James Cameron is always on the brink of revolution. Really, the dude needs to take a breather. At this year’s CinemaCon, the tech-centric director couldn’t shut up about 3D, faster frame rates and improved camera systems while everyone around him was salivating for a detail or two on his plans for the Avatar sequels. Forget that — there are shutter speeds to be discussed! We’re all about Peter Jackson hyping The Hobbit shooting 48 fps on RED digital 3D and legendary effects guru Douglas Trumbull heading back to directing with a tech-first approach, but at some point, isn’t the equipment standing in the way of great storytelling? We’ll give the benefit of the doubt to these three men, but whether any of their advancements are really “the future of movies,” won’t be known for a few years. Unfortunately, just because you’re brilliant and you say something is awesome…doesn’t mean it’s awesome. Here’s a look back at some of the other “game-changing” inventions that were supposed to change the way we watch movies, but never really picked up steam.

This editorial contains spoilers for Source Code and Moon. If you haven’t seen the movies yet, go check it out first before diving in. When I watched Duncan Jones’s sophomore effort Source Code, I couldn’t help but think about how much it resembles, nearly beat for beat in its structure, his first film Moon. This is not necessarily a criticism of Source Code or Jones, as repeated thematic occupations and narrative revisitation can be the sign of the auteur, and I’ve enjoyed both his films. But the films are, admittedly, structurally identical in several ways. Both involve a lone protagonist who discovers something unexpected about their identity that changes their relationship to their given tasks (Sam Bell realizing he is a clone in Moon, Captain Colter Stevens’s “near-death” state in Source Code), and combat some form of repression against a bureaucratic organizational body (a private corporation in Moon, military scientists in Source Code) while being assisted by an empathetic, benevolent subordinate of that organization (GERTY the robot in Moon, Vera Famiga’s Captain Goodwin in Source Code). But it is rather appropriate that both of Jones’s films be so structurally similar, for the major themes connecting them, and the narratives by which those themes are exercised, are enveloped in the topic of the repetitive structures of everyday life.

For a company with the motto “Don’t be evil,” it’s a bit ironic that Google is enabling TyRuben Ellingson to create weapons of mass destruction. Ellingson — the lead vehicle designer for James Cameron’s Avatar, whose credits also range from Battle: Los Angeles to Hellboy and Blade: Trinity — was singing the praises of Google Sketchup Tuesday night. While speaking at his undergraduate alma mater — St. Cloud State University — he praised Google’s free 3-D modeling software as an easy-to-use tool for creating conceptual designs, including the deadly powersuits used by humans to rain devastation upon the unfortunate Na’vi. Aside from ease-of-use, Ellingson noted the program is free which means that even you can start drawing things meant to kill other things in wonderful, violent ways. So, as countless people are out there using SketchUp to create detailed virtual cities, you’ve got Hollywood artists using it to create equally detailed city-vaporizing toys. Is anyone else fighting back the urge to burst into “The Circle of Life“ right now?

Most of the time I try not to revisit past boiling points. Once I get it out of my system, I like to pretend I’ve cast out the anger. This, however, is not true. The anger never subsides. No. It grows. Grows and grows and boils over again and again. Still, to keep things fresh, I try to point my anger in new directions. But sometimes thinks deserve a second chance. With that said, I’d like to take a second to just remind everyone that putting a big name on top of a movie is complete and utter horseshit.

Every week, Landon Palmer and Cole Abaius log on to their favorite chat client of 1996 as WaitingForGodard and FincherFan1984 in order to discuss some topical topic of interest. This week, the alleged story crisis in Hollywood. James Cameron thinks it exists, and the presence of a half dozen board game-based movies supports his theory, but are the studios really at a loss for words when it comes to infusing their spectacles with good stories?

It’s not necessarily a high one with Little Fockers (read our review), a film with deservedly little recommendation coming from critics, topping the box office charts. With less than a 15% drop from its first weekend, it was able to snake its way over True Grit, which did anything but bow out its second go at a weekend take. Both films led the charge on the final weekend of 2010/first weekend of 2011.

Re-releases are a tough business, I tell you. And this week is full of them. Be they the re-lighting of the old flame that still burns from Chaplin’s last trip as the Little Tramp or James Cameron’s twice released (this year) mega-event movie Avatar, This Week in Blu-ray is full of stuff that we’ve seen before, in various capacities. That doesn’t mean that some of these titles aren’t worth buying, as you might expect. A few of these titles will be welcomed additions to your collection. They may also have you cursing the names of faceless Fox executives who duped you into buying Avatar the first time around. Or Blu-ray column writers who recommended it, despite the obvious lack of special features… Actually, lets not focus on that last part. Why don’t we just move on to this week’s selection of high definition wonders.

Join us each week as Rob Hunter takes a look at new DVD releases and gives his highly unqualified opinion as to which titles are worth BUYing, which are better off as RENTals, and which should be AVOIDed at all costs. And remember, these listings and category placements are meant as informational conversation starters only. But you can still tell Hunter how wrong he is in the comment section below. This week sees two titles worth buying, and they’re both Criterion releases. Also out and worthy of your time or dismissal are A Christmas Carol, RoboGeisha, Best Worst Movie, The Kids Are All Right, an even longer cut of Avatar, and more.

There’s something mysteriously positive about the idea of shooting sequels back-to-back. It makes it seem as though the filmmakers have a definitive plan that will come together as a singular vision instead of a third film slammed into production by the machine despite almost no resemblance to the characters we fell in love with in prior installments. It seems that way, but it doesn’t always work that way. For each Lord of the Rings there’s a Pirates of the Caribbean. Now, James Cameron is tossing his ship out into the ocean to join those crews that went before him – promising that Avatar 2: Organically Electric Boogaloo and Avatar 3 will be shot together and released one year apart.

James Cameron has never been the kind of director to jump directly back on the bandwagon. After The Terminator in 1984, he went into outer space with Aliens (1986), then under water in The Abyss (1989) before coming back to make Terminator 2 in 1991. And after he hit big with Titanic, he refused to give the world the sequel it has always needed, leaving that task to The Asylum. So it’s a bit of a surprise to see Cameron talking loosely about immersing himself in the world of Avatar so soon — to the tune of the long-gestating novelization and not one, but two sequels. Then again, none of his previous films earned $2.73 billion at the box office. All of this talk comes from several interviews that Cameron has conducted in the lead up to the theatrical re-release of Avatar scheduled for August 27th. More on that after the jump.

Hollywood turned in its assignments early this week with releases on Wednesday and Thursday. Now Fat Guy Kevin Carr hands out his grades for the latest installment of The Twilight Saga and the big screen adaptation of Avatar: The Last Airbender.

Squeeeeee! Kevin and Neil run around the Magical Studio in the Sky without their shirts on, desperately trying to shape-shift into a werewolf so they too can be worthy of sickly-looking Bella Swan’s fickle infatuation… yet they still have a better time than they did when they saw The Last Airbender.

Alice in Wonderland is joining the club by grossing over $1 billion. Which highest grosser is your favorite?

This morning, Fox announced its 2010-2011 primetime schedule, adding to the onslaught of television news this week as networks release their upfronts. Making a good first impression for Fox was Terra Nova, a show that looks like an extension of Avatar.

Or How I Learned to Stop Worrying And Tolerate 3D.

It appears as if it doesn’t matter whether a studio includes a great deal of special features or not. If they release a movie that people want to see, people will buy it.

James Cameron’s epic love story Titanic has aged rather interestingly, to the say the least. First, there was a great amount of love. Then there was a bit of backlash. Now, we have 20/20 hindsight and a chance to chat with producer Jon Landau.

As you may know by now, James Cameron’s Avatar hit DVD and Blu-ray shelves yesterday in a big way. In fact, it sold so many copies that we don’t know if giving a few away we be a very popular thing. So we’ve sweetened the deal a little bit…

Avatar hit the streets today on DVD and Blu-ray. And what would usually be a great day of celebration as the highest grossing film of all-time rolls onto home video formats is marred by the quality of the release. We take a dive into the release to answer some all-important questions.

When James Cameron talks about his next project, we will always be listening. There is always necessity for tempered excitement though, as Cameron is not the sort of filmmaker who moves fast from project to project…