# Avatar - The Way of Water
**URL:** https://boards.straightdope.com/t/avatar-the-way-of-water/976471
**Category:** Cafe Society
**Tags:** movies, disney-hulu
**Created:** [December 13, 2022, 6:13pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/avatar-the-way-of-water/976471 "2022-12-13T18:13:57Z")
**Posts on this page:** 20
**Page:** 3
### Author:  [@Dewey\_Finn](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dewey_Finn)
#### Post date: [December 18, 2022, 2:56am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/avatar-the-way-of-water/976471/41 "2022-12-18T02:56:21Z")
Honestly, that’s one of the reasons I never see movies in 3D.
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### Author:  [@JohnT](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/JohnT)
#### Post date: [December 18, 2022, 12:27pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/avatar-the-way-of-water/976471/42 "2022-12-18T12:27:05Z")
Listening to some entertainment/movie podcasts, apparently this film did $180 million on day 1, a projected $550 million for the opening weekend.
Global figures, of course.
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### Author:  [@yendis](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/yendis)
#### Post date: [December 19, 2022, 10:38am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/avatar-the-way-of-water/976471/43 "2022-12-19T10:38:07Z")
Watched it on Friday and was more than pleasantly surprised at how much better it was than the first one. The plot is still straightforward and obvious but the characters had actual character and there was actual emotion in places.
And if like me you enjoy the more techy side of scifi, spaceships, vehicles, aircraft etc. The designs in the movie are mind blowing. Specifically the submarines. Every panel, rivet, flap, propeller, control and button looks like it is actually functional and makes sense.
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### Author:  [@WhyKickAMooCow](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/WhyKickAMooCow)
#### Post date: [December 19, 2022, 11:26am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/avatar-the-way-of-water/976471/44 "2022-12-19T11:26:23Z")
1. 3D is great, stop complaining about dark screens or whatever
2. He wasn’t literally saying “unobtanium” he was shorthand saying “we’re mining this stuff that’s unobtainable anywhere else”
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### Author:  [@Mahaloth](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mahaloth)
#### Post date: [December 19, 2022, 9:16pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/avatar-the-way-of-water/976471/45 "2022-12-19T21:16:09Z")
> [@WhyKickAMooCow](#):
>
> He wasn’t literally saying “unobtanium” he was shorthand saying “we’re mining this stuff that’s unobtainable anywhere else”
Wait, is it not really called that and that is just Earth’s nickname for it?
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### Author:  [@JohnT](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/JohnT)
#### Post date: [December 19, 2022, 9:25pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/avatar-the-way-of-water/976471/46 "2022-12-19T21:25:58Z")
It was used in the first movie.
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### Author:  [@JohnT](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/JohnT)
#### Post date: [December 20, 2022, 1:44am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/avatar-the-way-of-water/976471/47 "2022-12-20T01:44:29Z")
This may have been the most beautiful movie I have ever seen. I am overwhelmed by the word, dedication, and just downright _brain power_ it took to put this film together. There’s nothing original in the plot, but the vision and execution of every single little detail… holy shit.
At the end, I started applauding. In about 5 seconds, the theater picked up on it, and in 10 seconds, all were applauding. And for a 2:40pm showing on a Monday afternoon, that place was _packed_.
I’ll go more into it as the conversation develops… I just spent my energies writing a [25th anniversary appreciation post](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-intend-to-write-a-strongly-worded-letter-to-the-white-star-line-about-all-of-this-james-camerons-titanic-released-25-years-ago-today/976818) about _Titanic_. But this film is spectacular, if you miss it on the big screen without an appropriate excuse (you’re an astronaut, you’re dead, you’re James Cameron and have already seen it), that’s solely on you.
Don’t do that.
BTW, I saw it in IMAX, no 3D. 3D doesn’t work with my wonky eyes, so I didn’t lose anything I could’ve had.
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### Author:  [@Kimstu](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Kimstu)
#### Post date: [December 20, 2022, 3:37am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/avatar-the-way-of-water/976471/48 "2022-12-20T03:37:35Z")
> [@yendis](#):
>
> The plot is still straightforward and obvious
And missing huge chunks of stuff that it seemed to me somebody should really be addressing at some point, like what the hell happens to the “Forest People” Na’vi rebellion against the Earth colonizers once Fearless Leader Sully decides to up stakes and join the “Reef People”. But that made more sense to me once I learned that this movie was intended as the second of a four- or five-film series: none of the story arcs are in any way resolved yet.
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### Author:  [@Mahaloth](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mahaloth)
#### Post date: [December 20, 2022, 3:41am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/avatar-the-way-of-water/976471/49 "2022-12-20T03:41:50Z")
I hope he makes all five of them. It may not be his absolute best stuff of all time, but if this is what Jim Cameron wants to do, I hope he does it. He’s a great movie-maker and he should just go for it.
Part 3 is filmed mostly and I heard he has worked on filming part of the fourth movie already. I guess they will probably make them?
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### Author:  [@squeegee](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/squeegee)
#### Post date: [December 20, 2022, 3:46am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/avatar-the-way-of-water/976471/50 "2022-12-20T03:46:45Z")
> [@Kimstu](#):
>
> none of the story arcs are in any way resolved yet.
Especially the whole Kiri thing. I mean, Eywa is obviously Mom#2, and she’s got magic powers. But we find out she has epilepsy and _nobody tells her_ she’s not supposed to commune underwater or she’ll die, so she does it anyway, using giant anemone as ocean robo waldos – and doesn’t die. I guess the fan wank is she dies if she communes (underwater?) with Eywa, but using any of the other Pandora wifi is hunky dory.
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### Author:  [@squeegee](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/squeegee)
#### Post date: [December 20, 2022, 4:49am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/avatar-the-way-of-water/976471/51 "2022-12-20T04:49:25Z")
So I assume the next movies will be the way of air, earth, fire. Then Jake fights Fire Lord Ozai
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### Author:  [@Eyebrows\_0f\_Doom](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Eyebrows_0f_Doom)
#### Post date: [December 20, 2022, 4:51am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/avatar-the-way-of-water/976471/52 "2022-12-20T04:51:26Z")
> [@squeegee](#):
>
> > [@Kimstu](#):
> >
> > none of the story arcs are in any way resolved yet.
>
> Especially the whole Kiri thing. I mean, Eywa is obviously Mom#2, and she’s got magic powers. But we find out she has epilepsy and _nobody tells her_ she’s not supposed to commune underwater or she’ll die, so she does it anyway, using giant anemone as ocean robo waldos – and doesn’t die. I guess the fan wank is she dies if she communes (underwater?) with Eywa, but using any of the other Pandora wifi is hunky dory.
I thought that was just it’s not actually epilepsy, they just didn’t know that she had magical Eywa powers and could control other life forms.
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### Author:  [@Leaper](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Leaper)
#### Post date: [December 20, 2022, 5:05am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/avatar-the-way-of-water/976471/53 "2022-12-20T05:05:08Z")
I haven’t seen it yet, but I question the decision to focus on Katara and Sokka. I mean, they were there from episode one, and I thought maybe it’d more interesting to take a closer look at-
What?
Oh. Never mind.
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### Author:  [@squeegee](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/squeegee)
#### Post date: [December 20, 2022, 5:14am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/avatar-the-way-of-water/976471/54 "2022-12-20T05:14:29Z")
> [@Eyebrows\_0f\_Doom](#):
>
> I thought that was just it’s not actually epilepsy, they just didn’t know that she had magical Eywa powers and could control other life forms.
Yeah, that was possibly the other interpretation, but no character made that leap. Hell, it was never even discussed again, was it?
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### Author:  [@squeegee](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/squeegee)
#### Post date: [December 20, 2022, 7:12am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/avatar-the-way-of-water/976471/55 "2022-12-20T07:12:36Z")
BTW what was with Kiri grabbing a lungfish for herself when rescuing her downing mom, but _didn’t think to grab one for Mom too?_
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### Author:  [@JohnT](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/JohnT)
#### Post date: [December 20, 2022, 9:37am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/avatar-the-way-of-water/976471/56 "2022-12-20T09:37:59Z")
> [@squeegee](#):
>
> So I assume the next movies will be the way of air, earth, fire.
It’s called The Way of Earth, Wind, and Fire, and is coming out on the 21st night of September.
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### Author:  [@Si\_Amigo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Si_Amigo)
#### Post date: [December 20, 2022, 11:29am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/avatar-the-way-of-water/976471/57 "2022-12-20T11:29:12Z")
Really, the Way of Earth, Wind and Fire is coming in September? Makes we want to sing.
[ ](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Gs069dndIYk)
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### Author:  [@squeegee](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/squeegee)
#### Post date: [December 20, 2022, 11:34am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/avatar-the-way-of-water/976471/58 "2022-12-20T11:34:46Z")
Re Spider - was it ever explained how Colonel Jarhead had a baby on Pandora? Where’s Mom? Back on Earth having said, “screw that little brat!” ? Or did Jarhead rape one of the science staff (doesn’t seem like he’d get that “no means no”)?
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### Author:  [@Love\_Rhombus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Love_Rhombus)
#### Post date: [December 20, 2022, 11:41am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/avatar-the-way-of-water/976471/59 "2022-12-20T11:41:03Z")
Some folks can be assholes to everyone except family. And he’s not totally hostile to other humans, just the Na’vi.
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### Author:  [@squeegee](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/squeegee)
#### Post date: [December 20, 2022, 12:38pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/avatar-the-way-of-water/976471/60 "2022-12-20T12:38:48Z")
> [@Love\_Rhombus](#):
>
> And he’s not totally hostile to other humans, just the Na’vi.
Which kind of has the makings of a [heel face turn](https://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Main/HeelFaceTurn) in some future movie, don’t it? Since he’s all blue and shit now.
OTOH, Jarhead didn’t seem to give much of shit about his team members dying. Cameron didn’t even bother to give them more than individual ‘looks’, no personalities beyond “oo rah!”.
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