Avatar: The Way of the Water movie review

MOVIE TITLE: Avatar: The Way of the Water

This fantasy movie releases in theaters nationwide on December 15, 2022.

RATING: PG-13

LENGTH: 3 hours 12 minutes

MOVIE REVIEW MOM GRADE: A

IN A NUTSHELL:

It’s been 13 years since we all fell in love with the magical land of Pandora. Is the sequel worth watching? In a word, YES! In this story, Jake Sully lives with his wife and children on Pandora. Here is the description of the story from the studio: Once a familiar threat returns to finish what was previously started in the last film, Jake must work with Neytiri and the army of the Na’avi race to protect their home.

THINGS I LIKED:

I had the great pleasure of attending a press screening last night. A free movie ticket is always nice, but I also got free popcorn and one of those reclining seats that lift your legs like a Lay-Z-Boy chair. So nice!
All of the planned Avatar movies together are expected to cost over $1 billion. Rumor has it that they’re being filmed back-to-back so that we don’t have to wait as long this time! James Cameron is currently saying there will be three Avatar movies.
The special effects are UNBELIEVABLE. Stunning! Gorgeous! Incredible! This absolutely must be seen on the biggest screen can you find or afford. IMAX with 3D! Everything is bigger than life, yet the smallest tear is so detailed and emotionally powerful.
Critics and audiences have already been tossing around the word “experience” and I absolutely agree. This isn’t just a movie but an experience. It’s probably the most immersive movie I’ve ever seen. You FEEL like you’re in Pandora. You can practically feel the water on your skin and wind in your hair. With my 3D glasses on, I honestly thought for a second that I was going to get wet during the rain scenes! When the huge creatures or watercraft fall down, you FEEL the heft of their weight and power. I remember after the first Avatar movie came out that people were watching it over and over until they became depressed that they had to live in our world and not on Pandora. Yes, that was an actual thing! A dear friend of mine became so obsessed with Avatar that he began blogging and posting so many comments on Disney’s forum that the company took notice and later invited him to become a Disney Imagineer. True story!
There has been a lot of talk about the frame rate that was utilized in the making of the movie. The industry standard is 24 frames per second. I got to see the movie in 3D which was really immersive and awesome. James Cameron decided that only certain scenes would use the HFR technology.
Kate Winslet did all of her own underwater stunts herself. She broke Tom Cruise’s record for filming underwater at 7 minutes and 14 seconds.
The musical score was composed by Simon Franglen after James Horner’s death in 2015.
So much action.
I love that the forest Na’avi look just a little bit different from the water Na’avi so you can tell who is who. Plus, it shows a type of evolution in the species that is fascinating.
The imagination and creativity of the designs are ridiculously impressive. I heard someone say how amazing it was that actual humans thought of all of these creative things in the movie!
I was worried about a movie that would take over 3 hours, but I admit that the time went by super fast.
We all know Director James Cameron does an outstanding job creating epic moments whose scale is massive and mind-boggling, but he equally zooms into a tiny detail like a close-up of people holding hands that gives you all the feels in a grand and intimate way.
Everything looks so real and seamless between the humans and the other creatures that share space on Pandora. You instantly believe it all.

THINGS I DIDN’T LIKE:

I admit I was surprised that the director would basically rehash the same story from the first movie. The villain is the same. The learning curve is the same. The bullying element is the same. Some of the same characters from the first movie come back again even though they had died. What’s so wrong with adding new characters to the story? I wouldn’t have minded that a bit. I understand though. There were certain plot points that the director wanted to make.
There isn’t as much humor in the sequel as there was in the original Avatar movie.
NO SPOILERS: Some characters were indistinguishable from others.
That sweeping musical score from the first Avatar just didn’t come back in full force like it did in the first movie.
There is a birth that simply has no explanation. Will it be explained in the next sequel?
We don’t quite understand why the humans make the choices they do. You’re embarrassed to be a human by the end of the movie, just like in the first movie. I assume we’re going to get more information in future sequels.
As beautiful as the movie is, I thought the poster didn’t capture its essence at all.

TIPS FOR PARENTS:

Partial nudity
Strong violence with various weapons (some with blood)
Profanity, including 1 F-bomb
Intense action
People and creatures die
Men hunt and kill creatures
Destruction
We see a bloodied arm rip in half

THEMES:

Family
Sacrifice
Parenting
Love
Protection
Stand and fight
Indigenous people vs. colonizers
Nature vs. man

FUNNY LINES:

None worth noting.

INTERESTING LINES:

“It goes by too fast, like a dream.” – Jake Sully (Sam Worthington)
“Happiness is simple.” – Jake Sully (Sam Worthington)
“The way of water has no beginning and no end.” – Tsireya (Bailey Bass)
“Water connects all things.” – Tsireya (Bailey Bass)
“A father protects. That’s what gives him meaning.” – Jake Sully (Sam Worthington)