I've seen a lot of really negative reviews. I've heard that it's basically three hours of very pretty pictures, where at the end everything is pretty much in the same place as when it started.
I think people really wanted to hate on the movie regardless of its quality. Calling it a video game is pretty much an insult to the care people went into it. It's pretty sad that years of hard work can be torn down just by people demeaning it.
I really wanted to love it otherwise I would not have went to it in IMAX 3D on day one. I was merely expressing what it felt like to me, which is watching cutscenes from a video game for over three hours. It is way too long, it does not look dramatically more impressive to me than the original or even myriad video games on the PS5/Xbox Series X these days, and the screenplay was weak. The original worked because it was new, an interesting concept and we actually watched humans interact in a human way for much of the film. In contrast, this movie is mostly watching Na’vi and Avatars interact with over-the-top action that drags on far too long.
It is sad that James Cameron has dedicated such a huge chunk of his fine career to Pocahontas on Pandora, but c’est la vie. He should have done one-and-done with this series. The box office is possibly going to bear that out. And Top Gun: Maverick has proven that an outstanding movie can still garner over $1 billion at the box office, so no cop-out excuses about COVID-19. Unless I am wrong about the limited legs of this compared to the original, Avatar: Way of the Water is just not good enough and never should have been made given how much time and other resources it took to make. Such a shame.
