Avatar: The Way of Water (2022) – 3/5

I see blue

„Avatar: The Way of Water“ is a really new American movie now from 2022 still and without a doubt this is going to end up as one of the big players this awards season. Probably almost everybody (in the western world) has by now seen the original Avatar movie from 2009 and maybe some still remember that, back then, it was a close fight at the Oscars between James Cameron and his wife Kathryn Bigelow for the most prestigious trophies. This year, there is no Bigelow film in contention, but still the new „Avatar“ film is not going to dominate at the Oscars again. Nominations for Best Picture and Cameron’s direction seem possible though, maybe even likely. The one thing where this film should really have a great shot at winning is the visual effects category, but that might be it. Then again, it is only awards. Clearly, this project meant/means a lot to Cameron and that is why he is also one of the writers and also among the editors. Obviously, you cannot call a movie of these dimensions a one-person project, but he has contributed really as much as he could have. It’s been 13 years already since the first Avatar film. Now that went quickly. I think the plan was to make four or five avatar films in total, but I am not sure what the situation there is right now. The one thing that is safe, however, is that they cannot take a decade between each film and the next anymore. We will see.

In the cast here, you will find pretty much all the names of the key players from the first Avatar movie. This is not a huge surprise. I mean given the gigantic amount of people that will see this film here, everybody would agree to be on board, especially lead actor Sam Worthington whose career has not gone super great in the last thirteen years. Zoe Saldana is also still waiting for her first Oscar nomination and has not really achieved anything beyond Kids Choice and BET Awards so far. The more surprising aspect is perhaps that Sigourney Weaver and Stephen Lang are also part of the cast again. Well, Weaver is listed really early in the credits, but she is only in one scene of the movie and that’s it. As for Lang, his return has to do with the bad guys from the first film, i.e. The soldiers/humans, here returning as Avatars just like the ones at the center of the story. Their intentions are not honorable though obviously, so you can say that the good guys here fight once again against the same enemies like from the first film, only that those enemies look different now. They are also transformed. I will not go into detail about all the cast members now, but you will find more familiar names (rather than faces maybe) like Jemaine Clement, Edie Falco and even Oscar winner Kate Winslet. Was she in the first already? I don’t think so. I guess money makes the difference and she starred in Cameron’s „Titanic“ of course. The biggest negative criticism for the first film and maybe also eventually the reason why it did not win the Best Picture Oscar was that the story is just not new, not good, not original enough, so this time Cameron got two other screen writers on board, namely Rick Jaffa and Amanda Silver who have worked together on many occasions and are familiar with blockbusters because of their contributions to the Planet of the Apes and Jurassic franchise. With them in charge, it is not a surprise that subtlety was not a thing here. The running time of comfortably over three hours confirms this too. And eventually, it can also be seen throughout the film on many occasions.

One thing that caught my attention was that there is almost no comedy at all in this movie. I mean obviously I did not expect constant laughs here, but you see slight comic relief even in the most serious films nowadays, also fantasy or science fiction films. Just look at Saldana’s Guardians of the Galaxy movies. I guess that the complete absence of lighter material here is because they (or Cameron) did not want to take away just one bit of the gravitas of the entire scenario in terms of how nature is threatened and same is true for the lives and loves of the main characters. But in some moments, a little bit more subtlety actually would have been nice. For me this includes Neytiri for example. I am really struggling with this character and I found it fitting how she is described by the bad guy on one occasion as totally insane. I mean she is clearly hypersensitive in terms of her senses too, but her screaming when something bad happens to nature, her peaceful singing, her mother instinct that has her fully ready to kill whoever she has to in order to protect her kids etc. It was all a bit much. Also that there were no fewer than four children already. Indeed, they have been busy procreating. There is a ten-year break between the end of the first film and the key action of this one and a lot happened in-between. I still found it a bit confusing when we see this invasion at the beginning, everything in flames and then we read the letters that another year passed, so yeah big jumps in time we have here in this movie. Maybe a bit exaggerated. I must say once again that the writing is not the movie’s biggest strength. I feared this would be the case and while it is not horrible, still these moments like when one of the kids spots another female from the water people and we immediately understand there is probably romance going to happen between these two. Of course, she also defends him a little later when the water tribe folks teach our heroes their skills or at least takes them into their world. There are more moments like this when the film could have needed more subtlety and depth instead of staying above the surface for the most time. Sorry, I just had to. Enough with the water metaphors now though. This lack of subtlety is crucial in a not so positive way you could say.

Those were a handful negative aspects that I listed by now, but still I think this film deserves a positive recommendation as a whole. The visual side is breathtaking indeed and pretty much what keeps the film from sinking. Oops, I did it again. Sorry. The whale-like creatures were really cool and mesmerizing, even if there it was a bit ridiculous that the protagonist’s son would tame this creature right away out of nowhere during their first encounter. I mean running into it was already enough of a coincidence. The bad guy taming another creature just like Sully did in the first film felt more interesting. He is not completely hopeless and really created a bond with his son, so he is not absolutely cold and emotional. Oh yeah, the screaming from characters to express their discomfort (also like the son does in his final scene) or the many examples of how humans are exploiting or trying to exploit nature were another area where it just became too much and too much of an instructive pile. The message is right of course, but sometimes less is more. There were still many nice moments and decent attention to detail, like when we saw one female character (I think Falco) during workout early on, but she was only moving her artificial skeleton there. Or the torture scene when they are looking inside one character’s brain was also interesting to watch. So the film is also a big success visually when we are not outside in the open, in the wild nature. I will maybe cheer for this one that it wins the special effects Oscar. I know Hollywood does not really love James Cameron too much, certainly not as much as he would like it to be the case, but this film not winning said award would be a travesty with all the effort and time they put in it.

I have to be critical though. Maybe making a less intensive film every two or three years instead of one like this that needs over a decade to get released might be the better idea. No offense to Cameron though. It is his choice alone and the outcome is convincing and there was never a moment when I would give it a thumbs-down. Also, the box office will surely be a major success again. I would even say that I think this film here is superior to the first where honestly the story was just totally uninspired at times, regardless if it was Pocahontas or not. So improvement is there. That is it then overall I guess. Just a few more notes: It surprised me that one male character died here towards the end because they tried so hard for the entire film to not kill off any bigger players. Then again, it came short on the emotional side I must say. It is just still fairly difficult for me to truly care for the non-human, non-animal characters in the middle of this franchise. Weaver is a solid actress, but her inclusion here was really just for the sake of it. Could have been left out. The references to tails were awkward in a slightly funny way. I am sure it was not intended this way, rather like depicting them closer to animals because monkeys pull each other’s tails too. The music was alright, maybe too often they brought back the „I See You“ tune (and words as well during dialogue) and I write that as somebody who likes the song. Fitting name also given the eyes of these whale creatures. Those alone were better than the once again exaggerated segment in which the boy helps the injured creature. By the way, the other marine creatures were cool too, like the ones that are just there, but do not get a whole lot of elaboration really and are also not a factor in terms of the story. Alright, that is all then. I give the second Avatar movie a thumbs-up and I suggest you give it a go. I did not watch 3D, so I cannot say if this is the right choice for the best experience. It’s probably more crucial you watch it on the big screen. Will take some time anyway still until it can be seen on a small screen legally. I would say that this film was pretty much exactly what I expected. It delivered 100% visually, had story weaknesses, but was a solid experience on the big screen. Not a must-see or close to my favorites from 2023 though. Or 2022 if we go by release dates. Still, go see it.