- Sensibility: A terribly ridiculous opening premise for the family travelling, groan-worthy plot armor, the humans' search for Spider, and a tremendous amount of dialogue choices are all borderline nonsense.
- Cinematography: The film has the visual splendor standard for the franchise, but there are moments with weaknesses, notably some masking issues with certain characters. Editing is terrible, as embodied by the films needless 3.5 hour run-time and regular
interruptions in the flow of certain scenes to show a shot of irrelevant side action or to cut a scene short. In addition, the framing choices and combat choreography are
extremely derivative of the other films in the franchise to the point that some of the scenes in this film are indistinguishable from those of the previous. Sound design and score are bland and forgettable. Also, the end montage is painfully corny and old fashioned.
- Energy: Not only is the film about 2 hours too long it is a near repeat of the previous film. Repetitive bits of capture and release and constant melodrama make this film hard to sit through.
- Narrative: The greatest failure of this film is that the story is nearly identical to the previous. Constant reptition with Sully's children getting captured and having to rescue them. Even worse is the fact
that many of the locations and scenes where these fights take place are the same as the previous film. The film adds so little to the Na'vi world and what it does add, namely the presence of a new fire-bending race, is largely ignored
to the point that these new characters are tangential to the plot. The film spends a tremendous amount of time harping on an outcast whale-creature and the Metkayina when these were already largely addressed in the previous film.
To top it all off, the film is loaded with conspicuous foreshadowing, unbearable melodrama and plot holes galore. The story has almost nothing of substance, and often purposefully avoids making a daring or interesting choice
with the characters.
- T-Points: The film received one bonus point for a shot of some flying invaders in front of a setting sun.
On the whole, the film is unbearable, unimaginative, melodramatic slop. It adds nothing to the world and regurgitates huge swathes of the previous films instead of writing a new story. The film cannot ride the coattails of the series' visual strengths any longer and has near nothing else to offer.
Number of Watches: 1
