Directed by James Cameron, Avatar: The Way of Water is set more than a decade after the events of the first film and tells the story of the Sully family. Jake Sully (Sam Worthington) and Neytiri (Zoe Saldana) have formed a family and are doing everything to stay together. However, they must leave their home and explore distant regions of Pandora when the Sky People resurface. This leads Jake and his family to learn the way of water and fight a difficult war against humanity.
It has been thirteen years since the first film was released and James Cameron has spent those years working on several Avatar sequels including this one. And while the first Avatar was a landmark achievement of computer-generated effects that holds up hugely to this day, its characters and story haven’t aged as well. But even as some people began to forget Avatar, James Cameron continued to speak so highly of his planned sequels for so long that many people, including myself, have wondered whether they would be worth the long wait. After seeing it for myself, I can definitely say that James Cameron does indeed deliver a solid sequel that has a lot of things I enjoyed way more than its predecessor.
That being said there are also a lot of things that do drag this film down from being perfect, and many things I felt could have been done way better. Those that had a strong attachment to the first film are more than likely going to love everything about this one, but those who are not as attached, like myself, may have mixed feelings, especially in terms of the film’s narrative and especially its three-hour runtime.
But let’s talk first about what is obviously the best and most talked about aspect of this film: the visuals and effects. Holy fuck this film was majestic to witness on the big screen in 3D. James Cameron really shows how original blockbuster cinematic experiences should look and feel even after all these years. The 3D cinematography is beautifully breathtaking, particularly in all the underwater sequences, and the motion capture and CG technology are on a whole new level. You truly feel like you are in the world of Pandora and experiencing a completely new realm of it, especially with how everything moves as smooth as butter.
Like the first film, most of what you see on screen, minus some practical sets, human characters, and select props, is all CGI and it looks phenomenal. Given that this film was thirteen years in the making and managed to avoid the impacts the pandemic had on films released in recent years, it had to be visually perfect. The action is also exhilarating, brutal, and absolutely awesome in every possible way, never failing to entertain every time it’s on screen.
The score by Simon Franglen is also absolutely masterful and beautiful to listen to from start to finish and really adds so much weight to major scenes in the film.
The technology and action were massively improved compared to the first film, but what about the story and characters? The story I felt was way more intimate and personal compared to the first film. At its center it is primarily a story about parents fighting to protect their children at all costs, and all of them are adapting to a new world and society.
All the emotional elements in this film mostly hit their mark and I actually felt attached to a lot of the characters both new and old. I think part of the reason I cared more for these characters was not only how they were written but also because of the performances they were given by their respective cast members.
Sam Worthington and Zoe Saldaña were the heart of this film with their performances and they made you feel everything their characters were going through, both through their dialogue and the amazing motion capture performances they give that capture their emotions when there isn’t dialogue. The same applies to the rest of the family, all played wonderfully by their respective cast members that begin their own journeys in the world of Pandora.
Jake’s second son Lo’ak, played by Britain Dalton, had the best arc in the film that I feel some people will end up really connecting to, especially anyone who feels like an outsider or struggles with being a second sibling. We get a lot of time with Lo’ak and I was invested in everything he was going through the most out of all the siblings.
The second character I ended up getting some emotional investment in is Kiri, Jake and Neytiri’s adopted teenage daughter, voiced by Sigourney Weaver. Weaver originally appeared in the first film as Dr. Grace Augustine, a human who takes the side of the Na’vi and dies during the conflict, but her Avatar had a daughter, under unknown circumstances, who is nearly identical to her. How she came to be and her connection to life on Pandora is a big mystery throughout the film and is left largely unaddressed, which I found to be a bit annoying, especially since she’s focused on frequently in the film. Now if this film was just meant to introduce her and set up the mystery of her character to be then explored in the next installment, I’m totally ok with that, as long as it does eventually get addressed. And while I was originally against the idea of Sigourney Weaver voicing a very young character, she sounded amazing, most likely as a result of some good voice editing. It wasn’t off-putting compared to how she sounded in the trailer and her performance was excellent.
We also get introduced to the reef tribe, the Metkayina, led by Tonowari, played by Cliff Curtis, and Ronal, played by Kate Winslet. Incredible performances from both of them and I was really interested in the exploration of this tribe and their aquatic world full of unique beasts and different cultural beliefs.
And what of the humans? In the first film, the motives of the human villains were weak and extremely cliche; just your typical greedy humans with guns and ships. In this film though, the primary motivations have changed and they actually felt like a convincing threat with their own stakes driving them to commit horrible acts.
It is established that Earth is dying, which in turn is making humanity truly desperate to conquer Pandora by any means necessary, leading to a war for survival on both sides and honestly, that works so much better than the first film. The stakes are extremely high for both sides, making it a much more compelling war, as opposed to war over a metal with a stupid name.
And leading the charge in this war is Colonel Miles Quaritch (Stephen Lang) who is back from the dead as a Recombinant, which is an avatar embedded with the memories of Miles prior to his death. His return may seem a bit odd but the way it is explained does make sense and the way the character is handled this time around is much better compared to the first film. He seeks to finish what he started, which includes getting his revenge on Jake by any means necessary, making him a deadly adversary, especially now that he is on even grounds with Sully, having a new body and skill.
Usually, when it comes to villain returns, outside of comic book films, they aren’t often handled that well but I can definitely say this one was handled well. They made a major improvement to the human villains overall, though there was one particular group of humans included in this film that I felt didn’t need to be there and again felt extremely cliche.
There’s also another human character this film brings in called Spider (Jack Champion) who I felt was largely unnecessary to the film despite an interesting background and being given a decent performance. He felt mostly useless throughout the film and made some choices that really annoyed the shit out of me because they just made no sense at all.
Now even though the central story and most of the characters are better than the first film, this film suffers from its own issues. Aside from some of the issues I discussed already (some character arcs left hanging and a few unnecessary character inclusions) the biggest issues this film has are all related to one thing: the three-hour runtime. For those who know me, I’m not someone who gets uptight about runtimes these days as many others do and I’m completely fine with slow-burn films as long as they have something of substance to keep me interested all the way through. In the case of this film, I felt it went on for way longer than it should have, with some unnecessary story additions and choices leading to the film often having more style than substance.
It drags quite a lot in many areas and certain scenes felt so forced they end up throwing off the pacing of the film. It is most noticeable in the final act of the film when there are multiple points where I thought the film was going to end but it instead keeps going and gets to be slightly frustrating. I felt there was so much that just did not need to be included and then so much they could have improved on. Gorgeous and stylistic visuals alone are not enough to carry such a long film so it needs some narrative substance to keep it from becoming a chore to watch.
While this film may not be the complete masterpiece of a sequel that Cameron was hyping up to be, I do feel it is a good sequel that improves upon what was done in the first and delivers a truly beautiful experience on the big screen. There are still some things to improve upon going forward but this was much better than I expected it to be, especially since I had lost interest in the original film over the years. If you do plan to see this be sure it’s in 3D because you are going to be in for one hell of a ride. I’m going to give Avatar: The Way of Water an A- = 93.
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