Gorgeous animation with a mediocre plot. About what I expected. 7-8/10. If you liked/disliked the first one, you’ll like/dislike this one.
Watched it last Thursday night, enjoyed it for the most part. Visuals are really stunning and the action sequences are all pretty great. Story is so-so, I could have done without the "spider" kid since he took me out of the movie every time he popped up. Overall I thought it was a solid B+ primarily because of the big time filmmaking that Cameron delivers, the effects and action really put the superhero stuff to shame. Cameron really loves the visuals because there were a ton of "wow" sequences where scenes didn't really serve a purpose outside of showing off how great everything looks, they could have trimmed a couple of those off IMO......
Thorias basically captures my feelings on the movie Trying to figure out if I saw a single animal that would be called "spider" on that planet How did he get that nickname. . . . . Rocket River
I read something about people waiting to watch it on sold out IMAX screens which dipped into overall sales. Sure, maybe? The first Avatar was good but people kept going back because the 3d was such a novel concept at the time. The visuals on the big screen were amazing, the story was ok. Sounds like this is similar but I’m not watching it anytime soon.
Yes and it doesn't have much in the way of real competition for a good while.... James Cameron’s “Avatar: The Way of Water” is set to dominate box office charts in its second weekend. After taking in a very healthy $16 million on Monday following its $134 million opening debut, the film is set to pass the $500 million mark worldwide by today and should hit the $1 billion mark by year’s end. Now, Variety is reporting that over the Christmas weekend, the film is projected to decline by around only 40-50% from its debut which would see ticket sales sit in the $67-80 million range. The film is also expected to continue posting big numbers during the days leading up to Christmas. https://www.darkhorizons.com/avatar-puss-to-duel-at-xmas-box-office/
First viewing in Dolby 3d last week felt slow in the middle with choppy editing as my only 2 negatives but I loved it. Saw it imax3d and this time the film overall didn't feel like 3 hours and the 2nd act was necessary and came away thinking there was nothing to cut out of the film. I love it just as much as the first if not more. Anyone know what happened to imax at edwards marquee on i10? They were the only real imax in Houston. The rest are digital with drop off in quality and screen size. Edwards imax seems to have disappeared from every app and search for tickets. I last saw Dune there and it was amazing. Dolby is better than liemax or Digital imax.
Saw it in Hong Kong with my dad and my dad who's not a big movie fan summed it well when he said the first one was better. This movie pretty much fits the Cameron ouvre. It looks amazing and there are some really beautiful shots. The creatures and the underwater world does suck you in but the plot and the acting is severely lacking. The first Avatar benefitted by the need to give more exposition explaining the world and culture of the N'avi. That helped to fill in the story and more importantly give a great actor, Signourney Weaver, a lot more to do. Since this is a sequel there wasn't much time spent on that kind of exposition. Instead it was filled with mushy family and eco-stuff. Even though it introduces a new N'avi culture very little of that culture is expressed by the members of the culture. Instead the focus is on the Sully family. We get it the message of the movie is family is important. It doesn't hold together though when the wonderful effects can't make up for how wooden the dialogue and acting is. This is one of my biggest pet peeves of the original Avatar. The humans have orbital space ships and ships that can both fly in the atmosphere and to orbit. Why the hell would you then decide to launch a low altitude bombing mission in an area that neutralizes your technical advantages and plays to the strengths of the enemies? It was so stupid to fly your orbital shuttle to shove a bomb out at an altitude where pteradactyls with tribesman with arrows can reach you. One of Cameron's characters in an earlier movie said it best. "Nuke them from orbit. It's the only way to be sure". This movie basically does the same thing again. Spoiler OK they have a big whaling hydrofoil that they're using to hunt whales. You don't need to use that to track down Jake Sulley and more importantly to fight the locals. They still have copters and those orbital shuttles. Why risk engaging the enemy at close range in boats and minisubs fighting through kelp forest when at the minimum you can bomb and strafe them from air or orbit? At the minimum you can use over the horizon missiles. Not even the Russians in Ukraine fight this stupidly. On top of that if the humans have enough genetic and bioengineer capabilities to create N'Avi avatars clearly they have a very good knowledge of N'Avi biology. If you want to take out the locals without risking human lives just engineer a pathogen that specifically wipes out the N'Avi. Cameron wants his big hand to hand to battles and in Aliens it makes sense because they are marooned unable to get to orbit. Here it just makes the humans seem so stupid and not as big of a threat than what they should be. This is where some more thoughtful writing could've worked. You could put in more reasons why the humans can't just wipe out the N'Avi such as that since Pandora is all interconnected wiping out the N'Avi would destroy the rest of the resources of Pandora.
Definitely! Easily most stunning 3D movie ever made. It runs at higher frame rate and it's almost as if you're in the world itself. Not one 3D movie has ever managed to do that as much as this one did. For me this movie is easily 9 out of 10, if only for the simple fact how dedicated Cameron and the actors were for this project. And it shows. The level of detail that went into this is simply stunning. It gets a bit slow right in the middle and there's some stuff right at the end that could've been done a bit better, but what movie is 100% spot on to everyone's liking? In this day and age, it's rare to get this kind of quality in the theatre and something outside of the generic super hero bullshit. I love how Cameron paced this, even if the years since the original could've used a good 10 more minutes to be shown off to get into it again, but him taking the time to allow for individual characters to get their shine and show their struggles and connection to the new surroundings was well done. Yes some parts of the story are cliche, but at this point what can you do that would make something truly unique? There's only so many ways to tell a story and you're not going to get something groundbreaking with every single part of the story. I think what he's done visually and in the connection to nature, culture, animals is already unique enough. So cliches are going to happen and shouldn't be held against him. It should be about how it comes about, even if done a million times, and I'd argue that is still good enough to convey the point. There's the beautiful cinematography, but pair that with a lot of emotion, heartfelt acting and a gorgeous score and you have a job well done in selling it. I do think @rocketsjudoka is onto something with telling and showing the culture maybe a tad bit much through Sully's family, but I wouldn't say it's just through them. And frankly, if Cameron wanted to do that justice, if would've needed even more time and it's exactly through seeing the Na'vi reactions to Sully's family's mistakes or own habits that you get to understand the way of the water people Imagine people's reaction to even more characters and even more running time with slow paced wondering about in the village and on the water. I do think it wouldn't have hurt to just show more of that world. Even just 1-2 scenes where Jake and Neytiri having a conversation with Ronal and Tonowari about what their lives were like before or just sharing a meal would've helped. Or even Na'vi seen amongst themselves, the elder of the Na'vi if you will, talking about their doubts. Or just praying, making music, having a feast where one of the sons eventually joins or the whole of Sully's family. In the end though, it's exactly the focus on Sully's family why I can accept certain decisions made, even if one in particular was definitely a head-scratcher. But with what Cameron was going for I can accept it and he could've actually gone for the cliche (see in spoilers below), so people saying the story was thin and just a re-telling of a certain movie / story or even just doing the same as in the original movie, clearly are not being sincere and just being negative to prove a point. We should also not forget this isn't a stand alone movie. It's probably very hard to truly review this before we see Avatar 3, which is where Cameron is going to expand the Na'vi characters by at least 1 - David Thewlis (Harry Potter) - so who knows what that does. Spoiler Cameron could've gone for the cliche and have the Na'vi join the fight until the end, with a lot more people and Skimwing to overwhelm the last few fighters left, even perhaps throwing in a sneak attack with the Tulkun, but that would've been too easy. I would've loved maybe some Na'vi tactic or even a magical, natural phenomenon like the eclipse to have more of an effect into the destruction of the humans, but that would've made Kiri's moment overkill and wouldn't have been in line with the Na'vi way. As far as the Na'vi leaving without a word, after initially joining the fight right after Neytiri's attack or Palyakan's, that one being left unexplained was definitely a bad choice. Especially because their daughter was left behind. One scene where they actually talk to Tsireya about retreating, agreed with Jake for example, and her sticking with the Sully family because of her love for Lo'ak would've been enough. Leaving it up to the viewer was a mistake that could've easily been rectified. It's an amazing movie, might be my favorite ever in the theatre, so definitely go see it for yourself, in 3D and forget about what everybody else thinks and says. You have to experience this as it truly is more than a movie.
I disagree with how much he allowed the individuals of the Sulley family to shine. The aquatic N'Avi (I don't even remember the tribes name) had the depth of cardboard cutouts. Other than the speech about the Way of Water, and the scene where they got along with the whales there was little expostion or development of them as characters. Much more development was spent with the Sulley kid and the whale which they could've cut down. That the aquatic N'Avi even disappeared during the climactic battle showed how little thought or development was put into them by Cameron rather than just as a plot device to get Sulley family to the aquatic world. All of that still might've worked except that the acting and dialogue get's so hokey. Cameron is a great technical director with a great sense of vision. I have no doubt the actors are giving it their all but they are hamstrung by a plot and dialogue that is so full of stereotypical and cliche dialogue. On top of that like the first Avatar there are Macguffin's and Deus ex Machinas that are shoved into the plot with no clear understanding. Spoiler Keri's power is very unclear and while it makes sense there is a mystery around her that could be dangerous that becomes a MacGuffin when the point she could die if she uses her power is just dropped. Later her power just becomes a Deus Ex Machina that helps to save the day.
I'll just watch it in my cellphone when it drops on the internet, I'm certain it will be a pretty similar experience.
Ooh look at me, I'm edge...cringe. @rocketsjudoka I'm not bothered that we don't get to know the Na'vi too much, though definitely would've appreciated a bit more as I said. The Keri Spoiler thing you misunderstood. It was not using her power, it was connecting to the Spirit Tree that nearly killed her. I forgot about it tbh. That went unexplained and her powers were kind of implied due to some innate ability. Basically due to her connection with her mother. My guess is they will address it in Avatar 3, since the memory of her mother left her confused and she still needs to figure out what she meant to tell her.
Strange that there is such little interest in another billion+ JC blockbuster -- people are going to see it but no real discussion/ media beyond that. If this was a Star Wars sequel the thread would probably be a hundred pages by now.
Its made over a billion dollars, so there's interest.... but its a fairly straight-forward plot with no cliff-hangers, no plot twists, no confusing elements, and no built-in theories or need to speculate hidden meanings. Thus there's really not much to discuss... but people will see it. And they'll see the next 2 or 4 or however many more they're going to make.
