Review: Avatar: The Way of Water

Avatar: The Way of Water—a big (REALLY big) budget sequel to one of the most technically innovative movies of all time

Introduction

The original Avatar (not of the Airbending variety) hit theaters in 2009 and immediately changed the way people experience cinema. New 3D technology, coupled with the consistent brilliance of director James Cameron, made it nothing short of a phenomenon. Its rendering of an alien world in fantastic color and detail in three dimensions wowed audiences and propelled the film to lofty box office heights.

Thirteen years later, we get the long-awaited sequel, picking up the story after several years of the native Na’vi kicking the majority of the human invaders off the planet. Avatar: The Way of Water is the first of four planned sequels to be released every two years, if all goes according to plan. Cameron’s ambitious series plan was delayed for so long in part because he wasn’t happy with the current camera technology’s ability to properly create his vision, much as was the case with the 3D technology of the first film. Whether you appreciate that or not, you can take comfort in the fact that Cameron, as an artist, was not willing to compromise on his goals. What has emerged from the 13-year delay is a visually stunning cinematic experience on par with the first film, though with a much different focus in story.

Summary

After booting the human looters off-planet (save for their scientist allies), Jake Sully (Sam Worthington) and Neytiri (Zoe Saldana) start a family and live a life of relative peace for several years. They raise 4 children and live in harmony amongst the forest Na’vi. Then, like a comet hitting ground, the humans return en masse with more firepower, more resources, and more drive to have their way with the planet of Pandora. Sully, Neytiri, and the Na’vi are suddenly thrust back into a state of war as they defend their home from alien exploiters, with Sully and his family becoming a top target for the new human military—which happens to consist of some upgraded familiar faces.

Colonel Quaritch (Stephen Lang) returns in the form of a Na’vi avatar, and along with his squad makes it his top priority to hunt down and kill Sully, who has resumed his place as the head of the resistance. Once this becomes known, Jake and family flee to the islands of the water Na’vi to hide and live a life away from the war. But that, of course, doesn’t last.

While the Sully family integrates into their new clan and learns to live in harmony with the sea, the war eventually finds them, leading to a showdown between old enemies on a new battlefield.

The Craft

The movie is nothing short of visually stunning. Whereas the first film represented a giant leap forward in technology that everyone can enjoy in the form of Real-D 3D ability, Avatar: The Way of Water does so in a more behind-the-scenes kind of way. The 3D render is still amazingly beautiful — you won’t feel as though much has changed there — but the accuracy of movement, of expression, and of digital environment are all much improved. Cameron put a lot of effort into developing new camera technology for filming under water as well as for motion capture, making both the humanoid characters and Pandora environments pop like nothing you’ve seen before. James Cameron is the kind of this kind of artistry, and he doesn’t disappoint.

The story of the sequel is much more straightforward and focuses more on the main characters as a family dealing with crisis. Instead of being about cultural exchange and harmony, the plot examines the struggles of parenthood, childhood, and family in the face of war. As a result, the story doesn’t advance the larger-scale plot that much; instead, it’s more of a cat-and-mouse, hunter vs. hunted story that stays intimately with the Sully family and the Quaritch military unit hunting them down. Some of this is rather cliche (just as one could say about the first film), but some is touching and heartfelt. The new characters amongst the sea clans serve their purpose, but aren’t noteworthy beyond that.

The acting is…fine. Zoe Saldana by far understands how to emote on screen better than anyone else in the film, and Lang still embodies a hard-boiled military commander with aplomb. Sam Worthington, who’s monotone delivery of lines in the first film was one of its few cringe-worthy elements, is actually noticeably better in this film, but his range is still rather limited. Perhaps the new motion-capture technology aided in making him seem more emotional. The rest of the family give off the vibe of young-adult offspring like you would expect, but exhibit the cliche family dynamic of a kids in a new environment. Of particular note, however, is Sigourney Weaver, playing a younger version of her part 1 character mysteriously birthed from her Avatar. Something about the way this character is portrayed is more compelling than the rest.

Dave’s Thoughts

When I see films, one of two things usually happens when I process it over the next few weeks and/or see it again: the movie either gets better, or it gets laughably worse. Avatar: The Way of Water, somehow, does both. I keep replaying what I watched in my head, and I both like and dislike it more each time. Strange, I know, but I think this is a result of different qualities of the film being somewhat isolated from one another, such that you can appreciate (or not) each part easily on its own. Put them together, though, and you get a lot of up and down.

To begin, the visual are nothing short of HOLY CRAP GO SEE THIS MOVIE IN IMAX 3D FOR THE VISUALS!!! good. This is the only movie since the first one I insisted to myself I would see in IMAX 3D. I told people after the first film that seeing it in its full gigantic-screen 3D glory that it was probably the closest we’ll ever get to actually being on another planet. This film is much the same. It. Looks. Incredible.

But as far as incredible things, that’s more or less it. I was hugely disappointed in the story; the entire plot can be neatly wrapped up by saying “the humans come back, and they fight again.” Sure, there’s a new water culture to explore and new creatures to meet, but they don’t really add much to the Avatar mythology. Eywa, the overarching pseudo-deity of Pandora is present in the new culture, but not added to. There’s nothing new here to push the lore forward. The story elements they do pack in — family dynamics and conflict, relationships between children of different cultures, a very forced subplot with the human child of Colonel Quaritch who is best friends with the Sully children — feel very cliche and tacked on. And Colonel Quaritch himself is back in a big blue Na’vi avatar body, but it still basically the exact same person as the first movie. The attempted bonding between him and Spider, his human-born son, feels very inauthentic. None of this carried any emotional weight throughout the film for me.

Largely, the film is two notable things: a CGI masterclass in visuals, and an action set piece. While the former is great, the latter feels rather boring in the end. It really isn’t anything we haven’t seen before. The stakes, being more personal than planet-scale, feel very low, which cheapened the spectacle rather than enhanced it. This exact same story could have taken place in the middle ages, in an urban organized crime setting, or any actual war in human history. There’s nothing about the story that is uniquely Avatar-centric. After a 13-year wait for a sequel, that feel incredibly disappointed.

The overall philosophy of this world is still there, at least. The contrast between the Na’vi living in harmony with Eywa and their surroundings and the humans who are there to do nothing but exploit is still obvious. This go-round, instead of bulldozing trees to hit us over the head with the point, we get the sci-fi version of whalers who hunt sentient sea creatures for a tiny vial of brain fluid (that, uh, stops human aging in its tracks, apprently) while leaving the rest to rot. It’s a rather blunt delivery of a parable to our own past.

Furthermore, James Cameron has been getting increasingly more flack for his lack of cultural empathy, his appropriation and “white savior” complex, and the apparent abandonment of his pledge to work alongside and consult with members of the cultures he’s clearly representing onscreen. In this case, it’s the Maori and Polynesian cultures being appropriated, though Cameron says he was conscious of the effort and tried to respect the cultures he was borrowing from (you can read some of his comments on the subject here). However, he’s still getting plenty of pushback directed his way, which you can read about at CNN and Grist, among other places. A lengthy discussion of these issues is a topic for a future commentary, but the short version of my opinion is that he needs to do a much better job of listening to indigenous peoples and elevating their voices in the upcoming sequels.

In the end, I can’t help feel a little more disappointed than impressed. While I still keep re-picturing the visuals and imagery in my head, that’s all I have left. The rest, for me, is forgettable and didn’t add anything to the Avatar setting.

You’ll like this movie if…

…you’re in it for the action and the visuals. Cameron is still an incredibly talented director when it comes to that.

…you want more of the same basic stuff and basic characters from the first movie.

You’ll dislike this movie if…

…you appreciate sci-fi for the new ideas and the world buildling. There is nearly nothing of that in this film.

…you can’t stand cliche storytelling

…in a world as rich as Pandora, you desire a plot that has stakes beyond the repercussions for one family.