It has been thirteen years since we were first
introduced to the world of Pandora in James Cameron’s “Avatar.” Despite that,
adjusted for inflation, “Avatar” is the highest-grossing film of all time, it
has had a huge impact on pop culture. Tina Kakadelis said in her review, “Save
for the immersive land in Disney’s Animal Kingdom in Florida, Ryan Gosling’s
perfect Saturday Night Live sketch about the film’s font, and the looming
threat of four sequels, Avatar disappeared from public view.” All of that
changed when “Avatar: The Way of Water” came out.
Jake Sully (Sam Worthington), the human hero who
permanently became a Na’vi at the end of the first film, has started a family
with Neytiri (Zoe Saldaña). They have four children (Jamie Flatters, Britain
Dalton, Sigourney Weaver, and Trinity Jo-Li Bliss) and live peacefully in the
forests of Pandora. The violent Sky People (humans) from the first film have
left, and there has been peace among the Na’vi. Now, a new group of Sky People
arrive at Pandora and bring a new threat for the Na’vi. Not only are the Sky
People looking to take over Pandora as a back-up plan for when Earth becomes
unlivable, they’re looking to deal with Jake Sully.
Like the first film, “Avatar: The Way of Water” is a
visual masterpiece. Kakadelis credited, “The creation of such a lush, expansive
underwater world is a mystical feat of filmmaking. Cameron’s insistence on
using the latest technology pays off in spades. The new underwater creatures
are primordially futuristic, sharing the same bioluminescence as the forest
creatures from the first film. Unfortunately, this awe-inspiring sheen wears
thin fairly quickly as Avatar: The Way of Water forgoes plot development in
favor of essentially turning into an episode of Planet Earth Pandora.”
The first film was about the Sky People’s obsession
with digging for the rare unobtanium. You would think a main plot point to play
just about the same role in the second movie, but that’s not true. The mineral
is briefly mentioned in the sequel, and the want for the Sky People have to
take over Pandora is far vaguer the second time around. At one point, they are
there to make Pandora livable for humans when Earth goes extinct. Kakadelis
noted, “That thread is quickly dropped in favor of mining a whale blubber that
stops human aging and sells for $80 million for a small vial. Even that
development is forgotten in favor of a multi-billion dollar personal vendetta
against Jake Sully.”
Despite how visually different “Avatar: The Way of
Water” is, Cameron is borrowing from his own work. Both Avatar movies end the
exact same way and have countless scenes that are exactly identical. They just
switch the forest for the ocean. The film ends in a scene taken straight from “Titanic,”
and fight scenes would be ones you would see in “Terminator.” Kakadelis said, “This
film is a pastiche of movies that already exist, dressed up in fancy
technology.”
Kakadelis continued, “Avatar: The Way of Water is not
the only culprit stretching its runtime to obscene lengths. It’s almost as
though writers and directors view length as synonymous with quality.” Only a 3-hour
film can be considered cinematically important. You would think that these extensive
new runtimes would bring exciting, rich character development, but that has not
been the case. None of the characters in this sequel act in a way that’s solid
with what little the audience knows about their personalities. Instead, they
are simply pawns that allow the writers to force events to happen, no matter
how out of character they are.
Kakadelis said, “It’s hard to write off Avatar as a
passing trend. There must be something that made the original into the huge box
office phenomenon that it is. Perhaps it’s because of the uncanny valley aspect
of the Na’vi people, but it remains difficult to connect emotionally with the
performance-capture characters.” It’s more noticeable in the sequel because of
the large number of Avatars.
Kakadelis ended her review by saying, “As with the
first film, there will likely be droves of people who will keep showing up to
screenings of Avatar: The Way of Water. It’s impossible to deny that they will
be treated to a visual feast, but those looking for a more character-driven
movie will be left adrift in the open water.”
At first, I thought I was going to like the sequel. It
started off really nice and felt like it was going to be different and focus on
the Na’vi, but immediately they did the exact same story as the first. Which is
shocking since this is currently the third highest-grossing film. Just to think
that more sequels will be coming out and they will predictably do the exact
same story over again. If you liked the first one, you will probably get into
this one just fine. However, for people like me, I loved the visuals in this
film, but the story is what got to me. I have seen this story so many times as
a kid, so I don’t need to see this again. Unfortunately, the people who made
this film will not learn.
Thank you for joining in on this review today. Look
out this Friday for the conclusion of “Macaulay Culkin Month.”
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