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Avatar: The Way of Water Movie Review

Avatar: The Way of Water is a 2022 science fiction film directed by James Cameron and starring Sam Worthington. It is an improvement upon the original.

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“Why so blue?“

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In this sequel, Jake and his family must escape from the wrath of Colonel Miles Quaritch by relocating to an island nation, but the colonel eventually finds them, which leads to another conflict. This movie is infamous for its extremely long production as it arrives thirteen years after the original. History will now repeat itself as once again this film was bashed before being released, but now it is becoming a huge hit, and eventually it will quickly dissipate from the public consciousness.

I missed seeing the first movie in theaters as back then I was still in high school in my small town that had no theaters, which is why I set out to watch this second film on the biggest screen possible – an IMAX screen. I have to say that I was disappointed in the overall experience. Visually, the movie is breathtaking and more on that later, but I cannot distinguish between a regular screen and an IMAX screen myself. Even worse, the 3D effects in this movie are only cool in some beginning scenes, but for the most part they were too subtle and unremarkable. I wished for more.

The first ‘Avatar’ is among the weakest and most unoriginal movies Cameron made. I’ve always belonged to the middle ground camp where I respected its world building and technical craftsmanship, but I found the story and the characters utterly rehashed and extremely thin respectively. Thankfully, for the second movie the director made sure to incorporate at least a more engaging and layered, if not particularly inspired story.

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Many have accused this film of being convoluted when in reality it is simple to a fault as most of this director’s opus is. Yes, it has many different plot threads and themes going on, but each individual thread is dealt with in a very simplistic and far from sophisticated manner, which resulted in a story that is lacking any real SF elements, thus once again succeeding more so as a fantasy film than a real science fiction story.

The characterization is where this sequel trumped its predecessor the most and this is where my rating got bumped from 3.5 to 4 stars. Unlike the original, here at least we get to spend more time with each character. Yes, the movie is populated with too many personalities, but thankfully most got at least a serviceable, if not great arc. The villains are the ones who fared the worst as they are all ridiculously cartoony once again and unexplained in their goals and drive. The scientists in this film being either underwritten or plain idiotic only further illustrates the fact that this franchise has never really been concerned with the goals of the science fiction genre, but rather fantasy storytelling more akin to the works of Star Wars.

Miles Quaritch is improved here. He still has one-liners that are cringe-worthy, but at least this time around he isn’t fully villainous to the point of being a full-on cartoon creation. Stephen Lang’s performance is much more nuanced here and the character is more complex with shades of humanity present. He is humanized with the presence of his estranged son Spider, who is this ‘Tarzan’-like boy who grew up with the Na’vi, but is still a human. The actor playing him was not great and the character needs more work, though the theme of identity struggle is well explored here and the father-son dynamic was quite intriguing.

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But Avatar 2 is all about the Sully family with everybody else fading into the background. Jake Sully himself is the least interesting of the bunch and his stoicism and militarism was downright annoying at times and just one of the many aspects where this movie felt as if it belonged to a 90s era much more so than today’s movie climate. Sam Worthington’s performance is okay and fatherhood as a theme is solidly depicted here, but the character remains rather uninteresting.

Neytiri is significantly sidelined in a movie that is all about fathers and sons, though she still got some great moments to shine. Kiri is an adopted daughter of Grace, both played by Sigourney Weaver. Weaver’s performance is fine, but her voice was simply too old to play a teenager. This character’s arc is the most confusing of the bunch and this story element is the most mysterious. She is deeply connected to Eva, who is basically Pandora’s version of God, so in this arc we get to see spirituality and superheroics intertwined.

The film is all about the children as Cameron was clearly going through parenthood while filming it. Tuk is cute, but forgettable. Neteyam got an unexpected ending, but was overall too underdeveloped. The standout is Lo’ak as this boy who is so determined to follow in his father’s footsteps and make him proud, but he makes mistakes and sometimes goes about things the wrong way. Their dynamic is the most interesting of the bunch and the issue of grappling with the pressure of parental legacy was very well explored here.

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Avatar: The Way of Water features a terrific score that is almost as good as the James Horner one from the original. The production design is excellent and the cinematography is dazzling. The filming of the action sequences was particularly impressive as the third act basically evolved into a full-on ‘Titanic’ sequel. The action within the ship was riveting and that entire final battle was superbly pulled off to the point that even I as a non-action fan hugely enjoyed it. This is another department where the sequel trumped the original and just getting to see the action from different angles and viewpoints made it incredibly immersive and thrilling.

The opening in the first act with the narration was almost tedious, but when the film moved to the water, it became staggeringly beautiful and spirited in its adventure. The change in ecosystem led to the renewed sense of awe and excitement within this world of Pandora. As a huge fan of snorkeling, the diving scenes took my breath away as they were not only gorgeously filmed, colorful and exciting, but also meticulously detailed and impressively realistic in breathing techniques, water movements and the fauna inhabiting these oceans.

The whaling theme was beautifully explored and it is one of the most important story points of this sequel. How these whale-like creatures were portrayed as being extremely intelligent and deeply emotional was parallel to our own whales on Earth, and this level of detail affirms Cameron as a huge advocate for protecting the oceans and their ecosystems. This narrative was not only touching, but also genuinely the best part of the movie. The second act slowed down significantly and this is where the adventure seeped in, resulting in truly spectacular world building.

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The special effects in Avatar 2 are less video game-like and more grounded in reality while still retaining the otherworldly quality of this alien planet. The night scenes are still gorgeous, but clearly the underwater world is where the effects operated at their fullest capacity with incredible motion capture work and stunning cinematography. The motion capture was significantly improved here, leading to more emotional performances from the actors.

The movie is ridiculously long at three hours, but also truly entertaining almost throughout. The dialogue is cringey at times with an overreliance on “bro” teenage dialogue and cheesy one-liners, but there was a lot of innocence, charm and even humor mined from those cheesy moments, so I ultimately did not mind them all that much. The directing from Cameron is top-notch in terms of technical craftsmanship and vision, but he still needs to improve on his storytelling as too many downright dumb plot points and plot holes abound. The family angle was excessive here, but I did ultimately come to care for this family as the heightened emotions and the movie’s immediate sense of danger elevated the weak storyline at hand significantly.

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