No not Avatar The Last Air Bender (Though I should probably sit down and watch that at some point) James Cameron's Avatar, the 2009 movie. Which ironically came out at the same time as Avatar: The Last Airbender's first movie adaptation.. just called "The Last Airbender" to avoid confusion with Avatar It's the cinematic masterpiece loved for its visuals and hated for its story. Well recently I sat down and watched "The Way of Water" Now why would I do such a thing? I saw Avatar in the theater when I was 19 years old, and I fucking hated it. I hated that we finally had a non-werewolf non-kid's film Furry TF movie and the plot was the most derivative shit I'd ever seen in my life. I swore that Avatar was the biggest pile of dog shit, and my opinion hasn't changed. Because once you get past its looks and 3D so spectacular that TV Manufacturers swore it was going to be the next big thing, the story was shit. We all know that story, because it was better when it was called "Atlantis: The Lost Empire" I'll recap for ya anyway A BRILLIANT Scientist yet average fighter, signs up to have his consciousness placed in a blue elfcat body so that he can talk to the Na'vi, the Native American stand-in race, and convince them to let humanity mine "Unobtainium" (That fucking name), the only substance that can save the dying human race and their also dying home planet of Earth. Only he fucking dies, so his twin brother (An average scientist, yet BRILLIANT fighter) Jake Sully steps out in step. Only Jake Sully completely forgets his mission because he's enamored with the Na'vi's culture, and he wants to fit in so well with them that he'll never mention that he's actually human and speaking on behalf of humans for the months that he's there. Instead he will romance the chieftain's daughter, partly because Milo did that in Atlantis: The Lost Empire, and partly because he cares more about hot alien sex then saving his species. Naturally the marines get fed up waiting and decide to mine the Unobtainium anyway, going for the "Just shoot the Na'vi if they try to stop you" option, which Jake Sully forced by wasting all of their fucking time. (I need it to be understood how much I hate this fucking character) So Jake leads the Na'vi to fight the humans, and they win with pointy sticks. Then force all of humanity off the planet. Jake's human body is sacrificed during the fight, so he's a Chakat now... or... wait sorry, I mean a Na'vi. Fast Forward more than a decade later, both in universe and in real life to Avatar: The Way of Water A movie I watched recently. Why? Because I had a dream that I wanted to and decided to indulge it, because I have a VPN and that entitles me to watch any movie I want. Oh boy Way of Water. Way of Water is also not a good movie, it is however BETTER than the first one. I'd say Avatar was pissing on my face, and Avatar: Way of Water was the towel I was given to clean off with. Way of Water starts off with the revelation that not ALL the humans were kicked off of Pandora, the scientists were allowed to stay and so was anyone who couldn't make the trip back; the latter of which amounts to a kid named Spider. Jake's started a family and his kids play with Spider who has a Tarzan thing going on, sure why not, and all is well. Until he learn that the Marines are coming back, because surprise, the Colonel from the first movie had his memories backed up and put into an Avatar body! Gasp, and now they want him to hunt down Jake Sully, the guy who betrayed humanity. So Jake and his family go to the fish people to learn The Way of Water, the fish people don't accept them because they're dicks and think forest Na'vi are stupid, The fish people's kids even bully Jake's kids, that's how big of losers the Fish People think Jake and pals are, but he shows them! He learns the Way of Water and can ride fishes. Hooray for him, suck his soupdrinker, he's Jake Sully and he can do anything. But gasp, the humans find out that Jake is living with the fish people, so they start attacking fish people hoping to lure Jake out. They even start killing the sacred sentient talking whales that the fish people worship! Which leads to Jake's kids going to save the one they bonded with in a scene I skipped in this recap, so Jake goes to save them, taking the fish people with them. War ensues, and it's Jake and the Colonel in the end. Only this time they both live, oh and the Fish People left when they got bored of killing humans, and the humans got bored of being alive because the Fish People told them it was more fun to just not So it's just Jake and the Resurrected Colonel, and they both nearly die, but get saved by their respective families. (Spider was the Colonel's kid, there's A LOT I skipped because the movie is four hours long.) Giving us an open ending to set up for Fire & Ash, IN THEATERS NOW! Do I recommend Way of Water? Maybe if it were two hours shorter I could say "Put it on in the background" So is that all I have to say? Well I wanna bring up one more thing. Ya know how I said Jake Sully betrayed humanity in the first movie? Ya know how I said I left stuff out of the recap of the second film? Well.... Here's some highlights of what I left out. Remember when I said Jake's kids were being bullied by the fish people? Well what I left out was that Jake actively encouraged this bullying, refused to listen to his kids when they argued they were the victims not the perpatrators, and he did this solely to curry favor with the Fish People Then later when the Colonel kills a bunch of talking whales, the Fish People IMMEDIATELY want to go to war with humanity in order to defend themselves. Jake actually tries talking them out of it with the logic that humanity can find him more easily if the people hiding him are fighting back. It's only when they take Jake's kids does he go "Oh shit, actually ya know what. Fighting them is a good idea." So the sequel confirms, that Jake Sully is a selfish jackass who will go against any group he's with solely for his own benefit. And I just think that makes the first film funnier, because it really shows his "Heroically betrayed his entire species for hot alien sex" in the appropriate lighting.
TBH, I think of Avatar more as a mediocre movie that got hyped up so much over its special effects (such marketing wasn't even really a new concept; Disney's Dinosaur and Final Fantasy: The Spirits Within are two good examples of what I'm talking about). So hyped up, in fact, that it created a backlash and hatedom which itself quickly became overblown in its own right. I'm not really defending Avatar. I just don't think it's really interesting to talk about compared to complete shitshows such as FoodFight and War of the Worlds 2025.
Reminds me of how women hyped up Twilight and everyone had to remind them they're women and therefor do not get to have opinions (this isn't sarcasm) (I mean this unironically)