Avatar The Way of Water opens on Friday, 12.16. The very first NYC elite-critic screening happens on Tuesday, December 6th; there’s a subsequent all-media screening on Monday, 12.12.

Critical Drinker: “As hard as I try, I just can’t escape the feeling that recreating the success of the original Avatar [will be] like trying to capture lightning in a bottle…all the elements that came together to make the first film a success are either absent or compromised now, and it’s facing a hell of a battle to earn that $2 billion [it needs to break even].

“But [if it works] I’ll be happy to sing its praises and give it all the credit it deserves. At this point I’ll take a generic sci-fi action movie about blue alien cat people, made by a guy who seems to actually care about his craft….[I’ll take this] over basically anything being shat up by Marvel these days.”