It’s easy to make jokes about Avatar, but it’s not as if James Cameron cares, he’s heard all of them. That’s one of those films that seems to especially polarize people- it’s following is very loyal and devoted while the folks who aren’t into it really go hard into their mockery (lord knows how many time I heard the “Dances With Smurfs” line). It’s an extremely earnest series that wears its social messaging on its sleeve and takes itself quite seriously often, which is part of why I think it invokes such strong opinions in people. That, or many state they admire the visual effects and designs but were underwhelmed by the story or characters in some fashion.
The Way of Water is the sequel to that smash 2009 film, picking up where Sam Worthington’s space soldier Jake Sulley had become an “avatar” host of an alien Navi body, now settled down with Zoe Salanda’s Neytiri. The humans (or “sky people”) aren’t done with Pandora, and the blue alien tribe jumps back into combat to save their home. I don’t feel this entry justifies its lengthy run time quite as much, but as you’d expect from Cameron it’s still an exciting aesthetic experience throughout, and the story to me was able to keep me caring about what was happening.
Stephen Lang returns as the commander Miles Quaritch, now having become an avatar himself in an effort to camouflage himself in Pandora’s environments and get his revenge against Sulley. Wanting to keep his forest people safe from further attacks, Sulley migrates his family to a distant water based tribe of Navi called the Metkaiyna. Now it’s their turn to go through the fish-out-of-water arc (or in the water, to be accurate) as Quaritch with General Ardmore (Edie Falco) is in hot pursuit.
Warning to those who were bothered by the colonial and indigenous allegories in the original Avatar, this sequel doesn’t steer too far from those ideas. Heck, the Sulleys have even befriended a human child nicknamed Spider (Jack Champion), the son of Quaritch who’s painted Navi stripes on his body, bounds through the wilderness and hisses with anger at the bad guys like the other blue aliens: Yes, he’s more or less “Space Tarzan” as some people have christened him. Spider seems to be a bit divisive, but I was mainly alright with him, he feels like he’s a representative of the Avatar fan base as a whole- devoted and undeterred by any backlash, they’re fully invested into this world.
Certainly it’s an impressive one to be sure, scenes like Jake and company flying on dragon like creatures will definitely stick with much of the audience. My screening was in 3D, and that made some of the scenery a bit jarring, like it’s almost *too* pristine and polished.
While I’ve always been someone who believes a good aesthetic can be a key part of a story narrative, the overemphasis on trying to get the audience to absorb everything takes away from further development of angles that could have made the movie more interesting.
As a parent, Jake can’t shake his army boot camp roots, and the invasion has him doubling down on a stern and militaristic approach to raising his sons, leaving him closer to Neteyam (Jamie Flatters) than his younger boy Lo’ak (Britan Dalton), who sparks up a friendship with a whale creature who’s been cast away from the Metkayinan community.
The differences between the two siblings and how Jake handles them are hinted at occasionally, but there’ll be other scenes just being dragged out, like with the teens swimming around the reef. Their daughter Kiri (voiced by Sigourney Weaver, playing a new character in this series) is just spacing out and the reef chief’s daughter keeps babbling on and on about how the water is life and how awesome water is, and I’m thinking “okay, I got it, next development please?”
Regarding the performances, Lang as Quaritch partially steals the movie once again even in his Navi form, maintaining his grizzled and dastardly attitude from before. Worthington is still a low key everyman, while Zoe Salanda as Neytiri who was easily the breakout star of the first film is mostly playing up the Action Mom archetype, partly because the story throws them right away into the conflict. Kate Winslet as the pregnant warrior queen Ronal is over-the-top mistrustful of these new outsider Navi (with Cameron going hard in the press about how empowering she is). Jermaine Clement is also aboard as a biologist who likes to hunt whale like creatures as a side hustle, throwing in his usual comedic energy.
I didn’t mind the kids acting a bit modern- some of their lines were kind of cheesy (there’s one scene with Sulley’s sons defending Kiri from reef bullies where everyone looks like kind of a dork), it makes sense that since Jake is an avatar as the title says, some of his earth sayings would rub off onto his kin.
For those who’ve declared themselves part of Pandora some time ago, The Way Of Water will probably make a splash with that crowd but it’ll still have people who can’t jive with it wanting to come up for air. I’d recommend it for the memorable visuals this team put together, just a heads up because it’s not the most complex plot in the world.
I’m fine with simpler narratives, but the nagging issue with this movie is that Cameron is basically developing a TV or streaming series with a larger budget (certainly if he’s hoping to release four more movies). And the Avatar world is one that’s better experienced on bigger screens. So it’s up to which part of Avatar you’re prioritizing the most that’ll determine if this’ll be a good time.
But what were your thoughts on it? If you’ve got some takes on Avatar that don’t have as many terrible water jokes as mine, let us know at FAN’s social media spaces as always!