Review: Avatar: The Way Of Water

13 years may not seem like an eternity in movie making, but kids who were in Kindergarten when Avatar came out in 2009, have ALREADY graduated High School before Avatar: The Way Of Water releases on December 16.

Viewers aren’t the only things to have changed between Avatar releases: the CGI that powers the Na’vi, and the characters themselves have grown and changed a great deal between films.  But, ‘The Way Of Water’ still takes you on an epic journey to a whole other world — just like the original film.

The Plot – Avatar: The Way Of Water

The second Avatar movie picks up the Na’vi’s story more than a decade after the original film ended.

Jake Sully, played by Sam Worthington, lives as a fully integrated member of the Na’vi people, albeit with four fingers instead of three.  Jake Sully married Neytiri, his love interest from the first film; and together they raise a flourishing family.

Together, Neytiri, again played by Zoe Saldana, have three children; oldest son Neteyam, voiced by Jamie Flatters; Lo’ak, middle child and second son, voiced by Britain Dalton; and Tuktirey, youngest child, and only blood daughter, voiced by Trinity Jo-Li Bliss.

Sigourney Weaver voices Jake and Neytiri’s adopted daughter ‘Kiri’, rounding out the blended family unit of four-fingered Na’vi.

As one might suspect from a sequel, the Sky People return to Pandora, this time bringing even more weapons and ways to exploit the environment and people.

Stephen Lang‘s Colonel Miles Quaritch returns, sort of. He’s got a whole new body and a very particular axe to grind.  Quaritch wants Jake Sully, and he doesn’t care who he has to hurt to get his revenge.

The Sully family soon finds the Sky People really mean business this time around. And, nothing will stop them from bringing Jake to justice.  Sully decides the only way to keep his people safe; is to take his family away far away.

The Sully family’s journey leads them to the Metkayina, a maritime people leery of the trouble that might come from harbouring these refugees.  Despite some misgivings, Tonowari, played by Cliff Curtis, agrees to take them in; even over the objections of his wife, Ronal, played by Titanic’s Kate Winslet.

The Metkayina are quite different from the Omaticaya, in appearance and custom.  But, one similarity pops up — teaching the newcomers their ways, so they can be contributing members of the group, and not useless ‘babies’.

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The Good – Avatar: The Way Of Water

The CGI

As revolutionary as the CGI of the original Avatar was in 2009, so too, the CGI in The Way Of Water really stands out.

The character design and animation from the first film holds up well, mostly. So, one wouldn’t think the difference between the films would be noticable.  Surprisingly, the difference can clearly be seen, but there’s no uncanny valley difference between the original and sequel.

One can see the improvements at a glance, but the new doesn’t overshadow the old.  It simply enhances what was already there, especially the finer details of the Na’vi anatomy.

The underwater CGI also flows seamlessly, despite being a notoriously hard effect to make it look photoreal.  The marine mammals additionally look great, even at extreme closeups. Even with the Na’vi people going right up to the whale’s eyes, and even into their mouths.

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Call Backs Versus Change Ups

One of the hardest things with sequels is giving the audience more of what they love, without feeling like you’re repeating yourself over and over.  How to keep things new and fresh, while also keeping a sense of familiarity and consistency.

Director James Cameron manages to do both well in The Way Of Water. And, this time Sully’s whole family acts like the new kid, just like Sully was in the first film.

Cameron also keeps our favorite bad guy Quaritch around, even though he died in the first film.  The twist is fun and creative, without giving off an eye-rolling ‘here we go, again’ feel.

The kids bring the next Na’vi generation into the mix, going on a similar journey Jake went on before. But this time, they have each other to rely upon, versus Jake’s solo journey.  Cameron calls back to the original, but changes things enough to keep the film from repeating itself.

It’s such a fine line to walk and balance to maintain. Avatar 2 could have easily wandered too far one way or the other.

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The Bad – Avatar: The Way Of Water

The Episodic Nature Of The Story

While James Cameron keeps the story from becoming stale and repetitive, he fails to keep the story as all encompassing and unified as the first film.

The structure of The Way Of Water feels episodic. I feels better suited for a 6-8 episode season Streaming show, than one unified narrative like the original film.

The opening scenes feel like one self-contained story. It feels like it would’ve been better told in a single, streaming episode, rather than a film.  The Sully’s arrival at the Metkayina village also feels like it stands apart. And, Lo’ak’s storyline with the whales could easily be its own episode, as well.

In the same way that a streaming series can have an overarching narrative for an entire season, while telling separate stories each episode — The Way Of Water feels quite segmented in its story lines.  Rather than channeling a clear narrative from beginning to end, we get what feels like different stories being forced together with too little throughline.

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The Review – Avatar: The Way Of Water

It always seems like when the second and third movie of a series are shot and edited at the same time, the writing on the second film falters, and the production time and energy on the third suffers.

Just like Back To The Future 2; and Matrix: Reloaded; this sequel feels like the script could’ve used more polish. And, like the film just sort of ends with a bookmark, rather than a definitive conclusion.

The return to Pandora is fun, and the CGI is clearly 2-3 generations past the original film. But, the journey isn’t quite as polished the second time around.

The next generation of Na’vi are compelling characters, even if the internal logical consistency of their even being there doesn’t quite make sense with the rules set up in the first film.

Stephen Lange does a great job revisiting Quaritch, without feeling derivative of the first film. He also doesn’t call too much attention to himself as the big bad.

We don’t know specifically how much time has passed between movies. But, Jake and Neytiri’s kids are clearly the equivalent of Middle School and High School age in the Na’vi lifecycle.

The underwater setting and fight scenes are new to the Avatar universe. And, they make for a standout set piece compared to other science fiction and Superhero movies.  Even Aquaman and Black Panther: Wakanda Forever’s underwater scenes pale in comparison to how good these look and feel.

While there seems to be a bit of repetition in the middle acts of the film, it still fits together and makes for a coherent story — even if a final polish run on the script would’ve helped make for a less bumpy story.

Worth watching in theaters and worth the extra $3-4 for 3D.

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