With the movie opening tomorrow afternoon, I figured we should have a thread where spoilers can be discussed.

Will post my full review tomorrow evening.

Appreciate that.

Besides the point, but you know how excited I was for TROS. Hell, I went to Celebration literally just for that panel. I wanted nothing more than to love that movie. Alas.

What an overwhelming experience, in the best possible way.

This is so visually spectacular that you are basically on Pandora for 3 hours. You never doubt that a single thing in front of you is really there. And the level of detail in the Na'vi in particular is just insane. The water dripping from their faces, the pores in their skin. It's hard to believe it's all made in a computer.

And yet with all that spectacle, I was impressed with how intimate the story felt. It's a story of a single family, and it never wavers from that. You get to know each and every kid really well. And the movie really clips along for a 3 hour movie. The only time I somewhat started to feel the length was when the kids were in the water for about the third of fourth time.

And the entire final act is so good. And it's not just the exact same thing from the first movie done again. It basically turned into Titanic for about twenty minutes, and I was in for it.

You knew one of the kids was gonna bite it, the only question was which one. But it still hit hard when it happened. Audible sniffling throughout the theater at that scene.

And I know you need a big bad, but Spider saving Quaritch really pissed me off.

I heard several groups of people saying this was better than the first on my way out the theater. Have to agree with that.

Also, it's interesting how "small" they made this story feel in comparison to the first one. It's just one tribe versus one ship, as opposed to the first movie.

Which honestly is great, because we know we are building towards the real battle.

Just two years away from part 3.

My way too early prediction for where the series is heading:

Avatar 3: The water clans unite with the forest clans for the "real" battle with the RDA. Multiple battles happening in the air, forest, and sea. RDA is routed but sends word to Earth for assistance. The Na'vi sustain heavy losses.

Avatar 4: Rather than waiting for the Sky People to return this time, the Sullys decide to take the fight to Earth. Jake gathers Na'vi forces to head to Earth on the RDA ships they've commandeered. Not sure what the main action will be here, maybe a space battle with a small remnant of humans trying to stop them from leaving Pandora.

Avatar 5: A massive human army arrives in Pandora, while the Sullys and their Na'vi army arrive at Earth. Sully forces fight RDA on Earth while ALL the Na'vi clans fight the army on Pandora, led by Lo'ak. Jake and Neytiri die but are able to get RDA to surrender and call off their forces. The army on Pandora retreats and humans leave forever. Some Na'vi decide to stay on Earth and settle in the oceans.

3D was cool. Human kid was terrible, and his storyline dragged the whole thing down.

Glad I saw it in 3D.

I have a theory on Kiri and how she was created.

The discussion about her father is a red herring because I don't believe she has a "biological" father.

We know that both Grace and Jake had to pass through Eywa in the first movie to permanently transfer into their Avatar bodies. (Though Grace obviously didn't make it.)

So I think that because both of their souls existed in Eywa at the same time, it was able to create a new person by combining their DNA, and created Kiri. It seems like she'll probably end up being the big savior after Jake inevitably dies in one of the sequels.

Just wanted to point out on your predictions for the future movies.

When they go to earth, there is no way James Cameron doesn't have Eywa somehow save earth from humans destroying nature. Seems like they are already foreshadowing it. And I bet the older daughter is involved.

I didn't remember the marine guy having a son in Avatar, or the older girl being related to Sigourney, was that in the first movie? It's been years since I've seen the first one, so apologies if I missed something obvious.

Great point. Kiri will definitely be on Earth and probably be the voice calling for them to not destroy Earth in the way Pandora was.

She might become the leader of the Na'vi who settle there permanently once the war is over.

And no, neither Spider or Kiri existed or were mentioned before this movie.

What was the reason to go after Sully after he left?

I get when they were fighting and doing resistance stuff. But did not understand why after he vanished?

He had been leading the Na'vi insurgency and was talked about as being a pretty good strategist who was kicking their asses. Seemed fairly straightforward to me why they wanted to take him out.

Also it was personal for Quaritch, since he saw him as a traitor to his race.

Brian Earl Spilner said:

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He had been leading the Na'vi insurgency and was talked about as being a pretty good strategist who was kicking their asses. Seemed fairly straightforward to me why they wanted to take him out.

Also it was personal for Quaritch, since he saw him as a traitor to his race.

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He was. It's been next to impossible to get unobtainium ever since.

Saw it this afternoon. Story was pretty pedestrian. Visuals were great. I got what i came for.

Loved it. So much more emotionally engaging than the first one with a smaller scale story and much better characters.

Also every shot in this movie was beautiful.

BUT…one big plot hole or snag for me story-wise that I'd like some help with. If they can just upload people's consciousness in these Avatars, and seemed to have the capability to do that since the first movie, why didn't they just do that with Jake's brother originally? This get like a way to bring an antagonist back that also kind of undermines the whole story of the first movie. Thoughts?

My daughter is a fan, we saw it in Dolby 3D. Audio and visual was the best I've seen. You could close one eye an the 3D still worked. You could definitely feel the sound.

Good movie. It was like Independence Day on the drive home, there were so many plot holes and spots where it seemed the audio crew missed an effect. Just like Independence Day, so what? Highly entertaining and technically excellent.

The plot for the next film seemed completely exposed and of course we'll have to see that.

It seemed to me they needed to do that while the person was still alive. Since Jake's brother died on Earth unexpectedly, they never transferred his consciousness like they did with Quaritch.

Because it transfers memories too, I don't think it's as simple as just their DNA, like a regular clone.

I mean I get that. They just made a big deal about the investment in his brother, and it seems like if they had the capability to "back up" people, they would have done that for these people who were using Avatars.

I can see them explaining this later when, twist, Jake's brother comes back to fight him in a new Avatar. Lol

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were so many plot holes and spots where it seemed the audio crew missed an effect.

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Not sure I follow. Got an example of the missing audio?

I liked it more than I thought I would. Wife and daughter loved it.

Saw it last night.

Lots of beautiful scenes and the 3D was once again great, but I still think the first movie was the best 3D experience I have had.

Many cool new sea creatures and I always like to see the new tech that shows up in James Cameron movies.

Some lazy writing and dialogue. Some plot holes. A flash back to Titanic.

Enjoyed it overall but probably won't watch it again.

I went with a group of friends to see it, half of us enjoyed it, half walked out halfway through the movie. Kind of hit or miss depending on the person.

Ha, I don't really blame them, if you're halfway through a 3 1/2 hour movie and not enjoying it, might as well just cut your losses and leave. I thought it was awesome, I wouldn't mind watching it again.