Avatar: The Way of Water

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Throughout film history, there have been numerous "waiting periods" for things we knew were bound to eventually happen. 'Freddy vs Jason' was a huge kerfuffle in the making, 'Ghostbusters 3' took forever to get going. Of course, 'Avatar' was planning a slew of sequels to its original story. I won't go into boring details about what happened, but as we all know, the wait has been since the original 'Avatar,' 2009. 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?

My first admittance is that the film does a decent recap from the 2009 film, but one might want to watch it first to connect it and get more out of it. Like marathoning all of the 'Spider-Man films before 'No Way Home,' or the way one will listen to a band's albums just before seeing them in concert, it just amps you up more for what you're about to see. Of course, there were probably a few details here and there that I didn't remember that lent themselves to this. But I digress.

Taking place fourteen years after the original film, Jake Sully (Sam Worthington) has since become chief of the Omaticaya Clan and has a family with Neytiri (Zoe Saldana), our love interest from the last film. Among them, 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. Together, they live as one big happy family until the humans drive them out of their home once again (quicker than three hours, this time).

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). Spoiler Alert! The film works around his death through Na'vi Avatars, which contain the memories of deceased human soldiers, allowing them to live on as Avatars. 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. And with the tech given in the 'Avatar' movies, it all feels pretty plausible if you can buy into the fantasy world in these movies.

LONG story short, Jake and his family head for safety, retreating to the Metkayina - a race not unlike themselves, but 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. In contrast, everyone else has trouble. A lot is happening here, but 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, that film had been done many times before. It was much more about the experience at the time. And I have to give this sequel some kudos for new tech that hasn't been used until now - blending actual underwater filming with performance capture. To the film's credit, the underwater scenes DO look rather impressive. I also enjoyed the overall story here more than last time. This felt a little less familiar. But Cameron pulls from his previous works like 'Titanic' and 'The Abyss.'

It's hard to criticize it being "late," as I understand that Cameron wanted the right technology for filming it. And, visually speaking, the film was probably 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. At the same time, though, I can't deny that that's what's so good about Cameron - he's like a king of using new filming technology, and it's worked out for him so far. It's a well-filmed movie, and I really enjoyed it despite the wait, which ultimately happened with the first 'Avatar' as well.

​4/5

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