It is possible for the new trilogy to actually have a weight to the storyline.
The first one was ultimately a proof of concept, demonstrating how to do 3D right.
Still, few titles go that route. I only care to see 3D when it is filmed with 3D mastery in mind. It's worth the experience for good 3D, it adds so much.
But the story was a resounding "meh" because it was generic.
There is SO much they could do with the world(s) they have established, so it is readily possible to get a little more serious with the project.
Can't agree with that argument at all. It was a $300+ million budget movie. That absolutely is not a proof of concept. Plus if you can't find a way to inject something more than a ridiculously cliched story and generic as hell characters in a movie with that budget then I don't even know what to say.
And the thing is, I absolutely would not mind if guys like Cameron would drop their pretense. Stop with the crap exposition that's just there to pad the length of the movie and act like they give a shit about that. Just give me the technical tour de force. It's a win-win. We get the actual parts that we enjoy from those movies, but instead of ~3 hour long crap we'd get like an hour of nonstop over the top action. They get to show their "films" more often and make more money and the people criticizing the insultingly stupid plot and characters won't have that to complain about.
Of course there is, but that doesn't mean they'll do anything worthwhile with it. Avatar and Cameron screams George Lucas Star Wars prequels to me.
if its a good enough idea, its bound to make multibillions
just look at Star Wars, Harry Potter, now Marvel is setting the new standard...
as much as I think Avatar is a bad movie because its plot is bad if not insulting, I respect the technology behind it. And thanks to it making a ridiculous amount of money, a lot of that is being poured back into production of the sequel trilogy, so I have to admit that I am interested to see what happens there.
then you might want to avoid watching DWW, as it might make you realize just how stupid/shallow/contrived Avatar's plot is and ruin the movie for you. Although it will still be cool/fun movie to watch for the effects and some of the creative elements, but love might be lost.
Star Wars is the posterchild for failing at universe building in my mind. Marvel had their universe in place and they just dumbed it down and shit all over it as often as not, causing them to have to keep trying to even figure out how to do that half-assedly well, and Harry Potter was well established as books first. It's also why LotR fared well.
I'm interested only in hoping that the mix of pushing the technical combined with VR headsets will offer a really stunning next step in media. But Cameron for some reason basically dismissed them so I'm not sure I expect him to do much beyond enabling some filmmakers with interesting stories to tell an avenue to provide visuals to match.
Am I the only one who enjoys story universes?
It gives you time to really get invested in multiple characters. If done right, you can have multiple DEEP character storylines and you can dip your toes into the overarching story more than once.
I like stand-alones too, but it's the same thing I do like about great TV shows: they are long stories, not a one and done. Sometimes, we like to get sucked in, and are pleased to go see even more in that universe. To flesh out the story of the universe can be very rewarding.
In short, there is a reason why these franchises are successful: the people want it. Full stop.
There are plenty of one and done experiences out there, it's not like we can only have one or the other.
It's fine for some things and could be good (like you said for fleshing out the world and characters), but modern movies are not doing that at all. They're doing the total opposite, using trite cliched caricatures and then dumbing them down even further (Marvel is a perfect example of this, even with the fairly simple comic characters they're managing to turn them into even more generic action movie tropes).
It's not about one and done. This universe building is different from typical sequels and the driving factor behind it is not improving the movies but rather reducing costs and maximizing their income from it, which will almost absolutely lead to the rampant problems we see in movies now getting even worse (movies that use ridiculous amounts of CGI and often times not terribly well, horrible stories and/or characters because they don't care about taking the time to write proper scripts). We definitely could get some decent/ok, maybe even good movies, but do you realize how much they've already planned? Marvel has planned like over a decade's worth of movies (multiple movies per year) already. I think DC has as well or is in the process of doing that. Star Wars has planned what 6 movies in 6 years. Cameron has said he thinks so highly of the Avatar universe (yeah seriously...) that he can't imagine doing any other films for the rest of his life.
Ah yes, and that led us to the mess that Star Wars turned into. We'll see how that works under Disney (which I'm guessing will be hit and miss in quality like it's been for Marvel, but then hey it makes money so obviously it's good then
). Or the work to expand the Alien universe (Alien and Aliens are the only two that matter, and while I am optimistic I don't entirely have a lot of confidence in Blomkamps project; and unless Ridley Scott hires some competent writers then the Prometheus offshoots are just more trash like what came after Aliens). Or Star Trek. The Matrix. Jurassic Park. Granted most of those didn't follow the universe building mold that they're aiming at for like any successful franchise, but it's basically pump out movies til they're so crap that people finally stop going to them, then reboot and start that all over again.
It's not all bad, but generally it just gets worse and worse, and they're taking it to an entirely new level now. It's not just planning a trilogy instead of one, it's planning a trilogy, with an offshoot trilogy, and then likely offshoots of those. This is not being done to flesh things out, it's being done because they know they can pump out movies and as long as they meet the modern generic action movie mold and have the right name, they'll make ridiculous amounts of money. Not only that but what are they going to do when Abrams, Whedon, and the like get burnt out or distracted? Or when they become like Lucas, Cameron, Peter Jackson, and Spielberg where their success works against them because no one stops and goes "uh, surely we could do better than this". Actually I already know, they won't care, they'll shoehorn other people in as needed, and as long as it's still making money they won't give a shit. But then we'll start another cycle of "we've been making movies for 50-100 years but still get surprised when we reduce our stuff to crap and sequels and people stop liking and paying to see it. Only now it'll be "piracy!" or they'll just start turning them into 2 hour long ads.
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