I got dragged to Avatar 2, and aside from the insultingly long runtime, it was FINE, OKAY?
Yes, the cultural appropriation, native-people-mystic-fantasy, and basically everything around the Navi portrayal was way over the line of cringe.
Yes, the Pandora world now looks like a Pixar cartoon in a time when we're all used to hyperrealistic CGI.
Yes, the plot is still simplistic, white-saviory, and a little uncomfortably close to parody.
Yes, it is a little wierd how many sexy shots of teenage cat people there were.
But like every other James Cameron movie I've seen, starting from The Abyss (where Bruce Willis famously saves his wife by slapping her), I can't help but be charmed. James Cameron is like a 14 year old boy living out his movie-making fantasy with his favorite toys: mechs, moon pools, a squad of marines, underwater photography, and fiery war wives protecting little girls. And despite the fact that the stories are as thought through as those of a 14-year-old, there's something pure and charming about this man spending a country's GDP on a movie where he just plays with his toys.
One thing that I do kind of unironically like about James Cameron movies, and Avatar in particular, is the banality with which the Bad Guys (tm) do the Bad (tm). That's actually realistic to the way some of the worst crimes of humanity happen - genocide, colonialism, climate destruction, etc are just jobs for people who try not to think too hard about it. There is often one or more Genuine Evil people rubbing their hands and cackling with glee, but they are supported and enabled by crowds of people who are just "doing their job", "following orders" and silencing their conscience. It's something people ought to think more about, imo. For all the flaws of James Cameron's white guy's perspective on colonial conquest, I feel this part is deeply understood.
This happens to me every time I see a James Cameron movie. The Abyss, Terminator, Aliens... the whole movie I'm just like this is DUMB THIS IS SO DUMB and then by the end I'm won over by the earnestness.