The man who might be best known for films like ‘Terminator 2’ and ‘Avatar‘ has weighed in with his thoughts about James Wan’s ‘Aquaman,’ describing the film as “fun” while putting it down for its lack of “realism” in regards to underwater action and movement. The comments came out while Cameron was speaking to Yahoo on the film, with Cameron’s exact statement below:
“I think its great fun. I think its a movie I could have never made. Truthfully. I could have never made that film because it requires this total dreamlike disconnect from any sense of physics or reality. It exists somewhere between a Greek mythic landscape and a fairy tale landscape. And people just kind of zoom around underwater because … they propel themselves mentally? I guess? I don’t know. But it’s cool. You buy it on its own terms. But I’ve spent thousands of hours underwater. I’m very literal about my underwater. It needs to look like it’s real. And while I can enjoy that film I don’t resonate with it because it doesn’t look real…And by the way, [Aquaman] doesn’t help us with our issues of actually understanding the ocean and exploring the ocean and preserving the ocean — though they did throw in a couple things like whales and things like that to remind us we are using the ocean as a garbage dump, so I applaud the film for that. Yeah, I couldn’t have made that movie. We’re doing a lot of underwater in the Avatar sequels and it’s going to have such a different feel.”
Fans of HBO’s ‘Entourage’ may remember that Cameron guest starred in an arc where he directed an ‘Aquaman’ film, which adds an amazing sense of absurdity of this situation. In the end, the fact that Cameron has problems with “realism” in a comic-book movie shows just how out of touch the man may have become. Especially when he is out there doing films like ‘Avatar,’ where, no matter how much research and attention to detail he may have, he is still doing science-fiction/fantasy on made-up worlds with alien creatures he invented, using technology and science that he dreamed up for the convenience of his plot. Who is he to talk about films with a “total dreamlike disconnect from any sense of physics or reality?” The first ‘Avatar’ was about transplanting the mind of a human being into another alien body (not to mention Sigourney Weaver’s character who may or may not have had her consciousness transplanted into a tree or a planet, I can’t remember as it has been some time since I saw the movie). Seems to me Cameron needs to get off his high horse, especially when one considers the regard he has among other filmmakers like Wan.
When Wan was asked during production his thoughts on Cameron doing underwater photography for the ‘Avatar’ sequels and whether he felt like he was now competing with the master filmmaker, Wan replied with:
“If anything, I think [what Cameron is doing is] amazing. Rule No. 1 is don’t ever compete with James Cameron. He’s in a whole different game of his own. And No. 2, our movie is such a different-looking film.”
What do you think of Cameron’s thoughts on ‘Aquaman?’ I am in no way arguing that ‘Aquaman’ was totally realistic, or even an amazing movie, just that Cameron has some nerve to criticize the realism of another film when he’s made a career of making the fantastic and unbelievable come to life. Feel free to share your thoughts on the matter in the comments below!
Source: EW
