Avatar: The Way of Water is a 'damp squib'

BBC ^ | 13 Dec 2022 | Nicholas Barber

[Rummyfan]

It's been 13 years since James Cameron's Avatar beat his previous blockbuster, Titanic, to become the highest grossing film ever released. But now at long last he has returned to the jungle moon of Pandora - and roughly 13 years have passed there, too. Jake Sully (Sam Worthington), his mind now permanently installed in a blue alien Na'vi body, is the chief of his clan, and he and his wife Neytiri (Zoe Saldaña) have four children.

They spend their time lolling around in skimpy loincloths, thinking about how happy they are, but inevitably their Edenic and slightly risqué tranquility ends when spaceships from the planet Earth roar down from the skies. The invaders raze miles of jungle in a fiery apocalypse, much like the one at the start of Terminator 2. Then they stomp around in massive robotic exoskeletons, much like the ones in Aliens. It's clear pretty quickly, then, that Avatar: The Way of Water, is a James Cameron's Greatest Hits: as the "Water" in the subtitle might suggest, several sequences come straight from The Abyss and Titanic.

Anyway, with the humans intent on total conquest, Jake wages a guerilla war against them, blowing up railway tracks and stealing weapons. He is a stripy-blue Robin Hood - and he has a stripy-blue Sheriff of Nottingham to contend with. The villainous Colonel Miles Quaritch (Stephen Lang) was killed at the end of Avatar, but his memories were transferred to a Na'vi body, so now he is just as super-strong and super-tall as Sully. He's also understandably bitter about the small matter of his own death.

...

But then Cameron takes the film in a new direction - and The Way of Water becomes a damp squib.

[oldguy1776]

It’s a fantasy movie...it’s entertainment. It’s not some deep intellectual drivel like some movies...this is strictly for fun. I go to enjoy myself...not analyze what the movie is supposed to represent or any other nonsense.

It’s for FUN...so go enjoy it and have some...:)

[EEGator]

I hate hippies, they smell.

[exinnj]

Another fairy tail for adults who never grew up.

[mykroar]

lol

[Dr. Sivana]

And let’s not forget “The Shape of Water”.

Never heard of it, but that's on me. I personally find books and movies that take place on the high seas absolutely boring. The aristocratic drawing room is more interesting, so I I have a bias against water.

[Boogieman]

Well, that one wasn’t set on the seas. It did have an aquarium in it and some weird merman-alien creature though. But it was pretty good.

[sergeantdave]

Looks like fun - Waterlogged Terminator meets princess Donald Duck.

[dangus]

Well, I know of the firework, but in the context of “damp squib,” I thought they meant something closer to Harry Potter’s.

[EEGator]

Reading the context, I would say you’re correct.

I was originally thinking like a mudblood...

[left that other site]

Squib? Did Harry Potter coin a new word, or did this pre-exist HP?

The only other time I have heard this word is in reference to a type of misfire. You know, when a gun doesn't discharge properly and part of the round gets stuck in the chamber or the barrel. That's the only time I have ever heard that term before.
A squib can be dangerous.

[minnesota_bound]

Cameron hates the US military.

Avatar: The Way of Zzzzzzzz
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5BipEWSuQkg

[mykroar]

Drinker's take:

Avatar 2 - Will It Flop?

[MinorityRepublican]

The movie was okay. Not that bad. 45 minutes too long. It’s been 13 years since I saw the last Avatar movie so it would be nice if they did a little recap. All I saw was a bunch of sea people fighting evil English with guns in the water 💧.