Avatar the way of the water
Seen December 2022
First Watch
💺Imax
Caught in Theatres
Reviews
Status
Quality (6)
Status
Enjoyment (6)
Status
Disappointment (1)
Score 57%
Thoughts
I think this movie made me feel literally nothing, the movie didn't particularly make me hate it or feel there were some very deep underlying flaws but also didn't do anything for me to love it.
Obviously the technical achievement on this film is incredible and it shows through, all of the shows look truly amazing and it is refreshing to see finished, polished cg instead of rushed Disney crap we've been getting - that said for me most of the time cg worlds or atmosphere don't do anything. I would say the batman looked 10-100k better and more visually appealing to me.
But again want to reiterate, the fact that the blue people aren't jarring or don't take you out of the film at all is an incredible achievement.
Story has always been avatars weakest suit and I think it is quite a bit worse here than the original.
Things I live
- The first 30 or so mins are great, till they move to the reef people everything works for me.
- The colonel works for me, he was extremely mid/bland in the original and way more interesting here - probably the best part of the movie
- There is an idea/theme of fatherhood that kinda runs through the movie
Basically everything else didn't really work, I think they had to go much deeper and cut with the theme/idea of fatherhood with both Jake and the colonel - this was the only real theme they had.
While the water stuff looks incredible and the intelligence whales are interesting, the learning about this world section isn't done nearly as well as last time - somehow it feels rushed and progression/struggle aren't as clear for anyone.
I'm okay with the idea of a person conflict between the colonel and jake as the main conflict of this movie as it would have been hard to top the scale of the fight from the original - here tho I think the lack of care for Jake and his family is what doesn't care this.
Casting/Other Nitpicks
- I think Sam Worthington not being great shows again, he is fine but there should be a better lead
- Sigourney Weaver coming back as a kid is kinda cool and works in many places but there definitely scenes you can tell a 60 year old is playing a teenager
- It is interesting that Zoe salanda the best and best known cast member is used quite sparingly in this movie
- Kinda weird that everyone knows fluent English now and only Zoe Salanda doesn't
- Kinda weird how easy it is for the colonel and his squad to learn the ways of the na’vi without anyone to guide them
Overall agree with the idea above, pandora is what is interesting not the sullys and we should just see different stories in pandora from different peoples perspective in different times- don't need the sullys
I largely feel about this movie how I felt about Avatar 3-4 weeks ago, but less cause none of the child like technical marvel. There is a part of me that wants to see it again so maybe I can be wowed by it, and there is a part of me that never wants to see an avatar movie again.
Somehow over the last 3-4 weeks, between friends, video essays and my own rewatch I grew a small bit of appreciation for Avatar and some excitement for this
Theatre Experience
I saw this in imax, one of the normal imax theatres I go to. The visual and sound were decent but it didn't do anything to blow me away. Not sure if the 3d was just kinda mid in the movie or the imax theatres 3d wasn't good but I wasn't wowed by 3d at all - of course it has been ages and nostalgia does weird things but I remember being incredibly wowed by the 3D as a 9 year when I saw the original
The theatre was full but the crowd had almost no reactions to anything