Look, I had some fun with this movie - but not very much.
The movie in question is Avatar: The Way of Water, of course. Stuff that I enjoyed or found exciting can be concentrated in 20 minutes of completely silent, wordless material, the rest is crap. At moments mildly entertaining laughable crap. At moments equally laughable tragic family crap made to jerk a tear or two out of you through a series of soulless, uncreative old cliches. At moments just standard blockbuster crap. All in all, there is a nice variaty of colorful, expensive kinds of crap for an audience made of people trained to consume them, trained to let their feelings flow with the bad writing, appropriately uninspired acting, and always reliable, easily recognizable simplifications that are regularly ending in boring cliches.
The only good, and even great at times, work here was done by the people who designed and animated the machines, the creatures, and the plants. The ecosystem of Pandora, both on the land and under the sea. That's the only saving grace of the movie. The rest is rarely mediocre, mostly laughably to irritating bad. And boring. Not because is slow. Slow things are fine. It's boring because it is shallow and formulaic like something made for daytime television. No magic whatsoever.
And even some of the creatures. The most important ones in the movie, for example. I mean, they do look and move great, but they also have such clear parallels here on Earth. You can call them whatever you like, but these are whales. The flora & fauna in the first movie, which partially appears here as well, was less obvious. More surprising. Often inspired by underwater life that we know here on Earth and created to be functional on the land of another planet. Here the things are already in the water, so at least half of the magic and creativity is lost.
That in itself wouldn't be a problem in a better movie that has something interesting to say. But in this one, in this vision of a distant planet where tribal alien teenagers go through all the routines of an American high school behavior seen in tons of uninspired teen stuff, everything piles up to destroy the feeling of space adventure.
Some action scenes are fairly good. Fast and colorful enough to induce a sense of theme-park excitement. But they aren't really tense. Because characters and what's going on with them is just some stupid, recycled, and manipulative family fluff. Look! The kids are cute! Love them! Look! The tribals talk some vague New Age shit! Love them, they know the way! At moments, during some wide-eyed, close-up shots, I thought that a Na'vi will start talking to me and try to sell me the Kangen water.
In the dumb script at the base of this new Avatar, the word family is told, screamed, and repeated ad nauseam.
And then. There is the human cub among the Na'vi. A kid. A teenager. A little Tarzan-bro. Something like that. If I understood correctly he should be the son of the main villain. Or like, you know, the final boss, since this is more a non-interactive video game, not so much cinema. Anyway, that kid was annoying as hell. And don't try to convince me that it's OK, and lecture me about how kids in real life can be. This one is annoying primarily because the poor, young actor was given only stupid shit to talk about and even more stupid situations to react to. The movie was teasing the audience with the possibility of some kind of son-father bond and understanding between him and the main antagonist. That subplot, in my opinion, led to the most stupid, awkward, badly written & performed wanna-be cute conversations ever heard on Pandora.
Like most blockbusters movies in recent years, especially those from various cinematic universes, the entire Avatar: The Way of Water is essentially a series of subplots, coincidences, and contrivances that are unsuccessfully mimicking a solid narrative structure.
There is an ugly, wannabe tense scene near the end of the movie, in which the heroin has a knife at the throat of the villain's son, and the villain has her son in the same situation. The moment is so overblown and artificial. It wouldn't be out of place in some stupid soap opera. The scene oozes the worst kind of cheap pathos. Very, very ugly. It tries so hard to be serious and emotional but is only tasteless, and shallow.
Since the writing and acting aren't worth mentioning, I won't mention actors and writers here. It's my review and I do it how I like. This is a super popular movie and you can find that information everywhere on the Internet. I'll mention only some of the behind-the-scene creatives who made the movie look good despite the poor work of the best-paid part of the crew.
Russell Carpenter - Cinematography. Cool.
Neville Page was the lead creature designer in the first Avatar. (The good one) Some of those creations can be seen in this movie as well.
Constantine Sekeris designed the underwater fauna for this movie.
The only way I can stand Avatar: The Way of Water is if I look at the movie as a gallery in which the creations of those passionate visual artists are displayed. Everything else is a million-dollar garbage.
OK, the music in the movie is also OK. I mean, the instrumental, orchestral music. Na'vi singing in their alien language? No, thanks. That's background music for commercials. The song that plays when the closing titles are on the screen is also garbage. It could win the Eurovision, maybe ... which is not a compliment. Generic, soulless pop. It tries to sound refreshing like the water but is only uninventive and cold.
And that's it. Once processed through my sophisticated rating system, made of "I highly recommend", "I highly recommend ... but ..."," I recommend", "I don't care, but you may like it", "Do whatever you please", "Don't tell me this shit is good", " Barely watchable", and "What a piece of crap", Avatar: The Way of Water gets a surprising "I don't care, but you may like it" because Pandora is a beautiful planet and its flora and fauna are worth seeing.
Fortunately for this movie, we live in the universe in which, since 2010, Avatar: The Last Airbender exists, so I can't even say that this is the worst Avatar.
The images in the post are screenshots I took while watching the movie ... won't tell you where.
I have a big problem with these types of films. They can have some really fun worldbuilding and filmmaking and art direction to them but they're part of a franchise which just ruins the magic. Everything great about it seems barely utilised as the films follow a very tame structure that exists purely to make way for the next. Especially when it comes to runtimes which are just excuses to seem like big blockbuster epics that drive people into ticket sales.
True. In these projects, the business routine that has been established in the last few decades destroys almost all the creative potential. The formula works, the audience is trained, and the money safely flows. It's a masterpiece of money-making, but as a cinema, is pretty bad. Fortunately, while the acting and the writing/storytelling usually get totally dumbed down and destroyed, some aspects of visual artistry can still be a joy to watch. But still... the movie is lost that way. I can only enjoy disconnected fragments and images, that's not the same as experiencing a movie.
too many sharp corners have to de smoothed and oiled, to please the bank top managers who pay for the banquet (subsidize these franchise poops)
What i hate a lot about this movie is the resurrection of the evil one, that is so fool 🤮
True. Is forced and stupid. And isn't interesting. Is the same stuff all over again, only in a much dumber version.
Congratulations, your post has been upvoted by @dsc-r2cornell, which is the curating account for @R2cornell's Discord Community.
(probably you've watched it visiting your friends, hmm?..)
I happened to watch Avatar 1 in the theatre, the thing which I do on very rare occasions. Actually, very, very rare, and Av-2 was not considered at all. SO I cant say you saved my money, and maybe I even watch it one day - I like flora and fauna, especially the underworld one. Anyway, I like your review, especially this part. Well said. Would love to see more fauna screenshots-eyecaptures in the post...😅
!PIZZA
🙂
Recently finally watched it. Too cartoonish. Not even comparable to the first one.
!WINE
Naaaaaa bro....
Avatar: The Last Airbender slaps😂😂😂😂
This is the first time I'm reading curses in your post though...
I haven't watched this avatar but for some reason I just knew it would be expensive shit😂😂
😆 Curses have great therapeutic power on the pissed-off soul. They work better than prayers. 😂
No shit 😂😂😂
I have heard that Avatar is one of the most successful movies of all time. is it true?
I don't know. Could be. I like the first Avatar.
I also liked the old one, I haven't seen this one. want to see it, but couldn't get time.
My guess -- it is rather a manipulation, a bait directed at you -- to get you watch it and pay your dollars xD
I have a friend who loves to watch Avatar when we were still very young. He was so obsessed with it and he comes to the class to tell me about it all the time. Hahaha
Well, I have never seen it before but your explanation makes it seem good. I should watch it then
🙂 Well, I like the first Avatar. This sequel pisses me off.
look like this movie interested i'll will watch it.
Interesting posts Mr. @ Borjan
I watch this movie on the same day when it reliese. Enjoy the animation and first movie is far better than this one😅
I haven't seen the film yet. I don't think it will surpass the first movie. More than 3 hours can be boring.
Avatar is an epic science fiction movie. Avatar is a visually stunning movie with a powerful message about the consequences of planet destruction. With amazing special effects and amazing acting, Avatar is an entertaining journey into a world of amazement.
Yes. The first one it is.
n your opinion, @borjan, does this sequel to "Avatar" surpass the original work, or is it simply a piece apart, with other criteria for consideration? Excellent work, my friend.
Thanks. I think that this is a much inferior movie. I like the first Avatar a lot. It was a fresh and spectacular technical achievement while the story and the way it was told had some style, intelligence, and a nice entertaining pace. This one ... the sequel ... has almost nothing of that ...
I see... Thanks for the reply mate! I couldn`t agree more with you 'cuz it would be impossible. Nice work here.
Great brother, After read you content I feel like that I seen movie, I don't want say about film But I can you what about your interest in this movie.
😆
this film is very interesting when we watch it and the story is very romantic combined with fantastic 3D works
At first when I watched the movie, I didn't enjoy it ,but along the line, I got to understand it and I saw that it was interesting
While not being a masterpiece of storytelling, I think this sequel is great and even better than the first movie, cannot wait to see what James Cameron is going to deliver with its upcoming sequels.
Great for you. I agree only with the part about not being a masterpiece of storytelling.
That's exactly what I said, great for me xD
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