. Cameron's got my ten bucks on opening weekend. Who knows if it can live up to the hype, but I bet it'll be fun finding out!

First, I don't get the people who poo poo this film, even in the 2d format, it looks like pure art. Every second of it. I've seen.

I also don't get the cost though. They said CG would make movies cheaper. No need for real sets. No need for renting out space and explosions and insurance for explosions, etc. How do you get to $400 million?

I'm not complaining. It's not my money, and I'm certainly going to see it. Can't wait. But this is like the CD. It debuted more expensive than the LP, and claimed that it would get cheaper but it never did.. In fact it doubled in price on average.

Meanwhile we have DVD, a more expensive medium, selling for way less on average.. Just a geeky note.

BTW, I am making a CG movie, that's CG (computer generated), not CGI (Common gateway Interface). It's costing me little. It's slow coming, but if I paid an artist $50,000 per year to help me, I could have every bit the visual quality of Avatar in a couple of years. The hardest thing for me is consistent audio and voice talent. I just don't get the cost of CG . CG should be to movie making what blogging is to journalism. A lot of cheap unprofessional crap, but the excellent professional crap is still cheap..

Yep, it's looking like Judgement on Janus and Victory on Janus rolled into one. But without that unique Andre Norton atmosphere, which never fails to bring on longings to see ancient, distant alien civilisations. Sigh...

As already pointed out, Cameron's AVATAR owes a good deal in its plot to Andre Norton's Judgement on Janus and Ursula Le Guin's The Word For World Is Forest. No-one's saying he "stole" the plot from these novels, but anyone who reads both books will see an awful lot of similarities. Oh... and need we mention The Matrix?

So many parallels between Avatar and Janus - even down to androids in the form of the Iftin meant to infiltrate them. Has anyone noticed that both Janus and Pandora are moons of Saturn - perhaps a small gesture of recognition of Norton by Cameron?

hey, I just watched movie... the whole plot "stolen" from Frank Herbert's "PANDORA Triology" even name of the movie is from these books.
And same parts "stolen" from "The word for wrold is forest"
This is a shame they were never mentioned!!!
And... The movie is a bad copy of these books.
Believe me!