At the higher frame rate of the screening, these moments resembled nature documentaries and made me feel even more convinced that what I was seeing was somehow actually real. It becomes particularly powerful later on, in the film's shocking aquatic scenes. I felt, at times, moments away from that feeling in The Way of Water, especially since many of its most memorable moments were directed in fluid shots and perspectives that seemed to follow characters as they moved, or even looked directly at characters through the perspective of another's eyes. Video games on high-end consoles and PCs often have that moment where you think you're watching a cinematic cutscene, and then suddenly you realize you're able to control your character in a shockingly realistic world. I remember moments like these in terms of landscapes, as if I could look around.

This isn't an insult to James Cameron at all it's just that the smooth, ultra-real 3D this movie ended up becoming in Imax Instead, I had this sensation of something different, some sort of hyperreal 3D experience that was more reminiscent of virtual VR worlds and even video games. I haven't thought about 3D films since maybe 2013, and I don't even know if The Way of Water makes me believe more in the power of 3D films, either. He equated it to being on a Disney ride, which I still haven't experienced.

He's an incredibly seasoned display expert who's hard to impress. I sat next to my colleague, David Katzmaier, at a screening on New York City's towering AMC Lincoln Square Imax screen. The Way of Water felt, somehow, more… immersive? I felt I was moving through it. It was astonishing then, but in my memory more as a vast canvas, a world I could peer into. I saw the original Avatar in Imax 3D way back in 2009. My mind began to tap into 3D experiences I often have - not In film, but in VR. I think I found myself, in moments of Way of Water, losing myself in its reality. I guess there are those stories of early film, people who'd scream at the oncoming train, thinking it was real. A towering Imax screen in front of me, 3D glasses on. I think I was trying to look around the room I was in, a cavern the Na'vi were hiding in. There was a moment, sometime in the first hour of watching James Cameron's newest film, Avatar: The Way of Water, that I turned my head to the side.

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