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James Cameron wants you to believe. He wants you to believe that aliens are killing machines, humanity can defeat time-traveling cyborgs, and a film can transport you to a significant historical disaster. In many ways, the planet of Pandora in " Avatar " has become his most ambitious manner of sharing this belief in the power of cinema. Can you leave everything in your life behind and experience a film in a way that's become increasingly difficult in an era of so much distraction? As technology has advanced, Cameron has pushed the limits of his power of belief even further, playing with 3D, High Frame Rate, and other toys that weren't available when he started his career. But one of the many things that is so fascinating about "Avatar: The Way of Water" is how that belief manifests itself in themes he's explored so often before. This wildly entertaining film isn't a retread of "Avatar," but a film in which fans can pick out thematic and even visual elements of " Titanic ," " Aliens ," "The Abyss," and "The Terminator" films. It's as if Cameron has moved to Pandora forever and brought everything he cares about. (He's also clearly never leaving.) Cameron invites viewers into this fully realized world with so many striking images and phenomenally rendered action scenes that everything else fades away.

Maybe not right away. "Avatar: The Way of Water" struggles to find its footing at first, throwing viewers back into the world of Pandora in a narratively clunky way. One can tell that Cameron really cares most about the world-building mid-section of this film, which is one of his greatest accomplishments, so he rushes through some of the set-ups to get to the good stuff. Before then, we catch up with Jake Sully ( Sam Worthington ), a human who is now a full-time Na'vi and partners with Neytiri ( Zoe Saldana ), with whom he has started a family. They have two sons—Neteyam ( Jamie Flatters ) and Lo'ak ( Britain Dalton )—and a daughter named Tuk (Trinity Jo-Li Bliss), and they are guardians of Kiri ( Sigourney Weaver ), the offspring of Weaver's character from the first film.

Family bliss is fractured when the 'sky people' return, including an avatar Na'vi version of one Colonel Miles Quaritch ( Stephen Lang ), who has come to finish what he started, including vengeance on Jake for the death of his human form. He comes back with a group of former-human-now-Na'vi soldiers who are the film's main antagonists, but not the only ones. "Avatar: The Way of Water" once again casts the military, planet-destroying humans of this universe as its truest villains, but the villains' motives are sometimes a bit hazy. Around halfway through, I realized it's not very clear why Quaritch is so intent on hunting Jake and his family, other than the plot needs it, and Lang is good at playing mad.

The bulk of "Avatar: The Way of Water" hinges on the same question Sarah Connor asks in the "Terminator" movies—fight or flight for family? Do you run and hide from the powerful enemy to try and stay safe or turn and fight the oppressive evil? At first, Jake takes the former option, leading them to another part of Pandora, where the film opens up via one of Cameron's longtime obsessions: H2O. The aerial acrobatics of the first film are supplanted by underwater ones in a region run by Tonowari ( Cliff Curtis ), the leader of a clan called the Metkayina. Himself a family man—his wife is played by Kate Winslet —Tonowari is worried about the danger the new Na'vi visitors could bring but can't turn them away. Again, Cameron plays with moral questions about responsibility in the face of a powerful evil, something that recurs in a group of commercial poachers from Earth. They dare to hunt sacred water animals in stunning sequences during which you have to remind yourself that none of what you're watching is real.

The film's midsection shifts its focus away from Sully/Quaritch to the region's children as Jake's boys learn the ways of the water clan. Finally, the world of "Avatar" feels like it's expanding in ways the first film didn't. Whereas that film was more focused on a single story, Cameron ties together multiple ones here in a far more ambitious and ultimately rewarding fashion. While some of the ideas and plot developments—like the connection of Kiri to Pandora or the arc of a new character named Spider ( Jack Champion )—are mostly table-setting for future films, the entire project is made richer by creating a larger canvas for its storytelling. While one could argue that there needs to be a stronger protagonist/antagonist line through a film that discards both Jake & Quaritch for long periods, I would counter that those terms are intentionally vague here. The protagonist is the entire family and even the planet on which they live, and the antagonist is everything trying to destroy the natural world and the beings that are so connected to it.

Viewers should be warned that Cameron's ear for dialogue hasn't improved—there are a few lines that will earn unintentional laughter—but there's almost something charming about his approach to character, one that weds old-fashioned storytelling to breakthrough technology. Massive blockbusters often clutter their worlds with unnecessary mythologies or backstories, whereas Cameron does just enough to ensure this impossible world stays relatable. His deeper themes of environmentalism and colonization could be understandably too shallow for some viewers—and the way he co-opts elements of Indigenous culture could be considered problematic—and I wouldn't argue against that. But if a family uses this as a starting point for conversations about those themes then it's more of a net positive than most blockbusters that provide no food for thought. 

There has been so much conversation about the cultural impact of "Avatar" recently, as superheroes dominated the last decade of pop culture in a way that allowed people to forget the Na'vi. Watching "Avatar: The Way of Water," I was reminded of how impersonal the Hollywood machine has become over the last few decades and how often the blockbusters that truly make an impact on the form have displayed the personal touch of their creator. Think of how the biggest and best films of George Lucas and Steven Spielberg couldn't have been made by anyone else. "Avatar: The Way of Water" is a James Cameron blockbuster, through and through. And I still believe in him.

Available only in theaters on December 16th. 

Brian Tallerico

Brian Tallerico

Brian Tallerico is the Managing Editor of RogerEbert.com, and also covers television, film, Blu-ray, and video games. He is also a writer for Vulture, The Playlist, The New York Times, and GQ, and the President of the Chicago Film Critics Association.

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Avatar: The Way of Water movie poster

Avatar: The Way of Water (2022)

Rated PG-13 for sequences of strong violence and intense action, partial nudity and some strong language.

192 minutes

Sam Worthington as Jake Sully

Zoe Saldaña as Neytiri

Sigourney Weaver as Kiri

Stephen Lang as Colonel Miles Quaritch

Kate Winslet as Ronal

Cliff Curtis as Tonowari

Joel David Moore as Norm Spellman

CCH Pounder as Mo'at

Edie Falco as General Frances Ardmore

Brendan Cowell as Mick Scoresby

Jemaine Clement as Dr. Ian Garvin

Jamie Flatters as Neteyam

Britain Dalton as Lo'ak

Trinity Bliss as Tuktirey

Jack Champion as Javier 'Spider' Socorro

Bailey Bass as Tsireya

Filip Geljo as Aonung

Duane Evans Jr. as Rotxo

Giovanni Ribisi as Parker Selfridge

Dileep Rao as Dr. Max Patel

  • James Cameron

Writer (story by)

  • Amanda Silver
  • Josh Friedman
  • Shane Salerno

Cinematographer

  • Russell Carpenter
  • Stephen E. Rivkin
  • David Brenner
  • John Refoua
  • Simon Franglen

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‘Avatar: The Way of Water’ Review: Big Blue Marvel

James Cameron returns to Pandora, and to the ecological themes and visual bedazzlements of his 2009 blockbuster.

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In a scene from “Avatar: The Way of Water,” a blue creature flies over water aboard a flying fishlike creature with wings and sharp teeth.

By A.O. Scott

Way back in 2009, “Avatar” arrived on screens as a plausible and exciting vision of the movie future. Thirteen years later, “Avatar: The Way of Water” — the first of several long-awaited sequels directed by James Cameron — brings with it a ripple of nostalgia.

The throwback sensation may hit you even before the picture starts, as you unfold your 3-D glasses. When was the last time you put on a pair of those? Even the anticipation of seeing something genuinely new at the multiplex feels like an artifact of an earlier time, before streaming and the Marvel Universe took over.

The first “Avatar” fused Cameron’s faith in technological progress with his commitments to the primal pleasures of old-fashioned storytelling and the visceral delights of big-screen action. The 3-D effects and intricately rendered digital landscapes — the trees and flowers of the moon Pandora and the way creatures and machines swooped and barreled through them — felt like the beginning of something, the opening of a fresh horizon of imaginative possibility.

At the same time, the visual novelty was built on a sturdy foundation of familiar themes and genre tropes. “Avatar” was set on a fantastical world populated by soulful blue bipeds, but it wasn’t exactly (or only) science fiction. It was a revisionist western, an ecological fable, a post-Vietnam political allegory — a tale of romance, valor and revenge with traces of Homer, James Fenimore Cooper and “Star Trek” in its DNA.

All of that is also true of “The Way of Water,” which picks up the story and carries it from Pandora’s forests to its reefs and wetlands — an environment that inspires some new and dazzling effects. Where “Avatar” found inspiration in lizard-birds, airborne spores and jungle flowers, the sequel revels in aquatic wonders, above all a kind of armored whale called the tulkun.

Before we meet those beings — in a sequence that has the quiet awe of a nature documentary — we are brought up-to-date with the characters from the first movie, whom we may have forgotten about. Jake Sully, the conflicted U.S. Marine played by Sam Worthington who was the hero of “Avatar,” has remade his life among the Na’vi. Like them, he is now tall, slender and blue, with a mane of dark hair and a braid that connects him to members of other species. He’s fluent in Na’vi (though most of the dialogue is rendered in English).

Jake and Neytiri (Zoe Saldaña) are raising a brood of biological and adopted children, whose squabbles and adventures bring a youthful energy to the sometimes heavy, myth-laden narrative. There are four Na’vi kids, a pair each of brothers and sisters. Neteyam (Jamie Flatters), the older son, walks dutifully in Jake’s brave shadow, while his younger brother, Lo’ak (Britain Dalton), is a rebel and a hothead, looking for trouble and often finding it.

Their sisters are the adorable Tuk (Trinity Jo-Li Bliss) and the teenage Kiri, whose birth mother was the noble human scientist Grace Augustine. One of the film’s genuinely uncanny effects is that Sigourney Weaver, who played Dr. Augustine in the first film, plays Kiri in this one, her unmistakable face digitally de-aged and tinted blue. Like her mother, the girl has a mystical, Lorax-like connection to the trees and flowers of Pandora.

Jake and Neytiri’s sitcom-worthy household is completed by Spider (Jack Champion), a scampish human boy left behind by Quaritch (Stephen Lang), Jake’s former Marine commander and one of the villains of the original “Avatar.” Quaritch returns to Pandora with a new mandate to colonize it, and a squad of Na’vi-ized fighters to carry out the mission. He has a long-simmering vendetta against Jake, and much of “The Way of Water” is concerned less with large-scale imperial ambitions than with personal dramas of loyalty and betrayal.

With a running time of more than three hours — about 10 minutes shorter than “Jeanne Dielman, 23, Quai du Commerce, 1080 Bruxelles,” by recent acclamation the greatest movie of all time — “The Way of Water” is overloaded with character and incident. The final stretch, which feels somehow longer than the rest of it, runs aground in action movie bombast, and suggests that even a pop auteur as inventive and resourceful as Cameron may have run out of ideas when it comes to climactic fight sequences. There are a lot of those, in the air and underwater, fistic and fiery, sad and rousing, nearly every one of which will remind you of stuff you’ve seen a dozen times before.

That’s too bad, because much of the middle of “The Way of Water” restores the latent promise of newness — no small accomplishment in an era of wearying franchise overkill. Afraid that Quaritch and his men will bring slaughter to the forest, Jake and Neytiri seek the protection of Ronal (Kate Winslet) and Tonowari (Cliff Curtis), chieftains of a reef-dwelling Na’vi clan.

The differences among the Na’vi — physical as well as cultural — add an interesting new dimension to the anthropology of Pandora, and to the film’s aesthetic palette. The viewer discovers this variety in the company of the younger characters, especially Kiri and Lo’ak. Their adaptation to new surroundings — being teased for their skinny tails and clumsy arms, getting in fights and making new friends — gives the movie the buoyant, high-spirited sincerity of young-adult fiction.

Cameron’s embrace of the idealism of adolescence, of the capacity for moral outrage as well as wonder, is the emotional heart of the movie. You feel it in a horrifying scene of tulkun slaughter that aspires to the awful, stirring sublimity of the last chapters of “Moby-Dick,” and also in the restlessness of Lo’ak, Spider and Kiri as they try to figure out their roles. The next sequels, I suspect, will give them more time for that, but may also encumber them with more baggage.

I’m curious, and inclined — as I was in 2009 — to give this grand, muddled project the benefit of the doubt. Cameron’s ambitions are as sincere as they are self-contradictory. He wants to conquer the world in the name of the underdog, to celebrate nature by means of the most extravagant artifice, and to make everything new feel old again.

Avatar: The Way of Water Rated PG-13. Almost blue. Running time: 3 hours 12 minutes. In theaters.

A.O. Scott is a co-chief film critic. He joined The Times in 2000 and has written for the Book Review and The New York Times Magazine. He is also the author of “Better Living Through Criticism.” More about A.O. Scott

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A young Na’vi child named Tuk (Trinity Bliss) swims underwater with her braids floating around her as she examines a school of tiny fish in Avatar: The Way of Water

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Avatar 2 marks a dramatic step forward for director James Cameron

But The Way of Water is a step back for the endlessly distracting HFR presentation

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​​There are two thoughts that you never want to cross your mind at a movie theater. One is “Did I just step in gum?” The other is “Is this supposed to look this way?”

Avatar: The Way of Water , James Cameron’s fundamentally enjoyable and exciting sequel to the 2009 blockbuster Avatar , is meant to represent a major technological advance in cinematic exhibition. Time will tell whether that’s the case. But the fact is that many viewers will have a vexing experience if they see the picture in what’s considered the optimum format.

The first press screenings of the long-delayed 192-minute opus, which reportedly cost somewhere between $250 million and $400 million to make, were held at theaters equipped to project the film in a high frame rate (HFR). You may have experienced this with Gemini Man , Billy Lynn’s Long Halftime Walk , or Peter Jackson’s Hobbit trilogy. It’s fair to say that HFR hasn’t really taken off, unlike the wave of 3D that temporarily changed the cinema landscape when Avatar was released. But director/explorer Cameron boasted in October that he’d found a “simple hack” that would work as a game-changer. In short, he used advanced technology to essentially toggle The Way of Water between 48 frames per second and the traditional 24.

On paper, this sounds like a nice compromise. But three-plus hours of the shifting dynamic, without the ability to just settle into one or the other, is actually worse than simply watching an entire HFR movie. To use an old expression, you can’t ride two horses with one behind. And this is all the more upsetting because so much of the film is truly splendid.

Avatar: The Way of Water tells a simple but engaging story in an imaginative, beautiful environment. It’s more than three hours long, and it unfortunately takes close to a full third of that time to get rolling. But once it does — once former human Marine turned Pandoran native Jake Sully (Sam Worthington), his Na’vi mate Neytiri (Zoe Saldaña), and their brood of four half-Na’vi, half-Avatar children take refuge from the forest in a watery part of the world — the sense of wonder hits like a tidal wave.

A group of Na’vi gather at night for a ceremony, standing knee-deep in water and holding torches, with Na’vi played by Kate Winslet and Cliff Curtis presiding, in Avatar: The Way of Water

The story setup is simple: Sky People (the rapacious, militarized humans of the Resources Development Administration) are back on Pandora after the events of Avatar , and this time, they want something even more unobtainable than the element unobtainium. No spoilers, but let’s say that extracting this stuff from Pandora isn’t just dangerous, it’s a crime against everything the Na’vi hold dear. Col. Miles Quaritch (Stephen Lang), reborn in a cloned Na’vi Avatar body, is leading the charge to kill that turncoat/insurgent Jake Sully, and won’t let anything stand in his way. Oorah!

In the second hour, the action picks up. Jake and Neytiri’s family becomes a collective fish out of water, almost literally, moving in with an aquatic tribe of Na’vi and adapting to its aquatic lifestyle. This is where Cameron’s rich soak in his invented world is most fulfilling. There’s about an hour of just floatin’ around a reef. The Sully kids have scuffles with the local bullies; the oddball daughter learns how to plug her hair into sponges and reefs; the adorable runt puts on translucent floaty wings and zooms around. It goes on for a quite a while, and the display of visual creativity is breathtaking.

Hour three is when things get wild. Cameron, an action director with few equals, is in conversation with himself, upping the stakes and testing his own resume. There’s a thrilling, emotional chase, and then a daylight battle sequence that’s propulsive, energetic, and original. It involves a gargantuan sea beast coming in off the top rope in a way that left my theater cheering.

Cameron isn’t generally known as a comic director, but there’s always been a humorous element to his action sequences. Think of Jamie Lee Curtis caterwauling and mugging during the causeway rescue in True Lies , or Robert Patrick’s T-1000 rising up from behind a soda machine as killer checker-patterned goop in Terminator 2: Judgment Day . What, we weren’t supposed to laugh at that first reveal of Sigourney Weaver in the mech suit in Aliens ? But the battle in the last third of The Way of Water is different.

Maybe Cameron reacquainted himself with the work of Sam Raimi. Maybe he’s drinking from the same cup as S.S. Rajamouli , who made the magnificent, absolutely ludicrous Indian import RRR . In The Way of Water , Cameron leans all the way into manic mayhem, smash-cutting from one outrageous image to the next. The final act of this movie shows off a freeing attitude he’s never fully embraced before in his action — even action that’s strikingly similar, like the massive sinking ship sequence in Titanic . James Cameron has some expertise in this arena, but this time out, it feels like he’s having a lot more fun.

The Na’vi form of Col. Quaritch (Stephen Lang) stands in a command center surrounded by humans and looks at an elaborate VR display in Avatar: The Way of Water.

It’s unlikely that The Way of Water will be a financial watershed on the same level as 2009’s Avatar . The 3D tech was so new back then, and the world-building and the use of CGI environments were both so unprecedented. It was a once-in-a-lifetime move forward for film technology and immersive storytelling. Much like Disney’s recent sequel Disenchanted , The Way of Water is arriving in a cinematic environment that was completely reshaped by its predecessor — and there are no tricks here that move filmmaking forward in the same way.

The closest Cameron comes is that shifting HFR trick, which winds up being more of a distraction than a bonus. Think about the change you notice at the perimeter of the screen when watching a Christopher Nolan or Mission: Impossible movie in an IMAX theater. The material shot in the large IMAX format blows out to fill the whole frame, changing the aspect ratio. The back and forth of the masking at the top and bottom can be intrusive. Eventually, you get used to it, or you recognize it isn’t that big a deal. The change back and forth with HFR — an enormous screen toggling with a “motion smoothing” effect — is not something the eye and brain can get used to.

What’s more, this is Avatar. Most of the time, what’s in the frame is computer-generated imagery (a telepathic alien whale the size of an aircraft carrier, primed for vengeance!), so it already looks unusual. If the whole movie were in HFR, perhaps one would settle in, but jumping between the two — often from shot to shot in the same action sequence, or even within the same shot , as it is being projected in some cinemas — is simply an aesthetic experiment that fails.

This is not just being picky. The changes mean that the tempo of the action on screen looks either sped up or slowed down as the switches occur. Shots in higher frame rate couched between ones that are lower (and there are many) look like a computer game that gets stuck on a render, which then spits something out super fast. To put it an old-school way, it looks like The Benny Hill Show .

It’s just fascinating that Captain Technology, James Cameron, would want it this way. And it’s unfortunate. Because the entire message of the Avatar films is about environmentalism and preservation, about respecting the world as it is. It seems like Pandora’s creator would recognize that sometimes the best move is to leave well enough alone, instead of looking for ways to fix something that didn’t need fixing in the first place.

Avatar: The Way of Water will be released Dec. 16 in theaters.

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‘Avatar: The Way of Water’ Review: It’s Even More Eye-Popping Than ‘Avatar,’ but James Cameron’s Epic Sequel Has No More Dramatic Dimension

The underwater sequences are beyond dazzling — they insert the audience right into the action — but the story of Jake Sully and his family, now on the run, is a string of serviceable clichés.

By Owen Gleiberman

Owen Gleiberman

Chief Film Critic

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Avatar: The Way of Water

There are many words one could use to describe the heightened visual quality of James Cameron ’s original “ Avatar ” — words like incandescent, immersive, bedazzling. But in the 13 years since that movie came out, the word I tend to remember it best by is glowing . The primeval forest and floating-mountain landscapes of Pandora had an intoxicating fairy-tale shimmer. You wanted to live inside them, even as the story that unfolded inside them was merely okay.

“Avatar: The Way of Water” has scenes that will make your eyes pop, your head spin and your soul race. The heart of the movie is set on At’wa Attu, a tropical island reef where Jake Sully ( Sam Worthington ), the Na’vi insurrection leader who started off as a disabled U.S. Marine and became a Pandora forest dweller through his Avatar identity (he’s basically a half-breed), his now-wife, Neytiri ( Zoe Saldaña ), and their four children have taken refuge from the “Sky People” — the corrupt military cutthroats who are now fighting to colonize Pandora so that the people of Earth can have a future. On the island, Jake and his family form an uneasy alliance with the Metkayina clan, who live in harmony with their aquatic surroundings, and who look a lot like the Na’vi except that their skin is light teal and they have Maori-like tattoos.

“The Way of Water” cost a reported $350 million, meaning that it would need to be one of the three or four top-grossing movies of all time just to break even. I think the odds of that happening are actually quite good. Cameron has raised not only the stakes of his effects artistry but the choreographic flow of his staging, to the point of making “The Way of Water,” like “Avatar,” into the apotheosis of a must-see movie. The entire world will say: We’ve got to know what this thrill ride feels like .

At its height, it feels exhilarating. But not all the way through. Cameron, in “The Way of Water,” remains a fleet and exacting classical popcorn storyteller, but oh, the story he’s telling! The script he has co-written is a string of serviceable clichés that give the film the domestic adventure-thriller spine it needs, but not anything more than that. The story, in fact, could hardly be more basic. The Sky People, led again by the treacherous Col. Quaritch (Stephen Lang), have now become Avatars themselves, with Quaritch recast as a scowling Na’vi redneck in combat boots and a black crewcut. They’ve arrived in this guise to hunt Jake down. But Jake escapes with his family and hides out with the Metkayina. Quaritch and his goon squad commandeer a hunting ship and eventually track them down. There is a massive confrontation. The end.

This tale, with its bare-bones dialogue, could easily have served an ambitious Netflix thriller, and could have been told in two hours rather than three. But that’s the point, isn’t it? “The Way of Water” is braided with sequences that exist almost solely for their sculptured imagistic magic. It’s truly a movie crossed with a virtual-reality theme-park ride. Another way to put it is that it’s a live-action film that casts the spell of an animated fantasy. But though the faces of the Na’vi and the MetKayina are expressive, and the actors make their presence felt, there is almost zero dimensionality to the characters. The dimensionality is all in the images.

Reviewed at AMC Empire, Dec. 6, 2022. MPAA Rating: PG-13. Running time: 192 MIN.

  • Production: A Walt Disney Studios Motion Pictures, 20th Century Studios release of a 20 th Century Studios, Lightstorm Entertainment production. Producers: James Cameron, Jon Landau. Executive producers: David Valdes, Richard Baneham.
  • Crew: Director: James Cameron. Screenplay: James Cameron, Rick, Jaffe, Amanda Silver. Camera: Russell Carpenter. Editors: David Brenner, James Cameron, John Refoua, Stephen E. Rivkin. Music: Simon Franglen.
  • With: Sam Worthington, Zoe Saldaña, Stephen Lang, Britain Dalton, Sigourney Weaver, Cliff Curtis, Joel David Moore, CCH Pounder, Edie Falco, Jemaine Clement, Giovanni Rabisi, Kate Winslet.

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“Avatar: The Way of Water,” Reviewed: An Island Fit for the King of the World

movie review of avatar

By Richard Brody

A photo of characters from the movie “Avatar The Way of Water.”

Fifteen years separated “The Godfather Part II” from “Part III,” and the years showed. The series’ director, Francis Ford Coppola , enriched the latter film with both the life experience (much of it painful) and the experience of his work on other, often daring and distinctive films with which he filled the intervening span of time. By contrast, James Cameron , who delivered the original “ Avatar ” in 2009, has delivered its sequel, “ Avatar: The Way of Water ,” thirteen years later, in which time he has directed no other feature films—and, though he doubtless has lived, the sole experience that the new movie suggests is a vacation on an island resort so remote that few outside visitors have found it. For all its sententious grandiosity and metaphorical politics, “The Way of Water” is a regimented and formalized excursion to an exclusive natural paradise that its select guests fight tooth and nail to keep for themselves. The movie’s bland aesthetics and banal emotions turn it into the Club Med of effects-driven extravaganzas.

The action begins about a decade after the end of the first installment: the American-born Jake Sully (Sam Worthington) has cast his lot with the extraterrestrial Na’vis, having kept his blue Na’vi form, taken up residence with them on the lush moon of Pandora, and married the Na’vi seer Neytiri (Zoe Saldaña), with whom he has had several children. The couple’s foster son, Spider (Jack Champion), a full-blooded human, is the biological child of Jake’s archenemy, Colonel Miles Quaritch, who was killed in the earlier film. Now Miles has returned, sort of, in the form of a Na’vi whose mind is infused with the late colonel’s memories. (He’s still a colonel and still played by Stephen Lang.) Miles and his platoon of Na’vified humans launch a raid to capture Jake, who, with his family, fights back and gets away—all but Spider, whom Miles captures. The Sully clan flees the forests of Pandora and reaches a remote island, where most of the movie’s action takes place.

The island is the home of the Metkayina, the so-called reef people, who—befitting their nearly amphibian lives—have a greenish cast to contrast with Na’vi blue; they also have flipper-like arms and tails. They are an insular people, who have remained undisturbed by “sky people”—humans. The Metkayina queen, Ronal (Kate Winslet), is wary of the newcomers, fearing that the arrival of Na’vis seeking refuge from the marauders will make the islands a target, but the king, Tonowari (Cliff Curtis), welcomes the Sullys nonetheless. Unsurprisingly, the foreordained incursion takes place. An expedition of predatory human scientists arrive on a quest to harvest the precious bodily fluid—the sequel’s version of unobtainium—of giant sea creatures that are sacred to the Metkayina. The invading scientists join the colonel and his troops in the hunt for Jake, resulting in a colossal sequence that combines the two adversaries’ long-awaited hand-to-hand showdown with “ Titanic ”-style catastrophe.

The interstellar military conflict is the mainspring of the story, and a link in what is intended to be an ongoing series. (The next installment is scheduled for release in 2024.) But it’s the oceanic setting of the Metkayina that provides the sequel with its essence. Cameron’s display of the enticements and wonders of the Metkayina way of life is at once the dramatic and the moral center of the movie. The Sullys find welcoming refuge in the island community, but they also must undergo initiations, ones that are centered on the children and teen-agers of both the Sullys and the Metkayina ruling family. This comes complete with the macho posturing that’s inseparable from the cinematic land of Cameronia. Two boys, a Na’vi and a Metkayina, fight after one demands, “I need you to respect my sister”; afterward, Jake, getting a glimpse at his bruised and bloodied son, is delighted to learn that the other boy got the worst of it. Later, when, during combat, trouble befalls one of the Na’vi children, it’s Neytiri, not Jake, who loses control, and Jake who gives her the old locker-room pep talk about bucking up and keeping focus on the battle at hand. The film is filled with Jake’s mantras, one of which goes, “A father protects; it’s what gives him meaning.”

What a mother does, beside fighting under a father’s command, is still in doubt. Despite the martial exploits of Neytiri, a sharpshooter with a bow and arrow, and of Ronal, who goes into battle while very pregnant, the superficial badassery is merely a gestural feminism that does little to counteract the patriarchal order of the Sullys and their allies. Jake’s statement of paternal purpose is emblematic of the thudding dialogue; compared to this, the average Marvel film evokes an Algonquin Round Table of wit and vigor. But there’s more to the screenplay of “The Way of Water” than its dialogue; the script (by Cameron, Rick Jaffa, and Amanda Silver) is nonetheless constructed in an unusual way, and this is by far the most interesting thing about the movie. The screenplay builds the action anecdotally, with a variety of sidebars and digressions that don’t develop characters or evoke psychology but, rather, emphasize what the movie is selling as its strong point—its visual enticements and the technical innovations that make them possible.

The extended scenes of the Sullys getting acquainted with the life aquatic are largely decorative, to display the water-world that Cameron has devised, as when the young members of the family learn to ride the bird-fish that serve as the Metkayina’s mode of conveyance; when one of them dives to retrieve a shell from the deep; and when the Sullys’ adopted Na’vi daughter, Kiri (played, surprisingly, by Sigourney Weaver, both because she’s playing a teen-ager and because it’s a different role from the one she played in the 2009 film), discovers a passionate connection to the underwater realm, a function of her separate heritage. The watery light and its undulations are attractions in themselves, but the spotlight is on the flora and fauna with which Cameron populates the sea—most prominently, luminescent ones, such as anemone-like fish that light the way for deep-sea swimmers who have a spiritual connection to them, and tendril-like plants that grow from the seafloor and serve as a final resting place for deceased reef people.

Putting the movie’s design in the forefront does “The Way of Water” no favors. Cameron’s aesthetic vision is reminiscent, above all, of electric giftwares in a nineteen-eighties shopping mall, with their wavery seascapes expanded and detailed and dramatized, with the kitschy color schemes and glowing settings trading homey disposability for an overblown triumphalist grandeur. It was a big surprise to learn, after seeing the film, that its aquatic settings aren’t entirely C.G.I. conjurings—much of the film was shot underwater, for which the cast underwent rigorous training. (To prepare, Winslet held her breath for over seven minutes; to film, a deep-sea cameraman worked with a custom-made hundred-and-eighty-pound rig.) For all the difficulty and complexity of underwater filming, however, the movie is undistinguished by its cinematographic compositions, which merely record the action and dispense the design.

Yet Cameron’s frictionless, unchallenging aesthetic is more than decorative; it embodies a world view, and it’s one with the insubstantiality of the movie’s heroes, Na’vi and Metkayina alike. They, too, are works of design—and are similarly stylized to the point of uniform banality. Both are elongated like taffy to the slenderized proportions of Barbies and Kens, and they have all the diversity of shapes and sizes seen in swimsuit issues of generations past. The characters’ computer-imposed uniformity pushes the movie out of Uncanny Valley but into a more disturbing realm, one featuring an underlying, drone-like inner homogeneity. The near-absence of characters’ substance and inner lives isn’t a bug but a feature of both “Avatar” films, and, with the expanded array of characters in “The Way of Water,” that psychological uniformity is pushed into the foreground, along with the visual styles. On Cameron’s Edenic Pandora, neither the blues nor the greens have any culture but cult, religion, collective ritual. Though endowed with great skill in crafts, athletics, and martial arts, they don’t have anything to offer themselves or one another in the way of non-martial arts; they don’t print or record, sculpt or draw, and they have no audiovisual realm like the one of the movie itself. The main distinctions of character involve family affinity (as in Jake’s second mantra, “Sullys stick together”) and the dictates of biological inheritance (as in the differences imposed on Spider and Kiri by their different origins).

Cameron’s new island realm is a land without creativity, without personalized ideas, inspirations, imaginings, desires. His aesthetic of such unbroken unanimity is the apotheosis of throwaway commercialism, in which mystery and wonder are replaced by an infinitely reproducible formula, with visual pleasures microdosed. Cameron fetishizes this hermetic world without culture because, with his cast and crew under his command, he can create it with no extra knowledge, experience, or curiosity needed—no ideas or ideologies to puncture or pressure the bubble of sheer technical prowess or criticize his own self-satisfied and self-sufficient sensibility from within. He has crafted his own perfect cinematic permanent vacation, a world apart, from which, undisturbed by thoughts of the world at large, he can sell an exclusive trip to an island paradise where he’s the king. ♦

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Avatar: The Way of Water Review

Judgment spray..

Tom Jorgensen Avatar

Avatar: The Way of Water hits theaters on Dec. 16, 2022. Below is a spoiler-free review.

I think it was right about when a Pandoran whale lamented, in Papyrus-subtitled dialogue, that its past was “too painful” to recount that I realized I had totally bought into Avatar: The Way of Water. The success of 2009’s Avatar heavily influenced the direction of digital filmmaking and distribution, and though the world has changed a lot in the 13 years leading up to this sequel, some things never do… like how when James Cameron decides to make a sequel, he expands and embellishes the preceding story in surprising, engaging ways. Avatar: The Way of Water isn’t afraid to be weird as hell, as it doubles down on the naked sentimentality of the first movie, refocuses the plot on more interesting characters, and yes, it has to be said, sets the high water mark for visual effects in film all over again.

The Way of Water bridges the long gap between movies with a dense prologue that explains what happened after the resource-hungry humans of the RDA retreated from Pandora. Defecting Avatar pilot and now full-time Na’vi Jake Sully (Sam Worthington) and Neytiri (Zoe Saldaña) start a family as the new leaders of the Omaticaya tribe. That family grows to include three biological and two adopted children, and it’s the driving force behind Jake and Neytiri’s decision to exile themselves after the RDA return to resume their plundering, led by the practically non-existent General Ardmore (Edie Falco). These early scenes deliver a lot of exposition, and breeze over important details about the status quo and the nature of certain relationships. At a bladder-busting 190 minutes, The Way of Water almost always finds the time to circle back to reinforce the most crucial plot elements, but it does mean that there will be times where you’ll be searching for a character’s name or their place in the social hierarchy. Cameron’s betting that you’ll be too bowled over by what a decade of technological advancement has done for realizing Pandora on screen, and the results speak for themselves.

What's the best James Cameron movie?

Though we spend some brief time in the forests of the first film, the vast majority of The Way of Water takes place in the territory of the seafaring Metkayina tribe, and the vibrant underwater ecosystem is an even more dreamlike palette for Cameron to work with. Bioluminescent rainbows from the flora in the depths refract through the moving surface like the aurora, sunsets on the wide horizon bounce off the waves and cast the shores in a purple hue, the thoughtfully designed marine life all reinforce the sense that Pandora is a living, breathing world even more effectively than Avatar did. But when the time comes to blow up all that tranquility in favor of blockbuster action, it should come as little surprise that Cameron delivers the goods. Even the most chaotic action sequences are readable, thrillingly paced, and above all, impossible to take your eye away from. An early raid on an RDA cargo shipment features a train derailment that I smiled the whole way through, taken aback by how visceral the destruction felt.

Cameron’s environmentalist interests remain the backbone of the larger Avatar plot, and his heavy employment of familiar character archetypes and story devices feels like a clear message that the Na’vi good guys and military baddies are more important as a collective than individually. And if we’re talking archetypal characters, we have to talk about Cameron’s decision to (quite literally) revive Stephen Lang’s Miles Quaritch as The Way of Water’s primary villain. Quaritch’s hyper-macho drill sergeant persona felt dated in 2009, little more than a vessel for all the worst aspects of Avatar’s themes of colonialism, but Lang’s scene-chewing enthusiasm always kept the character interesting. Quaritch gets his second chance at revenge thanks to a Na’vi body of his own, and his newfound physical prowess gives him even more swagger than he already had. His personal vendetta doesn’t get fleshed out with long monologues about the nature of life or the expectations of a military man; it’s made manifest in the simple fact that, even given a new lease on life, he’s still gunning for the Sullys.

The Best Sci-Fi/Fantasy Movie of 2022

movie review of avatar

Lang manages to showboat without feeling like a showboat, with all the subtlety of Quaritch holding his own human skull aloft in grand Hamlet fashion, though there are some new wrinkles to the character that suggest a little more depth than The Way of Water has time for – yes, even at three-plus hours long. The Way of Water is in no rush to expand the franchise’s universe and, after a decade plus of seeing the pros and cons of interconnected storytelling, that serves the experience well.

Thanks in no small part to a shift in focus to the next generation, The Way of Water has far more room for levity than its self-serious forerunner. Jake and Neytiri’s kids bicker and tease, they get into scraps with their new tribemates, but above all, they stick together. Cameron invests a lot into middle kids Lo’ak and Kiri as the new representatives of the Na’vi’s warrior and spiritual leanings, with each struggling to understand their place. Spider, the Sullys’ adopted human child, doesn’t get quite as much time with his siblings because of how the story progresses, but his mix of feral energy and wisecracking attitude help him stand out. The eldest and youngest Sully children have little to do and get lost in the shuffle, apart from when someone needs to be endangered to keep the plot moving.

With the Sully kids taking center stage, Jake and Neytiri’s role in the story is proportionally diminished, and that’s okay. Jake is no more interesting a character than he was last time around, but he does have utility here as a tough father figure for his kids to struggle to live up to. Zoe Saldaña’s Neytiri feels like the legacy character with the least to do, mostly advocating for her kids to a distracted Jake. The leaders of the Metkayina tribe, played by Cliff Curtis and Kate Winslet, are cut from a very similar cloth to Jake and Neytiri and often end up feeling redundant as a result.

Though the vast majority of The Way of Water’s technical gambits pay off, missteps in that arena are more glaring. Specifically, Cameron overplays his hand in how he brings one of Jake and Neytiri’s children to life. Kiri, the eldest Sully daughter, is voiced and played in performance capture by Sigourney Weaver, and her connection to the late Dr. Grace Augustine (also Weaver) is an important story point, but the choice to have Weaver herself play this younger incarnation frequently distracts. It’s less to do with the idea of an adult playing a child via mo-cap and more the fact that… well, it’s Sigourney Weaver. Of course, Weaver’s game for the attempt, but pitching her voice up and shrinking her Na’vi body down isn’t quite enough to bridge the uncanny valley of hearing an icon – an icon in Cameron’s own filmography, no less – being transposed into an adolescent.

Avatar: The Way of Water is a thoughtful, sumptuous return to Pandora, one which fleshes out both the mythology established in the first film and the Sully family’s place therein. It may not be the best sequel James Cameron has ever made (which is a very high bar), but it’s easily the clearest improvement on the film that preceded it. The oceans of Pandora see lightning striking in the same place twice, expanding the visual language the franchise has to work with in beautiful fashion. The simple story may leave you crying “cliché,” but as a vehicle for transporting you to another world, it’s good enough to do the job. This is nothing short of a good old-fashioned Cameron blockbuster, full of filmmaking spectacle and heart, and an easy recommendation for anyone looking to escape to another world for a three-hour adventure.

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Movie Reviews

Movie review: 'avatar: the way of water'.

Bob Mondello 2010

Bob Mondello

Filmmaker James Cameron's sequel to the biggest worldwide box office hit of all time, "Avatar: The Way of Water," has been in the works for more than a decade.

ARI SHAPIRO, HOST:

"Avatar: The Way Of Water" opens this week on close to 54,000 screens worldwide. It's the sequel to the highest-grossing film in movie history, and filmmaker James Cameron says he waited 13 years to make it so that film technology could catch up with his vision of the moon Pandora. Here's critic Bob Mondello to tell us, without spoilers, how that vision plays out.

BOB MONDELLO, BYLINE: More than a decade has passed since the Na'vi sent Pandora's invading humans packing, and their world seems to have more or less healed. The rainforests are as lush as you remember and is filled with digitized wonders. Jake Sully, the first film's hero, having given up his human body for his avatar one, is now tall, blue and handsome on a permanent basis, and proud papa to four kids who call him sir and follow his orders...

(SOUNDBITE OF FILM, "AVATAR: THE WAY OF WATER")

JAMIE FLATTERS: (As Neteyam) I'm a warrior like you. I'm supposed to fight.

MONDELLO: ...Intermittently. His wife, Neytiri, has to remind him occasionally that they're his family, not his squad. But everything's basically fine until just a few minutes into the movie, they spot what looks like a new star in the heavens and realize that the sky people are back. Now, may I just say right here that I don't much like wearing 3D glasses. But when the sky people lit up the forest as they were landing and sparks floated persuasively enough out into the auditorium to have me briefly worrying about the hair of the woman sitting in front of me, I decided I was on board. The visuals in this movie are astonishing, everything you'll have heard and then some, especially when Sully realizes that the humans are after him personally and he and his family join another branch of the Na'vi...

MONDELLO: ...A beach-dwelling turquoise clan that spends a good deal of its time underwater. This being submerged part is the technological advance James Cameron was apparently waiting on, and it's plenty dazzling. I mean, he's already made "Titanic" and "The Abyss," so he knows his way around a wading pool. But between the tattooed four-eyed whales and the rideable flying fish, he's arguably treading new water here - not so much in the plot department where he's recycling everything from "Moby Dick" and "Finding Nemo" to his own greatest hits reel, whole scenes that could have been lifted from "Aliens," "Terminator" and "Titanic." That said, in between the battles and breathtaking visuals, there are clever touches that have nothing to do with images, as when he brings back folks who died in the first "Avatar" - Sigourney Weaver's scientist, for instance.

SIGOURNEY WEAVER: (As Grace Augustine) It's like the entire biosphere of Pandora is aware and capable of this cognitive response.

MONDELLO: Her spirit now presents as Sully's adopted Na'vi daughter...

SAM WORTHINGTON: (As Jake Sully) What is it?

WEAVER: (As Kiri) I feel her, Dad.

MONDELLO: ...An environmentally sensitive 14-year-old...

WORTHINGTON: (As Jake Sully) Feel who?

WEAVER: (As Kiri) Eywa.

MONDELLO: ...Voiced by Sigourney Weaver.

WEAVER: (As Kiri) I hear her breathing. I hear her heartbeat.

MONDELLO: While I shouldn't go into specifics, for long stretches, this movie belongs to the kids. Think young adult fiction. As lessons are learned, rivalries morph into friendships with the more aquatic teens...

FILIP GELJO: (As Aonung) Keep up, forest boy.

MONDELLO: ...And things get set up for "Avatars" three, four and five. The concentration on family is new this time, but the thing that stayed constant so far is the filmmaker's obviously sincere passion about the environment. It was there at the start, Pandora's ecosystem in perfect balance until the arrival of humans, and "Avatar: Way Of Water" doubles down on that notion - no more talk of strip-mining unobtainium, possibly because it sounds silly. Now the reason humans have come to Pandora is they finally wrecked planet Earth and need a new planet to despoil. That, as Cameron is well aware 13 years after the first "Avatar," doesn't sound silly at all. I'm Bob Mondello.

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movie review of avatar

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Avatar: The Way of Water First Reviews: A Magical, Visually Sublime Cinematic Experience Well Worth the Wait

Early reviews of james cameron's long-in-the-making sequel say it feels like an immersive theme park thrill ride with interesting characters, breathtaking action, and a better story than the first..

movie review of avatar

TAGGED AS: First Reviews , movies , news

The first of Avatar’ s sequels is finally here, 13 years after the release of the record-breaking original. For those who’ve been anxiously looking forward to Avatar: The Way of Water and those who have been doubting its necessity, the good news is that the movie is worth the wait and another work of essential theatrical entertainment from James Cameron. The first reviews of the follow-up celebrate its expected visual spectacle as well as its slightly improved script and new cast members. You’re going to want to return to Pandora after reading these excerpts.

Here’s what critics are saying about Avatar: The Way of Water :

Does it live up to expectations?

The Way of the Water is a transformative movie experience that energizes and captivates the senses through its visual storytelling, making the return to Pandora well worth the wait. – Mae Abdulbaki, Screen Rant
Spending more than a decade pining for Pandora was worth it. Cameron has delivered the grandest movie since, well, Avatar . – Johnny Oleksinski, New York Post
This latest and most ambitious picture will stun most of his naysayers into silence. – Justin Chang, Los Angeles Times

Is it better than the original?

Like all great sequels, The Way of Water retrospectively deepens the original. – David Ehrlich, IndieWire
Avatar: The Way of Water is as visually exhilarating and sweepingly told as its predecessor; the plot is more emotionally vigorous. – Johnny Oleksinski, New York Post

Sam Worthington as Jake Sully in Avatar: The Way of Water (2022)

(Photo by ©Walt Disney Studios Motion Pictures)

So it’s not just more of the same?

Any “been here, actually do remember this” déjà vu washes all the way off the minute the action finally plunges under the surface. – David Ehrlich, IndieWire
[It is] meticulous world-building as astonishing and enveloping as anything we’ve ever seen on screen. – Leah Greenblatt, Entertainment Weekly
The brand-extension imperatives that typically govern sequels are happily nowhere in evidence. – Justin Chang, Los Angeles Times

Does it have a better script?

The sequel’s story is spread a bit thin, though there is certainly more depth than the first film. – Mae Abdulbaki, Screen Rant
In terms of narrative sophistication and even more so dialogue, this $350 million sequel is almost as basic as its predecessor, even feeble at times. – David Rooney, Hollywood Reporter
The story is still just okay. – Owen Gleiberman, Variety

Sam Worthington and Zoe Saldana as Jake Sully and Neytiri in Avatar: The Way of Water (2022)

Will we care enough about the story and characters regardless?

Avatar: The Way of Water is such a staggering improvement over the original because its spectacle doesn’t have to compensate for its story; in vintage Cameron fashion, the movie’s spectacle is what allows its story to be told so well. – David Ehrlich, IndieWire
The movie’s overt themes of familial love and loss, its impassioned indictments of military colonialism and climate destruction, are like a meaty hand grabbing your collar; it works because they work it. – Leah Greenblatt, Entertainment Weekly
Watching The Way of Water , one rolls their eyes only to realize they’re welling with tears. – Richard Lawson, Vanity Fair
I’m sorry, but as I watched The Way of Water  the only part of me that was moved was my eyeballs. – Owen Gleiberman, Variety

Are there any standout performances?

Saldaña and Winslet have poignant moments…and Dalton and Champion are standouts among the young newcomers. – David Rooney, Hollywood Reporter
The most dynamic portrayal probably belongs to Lang, whose Quaritch is so relentless in his pursuit of Jake that he becomes a force of nature. – Tim Grierson, Screen International

Sam Worthington and Zoe Saldana as Jake Sully and Neytiri in Avatar: The Way of Water (2022)

How is the action?

The open-water clash that dominates the final hour is a commandingly sustained feat of action filmmaking. – David Rooney, Hollywood Reporter
Any hack can make stuff blow up real good; Cameron makes stuff glow up real good. – Justin Chang, Los Angeles Times

Are the visuals as spectacular as they’re supposed to be?

One can’t say enough good things about the film’s visuals — each frame is more breathtaking and magical than the last. – Mae Abdulbaki, Screen Rant
The world both above and below the waterline is a thing to behold, a sensory overload of sound and color so richly tactile that it feels psychedelically, almost spiritually sublime. – Leah Greenblatt, Entertainment Weekly
What’s most astonishing about The Way of Water is the persuasive case it makes for CGI. – David Rooney, Hollywood Reporter

On the set of Avatar: The Way of Water

(Photo by Mark Fellman/©Walt Disney Studios Motion Pictures)

But how is that high frame rate?

It’s a rather soulless feel, as it was in Peter Jackson’s Hobbit films. But it can make you feel like you’re sharing the same space with the characters. – Owen Gleiberman, Variety
While the approach can sometimes prove distracting, the film is far more persuasive than Ang Lee’s recent experiments in the form. – Tim Grierson, Screen International
The use of high frame rate (a sped-up 48 frames per second) tends to work better underwater than on dry land, where the overly frictionless, motion-smoothed look might put you briefly in mind of a Na’vi soap opera. – Justin Chang, Los Angeles Times

Does it feel like more than just your average movie?

At times you don’t feel like you’re watching a movie so much as floating in one. – Justin Chang, Los Angeles Times
There are times when it can seem as if there isn’t a screen at all, and that the action is unfolding right in front of you. – David Ehrlich, IndieWire
It’s truly a movie crossed with a virtual-reality theme-park ride. – Owen Gleiberman, Variety

Trinity Jo-Li Bliss as Tuk in Avatar: The Way of Water (2022)

Do we need to see it in a theater?

It’s the most rapturous, awe-inducing, only in theaters return to the cinema of attractions since Godard experimented with double exposure 3D in Goodbye to Language . – David Ehrlich, IndieWire

Will it leave us excited for Avatar 3 ?

Where it will flow next is a mystery, and it’d be disingenuous of me to suggest I’m not eager to find out. – Justin Chang, Los Angeles Times

Avatar: The Way of Water opens everywhere on December 16, 2022.

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‘avatar’: film review.

A dozen years later, James Cameron has proven his point: He is king of the world.

By Kirk Honeycutt

Kirk Honeycutt

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'Avatar' (2009)

As commander-in-chief of an army of visual-effects technicians, creature designers, motion-capture mavens, stunt performers, dancers, actors and music and sound magicians, he brings science-fiction movies into the 21st century with the jaw-dropping wonder that is “ Avatar .” And he did it almost from scratch. The Bottom Line A titanic entertainment -- movie magic is back!

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After writing this story many years ago, he discovered that the technology he needed to make it happen did not exist. So, he went out and created it in collaboration with the best effects minds in the business. This is motion capture brought to a new high where every detail of the actors’ performances gets preserved in the final CG character as they appear on the screen. Yes, those eyes are no longer dead holes but big and expressive, almost dominating the wide and long alien faces.

The movie is 161 minutes and flies by in a rush. Repeat business? You bet. “Titanic”-level business? That level may never be reached again, but Fox will see more than enough grosses worldwide to cover its bet on Cameron.

But let’s cut to the chase: A fully believable, flesh-and-blood (albeit not human flesh and blood) romance is the beating heart of “Avatar.” Cameron has never made a movie just to show off visual pyrotechnics: Every bit of technology in “Avatar” serves the greater purpose of a deeply felt love story (watch the trailer here ).

The story takes place in 2154, three decades after a multinational corporation has established a mining colony on Pandora, a planet light years from Earth. A toxic environment and hostile natives — one corporate apparatchik calls the locals “blue monkeys” — forces the conglom to engage with Pandora by proxy. Humans dwell in oxygen-drenched cocoons but move out into mines or to confront the planet’s hostile creatures in hugely fortified armor and robotics or — as avatars.

Without any training, Jake suddenly must learn how to link his consciousness to an avatar, a remotely controlled biological body that mixes human DNA with that of the native population, the Na’vi . Since he is incautious and overly curious, he immediately rushes into the fresh air — to a native — to throw open Pandora’s many boxes.

What a glory Cameron has created for Jake to romp in, all in a crisp 3D realism. It’s every fairy tale about flying dragons, magic plants, weirdly hypnotic creepy-crawlies and feral dogs rolled up into a rain forest with a highly advanced spiritual design. It seems — although the scientists led by Sigourney Weaver’s top doc have barely scratched the surface — a flow of energy ripples through the roots of trees and the spores of the plants, which the Na’vi know how to tap into.

The center of life is a holy tree where tribal memories and the wisdom of their ancestors is theirs for the asking. This is what the humans want to strip mine.

Jake manages to get taken in by one tribe where a powerful, Amazonian named Neytiri (Zoe Saldana ) takes him under her wing to teach him how to live in the forest, speak the language and honor the traditions of nature. Yes, they fall in love but Cameron has never been a sentimentalist: He makes it tough on his love birds.

They must overcome obstacles and learn each other’s heart. The Na’vi have a saying, “I see you,” which goes beyond the visual. It means I see into you and know your heart.

He provides solid intelligence about the Na’vi defensive capabilities to Col. Miles Quaritch (Stephen Lang), the ramrod head of security for the mining consortium and the movie’s villain. But as Jake comes to see things through Neytiri’s eyes, he hopes to establish enough trust between the humans and the natives to negotiate a peace. But the corporation wants the land the Na’vi occupy for its valuable raw material so the Colonel sees no purpose in this.

The battle for Pandora occupies much of the final third of the film. The planet’s animal life — the creatures of the ground and air — give battle along with the Na’vi , but they come up against projectiles, bombs and armor that seemingly will be their ruin.

As with everything in “Avatar,” Cameron has coolly thought things through. With every visual tool he can muster, he takes viewers through the battle like a master tactician, demonstrating how every turn in the fight, every valiant death or cowardly act, changes its course. The screen is alive with more action and the soundtrack pops with more robust music than any dozen sci-fi shoot-’em-ups you care to mention (watch the “Avatar” video game trailer here ).

In years of development and four years of production no detail in the pic is unimportant. Cameron’s collaborators excel beginning with the actors. Whether in human shape or as natives, they all bring terrific vitality to their roles.

James Horner’s score never intrudes but subtly eggs the action on while the editing attributed to Cameron, Stephen Rivkin and John Refoua maintains a breathless pace that exhilarates rather than fatigues. Not a minute is wasted; there is no down time.

The only question is: How will Cameron ever top this?

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Zoe Saldana and Sam Worthington in Avatar (2009)

A paraplegic Marine dispatched to the moon Pandora on a unique mission becomes torn between following his orders and protecting the world he feels is his home. A paraplegic Marine dispatched to the moon Pandora on a unique mission becomes torn between following his orders and protecting the world he feels is his home. A paraplegic Marine dispatched to the moon Pandora on a unique mission becomes torn between following his orders and protecting the world he feels is his home.

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  • Trivia The Na'vi language was created entirely from scratch by linguist Dr. Paul R. Frommer . James Cameron hired him to construct a language that would be easily enunciable for actors to pronounce but would not resemble any human language. Frommer created about 1,000 words. Cameron requested Dr Frommer that the Na'vi language must be entirely new, as it's supposed to be from another planet, and that it should sound "nice" to the audience. Cameron didn't want any additional editing done to their voices and wanted them to sound authentic and not unnatural. Equipped with a vast knowledge of linguistics, Dr Frommer understood what kinds of sounds the Na'vi language would or wouldn't have. Just like "j" and "r" don't exist in Korean, in English, the 'h' sound is unaspirated. In a similar vein, Frommer's conception of the new language totally avoided the sounds of "ch", "th", and "sh". Additionally, Frommer had to decide on the language's syntax -- or rules regarding word order. He came up with his own set of constraints and words to be used in the language of Pandora. The tongue took inspiration from the natural languages of the world to create a totally different spoken form.
  • Goofs Cockpits of numerous aircraft are breached without the unshielded pilots being affected by the toxic atmosphere.

Jake Sully : Neytiri calls me skxawng. It means "moron."

  • Crazy credits There are no opening credits of any kind, outside of the 20th Century Fox fanfare. The title of the film doesn't appear on screen until the end of the movie. For the 2022 re-release, the 20th Century Fox logo was swapped out for a 20th Century Studios logo for consistency with the second film.
  • Herd: As they fly over Pandora in Trudy's gunship, Jake, Grace and Norm get a closer look at some of Pandora's creatures.
  • The Schoolhouse: Entering an abandoned schoolhouse in the jungle with Grace and Norm to retrieve supplies, Jake makes a grim discovery.
  • Purple Moss: Jake follows Neytiri after his rescue, and delights in the bioluminescent moss that glows beneath his feet with every step. I Don't Even Know Your Name: Newly tasked with teaching Jake the Na'vi ways, Neytiri brings him to dinner with the entire clan.
  • What Does Hold Them Up?: The Avatar team lands at their new base camp in the Hallelujah Mountains, and Jake and Norm marvel at the floating mountains.
  • Extended Montage: Jake learns the ways of the Pandoran forest under Neytiri's tutelage, and the gulf between his two worlds grows ever wider.
  • Neytiri's Flyby: As Tsu'tey, Jake and two other young hunters travel across suspended vines to dizzying heights, Neytiri sails past on her banshee.
  • Sturmbeest Hunt: Omaticayan hunters on direhorses attack a massive herd of sturmbeests, while Jake takes aim from atop his banshee.
  • Extended Love Scene: Jake and Neytiri confess their feelings for one another and bond together for life under the Tree of Voices in this extended scene.
  • Drums of War: The morning after the military's attack on the Tree of Voices, Parker and Quaritch get some bad news from the reconnaissance team.
  • Tsu'tey's Fall: In the RDA assault, Tsu'tey fights fiercely after boarding the Valkyrie shuttle. But the soldiers counter with a hail of bullets.
  • Strumbeest Attack: Sturmbeests charge to the rescue when Neytiri is cornered by RDA soldiers in AMP suits.
  • Extended Thanator Fight: Neytiri and her fearsome thanator battle Colonel Quaritch in his AMP suit in this extended sequence.
  • The Last Shadow: When Neytiri and Jake find Tsu'tey mortally wounded, he passes leadership of the Omaticaya to Jake, with one last request of him.
  • Connections Edited into Bones: The Gamer in the Grease (2009)
  • Soundtracks I See You (Theme from Avatar) Performed by Leona Lewis Music by James Horner and Simon Franglen Lyrics by Simon Franglen , Kuk Harrell , and James Horner Produced by Simon Franglen and James Horner Leona Lewis performs courtesy of Syco Music

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  • What's meant to happen to Sully's Navi/"Avatar" body, when his human body gets woken up on-base? And between sessions? We never see Navi-Jake returning to base; Is his switched-off Navi body just laying comatose, in a forest full of predators? Do the real Navi just think Jake has narcolepsy?
  • If at the the end of the movie, the humans were, as Jake said, sent back to their dying planet (Earth), are we to assume that they all were sent back and simply died?
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  • December 18, 2009 (United States)
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  • $237,000,000 (estimated)
  • $785,221,649
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  • Dec 20, 2009
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Avatar: The Way of Water

Avatar: The Way of Water review – a thunderously underwhelming damp squib of a return

James Cameron’s long-awaited Avatar sequel is a lumbering three-hour slog featuring characters seemingly designed by a stoned sixth former

A stonishing! Enthralling! Exciting! Immersive! None of these words could sensibly be applied to the three-and-a-quarter-hour Wet Smurfahontas stodgeathon that is Avatar: The Way of Water . A lumbering, humourless, tech-driven damp squib of a movie, this long-awaited (or dreaded?) sequel to one of the highest grossing films of all time builds upon the mighty flaws of its predecessor, delivering a patience-testing fantasy dirge that is longer, uglier and (amazingly) even more clumsily scripted than its predecessor, blending trite characterisation with sub- Roger Dean 70s album-cover designs and thunderously underwhelming action sequences. In water.

We pick up several years after the wholly forgettable antics of 2009’s Avatar . On the distant world Pandora, Jake Sully (Sam Worthington) has gone native, raising a family with Neytiri (Zoe Saldaña) after shedding his human skin to inhabit his alien avatar (see previous film). When the “sky people” of Earth come looking for a fight, among other things, the forest-friendly Sullys are forced to flee to distant archipelagos where the water-tribes dwell. Here, they must abandon their tree-hugging lifestyle and learn the ways of the reef people, who have thicker tails and are a bit more turquoise. Really.

The Metkayina tribe are led by Tonowari (Cliff Curtis) and his partner, Ronal (Kate Winslet), whose kids don’t click with the Sully brood, setting the scene for much teen-movie style internecine squabbling followed by inevitable boring bromance bonding. En route, our blue heroes will learn to ride amphibious skimwings (imagine How to Train Your Dragon as retold by the writers of Star Trek and Stingray ), to speak the language of the seas in all its wondrous wetness, and to befriend a damaged, whale-like creature (think Free Willy in space) who will become a key player in the film’s emotional baggage handling.

There are moments that are meant to be thrillingly exciting. These are easy to spot because the characters on screen shout “Woohoo!” in the same way that young Anakin shouted “Yippee!” in Star Wars: Episode 1 – The Phantom Menace . Sadly, the comparisons with Lucas’s ill-fated space opera prequels don’t end there. Like Jar Jar Binks, the residents of Pandora appear to have been designed by a stoned sixth former while listening to Tales From Topographic Oceans , all wide-eyed Middle-earth wonder mixed with cod FernGully - style fairytale heroism. There’s also a feral human child (he speaks normally, but occasionally growls annoyingly) whom James Cameron presumably imagines to be a thematic descendent of Rudyard Kipling’s Mowgli, but whose irritating presence simply reminded me how much I preferred the lush worlds of Jon Favreau’s The Jungle Book and Andy Serkis’s Mowgli: Legend of the Jungle .

Of course the joyous watery wibbling (“Woohoo!”) cannot last, and the sky people come calling, leading to a hyberbolic action showdown that bolts the third act of Aliens (against-the-clock sprog hunt through exploding/collapsing metal structures) with the first act of The Poseidon Adventure (watery world turned upside down) and the second half of Titanic (breath holding and personal conflict-solving combined!).

As for the 3D – a moribund format that has risen and fallen like the tide on umpteen occasions throughout cinema history – the only thing it immerses us in is the harsh realities of the Chinese theatrical marketplace, where spectacular stereoscopy still rules the roost. Let’s face it, with very few notable exceptions ( Creature From the Black Lagoon in the 1950s, Flesh for Frankenstein in the 1970s, Gravity in the 21st century), 3D has done precious little to “enhance” anyone’s viewing experience. But when the financial stakes are this high ( The Way of Water reportedly needs to take around $2bn – £1.6bn – to wash its face), Cameron simply cannot afford to abandon a gimmick for which he has become chief gong banger, standard bearer and book-keeper.

Underneath it all is the same honkingly bland anti-imperial/anti-colonial/eco-friendly metaphor that gave the first Avatar the illusion of gravitas, although it’s hard to overlook how much Cameron enjoys the human hardware sequences, which have a rough physicality that stands in stark contrast to the floaty computer-game visuals of the rest of the film. Whether things will improve over the course of subsequent movies (two more sequels are already in progress) remains to be seen. On this evidence, I doubt it.

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  • December 18, 2009
  • Sam Worthington as Jake Sully; Zoe Saldana as Neytiri; Sigourney Weaver as Dr. Grace Augustine; Michelle Rodriguez as Trudy Chacon; Stephen Lang as Col. Miles Quatrich; Giovanni Ribisi as Parker Selfridge; Joel David Moore as Norm Spellman; CCH Pounder as Mo’at; Wes Studi as Eytucan; Laz Alonso as Tus’Tey

Home Release Date

  • April 22, 2010
  • James Cameron

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  • 20th Century Fox

Movie Review

Jake Sully has been asleep for six years.

More accurately, he’s been in cryogenic stasis five years, nine months and 22 days—the time needed to shuttle him and a crew of scientists and ex-Marine mercenaries from a decaying, resource-depleted Earth to the distant, forest-covered moon Pandora in the year 2154.

The job of the heavies? Protect miners, botanists and engineers from the perils of Pandora. Jake’s task, though he’s ex-military himself, is altogether different. His career was cut short by injuries that left him a paraplegic. Then he got tapped to take the place of his twin brother (a researcher who died unexpectedly) in the Avatar project, led by Dr. Grace Augustine.

Dr. Augustine has pioneered a way to make contact with the moon’s primary population, an intelligent, 10-foot-tall, blue-skinned, wide-eyed humanoid race known as the Na’vi. Blending human and Na’vi DNA, Augustine and her compatriots have bioengineered Na’vi-like bodies that can be linked through immersive virtual reality with “drivers,” of which Jake is one.

And all of that is just the setup before things really get rolling in James Cameron’s hyper-animated technology experiment.

Positive Elements

On the brink of being devoured by predators, Jake is rescued by a fierce female Na’vi warrior named Neytiri. Do Jake and Neytiri fall in love? Of course. But in the process, Jake begins to see the humans’ despoiling presence through the cat-like eyes of Pandora’s indigenous people.

Scowling from the face of the other side of the coin, Avatar’ s villains exhibit a caricatured kind of hyper-colonial wickedness. Parker Selfridge, the humans’ corporate overseer on Pandora, looks upon the Na’vi as animals that must be annihilated. Likewise, Col. Miles Quatrich is a battle-scarred attack dog who’s all too ready to commit genocide.

It’s clear who is heads and who is tails here. And, naturally, it’s only a matter of time before conflict erupts. When it does, Jake, Dr. Augustine and several other humans sacrificially fight on behalf of the oppressed, outgunned population.

The sermon is delivered in stark tones. Yet it’s undeniably true that unprovoked attacks and the taking of others’ land for personal gain is, um, wrong . The film also rightfully elevates the Na’vi’s harmonious relationship with their environment—because while the debate can rage over what it should look like exactly, living peaceably with our surroundings is still a good thing. (On its face, that is. The spiritual components wrapped into this issue are another matter.)

The Na’vi again serve as a counterpoint to the humans who have wrecked their own world and are intent upon doing it to another. Yes, we earthlings take quite a beating in Avatar . But in some ways we deserve to, especially if we identify at all with generally rapacious materialists who have only one thing on their minds—digging out the precious, energy-rich ore known as unobtanium.

Spiritual Elements

Just as the storyline involving the decimation of an indigenous population parallels early American history, so too the Na’vi’s spiritual beliefs often parallel those of Native American religions. The Na’vi worship a goddess known as Eywa, the Great Mother, a deity that seems both personal (the Na’vi pray to her) as well as encompassing the collective energy of Pandora’s living things.

Thus, the Na’vi exhibit high reverence for all plants and animals. And, as mentioned, the film’s environmental message is set against this spiritual backdrop. The trees, the forests and everything in them are not merely part of a natural ecology, but a spiritual one. And the violence perpetrated against Pandora’s creatures is not merely a physical violation, but a spiritual affront too.

The Na’vi’s holiest place is the Tree of Souls. Its airborne seeds are referred to as “pure spirits.” Its branches—more luminous tendrils than bark-covered limbs—are used in prayer rituals. Twice the Na’vi gather before this tree in what could be described as services of corporate healing and worship. In the first, they petition Eywa to save the wounded Dr. Augustine by transferring her soul from her human body into her avatar. The tribe’s spiritual leader, a female shaman (and Neytiri’s mother), says, “The Great Mother may choose to save all that she is in this body,” then prays, “Hear us please, All Mother. … Let her walk among us as one of the people.” Amid those prayers, Augustine tells Jake, “I’m with her [Eywa]. She’s real.” A similar service later involves Jake’ s attempt to become fully Na’vi. Both times, the tribe is seated, undulating and chanting ecstatically.

The Na’vi at times listen to the whispering voices of deceased ancestors. And they psychically bond with flying, almost dragon-like creatures known as banshees. During a funeral service, Neytiri tells Jake, “All energy is only borrowed. … You have to give it back.” Neytiri says of the Na’vi’s initiation ceremony, “Every person is born twice. The second time is when you earn your place among the people forever.”

Jake eventually prays to Eywa, telling her that the humans are about to destroy the Tree of Souls. Neytiri responds, “Our Great Mother does not take sides, Jake. She protects only the balance of life.” [ Spoiler Warning ] But when the planet’s creatures come to the Na’vi’s rescue in the final battle, Neytiri exults that Eywa has answered Jake’s prayers.

A Na’vi leader calls Jake’s avatar “a demon in a false body.” Col. Quatrich says of Pandora’s vicious environment, “If there is a hell, you might want to go there for some R and R.”

Sexual Content

The Na’vi may be aliens, and they may be computer generated, but their physiology still resembles that of humans. And we see quite a bit of it. Their garb is something you might see in a National Geographic pictorial of isolated jungle tribes. Which is to say, there isn’t much there. Both men and women wear little more than loincloths, and the race’s catlike tails don’t fully obscure their backsides. Neytiri and other Na’vi females wear ornamental coverings that don’t really conceal their breasts.

As for the humans, a female pilot wears a tight, cleavage-revealing tank top. And Dr. Augustine is seen unclothed (strategically wrapped in vines). Later, Jake’s nakedness is similarly “wrapped.”

Jake and Neytiri consummate their relationship in a sensuous scene that shows them kissing and intertwined. They sleep together afterward and are said to be “mated for life.”

Augustine alludes to an old masturbation cliché. Quatrich spits out a mocking double entendre about Jake having found “some local tail.”

Violent Content

The humans’ brutal attack begins with gas canisters. And it’s not long before copters unleash missiles that bring the Na’vi’s massive “home tree” down in a scene reminiscent of the World Trade Center’s collapse. Many Na’vi are crushed, impaled or wounded, and we see survivors departing in a line, weeping and wailing. These images recall the Cherokee’s forced migration to Oklahoma along the Trail of Tears.

Aerial clashes involve banshees vs. the humans’ aircraft. And while the Na’vi get mowed down by missiles and gunfire, many of their arrows somehow penetrate cockpits, taking out pilots and gunners.

The situation is similar on the ground. Scores of humans and Na’vi alike fall in a scene that’s similar in intensity to the final battle in The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King . Also severe are several of Jake’s close encounters with Pandora’s fearsome beasties.

Specific violent moments worth noting include Neytiri’s taking out a viperwolf with an arrow and later killing a human with two well-placed shots. She also engages in a vicious melee with Col. Quatrich: She’s riding a huge jungle beast while Quatrich controls a mech (a walking, armored vehicle). He repeatedly stabs the animal and kills it, pinning Neytiri beneath it in the process. Elsewhere, an unfortunate human’s head and shoulders end up in a banshee’s mouth. Explosions consume man, alien and beast alike. On fire, a horse-like creature runs for its life. Jake’s avatar nearly knocks the head off one human and hurls others to their deaths.

Crude or Profane Language

About a dozen s-words. Also, 10 misuses of God’s name (including six or seven pairings with “d‑‑n”) and three abuses of Jesus’ name. We hear roughly 20 other profanities (“h‑‑‑,” “a‑‑,” “b‑‑ch,” “b‑‑tard,” “p‑‑‑”) and three crude references to the male anatomy (“d‑‑k” among them).

Drug and Alcohol Content

Dr. Augustine smokes often and drinks a glass of alcohol.

Other Negative Elements

Political barbs cluster among the positive messages about peace, humanitarianism and environmentalism. As if to denigrate current American foreign policy, the film includes the lines, “Our security lies in preemptive attack. We will fight terror with terror.” Somebody references the upcoming “shock and awe” campaign.

Go epic or go home.

That’s James Cameron’s way. His last feature film, 1997’s Titanic , became the highest grossing of all time (without inflation being factored in). And his other résumé entries include such well-known bombasts as Aliens, The Terminator and its sequel, True Lies and The Abyss .

Big, every one. And Avatar is bigger and bolder than them all.

Cameron began working on Avatar in 1994. Fifteen years later we have what some are saying is the most expensive film ever made—one that tops $300 million. And it’s not hard to see where he spent the money. Visually, Avatar is a feast. Lush colors and spectacular creatures dance and splash (and fight). Cameron has arguably out-Lucased Star Wars creator George Lucas when it comes to imagining and rendering a stunning world in a galaxy far, far way. And Cameron’s proprietary 3-D technology will likely enhance the experience for movie “experience” fans. (It gave me a headache.)

But we have to do more here than deliver an artistic critique. Extended scenes of near nudity (blue though it may be), intense violence and more than a little profanity pop out as much as the immersive 3-D imagery does.

Cameron’s message in Avatar is something like this: Genocidal plunderers are devoid of spiritual enlightenment and driven by their compulsive lust for another people’s resources. Time reviewer Richard Corliss wrote of the motif, “This is not only the most elaborate public-service commercial for those of the tree-hugger persuasion; it’s also a call to save what we’ve got, environmentally, and leave indigenous people as they are—an argument applicable to the attempt of any nation (say, the U.S.) to colonize another land (say, Iraq or Afghanistan).”

Says Cameron, “[In] the 16th and 17th centuries … the Europeans pretty much took over South and Central America and displaced and marginalized the indigenous peoples there. There’s just this long, wonderful history of the human race written in blood going back as far as we can remember, where we have this tendency to just take what we want without asking.”

His insurgent solution? Get in touch with your world and its spirituality and stop consuming so much stuff.

Those are great, deep thoughts—to a point. But what kind of spirituality are we talking about here? Reminding me a great deal of Kevin Costner’s Dances With Wolves , Cameron’s depiction of the Na’vi not only elevates tribal customs and rituals, it blurs the boundaries between God and the environment. Here the creator and her creation are indistinguishable.

A postscript: Nine minutes were added to Avatar in a Special Edition theatrical re-release about nine months after it first premiered. According to Cameron, in an interview with the Washington Post , “There are short, sort of, 10- and 15- and 20-second bits that have been added back. And there are a couple of larger chunks in the one-and-a-half to two-minute range.” One of the short adds involves Jake and Neytiri’s marriage/mating scene, prolonging their sensual foreplay just a bit, but actually not adding anything more explicit to the mix. One of the longer adds is a death scene in which Jake ceremonially takes tribal chief Tsu’tey’s life as the leadership of the tribe passes to Jake. Tsu’tey has been critically injured during the fight, and he asks Jake to finish him off. Jake does so with a dagger of sorts. We see the movement but not the contact.

A second video release, the Extended Collector’s Edition set, hit shelves on Nov. 16, 2010. In it are 16 additional minutes of new footage and 45 minutes of deleted, never-before-seen scenes. To the untrained eye—and perhaps even to the trained one—the scenes are barely noticeable and of little or no consequence to the story. Most viewers will be unable to tell the difference—apart from the already long film’s additional length. Most worthy of mention is the alternate beginning in which Jake is in a futuristic city on Earth before he is chosen to succeed his late twin brother, Tommy. We see Jake drinking a shot and trying to protect a woman who is slapped by her abusive boyfriend in a bar. A brawl results, and he’s violently thrown out of the establishment. On the other side of the content coin, a family-friendly audio track (for the original version of the film) is included that’s designed to eliminate profanities. Missed in the filtering process, however, is at least one use each of God’s name and “a‑‑.” Subtitles still contain curse words.

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Adam R. Holz

After serving as an associate editor at NavPress’ Discipleship Journal and consulting editor for Current Thoughts and Trends, Adam now oversees the editing and publishing of Plugged In’s reviews as the site’s director. He and his wife, Jennifer, have three children. In their free time, the Holzes enjoy playing games, a variety of musical instruments, swimming and … watching movies.

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movie review of avatar

Action-heavy epic has dazzling effects, familiar story.

Avatar Poster Image

A Lot or a Little?

What you will—and won't—find in this movie.

Overall, movie's message is that we could all stan

Several characters make difficult but moral choice

Although humans on the base are racially diverse,

Characters (supporting and extras) die due to expl

Many longing looks between Jake's avatar and Neyti

The word "s--t" is used several times. Language al

No product placement in the movie, but dozens of t

Sigourney Weaver's character, Grace, smokes cigare

Parents need to know that James Cameron's sci-fi epic Avatar is about humans colonizing the planet Pandora, home to the Na'vi. The movie is long (at 161 minutes) and intense, with several effects-heavy battle and hunting sequences that show the devastation of imperialist violence and the right that Indigenous…

Positive Messages

Overall, movie's message is that we could all stand to learn something from a population that's different from our own. Strong environmental and pro-peace themes. Some viewers may see the message of occupying a foreign land to usurp their cultural riches as a commentary on Western imperialism or United States' involvement in global politics.

Positive Role Models

Several characters make difficult but moral choices. Jake chooses to support the Na'vi even though it's against orders to do so and means he must fight (and kill) fellow human soldiers. Neytiri, Grace, and Trudy all make personal sacrifices to help the clan; they're strong, courageous, assertive characters. (In both human and Na'vi populations, female characters are brave and important -- even the Na'vi mating ritual requires that both partners equally accept/choose each other.) On the flip side, the Colonel and corporate boss Parker are portrayed as bloodthirsty and greedy.

Diverse Representations

Although humans on the base are racially diverse, majority of main characters are White. They use offensive terms and stereotypes when talking about the Indigenous population of Pandora, and the military engages in imperialist violence. These scenes, intended to encourage racial/ethnic equality and show value of treating other groups with respect, only partially succeed because, while the Na'vi ultimately triumph, they do so only by following the guidance of outsiders. Violent human colonizers are ultimately ejected from Pandora, but film glosses over how the Na'vi environment and population have been permanently damaged by even well-meaning human scientists and allies. Main character Jake has a visible disability: He uses a wheelchair and is initially teased and treated as an inconvenience. But he easily moves around the base in his wheelchair and asserts control over himself when others try to touch or move him without his consent. Women and female Na'vi characters are important in the story, hold prominent social roles such as scientists and spiritual leaders. No body size diversity. All romantic relationships are between male and female Na'vi.

Did we miss something on diversity? Suggest an update.

Violence & Scariness

Characters (supporting and extras) die due to explosions, bullet wounds, arrows (some treated with toxins), precipitous falls, asphyxiation. Several intense scenes involving frightening Pandoran animals and plants, as well as tension between Jake's rogue group of pro-Na'vi humans and the rest of the humans sent to Pandora.

Did you know you can flag iffy content? Adjust limits for Violence & Scariness in your kid's entertainment guide.

Sex, Romance & Nudity

Many longing looks between Jake's avatar and Neytiri, which eventually leads to kissing and a marital "mating" ritual (kissing and touching are seen on screen). Na'vi clothing makes parts of their humanoid bodies visible. ​​Jake and Neytir's relationship is briefly referred to as "getting tail."

Did you know you can flag iffy content? Adjust limits for Sex, Romance & Nudity in your kid's entertainment guide.

The word "s--t" is used several times. Language also includes "bulls--t," "bitch," "goddamn," "piss," limp-d--ked," "hell," "oh my God," "ass," and insults like "stupid," "ignorant," etc. Degrading language is used to describe disabled people, such as "cripple." Slurs such as "savages," "roaches," and "blue monkeys" are used to describe the Na'vi.

Did you know you can flag iffy content? Adjust limits for Language in your kid's entertainment guide.

Products & Purchases

No product placement in the movie, but dozens of tie-in merchandising deals tied to the title -- including toys and books aimed at young kids.

Drinking, Drugs & Smoking

Sigourney Weaver's character, Grace, smokes cigarettes and somewhat glamorizes the activity.

Did you know you can flag iffy content? Adjust limits for Drinking, Drugs & Smoking in your kid's entertainment guide.

Parents Need to Know

Parents need to know that James Cameron 's sci-fi epic Avatar is about humans colonizing the planet Pandora, home to the Na'vi. The movie is long (at 161 minutes) and intense, with several effects-heavy battle and hunting sequences that show the devastation of imperialist violence and the right that Indigenous groups have to protect themselves and their land. These scenes include missile-launching military aircraft, neurotoxin-laced arrows, scary Pandora-dwelling fauna and flora, and lots of explosions. Salty wartime language includes many uses of "s--t," "​​bitch," and more. As in his previous films, Cameron infuses the action-driven story with strong female characters who are important to the plot, and crafts a morality tale about treating others with respect centered in a romantic relationship. ​​Main character Jake uses a wheelchair in his daily life and a Na'vi "avatar" body to interact with local populations, and the human-Na'vi relationship in question gets a bit complicated because the human is actually using his Na'vi avatar. Na'vi clothing makes parts of their bodies visible from time to time. The romantic leads have chemistry that's sometimes sensual. (Note: Fans of the animated series Avatar: The Last Airbender should know that this movie is in no way connected to that show or the movie based on it.) To stay in the loop on more movies like this, you can sign up for weekly Family Movie Night emails .

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Based on 252 parent reviews

Very well done. Make sure you are not only an older teen, but a mature one too. Watch the family edition.

What's the story.

In the 22nd century, Marine Jake Scully ( Sam Worthington ), who uses a wheelchair, embarks on a corporate-run, military-backed experiment in which he and a select group of academics -- led by Dr. Grace Augustine ( Sigourney Weaver ) -- can fully control avatars that look exactly like the Na'vi: the lean, blue-skinned native population of a distant world called Pandora. On his first outing as his AVATAR, Jake is saved by Na'vi Neytiri ( Zoe Saldana ) and then captured by her clan. They decide to spare Jake's life as long as he agrees to learn the Na'vi ways from Neytiri. He does, but then he's told by villainous Colonel Quaritch ( Stephen Lang ) that he'll be spying on the Na'vi to make it easier to remove them from their home, an ancestral tree that's rooted above a deposit of an unbelievably valuable substance called "Unobtainium" (pun intended). As Jake becomes more and more involved with Neytiri and her people, he's forced to choose between following orders and respecting the Na'vi's wishes.

Is It Any Good?

James Cameron , director of the highest-grossing movie ever made ( Titanic ), risked a rumored $500 million on a spectacular futuristic sci-fi epic whose main characters are blue aliens and settings are mostly CGI. The good news for epic movie lovers everywhere is that Avatar was a massive success. It's more like the story of Dances with Wolves crossed with the breathtaking visual effects of Lord of the Rings and the love story of Titanic , with a splash of the assimilation to a native culture aspect of Apocalypse Now thrown in. Even though Cameron seems to have gone to the same hammy dialogue school of screenwriting as George Lucas , he can certainly immerse viewers in a thoroughly enjoyable spectacle. Every shot of Pandora is amazingly detailed, from floating mountains to flying beasts to the feline-featured Na'vi, who are inspired by several Indigenous cultures. The movie's scale is undeniably impressive.

Cameron owes a huge debt to his movie's female characters, all of whom are much more interesting than the stereotypical men -- especially the outlandishly evil Quaritch and Giovanni Ribisi 's greedy corporate overseer. Weaver and Michelle Rodriguez (as soldier Trudy Chacon), like Aliens ' Ripley or Terminator 's Sarah Connor, could take on anything or anyone, and Saldana follows up a memorable turn as Uhura in Star Trek with another strong performance as Neytiri. It's quite a feat to create romantic electricity between fictional alien creatures, but Saldana and Worthington manage it surprisingly well. If you allow yourself to get lost in Cameron's Pandora, it's impossible not to root for the Na'vi (or Neytiri and Jake). Part sci-fi, part romance, all James Cameron, this is the sci-fi epic that will suck everyone in.

Talk to Your Kids About ...

Families can talk about Avatar 's revolutionary special effects. Do they overwhelm or support the movie's story? How does the portrayal of the Na'vi affect the movie's emotional impact?

What themes does Cameron consistently work into his films? Compare the strong female characters in Avatar , Terminator , and Titanic . Any similarities?

What political messages is Cameron exploring in the movie? How are its themes relevant to what's going on in today's world? Do you think these messages will stand the test of time?

Why is it important to respect different cultural groups and treat their traditions and practices as valid and important?

How do the Na'vi and human allies use teamwork to achieve their goals? Why is that an important character strength ?

Movie Details

  • In theaters : December 18, 2009
  • On DVD or streaming : April 22, 2010
  • Cast : Michelle Rodriguez , Sam Worthington , Sigourney Weaver , Zoe Saldana
  • Director : James Cameron
  • Inclusion Information : Female actors, Latino actors, Black actors
  • Studio : Twentieth Century Fox
  • Genre : Science Fiction
  • Topics : Activism , Magic and Fantasy , Science and Nature , Space and Aliens
  • Character Strengths : Teamwork
  • Run time : 161 minutes
  • MPAA rating : PG-13
  • MPAA explanation : intense epic battle sequences and warfare, sensuality, language and some smoking
  • Last updated : February 9, 2024

Did we miss something on diversity?

Research shows a connection between kids' healthy self-esteem and positive portrayals in media. That's why we've added a new "Diverse Representations" section to our reviews that will be rolling out on an ongoing basis. You can help us help kids by suggesting a diversity update.

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Review | ‘Avatar: The Last Airbender’ returns to Netflix as live-action remake

Rating: 8/10

Water, earth, fire and air: These are the ever-famous elements that are telekinetically manipulated in the Asian- and Arctic-inspired world of Aang and the other avatars before him. 

“Avatar: The Last Airbender” premiered on Feb. 22 and racked up over 22.2 million viewers within the first four days of its release. 

There’s a reason the show received so much attention. The story builds on the beloved 2005 animated Nickelodeon series of the same name, making it the first addition to the “Avatar” series since the polarizing 2010 movie. 

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Fortunately for lovers of Aang’s world, Netflix’s live-action show delivered where the movie fell flat. Consisting of eight one-hour-long episodes, fans of the series are treated to a truly binge-worthy series for the first time since 2008, the release date of the last season of the original series.

Adapting a similar — almost exact — storyline to the classic series, Netflix’s “Avatar: The Last Airbender” excels in multiple fundamentals of creating a good television series.

A primary strength of the series lies in its pacing of the narrative. The show closely sticks to the original storyline, but also has space for further development when exploring different characters. There is a respectful balance between the classic show and new innovation. 

The show follows Avatar Aang (Gordon Cormier) as he learns to master the Avatar state in order to protect and keep balance in the universe against the Fire Nation. 

Cormier captures the bubbly and clever personality of the young Avatar, who battles the pressure of his responsibility to upkeep the peace among the four elemental nations. 

On his journey, he is kept company by waterbender Katara (Kiawentiio) and her brother Sokka (Ian Ousley) as they face the fire nation prince Zuko (Dallas Liu) and Uncle Iroh (Paul Sun-Hyung Lee). However, the real enemies are the feared Fire Lord Ozai (Daniel Dae Kim) and Azula (Elizabeth Yu). 

The casting is almost spot-on when compared with the animated series, showing much improvement on the failed 2010 film. With the newly added Best-Casting Oscar for the following Academy Awards, this show could very likely be in the running for its top-notch cast selection.

When comparing the animations from the Nickelodeon series, the real-life cast looks almost identical with a few natural differences. Sometimes, it would feel like watching the animated series. 

The story starts with the initial attacks on the water, earth and air nations by the Fire Nation on the behalf of Fire Lord Sozin. The graphics and technology used in the action sequences are detailed and emotional while still being appropriate for younger audiences. 

It is a testament to the advanced technology used in today’s films, allowing audiences to truly enjoy the wholesome series without getting too realistic with the injuries depicted on screen.

With its stellar cast, breathtaking visuals and faithful storytelling, it offers both longtime fans and newcomers alike an opportunity to embark on an epic journey through the four nations. 

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Review | ‘Kung Fu Panda 4’ plays it safe with disappointing sequel 

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'Avatar: The Last Airbender': What to Know About the New Netflix Series

Aang kicked off his live-action adventure, and there's more to come.

movie review of avatar

  • Though Kourtnee hasn't won any journalism awards yet, she's been a Netflix streaming subscriber since 2012 and knows the magic of its hidden codes.

young boy meditates while sitting on a rock

Aang and his airbender staff will be on full display when Avatar: The Last Airbender hits Netflix. 

Long ago, in 2005, Nickelodeon aired the first episode of Avatar: The Last Airbender . Fans were introduced to Michael DiMartino and Bryan Konietzko's world of vibrant characters and elemental Four Nations. The epic animated fantasy followed Aang's journey from a playful, 12-year-old into a powerful avatar who mastered the elements with the help of his friends and allies: Katara, Sokka, Zuko, Toph, Momo, Appa and Uncle Iroh.

The award-winning show spawned a collection of print books and comics attached to the original and was adapted into a 2010 live-action film. But Netflix  brought it to the small screen in a new way that showcases all forms of bending, supernatural creatures and the spirit world. At the heart of the story, however, are all the characters working to bring peace to a war-torn realm where the Fire Nation has caused so much damage.

The latest version of Avatar: The Last Airbender is executive-produced by Albert Kim, who also served as a writer, alongside Jabbar Raisani, Dan Lin, Lindsey Liberatore and Michael Goi. The cast features Gordon Cormier as Aang, Dallas Liu as Prince Zuko, Kiawentiio as the water-bending Katara, Ian Ousley as Sokka, Daniel Dae Kim as Fire Lord Ozai, Paul Sun-Hyung Lee as Uncle Iroh and Elizabeth Yu as Azula. Not to be left out, James Sie is returning as the unfortunate Cabbage Merchant.

Here is what else we know about the new live-action series, which was just renewed for two more seasons. 

Read more : What to Watch in 2024: 50 TV Shows We're Excited About

warrior man stands shirtless and looks ahead

Meet Fire Lord Ozai in Netflix's Avatar: The Last Airbender. 

When to watch Avatar: The Last Airbender on Netflix

The show debuted with all eight episodes on Netflix on Thursday, Feb. 22. Rather than stream short episodes like the original, the new series has hour-long episodes. It's still family-friendly, but the titles are different from the animated show: 

  • Into the Dark
  • Spirited Away

If you want to watch the animated series before, during or after this version, all three seasons are also available on Netflix as Book 1, Book 2 and Book 3. You can also stream the sequel series, The Legend of Korra, on the platform.

movie review of avatar

Netflix is available in more than 190 countries, and the service has three plans available in the US: Standard with Ads, Standard and Premium. You can stream the live-action Avatar: The Last Airbender on any of these subscriptions, which range in price from $7 per month to $23 per month. 

What is Avatar: The Last Airbender about? 

Based on the story created by DiMartino and Konietzko, Avatar: The Last Airbender is a fantasy series set in a world with four clans: the Fire Nation, the Water Tribe, Air Nomads and the Earth Kingdom. Aang is an adolescent child who awakens from a deep slumber after 100 years, and must learn who he is as the master avatar. Not only have the Four Nations been at war, but without the avatar, everything is out of balance in the physical and spirit worlds. 

Aang feels alone as his tribe, the Air Nomads, have been exterminated. He finds friendship with teenagers Katara, a waterbender, and her brother Sokka, and meets others along the journey who help him understand not only his elemental powers, but how to navigate growing up. Not everyone in the story has bending abilities, but once he masters waterbending, airbending, firebending and earthbending, he can stop his adversary Fire Lord Ozai from taking over the world. The avatar state shows Aang at his most powerful -- which can be helpful or harmful. 

The series taps into Asian and Indigenous traditions and folklore, packs in laughs and emotional storylines, and carries the characters through war, dysfunctional family dynamics, loss, love and more. Adventure, growth and relationships are core to the story, and viewers get to see action-packed martial arts sequences, budding character arcs and special effects that bring bending and fantasy creatures like Appa to life. 

Fans can see familiar faces in this first season of ATLA

If you've been keeping up with the series and first-look images for this version of Avatar: The Last Airbender, you may have noticed a few fan favorites like Suki. Besides the main crew that includes Aang, Katara, Sokka and Zuko, here's an example of others who are in season 1. 

  • Fire Lord Ozai
  • Kya (Sokka and Katara's mom)
  • Princess Yue (leader of the Northern Water Tribe)
  • Chief Arnook
  • Avatar Kyoshi
  • Cabbage Merchant
  • The Mechanist and his son
  • Commander Zhao of the Fire Nation
  • Fire Lord Sozin

There is one earthbender who is noticeably absent from the lineup: Toph. She doesn't appear until season 2 of the animated version, so it's likely you'll see her in the show's new season. If you're curious about Toph voice actor Michaela Jill Murphy's reaction to the live-action trailer, you can watch it here . 

a warrior woman stands outside next to woman

Suki, a Kyoshi warrior, is played by Maria Zhang, while her mother, Mayor Yukari, is played by Tamlyn Tomita. 

Will there be more Avatar: The Last Airbender on the way?

Netflix just announced that the show's been renewed for seasons 2 and 3, ensuring fans will dive deeper into the story and see Aang in the Avatar State. 

This retelling has been in the works since 2018 in partnership with Nickelodeon and originally included co-creators DiMartino and Konietzko. The two departed the project in 2020 due to creative differences, and have since gone on to reteam with Nickelodeon to create more stories set in the Avatar universe with the launch of Avatar Studios. Upcoming projects include a theatrical film and an animated series drawn from ATLA and The Legend of Korra. 

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Review: Netflix’s ‘Avatar: The Last Airbender’ is rough, buddy

Split-image+illustration+of+cartoon+characters+with+a+dark+blue+background.+A+young+boy+in+orange+clothes+with+an+arrow+tattoo+on+his+forehead+is+at+the+center.+A+man+and+a+woman+controlling+fire+and+water+are+on+the+right+side.+There%E2%80%99s+a+flying+bison%2C+blue+mask+and+another+woman+in+face+paint+with+a+headdress+on+the+left.

Warning: This review contains spoilers for “Avatar: The Last Airbender.”

Two of your favorite WSN staffers offer their thoughts on one of the most anticipated shows of the year. While we both had different takes on Netflix’s live-action interpretation of “Avatar: The Last Airbender,” we could agree on one thing: That was rough, buddy.

Avatar: The last live-action adaptation please for the love of god

— Carmo Moniz, Managing Editor

When I first watched the original “Avatar: The Last Airbender” animated series, I remember some of the most impactful moments being those when the viewer discovered something at the same time as the characters. The original sequence of events brings us through Aang’s grief when he discovers the Fire Nation killed his people, Sokka and Katara’s excitement and relief when they learn the Avatar is alive and Aang’s disbelief at learning that during his absence, the world has been at war.

However, the new series hits the viewer with exposition right off the bat. We immediately know Aang (Gordon Cormier) is the Avatar, what happened to the Air Nomads and the power of Sozin’s Comet. Aang is even told about the war before his disappearance. Since the new show’s audience was expected to include many longtime fans who already know the plot of the original series, it makes some sense that the showrunners would opt to include some of this information earlier on. But this approach robs viewers — especially those who are discovering the story for the first time — of the opportunity to empathize with the characters at some of their darkest and most life-altering moments.

The new series also portrays Aang as more mature and open to his responsibilities as the Avatar than the animated show. In the live-action version, Aang never tries to run away from home to escape his role, he only plans to leave for a short while. Aang doesn’t travel to Kyoshi Island to ride the elephant koi, he goes there to look for ways to train and end the war. While there are moments where Aang’s internal conflict about his role as the Avatar is revealed, they take a tell, not show approach. We can often hear what Aang is thinking inside his head, something that seldom happened in the original, and we know that he feels pressure to end the war and guilt for his absence. But it was much more powerful to see this conflict, which is a crucial part of Aang’s character and a driving force of the original story, through his actions.

There are plenty of flaws in the series to pick at, but there were also strong moments and decisions that, while straying away from the source material, added to the story. I especially enjoyed Dallas Liu’s performance as Zuko; the actor did a great job of getting across the young prince’s insecurities and humanity behind his more obvious qualities of anger and impatience.

Despite Aang being more mature in the Netflix adaptation than he is in the original, Cormier embodies the character’s adventurous spirit and easygoing personality perfectly. Suki’s (Maria Zhang) character — deepened in the new series by her relationship with her mother and a desire to see more of the world — struck a good balance between playfulness and powerful strength. Katara’s (Kiawentiio Tarbell) fight against Paku during Team Avatar’s stay with the Northern Water Tribe was particularly satisfying to watch, since it perfectly replicated many shots from the original animated sequence. I also thought Sokka (Ian Ousley) was pretty funny.

As a shot-by-shot remake, the live-action successor of “Avatar: The Last Airbender” falls flat, especially for longtime fans looking to recapture the character and magic of the original. But if you can get past the significant deviations from the animated show’s plot and world, you might find more depth and nuance in some of your favorite characters, along with a storyline that — despite being unfaithful to its source material — continues to be engaging.

Yet another soulless remake

— Yezen Saadah, Deputy Managing Editor

As someone who has rewatched the original cartoon over a billion times at this point, I think this new adaptation is not good. In fact, it’s quite bad.

A lot of the arguments made in Carmo’s review get this point across very well, from the show’s intensely poor characterization, to its clunky world building. However, what I was most taken aback by was the Netflix adaptation’s sterile visual presentation.

I can admit that the new series’ creators demonstrate a love — or, at the very least, an interest — in the source material’s East and South Asian-inspired art direction. Still, the remake’s lackluster cinematography and wonky visual effects ultimately showcase a sheer lack of ingenuity, which comes across as not only straining, but self-destructive too.

The beautiful landscapes and environments, as well as the creatively expressive character designs, of the original are pushed aside for this live-action retelling, with set pieces and backgrounds that are as artificial as the corporate greed fueling this aesthetically soulless product. This is particularly noticeable in the show’s first episode, “Aang,” during which our protagonist obnoxiously and goofily flies around an all too pristine Southern Air Temple.

But when I thought this inauthentic presentation couldn’t get worse, it did. Enter the third episode: “Omashu.” In the original animated show, the city of Omashu is presented as an intensely innovative and impenetrable stronghold of the Earth Kingdom, bustling with character and distinction. However, this live-action adaptation, striving for a sense of modernism, implements the Hollywood-adored LED Volume — a room of linked LED panels used to display a digital background behind actors, often used in place of a green screen. While this tool can lead to beautiful results, such as in Matt Reeves’ 2022 film, “The Batman,” it is used in Netflix’s “Avatar” as a cheap cop-out. It presents the once mesmerizing and heavily textured environments of the original cartoon with the amount of effort Apple would put into designing its macOS wallpapers. It is as artless as it is worthless.

While “Omashu” is the worst offender, nearly every major location in the show feels entirely artificial and inauthentic. To add insult to injury, this feeling of fruitlessness is only exacerbated by the show’s near-spotless costume design. While the costumes are technically faithful to the source material in terms of their iconography — especially where the main trio is concerned — they are way too pristine for a show that is trying to pass as a grounded and realistic serialized drama. More often than not, I felt as if I was watching children cosplay as their favorite “Avatar” characters, rather than experiencing the characters for who they are meant to be. At its best, the costume design reminded me of Saturday Night Live sketches — which, dare I say, isn’t a good thing.

For the most part, the action and visual effects are fine. The firebending is the best visual effect in the show bar none. Viewers can feel the energy and power behind the fire in the live-action show more so than any other form of the elemental martial art of bending. This is especially beneficial in key moments of tension or excitement; however, it’s not as if the show has anything special to provide on that front anyway.

Still, I was honestly very disappointed by the airbending. It was the most boring of the four elements to watch, despite being the source of several creative visual gags in the original series. Ironically enough, the waterbending has no sense of flow, and the earthbending has no real heft behind it, which is rather unfortunate since those two forms of fighting made for some of the cartoon’s best action sequences.

There’s a lot to not love about Netflix’s “Avatar: The Last Airbender,” be it the unnecessarily small changes to character motivations, the absurdly hollow visual presentation or just the fact that they cram five episodes’ worth of content into one nearly hourlong episode. But hey, at least it’s got heart, right? In any case, if you made it this far in this multifaceted review, let me just give you one piece of advice: Don’t watch this, and go binge the original cartoon instead.

Contact Carmo Moniz and Yezen Saadah at [email protected] .

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Surprising Data Suggests the End of Movie Theaters Is Closer Than Expected

A new survey could mean very bad news for the movie theater business.

A recent study on film viewing habits supports what many suspected all along — fewer people are going to the cinemas in favor of consuming content from streamers like Netflix.

IndieWire reports that 66 percent of American adults have chosen streaming platforms like Disney+ and Netflix over movie houses , which doesn't bode well for all theatrical-release films. Data from a HarrisX poll cites multiple factors for this preference, with many of the reasons rooted in convenience. The trend comes in the wake of a Hollywood that has just recovered from the union strikes and the pandemic. The survey also noted a significant shift in viewing habits; 30 percent of respondents said they only watch movies in theaters several times a year , but will likely stream the same movies up to three times a week. The study might explain why some film companies simultaneously launch their offerings in theaters and on streaming, or why others cap a film's theatrical run with an immediate streaming release.

How Important Are Theaters to the Blockbuster Experience?

HarrisX VP Alli Brady confirmed that "the competition continues between streaming services and the Hollywood engine." While this has been true for the industry ever since the rise of Netflix, it all came to a head with a perfect storm of circumstances. "While we still see evidence of loyal movie-goers in recent box office numbers, our study shows that 2 in 3 movie watchers prefer to stream movies at home," Brady continued. "Despite this causing some upheaval for the industry, it also means that the demand for content is only increasing – nearly half of consumers say they stream movies weekly, more than 7x as frequently as those who do so in theaters."

An Inconvenient Predicament

Those who favor the streaming platforms agree that the overall inconvenience of going to the theaters is the primary reason for the preference. 24 percent said they were just uninterested in going , while 23 percent cite sanitation and hygiene as their main concern. Audience distractions, travel inconveniences, film and seat selection, screening schedules, and inconvenient theater locations were also noted. Probably the most insightful trend in the study asserts that 52 percent of respondents prefer a maximum movie runtime of two hours, immediately disqualifying many recent films, even blockbusters like Dune: Part Two and Oppenheimer .

Why Physical Media Will Never Truly Disappear Despite Streaming Services

59 percent of those in favor of theaters cite that "the experience of watching movies on the big screen" still brings patrons in. Related trends support this: 47 percent say the theaters' sound systems factor in their decision, while 39 percent go to the cinema to escape from distractions at home. Others reveal practical reasons for the preference, such as the privilege of watching theatrical premieres and exclusives. Advanced viewing technologies like 3D, 4D, and IMAX formats were also listed. 26 percent said they prefer to watch movies with an audience, while 24 percent said nostalgia is the main reason for patronage. Long-running film franchises like Star Wars and Jurassic Park attest to this .

The HarrisX poll was conducted online over two days to more than 1,000 U.S. adult respondents.

Source: IndieWire

The 'Snowpiercer' TV Show Is Better Than the Movie — And It's Not Even Close

The TV adaptation of the Chris Evans-led movie stars Daveed Diggs and Jennifer Connelly.

The Big Picture

  • The Snowpiercer TV show dives deeper into class divisions than the movie, with a more diverse and complex cast of morally gray characters.
  • The show expands on the technology and lore of Snowpiercer , introducing new elements like a second train operated by the sinister Mr. Wilford.
  • Beyond a revolution, the series explores themes of socialism, democracy, environmental activism, and the aftermath of overthrowing a dictatorship.

The dystopian science-fiction series Snowpiercer filmed its fourth and final season but was canceled by TNT before anyone could see its highly anticipated conclusion. Set in a post-apocalyptic world where the rich were responsible for freezing the earth in an attempt to combat the global warming they caused, Snowpiercer takes place entirely on a luxury train , continuously traveling on a track around the world that has become a dead, frozen and uninhabitable wasteland. The train is divided up by class – first class, where all the wealthy people live; second and third class where the workers reside, and the tail – the end of the train, where the poor starve, live in total darkness, and are exploited for sex and labor. This brilliant science-fiction concept was fully explored in the Snowpiercer TV show, whereas we only saw the tip of the iceberg in the film.

The plot of the Snowpiercer movie follows Curtis, ( Chris Evans ), a poor tailie, trying to find Mr. Wilford ( Ed Harris ) the conductor and creator of Snowpiercer at the front of the train. In the show, Andre Layton ( Daveed Diggs ), a former homicide detective living in the Tail, is invited to investigate a murder in first class. There is more mystery in the show, and it includes a rich, complicated plot with several compelling side stories. In the movie there is a clear divide between the rich and the poor , yet in the show there is first class (upper class) second class (middle class) third class (working class) and then the Tail, a group of people who boarded the train without tickets. This gives the rich more opportunity to exploit and manipulate people who want to advance to a higher class in the show.

Snowpiercer

Seven years after the world has become a frozen wasteland, the remnants of humanity inhabit a perpetually-moving train that circles the globe, where class warfare, social injustice and the politics of survival play out.

The TV Show Is More Diverse Than The Movie

In the Snowpiercer movie, the cast is predominantly white and exclusively heterosexual. In the TV Show, Layton is the protagonist who is only loosely based off Curtis in the movie . Changing the protagonists' ethnicity from white to black added another layer of intrigue and an opportunity to deepen the display of injustice on the train. Curtis' right-hand man in the movie, Edgar ( Jaime Bell ) is also white. In the TV show, Layton's "right-hand man" is a lesbian police officer or 'Breakmen' named Bess Till ( Mickey Sumner ) who is just as flawed as he is. In the movie, Mr. Wilford is the mastermind and the most intelligent character with the most power on the train. In the TV show, however, Melanie ( Jennifer Connelly ), head of hospitality and the voice of the train, is by far the smartest engineer and most influential female character in the first season, secretly pulling the strings and the true mastermind behind Snowpiercer . Women take on a central role in the television show and are more involved in the action, technology, and conflict of the main plot. The show also has several romances, including an unconventional poly relationship, queer relationships, and a love triangle, all of which were missing from the movie, as well as a trans character, Clay ( Tom Kirk ) who bartends the Night Car.

The TV Show Has More Complex Characters

The television show showcases an array of morally gray characters, not just heroes. Characters such as Layton, Till, Melanie, Josie ( Katie McGuinness ), Zarah ( Sheila Vand ) and Ruth ( Alison Wright ) all make both good and bad decisions and are more relatable, and both likable and unlikeable at different points in time in the show. The movie follows a simple plot and doesn't focus on characters' backstories. However, the TV show is complicated and layered with several plot lines and a sprawling cast .

The protagonist, Curtis in the movie, is a relatively flat character who's main purpose is to be the hero and everything he does is for the good of his people. We only get a glimpse of his backstory at the very end of the film when it's revealed that he resorted to cannibalism, and even ate babies, in order to survive the harsh conditions of the tail. Layton is just as noble and heroic as Curtis, but he's also terribly flawed and, at times, selfish . He may have started a revolution on Snowpiercer but he isn't the best leader to run it: it should be a joint effort. In the show, Mr. Wilford ( Sean Bean ) is larger than life and a truly sinister, sadistic, manipulative monster, a proper villain , whereas in the movie, he's much more reasonable and more mentally stable. In the show, the charming Mr. Wilford convinces people to cut and even kill themselves in order to please him. He embraces the idea of playing God much more seriously than his counterpart .

The TV Show Expands on the 'Snowpiercer' Technology and Lore

In the show, the addiction and harmful effects of the drug, Kronole, is explored in more depth . In addition to getting you high, and being highly flammable, Kronole is used to put people in stasis so that if they run out of resources, they can sleep until the world thaws and life is possible again. They also use it to punish prisoners by forcing them into stasis in The Drawers. In addition, scientists are trying to genetically alter humans to be capable of surviving in the cold and use Josie as a test subject. Melanie also believes that there could be a hot spot on earth where life could thrive again.

The TV show also brings another train into the equation, Big Alice , who is operated by none other than Mr. Wilford himself. In the show, Mr. Wilford isn't even on Snowpiercer with the other survivors, because Jennifer Connelly's Melanie makes the decision to betray him and leave him behind because she fears that he will doom the human race . The fact that he hasn't been on the train all this time and Melanie has been secretly pulling the strings is a huge, compelling twist that strays far from the plot of the film. None of these complexities existed in the Snowpiercer movie aside from the Kronole drug being highly addictive and flammable enough to be used as a bomb.

The Show Goes Beyond Revolution

The Snowpiercer movie only gives a taste of the true themes behind this brilliant science-fiction series. The TV show is about more than just class inequality but also overthrowing a dictatorship, the importance of socialism and building a democracy where everyone's voice is heard, rebelling against all forms of oppression, and the necessity of environmental activism and social change. It delicately portrays heavy themes such as abusive relationships, suicide, and sexual assault. The frozen world of Snowpiercer is expanded tenfold in the TV show . The movie is small and contained, while the TV show is massive and sprawling, filling out the whole world with unique nuances and carefully thought out lore. After Layton and the Tail overthrow the current system in place, the rich get a taste of what the poor have been suffering through for almost a full decade. It's satisfying seeing the rich get what's coming to them and the chaotic aftermath of the revolution.

Daveed Diggs on 'Snowpiercer' Season 3, How Layton Handles His Feelings, and 'Blindspotting's Surprise Success

When Mr. Wilford attaches the second train, Big Alice, to the back of Snowpiercer, another war begins between his ruthless dictatorship and Layton's hope for democracy . The tailies also win the war in the TV show, but they do more than just stop the train as they did in the movie, they change the entire system and structure that Snowpiercer runs on and makes it their own. This incredible show with a star-studded cast absolutely deserved to premiere its final season, and in very recent news, AMC has picked up the final season , and it will hopefully be available to stream within the year.

Snowpiercer is currently available to rent or buy on Prime Video in the U.S.

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Season 1 – Avatar: The Last Airbender

Where to watch, avatar: the last airbender — season 1.

Watch Avatar: The Last Airbender — Season 1 with a subscription on Netflix.

What to Know

Avatar: The Last Airbender serves as a solid live-action entry point into the beloved franchise, although it only sporadically recaptures the magic of its source material.

Cast & Crew

Gordon Cormier

Prince Zuko

Paul Sun-hyung Lee

General Iroh

Commander Zhao

Popular TV on Streaming

Tv news & guides, this show is featured in the following articles., critics reviews, audience reviews, season info.

IMAGES

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COMMENTS

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    Watching "Avatar," I felt sort of the same as when I saw "Star Wars" in 1977. That was another movie I walked into with uncertain expectations. James Cameron's film has been the subject of relentlessly dubious advance buzz, just as his "Titanic" was. Once again, he has silenced the doubters by simply delivering an extraordinary film. There is still at least one man in Hollywood who knows how ...

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  12. Avatar: The Way of Water First Reviews: A Magical, Visually Sublime

    The first of Avatar's sequels is finally here, 13 years after the release of the record-breaking original.For those who've been anxiously looking forward to Avatar: The Way of Water and those who have been doubting its necessity, the good news is that the movie is worth the wait and another work of essential theatrical entertainment from James Cameron.

  13. Avatar: The Way of Water (2022)

    Avatar: The Way of Water: Directed by James Cameron. With Sam Worthington, Zoe Saldana, Sigourney Weaver, Stephen Lang. Jake Sully lives with his newfound family formed on the extrasolar moon Pandora. Once a familiar threat returns to finish what was previously started, Jake must work with Neytiri and the army of the Na'vi race to protect their home.

  14. Avatar: The Way of Water review

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    This is motion capture brought to a new high where every detail of the actors' performances gets preserved in the final CG character as they appear on the screen. Yes, those eyes are no longer ...

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    The bad guys are cartoonishly evil, and sadly paper thin. The love story, while charming, is also clichéd despite being between man and alien. But in the face of these shortcomings, Avatar is a success because its storytelling lies in the brilliant visuals. Avatar is a beautiful piece of film and a true event.

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    Movie Review. Pandora's a nice place to visit. But you wouldn't want to plunder there. Humankind should've learned that lesson back in the first Avatar movie. With our own planet nearly exhausted and humans greedy for the Pandora-based metal of unobtanium, we homo sapiens set up shop on Pandora and quickly discovered the planet didn't want us there.

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    A lumbering, humourless, tech-driven damp squib of a movie, this long-awaited (or dreaded?) sequel to one of the highest grossing films of all time builds upon the mighty flaws of its predecessor ...

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