It’s an unspoken fact of life that whenever a hugely successful and globally popular blockbuster is made available on streaming or home video, the tides of opinion are obligated to shift on a time. As fate would have it, James Cameron’s Avatar: The Way of Water is the latest to fall victim to the phenomenon, even if the backlash doesn’t have much of a leg to stand on.
While it’s perfectly okay not to enjoy the sweeping sci-fi sequel, offering that it was overrated, overhyped, and not as beloved as it was initially claimed to be doesn’t hold a single drop of water when it’s literally the third highest-grossing movie that’s ever seen the inside of a theater after hauling in over $2.3 billion.
And yet, you’d have thought it was a Razzie-winning disaster based on the renewed outpouring of vitriol following its VOD debut, and the latest unexpected stop being made by the hate train has pinpointed Star Trek IV: The Voyage Home as a counterpoint, with a questionable Reddit thread remarking that the fourth installment in the saga is “infinitely better” than The Way of Water.
While The Voyage Home is undoubtedly one of the very best features to emerge from the legendary property over its distinguished existence, at what point do the two become comparable outside of sharing the same genre? We’re not entirely sure, and based on the scathing rebuttals and replies to the original post, we’re not convinced that anybody else is, either.
Believe it or not, you can enjoy both without falling into existential disrepair, but we’re talking apples and oranges here.