A Review of “Avatar: The Way of Water (2022)”

 

In 2009, I watched Avatar, the $2 billion movie that used the papyrus font as its logo, in IMAX 3D. It was a wild experience as I have never seen such amazing CGI in a film. James Cameron, the director, then announced he was making 3-4 sequels to Avatar which was kind of baffling. 13 years later, we finally get a sequel. Was the sequel worth the wait?

Firstly, the visuals of this movie are somehow even more amazing than the first film. The forest of Pandora looks more stunning than it did 13 years ago; the advance in technology is very evident. The scenes in the water look gorgeous and so real that it’s hard to believe it is CGI at times. One thing with the first movie was that it felt like live-action people were in a green screen room. Avatar: The Way of Water is mostly CGI with live-action blended in. We see live-action characters move in the same scene as CGI characters and interact with one another like living beings. It didn’t give that green-screen feeling, which was awesome. I also love the world-building and design of the world. There are water-based Navi clans with looks and customs that are different from the forest Navi. You can see it in their skin colour and the design of their hands and tails. The sea creatures also have great designs with their own rules and how they operate. It was clear a lot of thought was put into everything.

The original 2 main characters, Jake and Neytiri, return from the 1st film but they are not the main focus this time. The main characters are their kids with Sigourney Weaver returning but playing as one of those kid characters instead. I was a little worried as kid characters tend to be annoying but I think the writer did a good job of making the kids not completely annoying. Sigourney is surprisingly convincing as a young kid and I was interested to see more of her character in the future. I think James succeeds in making us care more about these new characters than he did in Avatar 1. Jake, despite not being at the forefront this time, has his character arc. He is no longer the fearless leader he was in the 1st film as he now has 4 kids to take care of. His priority is different and he struggles with that. Stephen Lang also returns as the antagonist, Colonel Miles, again despite dying in the 1st film. He was very one-dimensional in the 1st Avatar but here they do try to give him some more depth which I appreciate.

However, Neytiri is unfortunately very sideline in this sequel. She is barely relevant until the end of the movie and even then, she doesn’t have any character arc. If anything, I feel like her character somehow feels worse here. One thing I struggled with in the 1st film was remembering names including that of the main characters. Unfortunately, I still have this issue in The Way of Water. This is thanks to the fact that a character’s name only ever seems to be mentioned once and never again which makes it difficult to remember anyone. For example, Kate Winslet of Titanic fame is in this movie but I wouldn’t be able to tell you what her character’s name was for the life of me.

In terms of the story, it’s very simple and by the book. It is about the kids learning the customs of a clan and struggling to fit in which sounds awfully similar to the 1st film or a high school drama. The plot works fine but it is very bland and predictable. Every cliché and trope you see from a coming-of-age story is here. The movie is also really long with a run time of 192 minutes. I’m not sure the plot justified that run time as there were many moments where a lot doesn’t happen and could’ve been cut to reduce the runtime. James Horner, the original composer of Avatar,  passed away and was thus replaced by Simon Franglen. Simon does a serviceable job but the music score is just not very memorable compared to Jame’s music score. The best soundtrack in The Way of Water is the ones that were reused.

Overall, Avatar: The Way of Water is a proper cinematic experience. Yes, the movie’s plot and characters aren’t that memorable but the visuals are truly amazing. In an era where it feels like we get a lot of poorly made CGI, it is a breath of fresh air to have a movie that has beautiful-looking CGI for what feels like the entire movie! Watching in it cinema with IMAX 3D was a terrific experience and it is the best way to watch Avatar: The Way of Water. I’m thoroughly looking forward to the sequels!