After a long decade, Avatar: The Way of Water is finally here as the sequel to the 2009 smash hit Avatar. Like the original, it is a big-screen spectacle that excels in visually striking CGI. James Cameron has always been a filmmaker who likes to test the limits of his craft. Although the visuals don't quite make it easy to forgive the film's shortcomings, there are plenty in the 3 long hours of run time.
More than ten years after the events of the first film, Jake Sully (Sam Worthington), his wife Neytiri (Zoe Saldana), their two sons Neteyam and Lo'ak, and their daughter Tuk now reside on the planet Pandora. Additionally, Jake and Neytiri are Kiri's guardians played by Sigourney Weaver. She is the daughter of Dr. Grace Augustine character played by Sigourney Weaver in the first movie.
At first, Jake leads a resistance against the humans but eventually decides the best thing for his family is to relocate to a water community on the far end of Pandora. The Na'vi version of an old foe arrives, determined to hunt down Jake and his family.
Even if you spell out every single narrative point, Avatar: The Way of Water only has so much plot to offer. The basic good vs evil conflict in the movie takes a backseat once again, to the director's sharp eye for visuals. Cameron uses the ocean world to produce some amazing scenes that make the most of IMAX and 3-D formatting, putting the sheer beauty of Pandora on show once more.
James Cameron is a visionary filmmaker, yet there are moments when he works against himself. The film frequently becomes overly focused on the visuals, and the characters end up being little more than afterthoughts because of how far the director has pushed the limits with visuals. Much like the first film, Cameron's screenplay still leaves something to be desired. At least this time around it wasn't a rip-off of Kevin Costner's Dances with Wolves, although there was Costner's Waterworld. With some of the dialogue being awkward and occasionally inadvertently funny. The second hour is also significantly dragged down by a subplot involving one of the boys, though to Cameron's credit, it does have some significance towards the conclusion.
With a lengthy action climax that doesn't compare to Endgame or The Lord of the Rings: Battle for Helm Deep, but is nonetheless excellent, the last act is Cameron at his very finest. In Way of the Water, Cameron undoubtedly saves the best for last with an exciting ending that attempts to have an emotional kick but falls a little short. The movie is well concluded in the last half. contributing to the creation of a sequel that is at least as good, if not slightly better than the original.
Here's hoping that with two more "Avatar" movies in the works, Cameron can build on his strengths like creating visually striking CGI scenes, and do away with the things that don't quite work as well, like his weak screenplay and two-dimensional characters. James Cameron is among the many great directors who have criticized the MCU and other big-budget movies, although I agree with many of the criticism, it was James Cameron's Avatar and Michael Bay's Transformers movies, that did pave the way for a decade-long of movies with a thin plot and over the top CGI battle scenes.
The greatest way to experience this movie is on the best premium screen in a theater.
Comments