Avatar: The Way of Water is an incredible film

Over the holidays, James Cameron released Avatar: The Way of Water in theaters. I really loved the first Avatar, so I was excited to see it despite the trolls online that seemed to want it to fail (I'll never understand that mindset). I took a bunch of friends with me on opening night, and we had seats at the IMAX theater here in Sandy, Utah (a suburb of Salt Lake City). In just a few short words, the film was a stunning sequel, and I honestly want to see it again though I've yet to find the time to do so. I also want to say a few things about it that I don't think are spoilers.

I knew going into this movie that James Cameron was going to film the thing in 48 frames per second. When filmmakers decide to do this, it creates a kind of hyper-realistic effect on the screen. Many people think of it as a kind of "uncanny valley" where everything is perhaps too clear and for some reason, doesn't look right. This is because we are used to seeing films that do not have this built in resolution even though we float through our lives by looking at things in this kind of clarity. When we see it in a film, it kind of jerks us out of the moment.

So, I was expecting to maybe not like the film in places because it might look "too good." However, James Cameron performed a trick that I'd never seen before. He combined the latest in 3D technology with the 48 frames per second, and the combination of those two things was absolutely magical. I found myself suddenly inside the film. There was a submarine sequence that was underwater, and I'm telling you, I thought I was inside that submarine. In another scene, a character races to the edge of a cliff, and I literally grabbed my armrests because I thought I was going over. I've never done this in a movie before.

This week marks a threshold for the film in which it has become profitable a little less than its one month anniversary. That just blows my mind that something like what Cameron has done could actually make money (it needed to basically make 1.7 billion dollars). This isn't too strange nowadays though, as (I guess) there are now fifty movies that have made over a billion. So if you don't make the billion dollar club, you're kind of a loser where movie box office receipts are. I do wonder if Avatar: The Way of Water will topple the original Avatar and become the highest grossing film of all time. But none of that matters. I enjoy the story and the "experience" of seeing these films in big theaters equipped with the latest technology. It's worth the price of admission and then some. And I'm glad that the whole saga is going to be coming out in the years to come. There is no question though that James Cameron is the most powerful director of films that has ever lived.