Avatar: The Way of Water 2022
I remember really liking the first movie and seeing it in 3D. I knew a sequel was coming and I have had Disney Plus for 3 years where it was free in 4k and never watched the movie again. So I don’t remember a lot of what happened in the first movie. For this movie I watched again in 3D, having heard that there was some great 3D work, but the movie was overly long. Yes, the 3D is good, but everything looks kind of cartoony, like a more realistic version of The Polar Express. Mouth movements and skin textures are off, partially hidden by the fact that these are aliens. The plot kind of grinds along as there is friction in the family and evil humans have come back to this moon to cause destruction and try to kill the hero of the last movie. So it is mostly a downer, but the 3D stuff is good. I thought maybe this is like going to a piece of art film, 4k demo, or one of those 4D rides at an amusement park where you aren’t really there for the story, but to be amazed by the imagination and effects. But the story is an anchor that drags you deeper and deeper into misery. I finally left after a particularly gratuitous scene of inhumanity involving sentient whale creatures knowing I was barely over halfway and it was looking like it was about to get worse. It is just laid on too thick how evil men are, a greatest hits of atrocities: genocide, environmental destruction, whaling, greed, war. If you don’t see enough of those in the real world, then this is for you. At some point I decided that the thin plot and repetitive story just weren’t worth the time investment of slogging through James Cameron’s preachy and monochromatic view of good vs evil. He can make as many of these as he wants, I‘m already done. It is a little unfair to give this movie an F since I didn’t see the whole thing. Until I got to that one scene that pushed me over the edge, it was probably around a B- or C, and many people seem to really like the movie. But because I walked out, that’s the ultimate fail for me, so I feel like I need to give it the same grade I gave Aquaman, the last movie I walked out of: F.
Written: 22 Dec 2022