Avatar: The Way of the Water clocks in at three hours and ten minutes. Into It host Sam Sanders managed to stay awake for all of it, even that whole hour where they hang out with whales. It was very beautiful, but there was also a Free Willy–style whale jump and a whale communicating its trauma by sonar, and Sam wasn’t sure if he should laugh or cry. Vulture film critic Bilge Ebiri thinks it’s like a dare from James Cameron: “I think you’re gonna laugh when this whale first starts talking, but by the end of the whole whale thing, you’re gonna cry.” It’s sort of emblematic of Cameron’s whole approach to filmmaking and Avatar, this dichotomy between hard and soft, tough guy versus sea-loving flower child. It all works for Bilge. But to Sam, if this franchise is so big and groundbreaking, why is it so easy to make it the butt of a joke?
