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Avatar: The Way of Water | Review Thread

Azelover

Titanic was called the Ship of Dreams, and it was. It really was.
I liked It. What I like best is the character of Netiri, especially towards the end.

I have to say though. It had been a while since I last went to a theater to see a movie. It was a hot day so I went in with very little clothing. But it was bitterly cold in there. I almost didnt make it through. I just wanted to get out of there. It was otherwise a good movie.

There were a lot of references to old James Cameron movies.
 
Better than first Avatar for sure imo.

3D is still pointless though. All it does is add a slight bit a depth to allow some floaty foreground bits that are often blurry.

Movie looked absolutely amazing and looks way superior in 2D all the same.

I don't hate 3D but it's a gimmick still

Thoroughly enjoyed the film but at the same time you do have to ignore a lot of story flaws like with the first

Kiri was a great character
 

Neolombax

Member
It was an okay movie, 1st one was better though. Way of Water felt too long and overindulged in the scenes showing the cgi at work, as fantastic as they were. The first movie felt more focused, while way of water had too many plots going on.
 

NeoIkaruGAF

Gold Member
Saw it today in 2D. First time I've been to a theatre since 2019.

Cameron is still a god of action sequences. The big battle must be like 45 minutes long and I enjoyed every second of it. Just pure action, stuff blowing up everywhere, beasts big and small, grenades, archery, harpoons, ridiculously OP firearms, and some good ol' fisticuffs to round it up. No Marvel quips, no Marvel shit anywhere really. This is how you do action, ffs.

Yeah, the story is as by-the-numbers as it gets, but I wasn't expecting to find the meaning of life in this movie. It's just entertainment, and it works as that. It does drag on a bit at times and everything is perfectly predictable, but hey, name another big-name movie from the last decade that wasn't even more than this one.

I'll admit I found myself wondering if a certain crowd didn't ask for Cameron's head considering the blatant lack of diversity and the fiercely traditional gender roles showcased in the movie.

Cinema does look blurry when you've gotten used to 4K, but 24fps on the big screen still looks a thousand times better in motion than it does on uninterpolated OLED.

Good movie, time flew by and I was never bored.
 

NecrosaroIII

Ask me about my terrible takes on Star Trek characters
Avatar The Way Of Water was amazing. I didn't expect to connect with it as much as I did.

I actually feel super relaxed coming out of the theater. I was vibing haaaaaard throughout it. I actually felt a weird spiritual connection with the movie. Even though thematically it is similar to the first movie, I think it feels organic and honest here. I felt like I was in a trance during most of the movie just drawn into it.

The story is better than the first one, though I'd argue that wasn't "the point". It's there. It's entertaining and satisfying.

This movie was the culmination of James Cameron's career, and boy did he knock it out of the park. Everything was great. God tier production design. Some of the most sophisticated underwater filming I've ever seen. Fantastic balancing of tone. As I said early, I was so utterly relaxed during most of the movie, but the final hour was super thrilling. Some of the best action I've seen in a movie. The stakes were arguably lower in this movie, but the battle was expertly shot and paced.

The cinematographer is fucking incredible. After 25 marvel movies with mediocre marvel movie cinematographer, it felt great actually caring about filmmaking as a craft.

There are some minor complaints I have, but they're incredibly minor. Just a distraction that slightly took me out of it.

9.8/10
 

Cyberpunkd

Gold Member
So I don’t get what is with this movie franchise, seems to be fantasy and sci-fi for people that hate fantasy and sci-fi but will for some reason watch this.

Case in point: my wife. So like a good hasubando we bought on iTunes (you cannot rent it yet, and I wouldn’t dare - over 3hrs fml) and started watching yesterday.

It’s nice, the graphics are great, but what am I missing? People seem to go insane for this movie.

The Na’vi soldiers move very video-gamey, I was just thinking this will be a really good Ubisoft open-world game.
 

sinnergy

Member
So I don’t get what is with this movie franchise, seems to be fantasy and sci-fi for people that hate fantasy and sci-fi but will for some reason watch this.

Case in point: my wife. So like a good hasubando we bought on iTunes (you cannot rent it yet, and I wouldn’t dare - over 3hrs fml) and started watching yesterday.

It’s nice, the graphics are great, but what am I missing? People seem to go insane for this movie.

The Na’vi soldiers move very video-gamey, I was just thinking this will be a really good Ubisoft open-world game.
People like different things ! Great huh? Otherwise life would be boring .
 

Scotty W

Member
It's literally Free Willy 2 but everyone is blue. Not bad
The number of original plots is fairly limited. The ancient Greek dramatists wrote hundreds of plays on a limited set of stories. What is important is the telling of the story.
 

sankt-Antonio

:^)--?-<
The number of original plots is fairly limited. The ancient Greek dramatists wrote hundreds of plays on a limited set of stories. What is important is the telling of the story.
Never in the history of mankind could a Writer come up with a more creative and diverse story than in this day and age.

That creatures on another planet share identical moral values with 20th Century people of earth is lazy and boring.
 

RJMacready73

Simps for Amouranth
Never in the history of mankind could a Writer come up with a more creative and diverse story than in this day and age.

That creatures on another planet share identical moral values with 20th Century people of earth is lazy and boring.
How's it hard to believe? The Navi are humanoid creatures living in familial groups, native peoples throughout the history of world separated by vast oceans that never came into contact with one another all followed very similar evolutionary traits when it came to going from hunter gathers to agrarian people's, so it's not a massive stretch of the imagination to think that alien humanoids on another planet would do something similar, after all morals are what keeps society's from destroying themselves
 

jason10mm

Gold Member
Never in the history of mankind could a Writer come up with a more creative and diverse story than in this day and age.

That creatures on another planet share identical moral values with 20th Century people of earth is lazy and boring.
Well, chances are high we are gonna see that even 10 foot tall blue cat girls will fuck a 5'5" hairless monkey boy so the aliens share the same fascination with the exotic as we do :p

But yeah, if you want truly alien depictions, you gotta go to books, no film tries very hard.
 

sankt-Antonio

:^)--?-<
How's it hard to believe? The Navi are humanoid creatures living in familial groups, native peoples throughout the history of world separated by vast oceans that never came into contact with one another all followed very similar evolutionary traits when it came to going from hunter gathers to agrarian people's, so it's not a massive stretch of the imagination to think that alien humanoids on another planet would do something similar, after all morals are what keeps society's from destroying themselves
The Indian caste system is farther removed from me and my moral values, a west european, than this imaginative tribe on another planet. Lazy.
 

JimmyRustler

Gold Member
Never in the history of mankind could a Writer come up with a more creative and diverse story than in this day and age.

That creatures on another planet share identical moral values with 20th Century people of earth is lazy and boring.
How about being realistic? When you want to spend 500 million on a movie series you‘re gonna write something people can identify with and relate to. I think Cameron did a good job all thing considered.
 

sankt-Antonio

:^)--?-<
How about being realistic? When you want to spend 500 million on a movie series you‘re gonna write something people can identify with and relate to. I think Cameron did a good job all thing considered.
Star Wars has plenty of species that work differently to us humans, seems to work just fine there. Its cheap and lazy writing.
 

Jedi0608

Member
Star Wars has plenty of species that work differently to us humans, seems to work just fine there. Its cheap and lazy writing.
Do people actually watch Avatar expecting top notch writing? The story itself has been told a thousand times before. It’s the visuals and action that people care about . Go watch Scorsese if you want something to think about post viewing.
 
Can someone point me in the direction of all the other stories about a paralysed veteran piloting a remotely controlled alien hybrid and siding with the Gaia entity of the moon he's on in a fight against the transhuman bad guy who doesn't even know who he is anymore and has a kid of a different species?
 
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Can someone point me in the direction of all the other stories about a paralysed veteran piloting a remotely controlled alien hybrid and siding with the Gaia entity of the moon he's on in a fight against the transhuman bad guy who doesn't even know who he is anymore and has a kid of a different species?
You're as transparent as a broken window focusing on minutiae to make it seem like it's not the same old tired white saviour/noble savage trope.
 
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sankt-Antonio

:^)--?-<
Tried to watch way of water on Apple +. Looks so flat on my TV. Really don’t know why they made it look this muted.

Without all the blur from the 3D cinema experience this is unveiled to still look like a game cutscene. The delay is a good reason for them to push tech even further.
 

Nydius

Member
Late to the party but finally got around to seeing Avatar: The Way of Water. It was... okay? I really didn't find it remarkable or special compared to the original. Too much retread of the original material, including the main villain. Too much spectacle for spectacle's sake. I was reminded of the way George Lucas kept adding more and more CGI to his original and prequel Star Wars films just because he could; Cameron appears to have done the same here. A lot of the grand sweeping shots or big CGI set pieces could have been cut by half and the impact on the overall movie would have been minimal. The visuals were stunning in 2009; Today we've been so innundated with CGI due to 15 years of superhero movies and other films that I don't think visuals alone could carry this movie. It needed both visuals and a decent story.

The writers couldn't even present a consistent story as to why the RDA came back to Pandora. First Edie Falco's General Ardmore character says they're back because Earth is dying and they need a new home for humanity, but then that makes a complete about face halfway through when Brendan Cowell's Scoresby character says they're REALLY there to harvest amrita from the whale-like Tulkun because it halts human aging. Which is it? Plus the whole idea of Dr. Grace's avatar having immaculate conception made my eyes roll -- especially since her offspring has magical planetary powers she can't explain which is treading us deep into ridiculous Star Wars sequel territory.

I liked the concept of the differences between sea and forest clans, including the stereotypes and fights between them. But, just as the first movie was so clearly built around a mashup of Native American stereotypes, the Metkayina were a blatantly obvious mash up of Polynesian and South Pacific stereotypes.

By the end, I found myself not caring if they ever make any more movies in this franchise. At least not movies focusing on the Sully clan. Those stories already feel oversaturated and we're only on movie two, 13 YEARS after the first. I'm more interested in the stand-alone, non-movie-tie-in Frontiers of Pandora game that's coming out later this year than I am in seeing any further movies starring Jake and Company.
 
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Tried to watch way of water on Apple +. Looks so flat on my TV. Really don’t know why they made it look this muted.

Without all the blur from the 3D cinema experience this is unveiled to still look like a game cutscene. The delay is a good reason for them to push tech even further.
You need the 4K blu-ray. It looks and sounds incredible.
 
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