James Cameron is attempting to persuade you. He wants you to believe that time-traveling aliens can be defeated by cyborgs, that movies can transport you to a major historical disaster, and that aliens are murderous robots. His most ambitious attempt to convey his belief in the power of film has become Pandora, the planet in "Avatar." Can you put everything else aside and watch a movie in a way that has become increasingly difficult in an age of so many distractions? Cameron has pushed the boundaries of his capacity for belief even further as technology has advanced by experimenting with 3D, High Frame Rate, and other toys that were not available when he began his work. One of the many fascinating aspects of "Avatar: The Way of Water" is how this concept manifests itself in subjects he has already studied extensively. Fans of the films "Titanic," "Aliens," "The Abyss," and "The Terminator" will recognise thematic and even visual elements in this enormously entertaining film that is not a remake of "Avatar." Cameron appears to have permanently relocated to Pandora and brought everything important to him. (He also clearly never leaves.) Cameron draws viewers into this fully realised universe with so many arresting sights and incredible action scenes that everything else fades away. A really intresting movie by the way.

Possibly not right away. "Avatar: The Way of Water" struggles to get going at first because it abruptly returns viewers to the Pandoran planet. Cameron rushes through some of the set-ups in order to get to the movie's world-building middle, which is one of his best achievements, demonstrating how much he cares about it. Prior to that, we meet Jake Sully (Sam Worthington), a former human turned full-time Na'vi. He is Neytiri's (Zoe Saldana) partner, with whom he has a family. Their two sons are Neteyam (Jamie Flatters) and Lo'ak (Britain Dalton) They look after Kiri (Sigourney Weaver), the child of Weaver's character in the first film, and have a daughter named Tuk (Trinity Jo-Li Bliss). Family harmony is disrupted when the "sky people" arrive, including a Na'vi avatar of Colonel Miles Quaritch (Stephen Lang), who is here to finish what he started and exact revenge on Jake for the death of his human form. The film's main antagonists, but not the only ones, are a group of soldiers who were once human but will become Na'vi when he returns. The movie is really intresting.