Film Avatar the Way of Water - Thoughts?

So apparently Avatar: The Way of Water has been one of the fastest grossing films in history with already reaching the one-billion dollar mark. For those who have seen it, what are your thoughts on the movie? What did you like about it, dislike about it, would you se it again? How did it compare to its predecessor which came out over thirteen years ago? For those who haven't seen the movie, why haven't you seen it?


I haven't seen it yet, but plan to in the future. I actually never saw the first movie so I plan to see it before I go and see the second. It looks interesting and I actually do not know anything about the movies at all.

It had good CGI and was a cool experience in 3D.

Other than that, it was trope upon trope upon trope stacked sky high. It basically felt like fanfiction of the first movie, complete with extremely predictable and cliché characters and plot, and a sensation of the world somehow being smaller or less thought out than in the original "real" movie. There is the romantic couple from the first movie now getting children, there is the adopted special Girl Who Isn't Like The Other Girls, there is the almost-adopted I Desperately Need Fatherly Love boy, there is the responsible personality-less oldest brother and the angst ridden rebellious second son. There is the other chieftain's rivals-turning-into-besties children, complete with Being A Love Interest Is My Personality TM. Oh and the I'm Just Small And Cute aka "Oh No I'm Tied Up Again?" which is an actual quote from her lmfao. And so many more characters. And the uh plot. Dang, mining in the forest apparently doesn't work anymore so let's find money in the sea instead, also You Killed My Body, Prepare To Die.


and.. honestly?
I think I expected something more like the first movie, to be wowed and feel like everything was truly alien. But if one enters the cinema instead expecting a heartfelt wholesome (and sometimes tearfelt) human story of family drama, siblinghood, friendship, fanfiction-like hurdles and such stuff you would expect in a "What happened to our heroes afterwards?" tale, then the 'plot' will be a cool bonus, the air and sea animations will be a beautiful bonus, and you might come to love the characters to bits. I know I love all the Sully kids, tropes be damned. They do their roles well. I've never liked Neytiri lmao, and Jake is just Jake. But Neytam was nice, Kiri is fantastic, Lo'ak is interesting, Spider needs all the hugs and uh the small one... yeah uh she's, just, there for some reason idk.

I'm not sure how many seashells out of five i'd give it, I feel like I want to re-watch the "real" movie first and see if I've just been having rose tinted glasses on (because I really liked the first movie). But Avatar: The Way Of Water wasn't terrible. It just wasn't mind-blowing or very smart either, and not what I expected.

I... I want to know what happens to them next. I hope they take care of each other. :)

It's fine, pretty to look at and enjoyable enough but I just didn't connect to any of it at all

Wasn't going to go see it, but I remembered I liked the first one - didn't see it in cinemas, but we got the DVD at the same time as our first large TV (previous one was proper 80s cuboid), and I recall watching it quite a few times - so I popped it in again, enjoyed it (2nd screened the entire thing though as there is so little in the way of a plot), went to see the new one in 3D! It looked amazing, although outside of a few shots the 3D gimmick still isn't worth it (iirc I saw The Martian and Age of Ultron, both post-converted, and had a similar takeaway). I enjoyed all the 90s movie cliches - its nice to have a bit of sincerity in a big budget film, weirdly ZSJL is the only one the past few years I've felt that from - and the resurrections, particularly seeing Melvin from Daredevil come back after I noticed him in my rewatch of the original. Would have liked Michelle Rodriguez to come back too but the film already has enough characters - I was never entirely sure which of the male Sully children I was watching.

Haven't read the replies because I haven't been able to see it yet, but I will definitely be seeing it in the cinema if I can!

I found the first one pretty but boring, and never felt like watching it again. Then I went to Pandora in Disney World and fell in love with the lore and atmosphere. Now I'm actually excited for the sequels as I feel I may understand them better. I hope they don't disappoint!

Starlight said:

Haven't read the replies because I haven't been able to see it yet, but I will definitely be seeing it in the cinema if I can!

I found the first one pretty but boring, and never felt like watching it again. Then I went to Pandora in Disney World and fell in love with the lore and atmosphere. Now I'm actually excited for the sequels as I feel I may understand them better. I hope they don't disappoint!

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If you wish to go in blind, sure. I hope you'll read my post up there afterwards and let me know what you think though! haha

Doctor said:

If you wish to go in blind, sure. I hope you'll read my post up there afterwards and let me know what you think though! haha

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I will! I haven't been fit enough to sit through a Cameron length film the last few days but I hope to see it very soon!

I have one of these lit up beside me as I type this😅

Fat-fingered the wrong option on mobile lol gj me.

Film was somewhat OK, like sure tropes were a thing but well tropes kinda exist in everything so it's not like to me them being present really ruined anything. It did however bring in some pretty interesting plotlines, all things considered!

That said, it really did mostly feel like it was just trying to do the same thing the first film did - look absolutely stunning and wow its audience with that, apart from cinema has moved on quite a bit in that department since the first film, so don't think it's quite as impactful as it used to be!

I'm hoping this is more of a good base to then catapult the overarching plot into something amazing for the future films!

I'm actually kind of hoping this movie falls flat on its face (well, so much for that, looking at its box office totals...) But here's the thing: I watched the first Avatar twice, in a cinema and in 3D, and I can't remember anything that happened in it. At least nothing unique that happened in it, because it seemed to be pilfered from lots of other stories about colonizers/colonized people. I haven't had the slightest desire to revisit it since, because even though it looked spectacular, it was ultimately shallow. And now James Cameron wants to make (or has already made) four more of them? Even with the amount that The Way of Water is making at the box office, I think he seriously overestimates how much interest audiences will have in a bunch of big blue people.

As someone who has only seen the first, I'm curious to what causes these films to become so extremely high grossing. Especially as the general consensus seems to be that it's mainly a visual effects type of movie.

I was very young during the release of the first. I still remember it, but don't recall it as a significant memory either.

ZeoStar said:

As someone who has only seen the first, I'm curious to what causes these films to become so extremely high grossing. Especially as the general consensus seems to be that it's mainly a visual effects type of movie.

I was very young during the release of the first. I still remember it, but don't recall it as a significant memory either.

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The first one to me had much more of an impact because of just how more visually stunning it was compared to films of the time, like it truly felt like a jump in special effects and the such as we knew it.