Avatar: The Way of Water Review: How Many Times Can You Watch James Cameron’s US$350 Million Three-Hour Screensaver?
The film is really pretty to look at. Duh.
Avatar: The Way of Water (PG13)
Starring Sam Worthington, Zoe Saldana, Sigourney Weaver, Stephen Lang
Directed by James Cameron
James Cameron’s sequel to his Big Blue Alien Movie — that not only made 3D great again, but also ushered in an era of unnecessary hack jobs of the converted kind (hello, Clash of the Titans!) — sees white saviour-turned-full-on-Na’vi Jake Sully (Sam Worthington), now married to a Pandora native (Zoe Saldana’s Neytiri) with kids, again defending his adopted homeland against the ‘Sky People’ from Earth (Stephen Lang’s brutal Colonel Quaritch, back from the dead… ish). Instead of the lush jungles, the battleground is now the luminous deep blue seas. (The coastal vistas are perfect for Too Hot to Handle: Space Edition!) Let’s state the obvious: The Way of Water is eye candy, from start to end. So devastatingly gorgeous, and insanely immersive, it overwhelms everything else. The Nat Geo-worthy visuals provide a clothesline on which to hang dysfunctional-family drama tropes, eco-messages, and action sequences that play like a James Cameron’s greatest hits package (including a Titanic rehash). At a reported US$350 million (S$475 mil), this is one pricey screensaver, the kind best appreciated in an IMAX hall. But when a screensaver is three hours long, things can get a little exhausting. And to think that there's three more instalments! Like the first Avatar, one viewing of The Way of Water is enough; but I would gladly revisit parts of it — as a 4DX theme park ride. (3/5 stars)