Cant remember where I saw it but I remember reading that someone didnt care for the first Avatar movie that much because the last half of it was just an action movie. They really enjoyed the beginning because it was a lot of immersive worldbuilding and speculative biology that was very well fleshed out, believable, and visually stunning due to the cutting edge CGI. Their personal gripe about the action-centered theme toward the end was, of course, personal bias because I remember they mentioned action movies werent their thing anyway. But I havent stopped thinking about their critque because its very considerable.

I personally enjoyed most of Avatar, including parts of the action toward the end, but I can see where they were coming from. A fast-paced, thrill and action-centered plot can remove an audience from the world it takes place in, and that can be really dissatifying for a sci-fi story, let alone a story so depednent on ethical, spiritual, and social themes.

Sometimes when I'm watching action, it can feel as if the world around is oversimplified, and primarly used as obstacle. On one hand it makes sense because you cant expend too much runntime to just "slice of life" sequences, expounding upon every detail of lore introduced can be unnecessary (thats what merch and fandom are for), and making the choreograohy and interactions of characters too uncoordinated can seem really awkward and unintentional (your watching a film, not a series of home videos). The characters movements, interactions, and the way they navigate their world needs to be as visually satisfying and engaging as narratively pleasing for placement of storytelling devices.

But whats supposed to be an alien forest may become a blur of the same green bushes and trees in Earth that make you forget youre on another planet when a character spends too long running through them to escape or hide; a complex ship turms into long hallway or single room with random arrangements when characters need to battle or be put through obstacles. Continuity of time can be contradicted and details about the world can seem more artifically exploited than happenstance when worldbuilding is neglected for action sequences.

Although the runntime for the film is speculated over 3hrs, its only a little longer than the last. And alhough we got to see a large portion of worldbuilding and lore the first time, we also saw a lot of action centered scenes that were used to progress the story and take the characters where they needed to be for it rather than flesh out details about lore, like history of Toruk Makto or cultural practices of the Omatikaya (that werent just a short montage sequence lol). It sometimes led to signficiant, unanswered questions about the flora, fauna (why were the Ikranay so skittish against a few Na'vi on the mountain but then suddenly fearless against RDA ships and missles just bc "Eywa", etc), and even the Na'vi themselves that felt too convenient for the story and 2-dimentional for the characters (why was Neytiri so romantically interested in someone who was clearly affiliated w the same people who killed her sister, etc).

Basically what I'm saying is I'm a little worried AWOW might take a similar direction with the plot where we're not given enough intimacy with the Pandora and Na'vi cultures in priority of action and thrill. While the movie is supposed to be a sci-fi thriller, its still sci-fi, and we've only seen a fraction of Pandora and the Na'vi. People clearly care about Pandora and the Na'vi, so while this story will need to be character driven, they will embark on new biomes, meet new people, and have new conflicts that people will want to immerse themselves in as if real. But I still worry AWOW will rely too much on visual sensation and narratively convenient tropes because this movie is also a tech showcase in a way, since the novelty of water-mocap is a large part of the anticipation.

I want to see the Avatar sequels as character driven as they are Pandora-driven, if that makes sense, because the Avatar universe is what made the first movie so memorable despite its lackluster plot. So while action, imo, is an important story and film element, I, too hope it doesnt smother time for intimacy with Pandora and the Na'vi.