Monday, December 19, 2022

'Avatar: The Way Of Water' A Review

Avatar: The Way Of Water is a scifi movie, a sequel to 2009's Avatar. The Navi are again threatened by corporate/military humanity, this time the desired resource is anti-aging whale gland extract.

There is not much to say about the performances because the characters or so thinly drawn and the plot so convoluted there is little in the way of performance to be found. The returning characters frequently act in ways counter to what the first movie set up and the new characters frequently act illogically clearly only to further the uncompelling, contrived, ill-conceived plot.

Visually indistinguishable from its predecessor(other than the inclusion of awful and extremely jarring motion-smoothing in a couple sequences) it begs the question what took so long given the technology employed seems not to have evolved. The water and reef sequences, the ecosystem that is "new" in this installment is only featured for a fraction of the runtime. Additionally the script is so bloated, derivative, and regressive(even in regards to it's predecessor) it seems it was written in a rush upon the initial box office returns in 2009 and never revised, again begging the question what took 13 years.

The original, even if narratively simplistic and trading in problematic tropes, was at least fun and felt visually fresh. This is a three hour plus trudge, immediately forgettable upon it's conclusion.

Perhaps it's time for writer/director James Cameron to retire or at least take on some collaborators who can provide some perspective outside of the boomer billionaire niche.

Currently in theaters.

Don't See It.

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