James Cameron is easily the most ambitious film maker in the business with the knowledge and credibility to do literally whatever he wants. Nowhere is this more evident than the mammoth Avatar sequel. He pulls off yet another visually stunning film that feels real, but the indulgence of the studio and no one to say no to him create some unfortunate flaws.
The humans are almost universally cartoonishly evil. When they come back to Pandora, their ships essentially nuke a majority of the setting of the last film. They cruelly hunt whale analogues, specifically hunting females with calfs, all while knowing explicitly that they are intelligent, emotional alien species.
Cameron's biggest issue though is the cast. There are about 10 or so main characters in this movie, and Cameron tries to give all but two a complete, separate, story arc of their own. Several times it feels like 3 movies were actually spliced and intercut together because there are so many threads being handled at the same time, but to his credit, they all come together exceptionally well in the climax and are all fairly satisfyingly and efficiently resolved.
So while it is fashionable to hate on everything that anyone ambitious tries to do right now, and try and root for everything popular to fail, I think Way of Water is a very interesting experience which should be seen in 3D at the theatre as the director intended. Because, while the film is by no means perfect, when someone tells you they built their own rocket to Mars in the back yard, people should gather to watch the launch because succeed or fail, it is going to be worth the price of admission.
The humans are almost universally cartoonishly evil. When they come back to Pandora, their ships essentially nuke a majority of the setting of the last film. They cruelly hunt whale analogues, specifically hunting females with calfs, all while knowing explicitly that they are intelligent, emotional alien species.
Cameron's biggest issue though is the cast. There are about 10 or so main characters in this movie, and Cameron tries to give all but two a complete, separate, story arc of their own. Several times it feels like 3 movies were actually spliced and intercut together because there are so many threads being handled at the same time, but to his credit, they all come together exceptionally well in the climax and are all fairly satisfyingly and efficiently resolved.
So while it is fashionable to hate on everything that anyone ambitious tries to do right now, and try and root for everything popular to fail, I think Way of Water is a very interesting experience which should be seen in 3D at the theatre as the director intended. Because, while the film is by no means perfect, when someone tells you they built their own rocket to Mars in the back yard, people should gather to watch the launch because succeed or fail, it is going to be worth the price of admission.
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