{"id":156750,"date":"2022-12-13T18:16:14","date_gmt":"2022-12-13T18:16:14","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/harchi90.com\/avatar-2-review-a-thrilling-epic-that-gambles-on-how-you-watch-it\/"},"modified":"2022-12-13T18:16:14","modified_gmt":"2022-12-13T18:16:14","slug":"avatar-2-review-a-thrilling-epic-that-gambles-on-how-you-watch-it","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/harchi90.com\/avatar-2-review-a-thrilling-epic-that-gambles-on-how-you-watch-it\/","title":{"rendered":"Avatar 2 review: a thrilling epic that gambles on how you watch it"},"content":{"rendered":"
There are two thoughts that you never want to cross your mind at a movie theater. One is \u201cDid I just step in gum?\u201d The other is \u201cIs this supposed to<\/em> to look this way?\u201d<\/p>\n Avatar: The Way of Water<\/em>James Cameron’s fundamentally enjoyable and exciting sequel to the 2009 blockbuster Avatar<\/em>, <\/em>is meant to represent a major technological advance in cinematic exhibition. Time will tell whether that’s the case. But the fact is that many viewers will have a vexing experience if they see the picture in what’s considered the optimum format.<\/p>\n The first press screenings of the long-delayed 192-minute opus, which reportedly cost somewhere between $250 million and $400 million to make, were held at theaters equipped to project the film in a high frame rate (HFR). You may have experienced this with Gemini Man<\/em>, Billy Lynn’s Long Halftime Walk<\/em>or Peter Jackson’s Hobbit <\/em>trilogy It’s fair to say that HFR hasn’t really taken off, unlike the wave of 3D that temporarily changed the cinema landscape when Avatar <\/em>was released. But director\/explorer Cameron boasted in October that he’d found a \u201csimple hack\u201d that would work as a game-changer. In short, he used advanced technology to essentially toggle The Way of Water<\/em> between 48 frames per second and the traditional 24. <\/p>\n On paper, this sounds like a nice compromise. But three-plus hours of the shifting dynamic, without the ability to just settle into one or the other, is actually worse than simply watching an entire HFR movie. To use an old expression, you can’t ride two horses with one behind. And this is all the more upsetting because so much of the film is truly splendid. <\/p>\n Avatar: The Way of Water<\/em> tells a simple but engaging story in an imaginative, beautiful environment. It’s more than three hours long, and it unfortunately takes close to a full third of that time to get rolling. But once it does \u2014 once former human Marine turned Pandoran native Jake Sully (Sam Worthington), his Na’vi mate Neytiri (Zoe Saldana), and their brood of four half-Na’vi, half-Avatar children take refuge from the forest in a watery part of the world \u2014 the sense of wonder hits like a tidal wave.<\/p>\n