“Avatar: The Way of Water” is a taste of the future of cinema, both in technical achievement and world-building.
This film felt more immersive than any VR game I’ve experienced and it did it in a classic movie format. That goes to show the 16 years between the conception of “Avatar” and “The Way of Water” have really paid off.
The story was simple but that made it all the more emotional. It was easy to follow, though it felt like a whole anime bad-guy-vs-good-guy took over the whole plot. I wanted to see an attempt to show how humans were trying to make Pandora their next Earth. (And there was time to do it within a three-hour movie).
But as Cameron told Entertainment Weekly, this will be a five-part saga so who knows how much more background on humanity will be added, among other plot points.
Let’s start with how it looked, which is what really made me fall in love with Avatar in the first place. It was as if I was stepping into a new world. The 3D wasn’t over the top, rather it accentuated the realism of a fantastical canvas.
One example was the tracer fire from the Marines’ weapons. I actually was dodging out of the way in my comfy seat.
It was refreshing to see the attention to detail with computer-generated graphics (CGI). I know the time and energy the whole team put into making this movie a reality.
The move to 48 frames (instead of 24) was a gamble but it paid off. It was a fluid look at Pandora (no pun intended).
What stood out to me was the incredible progress artists and engineers have made in replicating the way light works in the real world. The switch between light and dark with Pandora’s eclipse showed that off. The way the afternoon light reflected off of the water and Na’vi faces took my breath away.
The CGI spoke for itself, which meant the dialogue didn’t have to. That’s a compliment. I always appreciate it when someone uses fewer words to convey an idea.
[CAUTION: Spoilers ahead]
It was a basic story and mimicked the first one closely, but there were a few wildcards that made it interesting.
One was Colonel Miles Quaritch’s son Spider. While they hated each other, they still had a bond, whether they liked it or not. I sensed a lot of inner conflict between the two. It also set up an arc through the next three planned films for the franchise.
The other was Kiri, the daughter of Grace’s Avatar (it’s complicated) and the adopted child of Jake and Neytiri. Her connection with Pandora brought her character forward and also continued Grace’s.
Kiri’s “why am I different?” question felt relatable to me. I use a wheelchair and am quite obviously different. But as you see in the movie, our differences are useful. Jake Sully and Neytiri and daughter would have died if it wasn’t for her connection to Eywa, the spirit that embodies Pandora’s living network.
There aren’t many movies these days that feature a nuclear family starting off alive. It was a nice change. Sully embodied how a strong father should be able to protect his family at all costs. He could be more focused on the “team” aspects over cultivating relationships with his own family but as Neytiri said in the first film, he has a strong heart.
The environment was a prominent theme of the film. It was incredibly tough to sit through the tulkun (whale) hunt part of the film. The hunt captured all of what is wrong with humanity. I can forgive ourselves for wanting to have a planet because Earth is dying but to kill these creatures simply to stop aging just makes me fume.
Cameron wants to make a clear push for us to appreciate nature around us and protect it. Our world isn’t Pandora but it’s just as beautiful in its own way. We ought to be responsible stewards of it. The juxtaposition of the serene interplay of all species on Na’vi with the brutish humans extracting everything they can should be a lesson for all of us. We don’t want to be like that in 150 years.
I overall enjoyed the editing. The long fade-outs put nice periods on sequences. It gives the audience a break from the sensory overload and prepares us for a change of pace. There were, however, a couple of weird cuts between the Sully’s acclimatizing to the Metkayina clan and Quaritch adapting to Pandora. The back-and-forth was jarring.
Some sequences felt like a slog to get through but they were worth it. I remembered to look around and take in the beauty of a foreign reef. It felt like I was just living with the characters. That made up for the long run time.
Scenes that I didn’t think meant anything ended up being extremely important, so pay attention. The bond between Lo’ak and the rogue tulkun became vital in the last act. Sully teaching Neteyam (eldest son) to fish came back again and had an emotional payoff by the end. Also, the brothers nearly dying in the arms shipment attack.
What had me scratching my head was the way the younger kids talked to each other. I understand it was translated to English so the audience could understand, but throwing “bros” around, flipping the bird, and saying “penis face” took me out of the immersion. It just rubbed me the wrong way.
Beyond the brothers, there are more character threads to tie up, especially where we left Quaritch and Spider losing his adopted brother but keeping his life. The third movie in the series’ has a bad reputation but if Cameron continues his vision the way he has here, we’ll all be in for a visual treat.