Let me first say that I'm a big fan of Mr. Cameron's work. His use of special effects is way ahead of its time, and is forever etched in the memory of the viewer.

-- Direction-ish -- But sadly, even a visionary like Cameron can fall for the usual Hollywood banality, and Avatar2 is nothing but full of cliches, so much so that I found myself saying "we get it, it's a beautiful sea world, now for God's sake, move on with the story and give the swimming and fishes a break." Make no mistake, Avatar2 looks stunning and has the telltale Cameron signature, with scenes that invoke memories from the Jaws, Terminator 2, and Titanic. If you watch it, you should definitely watch on the biggest screen available near you. But that's where the good things end. While making the movie a visual masterpiece, Cameron forgot to throw in a story, and it's as if at the last minute he went like "Oh gosh, we forgot a story, let's just throw in some kids, and some family propaganda, release it in December, and the usual American audience will lap it up along with their Christmas meals."

-- Story-ish -- Jake Sully is living happily with four kids, which, if you're conscious, is four too many when the world population has just hit 8 billion. He wasn't an officer in the army but he raises his kids with an iron hand acting like a General. The kids just exist, and often make stupid decisions only required to advance the movie. Jake and his wife have occasional loving arguments, but no fights, ever (I want to know which marriage counselor they see), and the wifey and children always fall in line with Jake.

There's a character called "Spider" or "the Monkey Boy", but Cameron forgot to tell him what he was supposed to do, so this dude just dresses like Tarzan and tags along with various people at various times.

There's more; the Earth is dying and humans want to establish a colony in Pandora. They decide that the natives must be wiped out. But when Jake flees (because family), the humans, for no reason, decide to forgo their mission and spend the rest of the movie hunting him down.

3-star for the visuals.