Avatar: The Way of the Water (2022) Movie Review
Avatar: The Way of the Water (2022) Movie Review
Avatar: The Way of the Water might have been facing some of the most ridiculously high expectations in the history of cinema. Unadjusted for inflation, the original Avatar is still to this day the highest grossing movie of all time, and even adjusted for inflation, only Gone with the Wind beats it out. Sometime before the sequel’s release, I heard it needed to be one of the top five or so highest-grossing movies ever to even turn a profit, and I was like, yeah, I don’t know about all that.
Avatar’s legacy over the years has been an interesting one. I think because of how big of a deal it was at the time, and how much everybody kept talking about it for so long, a bunch of people probably got tired of thinking about it. There were always the accusations that its plot was almost entirely unoriginal (white guy becomes one with the indigenous people, learns they are not savages after all, helps them fight against those he once sided with), but until the sequel finally (finally!) started its marketing campaign, it seemed like you hardly ever heard about Avatar in contrast to other iconic high-end blockbusters. Inevitably, during the 13 years that passed between the releases of the first and second films in the series, the hype died down. I think that’s what made me skeptical that The Way of the Water would perform as well as it was supposed to – and it’s still up in the air at the time of this writing. On the night of December 27, 2022, the film’s revenue crossed the $1 billion mark, so right now it’s about halfway to its goal. Who knows if it will end up making the money it “needs” to. I’m kind of rooting for this movie, so I suppose I hope it does make one trillion dollars or whatever, but I also feel like it doesn’t even matter in the grand scheme of things. At the core of the entire Avatar project is one man who feels absolutely compelled to make these films, and I really do salute him for that. I can’t find it now for the life of me, but I recently read that after the first film was released, James Cameron took himself to a place in nature where he says he got in touch with a spiritual figure – God even. And he was told by this spiritual force to make four more Avatar movies. Honestly, I think this is one of the awesomest things I’ve heard in a while. Underneath all the cultural uproar about the Avatar series and everything that surrounds it is an artistic vision, just like with every other good movie out there.
The movie itself takes place more than a decade after the events of the first film. Jake Sully (Sam Worthington, whose name I confuse with the name of the character) is now living a peaceful life with his wife Neytiri (Zoe Saldana) and kids: sons Neteyam (Jamie Flatters) and Lo’ak (Britain Dalton), daughter Tuk (Trinity Jo-Li Bliss), and adopted daughter Kiri (Sigourney Weaver, who somewhat confusingly plays her own daughter in Na’vi form). Jake is chief of the Omaticaya clan and is leading his people through a happy time in the mythical land of Pandora without any war. But this all changes when Col. Miles Quaritch (Stephen Lang) and his team are put into Na’vi avatars as “recombinants” and sent to Pandora in a human effort to colonize the land. Their mission, you might ask? Kill Jake Sully! Sully and his family seek refuge with the reef-dwelling Metkayina clan in the eastern seaboard of Pandora so that the recombinants won’t terrorize the Omaticaya clan. Jake Sully, his family, and the rest of the Metkayina clan inevitably have to face off against their enemies who now look just like them.
The plot seemed a bit complex in the theater, but now that I’ve written it down, it seems a lot thinner than I realized. Still, like everyone else would tell you, the plot is not whatsoever the point of Avatar: The Way of the Water. The words everybody seems to be using are “visual spectacle,” and yes, it is that. It literally might be one of the most visually striking movies I’ve ever seen; even some of the shots that aren’t supposed to be mind-blowing really caught my attention. This movie has the eye-popping look that your average blockbuster-enjoyer is looking for. Though the Na’vi people probably look as realistic as they possibly could, they still look slightly video-game-ish to me. Speaking of the Na’vi, one little complaint I have is that, at times, I couldn’t tell some of the characters apart. They all look very similar, with their only distinctions being slight hair and facial feature differences. Kate Winslet has a medium-sized role in the film, and I had no idea until I looked up the cast because she was that unrecognizable. I also wish more had been done with Zoe Saldana’s character; she was a huge component of the first film, but here she’s much more in the background. It’s weird how such a big character from the original was pushed aside in the sequel.
That being said, I’m glad a lot of the runtime was spent with the younger characters. Spending too much time on the drama around Jake Sully and his struggles could have been boring. While I did find a lot of the dialogue between the teenage characters to be fake-hip and slightly corny, I actually wish even more of the movie was spent with them. Not just that, but actually fleshing out the drama, tensions, and relationships between them. The potential relationship between Lo’ak and Tonowari’s (the chief of the reef clan, played by Cliff Curtis) daughter, Reya (Bailey Bass), who are around the same age, feels like a dramatic and romantic plot point that is wasted in the film. A relationship between them is hinted at so many times but never expanded on. Why? As generic as it would have been, the son of one tribe and the daughter of another tribe coming together would have elevated the romantic aspect quite a bit. As it is, there’s pretty much no romance in the film. This would be fine – not every movie needs romance – but the Avatar movies are supposed to be these “ultimate” movies, complete with action, adventure, romance, drama, and the like. As much time as the filmmakers spent working on the film, they left out a major pillar of what most epic stories have. At least that’s what I think, anyway.
This is a movie that is pretty consistently filled with action sequences; the slower and more sombre moments of the film are few and far between. One monologue in particular towards the end of the film is a nice and well-needed touch that allows viewers to take a break from the chaos. Avatar: The Way of the Water is a loud and long movie that I wish took more time to reflect on the beauty and mythology of the world of Pandora itself and the relationships of the characters with nature. One of my favorite parts of the movie is when Lo’ak bonds with a large whale-esque creature living in the outer reef area that has been outcast from society. It especially stood out to me because of how Lo’ak and the creature are able to communicate through a mutual language. It’s been a while since a science fiction movie actually impressed me with its usage of sci-fi concepts, but I did find this interesting.
Like I said, this movie is long. It feels like you’re watching a three-hour movie, which serves the concept of the “epic” film. But still. Half an hour could easily have been trimmed off – or some of the runtime could have been used for more inspiring and interesting facets of the story. By the final few scenes of the movie you’ll surely be checking your watch. Then again, this is a movie that has been in the making since God knows when; maybe it’s naturally going to be over-stuffed. I just wish some of that stuffing was more consistently interesting. You can tell James Cameron is doing his thing. It's quite likely that Avatar movies are all he’s gonna be directing for the remainder of his legendary career, and in his mind, that’s a good thing. And that’s all that really matters. As indulgent as Avatar: The Way of the Water is, it’s also easy to tell that the film is the product of many long years dedicated to making this just right. It isn’t the mind-blowing film that it could have been (I would probably give this film a B+ as a grade), but there are definitely aspects of it that make it worth watching. My favorite thing about the entire movie might be the continued blatant usage of the Papyrus font. But if Cameron is in touch with God while making these films, and is putting all he can into them, who is to say they’re not worthwhile.
