Directed by:
James CameronCinematography:
Russell CarpenterComposer:
Simon FranglenCast:
Sam Worthington, Zoe Saldana, Sigourney Weaver, Stephen Lang, Kate Winslet, Cliff Curtis, Joel David Moore, CCH Pounder, Edie Falco, Brendan Cowell (more)VOD (5)
Plots(1)
Set more than a decade after the events of the first film, Avatar: The Way of Water begins to tell the story of the Sully family (Jake, Neytiri, and their kids), the trouble that follows them, the lengths they go to keep each other safe, the battles they fight to stay alive, and the tragedies they endure. (20th Century Studios)
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Reviews (15)
The technical execution is of course perfect, if not more, but I think the first film had a better story because the ecological message suits Avatar a bit better than family values. It's possible that it will work the second time around, because I had a similar experience with the first film, but now it really took me a while to get my bearings on the new characters after the initial rushed "It Happened", and before I accepted, for example, the somewhat B-movie way in which the villain Quaritch and co. return. It’s a shame. Still, Avatar: The Way of Water is definitely a proper big movie that deserves to be seen in the cinema. “Only” that it isn’t perfect.
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Less water, man, less water! I’m still a big fan of the first Avatar, which worked like a euphoric trip through another world thanks to its simple narrative structure involving a hero/outsider savior of the noble savages. The second one is essentially a drawn-out and shaky soap opera about a family run by a militant father who moves to a new ’hood and can’t get used to it. Let’s leave aside that Cameron paid significantly less attention to dramatic motivations than he did to the last fish below the surface. The whole film thus seems irrational and the dialogue, which was never Avatar’s strength, is even more ear-scratchingly pedantic. As an epic tech reel, however, the film is breathtaking and I truly, royally enjoyed the underwater National Geographic in HFR. There is something truly intoxicating in the smoothness and fluidity. Unfortunately, the film’s 192 minutes are emotionally stolen by a crippled humpback whale, which has the significant advantage that it doesn’t talk (and even its retrospective is not told smoothly). Yes, Cameron is a great craftsman and illusionist, but as a storyteller, he fails here significantly in my opinion. There is no development of the mythology to speak of, as everything is just a variation, the metaphor of nature as a loving entity is becoming more and more naïve and, honestly, I would like to spend less time waiting for the third one and the fire people after this aquatherapy. During the screening, I found it difficult to push away the thought that I would have preferred to enjoy some top-quality sci-fi, which Avatar decidedly isn’t!
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I felt a bit as if I was watching the second episode of a series. The beginning feels somewhat rushed and hurried, and the human dimension disappears from the whole Water Journey, as all the important protagonists are already blue (and they call humans Ape). Everyone is family with everyone, and humans are a threat symbolized only by technology destroying Pandora's natural resources. Cameron keeps the pace and narrates with clarity, but the characters often behave illogically, which I rationalised by the fact that they are aliens and when they are not they are assholes. The digressions into nowhere stretch out the runtime, and while it's clear that is Kira script-armoured to support future episodes, it takes away from the main point, which is fooling around with the Pandora equivalent of Willy and diving and exploring the water world and stuff. Each Sully kid has a story to tell at the expense of Sully and Mrs. Sully. Ironically the most interesting character is the Colonel exploring new physical possibilities. There are some scenes that are breathtaking, like crushing one's own skull, the spearmen, even making friends with a whale, but overall it's terribly long and I see more naive nerds than cunning heroes in the leads. Let's hope they wise up and that it will be back to a full rating in the third one. P.S: Horner is very much missed, RIP. There’s no nice new musical theme, just a variation of the old one.
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James Cameron once again shows Hollywood who is the king of blockbuster movies. Despite its three-hour running time, Avatar 2 is entertaining from beginning to end, with breathtaking audiovisual and personal stories of old and new heroes at the ideal pace. Pandora is perhaps even more beautiful than last time, the newcomers are likeable, and Cameron keeps the pace from start to finish without a single flinch. And after thirteen years, he shows that he's still a long way ahead of most Hollywood filmmakers.
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From the developmental branch heading toward cinematic heights in 2009, another has now grown upward. Respect to Cameron for grafting it this way and still managing to reminisce about the fruits of his previous work. But personally, I’d rather sit on a more grounded branch and be content. As for the plot, you need to disconnect your brain from Earth and connect it to Eywa; otherwise, it's better left uncommented. Actually, I do have one comment: given the kind of group of Pissed-Off Mothers that stood against Quaritch and company, the blue Semper Fi came out of it relatively well.
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Gallery (78)
Photo © Walt Disney Studios Motion Pictures
![Avatar: The Way of Water - Photos](http://image.pmgstatic.com/cache/resized/w663/files/images/film/photos/166/993/166993934_60d72f.jpg)
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