For a four star movie, saying Avatar: The Way of Water was a bit of a disappointment is a head scratcher. But given its pedigree and how many years since the last James Cameron film, I was hoping for something a little better constructed.

So this one takes place years after the end of the first film with Jake Sully and Neytiri now married with children. But those dirty rotten scoundrels from Earth are back in force… and gunning for him and the fam. So he goes into hiding with one of the ocean clans where clearly they will be safe for the entire three hour runtime… right?

The underwater scenes in this flick just put Aquaman 2 and The Little Mermaid on notice. You better come with your A game since The Way of Water is likely to have you for lunch. Of course, a decade of planning and production and ALL the money in the world ensures this flick looks amazing. And the 3D, especially once we get into the “just showing off” underwater sequences, was pretty amazing.

So much of this flick only exists in a computer and it all looks stellar. It’s hard to tell what’s real, what’s mo-cap, and what’s all digital. And the film has the confidence (and the running time) to spend lengthy sequences just pointing its virtual camera at the virtual world and hoping you’ll say ooh and ahh. And good argument to be had you will. It’s stellar. Every bit as imaginative as the original film.

Story-wise, we have something a little more complicated – or at least different – from the original film. I wasn’t wholly satisfied with the decision to go into hiding since that doesn’t feel like the Sully character… and if they thought they had provided enough psychological reasoning why, they were wrong. So that’s a bit of a ding on the flick.

The action set pieces are generally very good but lack the emotional impact of the first film. Certainly the film does what the original did in terms of simplifying the boo-hiss villains so at least we hate the baddies in a carefully constructed way. But I never felt that sense of awe, terror, and desperation that the original film had. There are big and terrible moments, but they lack a bit in scale and impact. I think partly due to the score not being as bombastic and tragic.

The final act action scene is wildly overwritten and is ultimately what brings down my score. It’s was just too busy… too many captives being rescued only to be captured again, stand-offs, fights, more stand-offs, daring rescues, near death experiences, more daring rescues, etc. etc. It was too needlessly busy to maintain the momentum.

But still, this is generally a very good film. All the FX budget and all those years of production are on screen… if only they’d had room for a script doctor to keep the busy final act more constrained. It’s not as epic as the original, but it does a solid job. I just wish I was more blown away… this is James Cameron playing with all his toys, after all.

Score: 87