With Avatar: The Way of Water just a few days away from either demolishing the box office (very likely) or being one of the most expensive flops of all time (not so likely), the first reviews for the long-awaited James Cameron sequel are rolling in. Like the original Avatar film, The Way of Water is an absolute spectacle that once again pushes the boundaries of visual effects. The film demands to be seen in theaters where audiences can be fully immersed in the world of Pandora, particularly its more aquatic region where the sequel’s story takes place.
The story, however, is where The Way of Water is a little more hit or miss. While some critics were completely bowled over by the sequel in every way, others were less keen on the plot that didn’t quite necessitate a three hour runtime. That said, there is an overwhelming consensus that The Way of Water‘s visual splendor more than makes up for the simplistic narrative.
You can see what the critics are saying below:
Mike Ryan, Uproxx:
Going into Avatar: The Way of Water, I’d say I was Avatar-neutral. I was looking somewhat forward to this new movie because I love James Cameron movies and they are so far and few between, but on the other hand I don’t have strong feelings about Avatar one way or another and probably would have been even more excited if this were True Lies 2 instead. But, like the first movie, the technical wizardry won me over and … the story is deeper and richer.
David Rooney, The Hollywood Reporter:
What’s most astonishing about The Way of Water is the persuasive case it makes for CGI, at a time when most VFX-heavy productions settle for a rote efficiency that has drained the movies of much of their magic. Unlike other directors who have let technological experimentation at times smother their creative instincts — Robert Zemeckis and Ang Lee come to mind — Cameron thrives in the artifice of the digital toolbox.
Nick Schager, The Daily Beast:
The show-offery is off-the-charts, with Cameron insisting that viewers be dutifully awed by his every gorgeously crafted piece of alien foliage, fantastical marine inhabitant, rain drop cascading down Na’vi skin, and ocean swell. But it’s a pushiness that sabotages his attempts at conjuring genuine lyricism, beauty, or grace. Though the film may be the pinnacle of big-screen CGI, that only gets its so far…
Justin Chang, Los Angeles Times:
Much as you might long for Cameron to keep us down there — to give us, in effect, the most expensive and elaborate underwater hangout movie ever made — he can’t or won’t sustain all this dreamy Jacques-Cousteau-on-mushrooms wonderment for three-plus hours. He’s James Cameron, after all, and he has a stirringly old-fashioned story to tell, crap dialogue to dispense and, in time, a hell of an action movie to unleash, complete with fiery shipwrecks, deadly arrows and a whale-sized, tortoise-skinned creature known as a Tulkun.
Leah Greenblatt, Entertainment Weekly:
The Way of Water is, indeed, spectacularly aquatic, though not quite in the way that the six-time Oscar winner’s eerie deep-sea thriller The Abyss was, or even the vast, ruthless North Atlantic that swallowed Leonardo DiCaprio and 1,500 other doomed souls in his Titanic. This is circa-2022 James Cameron, which is to say he makes it seem a lot like 2032 — a world so immersive and indubitably awesome, in the most literal reading of that word (there will be awe, and more awe, and then some more) that it feels almost shockingly new. It’s also very much a Cameron movie in that the plot is, at root, blood simple.
Charles Pulliam-Moore, The Verge:
In a number of mostly technical ways, Avatar: The Way of Water is a superior film to its predecessor and a filmmaking marvel that’s a testament to Cameron’s ability to craft immersive, breathtaking set pieces. But for all of its VFX wizardry and moments where it feels like Cameron might have learned something from his previous missteps, The Way of Water ultimately plays like a by-the-numbers sequel that’s too focused on trying to feel relatable when what it needs is to be even more alien.
Owen Gleiberman, Variety:
In “Avatar: The Way of Water,” Cameron’s bigger, longer and even more dizzyingly spectacular sequel (spoiler alert: the story is still just okay), the technology that Cameron uses to take us back to Pandora has been sharpened — in every way. The 3D images have an uncanny tactility; if you had to describe them in just one word, it might be hyperclear. The film also has the eerie present-tense quality peculiar to high-frame-rate shooting. 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. And that’s something of a feat given that most of them are tall, blue-skinned Na’vi warriors with the eyes of mountain lions and the speed of gazelles.
David Ehrlich, IndieWire:
Cameron has always treated story as a direct extension of the spectacle required to bring it to life, but the anthropocenic relationship between narrative and technology was a bit uneven in the first “Avatar,” which obscured the old behind the veil of the new where his previous films had better allowed them to intertwine. An out-of-body theatrical experience that makes its predecessor feel like a glorified proof-of-concept, “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.
Todd McCarthy, Deadline:
The film is beautiful, obsessive and eventful, a depiction of a veritable Eden threatened by voraciously destructive forces both natural and man-made. No one who enthused over the original would think of missing this follow-up, which ups the ante for all that is to come, creatively and financially.
Tom Jorgensen, IGN:
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.
Avatar: The Way of Water opens in theaters on December 16.
