James Cameron is a director I'll always respect. I mean, the guy knows how to make a film from a business standpoint. I think that's admirable, to a degree. As far as AVATAR is concerned, I enjoyed it for what it was. And in a world where studios are trying to launch franchises left and right, no franchise feels more forced (from a story perspective) than Avatar. The movie is the highest grossing of all time, so that's all the studios need to pump out three more sequels. That's obviously all Disney needed to start construction on a Pandora section of Disney's Animal Kingdom, and it's all Cirque Du Soleil needs to team up with Cameron and create some sort of Avatar themed show. There aren't many details now, except that the show will tour in late 2015, before the sequels hit theaters.
I'm actually not one to bash AVATAR, but I'm awfully curious to see how its sequel will do. The end of the first left many wondering where they could take it without repeating some of the story elements from the original. If AVATAR 2 flops (unlikely), where would that leave its sequels? On the other hand, the last time James Cameron did a sequel, we got TERMINATOR 2: JUDGMENT DAY. I don't know if you've seen that, but it's pretty cool.
Again, the Avatar-themed Cirque Du Soleil show will tour late 2015, with AVATAR 2 looking at a December 2016 release, AVATAR 3 in December 2017 and AVATAR 4 in 2018.