The movie is BEAUTIFUL, and if you're looking for an action movie I definitely recommend it. However, if you're an actual fan of Avatar 1, you will be disappointed.


Overused plot twists : [spoiler] bad guys that come back to life (terminator like), a boy raised by the Na'vi that is actually the son of the bad guy (jungle book / star wars like) [/spoiler]


Remakes of scenes from the first movie : [spoiler] Jake riding sea horses for the first time and falling, his son becoming friend with the most dangerous animal, Colonel getting his own flying pet... [/spoiler]


The apparition of useless characters : [spoiler] Spider (he hated his dad and then he decided to save him?) , the Earthers who stayed from the 1 (they just appear 10 seconds to help Jake's daughter), the female colonel who brings nothing to the plot, Neytiri's mother who appears for 5 seconds maybe... [/spoiler]

The lack of character development : they pretty much have 1 personality trait at the start and don't really grow from there, which is very different from the first movie - [spoiler] the colonel still hates the Na'Vis even after learning their language and getting his Banshee, Neytiri hates Spider from the beginning, the relationship between Jake and his sons... [/spoiler]

Lastly, and this is what frustrates me the most : the many stories started that do not have an end - [spoiler] how did the Earthers have time to go back to Earth and come back to Pandora in 10 years? Why is Kiri able to control Eywa? How is humanity planning to move to Pandora?...[/spoiler]

Overall, I would recommend the movie if you decently liked the 1st one and want to stay in the same universe. But if you are looking for an actual sequel with a great plot and story / character development, be prepared to be disappointed.

The movie is visually stunning, and the world-building is incredible, but the plot is plain at best. Some plot points that should have been epic end up feeling cliché and predictable. The stop-aging serum is too on your face to resonate as a pertinent social commentary. We expect the whale hunter to his left arm almost as soon as he appears on screen, but that no longer feels poetic when it actually happens. And, the rejection of the outcasts is as standard as it could be.

However, my biggest issue with the movie is the characters. Most of them are unlikable, flat, and static. The emo girl who feels like an amalgamation of every teen character Winona Ryder has done before. The golden boy with no other personality trait. The middle child feels like he is disappointing everyone. The little sister serves as a comedy relief. And the wife who sacrifices what she knows to support her husband. It plays out like a collection of stock characters got released on Pandora. Diminishing all the momentum created by the world-building and the cinematography.

Pandora, for a community that is all about balance and spirituality, they have a very rigid social structure. At the begging of the movie, Zoe Saldaña's character begs her husband to stay home and fight. But he convinces her to run away instead... Three hours later, she loses her son and community and has been living as a refugee. It's then that Sam Worthington's character says he now knows better and they should stay and fight. It feels misogynistic and makes the plot meaningless as we finish where we started. But now he got the idea of defending themselves all by himself, not from a woman. The worst part may be how little the Sully clan cares about Spider. A human that loves the Na'vi and sees them as family. He is loyal to them under extreme circumstances. Yet, none of the Sully spends a second of their time thinking about him. He has every reason to betray them, yet he never does.

Despise the flaws, the movie is a visually immersive adventure that makes Pandora feel alive and very real. Definitely worth the trip to the movie theater.

Avatar the way of water is spectacular and fluffy cotton candy. It gives you a sugar high. The first time of it was memorable too. But you can't substitute it for a meal the second time around.

The way of water has come after 13 years. A lot has changed since then. It was a trendsetter for visual design and effects in 2009. In 2022, the visuals continue to look stunning and do enthral as much as they can, but the long runtime, lack of a compelling story and many of the typical Hollywood tropes suffocated the air out of me by the end of it, [spoiler]even the titanic-esque escape sequence could not save me. [/spoiler]

The sky people (humans) were exiled from Pandora at the end of the first movie. But naturally, they return. [spoiler]Along returns an old baddy, Colonel Miles Quaritch. He has been reanimated by the same memories, probably taken at the last restore point. This makes him a skin like Cylons from Battlestar Gallactica. You don't take this path lightly. A technology like this (think Agents from the Matrix) gives whoever holds this tech an immense advantage. It is also a very strong storytelling clutch because the deaths don't mean much then. This choice brings the franchise one level down from the previous film. [/spoiler]

The first time is the charm. The novelty wins half the battle. Look at the human species as the invaders, a diametrically opposite viewpoint from the conventional Mars Attacks, War of the Worlds or Independence Day. A paraplegic marine getting to walk again, is one of the strong motivators even if not directly alluded to. A hive mind sort of intelligence shared across the planet in which you can jack in. Jumping in and out of Avatar bodies. All these things were new in 2009. I saw the 2009 trailer again now. Say that movie would have been released today, it would still have been successful. After 190 mins of runtime, the sequel has nothing new to offer in terms of story or worldbuilding and that does not sit well.

We are introduced to a new reef tribe the Metkayina. instead of flying they swim, and often go underwater. Like the spirit tree of souls of the first one, they have the cove. Like Toruk from the first one, we have Tulkun. There are slight variations here and there, but nothing fundamentally new. Jake and Neytiri have a family now, five trusted conventional Hollywood archetypes.

On a plus side, there are a few memorable set pieces. The raid on the train and the final sea battle provide the adrenaline shots needed. Then there is the whole whaling set piece which just tugs at your heartstrings. It is hard to forget that.

Cameron originally planned for it to finish by 2014. But the technology for underwater motion capture wasn't ready. I think they quickly whipped up a sequel storyline way back in 2009-2010 without a lot of thought and kept waiting for the tech to catch up. That resulted in a marvellous-looking end product, which was arduous to film, but it does not leave a lasting impact.

Kate Winslet, like other cast members, had to learn free diving for this film. She managed to hold her breath underwater for 7 mins for one of the scenes. The efforts are all there. It must have been a painstaking journey to make this one of the costliest films ever to be produced. So I don't undermine the efforts but as an uninitiated movie-goer, these efforts don't translate into the high Cameron was expecting. The way ARPANET, a research project, paved the way for the internet as we know it, Cameron's second Avatar film will advance the technology for films with underwater motion capture.

I might be one of the outliers, as the movie seems to be doing quite well across the globe. It is a five-film project so it needs to continue doing good for much more time to stay viable.

The lack of a strong story to power these visual engines will be felt stronger and stronger as the franchise progresses. Just the visuals could carry a film in 2009. In 2022, we have already seen powerhouses in all departments, the likes of Dune in 2021, or even about a decade ago, Interstellar. Without a strong compelling substance of a story, this blue cotton candy may crumble and fall.

Avatar: The Way of Water is a visual spectacle from start to finish. The scenery, cinematography, and CGI constantly had a smile on my face, but is it enough to carry the film?

While the previous entry had its fair share of story-related problems, the sequel corrects most of my issues and delivers a heartfelt family story. The main improvement from the first entry is character development. I had a genuine emotional connection with the Sully family and was invested in their safety. These feelings created some genuine tension when any of the family members were in danger, I felt my body tense up as I waited to see what the conflict's conclusion would be, which is a gigantic improvement from the first film where I could not care less who died or survived.

The return of Stephan Lang as Colonel Miles Quaritch brought the overly campy villain back to the screen in a bad way. Quaritch is a caricature of a "villain" where his actions and attitude are evil for the sake of being the bad guy. His anger toward Jake Sully does seem a little bit more believable hear as his previous self was murdered by him, but the over-the-top theatrics are just too much for me.

Another aspect of the story that did not feel right to me was the children constantly disobeying their parents for the sake of plot progression. Countless times, Jake Sully's kids would do the opposite of what they were told, leaving them in a vulnerable state to be captured. This danger forced Jake Sully to constantly expose himself and help draw the threat ever closer to his family. The moments that result are great as we get to see the dichotomy between Jake being a father and his militaristic background. This is at the heart of the story and worked for me.

I was surprised to see how well-paced the film was despite its over three-hour runtime. There are some pretty slow parts, specifically the second act, but the visuals and the character journeys that happen during these parts are so interesting that they didn't impact me negatively; I was just happy to see new and beautiful aspects of Pandora.

The performances were fantastic throughout. It is a testament to both the actors/actresses and also the technology that can display such complex emotions and visual nuances on entirely CGI creatures. Sigourney Weaver was a highlight with Kiri, who was at the forefront of the entire film. To be completely honest, I did not even know she was played by Weaver; the mix between her performance and voice modulation created a compelling 14-year-old girl that was a huge part of the story. Sam Worthington was incredible and Zoe Saldana was perfect. Saldana does so much acting with her facial expressions as Ney'tirl, which is on display during many emotional scenes her character goes through. She was a bit sidelined during this film, but when she was on screen, she was impactful.

Avatar has some incredibly heavy themes at play. One of the strongest and most relevant messages was anti-poaching. I mention this because there was such a hard scene in this movie that had me on the verge of tears. It was something I'd never seen in the film; it was both beautiful in the brutality it displayed and the emotional response of the Na'vi.

Overall, this movie is deserving of the hype and needs to be seen on the biggest screen available. James Cameron delivered on the 13 years build-up to the sequel and has gotten me excited for the three sequels planned for the next decade.

Score: 88%
Verdict: Excellent

Like, how am I supposed to watch movies that take place on earth now??

Now that I’ve seen Avatar the way of water… it feels a bit… strange. I expected to be overwhelmed but the scale and scope of the film, I expected to have a good headache. But none of that happened. I have a very different feeling… I feel… Proud. Proud knowing that my faith in this film payed off. Proud that this film was indeed epic. Its not a perfect movie and I do have my flaws. But this film gave me about everything I could ask for when it comes to a movie going experience, this deserves to make serious money at the box. James Cameron said in his interviews that he is the ONLY person that could direct an avatar film, and the internets response was “James… Chill”, here’s the thing, he was right. I cannot imagine another director doing something like this. Everything you love from Cameron is here, Terminator 2, Titanic, etc.
This was the best looking movie I’ve ever seen.. and no other film will match this in the future that isn’t an Avatar sequel. The VFX on the characters and creatures was perfect, no problems whatsoever. Sometimes some landscapes might have looked a little off, but the worst looking shot in this movie still looks better then almost every other CGI heavy action film. The underwater sequences was awe inspiring, I could’ve watched the underwater sequences in this film forever. the amount of work put into the underwater sequences definitely paid off. At first I wasn’t so sure about 48fps, during the first 20 or so minutes, I thought I would be detracted the whole time, but I wasn’t, I adjusted about half an hour in, and was completely emerged into a film like I never have before.
The action in this movie was insane, the action was always at and 11 out of 10. You felt the scale, the weight, the stakes.
Like I said, this wasn’t a perfect film. When the movie started, I was so sure about how I would feel about this movie. It starts voiceover heavy and with lots of quick cuts as if a lot has been cut from the film within the opening, Im sure there will be an extended cut to this, and I’m curious if it will add to it. The dialogue in the first film was the best, and this film does have stronger dialogue. But there are still a couple scenes where it did feel a little off, but it was mostly with the younger characters. As it wasn’t Constant, it was just like a line here to there every 20 minutes or so. While, I did say that the opening needed a little more to it, there are chucks in the middle that didn’t need to be there, and was just there to be eye candy, but it wasn’t really a big issue with me, Cause it was some of the best eye candy ever put on film.
I’m tired of people complaining about the story to these avatar films, it feels like people put the plot to these movies on a unrealistic standard. The plot here is basic, and yeah, it might feel a little to basic at Times. But I don't really think it was something worth mentioning critically.
Overall, this was a perfectly crafted film with a pretty good script, that provided a theater experience I’ll never forget.

9.3/10