Avatar - The Way of the Water (Avatard 2)

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Avatar - The Way of the Water (Avatard 2)

Postby TheStuboy » January 8th, 2023, 10:30 pm

Well its been since 2009 since we've seen Pandora. So 2023-2009, you do the math. The last time I fully watched the first Avatar was in the theater, and I even own it on DVD.

Well this morning, I caught the expensive 3D matinee of the sequel at the AMC theaters in Coon Rapids. Its the same theater where Nicole Kidman queefs in seats and stares at you, reminding you of all that once was good, and could be again. People will come Ray. They'll come and talk during half of the film and spill their popcorn. They'll come and mock the Kevin Sorbo praise Jeebs or else apocalypse film.

::::Spoiler alert:::
skip this section if you haven't seen the film.

Anyway, the film picks up about 12 or 13 years after the events of the first film. Jake Sully and his blue bewbs wife have a clan of chilluns, including a half breed Sigourney Weaver kid they adopted. They're still living on Pandora, listening to the DXFM channel and popping out kid after kid. Oates. Blue balls oates. Anyway, the sky people are back again for revenge against Jake because he corpsed the main antagonist from the first film. Plus, there are a couple of stus who want to find another unobtanium type substance, that we find out later in the film is in whale like creatures. Apparently it de-ages people and sells for millions. So the Sully clan encounter the humans at an old site where the first film ended with a shing. They get held hostage but mom and dad save the day. Jake decides he wants the stus to flee, and so they stop being kaings of the forest and head for some Unsharted islands far away. He figures the stu humans won't follow. Also, a baby human from the first film that was left behind, has grown up and melded with the Navi. His name is Spider, and he plays a semi important part later.

Well they reach the water village and Jakes kids keep getting into trouble and don't fit in with the new natives. These folks are water bound, whereas the Sully clan are forest Navi. They eventually get shit together but then the humans discover where Jake is and shit hits the fan. The film rapidly accelerates toward the finish and the ending battle was seriously worth the price of admission alone. God damn this film is beautiful. We get a setup for Avatar 3.
End spoilers....


Ok so I saw this in 3D, as I did the og film. Its still a gimmick to me and didn't work as well most times. I was able to see it pop a handful of times but I'm not entirely convinced it was necessary. What was painfully obvious was that portions of the film were shot in 48 fps as opposed to 24 fps. You don't see the film flicker we're used to. If this had been transfered to actual 35 mm prints, which it probably has, it might look very weird. Digital hides the higher fps better.
That's not to say it's -not- done well. Its just obvious. There are sequences, particularly toward the beginning that look like an incredibly detailed video game. Like holy shit, this is a ps5 on steroids. No video game I've ever played looks this good, but no film I've ever seen contains such long sequences in higher fps either. One weird effect I noticed was specifically related to the scenes with Jake and a few others and the frame rate. It almost looks like cut scene lag. Like computer games have that weird frame rate with cut scenes. That, but on the big screen.

The visuals in this film blow the fuck out of the first one. Its very beautiful. The world is just amazing. I wanted to go there. The scenes under water, particularly with Sigourney Weaver's avatar are just exquisite.

I did notice that Zoe Saldana had less of a part in this one than the first. I think its like stu says. This one was more about the kids, and less about Jake. He goes around being pissed off all the time.

There were a few parts that the film stumbled. Most of this was in the middle, when we forget for a bit that the humans are there and we focus on other things. There was one scene I thought that could've been moved around when editing but I understand why they chose to put it there. It wasn't anything story critical, but it could've been put earlier in the film.

My favorite character was Kiri Sully, played by Sigourney Weaver. She just owns the scenes she's in. It was also nice to see the real Sigourney Weaver, if only for a moment. Other cast from the first film return, like Stephen Lang, and Joel David Moore, the goofy guy that helps Jake in the first film.

I was pleasantly surprised by this film. It took a bit to get going but I wonder if that was just my eyes adjusting to the 3D glasses. Most people wouldn't notice the weird frame rate but it stood out for me. That was my only complaint. That and the middle section being a bit wonky.

This film is damn near perfect. It reminds me that when you take a filmmaker that knows what they're doing, paired with a good script and actors, you can make gold.

I wouldn't mind seeing it again, and that's one of the only times I've said that for a film that came out in 2022.

4.6 stars out of 5. Go see it.
Image
Look out for the CGI fart bubbles in the underwater sequences.
"I won, you losht, get ushed to it shon"
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