Avatar: The Way of Water

James Cameron's sequel to his 2009 epic is proof that cinematic wonder still exists. By David Sims. Na'vi swimming. 20th Century ...

The final battles in The Way of Water are rousing, but they’re also feats of geography, astonishing in how they manage to keep the audience focused on a huge ensemble of characters who are jumping between various locations. But The Way of Water wouldn’t work if it didn’t nail the ending, and use that accumulated scale in service of something genuinely jaw-dropping. Cameron actually succeeds at replaying the hits without feeling repetitive, which is impressive given that The Way of Water has the same basic structure as its predecessor. And are there new delights to be discovered in the alien world of Pandora, all these years after the The Way of Water only enlarges Avatar’s refreshing skepticism about the human race; almost every character in the film is Na’vi now, and there’s no need for a Dances With Wolves–style story arc of our hero falling in love with a new culture. But after a slow start, The Way of Water manages to repeat that formula without being a tired retread.

Avatar: The Way of Water — out December 16th — returns to the world of Pandora to tell yet another visually stunning colonialist fantasy that thinks it's ...

But as you watch The Way of Water — particularly if you’ve recently seen the first Avatar at a lower frame rate — it’s hard not to get the overwhelming sense of [technique and tools being consistently prioritized](https://www.theverge.com/23473033/avatar-way-of-water-trailer-technology-james-cameron) over artistry in ways that detract from the movie’s striking beauty. [Cameron and The Way of Water’s cast harping on](https://www.yahoo.com/entertainment/james-cameron-avatar-way-of-water-3d-high-frame-rate-104938634.html) about how this approach to filmmaking was crucial to properly realizing Pandora and its people for a present-day audience. In moments when The Way of Water is showcasing new aspects of Pandora’s natural wonders, the movie sings and shines with an undeniable brilliance that will undoubtedly please fans of the original and appeal to those intrigued by the idea of diving deep into a dangerous, alien world. But The Way of Water tries to broaden its focus and showcase more of Pandora’s natural wonders by making the Sullys the centerpiece of yet another war that forces them to flee their home as humans return to Pandora once again in search of natural resources and revenge. The same is less true of Jake and Neytiri’s adopted daughter Kiri (Sigourney Weaver), a sensitive teen who has a unique connection to Pandora’s wildlife, and her good friend Spider (Jack Champion), a human boy abandoned on the planet after Earthlings were forced to leave at the end of the first film. But for all of its VFX wizardry and moments where it feels like Cameron might have learned something from his previous missteps, The Way of Water ultimately plays like a by-the-numbers sequel that’s too focused on trying to feel relatable when what it needs is to be even more alien.

Our long-awaited return to Pandora is big, sincere, and totally immersive, once the viewer buys in.

That non-ending stokes our appetite for more just enough to drown out the mild frustration of having watched something for so long only for the narrator—wild wizard Cameron, waving his baton in the heavens—to close the book and tell us that the rest of the story is for another evening. The film’s dreamy, eco-religious passages give way to bursts of action, all culminating in a lengthy, multifaceted, astounding set piece that is part Moby Dick, part Titanic, and part something altogether its own. As The Way of Water dives further and further into its mythology, it tries the generosity (and, maybe, patience) of even the most supportive viewer. And so, as hokey as it might occasionally be—like, say, watching the Na’vi have in-depth conversations with placid, moaning space whales—Way of Water maintains a giddy spirit of creative birth. The bad guys have, unfortunately, come back, and the Sully family, along with the rest of their FernGully cohort, spend much of their time staging raids to destabilize attempts to reestablish a militarized human colony. The Way of Water insists that times haven’t changed; it is heedless of contemporary industry undulations.

Movie Review: In James Cameron's 'Avatar: The Way of Water,' Jake Sully (Sam Worthington) and Neytiri (Zoe Saldana) flee with their families to a distant ...

He channels his (and our) inchoate rage at the devastation of the natural world, and he delivers a fantasy of revenge — albeit one set on a strange shore in a distant galaxy, one that just happens to look like a heightened, trippy version of our own. Meanwhile, Jake’s military training still remains, and he runs his family like a hard-ass officer, using terms like fall in and dismissed when talking to his children, all the while expecting to be called “sir.” (When he grounds one of his sons, he literally grounds him: “No more flying for a month.”) Neytiri chastises Jake for being too hard on his boys. One of the (valid) knocks against the first Avatar is that the characters feel like cutouts, there largely to serve as vessels for exploring the fantastical setting. As a result, he spends a decidedly blockbuster-unfriendly amount of time establishing Jake’s family’s dynamics, the parents’ hopes and fears and the kids’ restlessness. If the first Avatar is remarkable because it shows us wondrous lands nothing like our own, The Way of Water is remarkable because it shows us that this world is, in fact, very much like our own. It’s hard not to lose oneself amid the gentle, flowing cadences of this exquisitely created undersea universe, where the water enveloping the characters gradually becomes a metaphor for the interconnectedness of all living beings. So now the Na’vi-hating psycho from the first movie is back as a psycho Na’vi, and he has a personal vendetta against Jake and his family. Although they’re roundly mocked for their incompetence in the ways of the sea, Jake’s kids make honest attempts to bond with the mostly uncooperative Metkayina and their whalelike compatriots, the tulkun. (“Yeah, colonel, get some!” his men yell in triumph when Quaritch finally manages to tame a banshee, one of the flying lizardlike creatures the Na’vi use to get around.) Just to make sure we get the point, Cameron cuts between Sully’s and Quaritch’s respective efforts to adapt. After a new round of sky people arrives, incinerating everything in their path, Jake comes to realize he’s being specifically targeted and flees with his family across the oceans of Pandora to Awa’atlu, a village of the Metkayina, a turquoise-colored reef people who regard the newcomers first with suspicion, then with contempt. Colonel Miles Quaritch (Stephen Lang), the cigar-chomping, leathery (human) villain of the first film, is also back, now as a Na’vi avatar apparently created before the first film’s climactic attack just in case Quaritch Version 1.0 didn’t survive. He has the authenticity and know-how to sell all that fake movie science and testosterone-fueled dialogue (not to mention the perversity and skill to pull off creatively violent set pieces), but he uses them toward explicitly emotional (read: family-friendly) ends.

Early reviews are out from critics on James Cameron's 'Avatar: The Way of Water,' describing the technological advancements and new characters.

[Titanic](https://www.rogerebert.com/reviews/titanic-1997), [Aliens](https://www.rogerebert.com/reviews/aliens-1986), The Abyss, and The Terminator films. Rajamouli](https://www.polygon.com/23478046/rrr-ss-rajamouli-movies-top-gun-avengers-future), who made the magnificent, absolutely ludicrous [Indian import RRR](https://www.polygon.com/22996870/rrr-review-rise-roar-revolt). And so their emotional journeys feel hollow, even as we can see their worlds falling apart.” — [Kristy Puchko](https://mashable.com/article/avatar-2-the-way-of-water-review), Mashable “Avatar: The Way of Water explores enough new story beats, and raises the stakes for its characters through tension to justify the continuation of the first film’s narrative. James Cameron has some expertise in this arena, but this time out, it feels like he’s having a lot more fun.” — [Jordan Hoffman](https://www.polygon.com/reviews/23506051/avatar-2-way-water-review-james-cameron), Polygon Below, critics who sat through three hours of [Avatar: The Way of Water](https://www.vulture.com/2022/05/avatar-the-way-of-water-trailer.html) live to tell a whale of a tale. “The submarine world of this film is, in its way, its chief character and its whole point. [Avatar: The Way of Water](https://www.vulture.com/article/review-james-camerons-spectacular-avatar-the-way-of-water.html) begin to come in. It finds a believable way to bring back characters from the first movie, and sets up the overarching plot for future instalments. “But although I was not surprised that The Way of Water’s visuals blew me away, I was shockingly invested in the emotional complications of the Sully family (many threads are left dangling for the already confirmed Avatar 3). 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?” — It’s no surprise that the technical aspects of [James Cameron’s passion project remain marvelous](https://www.vulture.com/article/avatar-is-back-in-theaters-and-its-still-great.html), particularly in the rendering of alien aquatic life and action sequences.

It doesn't matter if you've spent a second of your life in the past 13 years thinking about what's happening on Pandora or how Jake Sully (Sam Worthington) and ...

Is that the magic of the movies? But Cameron knows his way around a thrilling sequel, and the water for that matter (and references his own greatest hits in this film, too). And though we know there are more sequels coming, and one already wrapped, this is not the kind of franchise where anyone is guaranteed to get a fake superhero death. Sometimes we’re just sitting in the water with Kiri who is also sitting in the water. When the filmmaker is purposeful with that time, as Cameron is and many others have been before him, it’s a uniquely rewarding experience. The film isn’t just visually compelling, either, it’s spiritually rich as well — a simple but penetrating story about family and the natural world that is galaxies better than the first.

A decade after “Avatar” cemented its place in box office record books, director James Cameron is returning to the lush world of Pandora with “The Way of ...

But “Avatar” may be the exception to lackluster attendance in the country. The first film is the highest-grossing Imax release ever with $270 million globally, despite only 300 screens in existence at the time. [Avatar: The Way of Water](https://variety.com/t/avatar-the-way-of-water/)” is one of today’s rare Hollywood movies granted access to play in China, where the original became a sensation with $261 million. So far, Chinese cinemas have tallied $22 million in advanced sales for “Avatar 2,” and it’s realistic that initial returns could reach $100 million by Sunday. With those estimates, “Avatar 2” could also land among the biggest global openings of the year, around “Doctor Strange 2” (with $449 million excluding China) and “Jurassic World Dominion” (with $356 million including China.) [against all odds](https://www.vice.com/en/article/bjw4bv/10-years-later-avatar-is-the-most-popular-movie-no-one-remembers) – remained in the public consciousness.

And so it begins. Thirteen years after Avatar arrived in movie theaters, conquered and continued to conquer the global box office as the highest-grossing ...

They then traveled to Tokyo and Seoul. Among the top opening markets, we’re anticipating a mix of China, France, the UK, Japan, Korea, Mexico, Germany and Brazil. All of those figures are at today’s rates, which have been hit hard by a strong dollar. [China also is getting 3,000 preview showings](https://deadline.com/2022/11/avatar-the-way-of-water-china-release-date-1235180610/) at 7 p.m. The original 2009 movie was 82% certified fresh. Domestic presales for Avatar: The Way of Water stand at an estimated $38M through Monday, double that of Top Gun: Maverick and Jurassic World: Dominion at the same point in time but behind Black Panther: Wakanda Forever and Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness, which respectively opened to $181.3M and $187.4M. Arguably the next big movie on the calendar is, yup, Disney/Marvel Studios’ Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania on February 17. Despite being hot on tracking throughout all demos, the comp for Avatar: The Way of Water, given its older-skewing fanbase, are legacy franchise sequels Top Gun: Maverick ($126.7M) and Jurassic World: Dominion ($145M), not the Marvel movies. Sony predicted that the domestic opening for the Marvel Studios title would be $130M, the town called it at $175M-$200M, and the movie came in at $260.1M. A great touch of irony is how Bob Iger, who orchestrated the Disney-Fox merger with the Avatar franchise being one of many spoils, [recently returned as CEO](https://deadline.com/2022/11/disney-bob-iger-returns-ceo-bob-chapek-out-1235178223/) of the Mouse House. RELATED: [The Way of Water](https://deadline.com/tag/the-way-of-water/) at $150M, and if the movie arrives at the low level, it’s not the end of the world.

So far, domestic pre-sales for the film total $38 million, which puts the film ahead of Top Gun: Maverick, the current highest-grossing movie of the year, but ...

Avatar: The Way of Water splashes into theaters on December 16. The first Avatar is fondly remembered by many for its groundbreaking use of stereoscopic 3D technology, which is why it's no surprise that audiences will be returning to Pandora in the same format as well. So far, domestic pre-sales for the film total $38 million, which puts the film ahead of Top Gun: Maverick, the current highest-grossing movie of the year, but behind Black Panther: Wakanda Forever and Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness.

'Avatar: The Way of Water' Set To Dominate Box Office With an Opening of $175 Million USD: Arriving on December 16 in theaters nationwide.

[Avatar](https://hypebeast.com/tags/avatar) was released in 2009 and debuted with $77 million USD domestically. Due to it exorbitant price tag, the Cameron-led film needs to be one of the top three or four-grossing films in history just to break even. While it is expected to be a major hit at the box office, with early critics giving the sequel

After over three hours of movie, is there something worth staying to the end of the credits for with Avatar: The Way of Water?

With Cameron even talking about [plans for Avatar 6 and Avatar 7](http://collider.com/james-cameron-avatar-6-7-comments/), fans are likely curious if The Way of Water has a post-credit sequence that teases additional installments. After the events of the first film, Jake Sully (Sam Worthington) and Neytiri have raised a family on Pandora, but they’re forced to flee the forests after humans return to Pandora with a vengeance. Avatar: The Way of Water does not have an end credit scene, but you should probably stick around to the very ending to see all the talented visual effects wizards that contributed to the groundbreaking technical achievements. Cameron has already made his opinion about Marvel films very clear, and said that the visual effects in the last two Avengers films “ [Avatar: The Way of Water](https://collider.com/avatar-2-release-date-cast-sequels-movies-james-cameron-pandora/) is finally hitting theaters around the world this weekend. Avatar 3 has already completed a majority of its filming, with a release date set for December 20, 2024.

When can you pee during Avatar: The Way of Water? Here are our lists of best times to make that bathroom break dash.

[Read the parents guide for Avatar: The Way of Water](https://noguiltfangirl.com/age-rating-of-avatar-way-of-water-parents-guide/) here. This goes on for a bit, so it’s a good time to run and pee if you gotta go! When can you pee during Avatar: The Way of Water? [Watch the Avatar: Way of Water trailer](https://youtu.be/o5F8MOz_IDw) here. But sometimes you have to go, run and pee during a movie. When Can You Pee During Avatar: The Way of Water?

Avatar: The Way of Water is almost upon us, and we're finally heading back to Pandora to see what new adventures James Cameron has conjured for the sequel.

On the RDA side of things, Colonel Quaritch is killed in action during the final duel against Jake and the Na’vi, but he’ll come back to Avatar: The Way of Water as a Recombinant. So, while Jake wins a battle in Avatar that allows Pandora to remain in peace for many years, humanity is a plague, and Quaritch will soon be back to restart the war. Grace, in her Avatar body, to access the living database of Eywa, uploading a copy of herself and being granted eternal life in Pandora. [Michelle Rodriguez](https://collider.com/tag/michelle-rodriguez/)), the pilot who betrayed Colonel Quaritch in the final battle, didn't even get a chance to become part of Pandora. Nature is alive in Pandora and comes to the rescue of Toruk Makto and the Na’vi. After months among the Na’vi, Jake is convinced that the native people of Pandora are right to be hostile to humans and that Earthlings should just leave the moon. Since the superconductor properties of Pandora's soil rubbed off its flora and fauna, the Na'vi evolved in a way that allowed them to access information stored in animals and plants. And even more curious is that the Na'vi, as a species, evolved a unique braid they use to commune with Eywa and Pandora's fauna. As a final rite of passage before being considered part of the tribe, every Na’vi needs to tame their own ikran, a dangerous flying creature that becomes the warrior’s mount. In short, the entire moon of Pandora works like a supercomputer, probably due to the natural presence of unobtanium as a superconductor. As the weeks pass, Jake starts to understand the Na’vi and their symbiotic connection to nature. [Avatar: The Way of Water](https://collider.com/tag/avatar-2/) is almost upon us, and we're finally heading back to Pandora to see what new adventures [James Cameron](https://collider.com/tag/james-cameron/) has conjured for the sequel.

Ten winners will receive 2 Fandango codes to see "Avatar: The Way of Water" in theaters.

2022 has been quite a big year for the filmmaking industry. Not only are audiences finally returning to theaters, but the year has been packed to the brim ...

We also get to see an all-new subspecies of Na'vi and an all-new tribe, where the inhabitants have adapted to their seaside lifestyle with fin-like arms and light blue skin, with the tribe's matriarch being played by previous James Cameron collaborator, Kate Winslet (Titanic). The trailer also briefly introduces the rest of Jake and Neytiri's children, and Spider, a human boy who has to wear an Expopack in order to breathe Pandora's atmosphere. We also get a brief reintroduction to Jake Sully, the protagonist of the previous film who left his human body behind to join the Na'vi culture and forever be with his one true love, Neytiri, now of whom is the leader of the Omaticaya tribe. The first trailer for Avatar: The Way of Water keeps plot details under wraps, instead choosing to focus on the incredible world of Pandora that we haven't properly seen on screen in over a decade. The new film also picks up several years when the last one left off, still following human-turned-permanent Na'vi Jake Sully (Sam Worthington) and his partner Neytiri (Zoe Saldaña), still living their lives on the beautiful jungle planet of Pandora and now raising a family of their own. [Top Gun: Maverick](https://collider.com/tag/top-gun-maverick/) (2022) as well as the other mind-blowing multiversal adventure with [Everything Everywhere All at Once](https://collider.com/movie/everything-everywhere-all-at-once/) (2022).

There are some beautiful moments in this story of the Pandorans' fight for survival but they are overwhelmed by the 192-minute running time.

By the end, we’ve figured that out: “The Way of Water” starts where the first left off and stops with the promise of sequels. On more than one occasion we’re told that “the way of water has no beginning and no end.” No kidding. And on and on and on … In that context, Cameron’s self-hating humanness seems reductive and naïve, not the product of serious thought but of an impulse to show off. For example, did you know that when two Pandoran people meet for the first time, a gesture of respect is to mime pulling something out of their nose? In this not-so distant future, the Earth has become an environmental disaster, and so the plan is to take over Pandora and re-populate the planet with homo sapiens.

The "Titanic" Oscar winner includes a knowing nod to that movie in "Water's" climactic sequence, in which heroes and villains are stuck in a sinking vessel, ...

Cameron still offers no evidence that he has a sense of humor in "Water," but his film is thoughtful about grief and hopeful about our ability to cooperate on solutions. With Quaritch having taken on the appearance of Pandora's people and with the Sully family relocating to a water-based community whose residents resemble them but with skin a greener shade of blue, it can be difficult to tell the good guys from the bad. And although I'm not generally a 3-D fan, it may be worth the upcharge to attend a 3-D screening. The surprisingly swift, 192-minute film stands on its own, and I suspect you could have a good time watching it even if you haven't seen the first "Avatar." Unlike the first "Avatar," primarily set in a forest on a moon called Pandora, the new one mostly takes place in a watery corner of Pandora. Both Jake and Quaritch are not quite themselves anymore — their consciousnesses were implanted in avatars that remake them as Na'vi, the Windex-colored people of Pandora.

James Cameron's newest epic 'Avatar: The Way of Water' will have some 3D scenes that look noticeably different from the rest. Here's why.

As for which parts of The Way of Water will look smoother than others, Cameron addressed that in the same interview. That said, Avatar: The Way of Water's implementation of HFR might be a little more palatable. Cameron’s myriad press appearances in recent months have clarified how The Way of Water will use this divisive, unusual tool. Everything is so smooth, it’s as if the actors are in the room with you. Folks who decide to heed director James Cameron’s wishes and see the movie in 3D might be treated to a “high frame rate” (or HFR) experience. For the last century or so of longform cinema, movies have been projected primarily at 24 frames per second.

Yes, Jake and Neytiri are back, but who are all the new Na'vi on Pandora?

So to help prepare you for the next edition of Cameron’s fantastical franchise, we’ve pulled together a look at the major characters—new and returning—you need to know before settling in for three-plus hours at the cineplex. So dive in, and prepare to get acquainted, or reacquainted, with some new and old faces. [Avatar: The Way of Water](https://www.avclub.com/film/reviews/avatar-the-way-of-water-2022) blending multiple returning characters and new faces in the sequel, it seems like a cheat sheet is in order.

The latest box office projections find the Avatar sequel bringing in a staggering $525 million. That's $175 million domestic and $350 million overseas. Clearly, ...

Avatar: The Way of Water is due for release on December 16, 2022. Well, it looks like sparing no expense may have been well worth it, with Avatar: The Way of Water currently on track for a massive box office taking in its opening weekend. [Avatar: The Way of Water](https://movieweb.com/movie/avatar-2/), has reportedly resulted in one of the most expensive movies ever made.

The long-awaited sequel "Avatar: The Way of Water" is set to snare between $150 million and $175 million domestically during its opening weekend.

Perhaps most important about "The Way of Water" China release is that it will take place on Dec. The Chinese box office contributed around $265 million to "Avatar's" global tally a decade ago, but the market has grown significantly since. Disney saw success with this strategy when it released "Avengers: Endgame" on the same day in the U.S. Since cinemas reopened in the country, it has been one of the fastest markets to recover and generate box office success. In fact, a staggering 56% of seats heading into the film's opening weekend have been programed for 3D showings, according to data from EntTelligence. The movie will need the boost. More than 70% of "Avatar" ticket sales came from foreign markets in 2009. The film ultimately generated $760 million in the U.S. The China factor The movie, which opens this week, is set to snare between $150 million and $175 million domestically during its opening weekend. James Cameron films have historically engaged general audiences deep into their theatrical windows, though it's worth considering that the box office climate has changed even since his previous Avatar film in 2009." While the first movie only opened with $77 million in 2009, "Avatar" had unparalleled staying power at the box office.

Avatar: The Way Of Water—the sequel to 2009's Avatar, the highest-grossing film of all time—debuts in U.S. theaters on Thursday.

The Onion tells you everything you need to know about Avatar: The Way Of Water. Avatar: The Way Of Water—the sequel to 2009’s Avatar, the highest-grossing film of all time—debuts in U.S. Q: What is the runtime?

Your teens and tweens might be asking if they can see this one. It's a big movie and a big sequel. But can they? What is the true age rating of Avatar: The Way ...

Avatar: The Way of Water is over 3 hours long, and that’s a really long time for younger kids to sit through. Characters are impaled, shot in the face with arrows and axes, and one has an arm ripped off by a large cable. [Watch the Avatar: Way of Water trailer](https://youtu.be/o5F8MOz_IDw) here. During one early scene you can see a Navi floating in a tank and her breast (including nipple) is shown. But it definitely helps if you see the other one first. We’ll also give the Avatar 2 age rating and age-appropriate recommendations. Can you get by without it? But it’s very brief and not the focus of the moment. Can your kids watch this one? What is the age rating of Avatar: The Way of Water? Your teens and tweens might be asking if they can see this one. What is the true age rating of Avatar: The Way of Water?

Hollywood and worried theater owners are counting on the long-awaited sequel to close out 2022 in grand fashion after a tough fall season. If tracking is ...

It picks up a decade after the original and follows their family, with additional stars including franchise newcomers [Kate Winslet](https://www.hollywoodreporter.com/t/kate-winslet/). [Avengers: Endgame](https://www.hollywoodreporter.com/movies/movie-news/avengers-endgame-clocks-at-3-hours-longest-marvel-movie-1197113/) (three hours and 2 minutes) and Cameron’s Titanic (three hours and 14 minutes). Sony and Marvel’s Spider-Man: No Way Home, released in December 2021, continues to hold the record for the best global debut of the pandemic era debut at $583 million (No Way Home likewise didn’t play in China). The Way of Water is certain to do enormous business on premium screens, including Imax. 2 and No. Disney, home of 20th Century, stresses that the sequel’s success depends more on its long term legs, versus a mega-opening number. Hollywood and worried theater owners are counting on the long-awaited sequel to close out 2022 in grand fashion after a tough fall season. It could open to as much as $100 million, although a major COVID-19 outbreak in Beijing could complicate matters. The two films rank No. [Titanic](https://www.hollywoodreporter.com/t/titanic/) [Kate Winslet Responds to Fat-Shaming Comments About Why Jack Couldn’t Get on the Door in ‘Titanic’](https://www.hollywoodreporter.com/movies/movie-news/kate-winslet-responds-fat-shaming-titanic-leonardo-dicaprio-1235284012/) [Heat Vision](https://www.hollywoodreporter.com/e/heat-vision/) [Donald Glover to Star in, Produce Spider-Man Movie Based on Villain Hypno-Hustler (Exclusive)](https://www.hollywoodreporter.com/movies/movie-news/donald-glover-to-star-in-spider-man-movie-hypno-hustler-1235283667/) [Margot Robbie](https://www.hollywoodreporter.com/t/margot-robbie/) [Brad Pitt, Damien Chazelle on Shooting ‘Babylon’ Movie’s Wildest Scenes: “A Lot of Nudity”](https://www.hollywoodreporter.com/movies/movie-news/brad-pitt-damien-chazelle-babylon-wildest-scenes-1235283634/) [box office](https://www.hollywoodreporter.com/t/box-office/). [Avatar](https://www.hollywoodreporter.com/t/avatar/) 2 is one of the few recent Hollywood tentpoles to receive a release.

James Cameron's "Avatar" sequel looks to dominate the Oscar crafts, thanks to new underwater tech innovations and expanded world building.

Also, the addition of many more principal characters meant more “performance edits” and more “coverage” during virtual cameras. Musically, Franglen wanted it to bridge the world of “Avatar” and The Weeknd. At the core of the “Way of Water” script was a musical idea that ran throughout the film tied to the theme of water. Cinematographer Russell Carpenter (Oscar-nominated for “Titanic”) supervised both the live-action shoot and the virtual lighting (which took a year of prep). According to the composer, Cameron described the Songcord on the first page of the script. “The Way of Water” called for a lot more scenes combining live and virtual character integration. There’s a rhythmic and vocal backbone to the music, and Franglen brought in musical specialists from around the world, including Pacific Island singers. Three creature standouts are the intelligent, whale-like tulkun, the plesiosaur-inspired ilu (similar to the Na’vi direhorse), and the skimwing giant flying fish (reminiscent of the dragon-like, aerial banshee). Cameron further develops the first film’s theme of spirituality and being one with the environment, and connectivity spills over into the design, from the tensile walkways uniting the Metkayina village suspended over the water, to the fractal-inspired macro coral connecting and nourishing life in the sea. This time Cameron expands the universe of Pandora by going underwater for splendor and adventure with the introduction of the Metkayina reef clan. “Avatar” earned seven noms for art direction (now production design), cinematography, visual effects, editing, original score, sound editing, and sound mixing, taking home awards in the first three categories. However, with virtual production also impacting production design, costume design, and cinematography, it will be a formidable contender in these categories as well, along with the immersive, Atmos-driven sound design that encompasses every underwater sonic element.

The film 'Avatar' is one of director James Cameron's major successes—and it showed at the box office, as well as through a new fanbase sharing a love of 3D.

They have physical power that is admirable, and to be part of that, and included, it was just so flattering that Jim asked me, because Jim does not suffer fools,” Winslet explained. “There are a lot of surprises in terms of where the story goes in this film, that we’re not putting into the trailers and the TV spots and all that. And I think it was part of, you know, Jim [James Cameron] realizing that story was about them being warriors, and taking on the battles of the clans and things like that,” Worthington explained. But it also goes a lot deeper, in terms of the heart and the emotions,” Cameron continued. But, the quest to the second edition of the film wasn’t exactly an easy decision. Over a decade after the premiere of the first film, 13 years to be exact, the anticipated sequel will be hitting theaters this weekend.

This weekend we're going to get the last blockbuster of 2022, and it's a doozy. It's been 13 years since James Cameron's “Avatar” hit theaters and its ...

See our [latest prediction champs](https://www.goldderby.com/best-prediction-scores/awards/league-data/). Speak up and share your huffy opinions in our [famous forums](https://www.goldderby.com/forums/) where 5,000 showbiz leaders lurk every day to track latest awards buzz. “Avatar” should win the weekend by a large margin over “Black Panther: Wakanda Forever” in its sixth weekend, but I personally think it will open under $150 million, though maybe not by that much. “Force Awakens” opened with $248 million on this very same weekend in 2015, and then just last year, “Spider-Man: No Way Home” opened with $260 million, both of those breaking with tradition and ending up with $932.7 million and $814.1 million, respectively. Before the release of “Star Wars Episode VII: The Force Awakens” in 2015, opening a movie in December before Christmas was never a great prospect, since so many people are working or saving up money for holiday gifts or trips. Download our free and easy app for [Apple/iPhone devices](https://apps.apple.com/us/app/id1460576753) or [Android (Google Play)](https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.pmc.goldDerby) to compete against legions of other fans plus our experts and editors for best prediction accuracy scores. [Make your predictions](https://www.goldderby.com/leagues/) at Gold Derby now. With that kind of money, you would think that distributor 20th Century Fox would want Cameron to make a sequel as soon as possible, but it was only once Fox sold to Disney when Disney gave the go-ahead for Cameron to continue what could potentially be a series of five or even six movies. Read on for Gold Derby’s [box office](https://www.goldderby.com/t/box-office/) preview. “Avatar” benefitted even better over the holidays than many other movies that open before Christmas, since it nearly matched its opening weekend over the next two holiday weekends. Besides the return of the original cast, there are plenty of new characters as well, although many are younger actors. “Avatar” opened on this same weekend back in 2009 with $77 million, which wasn’t really that much when compared to “Spider-Man” and “Harry Potter” movies from the previous eight years that were regularly opening over $100 million.

James Cameron's Avatar: The Way of Water began its international box office rollout today and is dominating play.

This is a result of the ongoing Covid issues in the market where 73% of cinemas are open and there is a confidence issue amid the about-face from the government on the zero-Covid policy. France has a mega distraction today in that we are playing Morocco in the World Cup semi-final this evening and that’s likely to impact, as we wrote yesterday, the later showings. Also notable, and not reflected in the running total above, Korea did $3.82M on Friday (a 43% increase on Thursday) for a running cume of $9.7M through today. (Anecdotally, in the parking lot of my local giant supermarket four hours before the match, it was impossible to find a spot as the whole of my area descended to stock up for the semis.) Germany scored the 2nd biggest opening day of the pandemic era and the top start for 2022 with $2.5M. Elsewhere, and not included in the total Wednesday number above, Korea added $2.6M on Thursday for a $5.8M running cume. [as we have said from the start](https://deadline.com/2022/12/avatar-the-way-of-water-box-office-preview-prediction-1235197950/), is a swing on this [James Cameron](https://deadline.com/tag/james-cameron/) sequel. PREVIOUS, WEDNESDAY: James Cameron’s Avatar: The Way of Water began its international box office rollout today in such majors as Korea, France, Germany and Italy — and with early sneaks in China. The Naver score is 9.48 which is above both of the comps cited above. Market shares are strong, including some at the 99% level (Indonesia, Thailand, Philippines, notably). Along with $5M from Wednesday/Thursday previews, that lifts the total in that market to $23.5M through Friday. In total, globally, the

James Cameron returns to Pandora, and to the ecological themes and visual bedazzlements of his 2009 blockbuster.

He wants to conquer the world in the name of the underdog, to celebrate nature by means of the most extravagant artifice, and to make everything new feel old again. The differences among the Na’vi — physical as well as cultural — add an interesting new dimension to the anthropology of Pandora, and to the film’s aesthetic palette. You feel it in a horrifying scene of tulkun slaughter that aspires to the awful, stirring sublimity of the last chapters of “Moby-Dick,” and also in the restlessness of Lo’ak, Spider and Kiri as they try to figure out their roles. Afraid that Quaritch and his men will bring slaughter to the forest, Jake and Neytiri seek the protection of Ronal (Kate Winslet) and Tonowari (Cliff Curtis), chieftains of a reef-dwelling Na’vi clan. He has a long-simmering vendetta against Jake, and much of “The Way of Water” is concerned less with large-scale imperial ambitions than with personal dramas of loyalty and betrayal. There are a lot of those, in the air and underwater, fistic and fiery, sad and rousing, nearly every one of which will remind you of stuff you’ve seen a dozen times before. Where “Avatar” found inspiration in lizard-birds, airborne spores and jungle flowers, the sequel revels in aquatic wonders, above all a kind of armored whale called the tulkun. The first “Avatar” fused Cameron’s faith in technological progress with his commitments to the primal pleasures of old-fashioned storytelling and the visceral delights of big-screen action. Thirteen years later, “Avatar: The Way of Water” — the first of several long-awaited sequels directed by James Cameron — brings with it a ripple of nostalgia. Like them, he is now tall, slender and blue, with a mane of dark hair and a braid that connects him to members of other species. It was a revisionist western, an ecological fable, a post-Vietnam political allegory — a tale of romance, valor and revenge with traces of Homer, When was the last time you put on a pair of those?

James Cameron's sequel is expected to open big. But box office for 2022 is still lagging pre-pandemic numbers by more than 30%. Blame a lack of movies.

“The Way of Water” was made with 3-D in mind, not as an afterthought. The first “Avatar” opened with a mere $77 million in the U.S. For movies that do get in, China remains uncertain because of the coronavirus situation in the country. [told the Hollywood Reporter](https://www.hollywoodreporter.com/movies/movie-features/james-cameron-interview-avatar-the-way-of-water-franchise-future-1235271483/). It’s a situation that he and cinema operators expect to improve next year as the industry gets closer to a normal rate of releases. If “The Way of Water” hits his goal, he’ll occupy three of the top five slots. Cameron already has two of the top three pictures globally — “Avatar” and 1997’s “Titanic” ($2.2 billion). The average domestic box office for those titles this year is $89.23 million, similar to the average gross per movie in 2019, the organization said. “I don’t think the industry realizes how big this is going to be,” Gelfond said. “The Way of Water” hits theaters as Bob Iger begins his own sequel as Disney’s CEO. and Canada in three days, nearly a low for the year. For the Walt Disney Co., it’s a revival of what the Burbank entertainment titan hopes will be a long-lasting blockbuster franchise.

When “Avatar” first hit theaters in 2009, audiences had never seen anything quite like it before. James Cameron's science-fiction spectacle became a ...

But after finding a support system through Kelutral, “The Way of Water” isn’t just a long-awaited return to an alien world he loves. “This is a movie about blue space cats,” Perrin chuckles. I had to return to the doldrum of reality, trying to figure out what I was going to do with my adult life,” Perrin says, recalling his experience after seeing “Avatar.” “I had been struggling with depression and I didn’t know what it was. Now, the “Avatar” community is entering uncharted waters: the release of another series entry — and an epic-length, even more technically dazzling one at that. “I never thought that my life would be so changed for the positive when I saw some movie about blue space aliens.” While post-“Avatar” depression took a toll on him, the group helped Perrin find the language to recognize his own mental health troubles. The solution he found worked best for him was simply allowing himself to be fully drawn in — a credo he has shared with others. Perrin and Williamson are both members of Kelutral, an online “Avatar” fan community established on the messaging app Discord. “I felt like that was an amazing dream, but now I had to wake up. “The first time I experienced it was probably several years after, just rewatching it on Blu-ray,” Williamson says. Jacob Williamson, a 25-year-old physicist living in Atlanta, Ga., was also a latecomer to post-“Avatar” depression. “I reexperienced it in 2018 after visiting Pandora — The World of Avatar at Disney World.

Unfortunately, this isn't a nature documentary or visual tour. This is a dramatic narrative movie, which means that Cameron also needs things like plots, ...

Cameron was far more interested in showing us the world of the water people than he was worrying about character motivations, and if you think about any of it too hard it all collapses into a pile of duct-taped cliches. Also, they invented an infant son for him that was supposedly born on Pandora at some point during the last movie, even though anyone with even a passing knowledge of that film knows that’s completely ludicrous. Ideally, these things should at least be reasonably well done, and if there’s at least a shred of originality than so much the better. This also means he’s probably planning on recycling the same plots as well. Even if you’re not up on all the technical marvels James Cameron and his team used, it’s easy to see even from the first few minutes that the new “Avatar” is a feast for the eyes. They go so far as to bring back the original movie’s villain, even though he was very definitively killed at the end of the last film, in such a way that ruins some of the subtextual nuance of the original movie.

'Avatar: The Way of Water' made his debut on review aggregator Rotten Tomatoes with an 83% approval rate.

The blockbuster still has a long way to go, and its initial reception by the general audiences should indicate what type of In recent interviews, Cameron didn’t mince words when revealing that the franchise is incredibly expensive to make and, depending on how the upcoming entries perform, we have the chance of never seeing this story through to the end. It’s an ambitious project, and the role that the second entry plays is laying the groundwork for countless story possibilities in the world of Pandora, just like Middle Earth keeps inviting fans back for more Lord of the Rings stories and a galaxy far away keeps on generating Star Wars spin-offs. The number is a surprise, but not exactly a shock: Ever since the first teasers and trailers were unveiled by 20th Century Studios, we knew that Avatar: The Way of Water would be a stunning visual spectacle at the very least. Avatar: The Way of Water takes us back to Pandora fourteen years after the events of the first movie. [Avatar: The Way of Water](https://collider.com/tag/avatar-2/) hasn’t even officially premiered, but the overwhelmingly positive reception that the new James Cameron movie received from critics that got to see it in early screenings have already got the title to the “certified fresh” status of [Rotten Tomatoes](https://www.rottentomatoes.com/m/avatar_the_way_of_water?cmp=TWRT_Movie_Avatar2_CF).

Who is Jake Sully? He's an ex-Marine who lost the use of his legs in combat on Earth. When his twin brother, Tommy, a scientist, dies unexpectedly, Jake is ...

In the final scene of “Avatar” — after the RDA has been ordered to leave, save for a few of the human scientists who worked with Grace — Mo’at leads the Omaticaya at Home Tree in the same ritual they used to try to save Grace, this time to put Jake’s mind and soul inside his Na’vi body. In a last-ditch effort, Quaritch — wearing a giant mechanical suit — attempts to destroy the trailer that’s housing Jake’s human body. Miles Quaritch (Stephen Lang) hates Pandora and the Na’vi, and uses Jake to infiltrate them to gather intel on their home. Eywa is the name for the Na’vi deity, the spirit of all life on Pandora — quite literally, as the entire moon has developed a biological capacity to connect with all other life. (It’s on top of a giant deposit of an outrageously valuable mineral called Unobtanium, which is the whole reason why the RDA is on Pandora in the first place, and what allows some of Pandora’s mountains to float in the air.) She’s the daughter of the heads of the Omaticaya tribe of Na’vi, and an agile hunter and warrior.

Beautiful visuals can't make up for the film's oversimplified view of colonialism.

In the end, he seems to have succumbed to 13 years of pressure to make The Way of Water bigger and bolder, so that it might be worth the wait. He tries to make up for his lack of narrative imagination with a new visual language, but it doesn’t cover up the holes in his sloppily woven saga. The homogenization of humans erases the complexity of racism on earth. The Water Tribes of The Last Airbender are divided by whether they live in swampy or icy places; the tribes living near the north pole wage civil war against the tribes of the south pole. Cameron could have constructed a Metkayina world that ruptured our preconceptions of the Na’vi, giving them leaders who weren’t another warrior chieftain and his priestess wife, or religious rules that conflicted with the Sullys’. Ultimately, this simplification makes The Way of Water boring. The Way of Water sidesteps a political plot, instead honing in on Quaritch’s individual quest for revenge. Whatever the real-life implications of the film, it was exciting to be invited into the lush, enthralling world of the Na’vi. The Way of Water treats them all as rapacious, bloodthirsty imperialists. The politics of the first Avatar were already lazy. Jake Sully (Sam Worthington), a former Marine who is paralyzed from the waist down, arrives on Pandora to take the place of his deceased twin brother, one of the avatar program’s founding scientists. The humans’ mission is to mine unobtanium, a highly valuable resource that happens to be the bedrock of the Na’vi’s home.

The movie opens with Sam Worthington and Zoe Saldana playing Jake Sully and Neytiri, overseeing a family comprised of Neteyam (Jamie Flanders), Lo'ak (Britain ...

In fact, it’s clear that building and filming the action in this ocean world was a cinematic feat equal to — or even exceeding — the special effects of Cameron’s most notable watery feature, “Titanic.” “Kate enjoyed the freedom of being able to express herself underwater. Of all the actors, Winslet adapted to the water most easily, Cameron says. And as such, he has the nine-foot body of a Na’vi. The tank could hold enough water to allow the filmmaker to replicate ocean conditions. It’s faster and more dangerous that most of the other creatures. The clan also has tattoo patterns that they share with the tulkun. So the Sully family flees to territory held by the Metkayina clan, an island-dwelling people who live in harmony with the surrounding oceans. The clan has a tradition of giving sanctuary to refugees, so the Sully family is welcomed, albeit reluctantly. Since the movie is more than three hours long, you might wonder whether the “wowing” is sustainable. It’s the story of a family on Pandora that faces great difficulties in staying together — and safe — because humans from Earth are once again invading their beautiful world. And most experts predict that the sequel will dominate the box office for the rest of the year — at the very least.