James Cameron's Avatar & The Way of Water (SPOILERS!)

[ParanoidAndroid]

This is how I felt about the first one. Well, actually I wouldn't even say the visuals were that great in the first either. They were good, but they felt either like I was watching a really good video game, or they were deep in the uncanny valley. Not a fan. I'm not going to bother with the sequel.

While the CGI is impressive I never really liked the colouring of the film (real or virtual environments), can't really give a definition but it just feels like it's lacking life.

 

[Gaith]

I might have missed something but was it ever explained how...

Reveal message: spoiler

...although the youngest son Lo'ak can use sign language to talk to the outcast whale Payakan, how does he understand what the whale is saying back by looking into his big eye. We know because we can read the subtitles but how do the Na'vi know?

I don't think he does? I think he gets the emotional gist of things from the tones Payakan grunts, but he doesn't get actual descriptive information until the mind- sorry, tail-meld.

The bigger question, where did the Reef Tribe magically disappear to during the finale? One moment they are fighting side by side with the Sullys, and then, POOF! They were all gone!? Lol

I noticed and wondered that, too. Once it was clear the ship was sinking, maybe they retreated to tend to their wounded. Maybe they figured the remaining enemies would be no match for the Sullys, not knowing how tough of a devil Quaritch is, in any body. FWIW, someone on TV Tropes wrote: "Not entirely satisfying, but remember the Sea Dragon crashed a fair distance away from the original battle. We don't see the subs or other small boats for the rest of the battle, so barring a deleted scene, one can only assume they stayed behind to mop them up."

 

[Ephemeris]

For both Avatar movies, I often dream of a fanedit that just shows the world & wildlife of Pandora.
Cut the humans, cut the English dialogue, and cut the battles. Perhaps, add some narration in the style of David Attenborough
I wish Cameron had just made a nature documentary of an alien world, instead of what feels to me like a double-bill of "white savior" trope-heavy moral blugeoning,[c.f. Reception section on Wikipedia] but maybe a fanedit could get close? I post here, hoping to inspire such! There's gold in these movies, just not in the plot or dialogue!

 

[TM2YC]

Avatar: The Way of Water (2022)
As I thought after my first cinema viewing, this would play even better 2nd time, as the first act felt like it was in too much of a rush to catch up us up with story, explain what the new situation is, introduce many new characters and concepts and then the second that's done, shift the whole film to a different place. It was only later that I managed to catch up with who all the characters were, this time I knew and loved them from frame 1. Plus I was picking up on things I'd missed in that rush. Like Edie Falco's new human head honcho (who is only briefly seen at the start, presumably to feature more heavily in future films) mentions in passing that she's setting up Pandora as a colony, with plans to move the entire population of the dying planet Earth on to Pandora. So full-scale planetary war is on the cards in the sequels. First time, I was confused as to how Lo'ak is able to communicate with Payakan, I thought it was a plot hole. But it is setup in one bot of dialogue that the Metkayina clan and Tulkuns have a symbiotic relationship across their lifetimes, so Payakan would already know how to talk to a Na'vi prior to his banishment (although Lo'ak must be a quick learner in reading a Tulkun's gestures). Once again I was in awe of 72-year old Sigourney Weaver's completely natural performance of herself as a teenager, even more so when thinking of how weird some other talented older actors feel and sound when digitally de-aged, like Harrison Ford. Kiri and Lo'ak are such great new protagonists, their journeys of self-discovery are woven together so well, each saving one of their parents with their new found abilities and insights. The scene where Kiri rescues her family with essentially glowing angel wings is truly magical. I'm upgrading this from a 4, to a full 5 stars. I'm itching to see it again already.

Forget the impressive FX, this is just a wonderfully acted scene:

 

[catferoze]

Avatar: The Way of Water (2022)
As I thought after my first cinema viewing, this would play even better 2nd time, as the first act felt like it was in too much of a rush to catch up us up with story, explain what the new situation is, introduce many new characters and concepts and then the second that's done, shift the whole film to a different place. It was only later that I managed to catch up with who all the characters were, this time I knew and loved them from frame 1. Plus I was picking up on things I'd missed in that rush. Like Edie Falco's new human head honcho (who is only briefly seen at the start, presumably to feature more heavily in future films) mentions in passing that she's setting up Pandora as a colony, with plans to move the entire population of the dying planet Earth on to Pandora. So full-scale planetary war is on the cards in the sequels. First time, I was confused as to how Lo'ak is able to communicate with Payakan, I thought it was a plot hole. But it is setup in one bot of dialogue that the Metkayina clan and Tulkuns have a symbiotic relationship across their lifetimes, so Payakan would already know how to talk to a Na'vi prior to his banishment (although Lo'ak must be a quick learner in reading a Tulkun's gestures). Once again I was in awe of 72-year old Sigourney Weaver's completely natural performance of herself as a teenager, even more so when thinking of how weird some other talented older actors feel and sound when digitally de-aged, like Harrison Ford. Kiri and Lo'ak are such great new protagonists, their journeys of self-discovery are woven together so well, each saving one of their parents with their new found abilities and insights. The scene where Kiri rescues her family with essentially glowing angel wings is truly magical. I'm upgrading this from a 4, to a full 5 stars. I'm itching to see it again already.

Forget the impressive FX, this is just a wonderfully acted scene:

I had similar feelings after a recent rewatch. While I enjoyed the story and characters the first time around, it was the phenomenal visuals that really stuck with me. Second time though I was completely captivated by a genuinely moving story about family. I couldn't wait to watch it again and impatiently await the next chapter.

I absolutely love that scene!

 

[TM2YC]

Inside Pandora's Box (2023)
Unfortunately what looked like a 2.5-hr deep dive into the making of ‘The Way of Water’ turned out to be not much more than an assemblage of EPK featurettes (with another 30-mins of features included separately for some reason?). So there is far too many talking heads telling you how brilliant literary everything is, how revolutionary it all is, repeating the same opinions and information and telling you how amazing the finished film is (from a point before they’ve actually seen it). Having said that, I was craving some info on the making of this film, so this package was a whole lot better than nothing. It's astonishing to witness James Cameron's obsession with capturing everything for real first with practical sets, full size vehicle props and locations, down to the tiniest detail, for a movie that's 99% alien CGI. When compared to the Marvel attitude that seems to be "Even though we could easily shoot this human actor on a normal Earth street for real, we still can't be bothered, we'll just CGI it all later".