THB #276: Avatar: The Way of Water Review(?)

How does one review Avatar: The Way of Water?

Seriously.

In so many ways, it is a fool’s errand. Kinda like these guys on the boat…

“WTF?!?!?!”

Bilge Ebiri at Vulture does 4 full paragraphs before getting to the movie that is being released.

It seems like most of the reviews this morning are about Jim Cameron and the original film and how this film fits into that context… before getting to the parts you really should avoid, telling you story you don’t want to know before seeing the film.

One of the classic Hollywood-isms is that audiences want (and studios try to give them) the same thing they loved, but different. Individuals will disagree on detail, but Avatar: The Way of Water is very much The Same, But Different.

The quality of the effects has improved, though looking at the first film, it was pretty amazing back then. Alternately, look at the 2002 Spider-Man vs anything now… let’s just say, it was cutting edge then and the edge has moved… a lot. Of course, it was 1978 when Superman: Th…