Avatar: The Way of Water

Starring: Sam Worthington, Zoe Saldana, Sigourney Weaver, Stephen Lang, Kate Winslet, Cliff Curtis, Joe Davod Moore, Giovanni Ribisi, CCH Pounder, Edie Falco, Brendan Cowell, Jemaine Clement, Jamie Flatters, Britain Dalton, Trinity Jo-Li Bliss, Jack Champion, Bailey Bass
Directed by: James Cameron
Rating: PG-13
Genre: Action, Adventure, Fantasy, Science Fiction
2022

Times Seen:
Tim: 2

Summary: When the Sky People return to Pandora, Jake Sully (Sam Worthington), Neytiri (Zoe Saldana) and their children must fight for survival of their family and their people.

Review:

Tim: I have quite a bit to unpack with James Cameron's Avatar: The Way of Water. Way back in 2009, the original film felt revolutionary. I loved the movie, crowning it the best film of the year. The wait for the sequel has been shockingly long- 13 years, which is unheard of for a film that had been planned all long. Cameron wouldn't be rushed, taking the time needed to tell the story he wanted to tell. It's interesting, I have to admit a bit of the excitement and novelty of the original wore off in the last decade plus. I still think the first film is incredible and a game-changer, but the legacy was more a series of failed, rushed 3D movies that Hollywood rushed out in the aftermath of the original. It had other implications and influences for sure, but the world of 2022 is far different from 2009. I was excited to see this movie and I saw it in theaters for the 3D, but it felt muted. Another Avatar movie was interesting, but not quite the momentous event we originally expected. Too much time had passed.

Now, to be fair, Cameron once again delivers a great film. I'll come back to this, but Avatar: The Way of Water is a great movie. It's technically brilliant, once again immersing us in the stunning world of Pandora. Shifting the action to the oceans makes a ton of sense, giving this film an opportunity to show off more of this planet and viewers more adventures and wonders to explore. However, the film suffers from a sense of redundancy. It's still the Na'vi verses the Sky People, although the antagonists now have their own Avatars. The first film might not have had the most original story, but it felt brilliant to tell it on this alien world, as Cameron pitted the military industrial complex against the environmentalist movement of the Na'vi, a people who live in harmony with the planet, instead of trying to conquer it. This movie is basically the same. It explores new depths of the planet but tells a too familiar story. The first film was stunning to see how Cameron imagined the Na'vi connecting with the creatures across the planet. This one swaps those out for sea creatures, but the process is nearly the same. There's a bit less awe when it happens again here.

I do have another big complaint about this film. The shift away from Jake and Neytiri to their kids felt clunky to me. I hadn't seen these two characters in over a decade and we got far more time with their expanded family than we did with them. There's pros and cons to this, for sure, but even with an extremely long movie (3 hours, 12 minutes- oof) we still don't get enough time to really know all these kids. There's the older brother, the troubled outcast younger brother. There's the adopted special older sister, the unremarkable younger sister. There's an unofficial human member of their family, too. That doesn't include the kids of the water people, which adds to the character list. None of these characters are fully explored here- sure, they will undoubtedly continue to get screen time in future sequels, but I wish Jake and Neytiri played more important roles here. Their kids have most of the adventures (and continually find themselves in trouble- like annoying so), while the parents hang out at home and have to keep jumping into action to save them. It gets a bit repetitive as the movie progresses. I didn't love where this film took the characters and even when some shocking moments take place, it feels blunted because we hadn't really connected with these characters as deeply as we needed to.

Technically, the film is once again astounding. To see the advances in visual effects, to see the gorgeous landscape rendered like this, to see the beautiful and exotic creatures that populate Pandora, it was all a feast for our eyes and I loved seeing it all. 3D was definitely the way to see this movie for the first time. Interesting, I remember people claiming to feel depression leaving the theater and returning to their normal lives, after the original film came out. I never heard that here. This film is great, but the second trip to Pandora was not as life-changing as the first. It's interesting to me that this film won only 1 Academy Award- Best Visual Effects. That's probably not a surprise. What Cameron did, the journey to get this movie made, there's just nothing else like it out there. It's one of the most visually impressive movies ever made. It's brilliant. The first film won 3 Academy Awards, out of 9 nominations. This one won 1 out of 4. Both films were nominated for Best Picture, although the first film had an actual shot at winning (I believe it should have). I know that's just one data point. The original movie shattered all kinds of box office records, on its way to a stunning $785 million domestic total. Thirteen years later, this one made it to $684 million. Still exceptional, but opens the film to questions.

I want to be clear, though- Avatar: The Way of Water is a great film and one of the best movies of 2022. It's more visually stunning than almost anything you'll ever see. It's an achievement and James Cameron once again delivers something truly special. However, the film feels really long. It tells a story that's just a slight variation of the original. Whereas at the conclusion of the first film, I was desperate for sequels, at the conclusion of this one I thought, "Wow! And... how many more of these was Cameron going to make?" This is a great movie, but clearly less effective than the original. My concern is that a third trip to Pandora will feel even more redundant. How excited will I be about a fourth and fifth? Now, I've long proclaimed that Cameron is a genius, so I won't count him out. With some big shifts, the third movie could be as effective as this one, but he'll be battling fatigue as the franchise looks to round out its trilogy. So, I want to celebrate this film loudly and admit I'm a bit nervous where the franchise goes from here.



Rating 1-10
Tim's Rating- 8



If You Enjoyed This Movie, We Recommend: Avatar, Titanic