Avatar: The Way of Water (2022)

Score: 3.5 / 5

James Cameron may be a lot of things, but his films do push the limits of state-of-the-art technology, and as such we might consider him visionary. He always gives us something new, something radical, and something eye-popping. His latest, the long-awaited sequel to Avatar in 2009, is a bit unusual in that here he's revisiting a lot of familiar territory. Not only in terms of the previous film in this soon-to-be series, but knowing viewers will also see material from Aliens, The Abyss, The Terminator, and yes, Titanic. One wonders if he is revisiting these themes and even some visual moments because of updates in technology that allows him to do things differently, or if his plans to expand the world of Pandora over several upcoming films means he doesn't plan to leave this fantasy world, and so he means to stake his claim there just as he has in our world. Regardless, The Way of Water isn't quite original, fresh, or interesting; it is, however, beautiful to behold and a mostly exciting advancement of his burgeoning franchise.

Our re-introduction to Pandora is more than a little messy, and we're reminded instantly that Cameron is a visual master, not a master storyteller. Not only is his dialogue woefully underwritten -- the first Avatar had better dialogue than this by far -- but his narratives are annoyingly derivative of other epics. But we jump in nevertheless! Jake Sully (Sam Worthington) is now fully Na'vi, leading the Omaticaya alongside his partner Neytiri (Zoe Saldana), with whom he has started a large family. They have adopted a daughter named Kiri, who is the unexplained Na'vi offspring of Sigourney Weaver's character from the first film (and also voiced, quite comically, by Weaver doing her best adolescent impression); they also have two sons Neteyam and Lo'ak who are training to be warriors and a young daughter named Tuk. They also harbor and care for a human boy named Spider, who was the child of Miles Quaritch, the villain of the first film, who is growing up as a sort of Tarzan-like young man among the natives.

Twelve years have passed since the first film, and finally the "sky people" (humans attempting to colonize Pandora as Earth dies) return in force, under command of a new leader (Edie Falco in a terribly underwritten part). This time, they mean to establish a permanent new home rather than simply harvest resources, and Jake leads the Omaticaya in full-on war against them. So the humans unleash a new weapon: "recombinants," essentially cloned human minds in Na'vi avatar bodies. Their chief is, naturally, Quaritch himself, whose dismay at being reincarnated as a blue-skinned alien quickly changes to elation as he can freely navigate Pandora's climate and enjoy his new, unparalleled organic strength. While the motives of these villains, as in the first film, are pretty black-and-white, thankfully this time Quaritch's character has a bit of intrigue when he discovers the existence of his son Spider and captures him. Can he convince Spider to sympathize, even work with him to undermine Jake Sully? It's a bit Ahab-like in terms of megalomaniac obsession with his prey, but it makes for compelling blockbuster fare.

Jake and his family, to save the Omaticaya from annihilation (again) flee to another clan located in a massive archipelago in Pandora's oceans. This is where Cameron is most happy to work, and so the bulk of this film consists of extensive worldbuilding among the seafaring Metkayina people. Jake's ethics primarily concern "fight or flight" for his family's sake, and his family certainly has trouble fitting in with the paler, slightly greener new clan. They have webbed digits and finlike appendages and can hold their breath for a long damn time. Their leader Tonowari (Cliff Curtis) and his pregnant wife Ronal (Kate Winslet) are worried about the Sully family presence but choose to harbor them even as Quaritch and the humans approach. Cameron spends a lot of time exploring and glorifying the marine world, going so far as to include lengthy whale-chasing sequences as humans hunt the Tulkun (sentient and pacifist cetaceans who are like extended family to the Metkayina) that feel ripped from the pages of Moby-Dick. 

These sequences, among many others, are so visually stunning and realistic that it's hard to remember it's not real. How the hell do images like these come out of a computer, even if hundreds of hands worked on every pixel? It's like what Peter Jackson did in The Hobbit trilogy in terms of sheer majestic CGI. It helps that, unlike the narrative simplicity of the first film, here Cameron weaves together multiple plotlines with the various family members so we get faster, more expansive insights into Pandora and its Na'vi cultures. The downside of this is a certain frenetic energy that doesn't allow us to simply dwell with a singular, powerful story. We're constantly swept to and fro between bits of stories that don't always inform each other or coalesce into a coherent narrative structure, especially when the adolescent characters start making annoyingly stupid choices (and their constant refrains of "bro" and "cuz" do nothing but remind me of the screenplay's woeful shortcomings). I imagine a lot of these threads are intended to be fleshed out or redeemed in future franchise entries, but so far they make the whole affair of this film a bit, well, watered down.

I personally love that these movies are so popular, even if I wouldn't claim them as personal favorites. I love that mass international audiences are getting state-of-the-art science fiction almost solely about the importance of environmentalism and the horrors of colonization. I don't love that he seems to be appropriating elements of various real-life Indigenous cultures, but I suspect that future films in the series -- if they continue the trend -- will mellow that out as we learn about still more clans on Pandora, hopefully ones less directly inspired by real-world cultures deeply scarred by our own historical colonization patterns.