TRIANGLE OF SADNESS AVATAR - THE WAY OF WATER

feel strangely intimate and equally unsettling. By making the stressful sound of a windshield a little louder than needed, or tilting the camera along with the waves when the storm hits the boat, tension escalates in the story and brings you along. As usual for Östlund movies, you are always a bit uncomfortable, always on the edge of your seat. Östlund, beginning his film career filming ski stunts, comes from a tradition of pushing every scene to its limits, something very much evident in Triangle of Sadness. He holds you captive to his strange imagination and at least in my opinion, being immersed in his bizarre universe is worth the expensive cinema ticket. The movie is bold, funny and completely wild. If you’re up for the adventure - go see it.

In the enchanting world of Pandora, a decade has passed since the events of the first Avatar film. Jake Sully, the protagonist of the first movie, has now raised a family with Neytiri and is the clan leader of one of the Na’vi forest tribes. Their peaceful life is disrupted when the star people, aka the evil human colonizers, once again are looking for trouble. A mission led by human soldiers as Na’vi avatars is sent out to eliminate Jake. Seeking to protect their tribe and stay hidden, the Sully family exiles themselves and retreats to the coast, given refuge by a reef clan. By the sea, the family has to adapt to a new way of life and as they deal with unruly sea creatures and conflicts with the other clan, the humans are getting closer and closer…

The wait is over. After 13 years, the much anticipated Avatar sequel has hit cinemas. Faced with countless delays and staggering expectations, the release of this movie has not gone unnoticed. Director James Cameron, known for Titanic and the Terminator franchise, has made a name for himself as an ambitious filmmaker - Avatar 2 is not an exception. The movie is beautiful and the visual effects are so impressive you almost forgive Cameron for those 13 years. You can see the visual work put into this movie and I definitely think it should be recognized as a technical achievement. However, for me, that initial fascination steadily ebbed out as the movie progressed. To be honest, I did not find the plot of this movie intriguing at all. The rather predictable storyline could in my opinon not really carry the 192 minutes that the movie goes on for. However, you can sense that Cameron's intention with the plot is to establish a universe of the Na'vi people and to build a generational story of the Sully family. The goal might not be to surprise us with unique twists and turns of events, but rather to nurture and deepen our understanding of the Avatar universe. That is the perspective that I think you should go in with when watching Avatar 2. Then, you might be more equipped than I was to have a rewarding experience of this movie. However, it should be said that it really is a cinematic happening, a movie that deserves praise for revolutionary visual effects. A movie that, if you’re the tiniest bit intrigued, will want to see for yourself to make up your mind about. I know a lot of people love and care about this movie so please, do not let the 3 hours or dreadful Papyrus subtitles scare you away!