Avatar 2: James Cameron Slams People Who Complain about 3-Hour Movies

Peter Jackson may be able to get away with making 3-hour epics with the Hobbit movies, but today it feels like anything that is longer than 2-and-a-half hours will be met with complaints from audiences. With Avatar: Way of the Water said to be having a runtime of three hours long, director James Cameron has something to say for anyone planning to complain about the film.

He tells Empire:

“I don’t want anybody whining about length when they sit and binge-watch [television] for eight hours… I can almost write this part of the review. ‘The agonisingly long three-hour movie…’ It’s like, give me a fucking break. I’ve watched my kids sit and do five one-hour episodes in a row.”

Though Cameron has no intention to shorten the film, he does add, “Here’s the big social paradigm shift that has to happen: it’s okay to get up and go pee.”

I just love it when directors call the audience out on their bullsh*t. Usually the protocol is to act nice and play well with the audience and critics—who seem to have no rules of etiquette of their own—but when they have some concise criticism for the hypocrites, I just love to watch it. You can imagine my satisfaction whenever someone whose worked on a Star Wars has harsh words to say to the rudest fans.

Hopefully Avatar 2 will be engaging enough not to tire audiences out with its runtime. If anything, it is alright to take a bathroom break, I guess; or just don’t drink a thing before your screening.

Avatar: The Way of Water comes to theaters on Dec. 16.