“Avatar: The Way of Water” is an extraordinary movie.

It’s entertaining from its opening moments to its closing moments more than three hours later.

Writer-director James Cameron, in the sequel to his landmark movie, “Avatar” (2009), has exceeded nearly all expectations.

For those who enjoy “Avatar: The Way of Water,” more are on the way. “Avatar 3” (2024) is in post-production. “Avatar 4” (2026) and ”Avatar 5” (2028) are in production.

“Avatar” and “Avatar: The Way of Water” are among the rare contemporary movies that are commercial and artistic successes.

“Avatar” grossed $760 million in the United States and Canada and $2.8 billion worldwide, the highest-grossing movie ever. The No. 2 movie box office champ is “Avengers: Endgame” (2019), with $2.7 billion. The No. 3 all-time box office movie is “Titanic” (1997), which Cameron directed, with $2.2 billion.

“Avatar: The Way of Water” opened domestically with $134 million and $435 million internationally the weekend of Dec. 16.

“Avatar” set new artistic standards for motion-capture imagery and computer-generated imagery. “Avatar: The Way of Water” improves even more on motion-capture, computer-generated imagery and cinematic production values.

Admittedly, I was not looking forward to seeing “Avatar: The Way of Water.” How could it improve upon “Avatar”? Why should I care about these characters? How long would I have to hold my breath for the underwater scenes (Just kidding about that one)?

In ways that I could not imagine, “Avatar: The Way of Water” made me care.

The deciding scene was when a teen-age boy, Lo’ak (Britain Dalton), befriends Payakan, a tulkun, a fictional cetacean ocean species.

Lo’ak bonds with the sea creature, mostly through eye contact, and minimal dialogue (shown in subtitles). The scene is a “swimming with the dolphins” moment, and is not unlike a scene from the movie “Flipper” (1963), except that this is a leviathan.

There’s a lot more to the scene that’s hard to describe. It’s very emotional. The depictions of the creature’s eyes and the emotions on the teen boy’s face are so believable. The movie-goer feels their connection and, hence, connects with the movie’s characters and story.

Director James Cameron (Oscar, movie, director, editing, “Titanic,” 1997; director: “True Lies,” 1997; “Terminator 2: Judgment Day,” 1991; “The Abyss,” 1989; “Aliens,” 1986; “The Terminator,” 1984) wrote the screenplay with Rick Jaffa and Amanda Silver (screenplay: “Mulan,” 2020; “Jurassic World,” 2015) based on a story by Cameron, Jaffa, Silver, Josh Friedman (screenplay: “War of the Worlds,” 2005; “The Black Dahlia,” 2006) and Shane Salerno (screenplay: “Armageddon,” 1998; “Shaft,” 2009; “Aliens vs. Predator: Requiem,” 2007).

“Avatar: The Way of Water” is not beyond using tropes or references to myth, films and history.

There’s a Jonah and the Whale scene (The Bible’s “Book of Jonah” and Disney’s “Pinocchio” animated feature film, 1940, and Monstro) whereby Lo’ak swims inside Payakan’s mouth and into, presumably, his stomach. There’s more to this scene, as well. No spoilers here, though.

Another example are the layers and depth, pun-intended, under the sea (This is no “The Little Mermaid,” 1989, or “Finding Nemo,” 2003, although the fascination, fun and fear of the sea and its mysteries of the deep is a continuing subtext, pun intended.) are the lovely depictions of sea creatures, underwater flora and fauna, and sunlight refracted from the ocean’s surface. James Cameron, a deep-sea solo dive record-holder (35,756 feet in the Pacific Ocean’s Mariana Trench), “Titanic” documentaries film-maker, and National Geographic Explorer-in-Residence, transmits his fascination with the underwater world.

“Avatar: The Way of Water” touches upon contemporary topics: that of the subjugation of indigenous peoples, tribal warfare, family dynamics, and battles of people with limited resources defending themselves against invaders with superior and advanced weaponry. The military defense industry may want to examine some of the equipment: an armored flying fortress seaplane battleship, underwater two-man bobsled-style submarines and one-man exoskeleton crab-like motorized attack vehicles.

“Avatar: The Way of Water” is in essence a war movie. Col. Miles Quaritch (Stephen Lang) leads the force trying to colonize Pandora.

Leading the opposition of the Na’vi are Jake Sully (Sam Worthington) and his mate, Neytiri (Zoë Saldaña), and Tonowari (Cliff Curtis), chief of the reef people clan of Metkayina, and his wife Ronal (Kate Winslet).

Supporting roles include Sigourney Weaver as Kiri, Jake and Neytiri’s adopted daughter, and as Dr. Grace Augustine, in a video and a dream sequence, and Edie Falco (Gen. Frances Ardmore), a commander of the colonizers.

The battle scenes are extraordinary, tension-filled and realistic.

Even more amazing is the world of Pandora, a land of fantastic beasts. Even more amazing are the expressions on the characters’ faces, their eye movements and body movements. Not for a second do you ever feel you are watching animated characters, which essentially they are. The cinematography, editing, art direction, production design, costumes, music and every aspect of the movie is incredible.

“Avatar: The Way of Water” is an immersive movie-going experience, especially as seen in the Imax 3D format. The movie was lensed using the Fusion Camera System, a digital movie camera system developed by James Cameron and Vince Pace to shoot feature movies in stereoscopic 3D.

Some of the scenes were filmed at water level. The water seems to lap at your chin. Underwater, glowing fish dart back and forth before your eyes. Gun flares in battle scenes seem to zip by your ears. There’s more. This is one movie to see in the Imax 3D format.

“Avatar: The Way of Water” is the crowning achievement so far of the career of James Cameron. He’s not only “king of the world,” as he joked at the podium when he won Oscars for “Titanic.” Cameron is “king of the underwater world,” too.

“Avatar: The Way of Water,”

MPAA rated PG-13 (Parents Strongly Cautioned: Some material may be inappropriate for children under 13.) for sequences of strong violence and intense action, partial nudity and some strong language; Genre: Action, Adventure, Fantasy; Run time: 3 hours, 12 minutes. Distributed by Walt Disney Studios Motion Pictures.

Credit Readers Anonymous:

The Weeknd sings “Nothing is Lost (You Give Me Strength)” and Zoë Saldaña sings “The Songcord” during “Avatar: The Way of Water” end credits. Filming locations included California and New Zealand.

At The Movies:

“Avatar: The Way of Water” was seen in Imax 3D at AMC Center Valley 16.

Theatrical Movie Box Office

: Dec. 30 - Jan. 1 weekend box office results were unavailable because of the early deadlines for the Focus section for the New Year’s Day holiday.

Theatrical Movie Domestic Box Office,

Dec. 23 - 25: For the Christmas holiday weekend, “Avatar: The Way of Water” continued at No. 1 two weeks in a row, with $63.3 million in 4,202 theaters, $261 million, two weeks, keeping three opening movies out of the top spot.

“Puss in Boots: The Last Wish” opened at No. 2 with $12.4 million in 4,099 theaters, $18.5 million since opening Dec. 21.

“Whitney Houston: I Wanna Dance with Somebody” opened at No. 3 with $4.7 million in 3,625 theaters.

“Babylon” opened at No. 4 with $3.6 million in 3,343 theaters.

5. “Violent Night” dropped two places, $3.5 million in 2,562 theaters, $41.9 million, four weeks. 6. “Black Panther: Wakanda Forever” dropped four places, $3.4 million in 2,250 theaters, $426.1 million, seven weeks. 7. “The Whale” moved up seven places, $1 million in 603 theaters, $2.5 million, three weeks. 8. “The Fabelmans” dropped one place, $745,250 in 1,122 theaters, $9.9 million, seven weeks. 9. “The Menu” dropped four places, $678,252 in 840 theaters, $33.8 million, six weeks. 10. “Strange World” dropped six places, $413,277 in 1,390 theaters, $35.6 million, five weeks.

Movie box office information from Box Office Mojo as of Dec. 18 is subject to change.

Unreel,

Dec. 23:

“Babylon,”

MPAA Rated R: Damien Chazelle directs Brad Pitt, Margo Robbie and Olivia Wilde in the Comedy Drama History. The early days of Hollywood are fictionalized.

“Whitney Houston: I Wanna Dance with Somebody,”

MPAA Rated PG-13: Kasi Lemmons directs Naomi Ackie and Stanley Tucci in the Music Drama Biography. The life and music of Whitney Houston is told.

“Corsage,”

No MPAA rating: Marie Kreutzer directs Vicky Krieps,

Colin Morgan and Ivana Urban in the Drama Biography History. A fictional story set on Christmas Eve 1877 about one year in the life of Empress Elisabeth of Austria

Five Popcorn Boxes out of Five Popcorn Boxes