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 </figure>By LINDSEY BAHR Associated PressIt is impossible to talk about <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=d9MyW72ELq0">“Avatar: The Way of Water”</a>
 without sounding hyperbolic. But James Cameron’s sequel is a truly 
dazzling cinematic experience that will have you floating on a 
blockbuster high.No matter if you’ve spent a second of your life 
in the past 13 years thinking about what’s happening on Pandora or how 
Jake Sully (Sam Worthington) and Neytiri (Zoe Saldaña) are getting on, 
assuming you remember their characters’ names. “The Way of Water” will 
make awe-struck believers out of even “Avatar” agnostics like me, at 
least for three hours and 12 minutes. The film isn’t just visually 
compelling, either, it’s spiritually rich as well — a simple but 
penetrating story about family and the natural world that is galaxies 
better than the first.About that run time: Three hours and 12 
minutes sounds excessive, but there is something decidedly decadent 
about really committing that much time to a movie in a theater. When the
 filmmaker is purposeful with that time, as Cameron is and many others 
have been before him, it’s a uniquely rewarding experience. In other 
words, it’s not a big ask. And you’ll forget all about checking the time
 from the first shot of Pandora and Jake’s earnest exposition about 
what’s been going on in the past decade.He and Neytiri have three
 kids now, Neteyam (Jamie Flatters), Lo’ak (Britain Dalton), Tuk 
(Trinity Jo-Li Bliss) and an adopted teenage daughter, Kiri (Sigourney 
Weaver), and they’re happy living in the forest. “Happiness is simple,” 
he says. “Who ever thought that a jughead like me could crack the code?”
 So, of course, it can’t last. The humans are on the hunt for Jake, with
 a familiar antagonist leading the charge. And soon his family is on the
 run, taking up home in another part of Pandora, on the water with a new
 tribe led by Ronal (Kate Winslet) and Tonowari (Cliff Curtis) who 
reluctantly grant them refuge and try to teach them how to live on the 
water.It’s worth noting that Cameron has not stuffed the film 
with mind-numbing, wall-to-wall action and needlessly complicated plot. 
There are long stretches of movie where we’re simply exploring the 
environment with the characters, delighting in the intricacies of a reef
 or basking in the beauty of giant sea creatures. Sometimes we’re just 
sitting in the water with Kiri who is also sitting in the water. It is 
not advancing the action in any obvious way. It is not even really 
developing characters. It just is, and it’s serene. You imagine that 
anyone without his clout would have a hard time justifying something 
similar.The action is there, too, of course, and it’s exciting 
because you’ve become invested in the family and worried about the kids 
who are never where they’re supposed to be and are often in danger 
because of it. And though we know there are more sequels coming, and one
 already wrapped, this is not the kind of franchise where anyone is 
guaranteed to get a fake superhero death. Sure there is some “Avatar” 
silliness, including the fact that the word “bro” is uttered about 8,000
 times, but there is something admirable about the straightforward 
dialogue and emotions at play, too. No one is snarking their way through
 this ordeal.“Never doubt James Cameron” has become a bit of a 
rallying cry lately, at least among those left on Twitter. It’s all the 
more extraordinary as the once-mythical sequels had become a kind of 
joke in the years since the first movie. Even as “The Way of Water” 
release date actually approached the “who cares?” chorus intensified. 
Had anyone really thought twice about “Avatar”? But Cameron knows his 
way around a thrilling sequel, and the water for that matter (and 
references his own greatest hits in this film, too).But then 
people saw it and the tune changed. There is something comforting about 
the fact that we are capable of intense, collective cultural whiplash. 
That “who cares?” can turn to uncynical amazement in an instant. Is that
 the magic of the movies? Of continuing to push the bounds of the big 
screen experience? Of betting big on weird-sounding stories about giant 
blue environmentalists instead of superheroes every so often? Maybe it’s
 just the magic of James Cameron.“Avatar: The Way of Water,” a 
20th Century Studios release in theaters Thursday, is rated PG-13 by the
 Motion Picture Association for “partial nudity, intense action, 
sequences of strong violence, some strong language.” Running time: 192 
minutes. Three and a half stars out of four.MPA Definition of PG-13: Parents strongly cautioned. Some material may be inappropriate for children under 13.Cover image courtesy Pixabay

🎥 Review: ‘Avatar: The Way of Water’ is a big screen blast