Avatar: The Way of Water (2022)

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Throughout film history, there have been numerous "waiting periods" for movie titles we knew would eventually happen, but that might be considered "too little, too late." 'Avatar 2' here is perhaps one of the biggest culprits of this. Originally, 'Avatar' was planning a slew of sequels to its original story. I won't go into boring details about what happened, but the wait for a first sequel was a solid thirteen years. Much of this had to do with the technology, which I'll get to later, but the big question is, was it worth the wait?

The film does offer a fairly decent recap of the original. However, still, after such a long wait, one might want to watch 2009's 'Avatar' first, not just for connective purposes, and to try to understand the overarching story a little bit more, but I might say it may very well put some required nostalgia in the viewer's head, managing to amp them up to see more of the beautiful world of Pandora. While the first film showed us a great deal, this chapter shows that there's far more to this wondrous world, and Cameron does his world-building quite well.

Taking place 14 years after the original film, Jake Sully (Sam Worthington) has become chief of the Omaticaya Clan and has a family with Neytiri (Zoe Saldana), our love interest from the last film, who introduced Sully to her world. Among the family are sons Neteyam (Jamie Flatters) and Lo'ak (Britain Dalton), daughter Tuk (Trinity Jo-Li Bliss) and adopted daughter Kiri (Sigourney Weaver), who was born from Grace Augustine's (also Weaver) immobile Avatar. How is breeding with Avatars possible? Long story short, the Avatars are conveniently compatible with the Na-vi's breeding system. Take it as you will.

The children also hang out with a human boy named Spider (Jack Champion), who happens to be the Pandora-born son of Colonel Miles Quaritch (Stephen Lang). Despite his loss to the Na'vi in the first film, ultimately leading to his death, Quaritch can live on through an Avatar of his own, which acts as something of a "backup" to his mind and memories. With this, Quaritch leads the rest of the RDA back to Pandora to begin colonization and once again becomes the film's big baddie - but with a bit of an upgrade. He's ready for his second shot at driving the Na'vi, including the Omaticaya Clan, out of their homes, this time with vengeance on his mind.

Cutting to the chase, Jake and his family head for safety, retreating to the Metkayina - a race not unlike themselves, but who have adapted to the water. Here, the family must learn the "Way of Water" to live among their people. In the meantime, Lo'ak develops a quick love interest in Tsireya (Bailey Bass), the daughter of Chief Tonowari (Cliff Curtis) and his wife, Ronal (Kate Winslet). But more importantly, we see Kiri (remembering she has human DNA) mastering everything she's taught, while everyone else struggles. Meanwhile, Quaritch eventually begins the hunt for Jake Sully and goes to some extremes to find him.

The first 'Avatar' was a good film when it came out, but even I couldn't deny that, story-wise, it had been done many times before. It was much more about the big-screen experience at the time, as it immersed us in its world. And while I can give this sequel some kudos for new tech that hasn't been used until now - blending actual underwater filming with performance capture, it comes across as similar, losing its lustre on the small screen as opposed to the epic it came across as on a massive IMAX screen. To the film's credit, the underwater scenes DO look rather impressive. But Cameron draws on his previous works, like 'Titanic' and 'The Abyss.'

It's hard to criticize another 'Avatar' film for being "late," as I understand that Cameron wanted the right technology for filming it (again). Visually, the film was worth the wait. But there's that part of me that, even without this fancy new tech, thinks there would have been a much more positive response if Cameron had given us something else sooner, utilizing the same or similar tech as he used in the first film. While Cameron is a king of using new filming technology, there's something to be said about this being "too little, too late." It's a solid movie, much like its predecessor, but, again, far more suited to big-screen viewing.

​4/5

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