10 Movies That Embarrassed Other Movies Released At The Same Time

10. Avatar: The Way Of Water EMBARRASSED Black Panther: Wakanda Forever

This past holiday season was the battle of the aquatic-themed mega-budget blockbusters, as Black Panther: Wakanda Forever faced off against Avatar: The Way of Water.

Wakanda Forever was released first in mid-November - just five weeks before the Avatar sequel - to solidly positive reviews, even if most critics agreed it didn't match the brilliance of its predecessor, quite understandably given Chadwick Boseman's untimely death.

With its primary antagonist being Namor (Tenoch Huerta Mejía), the king of the Atlantis-like civilisation Talokan, the bulk of the film is centered around water, and director Ryan Coogler did a mostly solid job with it.

But then Avatar: The Way of Water came out, and the mind-boggling visual majesty of James Cameron's long-gestating sequel made Wakanda Forever's seafaring action look, well, like a crayon drawing crudely scrawled on a napkin.

This is particularly apparent in their especially water-based third acts - widely considered both the strongest part of Avatar 2 and the weakest section of Wakanda Forever.

Cameron obviously had the major advantage of time and money, whereas basically all Marvel movies are on a strict production conveyor-belt due to their interconnected nature.

Even so, The Way of Water showed what can be achieved by a filmmaker at the top of their game with all the resources they need to achieve their vision. No matter how good a director Coogler is, there was no way for him to compete with that.