Avatar: The Way of Water

The technical execution is of course perfect, if not more, but I think the first film had a better story because the ecological message suits Avatar a bit better than family values. It's possible that it will work the second time around, because I had a similar experience with the first film, but now it really took me a while to get my bearings on the new characters after the initial rushed "It Happened", and before I accepted, for example, the somewhat B-movie way in which the villain Quaritch and co. return. It’s a shame. Still, Avatar: The Way of Water is definitely a proper big movie that deserves to be seen in the cinema. “Only” that it isn’t perfect. (17/12/2022)

I felt a bit as if I was watching the second episode of a series. The beginning feels somewhat rushed and hurried, and the human dimension disappears from the whole Water Journey, as all the important protagonists are already blue (and they call humans Ape). Everyone is family with everyone, and humans are a threat symbolized only by technology destroying Pandora's natural resources. Cameron keeps the pace and narrates with clarity, but the characters often behave illogically, which I rationalised by the fact that they are aliens and when they are not they are assholes. The digressions into nowhere stretch out the runtime, and while it's clear that is Kira script-armoured to support future episodes, it takes away from the main point, which is fooling around with the Pandora equivalent of Willy and diving and exploring the water world and stuff. Each Sully kid has a story to tell at the expense of Sully and Mrs. Sully. Ironically the most interesting character is the Colonel exploring new physical possibilities. There are some scenes that are breathtaking, like crushing one's own skull, the spearmen, even making friends with a whale, but overall it's terribly long and I see more naive nerds than cunning heroes in the leads. Let's hope they wise up and that it will be back to a full rating in the third one. P.S: Horner is very much missed, RIP. There’s no nice new musical theme, just a variation of the old one. (20/12/2022)

The power of the family bond, the harmony between man and nature, the destruction of ecosystems for the purpose of monetisation. Cameron sends some important messages and quite clear appeals out into the world with Avatar 2, and he succeeds again, of course, and not only that. The new blues represent the visual benchmark of the modern blockbuster, and Cameron once again throws down the gauntlet to other filmmakers, blowing them out of the water for the umpteenth time in his spectacular King of the World career. Compared to the first one, the sequel is a technical evolution. It tweaks little details, upgrades the story setting, adds more imaginary "levels" and works with Stephen Lang's character in an interesting way. The second third is quite slow and the least entertaining, but the lavish and spectacular finale, like in the first, makes up for it. Apart from the technical aspects, there's nothing really groundbreaking or unique, but Cameron, as a lover of the planet, animals and especially the underwater depths, is passionate about his dream project and you can feel that he loves what he's doing and gives it his all, and that can't be said of every hitmaker in Hollywood. (11/02/2023)

James Cameron once again shows Hollywood who is the king of blockbuster movies. Despite its three-hour running time, Avatar 2 is entertaining from beginning to end, with breathtaking audiovisual and personal stories of old and new heroes at the ideal pace. Pandora is perhaps even more beautiful than last time, the newcomers are likeable, and Cameron keeps the pace from start to finish without a single flinch. And after thirteen years, he shows that he's still a long way ahead of most Hollywood filmmakers. (14/12/2022)

Less water, man, less water! I’m still a big fan of the first Avatar, which worked like a euphoric trip through another world thanks to its simple narrative structure involving a hero/outsider savior of the noble savages. The second one is essentially a drawn-out and shaky soap opera about a family run by a militant father who moves to a new ’hood and can’t get used to it. Let’s leave aside that Cameron paid significantly less attention to dramatic motivations than he did to the last fish below the surface. The whole film thus seems irrational and the dialogue, which was never Avatar’s strength, is even more ear-scratchingly pedantic. As an epic tech reel, however, the film is breathtaking and I truly, royally enjoyed the underwater National Geographic in HFR. There is something truly intoxicating in the smoothness and fluidity. Unfortunately, the film’s 192 minutes are emotionally stolen by a crippled humpback whale, which has the significant advantage that it doesn’t talk (and even its retrospective is not told smoothly). Yes, Cameron is a great craftsman and illusionist, but as a storyteller, he fails here significantly in my opinion. There is no development of the mythology to speak of, as everything is just a variation, the metaphor of nature as a loving entity is becoming more and more naïve and, honestly, I would like to spend less time waiting for the third one and the fire people after this aquatherapy. During the screening, I found it difficult to push away the thought that I would have preferred to enjoy some top-quality sci-fi, which Avatar decidedly isn’t! (03/01/2023)