Avatar 2 is at its best when (almost) nothing is happening

With Avatar 2: The Way of Water, James Cameron took over three hours to continue the story from part 1. The new sci-fi blockbuster is but clocked exactly through the 189 minutes, whereby the second hour in particular stands out. Here the content of the film could be summarized for a long time with just one sentence. Still, that’s when Avatar 2 is at its best. Spoilers follow.

Watch a trailer for Avatar 2 here

Avatar 2 relies on pointing rather than telling, and that’s incredibly enjoyable

After almost the first third of the sequel, Jake (Sam Worthington), Neytiri (Zoe Saldana) and the children have to leave their homeland because they are no longer safe from the villains surrounding Quaritch (Stephen Lang). This is where Avatar 2: The Way of Water finally delivers on its title promise and brings us with the main characters into a new Pandora region that is shaped by life on and under water.

The children there are about familiarizing themselves with the new life, learning how to deal with the water animals and, for example, being able to hold their breath longer under water. Nothing more happens and yet this passage is the gorgeous climax from Cameron’s sequel.

Here the director flexes his technical muscles more radiantly than ever when the underwater world of Avatar 2 joins photorealistic shiny effects opens. Thanks to the 3D expansion, watching it feels like you’re appearing and descending with the characters yourself as Cameron constantly throws the camera into the undulating movements of his blockbuster.

That makes Avatar 2 the radical alternative to the usual blockbuster cinema, which always wants to tell more. For example, over 10 years and 20 films, the MCU has designed a huge universe in which the stories are constantly linked and told.

The second hour of Avatar 2, on the other hand, can be enjoyed as a short film in its own right, all about yourself float in the magnificent imagery of James Cameron to permit. At no other point does the blockbuster radiate the more than 10 years of development as confidently as in this passage, for which the director relies entirely on the power of cinema.

In the middle part comes Avatar 2 storywise almost at a standstill when it comes to presenting the tragic story of the whale-like aquatic animal Payakan of the Tukun species. These are some of the best film scenes in 2022 from a director for whom, fortunately, cinema is still more experience than narrative.

Avatar 2: Is this the best blockbuster of the last 13 years?!

In the current issue of the FILMSTARTS podcast on the screen, moderator Sebastian, editor Pascal and our guest David Hain talk about Avatar 2: The Way Of Water. All important questions are clarified: Was it worth the wait? Is the mega blockbuster just technically convincing or are the emotions there too? And what do Nazi zombies on the dark side of Pandora have to do with it?

The screen love is the weekly cinema and film podcast of our colleagues from FILMSTARTS.

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What did you like most about Avatar 2?