After thirteen long years, since James Cameron’s path breaking film ‘Avatar’, its sequel ‘Avatar: The Way of Water’ is finally arriving in theatres today. Much has been said about how ‘Avatar 2’ must surpass the massive box-office figures of ‘Avenger: Endgame’ and ‘Spider-Man: No Way Home’, etc to be profitable. The final verdict vis-à-vis the film’s commercial reception will be out in a few days.
‘Avatar: The Way of Water’ has garnered widespread acclaim for its worldbuilding, visual effects, and James Cameron’s direction, amongst other things. The fourth most expensive movie has been named as amongst the best films of 2022 by the American Film Institute and the National Board of review besides being nominated at the Golden Globes Awards.
But in case you’re also curious about whether ‘Avatar 2’ is better than its 2009 counterpart ‘Avatar’, let’s analyse which film has got better feedback from audiences and critics until now.
On the reviews aggregation website Rotten Tomatoes, the parent film ‘Avatar’ has received 82% critics’ score. On the other hand, ‘Avatar: The Way of Water’ is a little behind with 80% critics’ score. However, the audience score for ‘Avatar 2’ as of now is 92%, which is significantly higher than Avatar’s 82% audience score. But the audience figure for ‘Avatar 2’ might change once it’s out in theatres today.
On another reviews aggregation portal Metacritic, ‘Avatar’ has got a metascore of 83/100 and a 7.5/10 user score. And here too, ‘Avatar: The Way of Water’ is lagging with a critics’ score of 69/100. The audience verdict is yet to be announced for the sequel.
And lastly, on the international movies database portal IMDb, ‘Avatar’ holds a user rating of 7.8/10. And as per early audience feedback, ‘Avatar 2’ has received an IMDb user rating of 8.2/10.
So, as you can see, the first ‘Avatar’ movie has generally received better critics’ feedback than its sequel ‘Avatar: The Way of Water’. But as far as early audience reviews are concerned, ‘Avatar 2’ has surpassed ‘Avatar’ in that respect. It would be interesting to see whether the audience feedback for ‘Avatar 2’ remains the same in the near future. In case you’ve seen both of them, tell us which film you liked better: ‘Avatar’ or ‘Avatar: The Way of Water’?