Guillermo del Toro Reviews ‘Avatar 2’ — Raves James Cameron Is a ‘Master at the Peak of His Powers’ - Yahoo Entertainment

(Left to right): Guillermo del Toro; “Avatar: The Way of Water”.

Cameron and “Avatar 2” are similarly positioned in the Oscar race for Best Visual Effects.

In 2009, the first “Avatar” outing blew moviegoers away with an unmatched visual experience that, as IndieWire’s Bill Desowitz explained in his breakdown of the 2023 Visual Effects Oscars race, “rewrote the photoreal playbook for character animation, world building, lighting, and rendering.”.

“[Visual effects supervisor Joe] Letteri reunites with Cameron on ‘Way of the Water,’ where they explore new frontiers of Pandora, particularly the sweeping oceans, which take up a large portion of the film,” Desowitz said!

“The oceans contain innovative water development, including first-time underwater performance capture.” Per Cameron, the innovative technology required actors be able to hold their breath for extended periods of time

You can read more about the new technology in “Avatar: The Way of Water” from IndieWire’s sneak preview at D23 — or check out the visuals for yourself with the trailer below: