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Avatar: the way of water, common sense media reviewers.

Long but dazzling return to Pandora has sci-fi violence.

A Lot or a Little?

What you will—and won't—find in this movie.

Messages about acceptance, unity, and teamwork. St

The women leaders of the clan are strong, brave, a

The Na'vi species is divided into clans with a var

Sci-fi action violence. Supporting characters die

Brief scene of nonsexual nudity (blink-and-miss gl

Scattered strong language includes one "f--k," "ho

No product placement in movie, but dozens of off-s

Parents need to know that Avatar: The Way of Water is the long-awaited sequel to James Cameron's epic 2009 mega-hit Avatar . The sequel returns to Pandora 15 years after Jake Sully (Sam Worthington) rallied the indigenous Na'vi clans against the corrupt "Sky People" (colonizing humans trying to mine…

Positive Messages

Messages about acceptance, unity, and teamwork. Strong environmental, pro-peace, and anti-imperialist themes. Idea that love and understanding can trump division and violence. Shows consequences, dangers, and immorality of a corrupt government colonizing and oppressing another land and people. Stresses importance of honest communication between children and their parents.

Positive Role Models

The women leaders of the clan are strong, brave, assertive characters, and the Na'vi are all deeply connected to the land. Jake and Neytiri are courageous and loving parents and clan leaders. Ronal is the spiritual leader of her community. Spider loves the Na'vi even though he's human and is forced into difficult moral situations. Lo'ak finds a way to commune with a sacred creature.

Diverse Representations

The Na'vi species is divided into clans with a variety of cultures, traditions, and belief systems, with overt parallels to Indigenous peoples (tribal tattoos and symbiotic, spiritual relationships with nature) and Indigenous history (colonialist expansion, genocide). But the filmmakers are White, and main characters are almost all voiced by non-Indigenous actors, raising issues about cultural appropriation. The women leaders of the clan are strong, brave, assertive.

Did we miss something on diversity? Suggest an update.

Violence & Scariness

Sci-fi action violence. Supporting characters die due to explosions, bullet wounds, arrows, and dismemberment, as well as a whale-like creature's destructive movements. Several intense scenes involving combat, a ship sinking, and animal hunting that shows the killing of ancient beings. Children are held captive and at gunpoint. Bullying and pranking that leaves a teen in harm's way. Children are used as hostages. A couple of emotional deaths.

Did you know you can flag iffy content? Adjust limits for Violence & Scariness in your kid's entertainment guide.

Sex, Romance & Nudity

Brief scene of nonsexual nudity (blink-and-miss glimpse of a Na'vi woman's breasts). Adolescent Na'vi flirt and hold hands. There's a strong bond between Kiri and Spider. Jake and Neytiri embrace and kiss.

Did you know you can flag iffy content? Adjust limits for Sex, Romance & Nudity in your kid's entertainment guide.

Scattered strong language includes one "f--k," "holy s--t," "bulls--t," "dips--t," "bitch," "goddamn," "damn," "piss," "hell," "oh my God," "ass," "ass-whooping," and insults like "four-fingered freak," "half-breed," "stupid," "ignorant," etc. "Jesus" used as an exclamation.

Did you know you can flag iffy content? Adjust limits for Language in your kid's entertainment guide.

Products & Purchases

No product placement in movie, but dozens of off-screen tie-in merchandising deals, including toys and books aimed at young kids.

Parents Need to Know

Parents need to know that Avatar: The Way of Water is the long-awaited sequel to James Cameron's epic 2009 mega-hit Avatar . The sequel returns to Pandora 15 years after Jake Sully ( Sam Worthington ) rallied the indigenous Na'vi clans against the corrupt "Sky People" (colonizing humans trying to mine and extract Pandora's resources). Jake and his mate, Neytiri ( Zoe Saldaña ), now have four children and decide to save their forest clan by seeking refuge for their family among the island dwelling Metkayina clan. Filmed mostly underwater, the three-hour-plus film is visually striking. And, like the first movie, it has sci-fi action violence, with weapons, hand-to-hand combat, and the hunting of a sacred whale-like creature. The story also features adolescent flirting, hand-holding, and crushes, as well as marital affection. Occasional strong language includes many uses of "s--t," "bitch," and "ass," as well as one "f--k." Like the first movie, this one has a strong anti-imperialist message, plus environmental and multicultural themes that stress the importance of tolerance, acceptance, and honest communication. To stay in the loop on more movies like this, you can sign up for weekly Family Movie Night emails .

Where to Watch

Videos and photos.

Community Reviews

• Parents say (39)
• Kids say (108)

Based on 39 parent reviews

3 hours of extreme unnecessary violence !

More kid friendly than the 1st, what's the story.

AVATAR: THE WAY OF WATER is set approximately 15 years after the events of the original Avatar . In the forests of Pandora, Jake ( Sam Worthington ) and his mate, Neytiri ( Zoe Saldaña ), are now parents to two teen sons, Neteyam ( Jamie Flatters ) and Lo'ak (Britain Dalton), as well as a young girl named Tuk (Trinity Jo-Li Bliss), and Kiri ( Sigourney Weaver ), the teen daughter they adopted after she was born under mysterious circumstances. Jake has helped the Na'vi fight against the Sky People (humans trying to mine and extract Pandora's resources), but the onslaught of the humans' military operations ramps up when they launch a new mission: sending a select group of avatars with the uploaded consciousness and memories of the long-dead Col. Quaritch ( Stephen Lang ) and his loyal soldiers. Quaritch and his Na'vi-fied squad terrorize Jake and Neytiri's Omaticaya clan until Jake convinces Neytiri that their immediate family should leave and seek refuge with the far-off island dwelling Metkayina clan, who are a different shade of blue and boast fin-like tails and flipper-like hands. Their leader, Tonowari ( Cliff Curtis ), and his spiritual leader mate, Ronal ( Kate Winslet ), tentatively grant Jake and Neytiri's family sanctuary, but eventually Quaritch tracks them down and brings the war of the Sky People to the water clans.

Is It Any Good?

James Cameron 's crowd-pleasing sequel is a spectacular technical achievement that, while overlong, manages to dazzle the senses enough to prove that the director is still a visionary. Avatar: The Way of Water isn't a movie you see for its layered, complicated plot. The storyline is simple, and the dialogue is mostly expository or cliché, particularly when Quaritch talks. But it doesn't quite matter, because Cameron puts the movie's $350 million budget to remarkable use in all of the underwater sequences, the incredible creature effects, and the overall immersive return to Pandora. It's worth seeing on the biggest screen possible, in 3D if you can. Yes, the three-hour-plus runtime is long, but it's easy to get lost in the movie's memorable world-building. The motion-capture performances are fascinating to behold, and Winslet and Curtis are welcome additions to the cast. Of the young actors, Dalton stands out as Neytiri and Jake's troublemaking younger son, Lo'ak, who befriends an outcast tulkun (the sacred alien whales). Also worth noting is Jack Champion as Spider, the human boy raised among the Na'vi but whose mask marks him as different. His bond with Kiri, who's also a little bit different, seems headed toward romance, but it's too early to tell (not to mention complicated).

Lang's Quaritch is only slightly less unhinged in this installment than he was in the first film. But he's far from the only antagonist. The Na'vi face seemingly insurmountable odds as the humans' tech gets better and deadlier. The action sequences come mostly in the third act, but there are moments of pulse-pounding peril throughout that will make audiences clutch their seats (or their partners). There's even an extended ship-sinking sequence that's reminiscent of Titanic , right down to how people grip the railing and hold their breath as areas flood. While there's no Pandoran quartet playing classical music, composer Simon Franglen uses the late James Horner's original themes to create an evocative score as the Na'vi fight for their lives. With Avatar: The Way of Water , Cameron and cinematographer Russell Carpenter have created something monumental in scope, so much so that the movie's flaws don't prevent it from being stunning.

Talk to Your Kids About ...

Families can talk about the visual and special effects in Avatar: The Way of Water . How do they compare to those in the first movie? How has technology changed since that one was released?

What themes does James Cameron consistently work into his films? Compare aspects of Avatar to the Terminator movies and Titanic . What similarities can you find?

Discuss the difference between how humans dealt with the Na'vi in the first movie and in this sequel.

How do the different tribes from Pandora interact, work together, and use teamwork to achieve their goals? Why is that an important character strength ?

The language and culture of the Maori people indigenous to New Zealand provided director James Cameron with inspiration for the sea-based Metkayina people. What are respectful ways to acknowledge other cultures?

Movie Details

• In theaters : December 16, 2022
• On DVD or streaming : March 28, 2023
• Cast : Zoe Saldana , Sam Worthington , Kate Winslet , Sigourney Weaver
• Director : James Cameron
• Inclusion Information : Female actors, Black actors, Latino actors
• Studio : Walt Disney Studios Motion Pictures
• Genre : Science Fiction
• Topics : Adventures , Ocean Creatures , Space and Aliens
• Character Strengths : Courage , Perseverance , Teamwork
• Run time : 192 minutes
• MPAA rating : PG-13
• MPAA explanation : sequences of strong violence and intense action, partial nudity and some strong language
• Awards : Academy Award , Common Sense Selection
• Last updated : January 6, 2024

Did we miss something on diversity?

Research shows a connection between kids' healthy self-esteem and positive portrayals in media. That's why we've added a new "Diverse Representations" section to our reviews that will be rolling out on an ongoing basis. You can help us help kids by suggesting a diversity update.

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Avatar 2 marks a dramatic step forward for director James Cameron

But The Way of Water is a step back for the endlessly distracting HFR presentation

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​​There are two thoughts that you never want to cross your mind at a movie theater. One is “Did I just step in gum?” The other is “Is this supposed to look this way?”

Avatar: The Way of Water , James Cameron’s fundamentally enjoyable and exciting sequel to the 2009 blockbuster Avatar , is meant to represent a major technological advance in cinematic exhibition. Time will tell whether that’s the case. But the fact is that many viewers will have a vexing experience if they see the picture in what’s considered the optimum format.

The first press screenings of the long-delayed 192-minute opus, which reportedly cost somewhere between $250 million and $400 million to make, were held at theaters equipped to project the film in a high frame rate (HFR). You may have experienced this with Gemini Man , Billy Lynn’s Long Halftime Walk , or Peter Jackson’s Hobbit trilogy. It’s fair to say that HFR hasn’t really taken off, unlike the wave of 3D that temporarily changed the cinema landscape when Avatar was released. But director/explorer Cameron boasted in October that he’d found a “simple hack” that would work as a game-changer. In short, he used advanced technology to essentially toggle The Way of Water between 48 frames per second and the traditional 24.

On paper, this sounds like a nice compromise. But three-plus hours of the shifting dynamic, without the ability to just settle into one or the other, is actually worse than simply watching an entire HFR movie. To use an old expression, you can’t ride two horses with one behind. And this is all the more upsetting because so much of the film is truly splendid.

Avatar: The Way of Water tells a simple but engaging story in an imaginative, beautiful environment. It’s more than three hours long, and it unfortunately takes close to a full third of that time to get rolling. But once it does — once former human Marine turned Pandoran native Jake Sully (Sam Worthington), his Na’vi mate Neytiri (Zoe Saldaña), and their brood of four half-Na’vi, half-Avatar children take refuge from the forest in a watery part of the world — the sense of wonder hits like a tidal wave.

The story setup is simple: Sky People (the rapacious, militarized humans of the Resources Development Administration) are back on Pandora after the events of Avatar , and this time, they want something even more unobtainable than the element unobtainium. No spoilers, but let’s say that extracting this stuff from Pandora isn’t just dangerous, it’s a crime against everything the Na’vi hold dear. Col. Miles Quaritch (Stephen Lang), reborn in a cloned Na’vi Avatar body, is leading the charge to kill that turncoat/insurgent Jake Sully, and won’t let anything stand in his way. Oorah!

In the second hour, the action picks up. Jake and Neytiri’s family becomes a collective fish out of water, almost literally, moving in with an aquatic tribe of Na’vi and adapting to its aquatic lifestyle. This is where Cameron’s rich soak in his invented world is most fulfilling. There’s about an hour of just floatin’ around a reef. The Sully kids have scuffles with the local bullies; the oddball daughter learns how to plug her hair into sponges and reefs; the adorable runt puts on translucent floaty wings and zooms around. It goes on for a quite a while, and the display of visual creativity is breathtaking.

Hour three is when things get wild. Cameron, an action director with few equals, is in conversation with himself, upping the stakes and testing his own resume. There’s a thrilling, emotional chase, and then a daylight battle sequence that’s propulsive, energetic, and original. It involves a gargantuan sea beast coming in off the top rope in a way that left my theater cheering.

Cameron isn’t generally known as a comic director, but there’s always been a humorous element to his action sequences. Think of Jamie Lee Curtis caterwauling and mugging during the causeway rescue in True Lies , or Robert Patrick’s T-1000 rising up from behind a soda machine as killer checker-patterned goop in Terminator 2: Judgment Day . What, we weren’t supposed to laugh at that first reveal of Sigourney Weaver in the mech suit in Aliens ? But the battle in the last third of The Way of Water is different.

Maybe Cameron reacquainted himself with the work of Sam Raimi. Maybe he’s drinking from the same cup as S.S. Rajamouli , who made the magnificent, absolutely ludicrous Indian import RRR . In The Way of Water , Cameron leans all the way into manic mayhem, smash-cutting from one outrageous image to the next. The final act of this movie shows off a freeing attitude he’s never fully embraced before in his action — even action that’s strikingly similar, like the massive sinking ship sequence in Titanic . James Cameron has some expertise in this arena, but this time out, it feels like he’s having a lot more fun.

It’s unlikely that The Way of Water will be a financial watershed on the same level as 2009’s Avatar . The 3D tech was so new back then, and the world-building and the use of CGI environments were both so unprecedented. It was a once-in-a-lifetime move forward for film technology and immersive storytelling. Much like Disney’s recent sequel Disenchanted , The Way of Water is arriving in a cinematic environment that was completely reshaped by its predecessor — and there are no tricks here that move filmmaking forward in the same way.

The closest Cameron comes is that shifting HFR trick, which winds up being more of a distraction than a bonus. Think about the change you notice at the perimeter of the screen when watching a Christopher Nolan or Mission: Impossible movie in an IMAX theater. The material shot in the large IMAX format blows out to fill the whole frame, changing the aspect ratio. The back and forth of the masking at the top and bottom can be intrusive. Eventually, you get used to it, or you recognize it isn’t that big a deal. The change back and forth with HFR — an enormous screen toggling with a “motion smoothing” effect — is not something the eye and brain can get used to.

What’s more, this is Avatar. Most of the time, what’s in the frame is computer-generated imagery (a telepathic alien whale the size of an aircraft carrier, primed for vengeance!), so it already looks unusual. If the whole movie were in HFR, perhaps one would settle in, but jumping between the two — often from shot to shot in the same action sequence, or even within the same shot , as it is being projected in some cinemas — is simply an aesthetic experiment that fails.

This is not just being picky. The changes mean that the tempo of the action on screen looks either sped up or slowed down as the switches occur. Shots in higher frame rate couched between ones that are lower (and there are many) look like a computer game that gets stuck on a render, which then spits something out super fast. To put it an old-school way, it looks like The Benny Hill Show .

It’s just fascinating that Captain Technology, James Cameron, would want it this way. And it’s unfortunate. Because the entire message of the Avatar films is about environmentalism and preservation, about respecting the world as it is. It seems like Pandora’s creator would recognize that sometimes the best move is to leave well enough alone, instead of looking for ways to fix something that didn’t need fixing in the first place.

Avatar: The Way of Water will be released Dec. 16 in theaters.

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'Avatar: The Way of Water' Is Breathtaking and Clunky All at the Same Time

Review: James Cameron's Avatar 2, in theaters now, is a gorgeous sci-fi blockbuster and an even better nature documentary.

Avatar: The Way of Water takes us back to Pandora.

"The way of water has no beginning," explains a doe-eyed blue alien, "and no end." 

Given that the Avatar franchise began 13 years ago and has three more sequels in the works, that's the truth. Not to mention that the new movie, Avatar: The Way of Water, clocks in at a near-endless 3 hours and 12 minutes, which sure is a long time to wear 3D glasses.

But director James Cameron's  epic sequel, in theaters now, has a lot to pack in: It's a decent sci-fi blockbuster, a visual effects master class and the best nature documentary you'll ever see.

Before Avatar 2 you can refresh your memory of the original 2009 Avatar on Disney Plus (or just catch up with our handy guide ). The first movie showed former marine Jake Sully ( Sam Worthington ) arriving on the lush green planet of Pandora to be plugged into a giant blue alien body (or avatar) that could walk among the giant blue aliens who live there. Instead of helping his human comrades strip-mine Pandora, however, he falls for the Na'vi and their oneness with the planet's beautiful but bitey plants and animals. Specifically, he falls in love with tribal princess Neytiri ( Zoe Saldana ). Fast-forward to the sequel, and the now married couple lead guerrilla raids against the greedy human capitalists, while raising a family of young Na'vi children and teenagers.

The new film unfolds from the viewpoint of these kids, each of whom struggles with their part-human/part-Na'vi background. When the troubled teens run into some new and distinctly unfriendly avatars, the Sully family jump on their flying lizards and wing their way across the sea to seek shelter with a new tribe of Na'vi who live in harmony with the ocean.

It's on new shores that Avatar soars. Some early scenes of aliens in combat gear scoping out the environment look exactly like a video game, but that feeling disappears as we spend time with families of Na'vi in and around the ocean. These scenes in the sea are just breathtakingly beautiful. In footage that would make  David Attenborough  proud (if you sent him off into space), lithe Na'vi dive in crystal clear water and frolic with coruscating sea creatures, dappled by shafts of sunlight. 

Moments like this look incredible in 3D.

Even a moment as simple as a character dangling their feet in the water is teeming with layers of bioluminescent movement. In probably the most delightful use of 3D I can remember, fish and Na'vi dart out of the screen toward you before dancing away into the depths. You can almost reach out and splash your hand in the sparkling water. It's utterly hypnotic.

As you explore this beguiling underwater realm alongside the Na'vi, these CG characters become completely real and far more fleshed out than the real actors over on the human side of things. As in the first film, there's a divide between human actors in real sets and computer-generated aliens in impossible imagined environments, although it's a lot of fun when they meet in battle and the difference in their sizes means an arrow in the hand of a Na'vi becomes a giant spear impaling a puny human. 

Humans tumble from exploding vehicles like action figures scattered across a sandbox, but the battles are more than empty spectacle because you've come to identify so much with the Na'vi's harmonious existence with the planet's ecosystem as they stand against the humans' brutal, greedy and pointless exploitation.

The biggest interaction between these two worlds is the growing relationship between a grizzled combat vet in a big blue avatar body and a human child raised on Pandora. They're stubborn enemies and yet have something in common, as they're each torn between both human and Na'vi worlds. The combat vet is played by Stephen Lang (the brutal soldier from the first movie) returning in blue CG form, and his villainous character has a far more interesting story than Jake and Neytiri do.

The Avatar sequel introduces sea-dwelling Na'vi.

The focus on the kids means the grown-up characters are left underdeveloped. For Jake and Neytiri, being guerrilla warriors and parents should be a deeply intriguing internal conflict. What if fighting for your children's future means you don't get to see that future – or worse, what if fighting for everybody else's children costs you your own kids? 

You might end up thinking about these questions, but there's hardly any suggestion that either Jake or Neytiri are wrestling with such considerations. They seem to be constantly arguing, but not really about anything. The strain that their crusade places on their marriage and their love is at least as interesting as all the teen hormones flying around. But I couldn't tell you if they hold opposing viewpoints about any of the big questions you'd think they'd be grappling with. 

Neytiri is particularly short-changed. She's a "strong female character" in that she can shoot a bow and arrow while somersaulting through an explosion, which is cool. But it isn't particularly clear what she thinks about anything. It's jarring that Jake, the newcomer to Na'vi society, not only becomes chief of the tribe but -- even when on the run -- continues to speak for her. The first movie was heavily criticized for its "white savior" tropes. And while Way of Water's heart seems to be in the right place, Jake is still continually the one telling the Na'vi how things are.

There are plenty of big fish moments.

The abundance of creativity in so many areas makes it particularly disappointing when the plot insists on wheeling out assorted hoary old cliches. Teen bullies taunting a troubled newcomer. A knife-to-the-throat hostage standoff. These are such clanging cliches that their inclusion must surely be deliberate, like a wink at the audience to reassure us so that we'll go along with the goofier stuff (subtitled whalesong, anyone?). Yes, scenes like this have a certain universal clarity, and younger viewers may be seeing them for the same time. But it seems baffling that such an otherwise imaginative film would recycle such well-worn tropes. 

The first film was basically Dances With Wolves crossed with Cameron's Aliens . This time around, the director throws in more elements from his films The Abyss , Terminator 2 and Titanic . There's even a moment involving a fish and a bigger fish that was kinda cringe when George Lucas did it in The Phantom Menace 23 years ago.

Still, the parental anguish and the engaging journeys of the young characters give The Way of Water emotional heft. The sci-fi action is cathartic and exciting, the environmental message is irresistible, and the visuals are just incredible. 

Even at over three hours -- and again, those 3D glasses can get uncomfortable -- it's hard to think of anything that could be cut. The section that wanders around underwater could probably do with a stern tightening, except it's probably the best part of the whole film. 

3D glasses aside -- once it's begun, you might not want this movie to end. 

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‘Avatar: The Way of Water’ Review: James Cameron’s Sequel Is What the Theatrical Experience Was Made for

David ehrlich.

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To paraphrase a woman once known as Rose DeWitt Bukater: “Outwardly, I’ve spent the last 13 years insisting that only a total moron would ever bet against ‘ Avatar ‘ mastermind James Cameron . Inside, I was screaming.”

Screaming at the idea that modern Hollywood’s most all-or-nothing visionary was going to waste the twilight of his career — and possibly the last gasp of The Movies themselves — on a series of sequels to his least compelling work. Screaming at the notion that the only person with the resources and cachet to create massive new film worlds from scratch had decided to semi-permanently entrench himself in one that I’d already seen and wasn’t particularly itching to revisit. Screaming at the far-fetched prospect that he’d be able to mine fresh pockets of either from a planet that he’d previously (and vividly) terraformed into the most basic of settler-adoption space fantasies.

“Aliens,” “Terminator 2,” and even the disavowed “Piranha” sequel prove that Cameron has always had a gift for building radical new sights atop pre-existing bedrock, but I was skeptical that another epic worthy of his ego could be constructed on the bones of such brittle colonization tropes, or that the Na’vi offered him the opportunities he needed to revolutionize movie-going yet again (for better or worse).

On the latter point, of course, Cameron knew that it did. Pandora was conceived as a giant playground for the technology that he wanted to bring to movie theaters — and as the weapon that would force them to go digital or die — and Cameron’s plan for it always extended beyond lithe blue cat people selling the masses on saving the rainforest. His heart belongs to the ocean, after all, and the ones on Pandora are virtually impossible to beat.

Cameron has always treated story as a direct extension of the spectacle required to bring it to life, but the anthropocenic relationship between narrative and technology was a bit uneven in the first “Avatar,” which obscured the old behind the veil of the new where his previous films had better allowed them to intertwine. An out-of-body theatrical experience that makes its predecessor feel like a glorified proof-of-concept, “ Avatar: The Way of Water ” is such a staggering improvement over the original because its spectacle doesn’t have to compensate for its story; in vintage Cameron fashion, the movie’s spectacle is what allows its story to be told so well.

The adventures of Jake Sully (of the Jarhead clan) are probably never going to escape their sub-“Lawrence of Arabia” underpinnings or achieve the kind of popcorn-flavored poignancy that inspired this critic to list “Titanic” as one of the 10 greatest films ever made, but I’ll say this much: When “Avatar” ended, I couldn’t imagine caring about its characters enough to sit through a sequel, let alone four of them. When “The Way of Water” finally ebbed out to sea after 192 spellbinding minutes — receding into darkness with the gentlest of cliffhangers at the end of a third act defined by some of the clearest and most sensationally character-driven action sequences this side of “True Lies” — I found myself genuinely moved by the plight of Jake’s tall blue family, and champing at the bit to see what happened to them next. Never doubted Big Jim for a minute!

Here is a silly movie that works so well because it uses dazzling new tools to satisfy our nostalgia for classic entertainment. Seeing “Avatar: The Way of Water” in 3D VFR at High Dynamic Range doesn’t feel like watching any other movie you’ve seen before. This thing is a categorically and phenomenologically different experience than everything else that’s ever played at your local multiplex, including the original “Avatar” — it’s as many light years removed from the year’s other great blockbusters (“Nope,” “RRR,” and “Top Gun: Maverick”) as the extrasolar moon of Pandora is from Earth.

To some degree, that’s because “The Way of Water” iterates and improves upon technology that’s been tried before. As you would expect from an “Avatar” sequel, the main cast largely consists of 10-foot-tall aliens who mind-meld with nature through the anemone-like tendrils that wiggle out of their braids, only this time the Na’vi look more realistic than most of the human actors you’ll find in other Hollywood fare, especially during the ultra-vivid close-ups that Cameron uses to lend this film an emotional depth that its predecessor lacked the time and technology to achieve.

Like all great sequels, “The Way of Water” retrospectively deepens the original, and while that may not be much of a challenge here, it’s one that Cameron meets all the same. Now that the table-setting is out of the way and paraplegic-marine-turned-alien-clan-leader Jake Sully ( Sam Worthington ) has been at home in his new world and body for more than a decade, Cameron is free to move beyond $250 million “Pocahontas” fanfic and get a little freaky with the formula.

Jake and his Na’vi huntress mate Neytiri (Zoe Saldaña) have produced four recom/Na’vi hybrid children when the sequel begins, which is enough to suggest that all of the “Avatar” series’ latent horniness is probably a bit less latent when Disney audiences aren’t watching. In fairness, the couple’s least annoying child was adopted when the Avatar that Sigourney Weaver ’s Dr. Grace Augustine used during the first movie somehow became pregnant while floating inside its test tube coffin after the scientist’s death.

And while the father’s identity remains something of a mystery, he must have been a pretty cool guy/spirit god because inquisitive teenage Kiri — also played by Weaver in one of the most affecting turns that performance-capture has ever made possible — instantly becomes the series’ best character (the other Sully kids range from “cute” to “under-written middle child” to “oh no it’s basically the idiot son from ‘War of the Worlds’”).

An outcast in a story teeming with them, Kiri depends on a degree of nuance that didn’t seem possible of the Na’vi in the previous film, and the character transcends her “chosen one” mystique with a warmth and curiosity that sets her apart from the rest of the cast, even as her interspecies hybridity and search for belonging find her in good company. She’s the bridge between human and Na’vi, analog and digital, that “Avatar” sorely needed, and her centrality to the next chapter of Cameron’s overarching narrative bodes well for the future of this franchise.

The same can’t quite be said of Miles “Spider” Socorro (Jack Champion), a shredded human teenager who was born on Pandora before the events of the first film, and is so determined to be accepted by/as one of the Na’vi that he runs around in his skivvies with stripes of blue painted over his skin. He’s a Newt for a new generation, and his very old school Cameron-ian goofiness wouldn’t be so worrying if not for the fact that Spider is almost immediately revealed to be the late Col. Quaritch’s son.

Well late-ish, anyway, as the cigar-chomping Quaritch (Stephen Lang) is back in Na’vi form. Earth is uninhabitable, people need a new planet, and a tall blue clone of the genocidal colonist from the last movie is in charge of clearing out the hostiles from humanity’s new home. That nü-Quaritch isn’t human himself adds a curious dynamic to his mission — a wrinkle dramatized by a wonderful “Avatar” take on Hamlet’s “Alas poor Yorick” speech — as does the fact that his own child is fighting alongside the natives.

Whether Spider is a strong enough character to carry that kind of story weight remains to be seen, but the intention alone points the plot towards resonant notes of acceptance and belonging; notes that help “The Way of Water” pivot away from the colonialist overtones that its predecessor wasn’t prepared to handle, and instead towards broader questions about man’s destructive instinct for survival at all costs, in perpetuity, throughout the universe. Quaritch’s war against the Na’vi mirrors the one against his own nature, a war that Jake Sully finds worth fighting in the service of protecting the people he loves and the planet that sustains them.

With Quaritch determined to slaughter Jake’s entire clan in order to put his head on a pike, our hero makes the decision to leave the jungle and flee with his family to the distant atolls of Pandora. That’s where they seek refuge with the sea green Metkayina clan and try to adapt to the life aquatic as they wait for the inevitable third act showdown with Quaritch’s military goons (fingers crossed that Kate Winslet gets more to do in the third movie as the Metkayina’s chief matriarch).

It’s during the film’s leisurely middle stretch that Cameron pioneers the use of underwater performance-capture, which is the kind of thing that only sounds like a big tech bro wank until the moment you see it in action. If parts of the story’s first chapter suggest that audiences are in for a simple retread of a sci-fi adventure that everyone on our planet saw twice and pretends to have forgotten, any “been here, actually do remember this” déjà vu washes all the way off the minute the action finally plunges under the surface and submerges us in an oceanic world so clear and present that you might instinctively start holding your breath.

It’s the most rapturous, awe-inducing, only in theaters return to the cinema of attractions since Godard experimented with double exposure 3D in “Goodbye to Language,” whether swimming with schools of alien fish or introducing us to the four-eyed, 300-foot-long whale-like tulkun (who prove central to the plot and communicate in subtitled Papyrus), these scenes have more in common with VR or lucid dreaming than whatever rinky-dink CGI we’re forced to swallow with every new superhero movie, and Cameron lets us soak up every frame. If we can fall in love with this world and be compelled by the fight to save it, why can’t we do the same with our own?

Complicating the illusion in a way that alternately enhances “The Way of Water” and risks interrupting its flow is a variable frame rate that switches between 24 and 48fps from one shot to the next, as if God (or Eywa) were speed-ramping life itself. There are times when the magic of it all fails to transcend the motion-smoothed memories that may continue to haunt my fellow survivors of “Gemini Man” and “The Hobbit,” and it can seem as if the screen has once again been set to soap opera mode.

There are other times — and your mileage on this will itself prove variable — when it can seem as if there isn’t a screen at all, and that the action is unfolding right in front of you. Either way, almost everything you see looks real (avatar-ized Stephen Lang is the only aspect that caused my brain any cognitive dissonance), or at least it all looks equally unreal , which is the same thing as far as your eyes are concerned.

The experience simply isn’t comparable to whatever else is playing at the local AMC, and yet the most impressive thing about “The Way of Water” might be how it captures the age-old spirit of the multiplex so well that it doesn’t even need to star Tom Cruise. This is a Movie with a capital “M,” its $400 million tech and ecological messaging all in service of a tulkun-sized adventure so transportive that I quickly stopped caring how Cameron made it. It’s certainly always obvious that no one else could have or did, as “The Way of Water” finds new charm in many of the director’s most groan-worthy fetishes and cliches: Stiff heroes, mouth-foaming villains, military jerk-offs, the emasculating insults they spew like bullets (“cupcake,” “buttercup,” other tasty morsels like that), scruffy engineers wearing stupid t-shirts, and enough boomer chutzpah to raise the Titanic are all present and accounted for in unapologetic fashion. Edie Falco walking around in a giant exoskeleton? That’s just a free bonus.

Using cutting-edge technology to recreate something that always seems on the brink of being lost forever, “The Way of Water” effectively marries the “what the hell am I eating?” experience of gastronomy with the full-bellied satisfaction of the first Big Mac you’ve had after a brutal fast. Frustratingly — if also most exciting of all — this feast of a movie left me with the feeling that Cameron is still holding back. Massive and monumental as “The Way of Water” is, there’s little doubt that you’re being served the most expensive appetizer of all time.

Be that as it may, this serving is still more than enough to make your mouth water. By the time the film arrives at its harrowing finale (a sublime reminder that “James Cameron + sinking ships” is one of the best combinations the movies have ever come up with), I couldn’t believe how involved I was by this larger than life cartoon epic about characters I was ready to leave for dead 13 years ago.

Does it matter if “The Way of Water” doesn’t elicit the same response when I watch it at home? Not really — I know that it won’t. Does it matter that Cameron is continuing to “save” the movies by rendering them almost unrecognizable from the rest of the medium? His latest sequel would suggest that even the most alien bodies can serve as proper vessels for the spirits we hold sacred. For now, the only thing that matters is that after 13 years of being a punchline, “going back to Pandora” just became the best deal on Earth for the price of a movie ticket.

20th Century Studios will release “Avatar: The Way of Water” in theaters on Friday, December 16.

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James Cameron wants you to believe. He wants you to believe that aliens are killing machines, humanity can defeat time-traveling cyborgs, and a film can transport you to a significant historical disaster. In many ways, the planet of Pandora in " Avatar " has become his most ambitious manner of sharing this belief in the power of cinema. Can you leave everything in your life behind and experience a film in a way that's become increasingly difficult in an era of so much distraction? As technology has advanced, Cameron has pushed the limits of his power of belief even further, playing with 3D, High Frame Rate, and other toys that weren't available when he started his career. But one of the many things that is so fascinating about "Avatar: The Way of Water" is how that belief manifests itself in themes he's explored so often before. This wildly entertaining film isn't a retread of "Avatar," but a film in which fans can pick out thematic and even visual elements of " Titanic ," " Aliens ," "The Abyss," and "The Terminator" films. It's as if Cameron has moved to Pandora forever and brought everything he cares about. (He's also clearly never leaving.) Cameron invites viewers into this fully realized world with so many striking images and phenomenally rendered action scenes that everything else fades away.

Maybe not right away. "Avatar: The Way of Water" struggles to find its footing at first, throwing viewers back into the world of Pandora in a narratively clunky way. One can tell that Cameron really cares most about the world-building mid-section of this film, which is one of his greatest accomplishments, so he rushes through some of the set-ups to get to the good stuff. Before then, we catch up with Jake Sully ( Sam Worthington ), a human who is now a full-time Na'vi and partners with Neytiri ( Zoe Saldana ), with whom he has started a family. They have two sons—Neteyam ( Jamie Flatters ) and Lo'ak ( Britain Dalton )—and a daughter named Tuk (Trinity Jo-Li Bliss), and they are guardians of Kiri ( Sigourney Weaver ), the offspring of Weaver's character from the first film.

Family bliss is fractured when the 'sky people' return, including an avatar Na'vi version of one Colonel Miles Quaritch ( Stephen Lang ), who has come to finish what he started, including vengeance on Jake for the death of his human form. He comes back with a group of former-human-now-Na'vi soldiers who are the film's main antagonists, but not the only ones. "Avatar: The Way of Water" once again casts the military, planet-destroying humans of this universe as its truest villains, but the villains' motives are sometimes a bit hazy. Around halfway through, I realized it's not very clear why Quaritch is so intent on hunting Jake and his family, other than the plot needs it, and Lang is good at playing mad.

The bulk of "Avatar: The Way of Water" hinges on the same question Sarah Connor asks in the "Terminator" movies—fight or flight for family? Do you run and hide from the powerful enemy to try and stay safe or turn and fight the oppressive evil? At first, Jake takes the former option, leading them to another part of Pandora, where the film opens up via one of Cameron's longtime obsessions: H2O. The aerial acrobatics of the first film are supplanted by underwater ones in a region run by Tonowari ( Cliff Curtis ), the leader of a clan called the Metkayina. Himself a family man—his wife is played by Kate Winslet —Tonowari is worried about the danger the new Na'vi visitors could bring but can't turn them away. Again, Cameron plays with moral questions about responsibility in the face of a powerful evil, something that recurs in a group of commercial poachers from Earth. They dare to hunt sacred water animals in stunning sequences during which you have to remind yourself that none of what you're watching is real.

The film's midsection shifts its focus away from Sully/Quaritch to the region's children as Jake's boys learn the ways of the water clan. Finally, the world of "Avatar" feels like it's expanding in ways the first film didn't. Whereas that film was more focused on a single story, Cameron ties together multiple ones here in a far more ambitious and ultimately rewarding fashion. While some of the ideas and plot developments—like the connection of Kiri to Pandora or the arc of a new character named Spider ( Jack Champion )—are mostly table-setting for future films, the entire project is made richer by creating a larger canvas for its storytelling. While one could argue that there needs to be a stronger protagonist/antagonist line through a film that discards both Jake & Quaritch for long periods, I would counter that those terms are intentionally vague here. The protagonist is the entire family and even the planet on which they live, and the antagonist is everything trying to destroy the natural world and the beings that are so connected to it.

Viewers should be warned that Cameron's ear for dialogue hasn't improved—there are a few lines that will earn unintentional laughter—but there's almost something charming about his approach to character, one that weds old-fashioned storytelling to breakthrough technology. Massive blockbusters often clutter their worlds with unnecessary mythologies or backstories, whereas Cameron does just enough to ensure this impossible world stays relatable. His deeper themes of environmentalism and colonization could be understandably too shallow for some viewers—and the way he co-opts elements of Indigenous culture could be considered problematic—and I wouldn't argue against that. But if a family uses this as a starting point for conversations about those themes then it's more of a net positive than most blockbusters that provide no food for thought. 

There has been so much conversation about the cultural impact of "Avatar" recently, as superheroes dominated the last decade of pop culture in a way that allowed people to forget the Na'vi. Watching "Avatar: The Way of Water," I was reminded of how impersonal the Hollywood machine has become over the last few decades and how often the blockbusters that truly make an impact on the form have displayed the personal touch of their creator. Think of how the biggest and best films of George Lucas and Steven Spielberg couldn't have been made by anyone else. "Avatar: The Way of Water" is a James Cameron blockbuster, through and through. And I still believe in him.

Available only in theaters on December 16th. 

Brian Tallerico

Brian Tallerico is the Managing Editor of RogerEbert.com, and also covers television, film, Blu-ray, and video games. He is also a writer for Vulture, The Playlist, The New York Times, and GQ, and the President of the Chicago Film Critics Association.

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Avatar: The Way of Water (2022)

Rated PG-13 for sequences of strong violence and intense action, partial nudity and some strong language.

192 minutes

Sam Worthington as Jake Sully

Zoe Saldaña as Neytiri

Sigourney Weaver as Kiri

Stephen Lang as Colonel Miles Quaritch

Kate Winslet as Ronal

Cliff Curtis as Tonowari

Joel David Moore as Norm Spellman

CCH Pounder as Mo'at

Edie Falco as General Frances Ardmore

Brendan Cowell as Mick Scoresby

Jemaine Clement as Dr. Ian Garvin

Jamie Flatters as Neteyam

Britain Dalton as Lo'ak

Trinity Bliss as Tuktirey

Jack Champion as Javier 'Spider' Socorro

Bailey Bass as Tsireya

Filip Geljo as Aonung

Duane Evans Jr. as Rotxo

Giovanni Ribisi as Parker Selfridge

Dileep Rao as Dr. Max Patel

• James Cameron

Writer (story by)

• Amanda Silver
• Josh Friedman
• Shane Salerno

Cinematographer

• Russell Carpenter
• Stephen E. Rivkin
• David Brenner
• John Refoua
• Simon Franglen

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Review: An exercise in Na’vi gazing, ‘Avatar: The Way of Water’ will cure your moviegoing blues

Thirteen years after the first ‘Avatar,’ James Cameron finally returns to the distant moon of Pandora in this transporting, radiantly personal sequel

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In “Avatar: The Way of Water,” the director James Cameron pulls you down so deep, and sets you so gently adrift, that at times you don’t feel like you’re watching a movie so much as floating in one. From time to time he brings you to the bottom of an alien sea, shot with stunning hyper-clarity in high-frame-rate 3D and teeming with all manner of surreally strange fish — all oddly shaped fins, decorative tentacles and other vestiges of an otherworldly, faintly screw-loose evolutionary timeline.

You can imagine the fun (and the headaches) that Cameron and his visual-effects wizards must have had designing this brilliant ocean-floor nirvana. You can also see an astronomical budget (reportedly north of $350 million) and an extraordinarily sophisticated digital toolkit at work, plus a flair for camera movement that, likely shaped by the director’s hours of deep-sea diving, achieves an exhilarating sense of buoyancy.

Much as you might long for Cameron to keep us down there — to give us, in effect, the most expensive and elaborate underwater hangout movie ever made — he can’t or won’t sustain all this dreamy Jacques-Cousteau-on-mushrooms wonderment for three-plus hours. He’s James Cameron, after all, and he has a stirringly old-fashioned story to tell, crap dialogue to dispense and, in time, a hell of an action movie to unleash, complete with fiery shipwrecks, deadly arrows and a whale-sized, tortoise-skinned creature known as a Tulkun. All in all, it’s marvelous to have him back (Cameron, that is, though the Tulkun is also welcome). He remains one of the few Hollywood visionaries who actually merits that much-abused term, and as such, he has more on his mind than just pummeling the audience into submission.

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Cameron wants to submerge you in another time and place, to seduce you into a state of pure, unforced astonishment. And he does, after some visual adjustment; the use of high frame rate (a sped-up 48 frames per second) tends to work better underwater than on dry land, where the overly frictionless, motion-smoothed look might put you briefly in mind of a Na’vi soap opera (“The Blue and the Beautiful,” surely). But then he can captivate you with something as lyrically simple — but actually, as painstakingly computer-generated — as a shot of his characters sitting beside the water at night, their faces and bodies reflecting the digital phosphorescence below. Any hack can make stuff blow up real good; Cameron makes stuff glow up real good.

In this long-running, long-gestating sequel to his 2009 juggernaut, “Avatar,” Cameron returns you to that distant moon called Pandora, though most of the action unfolds far from the first movie’s majestic floating mountains and verdant rainforests. We encountered that dazzling, soon-to-be-despoiled Eden through the eyes of Jake Sully (Sam Worthington), a square-jawed, soft-hearted ex-Marine sent by his ruthless corporate overlords to infiltrate the Na’vi, a powerful race of blue-skinned, yellow-eyed, cat-tailed humanoids who lived in astonishing oneness with all living things. Transplanted into his own genetically tailored Na’vi body, or avatar, Jake didn’t take long to switch allegiances and turn against humanity, having fallen hopelessly in love with Pandora’s beauty and also with a Na’vi warrior princess, Neytiri (Zoe Saldaña).

“Avatar” was a thrilling moviegoing experience and a pioneering showpiece for performance-capture technology, which allowed Cameron and his actors to endow their Na’vi characters with astonishingly detailed and lifelike gazes, gestures and physiognomies. The movie was also built on a consciously thin story, with thudding echoes of anti-imperialist westerns like “Dances With Wolves” and the fondly remembered eco-conscious animation “FernGully: The Last Rainforest.” But then, Cameron’s cutting-edge technophilia has always been married to, and complemented by, an unapologetic cornball classicism. And if it was easy to snicker at “Avatar’s” hippy-dippy sincerity, it was also easy to surrender to its multiplex transcendentalism, its world of synthetically crafted natural wonders. Here was the rare studio picture that seemed enlivened, rather than undermined, by its contradictions.

If anything, those contradictions hit you with even greater force in “Avatar: The Way of Water,” which fully and subtly immerses you in the Na’vi world from start to finish. The level of computer-generated artifice on display in every landscape and seascape is cumulatively staggering, in ways to which even the first movie, toggling insistently between Jake’s human and Na’vi experiences, didn’t aspire. Just as crucially, the stakes have risen, the emotions have deepened and the brand-extension imperatives that typically govern sequels are happily nowhere in evidence.

That might seem remarkable, considering that the “Avatar” series (at least three more movies are planned), like all properties of the former Fox Studios, now belongs to Disney, speaking of ruthless corporate overlords. But then, it’s no surprise that the director of “Aliens” and “Terminator 2: Judgment Day,” two of the most indelible sequels in action-cinema history, knows a thing or two about intelligent, expansive franchise building. And as “The Abyss” and “Titanic” bore out, Cameron also knows a thing or two about water, which is where this latest sequel finds its sweet spot: Welcome to Pandora’s beach.

But first, there’s a truckload of exposition to get through. As in the first movie, Jake obliges with the kind of grunting film-noir-gumshoe voiceover that reminds you, in ways more endearing than irritating, that snappy exposition will never be one of Cameron’s strong suits. (He co-wrote the script with Rick Jaffa and Amanda Silver.) Several years after shedding his own avatar and being reborn as a full-blown Na’vi, Jake has mastered his post-human way of life. He and Neytiri are parents to four Na’vi children: two teenage sons, Neteyam (Jamie Flatters) and Lo’ak (Britain Dalton); an 8-year-old daughter, Tuk (Trinity Bliss), and an adopted teenage daughter of mysterious provenance named Kiri. She’s played by Sigourney Weaver, a casting choice that naturally ties her to Dr. Grace Augustine, Weaver’s deceased scientist from the first movie, initiating a mystery that will presumably be unraveled further down the franchise road.

Weaver’s casting also raises some odd, potentially discourse-sowing questions about Kiri’s chaste (for now) bond with a young human male and fellow foundling named Spider (Jack Champion), who likes to run, bare of chest and foot, with the Sully clan. But if their friendship makes for an optimistic portrait of interspecies harmony, Cameron doesn’t linger on it for long. Instead, he unleashes a grave threat that drives Jake and Neytiri from their Omaticayan jungle home and sends them fleeing to the ocean, where they seek refuge with a civilization of Na’vi reef dwellers known as the Metkayina.

It’s a shrewd narrative gambit that not only refreshes the scenery (and how!) but also forces Jake, Neytiri and their family to adapt to an entirely new way of life, cueing a second-act training regimen that allows Cameron to show off every square inch of his aquatic paradise. (His key collaborators include his longtime cinematographer, Russell Carpenter, and production designers Dylan Cole and Ben Procter.)

Led by the kind, welcoming Tonowari (Cliff Curtis) and his less hospitable wife, Ronal (a glaring Kate Winslet), the Metkayina are a highly evolved clan of water dwellers, as underscored by their aquamarine skin (in contrast to the Omaticayans’ cerulean tones), seashell-and-fishnet jewelry and intricate tattoos, reminiscent of Maori body art. They also boast unusually thick, long tails built for underwater propulsion. For Jake, Neytiri and especially their children, learning to navigate the watery wilderness just outside their new beach-bum paradise will prove a difficult challenge. It’ll also earn them some mockery from the locals, especially Tonowari and Ronal’s own teenage children, in a story that sometimes plays like a teen surfing movie by way of “Swiss Family Robinson.”

Even coming from a filmmaker used to setting intimate relational sagas against large-scale tragedy, the tenderness and occasional sentimentality with which Cameron invests this drama of family conflict and survival feels unusually personal. It can also feel a bit thinly stretched at three hours, but even that seems more an act of generosity than indulgence on Cameron’s part; his attachment to this family is real and in time, so is yours. Audiences expecting propulsive non-stop action, rather than the director’s customary slow build, may be surprised to find themselves watching a leisurely saga of overprotective parents and rebellious teens, biracial/adoptive identity issues and casual xenophobia. They’ll also be treated to some lovely whalespeak courtesy of those mammoth Tulkuns, who turn out to be engaging conversationalists as well as formidable fighters.

If you’re impatient, sit tight: The action is still to come, much of it dispensed by a snarling reincarnation of the first movie’s ex-military villain, Col. Miles Quaritch, here reborn — and played once more by the ferocious Stephen Lang — as a Na’vi avatar implanted with a surviving packet of the colonel’s memories. Bigger, badder and bluer than before, Quaritch 2.0 isn’t looking for unobtainium, the first movie’s stupidly, wonderfully named mineral MacGuffin. All he really wants is revenge against Jake and his family. (It’s personal for him, too.) His Na’vi transformation leaves only a handful of human characters, some of them old friends (Joel David Moore, Dileep Rao), though most of them are puny, inconsequential villains who rain down destruction on the Metkayina and their delicate ecosystem, only to reap destruction in return. Like its predecessor, “Avatar: The Way of Water” is both an environmental cautionary tale and a madly effective opportunity to root against our own kind; by the time the third act kicks in, you’ll be screaming for human blood.

Cameron’s return trip to Pandora has been long in the making and nearly as long in the mocking. Over 13 years of ever-shifting industry buzz about possible sequels, sequels to sequels and countless changes of plan, more than a few have expressed exasperation with the director’s ever-outsized ambitions and even cast doubt on the first “Avatar’s” pop-cultural legacy. It’s hardly the first time Cameron has been dinged in advance for an Olympian folly, and if the pattern holds, this latest and most ambitious picture will stun most of his naysayers into silence. “Never underestimate James Cameron” has become something of a mantra of late when, in fact, the underestimation is crucial. It’s part of the director’s hook, his wind-up showmanship, his belief that moviegoing can be a religious and even redemptive experience. The more he suffers, the more he can thrill us, and the more fully the wonder of cinema can be reborn.

You don’t have to buy into that self-mythologizing to surrender, even if only intermittently, to the lovely, uneven, transporting sprawl of “Avatar: The Way of Water.” Certainly it’s hard not to feel moved and even heartened by the conviction of Cameron’s filmmaking, the unfeigned sincerity with which he directs a young Metkayina woman to solemnly intone, “The way of water has no beginning and no end.” That could be interpreted as a dig at the running time, but it also nicely articulates Cameron’s sense of visual continuity. As with the first “Avatar,” the immersive fluidity he achieves here feels like an organic outgrowth from his premise, a reminder that all life flows harmoniously together.

Where it will flow next is a mystery, and it’d be disingenuous of me to suggest I’m not eager to find out. Until then, Pandora, so long, and thanks for all the fish.

‘Avatar: The Way of Water’

In English and Na’vi dialogue, with English subtitles Rating: PG-13, for sequences of strong violence and intense action, partial nudity and some strong language When: Opens Friday Where: Wide release Running time: 3 hours, 10 minutes

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Avatar: The Way of Water is a visual masterpiece let down by familiar story

We're finally back in Pandora.

13 years have passed since the release of Avatar and the sequel was affected by so many release-date changes that it started to feel like a myth. In the years since, Avatar and its planned sequel have become an easy target for mockery, but the first movie remains the biggest movie of all time.

One factor behind that movie's success was its groundbreaking visual effects and use of 3D, delivering a cinematic experience that few had seen before. Though 3D has largely receded in recent years, if anybody can bring it back, it's James Cameron , who again has pushed the boundaries of technology for the sequel.

But has it all been worth the 13-year wait for Avatar: The Way of Water ? It's certainly a visual masterpiece that's often beautiful to behold, but one that doesn't always have the substance to go with its considerable style.

As much as Avatar: The Way of Water is a sequel to Avatar , you might be better viewing it as the opening act of a new saga. It's the first of four planned sequels that, when viewed together, will tell one epic story about the Sully family – which has expanded significantly.

In the decade or so since the events of Avatar , Jake Sully (Sam Worthington) and Neytiri ( Zoe Saldaña ) have had three children: Neteyam (Jamie Flatters), Lo'ak (Britain Dalton) and Tuktirey (Trinity Jo-Li Bliss). They've also adopted teenager Kiri ( Sigourney Weaver ) and their children hang out with Spider (Jack Champion), a human left on Pandora.

Their new life is interrupted by the return of the RDA to Pandora, but for a while, the Omatikaya (their tribe of Na'vi) successfully fight back, thanks to Jake's military expertise. When it becomes clear that Jake himself is the target, he makes the tough decision to step down as leader and seek refuge elsewhere on Pandora.

It's a breathless first act that doesn't make allowance for anybody who doesn't have Avatar fresh in their minds. Cameron appears to be setting up a chase movie as Colonel Miles Quaritch ( Stephen Lang ), now a recombinant (a Na'vi avatar with the memories of a human), relentlessly hunts the man he blames for his death.

But Cameron isn't interested in delivering the movie you think you're going to get, which ultimately ends up to the detriment of the sequel.

When the Sully family arrive at the home of the Metkayina clan, led by Tonowari (Cliff Curtis) and Ronal (Kate Winslet), Cameron switches his attention to the children. We spend more time with the likes of Neteyam, Kiri and Tsireya ( Bailey Bass ), Tonowari and Ronal's daughter, than we do Jake or Neytiri.

On top of establishing the new culture of the Metkayina, the sequel also tries to flesh out each of these new characters who will become central to the series. It's most successful with Kiri who is intriguingly different, although the decision to have Sigourney Weaver voice a teenager doesn't work (even if there is a logical in-world reason).

Even with a runtime of more than three hours, establishing all of these new characters sidelines the strongest characters from the original: Neytiri and Quaritch. Neytiri pops up every now and then when the children do something wrong, while Quaritch is off on his hunt across Pandora, which we see sporadically.

Zoe Saldaña and Stephen Lang were the stand-out performers of the first movie and they excel again here, both given different edges to their characters to explore. They're just not given enough time to do so, and you'll be left wanting a movie just with Neytiri and Quaritch going head-to-head.

It results in a sequel that feels similar to the first movie: rather than developing the characters we know, we're watching new characters explore a culture on Pandora, much like Jake did in the first movie. Specific beats are even repeated albeit with slight changes, such as Lo'ak bonding with a tulkun, a whale-like creature important to the Metkayina.

What saves the movie is the craft that's gone into this new corner of Pandora. At times, it's more like watching a nature documentary as we delve into the oceans, the sheer scale brought to life with superb use of depth in the 3D. It's frequently breathtaking and truly immersive, unrivalled this year as a cinematic experience.

The visual effects are flawless too, a considerable step up from the first movie with the motion capture showcasing even minute expressions. If you see the sequel with variable frame rate though, it's hit and miss as there are times when you feel like you're watching a TV with motion smoothing on, something that's especially apparent whenever humans are on screen.

As astonishing as the visuals are, your tolerance of the meandering middle act will depend on how much you love being in that world. Plot-wise, it's thin as Cameron focuses on an emotional response, such as in a hard-to-watch hunting sequence which doubles down on the environmental themes of the first movie.

In another echo of the first movie, the sequel builds to a final showdown between the Na'vi and the RDA. Here though, you'll allow the familiarity as Cameron delivers an extraordinary final act full of thrilling action and emotion. It's every bit the equal of Top Gun: Maverick 's climax in terms of blockbusters this year.

Cameron knows how to please a crowd and the climax has several beats, including a Titanic homage, that would count as the money shot in other movies. What's most impressive though is that even though we know more movies are on the way, there are stakes here and you never feel like any character is safe.

With the origin story for this expansion of the Avatar world complete, the finale will leave you excited for what's to come in Avatar 3 . Our return to Pandora is far from perfect, but there's nobody out there doing it like James Cameron.

Avatar: The Way of Water is out now in cinemas.

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Movies Editor, Digital Spy  Ian has more than 10 years of movies journalism experience as a writer and editor.  Starting out as an intern at trade bible Screen International, he was promoted to report and analyse UK box-office results, as well as carving his own niche with horror movies , attending genre festivals around the world.   After moving to Digital Spy , initially as a TV writer, he was nominated for New Digital Talent of the Year at the PPA Digital Awards. He became Movies Editor in 2019, in which role he has interviewed 100s of stars, including Chris Hemsworth, Florence Pugh, Keanu Reeves, Idris Elba and Olivia Colman, become a human encyclopedia for Marvel and appeared as an expert guest on BBC News and on-stage at MCM Comic-Con. Where he can, he continues to push his horror agenda – whether his editor likes it or not.  

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Screen Rant

Avatar: the way of water reviews praise visuals & climax of too-long blockbuster.

Early reviews for Avatar: The Way of Water have been released, and critics are praising James Cameron's long-awaited Avatar sequel for its visuals.

James Cameron has another hit on his hands according to Avatar: The Way of Water 's early reviews and their very positive nature. The filmmaker has spent more than 10 years developing the sequel to Avatar , and that passage of time created some doubt that the sequel would be worth the wait. The first trailers helped erase some of that doubt due to the impressive CGI displayed in Avatar 2 's footage. And while there has been much debate about if the sequel can possibly be a box office success (especially in comparison to the highest-grossing movie ever), questions about whether Avatar: The Way of Water 's story will match the visuals remained.

Following the film's world premiere and the first Avatar 2 reactions surfacing online, the review embargo has now lifted, resulting in some early Avatar: The Way of Water reviews being posted. Here is a SPOILER-FREE round up of what critics are saying about James Cameron's new movie:

Mae Adbulbaki, Screen Rant

Cameron, who co-wrote the script with Rick Jaffa and Amanda Silver, returns to Pandora, offering viewers even more stunning visuals, a personal, more emotional story, and incredible underwater sequences that put every other film’s technical achievements to shame. The Way of Water is overlong and stretched thin on story, but the Avatar sequel is beautiful, with lush world-building and characters that add depth.

Dan Bayer, Next Best Picture

The film represents a decade of behind-the-scenes work: innovations in visual effects technology, digital cinematography, and performance capture, in addition to untold millions of dollars in production costs. Every cent and every second spent on making this film can be seen onscreen. “The Way of Water” is the magic of movies made manifest, a three-hour-plus epic that brings us to a new world and makes it thrillingly tactile in ways that no other film has done before. In other words: James Cameron has done it again.

William Bibbiani, The Wrap

After some pacing issues in the first act and some odd story decisions in the second, the film’s breathtaking climax completely sneaks up on you. You might think the film has a lot more twists and turns to go, since there’s lot of running time left, but Cameron stages the finale of “Avatar: The Way of Water” like an incredible, ever-evolving action sequence where locations, dangers and imminent threats shift dramatically, sometimes on a dime. It’s like watching a tidal wave start miles in the distance as a tiny bump in the ocean. By the time it crests, whatever the film’s many other flaws may be, we are invested, and we are ultimately rewarded with a truly spectacular, awe-inspiring finale.

David Rooney, THR

In terms of narrative sophistication and even more so dialogue, this $350 million sequel is almost as basic as its predecessor, even feeble at times. But the expanded, bio-diverse world-building pulls you in, the visual spectacle keeps you mesmerized, the passion for environmental awareness is stirring and the warfare is as visceral and exciting as any multiplex audience could desire.

Nick De Semlyen, Empire

The result, Avatar: The Way Of Water, is so dazzling to behold that adjectives like “dazzling” seem too anaemic to apply. It’s a leap beyond even what he pulled off with the first film, a phantasmagorical, fully immersive waking dream of a movie in which something impossible is happening on-screen at almost every moment. It’s a lot to process. And a timely reminder of what cinema is capable of when it dares to dream big.

David Ehrlich, IndieWire

An out-of-body theatrical experience that makes its predecessor feel like a glorified proof-of-concept, “Avatar: The Way of Water” is such a staggering improvement over the original because its spectacle doesn’t have to compensate for its story; in vintage Cameron fashion, the movie’s spectacle is what allows its story to be told so well.

Chris Evangelista, Slashfilm

"Avatar" is back in a big way with "Avatar: The Way of Water," Cameron's massive, overstuffed, overlong, exciting, eye-watering sci-fi adventure. It is a spectacle in every sense of the word; an imaginative, gorgeous, action-packed endeavor that thrills us while also having us occasionally checking our watches and wondering how much more is left. It is pure Cameron movie magic; a visual feast with some of the best blockbuster action you're likely to see. It's also a lopsided, meandering film — one starts to get the sense that for once, Cameron isn't all that interested in big action. Don't get me wrong, there is plenty of big action here — the final hour of the three-hour film is essentially one long action sequence. But with "The Way of Water," Cameron is more focused on the beauty and grandeur of Pandora, a place that doesn't even exist.

Leah Greenblatt, EW

The world both above and below the waterline is a thing to behold, a sensory overload of sound and color so richly tactile that it feels psychedelically, almost spiritually sublime. The director, who penned the script with married screenwriting duo Rick Jaffa and Amanda Silver (Jurassic World, Mulan), tends to operate in the grand, muscular mode of Greek myth (or if you're feeling less generous, the black-and-white clarity of comic books). The storytelling here is deliberately broad and the dialogue often tilts toward pure blockbuster camp.

Germain Lussier, io9

Now, Avatar: The Way of Water finally arrives, and guess what? It delivers. While not quite on the same level as Aliens or T2 (at least on a single watch), The Way of Water is a sequel that expands and improves upon the original in almost every way. It’s an enthralling, exhilarating, emotional story of a family in peril, with the most advanced digital effects in the history of cinema. Is it a little bit overindulgent? Maybe too drawn out at times? Sure. But the scope, ambition, and heart of the film more than make up for any of its flaws.

Ross Bonaime, Collider

The Way of Water is one of the most breathtaking moviegoing experiences of 2022, a master learning from the mistakes of the previous film, and making a spectacle unlike we ever see at the movies anymore. Simply put, we should’ve never bet against Cameron.

Related: Avatar 2 Is Establishing A James Cameron Sequel Trend

What Avatar 2's Reviews Tell Us About The Movie

It is no surprise that the visuals of Avatar: The Way of Water is the talk of the film from this first wave of reviews. One of the reasons James Cameron took 13 years to make the sequel is that he was developing new technology to properly capture the water-heavy story. This was necessary as a key part of Avatar: The Way of Water 's story takes place with a clan of Na'vi who live underwater. It was only after Cameron was confident that technology would be able to make the water and VFX believably blend together. All reactions to the movie have left no doubt that Avatar 2 's CGI visuals will impress any viewer.

While there are some mixed results from Avatar: The Way of Water 's script and characters, it does sound like James Cameron sticks the landing ultimately with a thrilling third act. The film's marketing has teased portions of the action-packed finale by showing the Na'vi going to war with the RDA in a fiery water setting. Of course, how much investment audiences have in the characters' journeys at this point will play a significant role in whether the action-packed ending also delivers on an emotional level. That could depend not only on one's enjoyment of Avatar 2 's first two acts, but also how viewers feel about the original movie.

Furthermore, it is no surprise that Avatar: The Way of Water 's three-hour-plus runtime is one of the movie's biggest pitfalls. It sounds like Cameron takes his time reintroducing viewers to Pandora and the key conflict. The action-heavy ending might help audiences leave on a high note, but those already skeptical about the story demanding Avatar 2 's long runtime could be more turned off by the film's slow pacing early on. Ultimately, it is up to each individual to make their opinions on the movie regardless of what the Avatar: The Way of Water reviews say.

More: Avatar 2 Is Already Fixing 3 Big Problems From 2009

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Avatar: the way of water.

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Avatar: The Way of Water

Jake Sully lives with his newfound family formed on the extrasolar moon Pandora. Once a familiar threat returns to finish what was previously started, Jake must work with Neytiri and the arm... Read all Jake Sully lives with his newfound family formed on the extrasolar moon Pandora. Once a familiar threat returns to finish what was previously started, Jake must work with Neytiri and the army of the Na'vi race to protect their home. Jake Sully lives with his newfound family formed on the extrasolar moon Pandora. Once a familiar threat returns to finish what was previously started, Jake must work with Neytiri and the army of the Na'vi race to protect their home.

• James Cameron
• Amanda Silver
• Sam Worthington
• Zoe Saldana
• Sigourney Weaver
• 3.3K User reviews
• 386 Critic reviews
• 67 Metascore
• 75 wins & 150 nominations total

• (as Zoe Saldaña)

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• Trivia According to James Cameron , Kate Winslet performed all of her underwater stunts herself.
• Goofs During the fight when Jack and Neytiri rescued their children, they kill 4 soldiers from a party of 6. Yet at the extraction scene, all 6 soldiers are present.

Tsireya : [to Lo'ak] The way of water has no beginning and no end. Our hearts beat in the womb of the world. The sea is your home, before your birth and after your death. The sea gives and the sea takes. Water connects all things: life to death, darkness to light.

• Crazy credits The first half of the end credits highlight Pandoran sea creatures.
• Alternate versions Like its predecessor, which is present 1.78 : 1 aspect ratio, this film presents 1.85:1 aspect ratio for home video releases, although there can be no widescreen versions of this film as James Cameron intended to watch the full format.
• Connections Featured in AniMat's Crazy Cartoon Cast: Watching the Weird Way of Water (2022)
• Soundtracks Nothing Is Lost (You Give Me Strength) Performed by The Weeknd Lyrics and Melody by The Weeknd (as Abel "The Weekend" Tesfaye) Music by Simon Franglen and Swedish House Mafia Produced by Simon Franglen and Swedish House Mafia The Weeknd Performs Courtesy of XO/Republic Records

User reviews 3.3K

• Dec 14, 2022
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• December 16, 2022 (United States)
• United States
• Official Site
• Stone Street Studios, Wellington, New Zealand
• 20th Century Studios
• TSG Entertainment
• Lightstorm Entertainment
• See more company credits at IMDbPro
• $350,000,000 (estimated)
• $684,075,767
• $134,100,226
• Dec 18, 2022
• $2,320,250,281

Technical specs

• Runtime 3 hours 12 minutes
• Dolby Atmos
• IMAX 6-Track
• Dolby Surround 7.1

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Avatar 2 Reviews: Critics Share Strong Reactions to Sequel

Critics have shared their strong first reactions after attending the world premiere of James Cameron's Avatar: The Way of Water . 

The upcoming Avatar 2 has been a long time coming. Director James Cameron has been vocal that he needed technology to catch up to his vision for the sequel, and now the time has finally come to see the results of that work.

Fans will soon get the chance to return to Pandora for the first time since 2009, as Cameron debuts to the world this next installment in his "generational family saga."

Now with The Way of Water only mere days away from global release, critics have offered their first reactions to Cameron's latest sci-fi epic. 

Avatar 2 First Reactions Make Their Way Online

Following the world premiere of Avatar: The Way of Water , in London, England, critics shared strong first reactions to James Cameron's Avatar: The Way of Water . 

Comicbook.com's Brandon Davis called the film both "fulfilling and indulgent," noting that overall he "liked it:"

"'Avatar: The Way of Water', being more than 3 hours long, is both fulfilling and indulgent. It still ends wanting you to know a third is coming. Constantly a visual feast, creative plays with frame rate, and never boring despite. Overall, I liked it."

Davis followed his initial thoughts up by saying "It’s a better, more complex story than the first:"

"'Avatar: The Way of Water' is a never-ending visual spectacle. It’s a better, more complex story than the first with solid emotion but the characters could grow a bit more. It’s definitely long, running on incredible visuals & techniques which are 3D’s best."

Writer Jesse Hawken joked that The Way of Water "bears more than a passing resemblance" to the original film, riffing off the widespread complaints of Avatar being a carbon copy of movies like Pocahontas and Dances with Wolves :  

"I don’t know who needs to hear this, but 'Avatar: The Way of Water' bears more than a passing resemblance to a movie from 2009 called 'Avatar'"

What's on Disney Plus called James Cameron's latest "the most beautiful film [they've] ever seen" and "Easily [their] favorite film of the year:"

"Avatar: The Way of Water is the most beautiful film I've ever seen. It is an experience that needs to be seen on the big screen & in 3D. I absolutely loved it & I can't wait to watch it again. It's a masterpiece in terms of technical wizardry.  Easily my favourite film of the year."

Collider's Perri Nemiroff praised the film for its "mind-blowing" visuals, pointing out how the effects "always feel in service of character & world-building:"

"Avatar: The Way of Water is pretty incredible. I had faith James Cameron would raise the bar w/ the effects but these visuals are mind-blowing. One stunning frame after the next. But the thing I dug most is how the technical feats always feel in service of character & world-building."

On the story, Nemiroff labeled the movie an "effective exploration of community & family dynamics," praising "Britain Dalton as Lo'ak:"

"As for the story, it's A LOT of movie & I'm eager for a 2nd viewing to revisit some details, but on 1st watch, it's a mighty effective exploration of community & family dynamics. Returning cast is great, but the newcomers are major standouts, particularly Britain Dalton as Lo'ak."

He closed his thoughts out by saying , "yes, this did make me want to see more #Avatar movies:"

"And yes, this did make me want to see more Avatar movies. I would also like a whole lot more of Cliff Curtis' Tonowari in those movies, please."

Nikki Novak from Fandango, remarked that she has "never experienced anything like it," commenting it is "easily " better than the first film:

"I saw you Avatar: The Way of Water - if you think you've seen #Avatar think again. Only repeat from the OG is that 'never experienced anything like it' awe. Better than 1st? Easily. The 3D water world & creatures are so surreal it is downright moving. There's a major Titanic homage."

"Visual masterpiece" was a superlative thrown around by DigitalSpy Movies Editor Ian Sandwell , calling out the "thin story" that James Cameron pulls together for "an extraordinary final act:"

"Unsurprisingly, Avatar: The Way of Water is a visual masterpiece with rich use of 3D and breathtaking vistas. It does suffer from a thin story and too many characters to juggle, yet James Cameron pulls it together for an extraordinary final act full of emotion and thrilling action."

According to Cinemablend's Sean O'Connell , the Avatar sequel "surpasses the original," also calling out the final hour of the film, writing the third act is "Cameron flexing every muscle:"

"Never bet against James Cameron. His Avatar: The Way of Water surpasses the original on every level. Incredible visuals, but a much more emotional connection to the characters and story. The final hour is Cameron flexing every muscle, reminding blockbuster filmmakers how it’s done."

Josh Horowitz from MTV News was similarly positive, Tweeting that " Avatar: The Way of Water is how you do epic blockbuster-ing:"

"James Cameron once again shows filmmakers how it’s done. I’ve said it a thousand times. Never doubt him. AVATAR: THE WAY OF WATER is how you do epic blockbuster-ing. Emotional, visceral, and as big as movies get."

Fox's Amanda Salas , shared in the excitement, opining that the film is a "cinematic masterpiece:"

Feliz NA’VIdad indeed! Avatar: The Way of Water is a cinematic masterpiece! I enjoyed it even more than the first one! It conquers stunning visuals on-screen & taps into the heart reminding us of what truly matters in life. Family, home, nature & survival. My top film of the year!"

Writer Tom Beasley said he was "blown away" by The Way of Water :

"I was blown away by the sheer scale of Avatar: The Way of Water, which fulfils every mad promise its creators have made about cinematic innovation. Underwater stuff, especially, is mind-blowing. But it's also huge, epic filmmaking of the kind that has become Cameron's trademark."

Beasley noted that despite being an "Avatar skeptic," he was "thoroughly won over:"

"So you get all of the visual splendour, but it's also big-hearted, resonant on the subject of family and staunchly environmentalist. This Avatar sceptic was thoroughly won over."

So How Good Is Avatar 2 Really?

Right now, it seems like the cool thing to do is to laud Avatar , its sequels, and James Cameron as a filmmaker. However, it seems the Canadian director may have struck gold again with The Way of Water . 

These first reactions are glowing nearly across the board. The film's visuals in particular are a point of emphasis seen in almost every initial review. 

But this movie was always going to be beautiful. That has been evident in every second of the movie shown so far . Cameron has made a career of pushing the very visual boundaries of the medium. What is encouraging to hear is that the film's story works as well.

The word "thin" was used a couple of times in relation to the sequel's story, but never is it called outright bad, boring, or derivative. And most that complained about the narrative made it a point to mention the "emotional" and "extraordinary" final act found in the film. 

Narrative depth has never been Cameron's strong suit. With a few exceptions, he has been a blockbuster filmmaker who has thrived on spectacle. This eye-candy approach has yielded stunning results though, as Cameron looks to have crafted yet another hit with Avatar 2 . 

Avatar: The Way of Water hits theaters on December 16.  

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Avatar: The Way of Water

December 16, 2022

Action-Adventure, Fantasy, Science Fiction

"Avatar: The Way of Water" reaches new heights and explores undiscovered depths as James Cameron returns to the world of Pandora in this emotionally packed action adventure. Set more than a decade after the events of the first film, "Avatar: The Way of Water" launches the story of the Sully family (Jake, Neytiri, and their kids), the trouble that follows them, the lengths they go to keep each other safe, the battles they fight to stay alive, and the tragedies they endure. All of this against the breathtaking backdrop of Pandora, where audiences are introduced to new Na’vi cultures and a range of exotic sea creatures that populate the majestic oceans. Nominated for numerous Academy Awards® including Best Picture, the James Cameron-directed film became the third highest-grossing box office film of all-time and set a new benchmark for visual effects. Produced by Cameron and his longtime partner Jon Landau, the Lightstorm Entertainment production stars Sam Worthington, Zoe Saldaña, Sigourney Weaver, Stephen Lang, Cliff Curtis and Kate Winslet. Joining the illustrious adult cast are talented newcomers Britain Dalton, Jamie Flatters, Trinity Jo-Li Bliss, Bailey Bass and Jack Champion.

Rated: PG-13 Runtime: 3h 12min Release Date: December 16, 2022

Directed By

Produced by.

• Nominee - 2023 Academy Award® for Best Picture
• Nominee - 2023 Academy Award® for Production Design
• Nominee - 2023 Academy Award® for Sound
• Winner - 2023 Academy Award® for Visual Effects

• motionpictures.org
• filmratings.com

Avatar: The Way of Water Cast and Characters

General Frances Ardmore

Dr. Ian Garvin

Mick Scoresby

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Movie Image Gallery

(L-R): Jake Sully (Sam Worthington) and Neteyam (Jamie Flatters) in 20th Century Studios' AVATAR: THE WAY OF WATER. Photo courtesy of 20th Century Studios. © 2022 20th Century Studios. All Rights Reserved.

(L-R): Jake Sully (Sam Worthington), Ronal (Kate Winslet), and Tonowari (Cliff Curtis) in 20th Century Studios' AVATAR: THE WAY OF WATER. Photo courtesy of 20th Century Studios. © 2022 20th Century Studios. All Rights Reserved.

(L-R): Neytiri (Zoe Saldana) and Jake Sully (Sam Worthington) in 20th Century Studios' AVATAR: THE WAY OF WATER. Photo courtesy of 20th Century Studios. © 2022 20th Century Studios. All Rights Reserved.

Neytiri (Zoe Saldana) in 20th Century Studios' AVATAR: THE WAY OF WATER. Photo courtesy of 20th Century Studios. © 2022 20th Century Studios. All Rights Reserved. 

Quaritch (Stephen Lang) in 20th Century Studios' AVATAR: THE WAY OF WATER. Photo courtesy of 20th Century Studios. © 2022 20th Century Studios. All Rights Reserved.

(L-R): Kiri, Neytiri, Neteyam, Lo'ak, Tuk, and Jake Sully in 20th Century Studios' AVATAR: THE WAY OF WATER. Photo courtesy of 20th Century Studios. © 2022 20th Century Studios. All Rights Reserved.

(L-R): Lo’ak (Britain Dalton) and a Tulkun in 20th Century Studios' AVATAR: THE WAY OF WATER. Photo courtesy of 20th Century Studios. © 2022 20th Century Studios. All Rights Reserved.

(L-R): Kiri/ Sigourney Weaver as Dr. Grace Augustine in 20th Century Studios' AVATAR: THE WAY OF WATER. Photo courtesy of 20th Century Studios. © 2022 20th Century Studios. All Rights Reserved.

(L-R): Ronal (Kate Winslet), Tonowari (Cliff Curtis), and the Metkayina clan in 20th Century Studios' AVATAR: THE WAY OF WATER. Photo courtesy of 20th Century Studios. © 2022 20th Century Studios. All Rights Reserved.

(L-R): Lo’ak (Britain Dalton) and Kiri (Sigourney Weaver) in 20th Century Studios' AVATAR: THE WAY OF WATER. Photo courtesy of 20th Century Studios. © 2022 20th Century Studios. All Rights Reserved.

(L-R): Jack Champion as Spider and Kiri (Sigourney Weaver) in 20th Century Studios' AVATAR: THE WAY OF WATER. Photo courtesy of 20th Century Studios. © 2022 20th Century Studios. All Rights Reserved.

Ronal (Kate Winslet) in 20th Century Studios'  AVATAR: THE WAY OF WATER.  Photo courtesy of 20th Century Studios. © 2022 20th Century Studios. All Rights Reserved.

Jake Sully (Sam Worthington) in 20th Century Studios' AVATAR: THE WAY OF WATER. Photo courtesy of 20th Century Studios. ©2022 20th Century Studios. All Rights Reserved.

Jake Sully (Sam Worthington) in 20th Century Studios' AVATAR: THE WAY OF WATER. Photo courtesy of 20th Century Studios. © 2022 20th Century Studios. All Rights Reserved.

Neytiri (Zoe Saldana) in 20th Century Studios' AVATAR: THE WAY OF WATER. Photo courtesy of 20th Century Studios. © 2022 20th Century Studios. All Rights Reserved.

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Avatar: The Way of Water review – a soggy, twee, trillion-dollar screensaver

Thirteen years in the making, James Cameron’s insipid, overlong followup to his sci-fi record-breaker is a very expensive beached whale

D renching us with a disappointment that can hardly be admitted out loud, James Cameron’s soggy new digitised film has beached like a massive, pointless whale. The story, which might fill a 30-minute cartoon, is stretched as if by some AI program into a three-hour movie of epic tweeness.

The first Avatar was a pioneering 3D sci-fi spectacular which Cameron delivered in 2009. Now, after 13 years of unimaginably expensive pixel-crunching, the aquatic followup has arrived, with a third and a fourth on the way. This one is available in 3D and 2D, and so at any rate keeping loyal to that three-dimensional vision that Cameron almost single-handedly revived but which the rest of the industry has quietly forgotten about. Yet the whole idea of the “avatar” from the first movie – the artificially created body that can be remotely piloted into an unknown world and which crucially formed a dramatic part of the audience’s 3D experience – has been left behind.

The effects now, technically impressive as they are, amount to high frame-rate motion smoothness which is soulless and inert, creating not so much an uncanny valley but an uncanny Mariana Trench down in the depths. Cameron’s undersea world is like a trillion-dollar screensaver. Where is the oceanic passion and jeopardy of great Cameron movies such as Titanic or The Abyss?

The situation is that ex-human Jake Sully (Sam Worthington) is committed to the Na’vi body he assumed when insinuating himself among the blue-bodied, pointy-eared tribe as part of the “avatar” strategy in the first film, before falling in love with dynamic warrior Neytiri (Zoe Saldaña) and siding with her people against the humans who would exploit the Na’vi’s mineral resources. Now, some years later, Sully and Neytiri are living happily with their children and their stepdaughter Kiri – whose connection with the original film soon becomes apparent – and also a semi-feral human kid called Spider.

But just when they thought they were happy, the “sky people” of planet Earth reappear and there is an admittedly ingenious twist concerning the gung-ho marine colonel Miles Quaritch, memorably played by Stephen Lang. Sully’s family have to leave their rainforest habitat and hide away among the far-off Metkayina, an amphibious reef people led by Ronal (Kate Winslet) and Tonowari (Cliff Curtis). There they must learn the mystical Metkayina art of existing for long periods underwater. Sully’s children and Tonowari’s children, at first spiky and rivalrous, become as close as cousins. But this new Eden can’t last forever either.

The submarine world of this film is, in its way, its chief character and its whole point. The move from land- to sea-based existence is the way a new film was created. But the sea world is imagined with a lot of cliche. Frankly, there isn’t a single interesting visual image and the whole thing has the non-briny smell of a MacBook Pro. Finding Nemo was more vivid.

And what do we find aside from the high-tech visual superstructure? The floatingly bland plot is like a children’s story without the humour; a YA story without the emotional wound; an action thriller without the hard edge of real excitement.

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Avatar: The Way of Water Parent Guide

The bloated and predictable script isn't up to the high standard of the movie's stunning digital effects..

Theaters: A decade after joining the Na'vi, Jake Sully, along with Neytiri and their children, must protect their home from an outside threat once again.

Release date December 16, 2022

Run Time: 192 minutes

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The guide to our grades, parent movie review by keith hawkes.

Although Avatar saw Jake Sully (Sam Worthington) band together with the Na’vi and drive the rapacious Resource Development Administration (RDA) from the planet of Pandora, the fight isn’t over. In the ten years since the decisive battle, Jake and his mate, Neytiri (Zoe Saldana) settled down and had children – just in time for the RDA to come back in force.

Led by a cloned avatar of Colonel Miles Quatrich (Stephen Lang), who is hungry to avenge the death of his original human body, the RDA quickly sets about mass-scale colonization of Pandora. But first, they want Jake brought to justice. Since the occupation, he’s been leading violent raids against supply lines, outposts, and military equipment to prevent the RDA from destroying his home. The corporation is keeping their eye on him though, and soon find his operational base. Jake and Neytiri are forced to flee the jungle if they want to protect their family and those they love.

Hard as it might be to believe, there is not a typo in the runtime. This movie really is an absolutely horrifying three hours and twelve minutes long. I think that might be longer than the last British Prime Minister was in office. It’s far, far longer than this blandly simple story really merits, and I would be the first in line to berate James Cameron if storytelling were at all the point of the film. But it’s not. Mr. Cameron has been very defensive about the runtime, complaining about audience attention spans even before the movie released. Perhaps instead of whinging about it, he could have put a bit more effort into writing a story worthy of its visuals.

This is, at its heart, a 3-hour sizzle reel for Weta Digital. And it’s a doozy. The performance capture is remarkable, but that’s not really the point either. The point of Avatar: The Way of Water is the breathtaking water effects. Remember back when Finding Nemo came out, and everyone was losing their collective minds over the realism of the water effects? This is that turned up to eleven. The aquatic effects are so impressive I forgot how much of the film was a digital creation. That is, until Cameron’s storytelling flaws destroyed the illusion. For instance, immersion in the film’s world snaps when a nine 9-foot tall blue character attaches their brainstem (via their tail) to a sentient fish, which is apparently how you ride them. Let me say here that if I had to attach my cerebellum to a car to drive to work, I’d rather walk.

So no, this Avatar sequel doesn’t redefine the fine art of cinematic storytelling. It is, on the other hand, stunning to watch. I expect it’s even prettier in 3D, which I avoid because it’s hard enough to take notes in a dark theater without wearing the little sunglasses they’re using these days.

Avatar: The Way of Water is a poor choice for younger children, due both to the patently unjustifiable runtime and frightening violence, as well as a smattering of profanity. Teens, on the other hand, will probably have a blast with the rambunctious action and large-scale destruction. I remember being blown away by the original when I was in high school: I expect this film will provide the same thrills for the teenagers of today.

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Keith hawkes, watch the trailer for avatar: the way of water.

Avatar: The Way of Water Rating & Content Info

Why is Avatar: The Way of Water rated PG-13? Avatar: The Way of Water is rated PG-13 by the MPAA for sequences of strong violence and intense action, partial nudity and some strong language

Violence: People are frequently blown up, crushed, shot, and stabbed. Weapons used include guns, knives, spears, and bows and arrows.  There are scenes of bloody wounds. Several people are burned. Animals are injured and killed. Children are hurt and threatened. A man’s arm is torn off. Characters are chased by monsters. Sexual Content: A woman is seen partially nude during childbirth. All characters’ clothing is essentially limited to loincloths and conveniently sticky necklaces. Breasts and buttocks are frequently visible in non-sexual contexts. Profanity: There are twelve scatological curses, one sexual expletive, and occasional uses of mild curses and terms of deity. Alcohol / Drug Use: None.

Page last updated January 22, 2024

Avatar: The Way of Water Parents' Guide

How does this story reference real-world history? Do you see any correlations to issues such as colonization, whaling, and the extermination of the buffalo? What point do you think James Cameron is trying to make with his film?

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The original film, Avatar , is essentially Pocahontas in space, but manages to tell it in a (comparatively) brief 162 minutes.

James Cameron also directed Sigourney Weaver in sci-fi/horror/action classic Aliens .

Another epic science fiction option is the modern Planet of the Apes series (which includes Rise of the Planet of the Apes , Dawn of the Planet of the Apes , and War for the Planet of the Apes ), which were also made by Weta Digital and are spectacular. Weta Digital got their big break making pioneering effects for the Lord of the Rings trilogy, which actually manage to justify a 3-hour-plus runtime.

Fans may also be impressed by spectacle films like Dune , Pacific Rim , Godzilla: King of the Monsters , Oblivion , and Rogue One: A Star Wars Story . Weta Digital got their big break making pioneering effects for the Lord of the Rings trilogy, which actually manage to justify a 3-hour-plus runtime.

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I Saw 'Avatar 2: The Way Of Water' & Here's My Honest Take On Whether You Should Too

Is this one worth your time?

Jack Champion as Spider in Avatar 2. Right: Sigourney Weaver as Kiri in Avatar 2

This Opinion article is part of a Narcity content series. The views expressed are the author's own and do not necessarily reflect the views of Narcity Media.

It took James Cameron 13 years and a Titanic boatload of money to make his new Avatar sequel, The Way Of Water . And while you can see that time and effort in the visuals on screen, the story threatens to sink the whole thing.

Avatar 2 is gorgeous to look at, occasionally boring to watch, self-serious throughout and a jumble in terms of the storytelling. But if you're showing up for the spectacle, you will not be disappointed -- especially if you see it on the biggest screen possible.

Cameron has done some dazzling stuff with the motion-capture Na'vi and the underwater creatures he's created, and there's plenty of joy to be found in just watching his fish float around underwater. He's also delivered a movie that looks completely real, even though 90% of the characters and much of the scenery is CGI.

However, I found myself thinking "alright, I get it" during a fish scene at the 1:20 mark, with nearly 2 hours remaining in the film. I also chuckled a few times at the hissing Na'vi, though I can't say for sure if there were any actual jokes in the movie.

Avatar 2 picks up 15 years after the last film, as our Na'vi heroes Jake Sully (Sam Worthington) and Neytiri (Zoe Saldana) have now assembled a whole brood of children on Pandora, including three of their own and two they've adopted.The Sullys are being hunted by a squad of human-turned avatars led by the revived Colonel Quaritch, so they run off to the sea and shack up with an aquatic tribe of Na'vi.

This new tribe teaches the family the way of water and then things get messy and go boom, as they so often do.

The 3-hour, 12-minute film starts and ends with a focus on family, although a "save the whales" quest sidetracks the whole thing. The humans in the movie are also completely terrible, and this time they're obsessed with gobbling up a resource called Amrita.

And no, Amrita is not an Indian woman in this case; it's a special goo.

The action is fun and the climax of the movie is certainly dramatic, especially since it gives Zoe Saldana a chance to shine. However, she doesn't get enough opportunities to be awesome in this movie, and Sam Worthington remains a bit of a dud as Jake. Kate Winslet is also lost under her CGI as Ronal of the water tribe.

However, it's the younger characters who really take the spotlight in this one, even if one of them is played by 73-year-old Sigourney Weaver in a motion-capture performance.

Weaver plays Kiri, the superpowered teen daughter of the scientist that Weaver played in the first movie. Kiri is one of the more compelling kids in the bunch and Weaver does a fantastic job playing young, but she repeatedly gets sidelined for other stuff throughout the film. It's pretty clear she's being set up for one of the sequels, although I would've preferred to see that now.

Weaver is joined by Jamie Flatters, Britain Dalton, Trinity Jo-Li Bliss and Bailey Bass as the charming younger generation of Na'vi, and it seems like we're be seeing a lot more of them in future Avatar films.

However, A vatar 2 drops the ball when it comes to Spider (Jack Champion), the Sullys' adopted human son who looks like he's on his way to Burning Man. He's got dreadlocks, a loincloth, daddy issues and a distinct Tarzan vibe, although his Na'vi family won't be singing You'll Be In My Heart anytime soon. Instead, they really don't seem to care what happens to him, even though he actually gets a rough ride in this movie.

I could keep picking the story apart, but that's not why you go to an Avatar movie. You go for the spectacle, and this movie absolutely delivers on that.

So should you see it in a theatre? Absolutely, if only because you won't get the same experience at home. It looks incredible, and the big-screen experience is a huge part of the appeal.

Also, here's a pro tip: you need to take a bathroom break, you can go right at the 1-hour and 2-hour marks and you won't miss a beat.

Avatar: The Way Of Water opens exclusively in theatres on December 16.

• 'Avatar 2: The Way Of Water' Is Finally Here & Here's What To Expect From James Cameron ›
• Morning Brief: Pierre Poilievre & An Honest Avatar 2 Review - Narcity ›
• The Teen Stars Of 'Avatar 2' Were Shocked To See Themselves As Na'vi & 'Every Tear Is Ours' - Narcity ›
• Sigourney Weaver Plays A Teen In 'Avatar 2' & Her On-Screen Fam Says She's 'Amazing' At It - Narcity ›
• The 'Avatar 2' Cast Shared Tips For Holding Your Breath & One Star Did It For 7 Minutes - Narcity ›

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Avatar: The Way of Water trailer review – First look at long-awaited sequel feels like a glorified tech demo

Over a decade in the making, james cameron’s follow-up to the highest-grossing film of all time certain to inspire awe – but the first footage refuses to give anything substantial away, article bookmarked.

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Back in 2010, you’d have been laughed out of Hollywood for doubting a sequel to Avatar . James Cameron ’s fantasy epic had taken the world by storm; to this day, it remains the highest-grossing movie of all time. When Avatar 2 was then announced, touted for 2014, it seemed like a nailed-on winner. But 12 years and countless delays later, no one is quite so sure. There have been countless takes about Avatar ’s faded relevance: that it has no cultural shelf life; that the public has lost interest. The 3D cinema experience that Avatar made so uniquely appealing has pretty much died out entirely. The forthcoming sequel has become a punchline . But that won’t stop Cameron laughing all the way to the bank.

You see, rumours of Avatar ’s cultural obsolescence are overstated. It pretty axiomatically lacks the resonance of a Star Wars or Lord of the Rings , yes, but we’re still talking about a sequel to a film that nearly everyone has seen. The years of delays may have killed the franchise’s momentum, but it’s varnished the sequel with a level of complete intrigue. Intensifying this is the fact that, until now, no one has been allowed to see a frame of what is now officially called Avatar: The Way of Water . Beginning last week, the very first trailer for Way of Water was available to catch in cinemas before screenings of Marvel’s Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness , ahead of its more conventional online debut today (9 May).

There’s only so much one can glean from the trailer, which eschews the kind of Easter egg-heavy approach favoured by your modern franchise blockbuster. Those online fanatics who like to pore over every frame of a trailer may be left disappointed; the thrill here is in the macro. Underscored by slow, portentous organ music the footage can only be described as lush . There are huge, verdant backdrops and blue Na’vi faces animated with unprecedented detail. There is a greater variety of environments here than in the original Avatar – from the jungles of Pandora, to dense, industrialised areas, to wide open water. (As the title suggests, this is a film that seems to centre around the planet’s bodies of water, though little about the plot is disclosed here.)

The downside of this approach is that it feels rather too much like a tech demo, or the trailer for a long-gestating video-game sequel. We are left admiring the strides that have been made in CGI animation in the past 12 years – won’t you look at the sheen on that water? – but emerge with little sense of plot or a substantive “hook”. Compounding this problem is the fact that so many of the blue Na’vi faces look all too similar: it is hard to pick out new cast member Kate Winslet, though others have spotted flashes of her here.

I doubt that this trailer is going to be what convinces Avatar ’s doubters. It seems to promise awe over excitement, sumptuousness over story. But let’s be clear: at this point, The Way of Water is still holding its cards tight to its chest. For all we know, it’s holding a royal flush.

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Avatar: The Way of Water

Reviewed by: Charity Bishop CONTRIBUTOR

Importance of family / Family relationships and dynamics

Pantheism-like spirituality plays a strong part in this film / Worshipping the creation and the supposed “Great Mother” (Eywa, akin to the Gaia of some evironmentalists) instead of the Creator , Yahweh

Message that indigenous tribal people are far superior in spirituality and wisdom about the natural world

Politically correct environmentalism

Hollywood’s continuing push of climate crisis dramas and emotionally charged colonization propaganda

Marines cast as evil

Planet-destroying humans cast as the universe’s truest villains

Message that people need to put aside their differences and unite to save their world

WATER: A miracle of God’s Creation

Underwater life on a fictional alien planet with both jungle and sea

Making tough decisions (fight or flight for family)

Accepting people for their differences

FILM VIOLENCE —How does viewing violence in movies affect families? Answer

Prequel: “ Avatar ” (2009)

J ames Cameron proves once again he’s the king of cinema with his sequel to “ Avatar ,” a sumptuous visual masterpiece centered around the theme of fatherhood.

Set a dozen years after the original film, Jake ( Sam Worthington ) has become a father of four children—including his adopted daughter, Kiri ( Sigourney Weaver ), born from his friend Grace’s avatar after her death, and a human boy, Spider (J ack Champion ). He and Neytiri ( Zoe Saldana ) lead the Na’vi people, after successfully forcing the “sky people” (humans) to abandon Pandora. But now the sky people have returned, among them his old enemy, Quartich ( Stephen Lang ). Even though Jake fought and defeated him, before the final battle, Quartich uploaded his consciousness and his memories to a computer so he could be reborn in an Avatar’s body. Quartich does not remember being killed, but he does recall the trouble Jake caused him, and intends to “settle the score, once and for all.”

Earth is dying and humans need a new planet to colonize, so they send an advance wave of humans, including Quartich and his marines, to pave the way on the planet. After Quartich gets his hands on Spider, fearing the boy will reveal everything he knows about Jake and their home, Jake takes his family and abandons their home in the mountains to live among the coastal tribes. There, he tries to forge a new life while facing the difficulties of fatherhood. This new life will challenge each of them, and reveal their hidden talents, but they cannot remain hidden forever…

Over the last few years, there’s been an assault on men. Our society has gravitated away from traditional gender roles, leaving many young men uncertain of their purpose. But “Avatar: The Way of Water” celebrates men as the protectors of society. Jake tells us twice that protecting their family gives men a purpose, and we see him doing just that. He tries to find a balance between making sure his boys make the right decisions and being a warm and supportive parent. When the boys get out of line, he gives them a stern talking-to; when they start fights, he has them apologize (but also takes pride in the fact that the only reason they fought was to defend their sister); he is hard on them, because he loves them so much, and he sets them a good example of protecting those weaker than themselves.

Family is the core theme of the film, as each character grapples with their place in it and their responsibility to others. Jake reminds his oldest son repeatedly of his need to protect the younger ones. He chastises his second-eldest for endangering his siblings. Spider also fears “I might be like my father” (to which Kiri tells him he is not, he is his own person). Then there’s Kiri, and her search for belonging and meaning, which will resonate with children given up for adoption . She wonders why she was born, and feels different from the other children, but it’s touching to see her adopted family surround, support, and love her.

Adoption and orphans in the Bible

These characters make mistakes and reveal their own prejudices (Neytiri has an obvious preference for her own kids over Spider due to his human appearance), but ultimately choose to make the right decisions to protect their loved ones. In a way, the film is a love letter to fatherhood, full of messages young men need to hear, but it also has strong, courageous, and loving women on display.

Content-wise, if you saw the first film, you know what to expect here; the Na’vi wear almost nothing (the camera catches a brief glimpse of a nipple on an Avatar early on). There is discussion over Kiri’s parentage, as her brothers wonder which person “knocked up” Grace (it’s never made clear whether she has a human/Avatar father, or had an immaculate conception).

There’s some bad language scattered throughout (mostly sh*t, but Jesus’ name is abused once, and there’s one f-word). A Na’vi boy flips off a marine.

The violence is extreme but not bloody; the Na’vi kill a lot of humans (Neytiri shoots them with her signature arrows; Jake and others blow up their helicopters, crash their boats, stab them, and hit them). Quartich threatens Jake’s children multiple times, once threatening to cut Kiri’s throat. He shoots a sea creature to teach a lesson to a native tribe. The last thirty minutes is nonstop action, peril, and violence, as Jake and Quartich square off and beat each other mercilessly, Neytiri kills all the humans she finds, a whale smashes into a ship, and some of the Na’vi (including a character we have grown to know and love) die, along with their sea creatures.

One of the more excruciating scenes is of a whaler ship taking out one of Pandora’s whales—separating a mother and calf from the herd, driving harpoons into her chest, and killing them both, before they drill into her brain to extract a precious fluid that “stops human aging” (at $80 million dollars a vial). It’s painful to watch in its cruelty, and it may disturb children or animal lovers (as it did me).

James Cameron has made no secret of his environmentalist agenda, but this film doesn’t feel like propaganda as much as a celebration of marine life, even if it’s on another planet. It’s intended to make us treasure the ocean and its creatures, a role I believe fits us as Guardians of the Earth (God placed us here to be compassionate stewards).

Cameron’s religious beliefs are less obvious, but this film has a pantheist worldview. The Na’vi believe in a Great Mother spirit that connects all things and allows them to share and see memories through her sacred places. They pray to her, sing to her, and have a deep connection to all life, including being able to communicate with whales. The queen of the sea tribe calls one whale her “soul sister.” Kiri has a deeper connection than any other character to the “Great Mother,” and can use her creatures as a weapon.

For they exchanged the truth of God for a lie, and worshiped and served the creature rather than the Creator… — Romans 1:25 LSB

We see the Na’vi return one who has died to the sea bed, and later, that fallen Na’vi’s loved ones “visit with” this character in the memories of the soul tree. This is an unbiblical view of the afterlife.

What is ETERNAL LIFE ? and what does the Bible say about it?

What is ETERNAL DEATH ?

• Violence: Very Heavy
• Occult: Heavy
• Vulgar/Crude language: Heavy— • F-word (1 or more) • S-words (11) • “Son of a b*tch” (3) • “Ain't this a bitch” • “Perv” (what Kiri calls a guy) • Cr*p (2) • A** (5) • A**hole •  Bugger • “That really sucks” • “Who do you think knocked her up?” • “Tough b*stards”
• Profane language: Moderately Heavy— • Jesus • Hell (9) • “ Bloody H*ll” •  Holy sh*t •  D*mn (3)
• Nudity: Moderately Heavy (lots of skin on display—female and male, Na’vi and human)
• Wokeism: Minor
• Drugs/Alcohol: None

Slang definition: Bugger

Slang definition: bloody.

Learn about DISCERNMENT —wisdom in making personal entertainment decisions

See list of Relevant Issues—questions-and-answers .

PLEASE share your observations and insights to be posted here.

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• DVD & Streaming
• Action/Adventure , Animation , Comedy

Content Caution

In Theaters

• December 22, 2021
• Matthew McConaughey as Buster Moon; Reese Witherspoon as Rosita; Tori Kelly as Meena; Taron Egerton as Johnny; Nick Kroll as Gunter; Scarlett Johansson as Ash; Garten Jennings as Miss Crawly; Bobby Cannavale as Mr. Crystal; Halsey as Porsha Crystal; Chelsea Peretti as Suki; Nick Offerman as Norman; Adam Buxton as Klaus Kickenklober; Eric André as Darius; Letitia Wright as Nooshy; Pharrell Williams as Alfonso; Julia Davis as Linda le Bon; Peter Serafinowicz as Big Daddy; Jennifer Saunders as Nana; Bono as Clay Calloway

Home Release Date

• March 1, 2022
• Garth Jennings

Distributor

• Universal Pictures

Movie Review

It’s been a few years since Buster Moon realized his dream of revamping the theater where he fell in love with the art of performing. But now, Buster has an even bigger dream: Redshore City, where small-town talents become international superstars .

So, he rounds up the old gang—Rosita, Gunter, Johnny, Meena, Ash and Miss Crawly—and heads out to audition for one of Redshore City’s biggest entertainment producers.

Only somehow, Buster’s big dreams still aren’t quite big enough for Mr. Crystal.

Crystal wants something wild and “out of this world.” But more importantly, he wants something that no other show in Redshore has: legendary rockstar Clay Calloway.

Buster assures Crystal he can do it, so Crystal gives him access to everything he needs—choreographers, set builders, musicians.

There’s just one teeny tiny little problem: Buster doesn’t actually know Clay Calloway. And convincing him to come out of his reclusive retirement might be more difficult than Buster guesses.

Positive Elements

When Buster and his friends get to Redshore City, they’re faced with multiple challenges, some of which they must attack on their own and some which require a group effort.

Rosita and Meena learn how to conquer their fears. Johnny learns how to earn respect (and give it in return). Porsha, Mr. Crystal’s daughter, learns about overcoming disappointment. And the entire group realizes that whether someone else thinks they’re “good enough” doesn’t actually matter. If you have passion and a calling for something, keep working at it until you succeed Sing 2 tells us.

As viewers, we also get a sweet, if somewhat sad, lesson about grief. Clay Calloway has been living as a recluse for 15 years since his wife died. And since she inspired all his songs, he hasn’t played or even listened to one since she died. However, Ash encourages Clay, reminding him that his late wife wouldn’t have wanted him to stop playing and stay sad forever. And Clay eventually realizes that the best way to honor her memory is to return to the music that brought them so much joy when she was alive.

Rosita’s husband, who was such a workaholic in the previous film that he didn’t realize how lost and lonely his wife felt, has made a full 180 in this film. He supports his wife’s dreams and helps with the kids so that she can travel to Redshore City. One of Mr. Crystal’s assistants decides to help Moon when Crystal wrongly locks him away. Many of the songs we hear share a message about rising above those who try to bring you down.

Spiritual Elements

Clay’s wife appears next to him as a ghostly apparition in one scene. A girl interprets her own dream to mean that she’ll get a lead role in Buster’s play. Someone says Meena looks like a goddess. A song’s lyrics mention praying. Someone exclaims, “Good heavens!” and “For heaven’s sake!”

Sexual Content

A content issue parents may notice that may fly over kids’ heads involves lyrics to several songs. We hear a snippet of Ricky Martin’s hit “She Bangs,” as well as suggestive heavy breathing on a phone in Prince’s “Let’s Go Crazy.”

Meena tells Buster that she’s uncomfortable having a kissing scene since she’s never even had a boyfriend. Buster reassures her that he’ll find her a good partner, but then picks a narcissistic actor, who actually manages to make Meena feel even worse about the part.

When Mr. Crystal is awakened in the middle of the night, he climbs out of bed, and it’s implied he is naked since his assistant screams and covers his eyes (we see his fur-covered chest and legs). This same assistant later says he loves Mr. Crystal, but it’s unclear if his adoration is worshipful or romantic in context.

Two couples smooch. There are shots of a male animal’s clothed rear end and hips as he poses. Some dance choreography has “sexy” poses. We see a tiger in his underclothes after someone steals his costume. Meena disguises herself as a male janitor to get past security.

Violent Content

Mr. Crystal threatens Moon with violence nearly every time he sees him (sometimes growling to make his point). He breaks and kicks objects in anger. He even throws Moon off of two very high locations (though Buster manages to escape once and is rescued the second time).

Characters are hurt by bike and car crashes, electric fences, paintball guns and wooden sticks. (Some of these are accidental, others are on purpose.) Johnny throws and breaks his skateboard in frustration. Song lyrics talk about death.

Crude or Profane Language

None, but we do hear a few incomplete phrases, such as “what the” and several substitutes, such as “gosh” and “heck.” At one point, someone tells Buster to “go to heck.” There is also quite a bit of name-calling.

Drug and Alcohol Content

Other negative elements.

Mr. Crystal is an awful person. Besides repeatedly threatening Buster, he is rude to everyone , including his own assistants (one of whom has an almost worshipful adoration of Crystal). Even his own daughter isn’t immune from his abusive behavior: He calls her a “talentless loser” when she gets recast in Buster’s show, among other insults. And to make things even worse, when he cancels the show, he blames Moon for the show’s failure. Then, when it suddenly succeeds, he tries to take credit.

Someone flatulates. People lie. A woman speeds in a car. Someone performs in the street without a license to do so. A narcissistic guy repeatedly gets a girl’s name wrong and gets angry at her for interrupting when she corrects him. Someone cheats Ash out of her hard-earned money. Rosita’s piglets cause chaos at a buffet by climbing on the tables, eating all the food and making a mess. A man lets his ego get the better of him.

Sing 2 is, more or less, what you would expect from a sequel like this one. The goal is the same: to get famous . But the stakes are just a bit higher.

Mr. Crystal, as I mentioned before, is awful . He literally tries to kill Buster Moon twice ! But beyond that, parents will find that most of the content we see here is reminiscent of the first film.

To quote Adam Holz’s review of Sing : “Keep dreaming, the movie says. Keep hoping. Never give up, and never give up on your friends. Parents, of course, know that there may be some instances where such starry-eyed counsel is unrealistic. But then again, this is a movie about singing animals, so we probably don’t need to overthink that one.”

As noted above, a few soundtrack selections here might raise an eyebrow for parents familiar with the lyrics. Prince and Ricky Martin are joined by more contemporary artists such as The Weeknd, Billie Eilish and Ariana Grande, all of whom have some pretty problematic songs in their catalogs. That said, there’s a sweet U2 rendition that’ll likely have parents smiling, too.

Elsewhere, there’s also a bit of discomfort surrounding Meena’s romantic scene in the musical. She tells Buster she’s not OK kissing someone on stage, and he sort of dismisses her. Granted, he tries to cast someone he thinks she’ll enjoy laying lips on, but the whole affair made me a bit queasy thinking about how many a young starlet has received her first smooch from a total stranger at the behest of adult directors and producers.

Still another surprising issue, and one that Sing 2 deals with quite poignantly, is the discussion of grief. Clay Calloway’s return from a 15-year hermitage is heartbreaking, perhaps especially for parents or grandparents watching who may have lost their partner of many years. And yet, we also watch as Clay takes his first steps in a long time toward the future instead of being anchored to his hurtful past.

So while Sing 2 still “inspires us to hold onto our dreams” and “doesn’t assault us with a theater-full of age-inappropriate material,” it also carries some emotionally heavier content. Still, as the credits roll, your family will likely be smiling … and probably singing, too.

Emily Tsiao

Emily studied film and writing when she was in college. And when she isn’t being way too competitive while playing board games, she enjoys food, sleep, and geeking out with her husband indulging in their “nerdoms,” which is the collective fan cultures of everything they love, such as Star Wars, Star Trek, Stargate and Lord of the Rings.

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