In a recent Empire interview, director James Cameron once again did not mince words:
"I don't want anybody whining about length when they sit and binge-watch [television] for eight hours... I've watched my kids sit and do five one-hour episodes in a row. Here's the big social paradigm shift that has to happen: it's okay to get up and go pee."
It's for this reason that Avatar: The Way of Water, the long-promised sequel to the 2009 megahit, is said to clock in over three hours long. With Cameron's promise that he took in the criticisms from audiences from the first film (namely the derivative nature and the overt climate change commentary), it's hoped that those three hours are spent building a more unique and complex viewing experience that might remind audiences of Cameron's heyday. It also helps that Cameron worked with other screenwriters in crafting the sequel. For this one, married screenwriting duo Rick Jaffa and Amanda Silver worked with Cameron. Jaffa and Silver are of course known for writing the latter two acclaimed installments of the recent Planet of the Apes prequel trilogy (and are set to write the upcoming fourth film as well). Though, the generic new poster shouldn't speak for the film:
The trailer on the other hand speaks better for a film that deals with an overhanging threat that audiences knew was coming, but pitches a potential wild journey through the custom ecosystems that Cameron devised for Pandora before drenching the Na'vi in an epic war with humans. One more built in revenge and bad blood than any kind of over-the-top thematic presence. Check it out below:
Avatar: The Way of Water stars Sam Worthington, Zoe Saldaña, Stephen Lang, Joel David Moore, CCH Pounder, Giovanni Ribisi, Dileep Rao, Matt Gerald, Sigourney Weaver, Kate Winslet, Cliff Curtis, Edie Falco, Jemaine Clement, and Brendan Cowell.