So.
I'm glad I got a chance to see it before it gets too spoiled, and as more critical reviews roll in.
I never thought I'd leave a flick with some kind of emotional attachment to the character arch of a non-speaking cgi fish, yet here we are.
It was a beautiful film about family. The unresolved plot threads I was looking for based on a few reviews... They weren't there for me. The most critical reviews I've read seem to come down to nitpicking. Trust me, I looked for things to critique. The story has been kind of (and I want to stress kind of) done before in the same vein as Avatar 1, except, this focuses on the character development and establishing the quirks of each individual character, and each arch resolves nicely by the end of the film.
Sam Worthington's performance was much better than the first one. Each character was played well by their actors. It was a fine competent story.
The only thing... The ONLY thing I can think of that was even slightly groan worthy in regards to plot was a literal plot armor device and convenient placement in a critical moment of said plot armor fish... But, everything ties into the theme of the film, and the reason for said plot armor fish, is delivered by a main character completing their arch for this film. It makes sense... But, again. Nitpicking, and the film explains it non-verbally, and properly foreshadows this moment's arrival while leaving more room and reason to explore in a sequel. Really, I file this under nitpicking.
The film holds your hand in the first portion to set up the message it is trying to deliver, then in the final hour lets you go to take from it what you will by the ending.
The effects, Some moments were so photorealistic I was awestruck that I *knew* it had to be cgi, but then I kept looking closer at the image trying to see it to be computer generated. I just couldn't tell.
The only negative thing I can say in an earnest critique is it does in fact take some time for your eye to adjust to the frame rate switches, and I expect in a larger format it is harder for your eyes to adjust when it happens rapidly, though, for me, by the end of the film unless I was trying to notice it, I didn't. It does look a bit like a video game or theme park ride at first, but as I relaxed my eyes and eased into it, it went away. Overall, were talking maybe 10-20 seconds out of the entire movie it took for my eyes to adjust, and this stopped happening by the end of the first hour.
Anyways, about the story. It doesn't go as far into the "becoming part of the water tribe trials" like The first one did with Jake Sully becoming part of the tribe. These moments, mostly are replaced with broader, less nuanced character development and family dynamics and drama as they integrate into the water tribe. It shows you the story and gives you the room to feel what it must be like for each character. I can imagine drama being boring for a lot of audiences. It's there, and it takes up most of the film. The film also leans heavily into clichés. The villains are fun, Saturday morning cartoon villains you love to hate. But, It's these cliches that work for this story. I'm also glad they added a bit of humanity and internal conflict for the villain... The final act was SPICY... Albeit, perhaps just a little tad bit undercooked. But man, oh man I'm ready to see with how that conflict transpired, how the characters play out in the next one... Again, just a tad bit undercooked, but I won't be sending it back to the kitchen, It's fine. All it needed was just a small bit of flashback... and quite frankly, now that I think about it the film may have told us exactly what it's setting up for the next one, more or less.
Overall, the first one had a bigger overall impact on me in terms of effects and Jake's individual arch. This one had a bigger emotional effect, had a lot more emotional depth and wow, the cgi is incredible but it's almost like I expected it to be so damn good stemming from the first one. I don't know that I need too many more viewings of this though. It's like a Lord of the Rings marathon... Don't need to do it all the time, and the time commitment is astounding, but you like it enough you'll buy the special edition blu-ray and keep it handy, just incase there is ever a time you want to take a journey... And that's about the highest praise I can give to a film, and giving me a journey is all I can ask of a filmmaker. It's not a film that needs to be seen countless times, but if you thought the first was neat or decent even, it demands at least 1 solid viewing (in 3d of course). I'll be adding this one to my collection.
Avatar: The way of *Vin Diesel Voice* FAMILY!!!
9.5/10 (scored on it's own merits. It's not above the Godfather or anything like that, but as a film it excels in it's story by making you feel for it's characters. Even that one cgi fish.)