Reviews are now out for James Cameron’s “Avatar: The Way of Water” and the overall response seems to be cooler than the early ecstatic reviews from the junket press.
With 100 reviews counted, the film’s Rotten Tomatoes score sits at 83% (7.3/10), about on par with the 82% (7.4/10) of its predecessor.
It’s a slightly different story on Metacritic with the sequel nabbing a 72/100 – notably down compared to the original’s 83/100.
Here’s a couple of quotes from published reviews for the film:
“Cameron pulls you down so deep, and sets you so gently adrift, that at times you don’t feel like you’re watching a movie so much as floating in one.” – Justin Chang, LA Times
“Cameron’s all-encompassing style has a way of making other blockbusters feel small, vague. The Way of Water, in line with his best work, is more affecting for knowing its audience, for digging into primal feelings about being misunderstood.” – K. Austin Collins, Rolling Stone
“The Way of Water insists that times haven’t changed; it is heedless of contemporary industry undulations. That swaggering energy is, in large part, what makes the film such a pleasure to watch..” – Richard Lawson, Vanity Fair
“For now, the only thing that matters is that after 13 years of being a punchline, ‘going back to Pandora’ just became the best deal on Earth for the price of a movie ticket.” – David Ehrlich, IndieWire
“If the first Avatar is remarkable because it shows us wondrous lands nothing like our own, The Way of Water is remarkable because it shows us that this world is, in fact, very much like our own.” – Bilge Ebiri, Vulture
“Watching the film [feels] like being waterboarded with turquoise cement.” – Robbie Collin, Daily Telegraph
“Avatar: The Way of Water” opens in cinemas everywhere December 16th.
