Let me say it as it is, I don't get it. I am a person that doesn't put to many points into technical aspects. Sure, I can be impressed and when a movie really blows you away AND looks incredible it does a lot to you. A good camera and great effects can really enhance an experience. But I see it as no more than frosting on a cake, a great core story, great characters and having something to say is what builds the cake all the frosting is going on. In the case of Avatar I´m impressed by it´s technical aspects, but not blown away in the story department.

When Jake Sully and his family is threatened by the humans again, they flee to a water tribe of the Navi. Here they most learn to adapt to the new tribe.

Let´s start with the biggest praise this movie should get, it´s CGI. This movie looks absolutely incredible! It feels lightyears ahead of its predecessor and that says a lot. The way water looks, the shadows, under water, over water, the Navi, the water on their skin, the creatures, backgrounds, machines. All are done to an insanely high standard and the animation team should be proud of their achievement. This is a technical marvel, but sometimes it cracks. Sometimes the characters look a bit like a PS4 game. Sometimes the creatures don't look too great, sometimes the backgrounds stick out as just CG backgrounds. This is more praise to the high standard this movie sets, but it also shows when it can´t uphold it and that´s a shame.

My biggest issue with this movie is it´s lack of a greater point for me. I don´t really feel like I watched a movie, but binge watched 5 episodes of a show. Jake and his wife now have 4 kids and 3 of them has a lesser story going on, as well as the villain and everything in between. There is too much in this movie, too many directions, too many micro stories that barely fit together. This coupled with some poor editing in terms of editing between scenes creates this movie that gains momentum, only to cut away and start a new, the snowballing effect of scenes don´t really work here for me and it felt incoherent at best. This also makes time feel incoherent. It´s hard to tell when events are happening relative to each other and sometimes I blatantly think there wasn't given a thought to the passage of time.

The movie uses some really annoying and pandering voice over. There are beautiful and emotional scenes of great acting and music that tells it all and then Jake has to explain to me what is going on. It´s annoying and really undermines the tone of the movie and the intelligence of the viewer. Other than that the acting is pretty solid. A lot of strong performances all around but no character is given the earned focus they need too. I really think they should have cut down on characters. Th villain felt dumb from the beginning, the kid felt unnecessary, the one of the sons and the sister is barely there and it goes on like that. A tighter movie with more focus on 3 characters story would have done better than having it as it is now with few stories but many characters to tell it. The character Kiri was also a bit distracting because of the age they were supposed to be and their story really led to nothing.

This movie is filled with cliche lines and story tropes. While they are fine, they feel see through. Misunderstood giant, bullying, fitting in, family, stories that are good to tell, but feels barely given the time they deserve in this movie.

The world is incredible here. It´s fun to see another side of Pandora, see the plants, animals, different water and buildings. It feels like another culture to explore and that is no doubt one of the fun aspects about the movie. It´s hard to teel the different characters here apart though, and I wish they looked different enough to really make them stand out.

The last hour of this movie is a great acting set piece that I enjoyed, but like I've already mentioned, this movie has too much going on and I wished it would have been cut down. This movie felt long, too long and after an hour I literally thought we were getting to the end as all the pieces were in place for an ending. A rushed one, but at least not a drawn out one.

I think this movie really missed out on a great story about family. It doesn't really feel like the movie wants to say much compared to the original movie and the bonds between family and friends are glossed over here. All the characters and their relations feel separated, like we are supposed to just accept they have a bound because they are related. The first movie didn't engage me with it´s characters either, and this movie really wants me to continue the bond from that movie so it was already working against itself in my case.

I thought the different new animals were well designed and looked cool, although I think the movie didn't implement the learning curve well for the characters. They have a hard time riding them for one scene and the next they are masters. They have a breathing technique that is hard to master and then learn it right away and there is also an animal that makes them breath underwater....why introduce this? Also, why do the water Navi speak English? I think it´s so fun this universe has an entire made up language, but this movie never use it.

Avatar 2 was fine to me, but nothing I feel like I need to watch again. It has it´s ups and downs, it has it´s fun moments and is beautiful, but the storytelling didn't do anything for me. It feels like it works against itself to cram in as many characters, stories and ideas as possible, instead of working on it´s great world and the relations within it. I see potential here, but the movie didn't do it.