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Thirteen years ago, James Cameron, the acclaimed director of Titanic, Terminator 1 & 2, The Abyss, and Aliens, released his most ambitious passion project yet – Avatar(2009), a film featuring the fictional alien race named “Na’vi,” set on their home planet of Pandora. Starring relative no-name turned “it” guy, Sam Worthington alongside Zoe Saldana, Sigourney Weaver, Michelle Rodriguez, Stephen Lang, and Giovanni Ribisi; the film was praised for its groundbreaking 3D visual effects before becoming the highest-grossing movie of all time($2.9 billion as of this recording). Despite its initial runaway success including the announcement of four sequels(you can track the entire history of those announcements here), the series has since undergone backlash from audiences with some even arguing it lacks meaningful cultural relevance.
In preparation for the long-awaited sequel releasing later this week, The Cinematic Schematic is taking a trip back to the planet’s tree of souls (AKA Eywa) to determine whether or not the film has earned its status as box office king. Joining us to revisit Avatar ahead of the long-awaited sequel are The Cinematropolis contributor, Daniel Bokemper, and former Sound Trek host, Alexandra Bohannon, the latter of whom has not seen the original film. After breaking the ice with the question “what is your favorite fictional element,” host Caleb Masters leads the panel into a review discussion to decide how well the film works in 2022.
All these years later, does James Cameron’s Avatar(2009) hold up, or was it truly just a once-in-a-lifetime phenomenon of the moment?
Special Guests
Alexandra Bohannon
Writer and former host of Sound Trek
Daniel Bokemper
Contributor at The Cinematropolis
Follow Daniel on Twitter @Daniel_Bokemper
About James Cameron’s Avatar (2009)
According to IMDB, Avatar can be described as:
A paraplegic Marine dispatched to the moon Pandora on a unique mission becomes torn between following his orders and protecting the world he feels is his home.
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