“The most dangerous thing about Pandora is that you may grow to love her too much,” says Avatar: The Way of Water’s protagonist Jake Sully (Sam Worthington), a former Marine whose consciousness was uploaded into a skinny blue Na’vi body.
Sully is referring to the planet where the film’s 2009 precursor Avatar was set, but he might as well be speaking as the voice of director James Cameron himself, who has fully committed himself to his invented world. The Way of Water, estimated to have cost around $250 million, is the first of four greenlit sequels. Happily for the audience, Cameron’s love for Pandora is infectious. Sure, he won’t convince cynics who think his fantasy is just too hokey—because it is very hokey—but if you are even a tiny bit impressed by his vision, it’s nearly impossible not to succumb to the overwhelming details that fill the screen.
