James Cameron: Avatar didn't rip off Halo

By Tom Bramwell Published 12 January, 2010

Plus, he's considering more game ideas.

James Cameron has hit out at critics who claimed Avatar was reminiscent of Halo, joking that he invented the stuff Halo was ripping off in the first place.

"The funniest thing is when some of the so-called fanboys get up trashing Avatar for looking too much like Halo. Pay attention," he joked (hopefully) with G4, after a discussion about the debt games owe to Aliens.

"If I'm referencing anything, I'm referencing the source work for Halo, which is my own stuff. So I get to do that. Nobody else gets to do that, but I get to do that. My rule anyway."

Cameron also said that Avatar could have a life of its own as a game series even if he never got round to a film sequel, and that if it did he would hope to be involved.

He also said he was exploring ways to use some of his leftover story ideas outside of films, perhaps as new games with his friends at Ubisoft, who adapted Avatar. "Good ideas and good visuals are exactly that," he noted.

Check out our Avatar game review for more on Cameron's efforts so far. The film is now responsible the second-biggest worldwide box office haul of all time behind Titanic, apparently. Cor.

Picture of Tom.

About Tom Bramwell

Tom is Operations director of Eurogamer Network and Editor-at-Large of Eurogamer.net. He joined the company in February 2000.

Read more articles from Tom by visiting the Tom Bramwell archive page.

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Comments (46) Latest comment 2 years ago

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  • matrim83 #1 2 years ago

    Yep Avatar didnt rip off Halo. It did however rip off (quite blatantly infact) a lot of other stuff.

    I like the fact that he knows his Halo at least. :p

  • MaFlippinHeadHurts #2 2 years ago

    Hornets!

  • Johnson #3 2 years ago

    Linda Hamilton (his then wife): Success won't change Jim - he's always been a jerk.

  • photoboy #4 2 years ago

    Cameron is right.

  • JohnnyWashnGo #5 2 years ago

    Wait, I thought he ripped off the novel 'My Name is Joe' for Avatar?

  • Cherub007 #6 2 years ago

    I've played about half an hour of Avatar and it reeked of poor man's Mass Effect to me.

  • Doctor_What #7 2 years ago

    There were so many quotes from Aliens in Halo 3's script that it felt like I'd heard the whole thing before. It really did go beyond 'knowing nod' into the realm of 'utter rip off' as far as the writing style went.

  • creepylizard #8 2 years ago

    Which of his own films did he reference with that shite fest Avatar then? I can't think of any of his films that remotely resemble it..

  • Madafunkola #9 2 years ago

    I think we can all agree he ripped off Ferngully, Dances with Wolves and Pocahontas:
    http://fa ilblog.org/2010/01/10/avatar-pl...

  • Miths #10 2 years ago

    "... shite fest Avatar"

    Are you serious? It's one of my favourite movies of the last several years, and seemingly a pretty big hit with not only a large part of the regular audience, but also most professional reviewers (and movie reviewers, from news papers in particular, tend to be a rather jaded bunch, happily handing out one or two star ratings for action or sci-fi movies I've loved).

    Sure, Avatar was essentially just Dances With Wolves or Pochahontas with bolder colors and bigger guns (and definitely borrowing from Cameron's own Aliens as well), but when it's this well executed and phenomenally beautiful I really couldn't care less about originality.

  • stueyg87 #11 2 years ago

    Even still, how could he rip off Halo when Avatar has been the making for 10 years, whilst halo was only released in 2001? I'll let you's do the math
    Edited by 1 at 12/01/10 @ 09:43

  • Quint2020 #12 2 years ago

    I think people put them together all the time because of the colour palette used in both Halo and Avatar are VERY similar and to be fair Jim that wasn't "your rule".

  • schnide #13 2 years ago

    Halo doesn't rip off Aliens?

    Dropships? Pulse rifle imitations? Mouthy black sergeant? Oh please.

  • LHH #14 2 years ago

    Avatar isn't original? Meh, I'm off to play MW2 and Fallout 3

    So who are these so called critics that have obviously never seen Aliens?
    Edited by 1 at 12/01/10 @ 09:59

  • youhavenomail #15 2 years ago

    It's not like Bungie or Microsoft have made this claim. Jim himself notes that the accusations only came from some fanboys. The King of the World doesn't need to be mixing it with lowly scum.

  • Ninja_Tino #16 2 years ago

    @stueyg, Oh right, so after 2001 nothing at all was altered with the film. It's not about math, it's common sense.

  • optimusprym8 #17 2 years ago

    Visuals were awesome. Plot and characters read like they were written by a 19 year old generic stereotype. Oh wait...

  • BillyBrush #18 2 years ago

    He's going to Rip Off his shirt next.


    which will be a rip off of the chippendales.

    honestly there's not enough originality to go round these days.

  • Jesus: Action Figure #19 2 years ago

    *Everything* is influenced by 'Aliens'. Its reach really is incredible, over 20 years after it was made.

  • MENTAL1ST Verified Senior Software Engineer, Picsel UK Ltd. #20 2 years ago

    Avatar is a triumph is cobbling expert moviemaking and fantastic visuals around any old plot. "Jaded civilised guy is entranced by noble savages, falls in love and turns on his own". You can probably find plays with that plot in ancient Greece.

    What's in question here is the originality of production design. Frankly, both Halo and Avatar just cobble together bits of existing military tech to come up with slightly new variants. And that's exactly what Cameron's production design team did before for the dropships in Aliens.

    It reminds me of this...
    http://ww w.penny-arcade.com/comic/2006/4...

  • bodypopper #21 2 years ago

    "If I'm referencing anything, I'm referencing the source work for Halo, which is my own stuff"

    Is that Cameron admitting that most of Avatar is just blatantly rehashed bits of his old, better movies? I think so.

  • Kikizosan #22 2 years ago

    Hmm, why reference anything? Come up with something new.

  • TeaFiend #23 2 years ago

    Avatar was a good film technically (saw it in 3D). Storywise, eugh. Not that good.

  • mezzomorto #24 2 years ago

    To be honest Avatar reminded me more of the Night Elves in WOW than Halo

  • DPRBassman #25 2 years ago

    Referencing his own work, I never seen James Camerons Pochahontas.

  • AphoticCosmos #26 2 years ago

    Cameron's right.

    Avatar used some staples [dropships, bad-ass assault rifles, mech suits] of science fiction that he created and/or popularised in Aliens, and which Halo consequently ripped off.

    TBH, lots of modern sci-fi owes a debt to Cameron simply for Aliens. I mean he created the modern concept of space marines, for crying out loud.

  • The-Bodybuilder #27 2 years ago

    One fanboy war of halo
    another fanboy war of avatar

    What will you get when the 2 words collide? Let's find out.

  • The-Bodybuilder #28 2 years ago

    Why are some people here refereeing to the Alien series and its world as if James Cameron made it?

  • bad09 #29 2 years ago

    I thought he stole the idea from Dances With Smurfs?

  • Ninja_Tino #30 2 years ago

    Well, BodyBuilder, Alien and Aliens are very different films. All the aspects people are referring to: the marines; weapons; drop ships are all from Aliens and are not present in Alien. No one's referring to the actual creature or anything.
    Edited by 1 at 12/01/10 @ 11:51

  • presh #31 2 years ago

    A lot of Avatar seems like an early sci-fi novel called 'Deathworld' by Harry Harrison. Colonists find that planet is 'fighting against them' - including plants and animals. However, natives are unaffected, due to them living in 'harmony' with the planet. Off-worlder sees the problem and after taking the colonists side, takes side of the natives and in the end makes everyone see the error of their ways.

    http://en.wik ipedia.org/wiki/Deathworld

  • Markusdragon #32 2 years ago

    Media isn't created in a vaccum. It'll always be inspired by, or take after, or rip off something else, because that's how humans work; they get ideas from other people's ideas.

  • SpaceMidget75 Verified Senior Software Developer, Minerva Computer Services #33 2 years ago

    I've only just recently played Halo CE for the first time. Can someone tell me how the hell Avatar ripped off Halo? That's got to be one of the most tenuous links ever.

    Apart from the fact that the plots are COMPLETELY different, I don't remember many huge brightly coloured forests with brightly coloured creatures in Halo. (There was that one level at night which had trees in it)

    If we're talking about the machinery? Well that just reminded me of Aliens more than anything else, but this sort of design is becoming so generic nowadays that it's incredible blinkered for those, hopefully few, Halo fans to say he stole them from THEIR game.

    As most people have said the plot is basically Dances with Wolves, which in turn is Pocahontas. Nothing wrong with that as a plot and when its added to a Sci-Fi setting with great CG and crystal clear digital film I fucking loved it.

    'This ripped off this' conversions are pretty pointless to be honest. Everything has been done before to some extent. What really matters is whether you like it or not.
    Edited by 2 at 12/01/10 @ 12:54

  • secombe #34 2 years ago

    Hmm, why reference anything? Come up with something new.

    Firstly, with the way your mind works you're almost always likely to be inspired by something, sub-consciously or not.

    Secondly, it's pretty much impossible to do something entirely 'new', no matter how obscure something is, someone somewhere will find a book/film that has similarities. In fact, the more obscure something is, the more likely 'fanboys' are going to believe it's ripped off.

  • megurushi Verified Consultant, 2e2 #35 2 years ago

    @Madafunkola

    It's" Dances with Smurfs", not wolves :p
    http: //en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dances_with_Smurfs

  • SavageEvil #36 2 years ago

    Lol, yikes. Seems like some fanboy, emphasis on boy is actually too young to remember Aliens. Go figure, just goes to show how young the gamers are. Get that boy out of the house and back in school so he can learn to research before spouting off at the mouth.

    The rest of the rip off clan seriously, I mean seriously..."why doesn't he come up with something original?"?!? Hey it's not easy to come up with a story for such an expensive venture and make it so that you can get movie goers into the seats and stay for the duration of your brain child. I have done a little writing myself, believe you me it's inherently hard. Creating characters with some sort of depth, you'll begin to realize that it's not so easy. Let's make him and anti-hero, nope been done to death. How about a guy with a hero complex...shoot, dead horse there too. There are some incredible characters like Kaiser Soze in The Usual Suspects, but that's like one out of how many?!? It's going to be harder and harder to be completely original in storytelling, but how it's brought across hasn't been saturated as much.

    Saw the movie, it's an ok movie, not bad at all. Didn't think that it needed to be in 3D, majority of the movie looked fine without it, glasses suck as for fast action scenes they hurt your eyes. That first jungle outing with him being chased by that beast thing, sure didn't need that headache inducing scene.

    This movie has struck a nerve with a lot of folks, which is good and bad. check the news and see.

  • duckncover #37 2 years ago

    Actually if Avatar is a rip-off of Dance with Wolves and Pocahontas then it just goes to show how little our image of our military leaders has changed. Still power hungry, money focused, and driven by personal glory (or the fear of failure in a superiors eyes), that we would trample an entire native civilisation if it stood in the way of our petty goals.

    Not exactly much of a surprise as we've been doing it consistently for generations.

  • KommanderKlobb #38 2 years ago

    Pandora reminded a lot of Zangarmarsh. And given the technology and budget to create anything, it's a shame they couldn't do something (at least somewhat) new. And particular, the ending - I mean, c'mon, *another* battle between an alien and a mech suit?

    Still, great fun, like.


  • gjgjg #39 2 years ago

    story lines?

  • actionfitz #40 2 years ago

    I love Avatar and james Cameron Movies in general :)
    but had to post this as its hilarious imo. :p

    http://fa ilblog.org/2010/01/10/avatar-pl...

    ---
    bah, just saw its been posted already. ho hum.
    Edited by 1 at 12/01/10 @ 15:34

  • Wolverfrog #41 2 years ago

    He sounds a little arrogant.

  • callum9999 #42 2 years ago

    I loved the film (apart from the huge plot hole with the arrows and the gunships). I think the people saying it didn't need 3D just "missed" the effect, I did for most of the beginning (which surely is a good thing? People I know always moan about 3D is always gimmicky). Not a lot of things popped out of the screen, but it added a lot of depth "behind" the screen - something which is only really noticeable if you then watch it in 2D.

  • Slipstream #43 2 years ago

    I was expecting this article to reference the game, which is nothing like Halo anyway...but now seeing it's the film the fanboys are crying about, the claim is now even more rediculous!

  • Erebu #44 2 years ago

    And both rip off Robert A. Heinleins Starship Troopers

  • craziii #45 2 years ago

    god, I am surprise he isn't piss that his creation got compare to shit like halo.

    I guess everyone wants a piece of something so huge. there is a shit storm right now about it. I guess any and all form of attention + news generation is good.

  • kangarootoo #46 2 years ago

    Sweet jesus. I struggle to think of anything more pointless and boring than a discussion about who ripped off who.


    There is no such thing as new, there is only degrees of copying. FACT.
    Edited by 1 at 13/01/10 @ 13:20