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SYFY WIRE Aquaman

James Cameron liked Aquaman, but says he never could've made it

By Josh Weiss
Aquaman sharks

There's no denying that James Wan blew all of our expectations out of the water (pun intended) with Aquaman. A lot of that had to do with the CGI, which delivered dinosaurs, Kraken-like monsters, fish-people, and the illusion of being underwater without the use of thousands of gallons of water.

James Cameron, who used lots and lots of H2O for Titanic, was asked about his thoughts on Aquaman. Being a pioneer in the field of pushing cinematic special effects to their fullest potential, the Avatar director admitted that while he found the film enjoyable, he never could have made it himself because it breaks too many rules of the natural world. 

“I think it’s great fun,” he said during a chat with Yahoo! Entertainment. “I never could have made that film, because it requires this kind of total dreamlike disconnection from any sense of physics or reality,” he admits. “People just kind of zoom around underwater, because they propel themselves mentally, I guess, I don’t know. But it’s cool! You buy it on its own terms.”

As some have pointed out, the soundbite could hint that Cameron is paying a backhanded compliment to the superhero movie, which recently became the highest-grossing DC movie in box office history. Sure, parts of Aquaman are silly, but last we checked, a lot of the stuff in Avatar wasn't possible in our reality, either. Besides, science fiction is meant as a fun escape, not a boring university lecture on physics.

Thankfully, when it comes to sci-fi, we call agree there's room for both types of projects and still get along.

An Aquaman sequel is already in the works with the original writer, David Leslie Johnson-McGoldrick. A spinoff centering around the Trench kingdom is also on its way.

Alita: Battle Angel, which Cameron co-wrote and produced, opens in theaters Friday.