Avatar: The Way of Water is too long with a whiff of David Attenborough preachy – but the 3D is absolutely breathtaking

AVATAR: THE WAY OF WATER

(12A) 192mins

★★★☆☆

IT has been 13 years since we were first introduced to the bizarre blue characters from director James Cameron’s brain in 2009’s Avatar.

The ground-breaking film that put 3D glasses back on our faces now has a sequel and, with a reported budget of up to $400million, it’s the most expensive film ever made.

Or, as Cameron put it “very f*****g expensive.”

The Titanic and The Abyss director has gone back to his much-loved film set of water in this story of family, war and fighting to save nature against humanity.

We return to Jake Sully (Sam Worthington) over a decade after he first inhabited the extrasolar moon, Pandora, on a mission.

Jake and Ney’tiri (Zoe Salana) have created a family with four children – two sons and two daughters – on the planet and are fighting relentlessly hard to keep them together.

Realising they are in danger, once again, from Colonel Quaritch (Stephen Lang) and his team, they take a long journey to the Na’vi tribe community in a bid to save what they have built.

This is led by Tonowari (Cliff Curtis) and his wife Ronal (Kate Winslet). They are ocean folk, able to free-dive for hours and teach their new friends how to embrace water living.

These lessons come across a little like meditation or mindfulness – explaining how to breathe deep into their stomachs and be present throughout. A nod to the high-anxiety modern world we live in.

However calm and tranquil life is to start with, Jake and his family have brought trouble to their deep-swimming friends, which soon creates all-out war.

While the story might sound complex, it is surprisingly basic, with teenagers behaving badly and spouses bickering – and one main enemy: humans.

And my god do humans suck in this film. We’re the worst.

We destroy beautiful nature in the most callous way. We kill highly intelligent animals for barely any reason and we burn down entire communities just to show how hard we are.

While The Way of Water can feel a bit like a preachy David Attenborough programme and is easily half an hour too long, the 3D is absolutely breathtaking.

One for the superfans.