Avatar: The Way of Water

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?

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.

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.

Thanks in large part to its extraordinary visuals, Avatar ascended to the top of the box office to become the world's highest-grossing movie of all time.

[The Little Mermaid - Official Teaser TrailerCheck out the teaser trailer for The Little Mermaid, the upcoming live-action reimagining of the animated musical classic. The film runs for a total of 3 hours and 12 minutes including credits. Avatar: The Way of Water will be available with early showtimes tomorrow and a wider release date of December 16 worldwide. Avatar: The Way of Water will be available in both 3D and standard formats depending on which theater you see it in. Avatar: The Way of Water is not currently available to stream online, though it will almost certainly be added to Disney+ eventually. You can go to the links below to watch the movie.

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.

The film opens this Friday at Portland theaters (and everywhere else). ... Maybe you've noticed the blue lights illuminating the Morrison Bridge for the past few ...

Therefore, the Morrison Bridge takeover makes perfect sense to celebrate the end of a 13-year-long hiatus between the sequel and the groundbreaking original film.” “Portland’s 12 bridges span the Willamette River and connect the two sides of the city. “Avatar: The Way of Water explores the themes of sustainability and water as a uniting force,” stated Allied.

He wants you to believe that aliens are killing machines, humanity can defeat time-traveling cyborgs, and a film can transport you to a significant historical ...

"Avatar: The Way of Water" is a James Cameron blockbuster, through and through. [Cliff Curtis](/cast-and-crew/cliff-curtis)), the leader of a clan called the Metkayina. The bulk of "Avatar: The Way of Water" hinges on the same question Sarah Connor asks in the "Terminator" movies—fight or flight for family? [Sam Worthington](/cast-and-crew/sam-worthington)), a human who is now a full-time Na'vi and partners with Neytiri ( [Zoe Saldana](/cast-and-crew/zoe-saldana)), with whom he has started a family. This wildly entertaining film isn't a retread of "Avatar," but a film in which fans can pick out thematic and even visual elements of " [Titanic](/reviews/titanic-1997)," " [Aliens](/reviews/aliens-1986)," "The Abyss," and "The Terminator" films. In many ways, the planet of Pandora in " [Avatar](/reviews/avatar-2009)" has become his most ambitious manner of sharing this belief in the power of cinema.

James Cameron's long-awaited sequel to 2009's groundbreaking Avatar is beached by many of the same shortcomings.

Even the late introduction of a secondary villain feels forced into place, and the rest of the story plays out merely to leave things in motion We don’t regret watching Avatar: The Way of Water at all, even if its three-plus hours feels long (a lot longer than some of the pumped-up superhero movies Cameron likes to slam). It’s an awkward and creatively reductive format for movies, cheapening the impact of this film’s otherwise terrific effects work, and we regret that he made this choice (which we imagine he’ll carry over to the next three Avatar installments). The problem with this is that none of the kids, with the possible exception of Kiri (played with a sprightly energy by the great Weaver), is given more than a token attribute at best. Where Cameron goes wrong, just like Ang Lee and Peter Jackson before him, is in the use of high frame rate (HFR) filming, in which the images are captured at 48fps instead of the longtime industry standard of 24fps. While there is some half-hearted attempt at giving this version of Quaritch some shading through an unexpected plot point, he is just walking vengeance and places the movie on a predictable path to a rematch between Jake and his colonel. But no one here, not even Jake and Neytiri, have much of a character arc at all: “Protect the family” is where Jake begins and ends, unlike the first time where at least he went from reluctant human soldier to tribal leader. And now that [Avatar: The Way of Water](https://www.denofgeek.com/movies/avatar-2-release-date-cast-production/) is arriving in theaters at long last, the question can be answered: Was it worth the wait? Jake is mated with Neytiri (Zoe Saldaña) and they have since had three children of their own, two sons and a daughter, while adopting two others: a human boy named Miles, nicknamed Spider (Jake Champion), who was born on the human base in the first film but now lives among the Na’vi, and Kiri (Sigourney Weaver), a teenage Na’vi with a strange connection to the first film’s late Dr. What’s even more of an issue is that, just as with the first Avatar, Cameron has pretty much put visual effects and filmmaking bravado first and relegated story and character to a lower priority. Miles Quaritch (Stephen Lang), who was killed by Jake and Neytiri in the first film but who has been resurrected in a Na’vi body. [vexed film critics and pop culture commentators](https://www.denofgeek.com/movies/james-camerons-avatar-five-years-on/) in the 13 long years since James Cameron released his paradigm-shifting science fiction epic.

The long-awaited 'Avatar' sequel 'The Way of the Water,' arrives in local theaters Friday.

Among the worst: “Wherever we go, this family is our fortress”; or, “A father protects, that’s what gives him meaning.” It’s the level of platitude-spewing you’d expect from Vin Diesel in any “Fast & Furious” movie. This guy is the BEST thing in the movie. In the last hour, Cameron ramps up the energy for the final confrontation. Keeping track of who’s who, and who’s doing what and to whom, is a challenge. Invoking “sanctuary family” status, the Sullys are reluctantly taken in by Tonowari (Cliff Curtis) and his wife, Ronal (Kate Winslet). At first, it’s a clash of cultures as the “forest people” struggle to fit in with the “reef people,” who are a lighter shade of blue with fin-like arms. This is Cameron’s opportunity to dazzle by creating environments and the creatures within. Miles Quaritch (Stephen Lang), returning from the dead – Neytiri put two arrows in him in the first movie – as an avatar with all his memories intact. In fact, that’s not hyperbolic enough for “The Way of the Water.” The Smurf-blue hues of the Na’vi characters, the cerulean ocean, the lush green forests, the swirling flashes of glowing pink and fuchsia flora and fauna − it all invites you into the surreal world of Pandora. But beyond the stunning visuals and state-of-the -art Dolby sound, this 192-minute spectacle proves yet again that Cameron, like Baz Luhrmann, is more of a craftsman than a storyteller. James Cameron’s long-awaited “Avatar” sequel is spectacular by the very definition of the word: “Beautiful in a dramatic and eye-catching way" (thanks, Oxford dictionary). This is this movie’s version of “iceberg dead ahead.” After some expository voiceover sets up the return of the “sky people,” they touch down right on cue.

Disney's “Avatar: The Way of Water,” which clocks in at over three hours long, is a stunning piece of blockbuster cinema, according to critics.

Chang said its "marvelous" to have Cameron's presence back on the big screen. "Much as you might long for Cameron to keep us down there — to give us, in effect, the most expensive and elaborate underwater hangout movie ever made — he can't or won't sustain all this dreamy Jacques-Cousteau-on-mushrooms wonderment for three-plus hours," he wrote. "There was potential here for something lovely, a sweet and moving environmental parable clocking in at 90 minutes, tops." "The 3D visuals are undoubtedly cool, but it shouldn't be the only reason to see this film," she added. "Long, long sequels. "As is the case with most of Cameron's films, what elevates his work is the bravado of his execution, allowing magnificent beasts and scenery prime real estate on the screen, while large-scale battles have tight spatial and rhythmic coherence," he wrote. However, she says the visuals aren't enough to outweigh the lackluster story. "Plot-wise, this movie is treading water," she wrote. "But I've never thought Cameron was God's gift to cinema," she added. The family is driven from their forest home when humans return to re-colonize parts of Pandora. Apparently, there are several unresolved narratives that audiences will have to wait to see in future Avatar movies. But, its narrative is thin and, like the original, doesn't hold up against Cameron's lofty technical ambitions, several critics said.

Humans at first used these hybrid avatars to broker peace with the indigenous Na'vi. Characters like Dr. Grace Augustine (Sigourney Weaver) and Norm Spellman ( ...

Augustine had a connection with and compassion for the Na’vi, respect for the planet, and a love of nature. They believed that if they placed Augustine’s body on the Tree of Souls, a spiritual beacon for the Na’vi, they could transfer her consciousness to her avatar form, essentially switch bodies, and save her life (it’s the same ritual that the Omaticaya perform on Sully at the end of Avatar). First, there’s a “feral child” named “Spider” in Way of Water, the son of human settlers who was raised on Pandora and was unable to return home with his parents. Spider was just a baby during the humans’ defeat in the first movie, and therefore too small to fit in the returning spaceship’s cryopreservation chambers. Because Jake and Tom share the same genetics and because Tom was neuro-linked to his avatar, Jake — a Marine — is the RDA’s best option to salvage their investment. When it comes to critics’ reviews, Avatar stands at [82 percent on Rotten Tomatoes](https://www.rottentomatoes.com/m/avatar/reviews?type=top_critics) and 83 percent on [Metacritic](https://www.metacritic.com/movie/avatar/critic-reviews). Avatar is also the [biggest movie of all time](https://www.boxofficemojo.com/chart/ww_top_lifetime_gross/?area=XWW), topping the chart of the biggest worldwide gross in history at $2.9 billion. By the end of Avatar, Sully is taken in and develops an unbreakable bond with the Omaticaya clan of Na’vi, having fallen in love with Neytiri (Zoe Saldana). After defeating the Sky People and sending them back, the Omaticaya attempt to perform a spiritual transfer in which Sully’s consciousness is transferred to his avatar body (thereby nullifying any need for a computerized neural link). In order to get around this, a human organization called the Resources Development Administration (RDA), which handles space exploration and transportation (and is responsible for said resource plundering), creates what’s known as the Avatar Program. Also, the flora and fauna on Pandora — in Avatar: The Way of Water especially — react with extreme hostility toward human beings. Of course, watching the original between now and the release date would be the ideal thing to do, but maybe you don’t have the time for the two hour and 41-minute behemoth of a movie, or perhaps you’re a purist who won’t feel right watching Avatar on your non-3D TV, computer, or, heaven forbid, your phone.