Avatar: The Way of Water - Film Review

This franchise continues to amaze me as it seemingly succeeds despite a substantial lack of consumer enthusiasm. Having seen the original film, I have yet to meet anyone that believed it was anything special beyond simply looking very pretty. With that said, I was curious to see this newest iteration primarily because it wasn't a super hero movie and I generally believe James Cameron is an amazing film maker. A lot has changed since Avatar first released in 2009, and yet this film tells us that much remains the same still too.

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Where You Can Find It: I saw this in theaters, but it will eventually release to Disney+ subscribers at some point in the winter of 2023.

General Information 
Avatar: The Way of Water is a science fiction film that was released on 16 December 2022. It was directed, co-written, co-produced, and edited by James Cameron and is the sequel to Cameron's Avatar. Simon Franglen provided the scoring for this film, while cinematography was handled by Russell Carpenter. It was produced under 20th Century Studios and Lightstorm Entertainment with Walt Disney Studios Motion Pictures distributing. As of 27 December 2022, Avatar: The Way of Water has brought in a worldwide gross of $889 million at the box office against a budget of approximately $250 million (not counting marketing). Interestingly enough, despite the aforementioned budget, Cameron recently stated that his new film would need to hit around $2 billion to "break even." Critically, it won Movie of the Year from the American Film Institute and it was nominated for Best Film at the Golden Globes. It sports a 67 Metascore on Metacritic and a 78% Tomatometer rating on Rotten Tomatoes. Per Vulture, James Cameron intends to make three more sequels within the Avatar franchise.

The Story
It's been over ten years since we last saw Jake Sully (played by Sam Worthington) and the rest of Pandora. He's made a family with Neytiri (Zoe Saldaña) and the two warriors spend most of their time raising their three biological children, along with their adopted daughter, Kiri (Sigourney Weaver). Peace only lasts so long though when the humans return to Pandora looking for some payback and a second attempt to mine the planet for everything it's worth. The renewed conflict quickly becomes intensely personal for Jake as his old nemesis, Colonel Quaritch (Stephen Lang), is back in Na'vi-form with a mission to eliminate the Sully no matter the cost.

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Sully faces a familiar threat, but this time there's more at stake

I recall when the original Avatar was released that it was widely panned by critics for its many similarities to Native American-centric films like Dances with Wolves and Pocahontas. Although this film somewhat avoids that pitfall, it does so by swan-diving into another instead. Vast portions of the plot re-tread nearly identical ground of the original film by introducing the Sully family to the aqua-skinned Metkayina Tribe, which are water-based Na'vi. We're given similar scenes of Sully and others learning how to ride unruly creatures and interact with their environments just like what we saw in Avatar. This would be fine to some extent if it didn't eat up substantial chunks of the film's excessive run-time, but re-watching Sully bond with a flying creature isn't nearly as thrilling as the first time around. The fact that Quaritch is the antagonist again too provided me with an uncomfortable sense of déjà vu.

From a world-building perspective, Cameron further fleshes out the already well-developed Pandora by introducing new environments and cultures that have yet to be seen. The Metkayina Tribe lives by different rules and methods than previously seen and even the human-side of the film is granted slightly more depth by showing how else the humans are evil. I really appreciated the level of detail Cameron committed to realizing these new locations in Pandora, although it's a shame that the same can't be said for most of the film's characterization.

 

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The world of the Metkayina Tribe is rich with lore and detail

Generally speaking, I wasn't a fan of most of this film's characters. Cameron makes a valiant attempt to provide detail and growth to Sully's two sons, Neteyam (Jamie Flatters) and Lo'ak (Britain Dalton), but he spreads himself thin by adding so many new characters. Neither Sully or Neytiri grow at all by the end of the story, and the motivations of the colonizing humans is poorly delivered, which felt like a major missed opportunity. Considering the fact that I spent over three hours with these characters, I don't find any of them particularly interesting or memorable.

A final note on this film's characters that needs to be addressed is Quaritch's son, Spider (Jack Champion). The injection of a bastard-child of the previous film's villain felt forced and Spider's concept as a transracial teenager that spends most of his time with the Na'vi was hilarious in all the wrong ways. Previous works like Tarzan and Jungle Book have done solid jobs of providing human characters who are raised by non-humans, but it doesn't work here as viewers can see that Spider spends time with other humans (some of the scientists that stayed after the colonizers fled) and physically can't live on Pandora without a breathing apparatus. There are also times when Spider seemingly goes from "feral child" to "California surfer bro" in the same scene too, which is incredibly jarring. I'd be willing to give Cameron some benefit of the doubt with this particular character if he were a minor detail in the overall plot, but he plays an important role in the narrative, and it's abundantly clear he will factor into the next film too.

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Spider just might be my least favorite character in all of Cameron's movies

Special Effects/Atmosphere

Just like with Avatar and most of Cameron's other previous works, the visuals of this film are truly spectacular to behold. The Na'vi have never looked better and every scene is jam-packed with vibrant colors and rich scenery. The level of detail put into how Pandora's flora and fauna look and move is incredible and undoubtedly where the bulk of this film's budget went. This is most apparent with how many of the aquatic creatures move, but I was also really impressed with some of the human machinery shown like General Ardmore's (Edie Falco) robotic exoskeleton. Arguably, one could put this film on mute and it would still be something truly spectacular to see.

 

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Cameron's Pandora looks better and more beautiful than ever before

One potentially controversial area where I struggled to make sense of this film's visuals was how the film distinguishes individual Na'vi from one another. Since they all look like giant, blue cat-people, I frequently found it difficult in the first starting hours to make sense of who was who. Some of this was made easier with different clothing adornments and the fact that the Metkayina Na'vi have teal-colored skin, but it still felt a bit difficult to keep track of everyone at certain times. The hardest characters to differentiate were Neteyam and Lo'ak who look very similar, until I started using their necklaces as points of reference. This issue may not bother everyone, but I wish the Na'vi characters had a bit more variety in appearance as I don't recall this being as big of an issue in Avatar.

The Acting 

I've never been a particularly big fan of Sam Worthington and it's not lost on me that the man doesn't have nearly as many big-time roles that he used to when Avatar first came out. Like much of the cast, he does a serviceable job but it's wholly unremarkable for the most part. The contrast in acting prowess is most noticeable whenever he's sharing the screen with Zoe Saldaña, who continues to do an excellent job as Neytiri. Saldaña brings a natural ferocity to Neytiri that genuinely made me buy Neytiri's position as a powerful mother and warrior within Sully's family. Some of her third act scenes were some of the best that this film has to offer, and I can easily say that she is the one to watch when onscreen.

 

Another favorite of mine was Stephen Lang who plays the resurrected Quaritch as a cross between Platoon's Sergeant Barnes and Small Soldiers' Major Chip Hazard. I burst out laughing in a couple of scenes with Lang's over-the-top military mannerisms, but I felt Lang did fairly well in more than a handful of scenes. I may not have been all that supportive of Quaritch's return to this franchise as I didn't think it made much sense, but Lang does an entertaining job of working with what was given to him.

 

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Lang's Na'vi version of Quaritch is as entertaining as he is goofy

 

I unfortunately wasn't particularly blown away with much of the supporting cast's performance, but this may be due to most of the actors faces being hidden behind CGI effects. There was considerable buzz about Kate Winslet's role in this film, but she's barely in it. CCH Pounder and Cliff Curtis also starred in this, but if you asked me which characters they played I wouldn't be able to tell you without consulting IMDB. To be clear: I'm not saying the performances were bad per se, I'm merely observing that there was little that resonated with me after the fact.

 

The Best of the Best: The incredible visuals and scenery are breathtaking.

The Worst of the Worst: Spider pretending he's a Na'vi and hissing at Quaritch.

Calhooey Score: 5/10 - Average

Would I Recommend?

 

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High five!

Avatar: The Way of Water is a beautiful, yet flawed retread of its predecessor. It offers no new ideas that Avatar didn't already pose and takes way too long to say what it wants to say. If this movie were shorter, I would probably recommend this as a rental for fans of the original film and for science fiction fans, but it's such a slog to get through that this may be asking too much. If you have a ton of free time on your hands, I'd stream this when it hits services, but don't be surprised if you find yourself on your phone, or doing something else, while it plays.

Spoiler Comments

• So, who was Spider's mom? Did she just abandon him and leave Pandora?
• It felt strangely surreal seeing Edie Falco as General Ardmore. She doesn't do a bad job in her role at all, but I just kept waiting for Tony Soprano to show up and demand orange juice with some pulp.
• Is it just me or does it seem like no one really cares if Quaritch actually completes his objective of killing Sully?
• General Ardmore seemed pretty ambivalent about his mission, and so did Scoresby.
• It would've been really fascinating to see a compelling argument from the humans about how they needed to exploit Pandora in order to survive as a species, but I guess they're just evil.
• I will admit that watching Scoresby sadistically hunt and kill that Tulkun was really hard to watch. I was glad he died in the end.
  
• I guess oxygen is only a problem when the plot demands it.
• I started laughing when Neteyam and Lo'ak were struggling to adapt to water life on their first day with the Metkayina Tribe, but Kiri just casually decides that things like simple biology don't apply to her.
• Did the Metkayina Tribe just abandon Sully and his family after Scoresby's ship crashed? They seemed strangely absent in the third act.
• It sure is great that Spider's re-breather works underwater and never malfunctions and/or runs out of air.
• I'm also really curious how Sully will feed Spider without removing his mask.
  
• Tuk's role in this entire movie seems to boil down to two options: potential victim or hostage.
• I'm not sure if her voicing that "I've been captured again" was supposed to be funny or not, but I laughed all the same.
  

References

(1) Avatar: The Way of Water. (2022). Avatar: The Way of Water cover image. IMDB. Retrieved from: https://www.imdb.com/title/tt1630029/.

(2) Spid4. (2022). Sully flying over water gif. Tenor. Retrieved from: https://tenor.com/view/avatar-avatar2-way-of-water-jake-sully-flying-gif-25642038.

(3) Spid4. (2022). Arriving in Metkayina gif. Tenor. Retrieved from: https://tenor.com/view/avatar-avatar2-way-of-water-ilu-pandora-gif-25641830.

(4) Ortiz, A. (2022, May 9). Spider with bow image. The Wrap. Retrieved from: https://www.thewrap.com/avatar-2-trailer-who-is-the-human-kid-character/.

(5) Spid4. (2022). Kiri swiming gif. Tenor. Retrieved from: https://tenor.com/view/avatar-avatar2-way-of-water-navi-swimming-gif-25641532.

(6) Sandwell, I. (2022, December 11). Stephen Lang as Quaritch image. Digital Spy. Retrieved from: https://www.digitalspy.com/movies/a42199606/avatar-2-stephen-lang-interview-way-of-water/.

(7) Spid4. (2022). Lo'ak and Tulkun gif. Tenor. Retrieved from: https://tenor.com/view/avatar-avatar2-way-of-water-sea-swimming-gif-25641655.