Avatar: The Way of Water

Grade: C

Video games are usually only fun for the person or people currently playing. Avatar: The Way of Water is like watching someone play a video game – or an unplayed game at the arcade. No one has put money in it, and the preview plays over and over. Looks really cool, but any story, such as it is, fails to keep my interest. I haven’t been a gamer in 30 years, so I wouldn’t want to play anyway. Plus, action is my least favorite genre, and this movie only reinforced that.

I always wondered why director James Cameron waited 13 years to return to the franchise, after the wild success of Avatar (2009). And there are at least 3 sequels on the way, jam-packed into the next handful of years, by 2028. Maybe he wanted to wait for technology to advance enough so he could do what he really wanted onscreen? That’s my theory. I admit I drank the Kool-Aid with his Titanic. The story was almost as strong and absorbing as the technical spectacle, and quite enjoyed it at age 16. Avatar: The Way of Water should win every last technical award it is up for, but it has no business near the Best Picture category. I don’t know what was green-screened, and what, if anything, was a real location – and for multiple reasons, I don’t care. Practically every shot is breathtaking and dazzling. Some serious painstaking work went into this. I saw it in 3D, but you don’t really need to. In fact, I found myself envious of those who will see a traditional projection of it. While it’s nice to have the illusion of depth, you are also wearing uncomfortable glasses for 3 hours and 12 minutes. They sometimes gave me a headache, and a blurry, unnatural looking image in the foreground.

I weaved in and out of interest in the plot, with the theme (tolerance of those who look different from you) a bit obvious and on-the-nose. The cast is fine. It’s nice to see Kate Winslet again. Sigourney Weaver and Giovanni Ribisi have very brief screen time. They seem to be put there as a courtesy, just to let us know they haven’t forgotten about them. When it comes to sheer technical ambition and prowess, Avatar: The Way of Water is the best movie of the year. Too bad there’s not a good compelling story in there, too.

Grade: C