The first of four (!) planned sequels to the original James Cameron CGI-heavy blockbuster offers more (and more and more and more) of the same: super-sleek indigenous planet peoples (this time forest dwellers and coastal paradise types) compelled to join forces to fight off a new round of genocidal attacks by Earthly invaders from the sky out to steal a fountain of youth formula. Think Amazon tribes & Tahitian natives vs arrogant/powerful East Coast/West Coast raiders in another intergalactic ‘Bad’ Cowboys/ ‘Good’ Indians action adventure. And since 2009's AVATAR became the all-time top grosser, hard to gainsay a sequel. This rising to #3 on that list*, though with hardly an original idea in a self-indulgent 3+ hour running time. (Half an hour longer than the first film.) Unexpectedly, establishing shots of landscapes and characters look unconvincing. (Or does if you're not hooked on video games.) Like a Robert Zemeckis film where improved pure CGI and motion capture techniques reduce rather than improve identification. Fortunately, this problem soon corrected, unfortunately, not much else is. And so many borrowed tropes from classic fable and fantasy.* (The lion with a throne in his paw a real lulu, but you choose your favorite.) The final battle, when we finally get there, is impressive in its windy manner, but the way Cameron presents his tarnished ideas as fresh discovery comes off as more self-delusional than ever.
ATTENTION MUST BE PAID/LINK: *Third place on the all-time box-office list nothing to sneeze at! But even without adjusting for inflation, it’s also a 20% drop from the first film. Perhaps the underwater heros of the film aren’t the only ones running out of oxygen. https://maksquibs.blogspot.com/2010/07/avatar-2009.html
SCREWY THOUGHT OF THE DAY: *The film so impersonal, you keep looking for a little sign on the wall attributing direction & story not to James Cameron but to ‘School of James Cameron.’
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