Avatar: The Way of Water
Director: James Cameron
Screenwriters: James Cameron, Rick Jaffa, Amanda Silver
Cinematographer: Russell Carpenter
Production Companies: Lightstorm Entertainment, TSG Entertainment
Distributors: 20th Century Studios
Release Date: 16 December 2022
Runtime: 3 hours 12 minutes
MPA Rating: PG-13
Availability: Theaters
Synopsis
James Cameron once again takes us on an immersive cinematic tour of Pandora in Avatar: The Way of Water. Set roughly 14 years after the first film, human-turned-Na’vi Jake Sully (Sam Worthington) and Neytiri (Zoë Saldaña) are living a happy life with their four children and adopted “human pet”: (respectively) Kiri (Sigourney Weaver), Neteyam (Jamie Flatters), Lo’Ak (Britain Dalton), Tuk (Trinity Jo-Li Bliss), and Spider (Jack Champion). However, humanity returns and starts colonizing the planet so that Pandora can become the new Earth. After his successful raids draw the attention of the human invaders, Sully and his family flee from their homes and take refuge with the Metkayina, a seafaring Na’vi tribe. The strength of the Sully family is consequentially tested as they must adapt to a new way of life and fend off their human pursuers.
Analysis
Cameron does a great job immersing you in the world of The Way of Water. Spending time with the Metkayina lets us explore a different side Pandora and learn about a new Na’vi culture. We see gorgeous ocean wildlife, become familiarized with the intimate relationship the Metkayina have with the tulkun (i.e., giant lobster whales), and learn about the spiritual relationship that the Metkayina has with the ocean itself. There’s so much to be enjoyed about the world in totality as well. The film’s massive scale is engulfing, filled with incredible sites such as floating mountains, a huge and technologically-advanced ocean vessel, and the massive and beautiful tulkun. On the smaller scale, details such as the slight physiological differences between the two groups of Na’vi, the alien yet familiar appearance of flora and fauna, and even the sounds of nature teeming with life make the world feel believable. And though they’re fairly inconsequential, nuanced character actions like the RDA security force Avatars occasionally breathing in air from their masks whenever indoors again grounds the movie in reality. So, these components build up to produce a world that’s as unique and marvelous as it is realistic.
The Way of Water should also be commended for being an amazing technical accomplishment. Let’s first talk about how visually stunning Pandora is. Massive landscapes, vehicles, and animals are incredible in scale yet never veer towards outlandish. The flora, fauna, and Na’vi are beautifully unique; the fact that they’re hybrids of real-life living things gets us to buy more into this alien world. And despite their alien appearance, it’s easy to read the facial expressions of the Na’vi and find their physical interactions with the environment and others realistic. A variety of technical elements increases your sense of immersion with what’s happening on screen. The camera displays large objects and vistas in their entirety, comes up close on characters’ faces during intense moments to emotionally draw in the viewer, and makes scenes more visceral by closely following characters during action sequences. Lighting and color do a great job establishing the “atmosphere” (i.e., time of day and weather status) of scenes and making each element stand out, and excellent sound design breathes life into scenes. And then there are the film’s incredible water effects. The physics of how people, machines, and animals move underwater is both astonishing and realistic. And whenever something emerges from the ocean, the way that water breaks around them and how that person/animal/machine looks wet makes the effect that much more believable. When it comes to action, the pairing of strong visuals with technical elements makes action sequences epic and visceral. And in combination with the awesome journey of Pandora Cameron takes you on, these incredible technical elements are the reason why you MUST see this film in 3D and on the largest screen possible.
Cameron also avoids going full Christopher Nolan by focusing the story on the Sully family. To do this, he first makes them feel authentic. Rather than immediately jumping ahead 14 years, the introduction spends enough time following the Sullys as their family grows to ease the transition from the previous film. Both during the introduction and throughout the movie, you see the family behaving like you’d expect any family to, with parents trying to strike a proper balance between being discipline and care, and kids – each with their own distinct personality – restraining themselves from pulling each other’s hair out. And most importantly, you understand that this is a tight-knit family that’s strongly bound together with love. From there, Cameron puts the Sullys on a journey that the viewer becomes emotionally invested in. You empathize with the family as they go through a series of challenges, especially when those challenges strain the fabric of the family. And it’s gratifying to watch those same challenges bring the family closer together. Thus, the film delivers an ambitious and awesome spectacle, while still giving the audience a family to become emotionally invested in.
[***SPOILER WARNING FOR NEXT TWO PARAGRAPHS***]
That being said, there’s not a whole lot there to the actual plot. The Sullys’ integration into the Metkayina feels like a rehash of the first film, and the same can be said for the conflict between the RDA security forces and the Na’vi. You eventually realize that the Metkayina are a pretty boring people who don’t have a lot going on besides their relationship with the tulkun. (Oh yeah, and to be perfectly honest, I couldn’t give less of a fu&@ about the tulkun. They’re just whales! Smart, yes, but still, I don’t give a sh&* about WHALES!) And worst of all, it’s clear how this movie is blatant setup for the next one, based on how underwhelming the final battle is compared to the first movie’s and how this film essentially ends with Jake Sully looking into the camera and saying “See you next time folks!” So if you end up watching this movie more than once, you’ll realize that pretty much the best thing about this film is how awesome it looks.
I also thought the script mishandled many characters. First there’s the unnecessary human antagonists. Bringing back Colonel Miles Quaritch (Stephen Lang) to serve as this movie’s antagonist makes absolutely no sense. And more generally speaking, there had to have been a more creative way to introduce conflict into the story instead of just having humanity return. As for the Sully family, the script does a disservice to multiple members. Grace will clearly play a bigger role and be more fleshed out in the later film(s), but for the time being she’s just weird. Lo’Ak’s arc is simply not listening to anyone else and annoyingly going with his gut – which ultimately gets his brother Neteyam killed. Neytiri is portrayed as being “untamed” and forced to play second fiddle to Jake; she’s also the only parent to go heart-stricken crazy in the final act. Spider is just … there. And quite annoying. And the script gives Neteyam, poor Neteyam, quite literally nothing to do besides having to face the consequences of his brother’s poor decisions, which ultimately results in his death. So while you do get emotionally invested in the family, you likely won’t end up caring about any individual character.
Conclusion
At the end of the day, Avatar: The Way of the Water is an awesome spectacle that NEEDS to be seen on the largest screen with the best audio possible. It delivers strongly on spectacle and will have you care a lot about the Sully family, which is more than enough to make up for a fairly lackluster story. So while the 3-hour runtime may seem daunting at first, the movie is definitely worth your patience. At least for one viewing.