It's not without its issues but completely spectacular visually, Avatar: The Way Of Water is a fantastic welcome return to form for James Cameron with game-changing special effects and his sixth sense for entertainment that is shining on screen. It's not perfect but people are gonna love it. Fans of 2009's Avatar are going to be under a spell revisiting this world with the 13 years of technological advancement, Cameron was clearly hard at work behind the camera. The theme of the new sequels seems to be clear: it's about family.
With the gap since the last movie it was important to recreate the magic of Pandora right from the start and the film does take you right back into it from the first scenes with amazing visuals: the colors are popping, the scenery is magnificent and similar to its predecessor, Way Of Water sets the bar very high for special effects in future blockbusters. You can trust James Cameron with rich world-building but also for directing action that feels realistic and this movie gives you one hell of a ride in terms of spectacle. At times Cameron is paying homage to its own movies and I was totally on board with that. It is an absolute achievement on a technical level without a doubt.
I was able to see the film in IMAX 3D (HFR Experience in 48fps) and I'm going to get into a minor nitpick that doesn't affect my overall judgement of the film. I am not a fan of high-frame rate (60fps instead of the usual 24 frame per seconds), and the screening I saw had some shots going back-and-forth between 48fps and 24fps which was distracting for me at first. I doubt this will be an issue for most people, and this might actually not apply to every screenings as it's going to be showing in Regular 3D and 2D everywhere, but this is something that bothered me, I'm not going to lie. It's as if someone was turning the motion smoothing on and off as you're watching a scene. That is the only technical nitpick I would have to add and this is why I want to see it again this weekend to get a better judgement.
I don't want to say too much about the story and the characters because Cameron is clearly building something big that everyone needs to experience by themselves on the biggest screen possible. I would also suggest rewatching Avatar before going into this new one. Will it have the same effect that the original Avatar had? I guess we're going to find out in a couple of days, but my guts tell me that the audiences worldwide are going to love this movie and this is only the beginning for this franchise. Sure, a lot of this movie felt like setup for the future, but it's absolutely gorgeous to look at and never boring. Welcome back Mr. Cameron, we missed you!
8/10.
With the gap since the last movie it was important to recreate the magic of Pandora right from the start and the film does take you right back into it from the first scenes with amazing visuals: the colors are popping, the scenery is magnificent and similar to its predecessor, Way Of Water sets the bar very high for special effects in future blockbusters. You can trust James Cameron with rich world-building but also for directing action that feels realistic and this movie gives you one hell of a ride in terms of spectacle. At times Cameron is paying homage to its own movies and I was totally on board with that. It is an absolute achievement on a technical level without a doubt.
I was able to see the film in IMAX 3D (HFR Experience in 48fps) and I'm going to get into a minor nitpick that doesn't affect my overall judgement of the film. I am not a fan of high-frame rate (60fps instead of the usual 24 frame per seconds), and the screening I saw had some shots going back-and-forth between 48fps and 24fps which was distracting for me at first. I doubt this will be an issue for most people, and this might actually not apply to every screenings as it's going to be showing in Regular 3D and 2D everywhere, but this is something that bothered me, I'm not going to lie. It's as if someone was turning the motion smoothing on and off as you're watching a scene. That is the only technical nitpick I would have to add and this is why I want to see it again this weekend to get a better judgement.
I don't want to say too much about the story and the characters because Cameron is clearly building something big that everyone needs to experience by themselves on the biggest screen possible. I would also suggest rewatching Avatar before going into this new one. Will it have the same effect that the original Avatar had? I guess we're going to find out in a couple of days, but my guts tell me that the audiences worldwide are going to love this movie and this is only the beginning for this franchise. Sure, a lot of this movie felt like setup for the future, but it's absolutely gorgeous to look at and never boring. Welcome back Mr. Cameron, we missed you!
8/10.