I don't mind spoilers, personally. There's certainly some things that I go into not wanting to be spoiled- if it means a lot to me, then I'll avoid, but otherwise, if I get spoiled, it's no biggy. Seeing
how it plays out is just as interesting as
what plays out. But I do agree that it's getting a bit exhausting when it feels like every single big budget movie needs not just one twist or cameo, but multiple. They have to keep one upping themselves. It went from feeling like a kid playing with their toys and mashing them together to now feeling like a kid dumping their entire toybox out and trying to make a story out of all the varying properties. You have Batman mixing with Spidey mixing with Alien mixing with GI Joe, etc. On one hand it's cool the first time or two- definitely like a live action comic, with all the various characters intermingling, which is fun. But then you start to rewatch it, and the "nudge nudge wink wink" of it all feels more apparent- the obvious pauses for applause being perhaps the most egregious.
I'm not saying I want them to stop. Again, it's cool seeing all these beloved characters coming together like we dreamed of as kids, but it needs to feel a bit more streamlined and purposeful. Just throwing in characters for the hell of it, for a momentary rush of nostalgia that lessens with each viewing. I think more effort should be put into the long-form opinion of the film and allowing it to hold up, rather than just the initial reaction from getting a butt in a theater seat. Not everything needs to have a crazy long legacy, but I don't know if everything should feel so disposable either.
Saw Avatar Fire and Ash. Part two again. That pretty much sums it up. It’s odd to see James Cameron not advance the story. It is visually very interesting and seeing life on Pandora is interesting. I could watch them interact with wild life and makes their wares for a hour or so. This had a bunch of action thrown in too to make ot 3 hours. I’m still kind of shaking my head. He has two more movies? I’m not seeing you James Cameron.
Thwipp!
I probably liked the movie more than most- not enough to get post-Avatar depression, but enough to be enamored with the world- but I don't necessarily disagree. It felt like it hit a lot of the same beats as Way of Water, just a bit better (in my opinion). Almost like James wanted to redo WoW and fix some mistakes. I know it was supposedly envisioned as one film, but I don't know at what point it was split- script, editing, whatever. FaA has some elements I enjoy more- Varang, the various tribes actually doing something, the heavier, more meaningful character moments. It does kinda feel like you could skip maybe half or more of WoW and not really lose anything, since a lot of the same beats are there again. For as much as I enjoyed it, I do hope that the story progresses a bit in the next one. I'm all for pausing for character progression, but I still want to end in a more apparent different place than before.
