Hats off to the visual effects team. Every frame was perfect, such that you could pick one at random to print and frame, then hang it in an aquarium or island-themed restaurant.
This movie would've been almost as good muted or watched in a language you don't understand, as the dialogue brought nothing to the story, and what you guess might be more interesting. I suppose the music wasn't wrong, but not noteworthy either.
So many plot holes and unresolved arcs:
I had my doubts after the lazy writing of Avatar 1, following Pocahontas, Fern Gully, etc, but had really hoped that with so much time lapsed between that and this that maybe a day or two had been spent improving the writing. Sadly that does not seem to be the case.
This movie would've been almost as good muted or watched in a language you don't understand, as the dialogue brought nothing to the story, and what you guess might be more interesting. I suppose the music wasn't wrong, but not noteworthy either.
So many plot holes and unresolved arcs:
- Who are these water people? Their importance probably should've been established before Jake and his family head their way.
- How does Jake know which tribe to bring his family to? The flight appeared deliberate, but we don't get any foreshadowing of the other tribes or why they'd be worth taking a chance on.
- How does Jake know the Sky People's intelligence network so intricately that he can lead them to the water without his original tribe getting steamrolled? Wouldn't the evil sky people kill them all anyway ? This reasoning is so contrived that it just screams "let me do some fish CGI already".
- What happened with Spider's arc? So many opportunities for character development, yet he's just sort of there for most of it. Gets bullied a bit, but then never confronts his bullies. Gets tortured a bit but then never confronts his torturers. His alignment gets called into question a bit when he coaches his dad on pairing with an animal, but how did he know where to bring his dad's search party such that he had anything to apologize for? He was taken before the flight to the islands. Choosing to save his father was a nice parting shot, but there's so much more that could be done with this character. His vulnerable mask is never exploited. His human size/strength is never exploited. His spiritual journey doesn't start. I suppose he'll get development in Avatar 3, but being as no one else got development in Avatar 2, postponing this seems silly.
- Did Neytiri learn anything about humans, or just regress to a state before Avatar 1? She kind of threatens a kid, but then the whole thing is just forgotten? Is this another bit of character development we're just going to kick down the road a few movies, because of course they're all greenlit already?
- So many missed opportunities within the Sky People ensemble. We see enough from the military to know they're the bad guys, but not enough to inspire character development within their ranks, to include from the scientists. If this is an attempted statement by James Cameron, that people don't step forward with a conscience in real life, then I can respect it, but at the moment it feels very lazy.
I had my doubts after the lazy writing of Avatar 1, following Pocahontas, Fern Gully, etc, but had really hoped that with so much time lapsed between that and this that maybe a day or two had been spent improving the writing. Sadly that does not seem to be the case.
