There is no question that Cameron has once again delivered a visually stunning, achingly beautiful film, with even more detail and immersive world-building going into his creation of the world of Pandora and its inhabitants than in 2009. And now that Avatar: The Way of Water is arriving in theaters at long last, the question can be answered: Was it worth the wait? Thanks to the re-release of Avatar itself earlier this fall in a striking new 4K remaster, combined with the initial trailer for the first of Cameron’s four sequels, suddenly the franchise seems front and center in the cultural conversation again. Meanwhile Cameron toiled steadily away, planning not just one Avatar sequel but four, while patiently waiting for visual effects to catch up again to the vision he had for further tales set on the moon named Pandora. While the 2009 film became the highest-grossing box office hit of all time (with a brief moment in which it was dethroned), re-introduced 3D to a new generation of moviegoers, and pushed the limits of CG technology, it has seemed to fade almost altogether from the zeitgeist during the past decade, replaced by the MCU, Stranger Things, the streaming revolution, and all kinds of other entertainment game-changers.

Does anyone care about Avatar anymore? That’s the question that has vexed film critics and pop culture commentators in the 13 long years since James Cameron released his paradigm-shifting science fiction epic.

For iphone instal Avatar: The Way of Water