Avatar: The Way of Water (2022)

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Vader182 wrote:
December 30th, 2022, 3:26 pm
I'm not sure I'd equate more critics liking a thing as the same thing as more "acclaimed," because many of the critics who like or love The Way of Water see it as a much more impressive artistic achievement, whereas NWH (a movie I mostly like) is as cinematically flat as drywall.

I'm not surprised The Batman (also a movie I mostly like) isn't an oscar player. It's being somewhat shut out by the academy (score didn't even make the shortlist), and I think it's partly because it doesn't earn the huge three hour running time, it's kind of a mess, and generally seen as "very good" but overly derivative of previous Batman iterations.

This is a weird year for BP, but I'd bet Way of Water gets in.

-Vader
Well I very much respect your take on this. I haven't seen the film and I'm all but sure that it's another towering achievement like nearly everything else Cameron has ever made.

But if we go by comparing the awards expectations based on the most important factors, critical acclaim is one of the big ones, and the fact remains The Batman has made 100 top ten lists so far while The Way of Water is at 66. So it's not unfair for some to think that it probably should have been an at least equally likely contender.
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Similarly No Way Home had excellent reviews, was without a doubt the most popular movie of the year, an absolute juggernaut in the box office at the time that theaters really needed it to be, and undeniably the biggest cultural phenomenon since Endgame, but also, it made 89 critics top ten lists, that is better than 3 movies that ended up getting nominated. King Richard (82) Nightmare Alley (67) and Don't Look Up (54). It had 9 (#1) ranking which is as much as the eventual BP winner Coda had.

https://criticstop10.com/best-movies-of-2021/

All I'm saying is there was some justification, for expecting the film to have done better in the awards season and being somewhat surprised that it didn't.

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I think 99% The Way of Water is in for Best Picture and I think Cameron has a good chance to get in for Best Director as well. Also the film will get nominated for many of the tech categories as well and has already won one(VFX).
The difference with No Way Home and Avatar is:
a)Avatar is an existing IP created by Cameron, not based on another property and utilised and connected to many other films(MCU). Yet this movie can still crack 1 billion in our days.
b)No Way Home and most(if not all) of MCU movies have no director stamp. They all look the same(I'm not judging the films btw...) and they have almost the same tone. That's why none of them got nominated for Best Director yet. Avatar has a specific tone, vision and visuals which Cameron has set not a studio or a producer.
c)Technically what Avatar has achieved for digital photography + animation + VFX is significant for the industry that will be utilised by other films. I'm not talking about 3D, but motion capture and all the techniques they had to invent to shoot the sequel.

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Every time I hear people talk about how this film should have an easy time getting a Best Picture nomination, all I think about is Mark Kermode's review of the film...


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blackColumn wrote:
December 5th, 2022, 7:03 pm
Such comments can tank its box office in the western world.
Apparently not.

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Of course, there were many other things than the 3D that made the experience of seeing Avatar 2 in cinema incredible, things that I'll still have in the TV version of the film. But honestly, all the clips on twitter today made me realize how little interested I am in seeing this film on my TV, and that I just want to see it again in 3D. I would just miss the 3D otherwise, instead of enjoying the film.
I hope for a re-release either in a few months or next year before Avatar 3.

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Guess Jimmy wasn't kidding when he said the movie needs to gross about 2 billion to break even after all.

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