James Cameron’s ‘Avatar: The Way of Water’ Gets Rave Reviews In Its First Screenings

After 13 years of waiting, James Cameron‘s Avatar: The Way of Water is finally going on its global press tour.

The film will release on December 16 and the initial reactions to its press screenings are overwhelmingly positive. People are impressed again by Cameron’s spectacular storytelling and breathtaking visuals.

>WATCH AVATAR STAR OONA CHAPLIN’s uINTERVIEW!

“Happy to say Avatar: The Way of Water is phenomenal,” Fandango’s Erik Davis wrote. “Bigger, better & more emotional than Avatar, the film is visually breathtaking, visceral and incredibly engrossing. The story, the spectacle, the spirituality, the beauty – this is moviemaking & storytelling at its absolute finest.”

“I had faith James Cameron would raise the bar with the effects but these visuals are mind-blowing,” Collider‘s Peri Nemiroff said. “One stunning frame after the next.”

The film lasts three hours and ten minutes. The director promises that the film will keep you engrossed and the length doesn’t compromise the flow of the story.

“I don’t want anybody whining about length when they sit and binge-watch [television] for eight hours,” Cameron told Empire. “I can almost write this part of the review. ‘The agonizingly long three-hour movie…’ It’s like, give me a f—king break. I’ve watched my kids sit and do five one-hour episodes in a row. Here’s the big social paradigm shift that has to happen: it’s okay to get up and go pee.”