Dec. 26, the movie “Avatar: The Way of Water” came out in theaters and is currently still playing. This movie is the sequel to the movie “Avatar” which was released in 2009. “Avatar” was a groundbreaking movie for its time with stunning visuals and a never before seen use of special effects. The movie was so well received that it was the number one movie at the box office for years until “Avengers: Endgame” came out. Many have been waiting for the sequel of the movie, and after years of rumors and delays, people finally get to watch “Avatar: The Way of Water.” After watching the movie, I feel like it was somewhat what I expected from a movie of its nature. Although it did have some shortcomings, overall I would say it was a pretty good movie.

 The movie starts off with a recap of all the events that took place after the first movie. We get introduced to the main characters: Sully, his wife and his four kids. We see how the Na’vi people live as hunters and gatherers and how stunning the forest is. The movie showcases the scenery frequently with many foreign yet beautiful creatures unique to the landscape. Later on we get introduced to a new clan of Na’vi, the ocean-dwelling Metkayina, who live by “The Way of Water.” These people have longer tails and bigger limbs to let them swim better in the water and are very different from the Na’vi introduced in the first movie. 

The sequel has incredible visuals, where multiple times throughout the movie it did feel like it was real life, but I feel like the movie focused too much on the visuals. The film had multiple cuts throughout the move that were made solely to showcase special effects.

At times, the cuts were appropriate such as when a new scene was introduced; however I feel as if it made the plot move very slowly, ultimately making the movie somewhat tedious to watch. The characters also felt very readable, which is not too bad because it lets you connect to them more, but it is also bad because you could predict what they would turn out to do or say. The movie actually begins to get very action oriented and interesting by the end, where multiple plot twists and fighting sequences occur.

By the end of the movie, I felt like the plot moved too fast in order to catch up and it left me feeling somewhat confused. There was too much going on and too many plot twists in my opinion. The pace changed drastically compared to the beginning of the movie where the audience is just being shown the environment and slowly moving the plot forward. The ending of the movie was actually pretty good, it was what was expected to happen with the main characters winning over the bad guys in the end and everyone learning a lesson.

The musical score in the movie was solid, with it feeling very mysterious and foreign. “The Songcord” by Zoe Saldana was used frequently throughout the song from the very beginning of the movie to the very end.

Overall I would recommend watching this movie but I do not see many people watching the whole thing without taking breaks as the whole movie is a staggering 3 hours and 12 minutes. It was a pretty good experience especially since it was my first time watching a movie in theaters since quarantine.