This sequel has a design and look that matches the first film but it no longer has the same impact. While the ocean setting brings new creatures for us to marvel at - it isn't as breathtakingly new as it was 13 years ago.
There are a lot of action set pieces and all of them are great to watch, although they feel either repetitive or borrowed from previous Cameron films like Titanic.
For me, bringing back both the Grace character and the evil colonel felt too much. One of them, Grace (Sigorney Weaver), would have been sufficient, the Colonel could easily have been a brother like in Die Hard 3, although this would require additional story changes regarding the adolescent « Spider » character. But that would have been better than the whole « importance of Family » theme running through everything. Just too much of that for me, as well as let's make sure only incidental characters die.
The 3D and higher frame rate aspects added nothing extra for me, and at times made it feel like video and not like a real film - although interestingly this video feel was not always there like in the Hobbit films, but would come and go.
The story of this film becomes a battle between Jake and the cloned Colonel, with the rest of the global aspect of Pandora verses Humans dropping by the wayside. It would have been more interesting if the new antagonist, not a clone of the Colonel, disobeys his orders from the General and goes AWOL to hunt down Jake - like Captain Ahab and the white whale.
There are a lot of action set pieces and all of them are great to watch, although they feel either repetitive or borrowed from previous Cameron films like Titanic.
For me, bringing back both the Grace character and the evil colonel felt too much. One of them, Grace (Sigorney Weaver), would have been sufficient, the Colonel could easily have been a brother like in Die Hard 3, although this would require additional story changes regarding the adolescent « Spider » character. But that would have been better than the whole « importance of Family » theme running through everything. Just too much of that for me, as well as let's make sure only incidental characters die.
The 3D and higher frame rate aspects added nothing extra for me, and at times made it feel like video and not like a real film - although interestingly this video feel was not always there like in the Hobbit films, but would come and go.
The story of this film becomes a battle between Jake and the cloned Colonel, with the rest of the global aspect of Pandora verses Humans dropping by the wayside. It would have been more interesting if the new antagonist, not a clone of the Colonel, disobeys his orders from the General and goes AWOL to hunt down Jake - like Captain Ahab and the white whale.