I’m relatively straight edge, so this is the closest I ever come to getting absolutely trashed—terrible for my health, won’t remember anything about the experience by morning, a fantastic time.
I’ve been searching for the high that Ori and the Will of the Wisps gave me a few years ago, and this is in the same ballpark. Also, it’s basically My Octopus Teacher sans creepy dude.
Half of it is extremely garish and ugly, especially moments where regular people are in the same shot with Na’vi, and half of it is beautiful. It mostly depends on the lighting. The seams are proudly on display when flatly lit while invisible when shaped by light. Based on my hazy memory of the first film, this sequel seems to have more opportunities for motivated light (the beams that pierce the water and the little light-up fish were lovely), facilitating some shape. And I’ve heard complaints about the close-ups which confuses me because they are where the visual effects shine in my opinion (and help you ignore the janky-ness of the Na’vi below the navel).
I didn’t buy in for about an hour of the runtime, but when I realized they’d made the incredibly strange decision of subtitling the whale noises, I immediately thought well alright now I’m required to love this movie. The shameless, reckless abandon, as much as possible in a studio picture, clicked for me. I do not think Cameron is some sort of rebel genius loose within the Hollywood system, and I will continue to “doubt” him until the day I die, but I will acknowledge a trash masterpiece when I see one (all I’m saying is history will look kindly on Death on the Nile). Looking forward to number three.