Avatar: The Way of Water Movie Review: James Cameron’s magnum opus gets critics’ thumbs-up

Avatar: The Way of Water, directed by James Cameron, will release in theatres on December 16, 13 years after the original movie dazzled audiences with ground-breaking 3D technology and broke box office records with $2.9 billion in revenue. Early reviews are in. Let's have a look at some of the critics’ takes.

Charlotte O’Sullivan from Evening Standard, while giving four out of five stars, wrote that she felt like she had been through “something special”. “And I’m desperate to know what Lo’ak and Kiri, in particular, do next,” O’Sullivan wrote.

Eric Francisco from Inverse wrote that the movie had outdone “its predecessor visually”. “Avatar: The Way of Water is impervious to skepticism regarding Cameron’s brand of universally appealing storytelling and his historically proven gravitational pull that lures us into dark rooms with big, bright screens,” Francisco wrote.

Peter Bradshaw from The Guardian, while giving the movie two out of five stars, wrote that the visual effects are “technically impressive” but “soulless and inert”. “Frankly, there isn’t a single interesting visual image and the whole thing has the non-briny smell of a MacBook Pro,” he wrote.

Justin Chang from Los Angeles Times, called it “the most expensive and elaborate underwater hangout movie ever made”. Avatar: The Way of Water, the “latest and most ambitious picture” by Cameron will “stun most of his naysayers into silence”, wrote Chang.

Owen Gleiberman from Variety thinks, even though the movie is visually stunning, the story is a “string of serviceable clichés”. “I’m sorry, but as I watched “The Way of Water” the only part of me that was moved was my eyeballs,” Gleiberman wrote.

Dana Stevens from Slate calls it “History’s Most Costly Nature Documentary”. As per Stevens, the movie will create box office history as it “seems sure to be one of the few must-see-it-in-a-theater movie releases of the year, and that the tickets will be sold at a higher price point than those for your average 2D blockbuster”.

Avatar: The Way of Water has gotten 80% tomatometer and 92% audience score on Rotten Tomatoes. This means 80% of critics have given it a positive review while 92% of those who watched it liked it. Here are some of the public reviews on Twitter:

#AvatarTheWayOfWater is by far the most important film for the future of cinema. Was blown away by the visuals and the emotions. It’s amazing when the biggest filmmaker of the world chooses his film to give an important message. I wanna see it again in imax 3d @Disney

— VarunDhawan (@Varun_dvn) December 14, 2022

Watched #AvatarTheWayOfWater last night and Oh boy!!MAGNIFICENT is the word. Am still spellbound. Want to bow down before your genius craft, @JimCameron. Live on!

— Akshay Kumar (@akshaykumar) December 14, 2022

#AvatarTheWayOfWater

Just now finished watching AVATAR THE WAY OF WATER in IMAX, such a great experience in IMAX and i strongly recommend each and everyone out here to enjoy this movie in IMAX firstly.
The CGI,DOP,COLOR GRADING is tremendous & screenplay too.

EPIC SEQUEL 👌 pic.twitter.com/4wJij1SFtp

— SOLO_47 (@Ameen__Xo) December 15, 2022

Just saw #AvatarTheWayOfWater in 3D VFR (variable frame rate). Projected at 60fps, Cameron is actually moving between 60,48,30 and 24fps shot by shot, sometimes even during the same shot with foreground elements in different fps to background. Underwater work particularly superb. pic.twitter.com/xxRprwfXuB

— Eben Bolter BSC (@ebenbolter) December 7, 2022

I just saw #AvatarTheWayOfWater and wow. I expected it to be a visual spectacle, but I didn’t expect it to be so emotionally resonant. Its nuanced characters, rich world building, and fulfilling story make this far better than its predecessor.

Also the fight scenes are BRUTAL. pic.twitter.com/T3fLN4cKE6

— ✶cozza✶ (@stephcozza) December 13, 2022