Avatar: The Way of Water comes out on December 16, 2022, almost exactly 13 years after the original Avatar. It has been a highly anticipated film, since its announcement on January 7, 2010, just weeks after the original Avatar was released. The movie is going to be just over 3 hours long. To get some students’ perspectives on the film, I asked Evelyn Powell, the school’s honorary senior, her opinion. Here’s what she had to say:

“I have many thoughts on it. I think it didn’t need to happen. I would say that is very controversial. I mean Avatar is a spectacular film, one of the ones that defined our generation. The second. Not so much.”

Perhaps this opinion is not as controversial as she thinks. The movie is coming out more than a decade after the original, which was already nearly 3 hours long, and since it came out so long ago, many people have forgotten the plot and the characters’ names. It’s a long movie and what’s actually going to happen has been a little unclear in the trailers. It also may feel like a cash grab to audiences since it is so far removed from the original, and when it was announced, it had to be written in its entirety. 

Not to mention, there are going to be 3 more films after this one. Originally, Avatar: The Way of Water was supposed to come out in December of 2020 and each consecutive film would come out the following December from the one before. Obviously, Covid is to blame for this release date being pushed back. Then it was again announced for 2021, and that also did not happen. There were several complications that led to the delay; however, knowing the movie was announced in 2010, it seems a little ridiculous that it couldn’t be released on this date.