Preview screenings for James Cameron and Disney's “Avatar: The Way of Water” reached $17 million domestically. A whopping 61% of Thursday's domestic tickets ...
"Avatar" ultimately generated $760 million in the U.S. Meanwhile, in Asia-Pacific, which includes Korea, Thailand, Indonesia and the Philippines, 39% of box office receipts were for these more expensive showings. At the time, theatrical windows typically ran for 75 to 90 days. The second-highest was "Wakanda Forever" with 17% 3D showings. In Europe, 71% of tickets sold came from 3D and premium format showings. Heading into the weekend the "Avatar" sequel saw an even split between the number of 3D screens and 2D screens.
An exclusive invitation from James Cameron to join him at his VF/X Club Med.
The near-absence of characters’ substance and inner lives isn’t a bug but a feature of both “Avatar” films, and, with the expanded array of characters in “The Way of Water,” that psychological uniformity is pushed into the foreground, along with the visual styles. Though endowed with great skill in crafts, athletics, and martial arts, they don’t have anything to offer themselves or one another in the way of non-martial arts; they don’t print or record, sculpt or draw, and they have no audiovisual realm like the one of the movie itself. The watery light and its undulations are attractions in themselves, but the spotlight is on the flora and fauna with which Cameron populates the sea—most prominently, luminescent ones, such as anemone-like fish that light the way for deep-sea swimmers who have a spiritual connection to them, and tendril-like plants that grow from the seafloor and serve as a final resting place for deceased reef people. Putting the movie’s design in the forefront does “The Way of Water” no favors. Despite the martial exploits of Neytiri, a sharpshooter with a bow and arrow, and of Ronal, who goes into battle while very pregnant, the superficial badassery is merely a gestural feminism that does little to counteract the patriarchal order of the Sullys and their allies. The screenplay builds the action anecdotally, with a variety of sidebars and digressions that don’t develop characters or evoke psychology but, rather, emphasize what the movie is selling as its strong point—its visual enticements and the technical innovations that make them possible. Jake’s statement of paternal purpose is emblematic of the thudding dialogue; compared to this, the The Metkayina queen, Ronal (Kate Winslet), is wary of the newcomers, fearing that the arrival of Na’vis seeking refuge from the marauders will make the islands a target, but the king, Tonowari (Cliff Curtis), welcomes the Sullys nonetheless. Two boys, a Na’vi and a Metkayina, fight after one demands, “I need you to respect my sister”; afterward, Jake, getting a glimpse at his bruised and bloodied son, is delighted to learn that the other boy got the worst of it. By contrast, [James Cameron](https://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2009/10/26/man-of-extremes-james-cameron-profile-avatar), who delivered the original “ [Avatar](https://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2010/01/04/going-native-movie-reviews-avatar-sherlock-holmes)” in 2009, has delivered its sequel, “ [Avatar: The Way of Water](https://www.newyorker.com/magazine/the-current-cinema/12/26/avatar-the-way-of-water-is-split-by-james-camerons-contradictory-instincts),” thirteen years later, in which time he has directed no other feature films—and, though he doubtless has lived, the sole experience that the new movie suggests is a vacation on an island resort so remote that few outside visitors have found it. The island is the home of the Metkayina, the so-called reef people, who—befitting their nearly amphibian lives—have a greenish cast to contrast with Na’vi blue; they also have flipper-like arms and tails. The couple’s foster son, Spider (Jack Champion), a full-blooded human, is the biological child of Jake’s archenemy, Colonel Miles Quaritch, who was killed in the earlier film.
In the original “Avatar,” actors such as Sam Worthington, Stephen Lang, Sigourney Weaver, Michelle Rodriguez and Joel David Moore all appeared on screen in ...
“He’s a rebel, sort of a guy who gets in trouble and a screw-up in that way,” Dalton Filip Geljo plays Aonung, a young male hunter and free diver of the Metkayina who happens to be Tonowari and Ronal’s son. “She does not see herself as the youngest,” the actor told Variety. “The family might be protective of her, but she sees that as underestimation. “Even in the face of grave danger, and with an unborn baby on board, she still joins her people and fights for what she holds most dear: her family and their home.” “To get to see yourself in the film… “But we were really led by a terrific team of professionals who were with us every step of the way, making sure that we were as safe as one can possibly be when one is doing a knife fight 25 feet below the surface. It’s a relatively straightforward reveal in “The Way Water,” but still one that’s best to discover in theaters. “Doing the water work was challenging and difficult,” he “I got to work with my idol at a very early stage of my career,” she said. Jake is the leader of the Pandora forest tribe, known as the Omaticaya people. In the original “Avatar,” actors such as Sam Worthington, Stephen Lang, Sigourney Weaver, Michelle Rodriguez and Joel David Moore all appeared on screen in their own bodies for significant amounts of screen time.
I didn't see Avatar: The Way Of Water on an IMAX 3D screen because the nearest IMAX to where I live is at the Grand Canyon and they don't show this kind of ...
I tweaked the new version that Austin Kleon came up with that replaced the fourth image of the man sitting up with a smile in his face (#4) with the man sitting back in his chair expressionless (#3). But then I would have had to watch it again to pen this review, and that would be . Ultimately, Avatar: The Way Of Water is just not all that good or cerebral or exciting. I would have loved it if this were an adventure movie, with Jake and his family heading out into the wide, wild world and facing struggles that had nothing to do with the human colonizers. But the bad guys are coming with their guns and their bombs and their bombs and their guns. But even if that is how kids in the US talk in 2022—it isn’t, not to this degree—it makes no sense on an alien planet. And the Navi—a crude analog for the indigenous people of our own world—remain the Noble Savage trope they were in the last film, only less interesting now. It’s a retread of the first film. I didn’t see Avatar: The Way Of Water on an IMAX 3D screen because the nearest IMAX to where I live is at the Grand Canyon and they don’t show this kind of movie on that screen (even if they did it’s being renovated until next Spring). It’s arrogant and self-indulgent and I think the novelty that made that okay in the first film has worn off for audiences, or at least it has for me. Some of the fights—while too long—were exciting and action-packed and had cool special effects. - That’s the best way I can describe Way Of Water.
With a striking blend of visual effects and state-of-the-art motion capture technology, “Avatar: The Way of Water” is billed as a movie-theatre experience ...
I think because of streaming, we haven’t really experienced that in the same way we did when Blockbuster was a thing.” “While ticket prices skyrocketed, attendance plummeted, and 500 screens closed since the pandemic.” “Even if so, few other films can keep that trend going.” Will it be something people talk about and can’t forget?” said Levitan. And will the sequel eventually rival the $2.9-billion total gross of the original film, released in 2009? “Like that urgency and just the community of loving a film.
Avatar is the most successful film of all time. So how does James Cameron's much-antipated sequel compare? It's Avatar, but amplified, says Eli Glasner.
With the re-invasion of Pandora seemingly on pause, the middle of the film shifts into a story of exploration and adaptation as the Sullys learn the ways of Metkayina. The last third of the film is a tidal wave of testosterone as the marines attack the Metkayina with a massive flying fortress of a hovercraft which spits out whale-chasing boats, mini-subs and more. But the decision to leave rather than fight marks a turning point for the film and Cameron as a storyteller. A different branch of the Na'vi species, they have finned tails and wide forearms. But as long as there are those ready to dive into the worlds he constructs, Cameron will continue creating them. When Jake orders his kids around like fresh recruits, it sounds like a marine talking but there's also an echo of a director used to getting his way. But as with the first film, the story is still built on the bedrock of "white saviour" tropes, even its saviour Jake Sully transferred his consciousness into a Na'vi body. Realizing he's become a military target, Jake and the family flee, taking refuge with the Metkayina clan, the reef people. This is the Cameron way, no concessions, no compromise — a wildly ambitious story which he sees as part of seven-film (!) cycle. They're now parents to their own little brood, a mixture of human/Na'vi hybrids and adoptees. While Quaritch adjusts to being blue, Jake leads the battle to repel the invaders. With his obsessive vision and drive, James Cameron transported us to Pandora, a lush paradise plundered for its mineral wealth.