movie review - Avatar, the Way of Water
the journal of Michael Werneburg
twenty-eight years and a million words
Kokubunji, 2023.02.08
I can hardly call a movie that cost a billion dollars a "lazy cash grab" but this thing had some fundamental story-telling problems and was a confusing mess to watch. I really didn't enjoy this, and found sitting in a large cinema to do so an obnoxious waste of money. Some of the distracting plot problems included:
- the origin of the child posthumously born to a character that died in the previous movie; this was briefly hand-waived away but it made no sense. Who gave birth to this character that seems possibly central to the plot?
- the presence of another child simply abandoned by his scientist parents on an insanely hostile world inhabited by giants
- the return of the evil corporation to the same planet with a different, equally harrowing agenda despite being defeated in a war
- the return of the same individuals from said corporation; do the writers not know how corporations work - if you screw up that bad you don't get a second chance
- the return of a dead character - in avatar form!
I saw no reason for this movie to exist. They told more-or-less the same story, this time with lots of children (some of whom die).
Not recommended.