by Jeffery Rahming, Contributing Writer
Almost immediately after Avatar’s extraordinary box office run, James Cameron promised a sequel. Originally planned to come out in 2014, it spent the better part of the last decade trapped in development hell. The project was announced and then pushed back year after year, and eventually, the idea of a second Avatar became more of a joke than anything else, especially with Cameron’s confounding decision to write three more sequels before he had evidence that the general public even wanted a second one. Now, Avatar: The Way of Water is finally here, and as it turns out, Cameron’s high-risk, high-reward approach to filmmaking has paid off once again.
Since we last saw the world of Pandora, Jake (Sam Worthington) and Neytiri (Zoe Saldaña) Sully have settled down and started a family. Their peaceful domestic life is interrupted when the humans return and force the Na’vi back into war. With the humans on the hunt for Jake, he must leave the Omaticaya clan and takes his family to hide with the Metkayina tribe, a sea-faring culture that’s very different from the forest-based Na’vi we’ve seen before.
Cameron is a master at blending high-concept action and sci-fi with universal themes. The Way of Water may be a three-hour-plus spectacle with flying sea dragons and sentient alien whales, but at its center, it’s a story about family, loyalty, and love. There’s a real emotional core that recent blockbusters have failed to capture. You genuinely feel for these characters, their struggles, and their fight to save their planet (or rather, moon). It also expands on the themes of nature and indigenous cultures versus industrialization and colonization present in the first film.
Almost everyone from the previous entry returns, and there are many new characters as well, with the addition of the new clan and Jake and Neytiri’s children. The Metkayina sea tribe is its own distinct culture, and is as fascinating as the Na’vi society from the first movie. Including a whole new civilization helps The Way of Water avoid feeling like a complete retread of the original like some sequels do. The entire cast is outstanding, even if it is absurdly large. If there is any weak point among them, it would, unfortunately, be Sigourney Weaver. Weaver’s a wonderful actor and was one of the best parts of the last film, but her new role feels awkwardly miscast, and probably would’ve been better served by another actress.
Don’t be fooled by the compressed trailer you’ve seen on your laptop; the visual effects in The Way of Water are noticeably better than Avatar’salready impressive CGI. Pandora somehow feels real and dreamlike at the same time. Every detail is perfectly crafted, and you can see the time and effort that went into creating these photorealistic characters and wildlife. It puts all of this year’s Marvel features to shame. This is what happens when you give effects artists time to craft and properly render their visions. It may have taken 13 years to come out, but if anything is an argument for allowing films to take more time in development, it would be this. Although it may bother some to hear this, this must be seen in 3D. The 3D shifts the film into a fully immersive experience, and is a reminder of how artistically the technique can be used in the hands of the right director.
The Way of Water proves Avatar wasn’t just a $2 billion one-off. This is a universe that deserves to be explored and expanded on. It has what it takes to potentially stand as a long-running franchise like Star Wars or Lord of The Rings. There’s so much in this one movie that when it concludes, you feel like you just binge-watched a Netflix miniseries. It’s exhilarating, immersive, and innovative, even with its numerous clichés. It’s a long journey, but it’s one worth taking.
Score: 9/10
Avatar: The Way of Water is currently playing in theaters
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