Rating: 8.8
Premise: Jake Sully lives with his newfound family formed on the extrasolar moon Pandora. Once a familiar threat returns to finish what was previously started, Jake must work with Neytiri and the army of the Na'vi race to protect their home.
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20th Century Studios
Directed by James Cameron
Screenplay by James Cameron, Rick Jaffa & Amanda Silver
Story by James Cameron, Rick Jaffa, Amanda Silver, Josh Friedman & Shane Salerno
Cast: Sam Worthington, Zoe Saldaña, Sigourney Weaver, Stephen Lang, Kate Winslet, Cliff Curtis, Joel David Moore, Britain Dalton
Runtime: 3hr 12min
Rating: PG
Action, Adventure, Fantasy, Sci-Fi
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IMDb Rating: 8.1/10
Rotten Tomatoes Score: 77%
RT Audience Score: 93%
RT Critic Average: 7.1/10
RT Audience Average: 4.7/5
Metacritic Score: 69
CinemaScore: A
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My Review:
Let’s get one very obvious thing straight right off the bat: the visuals in this movie are unlike anything you have ever seen! Watching this film is like looking into a dream, the boundary-pushing VFX work Weta digital has done here is leagues above any CGI I have ever seen. The sheer detail in every frame is impeccable, heck, when you can see the detailed pigmentation on a CGI character’s skin, you know you’re looking at something impressive! Even the water is so beautifully realized, it genuinely feels like you’re looking at something very realistic! It is very clear Cameron doesn’t accept something unless it looks as real as it possibly can! It’s very easy to forget that it’s all CGI! I would look at the characters and see them as real beings, completely forgetting they are motion capture characters. That’s one of my favourite parts of these films; it really is like James Cameron is taking you along for the ride to experience Pandora— you aren’t watching a movie… you are there, and I’m not going to lie, there were times where I even forgot I was in a movie theatre! As far as I was concerned, I was on Pandora!
Seeing it in IMAX 3D (and really you haven’t seen this movie if you didn’t see it in 3D), it feels like you’re on the ride at Disney, like you are a part of that world! This has to be among the most visually stunning theatrical experiences I've ever had, right up there with seeing the original “Avatar” for the first time in IMAX 3D a few months ago (unfortunately I was too young when it was initially released 13 years ago)! James Cameron has revolutionized VFX again, one upping only himself! The 3D is incredible, the motion capture is next level, you can see so much detail in the emotions, and the overall look and feel of the world (especially the underwater effects) are just remarkable. Even the lighting was spectacular. It’s an absolute spectacle and filmmaking achievement. On a technical level, this film is mind blowing; it’s absolutely staggering. The amount of visual ingenuity that is constantly on display — it’s insane. I genuinely have no clue how they pulled it all off… it’s just the magic of cinema. The film provides an immersive experience to be found nowhere else, and truly instills a sense of awe and wonder from beginning to end!
Now, if I am being honest, when I first came out of the movie, I only liked, but didn’t love it. I was almost caught off guard by the sheer amount of story and spectacle I had just witnessed, I was surprised with how different the movie was from what I expected. But over the past few days, I have found myself unable to stop thinking about it. I want to go back to Pandora; I want to experience this movie again! Much like the first film, this one has captured my imagination, it only took a few days to really sink in and hit me! At this point, James Cameron feels closer to a miracle worker than a moviemaker, and “Avatar: The Way of Water” is yet another wonder that must be seen to be believed. A holy text, an artistic thesis and an environmental plea wrapped in $300M of supreme cinematic spectacle. Nobody is operating on the level of Cameron! The film is a jaw-dropping, astonishing experience that manages to surpass the original in many ways, not just with the technology and visuals, but also in terms of character, themes, and dramatic weight. Personally, I still enjoyed the first one more, but there is no doubt that this long-awaited sequel has one-upped its predecessor in many ways. The main thing that keeps the first one higher in my books is that it tells a complete one off story. In this case, Cameron still tells a complete story, but it also serves as a bit of a reset to tell a larger story across his four film arc. This is like “The Fellowship of the Ring” for the “Avatar” franchise, and I’m sure this film will only get even better with time as the story further progresses. One of the best things about this movie is that it feels like Cameron is just warming up. He will most likely top this, and that is an extremely exciting idea to think about when considering how good this is!
Much like “The Empire Strikes Back”, this sequel is more of an intimate, emotionally-charged epic. Cameron pivots from end-of-world stakes to drama rooted in character and theme, interrogating the fraught bonds between parents and children, or the limits of protecting family or tribe, while also weaving in a strong environmentalism message. It is one of the most universal and compassionate blockbusters of our time. Cameron’s entire heart and soul is all over this thing; his love of the ocean, his experiences as a father and son, his continued plea for universality. “The Way of Water” is simply an excellent sequel that while an astonishing achievement visually, dives deeper than bigger. Just like the first one, the story is very simple and we’ve seen stories like it before. But that seems to be the trick of the “Avatar” franchise thus far; you tell a very simple story that is appealing to anyone and everyone, something like, in this movie’s case, “protect those you love”, and then you paint that story on a massive canvas of otherworldly places, creatures, and technology that you have never seen before. But the true trick with both films is that Cameron conveys a valuable message about environmentalism within the films, the first being about protecting our forests, and this one being about protecting our oceans. If any young kids can go experience this movie and experience that message and see why it’s important while also being entertained then that’s a win for the movie! It’s what James Cameron is trying to do; make us fall in love with the natural beauty of Pandora, root for the characters to protect it, and then come out of the movie thinking about how we can protect our own planet. I found the film even plays like a nature documentary at times; albeit with CGI alien creatures. “Avatar: The Way of Water” is an awe-inspiring blend between a nature documentary and a blockbuster - a thrilling three-hour-long travelogue through the oceans of Pandora with deep feeling in its foundation and an unspeakably epic third act that will leave you breathless and in tears. It’s just so rare to watch a blockbuster that’s both formally ambitious and full of authentic emotion.
The movie is undeniably beautiful and wondrous, I think I have made that clear. But is it perfect? Frankly, no. I didn’t see the “masterpiece” that many seem to have seen — to me it was very close (and still excellent), but does have its flaws, primarily with the script. You can’t fault this movie on a technological level, from that regard it is perfection, but I did think the script needed some work. I have to also clarify that while it is not the best script ever written, it feels like the type of blockbuster script we would’ve seen in the 80s and 90s — meaning it is easily better than most written today! First off, as many have always said, Cameron’s dialogue is not the greatest. It’s better than George Lucas' “Star Wars” dialogue, but does still have a bit of awkwardness to it. However that didn’t take me out of it too much, I honestly didn’t notice it until thinking about it after. But really, my main problem with the film is that I didn’t think the 3 hours runtime was justified and I felt the length in some places. This is partially due to both the edit and the script, however I feel like the editing was much more polished overall. The editing here blew me away. Yes, the pacing is flawed but overall pretty good, but I also feel that each shot specifically really gets the chance to breathe, letting you really appreciate the spectacle of it all. It’s not pretentious as no shot goes on for too long. It isn’t snappy or overly-done, just so miraculous and smooth. So to keep the runtime, I would have stretched out the first act and condensed the 2nd, as it felt like at the beginning we were rushed through tons of very important world-building and exposition, skimming through story I would have liked to see in more detail, only to arrive at the 2nd act and take a bit of a pause to the pace of the film. However, I thought the pacing did work really well for one element; the emotion of the film.
This film has much bolder emotional swings than the first did, and I love that it really takes the time to explore the characters and relationships on a deeper level. The first was cool and definitely had emotional weight, but I truly felt a much wider range of emotions while watching this one. But, back to the pacing, I did not feel as emotionally engaged in the first half as I did in the second. There was a lot of bold new story and characters introduced by Cameron early on, so it took awhile to feel out the characters and places, as well as the story as a whole. Not to mention the first act presents a lot of information really fast, it felt like a lot to take in and I wish we could’ve spent more time in that part of the story instead of using montages to summarize our way through it. Within the first 5 minutes it felt like we were bombarded with a lot of new and insane world building information with only a single line of dialogue or one shot devoted to each item, it almost gave me whiplash with how fast it was going. However, once we got to the midpoint of the film I was in. It worked a lot better as well as hit a lot more emotional beats, as well as featuring phenomenal, giant action in the 3rd act! The movie overall is light on action, but once you get to the 3rd act Cameron reminds us how incompetent 95 percent of the large-scale action we get in theatres is these days… because the action here is absolutely thrilling! It even had some “Titanic” elements to the finale… James Cameron seems to love flooding ships and watching characters escape! The film as whole is lighter on action than the first, and when we get it the stakes are not as high as in the first movie, but regardless, when we get the action, it hits hard! The third act is just god-tier action scene after god-tier action scene, it’s breathtaking! The last hour of “The Way of Water” is one of the most triumphant, holy-fuck stretches of Cameron's career, a lucid dream of ultra-violence, Hollywood melodrama, with total mastery of land, air, and sea. It is easily among some of the most thrilling, emotionally involving climaxes I have ever seen!
“Avatar: The Way of Water” is a very bold sequel to take in. Like I said with “Top Gun: Maverick”, they just simply don’t make movies like this anymore! Everything in it seemed extremely well thought out, Cameron really focused on every single detail in this movie, and executed it with passion. It is a terrific expansion of what is possible on the big screen; a remarkable achievement and I think those who love movies for the drama, the spectacle and the adventure will have a great time. It is a wonder, a cinematic symphony of space whales and crab-mecha, god-tier action and environmental stewardship. But beneath the waves, Cameron made an emotional, complex family drama, with a stunning climax that reminds you why he's the king. Sure, some points may feel like it is just Cameron playing his greatest hits, but he has a blast doing so! I found it interesting that despite what I had heard, the film that this most resembles is not the first “Avatar”, but instead “Terminator 2”. Like Sarah Connor, it's about warrior-parents on the run, and how to protect your children: fight or flight. Cameron did such a good job making us really care about the new characters, just as much as we do for Jake and Neytiri! And I applaud Cameron for using broad audience entertainment to hopefully convey a deeper message that could potentially influence people to take some things seriously that maybe they weren’t thinking about before! And of course, everyone already knows going in this is a visual masterpiece, and easily one-ups the first movie in that regard. Even the music was great: Simon Franglen did a great job stepping into the composer role after James Horner’s passing. Music is so important to the feel of Pandora and I felt Franglen really hit the right mark. Odds are if you like movies you’re probably already planning to see this, and I do encourage you to (especially in premium formats like IMAX 3D)! I ended up really really liking it and I am so ready to see even more of what Cameron has in store for us. If this was any indication, we sure are in for a ride! It just proves once again that we should never bet against James Cameron!
Fun Fact: In 2013, Cameron, armed with thousands of pages of notes expanding the world of Pandora, decided on the aquatic setting and set a team of writers to pen the sequels. But Jon Landau, who has produced all of Cameron's films since "Titanic," immediately foresaw a problem: The technological processes used to capture actors playing Na'vi on dry sets did not yet exist for capturing them wet. "Right away we started doing R&D," he said, "because no one had ever done performance capture underwater." all of which the cast and stunt teams performed, outfitted with special wet suits and facial capture camera rigs, while free diving in the water.
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