Caution: Very honest spoilers ahead.

The highly-anticipated sequel to the 2009 blockbuster movie “Avatar” has finally been released after thirteen years. “Avatar 2: The Way of Water” has already made huge waves as one of the top-grossing movies of all time. Is it worth the hype, or is it simply an aquatic spinoff of the original?

When the original was released, the movie was way ahead of its time in its technological advances. It created an experience in which viewers could completely immerse themselves in a way that had never been done before; it was the movie that set the precedent for all productions that followed.

The original “Avatar” is set in the future, as Earth is dying. The inhabitants are searching for a new place to live when they find Pandora, a planet that is already inhabited by the Na’vi, more commonly known as the blue Avatars. Unwilling to move and make room for the Sky People, as they call the people from Earth, the scientists and government create their own Na’vi through a mental link between one of their own and their genetically created avatar as a way to make peace with the indigenous people. When that does not work, they give the main character, Jake Sully, the mission to learn their ways and give them the opportunity to trust them. But Jake then falls in love with one of the Na’vi people and their way of life, and decides to fight for them and not his government which wishes to destroy everything these Na’vi people care for.

Even though the storyline has been done many times before, it was the colorful details and impressive CGI (computer-generated imagery) that had people enraptured in 2009. And then it took thirteen years for director James Cameron to create and direct a production to match the original, and even replace it as the top-grossing film.

With a nearly indistinguishable plot structure (because anything more complex would have taken another thirteen years), “Avatar 2: The Way of Water” is about Jake Sully, his wife and four children, who choose to all hide among the sea Na’vi instead of fighting the government.

And while many, myself included, held great expectations for this movie to be as inspiring as the first, I had the pleasure of watching them learn how to swim for over three hours. They had to learn “the way of the water“…and “the way” was long and never-ending. Admittedly, there were some beautiful underwater scenes, but after the first hour, all the movie did was make me thirsty.

The addition of the characters of the four children was a nice change, but in the end, I could have rewatched the first one and not known the difference.

With the technological advancements the film industry has made since 2009, there have now been countless movies that employ CGI. These films have somewhat desensitized us to the wonder of this technology; there were no surprises when I went to see this movie.

And I am convinced that those who believe “Avatar 2” is the best movie they have ever seen is because of their undying loyalty to its original, not because it was good.