Avatar: The Way of Water
Avatar: The Way of Water
Jake Sully lives with his newfound family formed on the extrasolar moon Pandora. Once a familiar threat returns to finish what was previously started, Jake must work with Neytiri and the army of the Na'vi race to protect their home.
Kevin Ward reviewedJuly 5, 2025
Jaw dropping visual spectacle for most of it’s epic runtime and worthy of traveling the extra mile to see it on the biggest 3D IMAX screen with the high frame rate. With the setting having moved out of the lush forests of the first film and into a vibrant oceanic world, a lot of time is spent getting to know this new setting—the creatures within, the new characters and this new way of life. The setting is familiar enough that it still feels like Pandora but it’s also so wildly different that all of the visuals feel refreshingly new and not just a rehash of the first film. There are times when the high frame rate distracts and effectively making it look like a video game cut scene. But honestly, I think that’s only because of how spectacular everything else looks. At worst it looks like the most expensive video game cinematic of all time.
As for the main story, I didn’t really love it. A mustache twirling villain is dead set on hunting down Jake Sully at any cost. Much more interesting were some of the Sully children’s character arcs and their overall family dynamic in general was a highlight story-wise. Some of the character beats are repeated a few too many times, particularly with one of the sons, but I definitely felt more invested in the characters than I did in the first film. However, the Spider character unfortunately kind of sticks out. His motivations seems to waffle unpredictably and I just don’t know where he fits in.
Like the first Avatar, there’s an earnest environmental message that permeates throughout. It’s overly simplistic but I appreciate it being there.
The action set pieces, particularly in the last hour are something to behold. A marriage of exciting action and gorgeous visuals that are beyond my comprehension of how Cameron even began to put this all to film.
I’m pretty mixed overall but even still I’d say this is absolutely a must watch on the biggest and best screen possible. It’s just not very often that we’re treated to a spectacle quite like this.
UPDATE: Bumped to 4 stars on rewatch. Liked it quite a bit better. All of the different characters and story arcs were much easier to follow on the second watch. Saw in IMAX 3D again but without the High Frame Rate and I think I liked the visuals more this format. There were far fewer moments that felt like a video game cutscene.