After years of waiting and speculation, writer/director James Cameron and his Avatar franchise have returned to the big screen. After its monumental achievements in 2009 that included becoming the highest grossing film of all-time and a Best Picture Oscar nomination, some feel as if this is still the sequel no one asked for or even really wanted. In an American cinematic landscape inundated with blockbusters, can Cameron recapture the magic and make another movie for the ages?
Avatar: The Way of Water reintroduces us to Jake Sully (Sam Worthington) on the moon Pandora, living with his now expanded family of wife Neytiri (Zoe Saldana); oldest son Neteyam (Jamie Flatters); second son Lo’ak (Britain Dalton); youngest daughter Tuktirey (Trinity Jo-Li Bliss); adopted daughter Kiri (Sigourney Weaver); and family friend Spider (Jack Champion) who is an orphaned human. The Na’vi must still face the threat of the “sky people” from the planet Earth seeking to colonize and harvest Pandora’s resources, but that threat is increased once their old foe Colonel Miles Quaritch (Stephen Lang) returns in the form of an avatar clone complete with his memories and thirst for vengeance after fellow Marine Jake Sully turned on his service branch and killed the human Quaritch. Jake must now use his skills to protect his family and again try to save Pandora and its inhabitants.
Much criticism has been levied at the original Avatar film for its story, or lack thereof. Many have accused it of being rote, derivative of previously released films such as Ferngully or Pocahontas, and of generally having a thin narrative. Other detractors make the claim that the film has had no palpable impact on the culture writ large, particularly in comparison to its peers like Star Wars, Jaws, or the Marvel Cinematic Universe movies. Despite these criticisms, Avatar managed to entrance audiences on the way toward nearly $3 billion at the box office. The question that many have is simply, why? As I sat in awe of the images that were being projected into my 3D glasses, I came to realize what many observers seem to miss and fail to divvy out credit for is the fact that James Cameron is a singular genius whose skill with a camera and creativity in innovating new filmmaking techniques and technology cannot be replicated or built upon. A filmmaker or studio can write another interconnecting story of superheroes existing in one universe or a space opera featuring heroes and royal families, the immersive 3D experiences in the Avatar franchise are uniquely Cameron, however and no one has come close to recreating it elsewhere or seems close to doing so.
Avatar: The Way of Water is a breathtaking and immersive film that literally pulls you right into it. Some of its scenes feel like a top tier first person video game and I don’t mean that in an insulting way. There are times where you feel as if you’re standing right next to one of the characters as both of you move throughout the environment. This is as close as you can get to feeling as if you’re inside of a film until VR headset technology is created for cinemas. The scale and scope of the film’s visuals are incredible and that’s before you even get to the quality of the visual effects. Vast oceans, expansive forests, futuristic tech, it’s all immaculately crafted onscreen featuring vibrant, rich color and realistic detail by Wētā FX. The imagery steps out of the screen and grabs the viewers, pulling you into the world rather than just showing it to you. As a result, you can’t help but be pulled into the film as a whole.
The story as the center of the film is largely a basic one, the villains of the first are back for revenge and the protagonists of the first must fight to protect themselves and their family or face certain death. The wheel is not being recreated here and the narrative itself is still a bit thin, keeping with the precent set from its predecessor. But while the story very much feels like the second chapter of an eight-chapter story (Cameron has stated his intention to make at least eight Avatar films total), where the improvement from the first film comes from is the greater number of substantive themes that it explores. This film largely centers around the concept of family, particularly as it pertains to the relationship between fathers and sons; identity; and other issues such as the treatment of animals and overall environmental conservation. Spider and Kiri find themselves searching and grappling with their identity and who they are throughout the film, both having questions about their parentage and who their father is. As the search for the answer, they struggle with finding their places in the worlds they inhabit as they are unlike the others surrounding them, which also causes them to be drawn to each other despite being different species.
Interspecies relations spurred by a failure to feel like you belong is also a theme for Lo’ak as the middle child who always seems to find trouble befriends an outcast Tulkun, the whale-like creature that inhabits Pandora’s deep waters. This relationship touches upon both feelings of inadequacy and letting down your family and tribe, something both Lo’ak and the whale have in common, and the ethical treatment of animals as Earth whalers hunt Tulkun in order to harvest a small part of their anatomy for rich Earthlings to use (I’ll let what they use it for remain a surprise) and discard the rest of the carcass, this part clearly inspired by American settlers and their hunting of buffalo during westward expansion. The relationship between Jake Sully and Lo’ak is the most prominent in the film as the father tries to teach his son responsibility and better decision-making. The emphasis on a father trying to teach young teens the things they’ll need to know as they transition toward their next steps in life, adulthood for Neteyam and late teenage for Lo’ak are sure to resonate for many of the parents in the audience watching alongside their children. It provides the film with some emotional heft to go alongside its stunning visuals, however, it would have packed more of a punch had the story not been giving so much time to breathe as Cameron showed off his technical prowess.
That’s not to say that Avatar: The Way of Water is a three-hour slog that drags in parts. Quite the contrary, this is one of the faster moving epics that I’ve ever watched, particularly on first watch. This is part of the reason I walked out of the theater holding it in such high regard, this was an epic film with an epic runtime, three plus hours, that didn’t really begin to feel like it until the final 10-15 minutes. The film’s story is pretty basic and the progress it makes by the end feels woefully inadequate. Viewers can feel that is just a smaller piece of a bigger story rather than something that can truly stand on its own. Despite that, this is film is a monumental achievement. You hate to make bold, sweeping statements for a film that is not even one week old, but Avatar: The Way of Water is a bold, sweeping film. This is the best visual effects film of all-time, full stop. No moviegoing audience has ever experienced a film like this, the closest being the last time James Cameron brought an Avatar film to the big screen. It must be seen on a large, 3D capable movie screen to be truly experienced and believed. In a filmmaking era where risk averse blockbusters dominate the culture and the multiplex, Avatar: The Way of Water reminds us of what a movie camera and imagination are truly capable of. Playing it safe may consistently bring in dollars, but sometimes, swinging for the fences is what will truly lift a film into the pantheon amongst the Gods. This film is a reminder that moviegoers searching for an experience when they pay $20+ to go to the movies deserve more than just a by-the-numbers, familiar experience for the 30th time. And James Cameron gave it to them.
Image: 20th Century Studios
