Avatar: The Way of Water is Basically Star Trek IV, But Bluer
Remove all the visual effects, and Avatar: The Way of Water will feel like another installment in the Star Trek franchise.
The long-awaited Avatar 2 may disappoint those viewers who come to the theaters for a powerful plot. With likable sea beasts ready to befriend a man and a mission to save the whales, The Way of Water 's story feels like an episode of any 1960s sci-fi show with advanced VFX added.
Before Star Wars hit the screens in 1977, sci-fi fans had to ignore the visual imperfections of TV shows and movies. Having to constantly fill in the visual blanks was offset by fascinating stories nobody had seen or imagined before. These stories about a human put in a fantastic but understandable situation helped to grasp human nature better and struck the imagination. An interesting unexpected plot is what makes shows like The Outer Limits and Star Trek relevant to date.
Avatar is a whole other story.
In contrast to old-school sci-fi shows, The Way of Water is all about visual effects. Stunning VFX feels like the main point of the second installment in the Avatar franchise.
The writing, storylines, and character development feel secondary to the central message: look how marvelous Pandora is.
Even current sci-fi shows like Doctor Who and Star Trek: Strange New Worlds use visual effects only to better convey the idea of a plot, not totally replace storytelling. What critics and viewers hate about both Avatar movies is exactly what they loved about 1960s sci-fi shows.
Visual effects are stunning but the plot is insipid and debatable because of its oversimplified depiction of colonialism and the lack of character development. Situations that happen to the characters don't challenge their nature or inner peace in any way. With the things-happen-characters-react type of storytelling, The Way of Water feels like something viewers have seen dozens of times before watching TV on their own couch.
While those who loved Avatars may say that the franchise has always been about the extraordinary visual experience, not storylines, such a practice of putting visual effects first and story second doesn't age well. Avatar 1 serves as proof of that. Many viewers had issues recalling what the 2009's movie was about, let alone remembering its characters. The same will likely happen with The Way of Water.