James Cameron's Avatar: The Way of Water is one of the most highly anticipated films of this year, and it just received a major endorsement from another famed filmmaker.
Guillermo del Toro, writer and director of acclaimed films like 2017 Oscar-winner The Shape of Water, heaped praise onto the forthcoming flick in a Wednesday tweet.
"I say it again: Avatar 2 - seeing it you realize how long it has been since you saw a MOVIE-MOVIE (like that, in caps)," he wrote.
Del Toro, who has been friends with Cameron for some time, gave Avatar 2 an earlier endorsement in a tweet last month: "A staggering achievement- AVATAR TWOW is chokefull of majestic Vistas and emotions at an epic, epic scale. A master at thepeak of his powers..." del Toro tweeted on November 24.
Avatar 2 opens in theaters on Friday, December 16, and Cameron recently revealed in an interview with GQ that it needs to be the "third- or fourth-highest-grossing film in history" to make a profit.
I say it again: Avatar 2 - seeing it you realize how long it has been since you saw a MOVIE-MOVIE (like that, in caps).
— Guillermo del Toro (@RealGDT) December 7, 2022
Although it's undoubtedly a high bar for the sequel to meet, supporters say it's entirely possible given the runaway success of its predecessor. Avatar, the highest-grossing movie in history, was the first film to surpass the $2.9 billion threshold at the global box office.
Critics have also begun to issue their own prognoses about the merits of the much-anticipated movie. MTV News' Josh Horowitz, for instance, raved about it in a Tuesday tweet, writing that Cameron "once again shows filmmakers how it's done."
A staggering achievement- AVATAR TWOW is chokefull of majestic Vistas and emotions at an epic, epic scale. A master at thepeak of his powers… https://t.co/tG6I16JlhM
— Guillermo del Toro (@RealGDT) November 24, 2022
He continued: "I've said it a thousand times. Never doubt him. AVATAR: THE WAY OF WATER is how you do epic blockbuster-ing. Emotional, visceral, and as big as movies get."
Even some of the film's harsher critics peppered their evaluations with praise.
"Unsurprisingly, #AvatarTheWayOfWater is a visual masterpiece with rich use of 3D and breathtaking vistas," Digital Spy's movies editor Ian Sandwell wrote in a Tuesday tweet. "It does suffer from a thin story and too many characters to juggle, yet James Cameron pulls it together for an extraordinary final act full of emotion and thrilling action."
Cameron no doubt understands how to create critically acclaimed movies that also perform well at the box office. Another of his epics, 1997's Titanic, is listed as the third highest-grossing film ever, having raked in some $2.2 billion over time.
Newsweek reached out to representatives for Cameron and del Toro for comment.
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