In an interview with The New York Times, Avatar series director James Cameron took another shot at the current box office superstars: superhero movies.
Cameron groused, “When I look at these big, spectacular films — looking at you, Marvel and DC — it doesn’t matter how old the characters are, they all act like they’re in college.”
He continued, “They have relationships, but they really don’t. They never hang up their spurs because of their kids. The things that really ground us and give us power, love, and a purpose? Those characters don’t experience it, and I think that’s not the way to make movies.”
Cameron might be forgetting that Avengers: Endgame saw Robert Downey Jr.‘s Tony Stark grappling with his love of his daughter versus his ability to save the world — so much so that he initially turned Captain America down for a risky rematch with Thanos.
Regardless, this isn’t the first time Cameron took a shot at superhero movies. While admitting he does like them — and before he compared the upcoming Avatar films to The Godfather — Cameron griped to IndieWire in 2018, “I’m hoping we’ll start getting Avenger fatigue here pretty soon.”
He added, “Not that I don’t love the movies. It’s just, come on guys, there are other stories to tell besides hyper-gonadal males without families doing death-defying things for two hours and wrecking cities in the process. It’s like, oy!”
Avatar’s sequel, Avatar: The Way of Water, will splash into theaters December 16 from 20th Century Studios. The studio is owned by Disney, the parent company of ABC News — and, incidentally, of Marvel Studios.
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