Avatar: The Way of Water
Twentieth Century Fox Film Corporation | Release Date: December 16, 2022 CRITIC SCORE DISTRIBUTION
67
METASCORE
Generally favorable reviews based on 68 Critic Reviews
Positive:
45
Mixed:
21
Negative:
2
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Critic Reviews

Critic scorePublicationBy date
60
VoxAlissa WilkinsonDec 20, 2022
Its plot is hacky; it’s got some really clunky characters; the dialogue is, at times, unthinkably stupid. (“The way of water connects all things” is the kind of line that sounds profound until you really think about it.) But this new Avatar filled an awe-shaped void in my heart, and for that, I thank James Cameron. Read full review
60
We Got This CoveredScott CampbellDec 16, 2022
As an experience, Avatar: The Way of Water is second to none. In terms of the storytelling, though, James Cameron has fallen into the exact same pitfalls as he did on the first visit to Pandora. Read full review
60
SlateDana StevensDec 15, 2022
His passion is infectious and his enthusiasm for environmental causes commendable, but the movie’s metaphysical and sociological aspirations sometimes come off as cringe-inducingly similar to those that might be expressed by a white lady running a healing-crystal shop in a seaside town. Read full review
60
The New York TimesA.O. ScottDec 15, 2022
I’m curious, and inclined — as I was in 2009 — to give this grand, muddled project the benefit of the doubt. Cameron’s ambitions are as sincere as they are self-contradictory. He wants to conquer the world in the name of the underdog, to celebrate nature by means of the most extravagant artifice, and to make everything new feel old again. Read full review
60
Screen DailyTim GriersonDec 13, 2022
The Way Of Water’s resplendent presentation couldn’t be more breathtaking — the drama unfolding inside that world isn’t always as masterfully rendered. Read full review
60
TimeStephanie ZacharekDec 13, 2022
Avatar: The Way of Water is both more extravagant and dorkier than Avatar, which was pretty dorky to begin with. Read full review
60
VarietyOwen GleibermanDec 13, 2022
At its height, it feels exhilarating. But not all the way through. Cameron, in "The Way of Water," remains a fleet and exacting classical popcorn storyteller, but oh, the story he’s telling! The script he has co-written is a string of serviceable clichés that give the film the domestic adventure-thriller spine it needs, but not anything more than that. Read full review
60
The IndependentClarisse LoughreyDec 13, 2022
Cameron, at this point, seems interested less in being an artist than a cinematic frontiersman. That’s the point of The Way of Water – it’s not about what the film has to offer us now, but what it tells us about the future. Read full review
60
Arizona RepublicBill GoodykoontzDec 13, 2022
It’s still more of a spectacle than a movie. But as spectacles go, it’s a big one. And with more elements of an actual film creeping in here and there, who knows? By the time we get to the fifth one, we might have some actual cinema on our hands. Read full review
58
UproxxVince ManciniDec 22, 2022
It’s a technological grand slam and a thematic sacrifice bunt. Read full review
50
The New YorkerAnthony LaneDec 19, 2022
The film is more than three hours long, some of it dangerously close to dawdling; not until the final third does Cameron apply the whip and remind us that, in the choreographing of action sequences, he remains unsurpassed. Read full review
50
ObserverDylan RothDec 16, 2022
Watching Avatar: The Way of Water is like binging a season of television all at once, not because you don’t want to stop, but because you know that if you do stop you’ll never pick it back up again. Read full review
50
Washington PostAnn HornadayDec 13, 2022
The action in “The Way of Water” is ultimately overwhelming, betraying an uncomfortable truth about Cameron: He might preach environmentalism and balance, calling on Indigenous peoples for their gentle worldviews and material culture. But at heart, he’s just as aggressive and all-commanding as the bad guys he portrays with such oorah swagger. Read full review
50
The Seattle TimesSoren AndersenDec 13, 2022
So yes: Wow! Gasp! There are some really pretty pictures here. But wow! Gasp! The story is really pretty … stupid. Read full review
40
The New YorkerRichard BrodyDec 19, 2022
For all its sententious grandiosity and metaphorical politics, “The Way of Water” is a regimented and formalized excursion to an exclusive natural paradise that its select guests fight tooth and nail to keep for themselves. The movie’s bland aesthetics and banal emotions turn it into the Club Med of effects-driven extravaganzas. Read full review
40
The Observer (UK)Mark KermodeDec 19, 2022
A lumbering, humourless, tech-driven damp squib of a movie, this long-awaited (or dreaded?) sequel to one of the highest grossing films of all time builds upon the mighty flaws of its predecessor, delivering a patience-testing fantasy dirge that is longer, uglier and (amazingly) even more clumsily scripted than its predecessor, blending trite characterisation with sub-Roger Dean 70s album-cover designs and thunderously underwhelming action sequences. In water. Read full review
40
The Irish TimesDonald ClarkeDec 14, 2022
No doubt millions will be have no difficulty ferreting out the emotional core and propelling The Way of Water to box office success. But the indulgence of it all causes one to yearn for the raw, propulsive action of Cameron’s first two Terminator movies. Read full review
40
Little White LiesDavid JenkinsDec 13, 2022
The film not only rejects any criticisms – and there are many! – of the first film, but doubles down on them, delivering an even more hokily disjointed narrative, ramping up the sentimental cut-aways of human/animal camaraderie, and ramming unearned, broad-brush emotion down the viewer’s throat like so much salty popcorn. Read full review
40
BBCNicholas BarberDec 13, 2022
The stage is set for a rip-roaring adventure, a space opera sprinkled with debates on the ethics of colonialism and assimilation. But then Cameron takes the film in a new direction - and The Way of Water becomes a damp squib. Read full review
40
The GuardianPeter BradshawDec 13, 2022
And what do we find aside from the high-tech visual superstructure? The floatingly bland plot is like a children’s story without the humour; a YA story without the emotional wound; an action thriller without the hard edge of real excitement. Read full review
40
CineVueChristopher MachellDec 13, 2022
As the credits roll on one of the most spectacular and unengaging films of the year, The Way of Water’s vision is as clear as mud. As Cameron has become more fascinated with the technology of storytelling, it seems he’s become less so by the actual storytelling. Read full review
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