AVATAR 2: THE WAY OF WATER (2022)

[niennumb1]

I got to see the movie Saturday morning having had zero spoilers or knowledge of the basis of the film...

My honest take is this...

Back in 2009 when the first Avatar was released there was some groundbreaking things for cinema that were achieved. No doubt it set the stage for what was possible and what has since been brought into the world of VFX. That technology was pretty amazing to see and the story was good.

13 years later this sequel comes. We've seen really great things come along and with that my focus was on if the movie was good since my senses are pretty well numb at this point to VFX. I know what's possible and so my expectations are the visuals are going to be that they are very well done and nothing less. Avatar 2 is nothing short of technically wonderful execution from start to finish. There wasn't much to critique about anything being poorly done. Details and all the subtle things were so well executed. It's insane where technology has evolved and further bled the lines in practical and CGI.

That being said, viewing it as a movie (and not a visual spectacle), I just wasn't blown away. The pacing of the film was okay, but probably could have been a bit shorter, but it also wasn't boring. I also couldn't help, but think of Titanic during a couple scenes (I mean how can you not the way some of it played out?).

I look forward to the next chapter and hoping to see some good further character development, but as for Avatar 2 I don't think I could watch it all the way through again. I saw the first one in theaters a few times and really enjoyed it, but I think timing-wise this film is about 10 years too late and admittedly was not overly excited when the first trailer came out (the reaction being more like, "Ah okay cool. I guess we'll see what happens next."). We're at the point where anything is now possible and I just want to get hooked by an interesting story where the visuals help support the film and not be the entire film. Personally I don't think Avatar needed expanding and was good as-is.

So it's not garbage, but it's not exactly amazingly wonderful either.

 

[Malibu139]

I know it’s really early and this movie could blow up huge over the holiday week and beyond , but it opened behind the Multiverse of Madness?? And tied The Batman? What???
And…..” it’s only the sixth best opening ever for December, the month’s best non-MCU and non-Star Wars opening” That’s 3 lackluster Star Wars movies and a fantastic marvel movie that were not the “the movie event of a generation” films it fell behind.

I am going to wait and see. If it’s fizzling at the box office next week with big week over week drop off, I might take the fam to see it in imax…. Lol.

We can’t all have the great excuse that HMSwolfe had to see it.

 

[Tommy]

I know it’s really early and this movie could blow up huge over the holiday week and beyond , but it opened behind the Multiverse of Madness?? And tied The Batman? What???
And…..” it’s only the sixth best opening ever for December, the month’s best non-MCU and non-Star Wars opening” That’s 3 lackluster Star Wars movies and a fantastic marvel movie that were not the “the movie event of a generation” films it fell behind.

I imagine this is going to be a slow burn akin to the original; not sure a whole lot of conclusions can be drawn just yet, or even following this coming weekend where it's centered on Christmas Eve.

The opening figure is probably the result of a few factors: a long runtime limiting the number of available showings; fans who plan to see it waiting until they can make it to a 3D or IMAX offering; and perhaps most importantly, lacking baseline interest amongst the general public due to faded memories of 2009 and (in my opinion) underwhelming and arrogant advertising. But now that it's out and receiving at least a fair number of reviews describing the visuals as groundbreakingly stunning, I expect interest will rise. Whether it rises enough... who knows?

 

[Captain Dunsel]

I imagine this is going to be a slow burn akin to the original; not sure a whole lot of conclusions can be drawn just yet, or even following this coming weekend where it's centered on Christmas Eve.

The opening figure is probably the result of a few factors: a long runtime limiting the number of available showings; fans who plan to see it waiting until they can make it to a 3D or IMAX offering; and perhaps most importantly, lacking baseline interest amongst the general public due to faded memories of 2009 and (in my opinion) underwhelming and arrogant advertising. But now that it's out and receiving at least a fair number of reviews describing the visuals as groundbreakingly stunning, I expect interest will rise. Whether it rises enough... who knows?

Well…this is not too good of a look, I suppose.

 

[Tommy]

Well…this is not too good of a look, I suppose.

Eh. They were being a**holes. And I'd wager a good portion of those boos were coming from autograph-sellers bitter at missing out on a profit.

 

[Captain Dunsel]

Eh. They were being a**holes. And I'd wager a good portion of those boos were coming from autograph-sellers bitter at missing out on a profit.

Looked like it

 

[HMSwolfe]

Well…this is not too good of a look, I suppose.

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You see, as stupid as I find Avatar, I would never do this. Same with George Lucas and the prequels, I’d be more interested in talking with Cameron or Lucas about what they’d done that I do like.

 

[JediMichael]

So is it just me, or is James Cameron starting to look a little like Dennis Hopper's version of Bowser from the 93' Super Mario Bros film?.....minis the hair.

 

[Tommy]

You see, as stupid as I find Avatar, I would never do this. Same with George Lucas and the prequels, I’d be more interested in talking with Cameron or Lucas about what they’d done that I do like.

This is a worthwhile sentiment to keep in mind in a lot of ongoing discussions involving creators whose output is felt to have declined in quality.

If I ever meet Robert Zemeckis, I won't be thinking about the fact that his last film I enjoyed was 22 years ago. I'll be thinking "HOLY S**T it's one of the principle people who gave us Romancing the Stone, and Back to the Future, and Who Framed Roger Rabbit, and..."

I think this equally applies to Kathleen Kennedy. As much as I understand many fans' disappointment in recent Lucasfilm productions, she was still significantly responsible for giving us the original Indy trilogy, and E.T., and Hook, and Jurassic Park, and The Indian in the Cupboard, and The Sixth Sense, and A.I. So even if I'm not hugely thrilled with the latest Star Wars, or Indy 5, I still feel like on balance I owe her a debt of gratitude.

 

[bwayne64]

I hear there was a bit of a stink recently on the Twitterverse. Someone actually tweeted that Avatar 2 was guilty of cultural appropriation, LOL. Are there a lot of 9 foot tall, blue folks with tails running around ? I mean there's always some racist, misogynist, phobia complaints on every new film, but really ! This silliness knows no bounds. ; )

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[Funky]

If I recall correctly 3 is filmed, four and five are not.

This ****** is making MORE of these?! Amazing!

 

[TazMan2000]

TazMan2000

 

[Captain Dunsel]

I hear there was a bit of a stink recently on the Twitterverse. Someone actually tweeted that Avatar 2 was guilty of cultural appropriation, LOL. Are there a lot of 9 foot tall, blue folks with tails running around ? I mean there's always some racist, misogynist, phobia complaints on every new film, but really ! This silliness knows no bounds. ; )

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I love the times we live in.

 

[JediMichael]

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TazMan2000

Hits small bump in the road....Owwww, my back.

 

[bwayne64]

I love the times we live in.

Yea tell me about it. I don't think I could enjoy the 80s more than I did, but I wish I could go back and try, ; )

 

[edge10]

 

[Bigdaddy]

I hear there was a bit of a stink recently on the Twitterverse. Someone actually tweeted that Avatar 2 was guilty of cultural appropriation, LOL. Are there a lot of 9 foot tall, blue folks with tails running around ? I mean there's always some racist, misogynist, phobia complaints on every new film, but really ! This silliness knows no bounds. ; )

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I thought the article raised some salient points, worthy of discussion. Cameron's comments about the Lakota in the quoted interview are at a minimum ignorant and misguided, at worst offensive and inaccurate.

 

[CB2001]

Apparently, Cameron has let it slip it may be possible for a Terminator reboot to come to be (and has admitted to being in talks about doing one).

 

[batguy]

'Terminator' would be simple to reboot. Just make a few hard painful choices and it will work out fine.

Total clean-slate reboot + no Arnie + no more T2 remakes + write/plan out all the new movies ahead of time = an easy billion dollars.

But they probably won't do any of this. And they will cry about not getting their billon dollars.

 

[nickytea]

If I recall correctly 3 is filmed, four and five are not.

3 is in post, and he's shot a handful of scenes for 4 with the kids so they wouldn't age out. (Apparently there's a significant time jump at a certain point in 4.)