Movie Details
| Title: | Avatar: The Way of Water | |
| Director: | James Cameron | |
| Year: | 2022 | |
| Genre: | Fantasy | |
| Times Seen: | 1 | |
| Last Seen: | 03.27.23 |
Other Movies Seen By This Director (3)
- The Abyss
- Avatar
- True Lies
| Date Viewed | Venue | Note |
| 03.27.23 | Internet | I know I'm insulated in the bubble of my own taste, but did this movie really make that much money? I feel like those numbers are the result of bot farms or something. I haven't really heard anyone say anything about it. I know the first film had a kind of rabid fanbase of people who'd watch it over and over again to pretend that Pandora was a real place where they could live, did those same people live in the theaters for this one? I don't really get it. Uhh, I found this movie to be like a video game that someone else was playing. The visuals were very pretty and the water effects were... basically I have no idea how they did anything because the water looked real even when the landscape or plants or characters didn't, which was rare. I'm sure it was even better in the theater so maybe anyone who had any interest in this made a point to go out to see it and that's why it made so much money. I saw the first one in IMAX 3D and pretty much my only memory of it after all these years was that I stopped noticing the 3D after a half hour and that I didn't like the villain character. Well, probably a mistake but I made a point to wait on this one until I could watch it at home. Without the 3D or IMAX screen it was still pretty but not distractingly so. I also heard that some theaters had like a variable frame-rate? like the actions scenes sped up to 60 or 120fps then slowed back down to 24 for dialogue scenes? That would annoy the hell out of me. Unfortunately, with this ability to admire the visuals but still pay attention to other elements like story, I was, well, in parts I was bored. I think at my lowest interest level, I checked the time and found I was only half way through the movie. Thankfully, stuff started blowing up which got me through an hour or so but by the end I was very ready for it to be over. Practically all of my problems are story related, so I'm dipping into spoilers from here on out. The gist is that I didn't love it. SPOILER ALERT Ugh. I mean, are these even spoilers? The story was practically the same as the first movie, or at least what I remember of it. Space people bad, blue people good. Industrialists threaten the balance of nature, natives fight back, win battle, leave it open ended enough for a sequel. It's just water instead of floating mountains and jungle. Oh, except the one-note villain who died at the end of the first movie is brought back as a friggin clone even more one-note than before. It doesn't even make sense why he'd still care to hunt this guy. It seemed like when they went into hiding, the resistance guerilla attacks stopped, so... what's the problem? He's obviously not there still leading attacks on supply lines or whatever. But he's a clone with memories of hatred toward this guy and he finds out that they killed him (side note: what does it say when your clone crushes the skull of yourself? Nuance? Depth? Humanity?) so I guess I can accept the personal vendetta, but requisitioning a fantasy whaling ship? Burning hooches like it was Nam? It seems like he's got about 400 soldiers under his command hell bent on taking out one dude and his wife. Better scan the entire planet for airship activity on the off-chance that he's hiding 400 clicks away. Maybe Jake Scully must be eliminated because he's the only navi with facial hair? I don't get why they gave him shave-face when everyone else is play-doh blue. Other than that, there is no real story. It's basically whatever basic familiar thing can get us from one set piece to another, but the set pieces are familiar. He's gotta bond with an ornery animal again, and he's gotta go to the world tree again and they're gonna attack a huge ship with mech-suits again in order to defend a different super-rare natural resource. I'd say the only new element are these fantasy whales but that whole sequence is super strained by basically setting up the rules and lore of them IMMEDIATELY before cashing those chips in, like in the very next scene. And then there's the subjective drownings at the end and a by-all-accounts stretch to keep the villain alive for the next one. It's just all so bland. But pretty. The creature design reminded me a tiny bit of the Subnautica games. There's no doubt that the world itself is pretty and again the animation and visual effects work is top notch, but is that surprising? I just think this movie is exactly what I thought it would be, like to the point where I'm actually not sure I needed to watch it. |
