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James Cameron wants you to believe. 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 disaster. In many ways, the planet of Pandora in " Avatar " has become his most ambitious manner of sharing this belief in the power of cinema. Can you leave everything in your life behind and experience a film in a way that's become increasingly difficult in an era of so much distraction? As technology has advanced, Cameron has pushed the limits of his power of belief even further, playing with 3D, High Frame Rate, and other toys that weren't available when he started his career. But one of the many things that is so fascinating about "Avatar: The Way of Water" is how that belief manifests itself in themes he's explored so often before. 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 ," " Aliens ," "The Abyss," and "The Terminator" films. It's as if Cameron has moved to Pandora forever and brought everything he cares about. (He's also clearly never leaving.) Cameron invites viewers into this fully realized world with so many striking images and phenomenally rendered action scenes that everything else fades away.

Maybe not right away. "Avatar: The Way of Water" struggles to find its footing at first, throwing viewers back into the world of Pandora in a narratively clunky way. One can tell that Cameron really cares most about the world-building mid-section of this film, which is one of his greatest accomplishments, so he rushes through some of the set-ups to get to the good stuff. Before then, we catch up with Jake Sully ( Sam Worthington ), a human who is now a full-time Na'vi and partners with Neytiri ( Zoe Saldana ), with whom he has started a family. They have two sons—Neteyam ( Jamie Flatters ) and Lo'ak ( Britain Dalton )—and a daughter named Tuk (Trinity Jo-Li Bliss), and they are guardians of Kiri ( Sigourney Weaver ), the offspring of Weaver's character from the first film.

Family bliss is fractured when the 'sky people' return, including an avatar Na'vi version of one Colonel Miles Quaritch ( Stephen Lang ), who has come to finish what he started, including vengeance on Jake for the death of his human form. He comes back with a group of former-human-now-Na'vi soldiers who are the film's main antagonists, but not the only ones. "Avatar: The Way of Water" once again casts the military, planet-destroying humans of this universe as its truest villains, but the villains' motives are sometimes a bit hazy. Around halfway through, I realized it's not very clear why Quaritch is so intent on hunting Jake and his family, other than the plot needs it, and Lang is good at playing mad.

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? Do you run and hide from the powerful enemy to try and stay safe or turn and fight the oppressive evil? At first, Jake takes the former option, leading them to another part of Pandora, where the film opens up via one of Cameron's longtime obsessions: H2O. The aerial acrobatics of the first film are supplanted by underwater ones in a region run by Tonowari ( Cliff Curtis ), the leader of a clan called the Metkayina. Himself a family man—his wife is played by Kate Winslet —Tonowari is worried about the danger the new Na'vi visitors could bring but can't turn them away. Again, Cameron plays with moral questions about responsibility in the face of a powerful evil, something that recurs in a group of commercial poachers from Earth. They dare to hunt sacred water animals in stunning sequences during which you have to remind yourself that none of what you're watching is real.

The film's midsection shifts its focus away from Sully/Quaritch to the region's children as Jake's boys learn the ways of the water clan. Finally, the world of "Avatar" feels like it's expanding in ways the first film didn't. Whereas that film was more focused on a single story, Cameron ties together multiple ones here in a far more ambitious and ultimately rewarding fashion. While some of the ideas and plot developments—like the connection of Kiri to Pandora or the arc of a new character named Spider ( Jack Champion )—are mostly table-setting for future films, the entire project is made richer by creating a larger canvas for its storytelling. While one could argue that there needs to be a stronger protagonist/antagonist line through a film that discards both Jake & Quaritch for long periods, I would counter that those terms are intentionally vague here. The protagonist is the entire family and even the planet on which they live, and the antagonist is everything trying to destroy the natural world and the beings that are so connected to it.

Viewers should be warned that Cameron's ear for dialogue hasn't improved—there are a few lines that will earn unintentional laughter—but there's almost something charming about his approach to character, one that weds old-fashioned storytelling to breakthrough technology. Massive blockbusters often clutter their worlds with unnecessary mythologies or backstories, whereas Cameron does just enough to ensure this impossible world stays relatable. His deeper themes of environmentalism and colonization could be understandably too shallow for some viewers—and the way he co-opts elements of Indigenous culture could be considered problematic—and I wouldn't argue against that. But if a family uses this as a starting point for conversations about those themes then it's more of a net positive than most blockbusters that provide no food for thought.

There has been so much conversation about the cultural impact of "Avatar" recently, as superheroes dominated the last decade of pop culture in a way that allowed people to forget the Na'vi. Watching "Avatar: The Way of Water," I was reminded of how impersonal the Hollywood machine has become over the last few decades and how often the blockbusters that truly make an impact on the form have displayed the personal touch of their creator. Think of how the biggest and best films of George Lucas and Steven Spielberg couldn't have been made by anyone else. "Avatar: The Way of Water" is a James Cameron blockbuster, through and through. And I still believe in him.

Available only in theaters on December 16th.

Brian Tallerico

Brian Tallerico is the Managing Editor of RogerEbert.com, and also covers television, film, Blu-ray, and video games. He is also a writer for Vulture, The Playlist, The New York Times, and GQ, and the President of the Chicago Film Critics Association.

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Avatar: The Way of Water (2022)

Rated PG-13 for sequences of strong violence and intense action, partial nudity and some strong language.

192 minutes

Sam Worthington as Jake Sully

Zoe Saldaña as Neytiri

Sigourney Weaver as Kiri

Stephen Lang as Colonel Miles Quaritch

Kate Winslet as Ronal

Cliff Curtis as Tonowari

Joel David Moore as Norm Spellman

CCH Pounder as Mo'at

Edie Falco as General Frances Ardmore

Brendan Cowell as Mick Scoresby

Jemaine Clement as Dr. Ian Garvin

Jamie Flatters as Neteyam

Britain Dalton as Lo'ak

Trinity Bliss as Tuktirey

Jack Champion as Javier 'Spider' Socorro

Bailey Bass as Tsireya

Filip Geljo as Aonung

Duane Evans Jr. as Rotxo

Giovanni Ribisi as Parker Selfridge

Dileep Rao as Dr. Max Patel

James Cameron

Writer (story by)

Amanda Silver
Josh Friedman
Shane Salerno

Cinematographer

Russell Carpenter
Stephen E. Rivkin
David Brenner
John Refoua
Simon Franglen

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Avatar 2 marks a dramatic step forward for director James Cameron

But The Way of Water is a step back for the endlessly distracting HFR presentation

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There are two thoughts that you never want to cross your mind at a movie theater. One is “Did I just step in gum?” The other is “Is this supposed to look this way?”

Avatar: The Way of Water , James Cameron’s fundamentally enjoyable and exciting sequel to the 2009 blockbuster Avatar , is meant to represent a major technological advance in cinematic exhibition. Time will tell whether that’s the case. But the fact is that many viewers will have a vexing experience if they see the picture in what’s considered the optimum format.

The first press screenings of the long-delayed 192-minute opus, which reportedly cost somewhere between $250 million and $400 million to make, were held at theaters equipped to project the film in a high frame rate (HFR). You may have experienced this with Gemini Man , Billy Lynn’s Long Halftime Walk , or Peter Jackson’s Hobbit trilogy. It’s fair to say that HFR hasn’t really taken off, unlike the wave of 3D that temporarily changed the cinema landscape when Avatar was released. But director/explorer Cameron boasted in October that he’d found a “simple hack” that would work as a game-changer. In short, he used advanced technology to essentially toggle The Way of Water between 48 frames per second and the traditional 24.

On paper, this sounds like a nice compromise. But three-plus hours of the shifting dynamic, without the ability to just settle into one or the other, is actually worse than simply watching an entire HFR movie. To use an old expression, you can’t ride two horses with one behind. And this is all the more upsetting because so much of the film is truly splendid.

Avatar: The Way of Water tells a simple but engaging story in an imaginative, beautiful environment. It’s more than three hours long, and it unfortunately takes close to a full third of that time to get rolling. But once it does — once former human Marine turned Pandoran native Jake Sully (Sam Worthington), his Na’vi mate Neytiri (Zoe Saldaña), and their brood of four half-Na’vi, half-Avatar children take refuge from the forest in a watery part of the world — the sense of wonder hits like a tidal wave.

The story setup is simple: Sky People (the rapacious, militarized humans of the Resources Development Administration) are back on Pandora after the events of Avatar , and this time, they want something even more unobtainable than the element unobtainium. No spoilers, but let’s say that extracting this stuff from Pandora isn’t just dangerous, it’s a crime against everything the Na’vi hold dear. Col. Miles Quaritch (Stephen Lang), reborn in a cloned Na’vi Avatar body, is leading the charge to kill that turncoat/insurgent Jake Sully, and won’t let anything stand in his way. Oorah!

In the second hour, the action picks up. Jake and Neytiri’s family becomes a collective fish out of water, almost literally, moving in with an aquatic tribe of Na’vi and adapting to its aquatic lifestyle. This is where Cameron’s rich soak in his invented world is most fulfilling. There’s about an hour of just floatin’ around a reef. The Sully kids have scuffles with the local bullies; the oddball daughter learns how to plug her hair into sponges and reefs; the adorable runt puts on translucent floaty wings and zooms around. It goes on for a quite a while, and the display of visual creativity is breathtaking.

Hour three is when things get wild. Cameron, an action director with few equals, is in conversation with himself, upping the stakes and testing his own resume. There’s a thrilling, emotional chase, and then a daylight battle sequence that’s propulsive, energetic, and original. It involves a gargantuan sea beast coming in off the top rope in a way that left my theater cheering.

Cameron isn’t generally known as a comic director, but there’s always been a humorous element to his action sequences. Think of Jamie Lee Curtis caterwauling and mugging during the causeway rescue in True Lies , or Robert Patrick’s T-1000 rising up from behind a soda machine as killer checker-patterned goop in Terminator 2: Judgment Day . What, we weren’t supposed to laugh at that first reveal of Sigourney Weaver in the mech suit in Aliens ? But the battle in the last third of The Way of Water is different.

Maybe Cameron reacquainted himself with the work of Sam Raimi. Maybe he’s drinking from the same cup as S.S. Rajamouli , who made the magnificent, absolutely ludicrous Indian import RRR . In The Way of Water , Cameron leans all the way into manic mayhem, smash-cutting from one outrageous image to the next. The final act of this movie shows off a freeing attitude he’s never fully embraced before in his action — even action that’s strikingly similar, like the massive sinking ship sequence in Titanic . James Cameron has some expertise in this arena, but this time out, it feels like he’s having a lot more fun.

It’s unlikely that The Way of Water will be a financial watershed on the same level as 2009’s Avatar . The 3D tech was so new back then, and the world-building and the use of CGI environments were both so unprecedented. It was a once-in-a-lifetime move forward for film technology and immersive storytelling. Much like Disney’s recent sequel Disenchanted , The Way of Water is arriving in a cinematic environment that was completely reshaped by its predecessor — and there are no tricks here that move filmmaking forward in the same way.

The closest Cameron comes is that shifting HFR trick, which winds up being more of a distraction than a bonus. Think about the change you notice at the perimeter of the screen when watching a Christopher Nolan or Mission: Impossible movie in an IMAX theater. The material shot in the large IMAX format blows out to fill the whole frame, changing the aspect ratio. The back and forth of the masking at the top and bottom can be intrusive. Eventually, you get used to it, or you recognize it isn’t that big a deal. The change back and forth with HFR — an enormous screen toggling with a “motion smoothing” effect — is not something the eye and brain can get used to.

What’s more, this is Avatar. Most of the time, what’s in the frame is computer-generated imagery (a telepathic alien whale the size of an aircraft carrier, primed for vengeance!), so it already looks unusual. If the whole movie were in HFR, perhaps one would settle in, but jumping between the two — often from shot to shot in the same action sequence, or even within the same shot , as it is being projected in some cinemas — is simply an aesthetic experiment that fails.

This is not just being picky. The changes mean that the tempo of the action on screen looks either sped up or slowed down as the switches occur. Shots in higher frame rate couched between ones that are lower (and there are many) look like a computer game that gets stuck on a render, which then spits something out super fast. To put it an old-school way, it looks like The Benny Hill Show .

It’s just fascinating that Captain Technology, James Cameron, would want it this way. And it’s unfortunate. Because the entire message of the Avatar films is about environmentalism and preservation, about respecting the world as it is. It seems like Pandora’s creator would recognize that sometimes the best move is to leave well enough alone, instead of looking for ways to fix something that didn’t need fixing in the first place.

Avatar: The Way of Water will be released Dec. 16 in theaters.

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Avatar: The Way of Water First Reviews: A Magical, Visually Sublime Cinematic Experience Well Worth the Wait

Early reviews of james cameron's long-in-the-making sequel say it feels like an immersive theme park thrill ride with interesting characters, breathtaking action, and a better story than the first..

TAGGED AS: First Reviews , movies , news

The first of Avatar’ s sequels is finally here, 13 years after the release of the record-breaking original. For those who’ve been anxiously looking forward to Avatar: The Way of Water and those who have been doubting its necessity, the good news is that the movie is worth the wait and another work of essential theatrical entertainment from James Cameron. The first reviews of the follow-up celebrate its expected visual spectacle as well as its slightly improved script and new cast members. You’re going to want to return to Pandora after reading these excerpts.

Here’s what critics are saying about Avatar: The Way of Water :

Does it live up to expectations?

The Way of the Water is a transformative movie experience that energizes and captivates the senses through its visual storytelling, making the return to Pandora well worth the wait. – Mae Abdulbaki, Screen Rant

Spending more than a decade pining for Pandora was worth it. Cameron has delivered the grandest movie since, well, Avatar . – Johnny Oleksinski, New York Post

This latest and most ambitious picture will stun most of his naysayers into silence. – Justin Chang, Los Angeles Times

Is it better than the original?

Like all great sequels, The Way of Water retrospectively deepens the original. – David Ehrlich, IndieWire

Avatar: The Way of Water is as visually exhilarating and sweepingly told as its predecessor; the plot is more emotionally vigorous. – Johnny Oleksinski, New York Post

(Photo by ©Walt Disney Studios Motion Pictures)

So it’s not just more of the same?

Any “been here, actually do remember this” déjà vu washes all the way off the minute the action finally plunges under the surface. – David Ehrlich, IndieWire

[It is] meticulous world-building as astonishing and enveloping as anything we’ve ever seen on screen. – Leah Greenblatt, Entertainment Weekly

The brand-extension imperatives that typically govern sequels are happily nowhere in evidence. – Justin Chang, Los Angeles Times

Does it have a better script?

The sequel’s story is spread a bit thin, though there is certainly more depth than the first film. – Mae Abdulbaki, Screen Rant

In terms of narrative sophistication and even more so dialogue, this $350 million sequel is almost as basic as its predecessor, even feeble at times. – David Rooney, Hollywood Reporter

The story is still just okay. – Owen Gleiberman, Variety

Will we care enough about the story and characters regardless?

Avatar: The Way of Water is such a staggering improvement over the original because its spectacle doesn’t have to compensate for its story; in vintage Cameron fashion, the movie’s spectacle is what allows its story to be told so well. – David Ehrlich, IndieWire

The movie’s overt themes of familial love and loss, its impassioned indictments of military colonialism and climate destruction, are like a meaty hand grabbing your collar; it works because they work it. – Leah Greenblatt, Entertainment Weekly

Watching The Way of Water , one rolls their eyes only to realize they’re welling with tears. – Richard Lawson, Vanity Fair

I’m sorry, but as I watched The Way of Water the only part of me that was moved was my eyeballs. – Owen Gleiberman, Variety

Are there any standout performances?

Saldaña and Winslet have poignant moments…and Dalton and Champion are standouts among the young newcomers. – David Rooney, Hollywood Reporter

The most dynamic portrayal probably belongs to Lang, whose Quaritch is so relentless in his pursuit of Jake that he becomes a force of nature. – Tim Grierson, Screen International

How is the action?

The open-water clash that dominates the final hour is a commandingly sustained feat of action filmmaking. – David Rooney, Hollywood Reporter

Any hack can make stuff blow up real good; Cameron makes stuff glow up real good. – Justin Chang, Los Angeles Times

Are the visuals as spectacular as they’re supposed to be?

One can’t say enough good things about the film’s visuals — each frame is more breathtaking and magical than the last. – Mae Abdulbaki, Screen Rant

The world both above and below the waterline is a thing to behold, a sensory overload of sound and color so richly tactile that it feels psychedelically, almost spiritually sublime. – Leah Greenblatt, Entertainment Weekly

What’s most astonishing about The Way of Water is the persuasive case it makes for CGI. – David Rooney, Hollywood Reporter

(Photo by Mark Fellman/©Walt Disney Studios Motion Pictures)

But how is that high frame rate?

It’s a rather soulless feel, as it was in Peter Jackson’s Hobbit films. But it can make you feel like you’re sharing the same space with the characters. – Owen Gleiberman, Variety

While the approach can sometimes prove distracting, the film is far more persuasive than Ang Lee’s recent experiments in the form. – Tim Grierson, Screen International

The use of high frame rate (a sped-up 48 frames per second) tends to work better underwater than on dry land, where the overly frictionless, motion-smoothed look might put you briefly in mind of a Na’vi soap opera. – Justin Chang, Los Angeles Times

Does it feel like more than just your average movie?

At times you don’t feel like you’re watching a movie so much as floating in one. – Justin Chang, Los Angeles Times

There are times when it can seem as if there isn’t a screen at all, and that the action is unfolding right in front of you. – David Ehrlich, IndieWire

It’s truly a movie crossed with a virtual-reality theme-park ride. – Owen Gleiberman, Variety

Do we need to see it in a theater?

It’s the most rapturous, awe-inducing, only in theaters return to the cinema of attractions since Godard experimented with double exposure 3D in Goodbye to Language . – David Ehrlich, IndieWire

Will it leave us excited for Avatar 3 ?

Where it will flow next is a mystery, and it’d be disingenuous of me to suggest I’m not eager to find out. – Justin Chang, Los Angeles Times

Avatar: The Way of Water opens everywhere on December 16, 2022.

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‘avatar: the way of water’ review: james cameron’s mega-sequel delivers on action, emotion and thrilling 3-d visuals.

Sam Worthington and Zoe Saldaña return to Pandora with a Na’vi family to protect as the “Sky People” menace follows them to a bioluminescent ocean hideout.

By David Rooney

David Rooney

Chief Film Critic

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James Cameron knows his way around a sequel. With Aliens and Terminator 2: Judgment Day , he showed he could build on the strengths of franchise starters with brawny action, steadily ratcheted tension and jaw-dropping technological invention. He’s also a storyteller very much at home in H2O, harnessing both the majestic vastness of the oceans and the icy perils of the deep in Titanic and The Abyss .

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Avatar: The Way of Water review

A transcendent cinematic experience.

TechRadar Verdict

Avatar: The Way of Water is a phenomenal feat of filmmaking. Not only does director James Cameron deliver on the promise of truly jaw-dropping visual effects, he also gives a beating heart to a story that, somehow, manages to make us care deeply for a family of blue aliens whose species and customs we haven’t encountered for over a decade. This long-awaited return to Pandora is every bit as beautiful as its aquatic title suggests – at times unbelievably so – and although some may take issue with the film’s whale-sized runtime, most will walk away from The Way of Water feeling stung by the disappointment of having to leave Cameron's mesmerizing world at the multiplex door.

Bar-raising performance capture

Surprisingly moving story

Simon Franglen’s sweeping score

Third act feels familiar

Lengthy runtime may frustrate some

Why you can trust TechRadar We spend hours testing every product or service we review, so you can be sure you’re buying the best. Find out more about how we test.

They say absence makes the heart grow fonder, but the 13-year gap between James Cameron’s Avatar and its sequel, The Way of Water, has understandably left many cinemagoers at best indifferent and at worst uninterested in a return to the lush green jungles of Pandora.

2009’s introduction to the Naʼvi and their homeworld is seared into our collective consciousness for the novelty of its 3D format and, of course, its record-breaking box office success – the film’s global receipts now total a ridiculous $2.9 billion – but less has been said in the years since about Avatar’s unrivalled ability to immerse and entertain (Quentin Tarantino famously described the experience of watching the movie as “a ride”).

No other filmmaker can draw the viewer into an on-screen adventure quite like Cameron, and no other film since Avatar has come close to delivering the sort of sustained awe that the world of Pandora elicits around every corner – until now.

Welcome (back) to the jungle

Cameron has explained away the decade-long wait for his Avatar sequel by saying it was necessary to develop new technology for shooting its underwater sequences (more on these later), but he may as well claim that the delay was a deliberate creative decision to age his Na’vi heroes in real time.

Set some 15 years after its predecessor, The Way of Water finds Jake Sully (Sam Worthington) and Neytiri (Zoe Saldaña) living a life of forest-dwelling quietude on Pandora. They now have four children – three of their own and an adopted daughter by Grace (Sigourney Weaver), whose pregnancy, we’re told, was a mystery until her after death in Avatar – and the pair serve as leaders of the Omaticaya, the Na’vi clan central to Cameron’s original story.

Also part of the Sully clan is Spider (Jack Champion), a human boy who lives among the Na’vi because he was too young to be shipped back to Earth following the departure of the ‘sky people’ a decade earlier (he’s described in the film’s opening moments as a “ stray cat”, which says something of the underlying hostility the Na’vi still hold toward non-natives).

Plenty more new faces are introduced throughout The Way of Water’s three-hour runtime, and given that almost all of them belong the Na’vi, Cameron is quick to point out that most of the film’s dialogue is spoken in the Naʼvi language, despite sounding English to our ears (Jake’s scene-setting monologue includes a smart explanation as to why that is).

It’s impressive how light-touch this exposition feels considering the gap between visits to Pandora. Cameron bets on our immediate familiarity with the Naʼvi, the Omaticaya, Pandora, and its wildlife by throwing us straight back into the jungle with only a few brief moments of memory-jogging, and it doesn’t take long before The Way of Water has us strapped in and ready to fly alongside the mountain banshees for a new adventure.

The film’s dramatic location change comes by way of a familiar threat. Without wishing to stray too far into spoiler territory, the ‘sky people’ return to Pandora with a mission to make its biosphere hospitable for humans. Earth has (surprise!) been ravaged by centuries of neglect, so mining is out and colonization is in – and certain members of the human race also happen to have a real grudge against marine-turned-Na’vi-native Jake Sully.

Long story short: the Sully clan are forced to seek safety in the faraway regions of Pandora. They settle on a crop of Caribbean-esque islands that are home to the Metkayina, or reef people, and are permitted to take shelter among their aquatic hosts on the condition that they learn – you guessed it – the way of water. Cue the bioluminescent whales!

Fathers and sons

Of course, a whole lot more happens in The Way of Water once Jake, Neytiri and their blue brood encounter these same-but-slightly-different Na’vi neighbors – in truth, our synopsis only retells the events of the film’s opening hour– but Cameron’s follow-up story is best experienced as blind as possible.

Just know this: the introduction of children in The Way of Water makes for an infinitely more emotionally engaging ride than the first Avatar. Cameron knows exactly what he’s doing by throwing naive Na’vi youngsters into the fray – they’re the bait that wholeheartedly involves us in the film’s otherwise-familiar humans-are-the-bad-guys story. In the 13 years since Worthington and Saldaña played Jake and Neytiri for the first time, both actors have started families of their own, and the immense – at times crushing – responsibility of parenthood is felt in every frame of The Way of Water. “You’re fearless when you don’t have kids. But you learn fear when you do – you have something to lose”, Cameron said in the film’s press conference, and that sentiment fuels the movie’s plot right through to its downright stirring conclusion.

So, yes: The Way of Water may well make you cry about a bunch of blue aliens. But the all-too-familiar relationships between parents and children aren’t the only parts of Cameron’s sequel that risk inducing tears.

On a technical level, it’s hard to think of a more visually arresting motion picture than The Way of Water. This is a cinematic experience in the purest sense – one whose stills are often just as powerful as its motion-heavy sequences – and once the Sully clan touch down on the shores of the Metkayina, it becomes abundantly clear that Cameron’s spiel about waiting for the right technology was no spiel at all.

Where the original Avatar broke new ground with innovative performance-capture techniques, The Way of Water takes the same trickery underwater to blend action and expression in ways never before seen on screen. Seriously, the visual wizardry on display here from New Zealand-based animation studio Wētā FX – the production company founded by The Lord of the Rings director Peter Jackson – is nothing short of remarkable. If you’re able to see The Way of Water in IMAX 3D, absolutely do so. The interaction between water and light is frequently jaw-dropping; sea creatures zip across the screen with power and grace, sand dampens when touched by waves, and surface ripples distort images as they do in real life. In one scene, Sully’s second-oldest son, Lo’ak, encounters a supposedly fearsome whale, and the next 10 minutes are almost spiritually beautiful to behold.

The Na’vi, too, never look less than utterly convincing. Even when characters aren’t speaking to one another through verbal dialogue, there's a perceptible nuance in the eyes and facial expressions of the actors behind them. Pupils contract, muscles twitch and hair – my gosh, the hair! – dances in the water like the tentacles of a solitary sea anemone. Not everything works to perfection. In a movie as heavily reliant on CGI as this, the occasional dodgy texture stands out like a big blue Na’vi thumb, and some vehicle animations come off as a little too video game-like. But for the most part, it is honestly hard to distinguish between the practical and the computer-generated in The Way of Water. Cameron’s enthusiasm for this new form of motion capture technology is absolutely vindicated.

A huge amount of praise must also go to the film’s composer, Simon Franglen, who took on the responsibility of scoring The Way of Water solo after the passing of original Avatar maestro (and frequent Cameron collaborator) James Horner in 2016. Michael Giacchino ( The Batman ) and Ludwig Göransson ( Black Panther: Wakanda Forever ) have a fight on their hands for next year's Best Original Score Oscar.

Our verdict

Despite its many triumphs, The Way of Water is not a flawless movie. Saldaña’s Neytiri gets disappointingly little screen time until her shoot-the-pilot-in-the-cockpit skills are needed, and the film’s third act – which is more action packed than a Michael Bay-directed car chase – feels a touch too familiar.

But once you’ve seen a teenage alien visibly blush at the sight of a new love interest, or a superpowered eel perform a somersault against the backdrop of a Pandora sunset, or an extraterrestrial jellyfish field illuminate a deep sea canyon, it becomes difficult to care about earthly filmmaking gripes that might otherwise bring the experience of watching The Way of Water down. Cameron has here crafted a hypnotic aquarium of a movie – an all-encompassing journey to another world that can only be described in hyperbolic terms.

As the follow-up to one of the most groundbreaking films of recent decades, The Way of Water was never going to deliver anything close to the same cultural sucker punch as 2009’s inaugural journey to Pandora – but it does a damn good job of reminding us all why movies exist in the first place.

Avatar: The Way of Water releases exclusively in theaters on December 16.

Axel is TechRadar's UK-based Phones Editor, reporting on everything from the latest Apple developments to newest AI breakthroughs as part of the site's Mobile Computing vertical. Having previously written for publications including Esquire and FourFourTwo, Axel is well-versed in the applications of technology beyond the desktop, and his coverage extends from general reporting and analysis to in-depth interviews and opinion. Axel studied for a degree in English Literature at the University of Warwick before joining TechRadar in 2020, where he then earned an NCTJ qualification as part of the company’s inaugural digital training scheme.

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In late 2009, when James Cameron’s record-breaking blockbuster Avatar was released, the relationship of the average movie viewer to digital technology was subtly but profoundly different than it would be 13 years later. Smartphones had existed for a few years, but they were nowhere near as ubiquitous nor as powerful in shaping everyday behavior as they have since become. (Like many people I knew, I bought my first one that year.) Social media, too, was a relatively new cultural force: 2009 was the year that Facebook’s user count first began to surpass that of MySpace, and also the year Twitter became a key organizing tool in the Iran uprising known as the “Green Revolution” (or, sometimes, the “Twitter revolution”). When the first Avatar came out, the notion of virtual reality still seemed cool and somehow philosophical, a Matrix -style upending of dull everyday reality, rather than the banal product it has become in the age of Mark Zuckerberg’s metaverse, a joyless zone where, Zuck promises, one day we will get to go to work meetings in the guise of our bland cartoon selves, maybe even with legs .

Avatar: The Way of Water is the first of four projected Avatar sequels, and the first film of any kind Cameron has directed since the original came out. All that time he has been immersed in Pandora, the utopian planet he invented, not only planning and shooting the first two sequels at once but consulting on the creation of Avatar -related attractions and rides for Disney theme parks. In the nonfictional realm, Cameron also became a deep-sea explorer, using some of his massive profits from the first Avatar to construct a single-person submarine in which he became the first person to descend alone to the bottom of the Mariana Trench, the deepest part of the earth’s ocean floor.

When it comes to water, in short, the director of Titanic and The Abyss has a well-established penchant for going hard, which is why the most satisfying stretches of his new 3-hour-plus epic about the imperiled Na’vi people are those that take place in and around the oceanic home of the Metkayina people, a Na’vi tribe that lives in close contact with the sea and has evolved to survive for long periods underwater. The design of the teal-green Metkayina characters is beautifully differentiated from the familiar giant-blue-cat look of the Omaticayas, the forest-dwelling tribe that was the focus of the first film, and there are some transporting sequences in which members of both tribes explore the marvels of Pandora marine life: sentient whale-like creatures called tulkun, shimmering schools of bioluminescent fish, and a wonderfully imagined pink stingray that, attached to the shoulders of a swimmer like fairy wings, enables the user to breathe underwater. Rendered in crisp 3D with details to discover in every corner of the frame, these sequences are thrilling to watch, even if—or maybe because—they bring the film’s mostly pedestrian story to a halt.

If this review, too, seems to have taken its time to get around the actual plot of Avatar: The Way of Water , that’s because the experience of viewing the movie often seems only tangentially connected to the story of Jake Sully (a motion-captured Sam Worthington), the human hero who at the end of the first film had his consciousness uploaded into a genetically engineered Na’vi body, and his Na’vi family. He and his wife Neytiri (Zoe Saldaña) have three biological children: golden-boy eldest son Neteyam (Jamie Flatters), perpetual screwup Lo’ak (Britain Dalton), and adorable tween Tuk (Trinity Jo-Li Bliss). They also have an adopted teenage daughter, the daydream-prone Kiri (played, in a clever bit of age-blind casting, by 73-year-old Sigourney Weaver, who played the character’s mother in the first film). To round out the cute-kid ensemble there is Spider (Jack Champion), a human boy who was abandoned by the colonizing forces that left Pandora at the end of the first film and who has grown up as a kind of self-sufficient wild child.

This azure Brady Bunch has lived in peaceful harmony with their forest surroundings for what looks to be, from the children’s ages, around 15 years when Pandora is once again invaded by the marauding Earthlings the Na’vi call “Sky People.” The leader of the new colonizing forces, bent on extracting value from Pandora’s ecosystem and, most particularly, on tracking down and killing Jake Sully, is an upgraded version of the first movie’s villain. Colonel Miles Quaritch (Stephen Lang), who was killed at the end of Avatar , has sneakily uploaded his own consciousness to some sort of futuristic hard drive and had it reimplanted in a genetically engineered Na’vi body. (All this is somewhat hastily clarified in a data dump as the movie begins, and you don’t need to grasp all the specifics in order to understand that big blue bad guy wants to kill big blue good guy and, if possible, his big blue family as well.)

To hide out from the murderous invaders, the Sullys trek across Pandora to the Metkayina’s watery kingdom, where they are at first greeted with mistrust by the tribal leader Tonowari (Cliff Curtis) and his pregnant shaman wife Ronal (Kate Winslet) but are gradually accepted into the community and taught the eponymous “way of water,” including spiritual pilgrimages to a sacred underwater tree and psychic bonding with the hyper-intelligent tulkun. (One character informs us that these whale-like beasts have not only their own music and mathematics but their own philosophy, creating in this viewer at least the desire for a future spinoff set at a tulkun university.) The mid-film sequences that familiarize both the Sullys and the audience with the biodiversity of Pandoran marine life are gorgeous, imaginative, and placid. When the movie cuts back to the doings of the earthly bad guys, including Edie Falco as a no-nonsense commander in an Alien -style mech exoskeleton, it’s a jarring reminder that this dreamy utopian planet does indeed contain conflict beyond the bullying of teens daring each other to swim farther out than their parents allow.

In the final third of the film, the battle between the earthlings and the Na’vi takes over the story, with a series of exciting if not always logical action set pieces that includes a heart-pounding chase on a whaling vessel and an extended sinking-ship sequence that may bring to mind another movie about a certain doomed ocean liner. Neither dialogue nor character development are the strong points of this visually dazzling plunge, but you don’t need fine shadings of meaning to grasp the stakes of these scenes. Not unlike Peter Jackson’s Lord of the Rings trilogy—which, like The Way of Water , was filmed mainly in New Zealand with the help of the WETA visual-effects workshop— Cameron’s Avatar movies are grand-scale event pictures that are still somehow as simple as storytelling gets.

“The most dangerous thing about Pandora is that you may grow to love her too much,” Jake Sully tells us in voiceover near the film’s beginning, and even if not every viewer runs the risk of falling as far down the Mariana Trench of Na’vi lore as James Cameron has, The Way of Water is nothing if not a triumph of world-building. Fans of fantasy, speculative sci-fi, and YA romance are sure to be drawn in by the flying-crocodile-riding adventures of the squabbling teens who are for all practical purposes the movie’s main characters. A stickler for logic might question why, while their parents are heard speaking with a Na’vi accent, the next generation are all shown addressing one another in the frat-boy slang of American suburban teenagers, with lots of “bro,” “dude,” and “This is sick!” And I would be interested to read the thoughts of a critic of color, especially someone of indigenous origin, on the racialized traits of various Pandoran characters, including the Na’vi women’s cornrow braids and, in an unfortunate styling choice, the blond dreadlocks of the feral white boy Spider. Cameron’s loving gaze upon the world of his own creation is complicated by his exoticized idealization of what he clearly sees as the Na’vi’s spiritual superiority to humans and their role as preservers of their world’s ecological balance. His passion is infectious and his enthusiasm for environmental causes commendable, but the movie’s metaphysical and sociological aspirations sometimes come off as cringe-inducingly similar to those that might be expressed by a white lady running a healing-crystal shop in a seaside town.

At times—as with the intermittent high-frame-rate scenes that unexpectedly drop us into a hyperreal visual world that I for one found distracting—Cameron seems almost to have overspent, like a host laying out a football-field-length table with more food than his guests can even visually take in all at once, let alone eat. But the beauty of the world he creates, evoked in lush detail by cinematographer Russell Carpenter, is enough, most of the time, to make you forgive the hokiness of the screenplay by Cameron, Rick Jaffa and Amanda Silver. This 3-hour-and-10-minute movie cost something in the realm of $350 million, much of it poured into special effects. As Cameron has been boasting in press interviews, it will need to be one of the top-grossing movies of all time merely to earn its budget back. Given that this 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, it seems like a safe bet that Avatar: The Way of Water will set another box-office record. What that will mean for the future of moviegoing is a lot less clear than the pristine oceans of Pandora, but if you want to get a peek at what might be coming next, you might as well dive in.

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Movie Reviews

Movie review: 'avatar: the way of water'.

Bob Mondello

Filmmaker James Cameron's sequel to the biggest worldwide box office hit of all time, "Avatar: The Way of Water," has been in the works for more than a decade.

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First 'Avatar: The Way of Water' Reactions Call it "Immersive," "Stunning," and Better Than the First Film

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Critics, journalists, and more are back from their first visit to Pandora in over a decade, and they have plenty to say in their first reactions to Avatar: The Way of Water . The film is James Cameron 's long-awaited return to the world he built in the highest-grossing film of all time, and it looks to set the groundwork for a potential franchise based around Jake ( Sam Worthington ), Neytiri ( Zoe Saldaña ), and their family's exploits on the foreign planet.

Set over 10 years after the original film, the new adventure will take Jake and his family across parts of Pandora audiences have never seen before all in the name of finding safe haven. With the RDA redoubling its mining efforts on the planet, they look for a way to keep their family together as well as fight back against the encroaching threat. Trailers so far have showcased some absolutely stunning vistas as the franchise takes to a new, aquatic region. Despite the changes, Cameron aims to reinforce the original film's themes with The Way of Water , focusing heavily on familial connections.

The return of such a revolutionary film warrants a cast packed with new and returning talent. Worthington and Saldaña reprise their roles alongside Matt Gerald , Joel David Moore , CCH Pounder , Dileep Rao , Giovanni Ribisi , and, in a shocker, Stephen Lang . Sigourney Weaver also returns to the franchise, though she'll play a different role as Kiri, the adopted daughter of Jake and Neytiri. Cameron also brought in some exciting newcomers to join his returning cast members with Kate Winslet , Cliff Curtis , Edie Falco , Michelle Yeoh , Jemaine Clement , Oona Chaplin , and Vin Diesel all set to set foot on Pandora for the first time. For what it's worth, the stars haven't been quiet about their excitement to be a part of the film with Worthington even going as far as to claim the sequel blows its predecessor out of the water (pun intended).

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How Do Critics Feel About Avatar: The Way of Water

The Way of Water is a massive undertaking for Cameron considering its legacy. The risks are certainly high, however. Thanks to an absurd budget to create the sprawling, vibrant Pandoran landscape, the film has to do historically well to even turn a profit . Future sequels and expansions on the world of Pandora hinge on what happens with the film as Cameron has previously stated he's prepared to end the franchise with Avatar 3 if the second film misses the mark with audiences. See how critics are reacting to the long-awaited sequel below:

Collider's own Perri Nemiroff is calling the film incredible, saying the technical feats work with the story, and Therese Lacson enjoyed the spectacle and drama of the sequel.

Having not been impressed with the original film, Collider's Ross Bonaime was blown away by the sequel. Meanwhile, Gabriel Bell had a mixed reaction to the three-hour and twelve-minute movie.

Others are once again wildly impressed by the scale that Cameron is able to achieve with this universe.

Some critics are even saying that Avatar: The Way of Water builds upon and exceeds the first film which broke records around the world.

Naturally, another feat of technological advancement and movie magic, many are saying this sequel demands to be seen on the biggest screen possible.

Overall, if there's one thing critics are saying it's never to doubt Cameron when it comes to masterful filmmaking, even if the film is packed to the brim.

Filmmaker Guillermo Del Toro perhaps sums it up best by saying:

Avatar: The Way of Water makes a splash in theaters on December 16. You can watch the trailer down below.

Avatar: The Way of Water (2022)

Avatar: The Way of Water review: "An imposing, dazzling, supersized blockbuster"

Gamesradar+ verdict.

James Cameron mobilizes on all fronts for an imperfect but imposing blockbuster: dazzling, supersized, rippled with currents of sincere feeling.

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Before he became King of the World, James Cameron was king of the bigger, better, more parentally fraught blockbuster sequel. Even if his long-awaited return to Pandora can’t match Aliens or T2 for focused tanker-weight efficiency, Avatar: The Way of Water cleaves close enough to uphold that reputation. And it sure leaves Piranha II’s flying fish standing.

Will it join the $2bn club, as Cameron implies it must? We’ll see, but it certainly is a whole lot of flawed but fulsome ( quoting Guillermo del Toro ) "MOVIE-MOVIE": a sometimes surreal, always spectacular sensory hit with an undertow of gentle emotion, an overflow of ambition, and a pleasingly earnest thematic thrust. It might take multiple viewings to unpick some plot threads… and three more films. But if anyone can mount a case for the repeat-visit cinema experience, Cameron can.

Since most people have visited Pandora before, Cameron wastes little time on scene-setting. The opening parachutes fast into Pandora’s jungle, where gone-total-Na’vi Jake Sully (Sam Worthington) and Neytiri (Zoe Saldana) now raise their expanded family. There are their own kids, Neteyam (Jamie Flatters), Lo’ak (Britain Dalton), and Tuktirey (Trinity Bliss). Then there are the adoptees: Kiri (Sigourney Weaver) is the sort-of-child of Grace’s avatar (from the first Avatar ), while Spider (Jack Champion) is a feral human orphaned by war.

Jake believes protecting his family gives him purpose. So when villainous Colonel Quaritch (Stephen Lang) returns in (fully explained) "Recombinant" avatar form seeking "payback" for his demise, the Sully fam seeks refuge among Pandora’s sea clans. Here, Jake helicopters over his tearaway brood sternly. But can they run from Quaritch’s new blue marines forever? And isn’t navigating risk an essential learning curve?

While this bare-bones set-up reflects Cameron’s pulp punch as a writer, his staggering proficiency as a world-builder is also displayed. This time, Cameron leaves little time to pause and admire Pandora’s plant life. The verdant jungle now feels lived-in, alive. Meanwhile, with life on earth barely viable, the RDA (Resources Development Administration) has bigger designs on Pandora. Their base of operations is a small city, where tech upgrades include robo-spidery "swarm assemblers" that construct buildings in days. When the humans land on Pandora, Cameron makes sure you feel the devastation wrought in their wake.

In CG terms, The Way of Water certainly has the WOW factor. Hair and skin glisten, flames and dust motes transfix: 13 years on, Avatar’s spectacle-cinema upgrade has been bested. Yet just as Avatar took time to introduce audiences to Pandora’s groovy wonderland, so the big reveal this time is the reef, home to the Metkayina clan. The ocean world is luminous, tactile, serene. As the 3D visuals glow in sync with Simon Franglen’s chiming score, the sense of weightless immersion in the waters shows a fresh, tender grace in Cameron’s direction. He brings respect to the ocean too, not just enraptured love: the waters are alluring and dangerous. And when their occupants are mistreated, the sense of horror is palpable.

While he’s dazzling your eyeballs, Cameron juggles thematic, narrative, emotional, and character strands meticulously. Almost echoing Finding Nemo, Jake’s primal urge to protect his kids establishes danger as a thematic motif – from the opening monologue on, Cameron treats the theme like a dorsal fin to cling to through choppy plot waters.

Cast-wise, Kate Winslet (as Metkayina clan co-leader Ronal) and Saldana are held back a little too much but Worthington aces the formerly in-training Na’vi turned training-on-the-job dad. Weaver projects Kiri’s feelings of outsider-dom – and sulky eye-rolls – touchingly through the mo-cap, dissolving the actor/character age gap. Among the terrific young actors, Dalton brings heart to bonding scenes with the whale-like Tulkun, scenes that might otherwise have gone a bit Free Willy. And Champion makes feral work of the Newt-ish Spider, whose side-plot develops Cameron’s thoughts on family.

The returning Lang adds explosive rage, though it’s a pity his toxic spiel ("science pukes" and so on) rings familiar. Though Cameron spends no time on Avatar refresher courses, he does sometimes lean on known beats. While sea creatures the 'ilus' are rethinks of Avatar’s ikrans, the Sully clan’s water-training reworks Jake’s old Na’vi training. Cameron even repeats himself a little within the film: when one character sighs, "Can’t believe I’m tied up again," you wonder if a little trimming might have been advised.

The stop-start plotting is also slightly problematic, with some characters and their struggles seemingly vanishing for stretches. Yet when the plot strands converge for the climax, Cameron channels previous career highs into a blast of full-bore, high-stakes spectacle, reminding you who’s in charge. T2’s tech, Titanic’s watery horror show, Aliens’ child peril, The Abyss’ weird wonder: it’s all here, maximized for tension, action, and emotion. When the flames clear, some dangling story strands leave more questions than answers. But three follow-ups are planned… Even at three hours-plus, Cameron’s comeback leaves you ready for more.

Avatar: The Way of Water is in cinemas from December 16. Fro more, check out the most exciting upcoming movies heading your way soon.

Genre

Action

Kevin Harley is a freelance journalist with bylines at Total Film, Radio Times, The List, and others, specializing in film and music coverage. He can most commonly be found writing movie reviews and previews at GamesRadar+.

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Avatar: The Way Of Water Review

16 Dec 2022

Avatar: The Way Of Water

In the near-decade-and-a-half since we last visited Pandora, the humans in the film have travelled the 4.4 light years back to Earth, regrouped, made the return trip and built a new city-sized base on the alien moon. James Cameron has been about as busy. Besides mapping out a Lord Of The Rings -sized mythology for his burgeoning franchise (frankly we’ve lost count of how many Avatars are percolating in his brain at this point; we think it’s 32?), he’s been pushing technological envelopes left, right and centre, stirring up a mad brew of aquatic performance-capture, 3D tech and amped-up frame rates. The result, Avatar: The Way Of Water , is so dazzling to behold that adjectives like “dazzling” seem too anaemic to apply. It’s a leap beyond even what he pulled off with the first film, a phantasmagorical, fully immersive waking dream of a movie in which something impossible is happening on-screen at almost every moment. It’s a lot to process. And a timely reminder of what cinema is capable of when it dares to dream big.

Size is a key factor here — this is a sequel, after all, and the law of movie physics dictates that follow-ups must get increasingly colossal. The Way Of Water ticks this box in several ways. For one, there’s the ensemble of characters. All your old favourites are back (plus Norm Spellman), but making their bow are a group of azure urchins, the children of Neytiri ( Zoe Saldaña ) and Jake ( Sam Worthington ). The prospect of a blockbuster driven by kids can be a concerning one; Cameron, though, manages to keep things on the right side of saccharine. Even if none of these younglings are quite as winning as Aliens ’ Newt — not even the adopted Spider (Jack Champion), a wild-child human space-sprog who brings her to mind — they’re all easy to root for, which is good news considering the second act of the movie leaves Jake and Neytiri behind to venture out on adventures with the new generation. The titchy Tuktirey (Trinity Jo-Li Bliss) doesn’t get much to do, but there are substantial storylines for Lo’ak (Britain Dalton), who finds a friend in an unlikely place, and Kiri ( Sigourney Weaver , a 70-something playing a 14-year-old through VFX magic), the most interesting of the fresh characters, who appears to be getting set up to become a major player in future instalments.

The action, when it arrives, is thunderingly entertaining.

Then there’s the new environment. As you’ve probably gleaned by now, Cameron has activated his key mantra — just add water — returning to the ocean for the first time since 1997’s Titanic . Except this isn’t any ocean you’ve seen before. The first time he plunges us beneath the surface of Pandora’s big blue, the brain almost can’t take it all in: the images are crystal-sharp, hyper-real — see it in 3D HFR if you can — but the marine ecosystem teeming in every frame is mesmerisingly unearthly (you might find yourself taking your eyes off the important stuff to stare at an alien eel). It’s like a National Geographic documentary beamed in from another solar system, Cameron’s twin obsessions with sea-life and sci-fi fusing together in truly trippy fashion. The lengthy second act of the movie, in which the Sully family, fleeing the human villains, relocate to the Bora Bora-esque shores of a Pandoran island, will likely test the patience of some. (There are multiple fish-riding tutorials, as the Sullys get familiar with the barracuda-meets-dragonfly Skimwing and the adorable, seal-like Iwi.) But for those willing to tune into the strange and highly earnest vibe, it’s heady, entrancing stuff, particularly the screentime given to the Tulkan, a species of space-whale that proves unexpectedly moving — even if the drama on the beach is a little less compelling than what’s going on off it.

Which brings us to the plot. Interestingly, this is the one area in which Cameron has gone smaller. Relatively, of course: with moon-crossing odysseys and beasts the size of a submarine, he’s hardly gone Ken Loach . But the epic warring-species stakes of the original Avatar have been dialled down (for now), replaced by a simple revenge story. Stephen Lang ’s granite-tough Colonel Quaritch , a major standout in the first film and a character deepened here, is back in avatar form, eager to avenge his own death (it’s a long story) by slaying his blue foes. And so for now, bigger questions will have to wait. A new resource coveted by humans that’s even more unobtainable than unobtanium doesn’t get elaborated on, while Edie Falco is introduced as the new human Big Bad (yes, Carmela Soprano gets her own exo-suit) but phases out of the action. Instead, we’re left with a stripped-down game of cat-and-mouse, designed to test every one of the Sullys to their limits. It’s an effective choice by Cameron, keeping the stakes clear and resulting in a powerful, emotional final hour, as Quaritch corners his quarry and turns up the heat.

The Way Of Water takes its sweet time getting to the melee — at well over three hours, it should really be called ‘The Way Of Wishing You Hadn’t Drunk That Water’ — but by the time it does, it’s made sure you care about what’s going on. And the action, when it arrives, is thunderingly entertaining. On one side: the Na’vi navy, astride battle-fish, ululating and bristling with spears. On the other, Quaritch and his blued-up squad of Marines, plus a swaggering, dickish Australian seadog named Scoresby (Brendan Cowell, near-stealing the show with his salty jargon), a conflicted marine biologist ( Jemaine Clement , doing an American accent that might be the most alien thing in the film), and an armada of incredible military tech (scuttling crab-suits FTW). What ensues is a sea battle for the ages, a blisteringly exciting meld of live-action elements and visual-effects, which boggles the brain while never forgetting to focus on the heart. Where Cameron goes from here, who knows. But this is a reminder, after a long absence, that he’s still master and commander of making your jaw drop.

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‘Avatar: The Way of Water’ Is James Cameron’s Most Stunning Cinematic Journey Yet

By K. Austin Collins

K. Austin Collins

Avatar : The Way of Water is a long time coming. The newest chapter in James Cameron’s spears-versus-guns, aliens-versus-predators epic has been planned all along, and its own sequel, Avatar 3 , is already set for a 2024 release (the movies were filmed simultaneously). Avatar 4 , partially shot, has been slated for 2026. The fifth installment’s got a script. These are movies in which the colonizing empire is the bad guy, the destroyer and abuser of a new world and the people — called Na’vi — inhabiting it. Maybe there’s some irony in needing to prove this point with a five-movie empire of one’s own.

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Scenes of Na’vi flying above treetops and floating rock formations made the first Avatar memorable — if we can use that word. For a movie that’s still apparently one of the most profitable Hollywood products of all time, Avatar has an uncomfortable reputation: it’s gotten cool to pretend that we’ve forgotten about it . Is there such a thing as a billion-dollar cult object? What’s funny about the new movie is that large stretches of runtime, especially in the first half, will feel familiar for even the apparent amnesiacs among us. Much of this stretch calls back to the first movie so thoroughly that it nearly amounts to a neat recap. There are changes, of course. Once by land, now by sea. Jake Sully and his family, on the run from the RDA, must learn to live and work among the water dwellers. This is a race of Na’vi whose design seems to have taken its cues from Maori culture, among others. Tails and bodies and lungs are thicker among the reef people, visibly adapted to this distinct environment . Their bodies and the bodies of their spiritually linked animals bear tattoos that tell stories. It again puts Jake back in a position to defer to a race that is not his. He and his brood must get their sea legs, in this movie, just as Jake once had to walk the walk as Na’vi. We, the audience, get to feast on the benefits of this new territory. Cameron treats us to lavish tours of the ecosystem, as before, with just as much aw-shucks wonder attached.

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But it is rousing. I can hardly think of another time that I was so excited to see a guy’s arm get ripped off. That’s how Avatar snares us; that’s how it gets away with even its most awkward conceits, its cringe forays into manic-pixie territory, its implicit representational weirdness. Is it meaningful that the Na’vi with the most preternatural gifts in this world tend to share blood with humans — that to be Na’vi, alone, is apparently not enough, not even on their own planet? Is it weird that Kate Winslet plays a reef-dwelling shaman, CGI or no? Questions like these eat away at the edges of the movie’s intentions. They don’t ruin the movie — there’s too much else to gawk at, too much excitement to sop up. But these questions matter, just as the movie’s behemoth size matters. The Way of Water is never better than during its climax, when it makes good on the cathartic satisfaction that’s been promised all along, the action-packed release that’s teeming with dramatic grace notes, every strand of the story coming together, every rebel without a cause suddenly given just cause. The movie continues for some time after this, though. As if making some sick joke, Cameron even treats us to a sinking ship. The excesses are forgivable in the way that watching someone execute a narrow turn with a semi truck, blocking all traffic, is begrudgingly forgivable. Some vehicles aren’t designed for elegance. That it manages more than its share of lumpen grace, regardless, is the The Way of Water ’s primary achievement. It isn’t perfect. It wouldn’t be nearly as fun to reckon with if it was.

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‘Avatar 2’ Is Officially ‘Avatar: The Way of Water’: James Cameron Debuts First Footage at CinemaCon

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After many delays, “Avatar” fans have received some glimmer of what is on the horizon for the blue extraterrestrials thanks to a special preview at CinemaCon 2022.

Director Cameron shared — via video message from Ellington, New Zealand — that the “final touches” are being put on “ Avatar 2 ,” officially titled “ Avatar: The Way of Water ,” during Disney’s CinemaCon presentation.

“I know it’s been rough on the exhibition community these last two years,” Cameron said of theaters amid the COVID-19 pandemic. “I just want you to hear it from me that [producer Jon Landau] and I are here to work with you, you’re our partners, and the best way we can do that is delivering content that is a must-see experience at the cinema.”

Now, the wait is nearly over. “Avatar 2” will be released December 16, with a third film that was filmed simultaneously hitting theaters in December 2023. And as soon as those films are done with post-production, Cameron and company will start shooting “Avatar 4” and “Avatar 5” back to back.

The sweeping 3D teaser trailer featured a lush, sweeping look at Pandora. However, Cameron confirmed that the first and only place that public audiences will be able to see the trailer is exclusively in theaters next week with the release of “Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness,” beginning May 2.

“Avatar 2” returns to the fictional planet Pandora, with much of the movie taking place in the planet’s oceans. Cameron developed new technology in order to film motion capture scenes underwater, something never previously achieved. But the underwater sequences are not all movie magic, as 70-year-old Sigourney Weaver held her breath underwater for six minutes at a time while filming. The movie sees much of the original cast returning, including Weaver, Sam Worthington , and Zoe Saldana . The cast also includes franchise newcomers Michelle Yeoh and Kate Winslet, who reteams with her “Titanic” director James Cameron .

A remastered “Avatar” will be re-released in theaters September 23 for fans to gear up for the sequel.

Producer Jon Landau explained at CinemaCon that “each story will come to its own conclusion, and each movie will deliver to audiences fulfilling emotional resolutions,” despite the multiple sequels in the works.

Landau continued, “However, when looked at as a whole, the journey across all four movies will connect to create an even larger epic saga.”

“Avatar 2” will be released in theaters December 16.

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‘avatar 2: the way of water’ review: a major disappointment, bro.

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Avatar 2 The Way Of Water is a mess.

I didn’t see Avatar: The Way Of Water on an IMAX 3D screen because the nearest IMAX to where I live is at the Grand Canyon and they don’t show this kind of movie on that screen (even if they did it’s being renovated until next Spring). The nearest IMAX is two-and-a-half hours away, and while I’m willing to drive to Phoenix to get out of the snow, it’s kind of a long ways to go for a movie.

So I made a deal with myself. If I liked Way Of Water enough on a smaller screen—I saw it in 48 frames-per-second 3D—then I’d take the kids down to the Valley over Christmas Break and we’d watch it again on the biggest, bestest screen we could find.

Well, scrap those plans. I doubt I’ll watch Avatar 2 again on any screen unless James Cameron would like to pay my travel expenses and buy me tickets and maybe take me out to dinner first. That’s what it would take to drag me back to the theaters to watch this 3 hour and 12 minute cartoon again. A few thoughts:

Yes, this is a cartoon. It’s almost entirely CGI. When live-action characters (humans) enter the picture, which isn’t often, you’re reminded that you’re watching an expensive cartoon and it’s honestly a little jarring. There’s some uncanny valley stuff here, but mainly the Navi just look super fake compared to the humans, and the humans feel super out-of-place surrounded by Navi. Who Framed Roger Rabbit did it better.
Sure, the graphics in this video game are great but the story? Eh. Not so much.
48fps 3D is awful. I hate it. It’s too clear, too sharp and too fake-looking. You know the TruMotion “smoothing” you can do on your TV at home? That’s what it’s like. I read that you get used to it after a few minutes but this is a bald-faced lie. It’s nice 3D and all, but it just doesn’t look right. The ‘soap opera effect’ drives me crazy.
The movie is too long! It’s an hour too long. If I were making the decisions at 20th Century and Disney, I would have made them cut an hour of this wildly indulgent film.
That’s the best way I can describe Way Of Water. James Cameron is being indulgent here to excess. There’s an arrogance on display that I just find very off-putting. And he’s being indulged by the studio with this massive SFX budget, the 3D, the IMAX format, the runtime. All of it. It’s arrogant and self-indulgent and I think the novelty that made that okay in the first film has worn off for audiences, or at least it has for me. The ‘wow’ factor is gone and all I see is an expensive cartoon.

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There are some fun moments in the movie! I loved the tulkun, a hyper-intelligent species of whale that can communicate telepathically. I thought they did some really neat stuff with all the ocean and aquatic bits, which is no surprise given James Cameron’s love of the ocean that permeates so much of his work, in better films like Titanic and The Abyss.

Some of the fights—while too long—were exciting and action-packed and had cool special effects. There were some funny and heartwarming scenes. I was entertained when I wasn’t bored. I can’t wait for video games to have graphics as crisp and high-definition!

But the story is a mess. It’s a retread of the first film. The mustache-twirling villains are after the precious resources of Pandora. This time it’s a golden whale goo that halts human aging. Last time it was the hilariously named Unobtanium. New resource, same plot. Now we have water Navi with bigger tails who can swim underwater for a really long time. Now we have underwater scenery instead of jungles. But the bad guys are coming with their guns and their bombs and their bombs and their guns.

And the Navi—a crude analog for the indigenous people of our own world—remain the Noble Savage trope they were in the last film, only less interesting now. The White Savior, Jake Sully, has been fully integrated into their community, but whatever interesting stuff defined them prior to his arrival, it’s all taken a back seat now to him and his family. Sully’s stick together! we are reminded. More than once.

Avatar: The Way Of Water

However beautiful some of the CGI and scenery is in Way Of Water, it’s often broken up by weird editing, jarring cuts and even more jarring zooms. Multiple times throughout the film there’s aggressive digital zooms that rip you out of any sense of immersion. My kids talked about this on our drive home after, so it’s not just your humble narrator who found this off-putting.

Worse, still, was the dialogue, especially among Jake’s children. For some reason, all the kids constantly say “bro” or “cuz” to each other. I guess it’s because Cameron and his writers think this is how the young people talk these days or something. But even if that is how kids in the US talk in 2022—it isn’t, not to this degree—it makes no sense on an alien planet. It’s not like Jake is saying “bro” all the time (he often uses military jargon which makes more sense and it makes sense when the kids use it). Did the kids pick this up from . . . the human scientists?

It’s so cringey and weird. It reminds me of the bad dialogue in the new Willow series. “I got you, bro!” “Yeah, bro, let’s go, bro!” “Hey cuz, let’s do this!”

Shut. Up. Shut up! This isn’t how people talk, let alone Navi people raised in a traditional tribe! It’s awful. Truly awful. The writing feels much worse than in the first Avatar and that film didn’t have particularly compelling dialogue to begin with.

In the end, we have a film that follows many of the same beats as its predecessor, is overly-reliant on special effects instead of a good script, and has much too much going on at all times to really help establish this as a meaningful sequel that sets up a compelling franchise we want to keep diving into in three (or more?) movies.

Frankly, the conflict with the humans is just dull and uninspired at this point. I’m tired of cartoon villains and Noble Savages and things going boom left and right. I want more of the good character stuff, more of the spiritual and intimate stuff, more swimming with intelligent whales and less blowing stuff up. I would have loved it if this were an adventure movie, with Jake and his family heading out into the wide, wild world and facing struggles that had nothing to do with the human colonizers. Instead, we get endless fight scenes that reminded me a bit of the agonizingly never-ending battles in Aquaman (though the water scenes in this film are much, much better and less unintentionally hilarious).

Ultimately, Avatar: The Way Of Water is just not all that good or cerebral or exciting. It’s predictable, shallow and bombastic. This is a low-brow action movie dressed in the glitzy trappings of a high-brow sci-fi flick. Once you take off the 3D glasses, or the rose-tinted ones, the illusion is shattered.

I can’t say don’t watch Avatar 2 in theaters. It’s still a crazy example of where technology, CGI and film has come over the years and I’m sure it’s a wild ride in IMAX 3D. But don’t go in with very high expectations, either. If the seats in my theater had been more comfortable, I’m pretty sure I would have taken a nice long nap. But then I would have had to watch it again to pen this review, and that would be . . . unfortunate.

Watch my video review below :

The Score — And A Discussion Of The Score

Rating: 3 out of 6 stars. Or on the Revised Little Man scale, the Neutral Man:

Little Man Scale

For a little bonus read, check out Roger Ebert’s discussion on rating movies using star or number scales and why the above Little Man scale from the San Francisco Chronicle is his favorite. This design, however, is an altered version. I tweaked the new version that Austin Kleon came up with that replaced the fourth image of the man sitting up with a smile in his face (#4) with the man sitting back in his chair expressionless (#3). I think they each represent something different so I put them all together for a six-point scale rather than five, in which:

The man jumping up and clapping (6) is a movie you absolutely love;
The man clapping in his chair (5) is one you really enjoy and recommend;
The man sitting up with the content smile (4) is a good movie, but nothing special;
The man sitting back expressionless (3) doesn’t hate it but it’s not really something you’d encourage others to spend money on.
The sleeping man (2) is bored but doesn’t hate the picture enough to leave;
The missing man (1) well, you get the idea.

Making this scale 6 rather than 5 actually pulls it in-line with the Thumbs Up/Thumbs Down binary from Siskel and Ebert’s TV show. 1-3 = Thumbs Down (you won’t recommend people go see it, regardless of how much you disliked it or not) while 4-6 = Thumbs Up (go see it, but maybe you just liked it or maybe you loved it).

In any case, I like this system. I may use it, though I will likely redesign the design since it’s not mine entirely! Maybe it should even be a seven-point scale with a man standing and clapping for those rare films that deserve a standing ovation.

Have you seen Avatar: The Way Of Water yet? Let me know what you thought of it on Twitter or Facebook .

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Avatar 2: The Way of Water Review

Average Ratings: 4.21/5 Score: 100% Positive Reviews Counted:9 Positive:9 Neutral:0 Negative:0

Ratings: 5/5 Review By: Taran Adarsh Site:Twitter

SPELLBINDING visuals€¦ STUNNING action€¦ STRONG drama€¦ TERRIFIC second and third act€¦ Avatar is a CINEMATIC MARVEL that needs to be watched on the largest screen possible€¦ DONT MISS IT!

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Ratings: — Review By: Anupama Chopra Site:Youtube

Like the first film The Way of water is a soaring romanticized goal for humans who are greedy selfish rapacious to take a pause the story is simple and the humans apart from spider have minimal depth but where the writing wobbles the visuals take over the way of water is a testament to imagination and Ingenuity every frame is designed to induce shock and or the beauty on display is startling but it would be empty if the drama didn’t provide the emotional hook Cameron reproduces human emotion in CG the way of water has Echoes of Cameron’s earlier forays into water Worlds the abyss and Titanic once again he’s created a film that is a technical Marvel and a crowd pleaser I enjoyed it immensely and I think you will too.

Ratings: — Review By: Komal Nahta Site:Filminformation

James Camerons direction is splendid. He has painstakingly made a wholesome entertainer which is a visual delight of the kind one has rarely seen. A good part of the second half is shot in water; those scenes are marvellous.On the whole, Avatar: The Way Of Water is a blockbuster. It could prove to be Hollywoods biggest grosser in India so far. It will also be among the top Hindi grossers of all time.

Ratings: 4/5 Review By: Ganesh Site:Firstpost

Avatar: The Way of Water is a thrilling and exhilarating experience. However, the core plot or story of the film, just like the first part, is just okay. But, the sharpened technology used by Mr Cameron, is on another level, which makes this undersea sci-fi a visual spectacle in each and every frame.

Ratings: 4.5/5 Review By: Renuka Site:Times Of India

While the predecessor set the bar high for visual effects 13 years ago, the new film takes it a step further. Like the previous film, the director does not use 3D as a gimmick but uses it artfully to accentuate audience immersion in the world and story. Avatar 2 deserves be watched in IMAX 3D. It is the greatest immersive cinema experience of the year. Go blue!

Ratings: 4/5 Review By: Sanchita Site:TimesNow

It is safe to say that the movie has managed to outperform in all departments, also bringing this flavour that might be quite different from films we see from Hollywood. And that, is exactly what makes this movie a must must-watch in the theatres – for the immersive experience and the emotions it takes you through.

Ratings: 4/5 Review By: Tushar Site:India Today

Avatar: The Way of Water comes 13 years after the first, yet when the movie starts you feel like you saw the first part just yesterday. It isnt perfect, its messy but if you surrender to Camerons vision and let the 3D experience take the lead you are in for a huge treat ! Avatar: The Way of Water is a terrific follow up to one of the biggest films in cinematic history. Do not miss this one!

Ratings: 4/5 Review By: Hungama Site:Bollywood Hungama

On the whole, AVATAR: THE WAY OF WATER rests on spellbinding visuals, entertaining action scenes, never-before-seen scale, clapworthy climax and a strong emotional undercurrent in the storyline due to which it can run riot from East to West, and North to South at the box office. It is also at a huge advantage thanks to the popularity of the first part, extreme curiosity about the film, zero competition and inflated ticket rates. If the word of mouth is strong, it wont be surprising if it emerges as the biggest Hollywood grosser in India, surpassing the numbers of AVENGERS: ENDGAME

Ratings: 4/5 Review By: Shubham Site:Koimoi

At the core of it, Cameron creates a story of bonding, family, and the values of standing for each other in testing times. Think of it as an alien movie directed by an English-speaking Sooraj Barjtya, in a good way. At the heart of it, The Way Of Water is about a man who is still an outsider at heart, so he has to put in that extra effort to always prove his loyalty even when he stands on the highest of the dais. So he expects his kids to follow the same. He expects them to have values, save their family and also grow into the best Navis. He is disappointed with one and proud of another creating a rift between the children. A classic Bollywood template, but we shouldnt complaint because there is no crime involved.

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Avatar 2: The Way of Water Plot:

Jake Sully and Ney’tiri have formed a family and are doing everything to stay together. However, they must leave their home and explore the regions of Pandora. When an ancient threat resurfaces, Jake must fight a difficult war against the humans.

Avatar 2: The Way of Water Release Date:

December 16, 2022 ( India) straight to Theaters

Avatar 2: The Way of Water Cast:

Sam Worthington Zoe Salda±a Sigourney Weaver Stephen Lang Kate Winslet Cliff Curtis Joel David Moore

Avatar 2: The Way of Water Director:

James Cameron

Avatar 2: The Way of Water Producer:

James Cameron Jon Landau

Avatar 2: The Way of Water Runtime:

3 hour 12 minutes (192 minutes)

Rajeev Masand Reviews are awaited for this

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Avatar’s best deleted scene is the key to understanding james cameron’s entire franchise.

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Avatar: The Way Of Water Ending Explained

A24’s exciting new horror movie already avoided 2024's worst genre trend, 10 horror movies that genuinely terrified me, and i usually don't get scared.

Avatar' s missing Dream Hunt scene explains Jake Sully's character arc, shedding light on his transformation and motivations.
Jake's hallucinations in the Dream Hunt foreshadow scenes in Avatar: The Way of Water , providing deeper insight into the story.
The Dream Hunt sequence reveals that avatars are real Na'vi, supporting Jake's status as a chosen hero in the franchise's lore.

Although Avatar ’s Dream Hunt was cut from the original movie, the missing sequence remains surprisingly central to understanding the entire story of the franchise. Since there are many upcoming Avatar movies , viewers could be forgiven for assuming that there is no shortage of insights into the world of Pandora. Director James Cameron’s epic sci-fi franchise comes complete with tie-in books, comics, and other spinoff media, as well as Avatar and Avatar: The Way of Water themselves. However, as Avatar 3 ’s story will prove, there are still plenty of elements of Na’vi life and culture that remain under-explored.

This is not necessarily a bad thing since it means that the subsequent Avatar movies can focus on these unseen parts of Pandora. However, the franchise has occasionally jettisoned material that could have helped decode the story of the series. For example, some of Avatar’ s missing scenes are surprisingly central to understanding the themes of the movie. Cameron’s blockbuster was criticized for its predictable, overly familiar plot upon release, but a look back on Avatar ’s deleted scenes proves that the world of the franchise is more immersive and imaginative than it may initially seem.

Avatar: The Way of Water's ending sets up a few storylines for its remaining sequels to tackle. Here's how the Avatar 2 ending explained what's next.

Avatar’s Missing Dream Hunt Explains Jake Sully’s Character Arc

Jake’s psychedelic initiation ritual justifies his change of heart.

In Avatar ’s original script, Jake Sully takes part in a Na’vi ceremony called a Dream Hunt. A coming-of-age ritual, the Dream Hunt is a risky hallucinogenic journey that initiates a member of the Omatikaya clan into adulthood . The process involves allowing oneself to be stung by a poisonous creature, with the venom then causing trippy hallucinations and, in some cases, death. Jake undergoes this experience to cement his status as one of the Omatikaya, earning their trust and leading him to disavow Stephen Lang’s Avatar villain Quaritch . Along the way, Jake also has a handful of important insights.

Jake sees the forests of Pandora on fire, an image that becomes a tragic reality in the opening scene of Avatar: The Way of Water.

Jake’s visions can only be glimpsed in the unfinished deleted scene, which was never fully animated. However, they are pivotal to understanding the story of the series as a whole. Jake sees the forests of Pandora on fire, an image that becomes a tragic reality in the opening scene of Avatar: The Way of Water . At this moment, he predicts the RDA’s return over a decade before it happens. This redoubles his commitment to the Omatikaya, turning Jake from a human spy into a true ally for the Na’vi. Without this experience, Jake’s motivations are less clear.

Jake’s Hallucinations Foreshadowed The Way of Water’s Opening Scene

Avatar’s hero sees pandora’s forests set ablaze.

Jake's visions of Pandora’s lush forests set ablaze by invaders become a reality when the RDA returns in Avatar: The Way of Water’ s beginning. While Avatar 3 ’s Fire Na’vi prove that the element has a place in the world of Pandora, the images that come to Jake are ones of indiscriminate environmental destruction. Jake realizes that he is aligned with the franchise’s villains during his Dream Hunt , and the deleted scene’s events are instrumental in his decision to leave the RDA behind to fight among the Omatikaya. This complicates another story strand.

In the Dream Hunt sequence, Jake’s destiny is set in stone by a vision.

In Avatar , it seems as though Jake’s romance with Neytiri is the most compelling cause of his change in allegiances. Although Jake recognizes the evils of the RDA’s actions, he also still sees himself as more human than Na’vi. It is connecting with Neytiri romantically that changes this perception. In contrast, in the Dream Hunt sequence, Jake’s destiny is set in stone by a vision. On the one hand, this is arguably a more clichéd motivation. On the other hand, it makes Neytiri’s role less predictable since she doesn’t exist primarily to bring Jake to the side of good.

Avatar’s Dream Hunt Revealed Another Pivotal Piece of Series Lore

Jake’s successful imitation proves avatars are real na’vi.

Before Jake takes the Dream Hunt, Grace and Norm understandably worry that a process that sometimes kills Na’vi will almost certainly do damage to an avatar. His survival and vision quest proves that avatars are, for all intents and purposes, really Na’vi after all. Jake proves avatars are real Na’vi in this deleted scene , thus settling a debate that still rages among the franchise’s fandom online. There is also an argument to be made that Jake’s survival proves he really is a chosen one of sorts, given how risky the Dream Hunt ceremony is.

That said, Jake’s status as a savior isn’t necessarily a good thing for the franchise. Avatar’ s sequels could kill off Jake and replace him with a new hero to prove that his resistance to oppression was his greatest contribution. Centering Jake alone as a singular special hero devalues this idea. As a result, Avatar cutting the Dream Hunt sequence did make the franchise's message clearer. However, Avatar’ s most important missing scene still deserves a place in the finished film.

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Home > Indian Movies Tips > Review on Hindi Movie Hanuman

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Review on Hindi Movie Hanuman

HanuMan is a new Telugu superhero movie that released in the direction of Prasanth Varma. It is based on Hanuman of Hindu epics and features Teja Sajja in the lead role. The movie’s plot revolves around a young man Hanumanthu residing in the imaginary village of Anjanadri who turns into a superhero having some magical powers and with the help of which he has to safeguard the village from the nasty elements.

The element of the superhero is raised to the top with the help of impressive visual effects; HanuMan is a mix of mythology, fantasy and rural drama. In this article, we will explain how you can download and where you can watch Hanuman movie.

Part 1: What is HanuMan Movie About?

The movie is about a young man named Hanumanthu living in a village called Anjanadri. Hanumanthu gains special powers and becomes like the Hindu god Hanuman.

With his new powers, Hanumanthu must save his village from an evil man named Michael. Michael also wants the same special powers that Hanumanthu has.

The HanuMan movie review shows Hanumanthu's journey from being a regular mischievous thief to becoming a powerful savior for his village. There is also a love story between Hanumanthu and a girl named Meenakshi.

HanuMan uses stunning visual effects to show Hanumanthu's superhero avatar. The director Prasanth Varma is known for making fantasy movies like this.

Overall, HanuMan mixes mythology, action, drama, and romance to tell an entertaining story about a village hero with divine powers. HanuMan movie casts Teja Sajja as Hanumanthu in the main role.

Part 2: How to Watch Hanuman Free in Two Ways

1. download hanuman from hanuman movie torrent web - yts.

YTS or YIFY Torrents is one of the best websites to download HanuMan movie torrent in excellent quality. It is famous for providing movies in different qualities like 720p, 1080p, even 3D and the file size if much smaller than in other torrent sites. This is especially beneficial for the users with limited internet connection or disk space to download the videos. YTS offers a vast range of movies from different categories and languages which makes it one of the best places to visit if you are a movie lover.

To download Hindi movie HanuMan from YTS, follow these steps:

1. Open your browser and navigate to the official YTS website.

2. Use the search bar on the homepage to find the movie "Hanuman."

3. Click on the "Hanuman" title to go to the movie's page.

4. Select your preferred quality (e.g., 720p or 1080p) and click on the download button.

5. Download the torrent file and open it with a torrent client (e.g., uTorrent or BitTorrent) to start the download.

2. Watch Hanuman Movie on Dailymotion

Dailymotion is one of the biggest video sharing platforms on the internet with over 300 million monthly active users. Owned by Vivendi, it is headquartered in France and allows users to watch, upload and share videos in different genres like movies, music, gaming, sports etc.

With its easy to use interface, Dailymotion has become a popular destination for users looking to watch free movies online. Many users illegally upload full movies or clips on Dailymotion without copyright permission.

To watch HanuMan Hindi movie on Dailymotion, follow these steps:

1. Open your browser and go to the official Dailymotion website.

2. Use the search bar at the top of the homepage to type in "Hanuman."

3. Look through the search results to find the full movie or relevant clips. Be cautious as some uploads may be split into multiple parts.

4. Click on the video title or thumbnail to open the video page.

5. Press the play button to start streaming "Hanuman."

Part 3: Bonus tip: How to Download Movies from Hulu and Watch Offline

HitPaw Video Converter is an advanced video conversion and downloading software powered by AI technology. It provides users with a fast and easy way to download, convert and edit videos from over 1000 online sites including popular streaming platforms like Netflix, Hulu, Amazon Prime and more.

With its intuitive interface, HitPaw makes it extremely simple for even beginners to download movies and shows from Hulu at blazing fast speeds. You just need to copy and paste the Hulu video URL into HitPaw, and it will instantly recognize and download the video in original quality. The downloaded Hulu videos can then be converted into common formats like MP4, AVI, MOV etc to watch on any device offline.

Some of the notable features of HitPaw for downloading Hulu content are:

Supports downloading Hulu videos in up to 8K resolution so you can enjoy original quality.
120X faster downloading and conversion speed thanks to powerful AI technology.
Option to download entire seasons or shows with just one click.
In-built video editor to trim, crop, add subtitles etc.
Lossless conversion so no quality loss during format change.
Downloads videos without any malware or viruses.

Here are the steps to download movies from Hulu using HitPaw Video Converter:

step 1. Download and install HitPaw Video Converter on your computer.

step 2. Open HitPaw and go to the "Download" tab. Log into your Hulu account here.

step 3. Search for the Hulu movie you want.

step 4. Once you have searched for the movie, click on the “Download” button that appears in the top right corner.

step 5. Customize download settings like video quality, subtitles etc.

step 6. Click "Download" to start downloading the Hulu movie.

step 7. Downloaded Hulu movies can be found in HitPaw's output folder.

Part 4: FAQs about Hanuman Movie

Q1. Where can we see HanuMan movie?

A1. The HanuMan movie is playing in theaters across India and worldwide currently. The film is screening in Telugu, Hindi, Tamil, Malayalam and Kannada languages. You can watch online or you can also download it using HitPaw Video Converter.

Q2. Is HanuMan movie hit or flop?

A2. HanuMan has emerged as a big hit at the box office. Made on a budget of around ₹40 crores, it has already grossed over ₹350 crores worldwide in its opening week.

HanuMan is an enjoyable superhero movie and it is able to combine mythos and modern themes in a rather interesting manner. The film has become a commercial success with the help of spectacular VFX and Teja Sajja’s portrayal of Hanumanthu. For those who still did not watch the movie there are few possibilities to do it legally through streaming platforms or through torrent sites which are illegal of course.

You can also download the movie using the legal software known as the HitPaw Video Converter , which enables you to download streaming videos for future use. Thus, due to the fast downloading speed, a wide list of formats, and a simple navigation interface, HitPaw Video Converter is a perfect application for downloading videos from Hulu and other platforms.

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Editor-in-Chief

I have been working as a freelancer for more than five years. It always impresses me when I find new things and the latest knowledge. I think life is boundless but I know no bounds.

‘Rebel Moon: The Director’s Cut’ Review: Zack Snyder’s 2-Part Sci-Fi Epic Gets Bigger, Not Much Better

Snyder’s “Seven Samurai” in space for Netflix is now twice as long as its inspiration, but still underwhelming

Zack Snyder’s “Rebel Moon” movies are back, and this time they’re longer than ever. Not better, for the most part. Just longer. Unlike many director’s cuts — including Snyder’s own “Justice League” — the updated versions of “Rebel Moon” don’t change the narrative very much. There’s a little more backstory and a lot more fake-looking CGI blood, but “Rebel Moon — Chapter 1: Chalice of Blood” and “Rebel Moon — Chapter 2: Curse of Forgiveness” tell the same tale as before and make about as much of an impact.

The story of “Rebel Moon,” in case you missed it the first time, tells the tale of Veldt, a small farming village in outer space. When the evil Motherworld comes to take the town’s grain, a fugitive in their midst named Kora (Sofia Boutella) embarks on an epic quest to find warriors who will risk their lives to save her village, or at least kill the bad guys because they have a grudge.

That’s a massive simplification of what is now a six-hour story, but it’s easy to wrap your head around it because it’s essentially “Seven Samurai” in space. There’s nothing wrong with making “Seven Samurai” in space. That’s what “Battle Beyond the Stars” was about. Come to think of it, that’s what “Galaxy Quest” was about, too. Snyder’s version is, it must be noted, now twice as long as Akira Kurosawa’s 1954 samurai epic, and still nowhere near as deep.

Sofia Boutella stars in Zack Snyder's 'Rebel Moon'

The original cuts of “Rebel Moon,” released in December 2023 and April 2024 , were not well-received. Then again, that may have been the plan all along. It was always Netflix’s stated intention to release shorter, mainstream versions of “Rebel Moon” first and Snyder’s longer, bloodier, nakeder versions later on. Which raises the question of why, if Netflix thought Snyder’s vision was always worth releasing, did they bother to release watered down versions at all? It sure looks like an exercise in manufacturing demand instead of giving the fans what they wanted in the first place, and what the filmmaker actually deserved.

The other question these director’s cuts raise is, can they address the fundamental problems of the original “Rebel Moon” movies? The issues the first two films had were not that they weren’t gory enough or needed more sex scenes. They had a lot of main characters with the same backstory, all revealed at once, undermining the weight of each one and making the film look repetitive. The main villain dies in the first movie and comes back in the second, but is in no way more of a threat, which undercuts the suspense from there on out. After all, we already know Kora can defeat him, and pretty easily.

Even the film’s central conceit, that the evil army of the Motherworld desperately needs grain, had nothing to back it up. The fascistic space conquerors weren’t starving, and even if they were, they could steal all the food they wanted from the multiple planets they razed to the ground on camera. By the time they come back to pick up the grain, their priorities have completely changed and the food is entirely irrelevant to them — a fact they only seem to remember halfway through getting their butts kicked, all because they were afraid to destroy that grain they literally don’t need.

“Rebel Moon: Chapter 1 — Chalice of Blood” and “Chapter 2 — Curse of Forgiveness” don’t fix or even address most of these problems, but at least the flashbacks are more vivid for some of the heroes. Kora’s backstory better explains why she did the terrible deeds that made her a fugitive. The energy sword-wielding Nemesis (Doona Bae), one of the films’ two breakout characters, is more clearly defined as a grieving mother, which makes her role in the climax — defending a building full of the village’s most defenseless citizens — play less like she’s getting sidelined and more like a satisfying dramatic conclusion to her arc.

“Chalice of Blood” now opens with a remarkably long sequence in which Admiral Noble (Ed Skrein) brutally conquers a planet that was harboring revolutionaries, a sequence with extreme violence, suicide bombers and — as if we didn’t think the bad guys were bad yet — women stripped fully nude and branded on camera. It’s not clear what function that imagery is supposed to serve other than to tell us that these are now the kinds of movies in which that kind of thing can happen, which isn’t an encouraging way to start a film.

That opening concludes with Aris (Sky Yang), the son of the planet’s ruler, forced to murder his father to save his family. Upon completing the task, he’s pressed into military service, something the villains of the Motherworld do a lot, apparently. They like to crush people’s spirits and turn them into soulless soldiers. Ostensibly this should give more depth to Aris, who was depicted in the previous cuts as a young, idealistic man who only turns on his fellow soldiers when they try to sexually assault a villager on Veldt.

But Aris’ new origin, which takes place shortly before the rest of the film, only makes this subplot more confusing. After all the bleak and punishing violence, Aris is still played like an idealistic guy who cheerfully goes about his duties. His extremely recent tragedy doesn’t seem to have had a profound effect on him, except one time it makes him stab a guy more times than was strictly required. This makes the whole opening sequence seem awkward and unnecessary — except, again, to convince us that the bad guys are bad. And that part was pretty clear.

The most obvious changes to the “Rebel Moon” movies are that the characters swear more — a lot more, so much so that in an early scene on Veldt, people act genuinely excited just to say the f-word — and there’s a lot more blood and gore. But it’s CGI blood and gore, and it never looks tactile or believable. More like shiny red sludge. Add that to the film’s sci-fi guns, which make people explode in bright orange neon goop (unless they’re a main character, then they make conveniently smaller wounds), and it doesn’t give the film more grit. It’s just silly after a while.

There’s also a lot more consensual sex and nudity, which Snyder wisely uses to illustrate the differences between Kora’s romantic relationships: first purely physical, then emotionally intimate. They are, to use parlance, “necessary to the plot.” But then again, they also go on so long after the narrative point has been made that it’s still fair to call them a little gratuitous.

Then again again, we’re talking about a sci-fi remake of “Seven Samurai” that’s now over twice as long as “Seven Samurai.” Gratuitousness is the order of the day. Snyder seems eager to indulge in these aesthetics, wallow in these characters and linger on this violence. And yet the biggest pleasures of the director’s cuts are their spirituality and melancholy.

We finally see a lot more of Jimmy, the Motherworld robot (voiced by Anthony Hopkins) who joins the resistance. In the original cuts, Jimmy disappears for most of the films and seemingly goes feral in the woods for no stated reason. In the new versions, we watch his whole journey to enlightenment. Jimmy was the most wondrous part of “Rebel Moon” the first time around, and the most tragically underserved. It’s beautiful to see more of him and find out that his story, at least, really was important and worthy of — forgive me, Jimmy — fleshing out.

The most intriguing element that Snyder adds back to the “Rebel Moon” films are the Rue Kali. The Motherworld’s spaceships are powered by giant engines that, in the original film, looked like giant shackled women. In the director’s cuts, we learn that’s not a stylistic decision on the part of the Motherworld’s engineers — these actually are giant shackled women, forced to use their magical energy to build wormholes and rejuvenate the dead. When they do, they cry huge luminescent tears. The Motherworld feeds them human corpses. And all of this is actually going somewhere, or at least it seems like it will in the next chapter(s). It’s powerful imagery that, unlike most of “Rebel Moon,” feels more like an unforgettable issue of “Metal Hurlant” than a knockoff of “Star Wars.”

“Chalice of Blood” and “Curse of Forgiveness” improve small parts of “Rebel Moon,” but not the big parts. The films are still cloyingly derivative and relatively shallow, especially compared to their most obvious influences. The plot doesn’t hang together, and for every character whose story now feels more important, there are others who go just as unexplored and still more whose tales make less sense than ever. And while some of the films’ new incidental moments add much needed character interactions that finally make our heroes act like friends, or at least a team, that doesn’t so much fix the franchise as make it a little easier to digest.

And since these new versions are structurally the same as the originals, and since Netflix always intended to release them, one can’t help but wonder — again — what the point was of withholding Snyder’s director’s cuts at all. It can’t have been just because Netflix cares about his vision; if they had, they would have released Snyder’s preferred versions in the first place, which they were already planning to do. Instead, it’s hard to shake the sense that Netflix mostly wanted a way to get subscribers to watch the same films twice. Those who like these movies will no doubt be happy to do so, since they’re still “Rebel Moon” only more so. But those who were underwhelmed the first time around are likely to remain unimpressed.

All four “Rebel Moon” movies are now streaming on Netflix.

‘Deadpool & Wolverine’ Obliterates R-Rated Record With $205 Million Opening Weekend, Eighth-Biggest in Box Office History

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Rebecca Rubin

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DEADPOOL & WOLVERINE, (aka DEADPOOL AND WOLVERINE, aka DEADPOOL 3), from left: Ryan Reynolds as Deadpool, Hugh Jackman as Wolverine, 2024. ph: Jay Maidment /© Marvel / © Walt Disney Studios Motion Pictures / Courtesy Everett Collection

“Deadpool & Wolverine,” a comic book adventure that pairs two of Marvel’s most popular characters, is turbocharging the box office.

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Paris’ Olympics opening was wacky and wonderful — and upset bishops. Here’s why

Paris Olympics organizers apologized to anyone who was offended by a tableau that evoked Leonardo da Vinci’s “The Last Supper” during the glamorous opening ceremony, but defended the concept behind it Sunday. Da Vinci’s painting depicts the moment when Jesus Christ declared that an apostle would betray him. The scene during Friday’s ceremony featured DJ and producer Barbara Butch — an LGBTQ+ icon — flanked by drag artists and dancers.

Delegations arrive at the Trocadero as spectators watch French singer Philippe Katerine performing on a giant screen, in Paris, during the opening ceremony of the 2024 Summer Olympics, Friday, July 26, 2024 in Paris. (Ludovic Marin/Pool Photo via AP)

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Paris Olympics

A heartbroken Caleb Dressel missed chances to defend two of his Olympic titles.
Simone Biles, Sha’Carri Richardson and Katie Ledecky are seeking big wins today .
Meanwhile, this millennia-old port city is hosting Olympic sailing.
See AP’s top photos from the 2024 Paris Olympics.
Check out the Olympic schedule of events and follow all of AP’s coverage of the Summer Games .
Take a look at the AP’s Olympics medal tracker and list of athletes who won today .
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PARIS (AP) — Paris: the Olympic gold medalist of naughtiness.

Revolution ran like a high-voltage wire through the wacky, wonderful and rule-breaking Olympic opening ceremony that the French capital used to astound, bemuse and, at times, poke a finger in the eye of global audiences on Friday night.

That Paris put on the most flamboyant, diversity-celebrating, LGBTQ+-visible of opening ceremonies wasn’t a surprise. Anything less would have seemed a betrayal of the pride the French capital takes in being a home to humanity in all its richness.

But still. Wow. Paris didn’t just push the envelope. It did away with it entirely as it hammered home a message that freedom must know no bounds.

A practically naked singer painted blue made thinly veiled references to his body parts. Blonde-bearded drag queen Piche crawled on all fours to the thumping beat of “Freed From Desire” by singer-songwriter Gala, who has long been a potent voice against homophobia . There were the beginnings of a menage à trois — the door was slammed on the camera before things got really steamy — and the tail end of an intimate embrace between two men who danced away, hugging and holding hands.

“In France, we have the right to love each other, as we want and with who we want. In France, we have the right to believe or to not believe. In France, we have a lot of rights. Voila,” said the audacious show’s artistic director, Thomas Jolly.

Jolly, who is gay, says being bullied as a child for supposedly being effeminate drove home early on how unjust discrimination is.

The amorous vibe and impudence were too much for some.

“Know that it is not France that is speaking but a left-wing minority ready for any provocation,” posted far-right French politician Marion Maréchal, adding a hashtagged “notinmyname.”

Here’s a closer look at how Paris both awed and shocked.

A 21st-century update of Leonardo da Vinci’s ‘Last Supper’

DJ and producer Barbara Butch, an LGBTQ+ icon who calls herself a “love activist,” wore a silver headdress that looked like a halo as she got a party going on a footbridge across the Seine, above parading athletes — including those from countries that criminalize LGBTQ+ people. Drag artists, dancers and others flanked Butch on both sides.

The tableau brought to mind Leonardo da Vinci’s “Last Supper,” which depicts the moment when Jesus Christ declared that an apostle would betray him.

Jolly says that wasn’t his intention. He saw the moment as a celebration of diversity, and the table on which Butch spun her tunes as a tribute to feasting and French gastronomy.

“My wish isn’t to be subversive, nor to mock or to shock,” Jolly said. “Most of all, I wanted to send a message of love, a message of inclusion and not at all to divide.”

Still, critics couldn’t unsee what they saw.

“One of the main performances of the Olympics was an LGBT mockery of a sacred Christian story - the Last Supper - the last supper of Christ. The apostles were portrayed by transvestites,” the spokesperson for Russia’s Foreign Ministry, Maria Zakharova, posted on Telegram.

“Apparently, in Paris they decided that since the Olympic rings are multi-colored, they can turn everything into one big gay parade,” she added.

The French Catholic Church’s conference of bishops deplored what it described as “scenes of derision and mockery of Christianity” and said “our thoughts are with all the Christians from all continents who were hurt by the outrage and provocation of certain scenes.”

LGBTQ+ athletes, though, seemed to have a whale of a time. British diver Tom Daley posted a photo of himself recreating the standout Kate Winslet-Leonardo DiCaprio scene from “Titanic,” only with the roles reversed: He was at the boat’s prow with arms outstretched, as rower Helen Glover held him from behind.

Is that a revolver in your pocket?

When a giant silver dome lifted to reveal singer Philippe Katerine reclining on a crown of fruit and flowers, practically naked and painted blue, audiences who didn’t think he was Papa Smurf may have guessed that he represented Dionysus, the Greek god of wine and ecstasy.

But unless they speak French, they may not have caught the cheekiness of his lyrics.

“Where to hide a revolver when you’re completely naked?” he sang, pointing down to his groin. “I know where you’re thinking. But that’s not a good idea.”

“No more rich and poor when you go back to being naked. Yes,” Katerine continued.

Decades after Brigitte Bardot sang “Naked in the Sun,” this was Paris’ reminder that everyone starts life in their birthday suit, so where’s the shame?

Paris museums are full of paintings that celebrate the human form. Gustave Courbet’s “Origin of the World” hangs in the Musée d’Orsay. The 16th-century “Gabrielle d’Estrées and one of her sisters,” showing one bare-breasted woman pinching the nipple of another, hangs in the Louvre.

France sends a message

Clad in a golden costume, French-Malian pop star Aya Nakamura strode confidently out of the hallowed doors of the Institut de France, a prestigious stronghold of French language, culture and commitment to freedom of thought. Even without a note being sung, the message of diversity, inclusion and Black pride was loud.

The most listened-to French-speaking artist in the world was a target of fierce attacks from extreme-right activists when her name emerged earlier this year as a possible performer at the show. Paris prosecutors opened an investigation of alleged racism targeting the singer.

Nakamura performed with musicians of the French military’s Republican Guard, who danced around her.

Au revoir, closed minds and stuffy traditions.

Off with their head!

When London hosted the Summer Games in 2012, it paid homage to the British monarchy by giving Queen Elizabeth II a starring role in the opening ceremony. Actor Daniel Craig, in character as James Bond, was shown visiting the head of state at Buckingham Palace before the pair appeared to parachute out of a helicopter over the stadium.

The French love to joyfully tease their neighbors across the English Channel and, perhaps not incidentally, took a totally different, utterly irreverent tack.

A freshly guillotined Marie Antoinette, France’s last queen before the French Revolution of 1789, was shown clutching her severed head, singing: “The aristocrats, we’ll hang them.” Then, heavy metal band Gojira tore the Paris evening with screeching electric guitar.

Freedom: Does anyone do it better than the French?

AP journalists Sylvie Corbet in Paris and Jim Heintz in Tallinn, Estonia, contributed.

For more coverage of the Paris Olympics, visit https://apnews.com/hub/2024-paris-olympic-games .

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About to embark on a world tour, global pop sensation Skye Riley begins experiencing increasingly terrifying and inexplicable events. Overwhelmed by the escalating horrors and the pressures ... Read all About to embark on a world tour, global pop sensation Skye Riley begins experiencing increasingly terrifying and inexplicable events. Overwhelmed by the escalating horrors and the pressures of fame, Skye is forced to face her past. About to embark on a world tour, global pop sensation Skye Riley begins experiencing increasingly terrifying and inexplicable events. Overwhelmed by the escalating horrors and the pressures of fame, Skye is forced to face her past.

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Avatar: The Way of Water First Reviews: A Magical, Visually Sublime Cinematic Experience Well Worth the Wait

Does it live up to expectations?

Is it better than the original?

So it’s not just more of the same?

Does it have a better script?

Will we care enough about the story and characters regardless?

Are there any standout performances?

How is the action?

Are the visuals as spectacular as they’re supposed to be?

But how is that high frame rate?

Does it feel like more than just your average movie?

Do we need to see it in a theater?

Will it leave us excited for Avatar 3 ?

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