Avatar the Way of Water is the long delayed sequel to 2009’s Avatar and is once again directed by James Cameron but here he shares scripting duties with Rick Jaffa and Amanda Silver and this story takes place about a decade or so after the events of the first film and the sky people have returned to Pandora to now colonise the planet and Jake Sully (Sam Worthington) is someone their keen to have their vengeance against at the same time so he, Neytiri (Zoe Saldana) and their young family make their way to the Metkayina clan on the oceans of Pandora led by Tono’wari (Cliff Curtis) and Ro’Nal (Kate Winslet) but the sky people are hot on their trail.
This was my most anticipated movie of 2022 mainly because despite its traditional story I am a big fan of the first Avatar film as it is a world class spectacle and James Cameron has 2 of the finest sequels ever made on his CV in Aliens and Terminator 2 but could Cameron deliver the goods as he always does or is now after so many years the time to bet against James Cameron.
Well as usual folks bet on the winning team as James Cameron has done it once again and I think this sequel is much better than the first film and a big reason for that is the script, Cameron/Jaffa/Silver throw you right into things straight away there’s no recap or reintroduction they assume you’ve seen the first film and will jump on board right away and it works very well.
Plus they make full use of the 3 hour runtime to structure this film in a way that you can have the exciting action and spectacle of Pandora but this time Jake and Neytiri’s kids take up the core focus and they anchor it very well, Britain Dalton is very good as Lo’ak Jake’s second son wanting to prove his worth to his father and older brother Neteyam (Jamie Flatters) who is also good, another 2 characters I really liked are Kiri (Sigourney Weaver) and Spider (Jack Champion) who are also great characters though at times Weaver’s performance was a little off putting mainly because she’s playing a young girl and Weaver is not that.
As for Spider I think his story was very interesting and reminded me a little of Emil Minty as the Feral Kid from Mad Max 2 and I hope I see more of his character in future movies.
Also as with the first film we learn the new ways of water this time instead of the forest and my goodness do I love these moments especially the bonding of Lo’ak with a Pandora whale and that storyline really got to me and as someone who lives and has grown up on the coast which has whales visiting the harbour every year as they migrate south I was like “I am so going to want to do that next year when they come back” but alas it won’t be possible.
And also this movie has a great villain in it, HALLE-FUCKING-LULLAH I mean I am so thoroughly and very sick to the death of so many of these big movies dropping the ball time and time and time again when it comes to their villains, so often they either feel like an afterthought or are done through gritted teeth even though you can clearly tell the creative team really doesn’t want to do one but not here, not here Stephen Lang returns and like in the first film he is captivating and ruthless and so much fun to watch and it is about fucking time.
But lastly I have to talk about the last hour of this movie as James Cameron once again shows why he is such a master of action spectacle, while it is not to the same size as the end battle in the first film it is no less enthralling, tense and exciting with battles on sea and a giant ship that recalls equal parts the Abyss and Titanic but I loved every single moment of it.
And all of this just kept me thinking “I wish there more like him” and “Why aren’t there others doing it like him” and I get that Cameron’s storytelling tends to fall on the simpler side but in every one of his movies not only is it very effective but it always feels like there is this personal drive at the core of them all be it young love in Titanic, familial love in Aliens and the Terminator movies, husband and wife love in True Lies and the Abyss or a deep love of the environment in the Avatar films.
This also extends to the other core theme of Cameron’s work and that is the folly and overreach of man be it Nuclear War in the Abyss and the Terminator films, the hubris that a ship of man can’t be sunk in Titanic, not understanding your enemy in Aliens or encroaching on the natural world in the Avatar films and the fact that Cameron combines this folly of man with the love between humans with amazing action and state of the art technology and filmmaking it just feels so refreshing after seeing so many big films just feel soulless and heartless and just resting on pointless cameos and nostalgia baiting and jukebox soundtracks and sugar hit fanservice.
There is one thing I’m not a fan of with this movie and that is the 3D, I saw it in both 2D and 3D and the 2D will be okay for most, don’t get me wrong the 3D in this movie is very good, excellent at times but as someone who wears glasses full time I found it a struggle to wear both my own glasses and the 3D glasses and there were a few times where I had to take the 3D glasses off and this movie looks great without the 3D, very bright and colourful with terrific visuals.
And so that is Avatar the Way of Water and I couldn’t recommend this movie highly enough, I loved this film, I think Cameron has delivered a 3rd great sequel, I wasn’t bothered by the 3 hours and though I don’t love the 3D it’s the only real knock I have with this movie, 5 out of 5 all the way.
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