Avatar: The Way Of Water Review - 7 Ups & 3 Downs
2. The INSANE Runtime
The first Avatar wasn't exactly a short film at 162 minutes in length, but The Way of Water one-ups it by lasting a whole half-hour longer, to the extent that it becomes an experience as exhausting as it is entertaining.
Cameron clearly wanted to give audiences a full-fat meal of a movie with his latest epic sequel, but the result is a blatantly overstuffed film where the elongated runtime only makes the script's deficiencies that much more apparent.
The largely water-free first act takes far too long to move the various chess pieces in place, and it's only really the wild third reel that truly feels like it earns its gigantic canvas.
It's clear to see how Cameron could've nipped and tucked things into a film about as long as the first, but instead we're stuck with a parodically bloated end result that feels like a Director's Cut accidentally released to cinemas.
Love the ambition, JC, but sometimes less is more.