In 2006, James Cameron announced that he’d want to make sequels to Avatar if it was a hit. Fortunately, the movie grossed over $2 billion worldwide, breaking the record for the highest-grossing film set by Cameron’s Titanic. The film earned nine Oscar nominations and won three for Best Art Direction, Best Cinematography, and Best Visual Effects. With this overwhelming success, Cameron confirmed a sequel was in the works in 2010 with a 2014 release in mind. However, like the original, the first of many sequels would take longer than expected, with filming starting in 2017. With a budget of $350–460 million, the film is one of the most expensive ever made, surpassing Avengers: Infinity War. After three years of filming, the movie was scheduled for a late 2020 release, only to be delayed eight times. Years after the original, Avatar: The Way of Water hit theaters in December 2022.
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Synopsis
Years have gone by, and human-turned-Na’vi Jake Sully (Sam Worthington) is raising a family with Neytiri (Zoe Saldana). Their children include Neteyam (James Flatters), Lo’ak (Britain Dalton), Tuk (Trinity Jo-Li Bliss), and Kiri (Sigourney Weaver). Unfortunately, their peace is interrupted when the RDA returns full force to mine Pandora for its resources. Among them are a group of avatars with memories of dead marines led by Colonel Miles Quaritch (Stephen Lang). After Quaritch captures a human boy named Spider (Jack Champion), who befriended the Na’vi, Jake and his family flee. They move to the eastern seaboard to take shelter with the Metkayina clan led by Chief Tonowari (Cliff Curtis). Despite objections from the other tribespeople and his wife, Ronal (Kate Winslet), Tonowari welcomes Sully’s family with open arms. As Jake’s family learns to adapt to their new home, Quaritch and his team are on the hunt.
Review
After more than a decade of waiting, how does the long-awaited sequel to the initial blockbuster stand up? If you enjoyed Avatar, you’d enjoy Avatar: The Way of Water since it’s the same movie, for better or worse. Like its predecessor, the film is visually stunning and impressive on a technical level, only to stumble narratively. This film’s most significant innovation was being able to film motion capture underwater, which had never been done before. Despite the difficulties this presented for the crew, it’s undoubtedly impressive, and Cameron deserves credit for his ambition. Still, all these innovations mean very little if the story and characters aren’t exciting, which is the case here. This one hits similar beats as the original: humans invade Pandora, Quaritch leads the invasion, and Sully defends the people. Granted, there are some slight changes, but it’s more or less the same movie.
While Jake Sully and Neytiri were at the forefront of the first film, the sequel focuses on their kids. Aside from having 73-year-old Sigourney Weaver playing one of the kids, they all do a fine job. I found Lo’ak, played by Britain Dalton, to be the most interesting with his subplot of feeling like an outcast. Like the last film, Stephen Lang is the biggest highlight, though he doesn’t have the same impact since he’s CGI. Part of what makes it so hard to feel for the characters since they’re almost all digital creations. Say what you will about the original, but that at least had a good mix of human and digital characters. With an over three-hour runtime, it culminates in a final battle that’s not as exciting and has obvious sequel-baiting. Overall, Avatar: The Way of Water is all style but no substance, more so than its predecessor.
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