The 5 Biggest Problems With ‘Avatar: The Way Of Water’

Avatar: The Way Of Water is finally here. The sequel to James Cameron’s box-office smash hit comes roughly 13 years after the original film hit theaters and started a massive 3D trend that fizzled out in the intervening years.

Cameron once again pushes the tech envelope in Avatar 2, offering up the crispest, most astonishingly clear 3D I’ve ever seen. But while the special effects are light years beyond anything else, the film itself—as a work of art and storytelling—leaves much to be desired.

Here are the 5 biggest problems I had with Avatar: The Way Of Water.

MORE FROM FORBES‘Avatar 2: The Way Of Water’ Review: A Major Disappointment, BroBy Erik Kain

1. The Story

The story—or lack thereof—is what drags down Avatar 2 the most. In many ways, it’s just a rehash of the first film’s plot, only this time with more Na’vi now that Jake has gone native. Of course, the movie takes place mostly with the water Na’v instead of the jungle Na’vi but otherwise it’s shockingly similar. Jake and his family head to the water tribes for sanctuary as they’re being hunted by a group of military Avatars, led by an Avatar version of Colonel Quaritch, hellbent on revenge.

Ultimately we have yet another big confrontation between the humans and the Na’vi right down to the same chief antagonist—only taller and bluer this time around. While some elements of the story are new since they deal with Sully and Neytiri’s children and the water tribes, it’s mostly a repeat in a new setting.

2. The Last Battle

Speaking of that final confrontation, the big battle at the end of the film is a mess. It’s way too long and repetitive, and while there are some cool special effects and it’s kind of fun to see the tulkun whale take part in the combat, mostly it just dragged. Sully’s kids are captured twice—after having been captured earlier in the film already! Having the kids captured and rescued three times over the course of a single film is just bad writing. And what on earth—er, Pandora—happened to the water Na’vi at the end of the fight? Did they just bail on Jake and his family or what?

3. The Runtime

The final battle was too long, but so was the rest of the film, which meandered slowly for its first two acts before plunging us into the battle for the final act. There’s simply no reason for this film to run 3 hours and 12 minutes. The plot certainly doesn’t justify it. The special effects and 3D would have been just as pretty in 2 hours and 12 minutes. Avatar 2 could easily be cut by 45 minutes or more, tightening up the pace of the film considerably. A lot of that could be in the final action sequences. I really liked the aquatic stuff, and especially Lo’ak’s relationship with the outcast whale (more on that in a second) so I wouldn’t cut any of that, but there are plenty of other portions of the movie that could be tightened up.

4. The Framerate

While there’s no denying the visuals were great, I was much less fond of the dual framerates used in the movie. Moving from 24 frames-per-second to 48fps is jarring. 48fps sounds good on paper, but to me it creates the ‘soap opera effect’ by making everything appear too clear and unnaturally realistic. It’s immersion-breaking and takes me right out of the movie. The aggressive digital zoom used in some scenes was also pretty off-putting.

5. The Dialogue

I can’t get over how bad much of the dialogue was in this movie, but especially the dialogue among the teens. The overuse of the words ‘bro’ and ‘cuz’ was awful and distracting. The Na’vi bullies were also way too cliched. Finally, the conversations between the Na’vi and the tulkun whales were a little ridiculous. A whale asking an alien woman about her pregnancy is just a bridge too far for me in terms of suspending my disbelief. Surely there was a better way to portray these conversations.

Bonus: The Outcast

Speaking of which, the whale that No’ak befriends is considered an outcast by the Na’vi and his tulkun brethren. This . . . all feels super awkward in execution. The water tribe treats the whale like a murderer because there’s this story that he killed his own kind. But in a vision, No’ak sees that really he just tried to fight the humans who killed his mother. Apparently this is still reason enough to outcast the poor lonely whale, which just seems . . . very strange. I guess while I thought having hyper-emotional and intelligent whales is a cool concept, making them so human-like was a mistake. Having a culture with outcasts and rigidly enforced pacifism where even a child can be banished for fighting back against his mother’s killers . . . reminds me of the cruel Harfoots in The Rings Of Power, who claim that “nobody walks alone” right after leaving the sick and weak and elderly behind.

In any case, I made a video about this as well which you can watch below. What did you think of the movie?

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