Avatar: The Way of Water

It would be missing the point to call the proceedings indulgent to the point of self-infatuation: Cameron has built a new world from the remixed bits of this one, and he seems determined that we should not simply visit Pandora, we should live in it.

It’s more than you can possibly imagine. A fantasy world so vivid and real it commands your full attention for 3h 12m. And when it’s done, you’ll still want to linger in this heightened state of make believe.

We get a story this time... that part of it was great, but at 3 hours and 15 minutes, it's just too long.

If you go just for the escape and spectacle, you will be in awe.

The film’s focus is split in so many directions that none of its characters feel whole, even after three full hours.

[James Cameron] remains very much at the center of his obsession. He may not be a great artist, or a visionary, but in its look, and its feeling for family, this behemoth enterprise still has an ardent, cornball grandeur to it.

By the time Cameron finishes these things he’ll be a form of consciousness uploaded to the Cloud, married to a hologram of Mia Goth.

A lot of audiovisual marvels offer a sensible mark upon a film that does not reach greater depths. [Full review in Spanish]

Why not strip it down to the sincere basics? Get the family out of the forest faster, and for a more respectable reason. In fact, the subplot of the forest family living among the water people is way better than the main plot. Gorgeous though.

It’s a shame that female characters have devolved since the first film, which came out over a decade ago.