James Cameron says he cut 10 minutes’ gun violence in Avatar The Way of Water ‘to get rid of some of the ugliness’

At least 10 minutes of gun violence was cut down from the new Hollywood film Avatar: The Way of Water, filmmaker James Cameron said. The new Avatar film is raking huge numbers at the box office worldwide, and has been running successfully in theatres across the globe for two weeks now. (Also read: Avatar 2 VFX supervisor Pavani Rao Boddapati interview)

Avatar: The Way of Water is one of the most expensive movies ever made. James had said that the film needs to take in at least $2 billion in ticket sales to make money. He recently also spoke about why he had to edit out gun violence in the film.

“I actually cut about 10 minutes of the movie targeting gunplay action. I wanted to get rid of some of the ugliness, to find a balance between light and dark. You have to have conflict, of course. Violence and action are the same thing, depending on how you look at it. This is the dilemma of every action filmmaker, and I’m known as an action filmmaker,” James told Esquire Middle East.

He added, “The first film has the good guys and the bad guys seemingly equally opposed, and then the good guys get crushed and defeated and many of the heroes die. Then there’s this almost ‘deus ex machina’ where Jake invokes the forces of nature — a ‘deus ex machina’ I think is earned by the way. The second film doesn’t work that way at all. The battle is not even a battle, it’s a rout. It’s the revenge of the Na’vi and the Tulkun. The real challenge, and the real defeat, and the thing that must be recovered from, happens after the battle,”

The first Avatar made almost $3 billion at the global box office. The sequel has crossed the $1 billion mark worldwide in just 14 days. However, the original 2009 film still remains the highest grossing film of all time.

The film follows the story of indigenous Na’vi humanoid race that inhabits the Pandora moon and its colonisation threatens them. Hindustan Times’ review for the film said, “Avatar: The Way Of Water is a stunning spectacle that is mounted by a passionate filmmaker who knows exactly how to mould action and emotion together for an enjoyable time at the movies.”