'Give me a break': James Cameron says Marvel's VFX is 'not even close' to 'Avatar: The Way of Water'
LOS ANGELES, CALIFORNIA: In 2009, James Cameron took the world by storm with ‘Avatar’ and used such advanced technologies that baffled everyone. The bar for having the highest level of visual effects was set by the aforementioned film and since then, production giants like Marvel and DC have been following in the footsteps of the acclaimed filmmaker to take VFX to the next level. However, some people think that the effects used in some Marvel projects like ‘Avengers: Endgame’ are better than Cameron’s upcoming movie ‘Avatar: The Way of Water’.
The character of Thanos was completely made up of CGI and saw Josh Brolin wore a body suit to shoot his scenes. Marvel received a lot of praise for its visual effects in the movie and some people believed that no production company is making good use of VFX other than Marvel. As soon as the trailers for ‘The Way of Water’ dropped, the debate of who used the technology better once again reignited, and this time, James Cameron has something to say about it as well.
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Responding to a question posed by Comicbook.com in an interview, the Academy Award-winning filmmaker noted that he doesn’t want any comparisons regarding the visual effects of his upcoming movie with Marvel, claiming that when it comes to building emotive faces from VFX, there is no match between ‘Avatar 2’ and what Marvel has done in the past. Even though he believes that ‘The Way of Water’ has better VFX, that doesn’t mean that he hates Marvel movies.
During the interview, he made it clear that he “loves” watching movies that are produced by Marvel and they have motivated him to raise the bar when it comes to visual effects.
“Obviously the big comic book films have been driving the sheer volume of the industry… the rising tide of technique raises everybody together. It gives you higher quality artists, more tools and plug-ins, and code [to use]. You’ve got more talented people writing code out there,” Cameron said during the interview.
The filmmaker praised WETA Digital, the New Zealand-based effects company founded by Peter Jackson, for setting such high standards and doing all the ground-breaking work in the area of visual effects.
“Our team at WETA Digital [the New Zealand effects company cofounded by Peter Jackson] is constantly having new hires, and it’s coming out of that pool, so it improves everything. That said, WETA FX, as it’s called now, is the best. Right? Industrial Light & Magic does great work, but when it comes to the kind of emotive facial stuff that we’re doing… Thanos? Come on. Give me a break. You saw [Avatar: The Way of Water]. It’s not even close. It’s what WETA did,” Cameron said.
‘The Way of Water’ takes place almost ten decades after the events of ‘Avatar’ and tells the story of the Sully family and the troubles that follow them. The family will do anything to keep each other safe and they fight the battle to keep the entire tribe safe from the wrath of humans. The movie held its world premiere in London earlier this week and critics can’t stop raving about it, claiming that it is “better than the original.”
Sam Worthington and Zoe Saldana return as Jake Sully and Neytiri while Sigourney Weaver and Stephen Lang return as Kiri and Colonel Miles Quaritch. On the other hand, actors such as Kate Winslet, Cliff Curtis, Jamie Flatters, and Britain Dalton join the movie as the new cast members.
‘Avatar: The Way of Water’ is scheduled to hit theatres on Friday, December 16.