Avatar: El Camino Del Agua

The visual effects are amazing. But Cameron should be better than this.

I'm a big fan of Mr Cameron. Not only for his directing skills, but also for his screenwriting skills. But this time he seemed to have missed the goal. I know he rarely does sequels. But is this the best he could do? The story has not changed anything compared to the previous episode. Repeated crises, repeated enemies, repeated conflicts,and wait a minute,WHAT? Even repeated Titanic. Are you serious?

As a director, he also did not reach his previous level. For a long time, the pace of the film felt too slow. Yes, the underwater scenes are phenomenal. But this is not the Blue Planet, this is a sci-fi action movie. At least it's what most audiences expect from the film, isn't it?

First Avatar movie, I watched maybe half a dozen times, it was an enchanting flick. For A:TWoW, I waited until the DVD came out, didn't want to spend over 3 hours in theater. I'm sooooooo glad I bought the DVD and avoided the theater. This movie just wasn't worth the 3-hour time.

I watched at home, over 3 sessions, in comfort of my own recliner and awesome sound system. A:TWoW was a visual treat for the eyes, but that's about it. Everything else was pretty much awful, one of the worst sequels I've ever seen (story-wise).

Will I watch again?? Nope.... I'm one and done. If it wasn't for the visuals, I'd give this movie a rating of 2.

He did it again. And I don't even really understand how. He has some kind of mysterious, special power that he secretly wields over us and we don't even notice. That's how he keeps tricking us into spending all our hard-earned money to see his movies, so much so that we've made him the most commercially successful director of all time. Because these are James Cameron's most typical trademarks, for pretty much all of his movies, which he has once again dutifully employed in Avatar 2:

~ The story is paper-thin.

~ The dialogue was written by a 16-year-old intern.

~ The soundtrack is unbelievably cheesy.

~ The lead actor has no discernable acting skills.

~ The bad guys are all 100% completely evil, and the good guys are all but entirely saintly.

~ The message and moral of the story are about as subtle and nuanced as a jackhammer.

And yet.....

IT'S SO DAMN COOL.

The world he and his visual design team have created is truly a work of art... It's stunningly beautiful, creative and inventive and it makes you want to be there so badly, it hurts. The action sequences are reliably awesome as always, and there are some truly heartfelt emotional passages. In all honesty, the story is awfully predictable, and an almost step-by-step rehash of the first movie. But it's damn near impossible to be bothered by this, because the magic is there, and it's real. And the whales... Oh my god, the whales. Or whale-like creatures, anyway. Absolutely spellbinding. The familiar characters are precisely the same as they were before, and it makes the past 13-year wait seem like nothing at all. It's like meeting with friends you haven't seen for a while. I especially love Zoe Saldaña, she was always the shining star of Avatar, and she's just as mesmerising here, even if her screentime is a bit shorter. The new characters are all good, strong additions to the whole. Cliff Curtis is very powerful as the Sea People's chief, and Kate Winslet is absolutely unrecognisable as his mate, which is as big a compliment as I can think of.

But the biggest, and most pleasant surprise, are Jake and Neytiri's children. All but one, played by young, virtually inexperienced actors who all understand their assignments perfectly. They are, without exception, lovely and engaging and very real. They each have to deal with their own respective troubles that come with their coming of age, and all these young performers were cast perfectly. I loved them. The "but one", however, is one of the most surprising character/performer pairings I've ever seen. Sigourney Weaver plays a 14-year-old. Yes you read that right. And it's amazing. She's amazing, it's all amazing...

Damn James Cameron. If he was a superhero, his name would be Magic Movie Man.

Without question, this has the best CG works I have seen in recent movies.. Visuals are outstanding.. Underwater sequences and the fight scenes felt very real.. And that's all to it.. Just because it's a visual masterpiece, I cannot spend continuous 12-15 minutes just watching the underwater animals.. It felt like watching some episode from National Geographic or Animal planet..

Overall, if you cut 30-40 mins of such parts, you will still not miss anything in the story line.. First half was mostly to setup the environment and was very lagging .. I was like ,"Okay.. I get it.. it's a great place with different creatures.. Now, please move on to the storyline..".. Climax fight portion was good but not as great as the Avatar 2009 climax fight.. After the fight we still get some 5-10 mins of lagging scenes.. "Come on ... Finish it already"...

A major plot hole that I would think of is the reason for the presence of humans on Pandora.. What happened to the reason from part 1?! And why all these unnecessary hunting of someone who already fled the fight?!

To watch this movie in cinemas and experience it is an one time opportunity in life, provided you can bear the portions which makes you feel like sitting inside a boring science class...

With over a decade of technology improvement, the movie provides even better visuals, more believable CGI(not that the first one didn't), it also continues the beautiful cinematography.

But, the script is far inferior to the last one. The movie tries to focus on "family", and with Jake and Neytiri already had a movie, this one focus heavily on the children. But most of the plot lines fall into the trap of being a set-up for sequels. A few plots left unanswer in the end and a few plots begin after the mid point and already wrap after just after being introduced. Some of the charcaters are downgraded into 1 dimensional and some do not learn anything meaningful throughout the story. And the focus of the movie shifts completely once entered the third act which diminishes all the set-up from before.

In conclusion, definitely a must watch, better visuals but slightly worst script.