My thoughts on the first one are that the visuals are stunning but the story and characters are dull and boring. Not bad but a movie I don't like that much but it is still a good experience for the visuals. The visuals here are definitely better than the first one. I love ocean environments and this is some of the best visuals I've ever seen in any movie. The effects, the creature designs and the landscapes are all gorgeous and once in a while there's a good action sequence. But what doesn't work about the movie is that it's basically the exact same as the first movie. It feels kind of insulting that this movie was in development for 10 years and it took 10 years to write this and it's basically the exact same thing. Like the first one it's visually stunning but the story and characters are the exact same thing.