POSITIVES
Better and does more than the first Avatar movie, complete with the inclusion of its phenomenally stunning CGI world that is Pandora. Those underwater scenes are just breathtaking to watch, and at one point it felt like a half hour slice of life documentary about this water way of life.
Similar to the previous installment, a huge part of this movie is the wonder of discovery seeing this world. The world building of the environment, the people, the culture, the creatures, the sci-fi elements, the technology, are all quite fascinating to see come to life. Then plop in entertaining action sequences on top of all that? This is a crowd pleaser, and it’s fantastic!
With its focus on the Sully family, the plot gives us a more emotional connection with the story. Fantastic motion capture cast over all, which includes Britain Dalton, Jamie Flatters, Bailey Bass, Trinity Jo-Li Bliss, Stephen Lang, Zoe Saldaña, Sam Worthington, plus a big kudos to Sigourney Weaver for pulling off playing a teenage girl in this. I have to also give a shout out to the Tulkun named Payakan, which is a CG character that I couldn’t get enough of, and loved that particular plot involving him.
For a movie that is over 3 hours long, it actually did not feel long to me. The plot and immersion was engaging enough that I wouldn’t have minded another hour. I know I’m really looking forward to Avatar 3 now, much more than I was prior to seeing this sequel.
Thematically covers some familiar but still interesting ground of commentaries that really drives the narrative forward. It’s hard to ignore what this movie is about as it wears its heart on its sleeve, and that’s actually part of the appeal.
NEGATIVES
Familiar themes and commentaries that are technically derivative? Yeah, if you’re tired of that be warned, because it’s pretty up front and obvious about them. It’s also arguably thematically contradictory at times, plus it does “have its cake and eats it too” going for it.
Speaking of familiar, there are some obvious plot tropes all over this story. This does not break new grounds in story telling or anything like that if that’s what you were hoping. There are even plot conveniences and gaps in story telling just to drive the narrative forward. At a couple of points I was going “Why didn’t they just…,” “What happened to…,” “Did they really have to…,” “Well that’s a stupid decision,” or “of course the Sullys are the special ones, why wouldn’t they be?” While on the subject of story telling… The story and immersion didn’t really get going until at least 45 minutes into the movie, which is a huge first chunk that felt like a muted experience to me, and was a hurdle I had to get over.
For those who are huge fans of Neytiri, I’m afraid to say that you won’t see her as much as you might expect you would.
CG animals were harmed during the making of this film. There’s a whole sequence of just that which felt exploitative. Not to mention all the people who are visibly shown getting killed right there on the screen for little kids to watch.
I did watch this in the High Frame Rate 48 FPS experience. While I really loved seeing it in HFR, not everybody will. If you don’t like HFR, then you may want to see it in a traditional 24 FPS screening.
lovedit ENJOYED IT likedititsokayitsmehitsterrible
