Movie Review: Avatar - Way of the Water

As is the case with many of James Cameron movies, Avatar made a massive impact when it was first released back in 2009.  It was one of the very first films which showed audiences the high capabilities of computer-generated imagery and 3D effects. James Cameron was noted to have invested a ton of money into fully realising this creative vision and it clearly worked out; being the top grossing film of modern history to this very day. When you capture attention on such a scale though it’s a fair question to ask whether it can be done a 2nd time? Well, I’m happy to say James Cameron does a mostly successful job in that regard with his 2022 sequel; Avatar: The Way of Water. 

Directed by industry veteran James Cameron and produced by his own company Lightstorm Entertainment, Avatar: The Way of Water serves as a direct sequel to the prior Avatar film. This new film features a lot of the essential cast from the prior film like Sam Worthington, Zoe Saldana, Sigourney Weaver and Stephen Lang. It also features a collection of new stars as well, such as Kate Winslet, Cliff Curtis, Britain Dalton, Jamie Flatters and Bailey Bass. 

The plot of The Way of Water follows Jake Sully and Neytiri several years after the conflict with the RDA on the planet of Pandora. Now the chief of the Omaticaya, Jake has settled into life with the Na’vi and has three biological children with Neytiri called Neteyam, Lo'ak and Tuktirey. As well as their biological children, the Sully family also adopted the daughter Grace Augustine’s avatar who they call Kiri. Despite life seeming peaceful on Pandora, the RDA return to the planet with a far larger force with intentions to colonise it which requires wiping out the indigenous inhabitants. Part of their strategy to includes a new Avatar program implanted with the memories of the prior military corp headed up by Colonel Miles Quaritch. As the humans push to eliminate Sully and his family, he makes a decision to flee to the Metkayina; a tribe of Na’vi based out in the water regions. Here, the Sully family must acclimatise to a new way of life in the ocean all the while Quaritch and his squad try to track him down. 

The narrative for Way of Water is commendable for the most part. I appreciated how this story focuses a lot more on Sully’s kids than they do the adults. It’s a smart choice I feel because a whole new generation of kids are likely to be experiencing this world by this point so it makes for a nice way to showcase this world with a relatable selection of characters. Everything that occurred in the prior film isn’t ignored here either, there’s a serious amount of respect to the worldbuilding of this series in this film as it keeps the story rolling. I like how Cameron uses this film to explore a far more different aspect of Pandora than what prior audiences were used to. The ocean region where the Metkayina reside is nothing short of beautiful and there’s a serious amount of depth to how fleshed out this tribe and its way of life are projected here. The reason I say for the most part in regards to it’s narrative quality though is because I feel the story is somewhat let down by a number of plot concessions it makes for the sake of convenience. It’s a far stronger story when it’s just exploring new ways the world works but when it comes to the climax of the movie there are aspects which just feel too contrived to be appreciated as a seamless part of the events which are transpiring.

What really makes this film worth watching on a big screen though is the imagery. Avatar was a big deal back in 2009 for its animation and I feel Way of Water capitalizes on that element here as well.  The idea that this film takes place primarily within water is an idea James Cameron clearly wanted to go all in on. The fact he got a lot of the cast to learn all manner of diving skills in preparation for filming reflects that. The seamless mixture of water motion along with all the computer-generated imagery is downright magic. The colours, vivid motions, and imagery all projected on screen captured my attention so easily and I wanted to see so much more of this world by the end of my time with it.  The detail on expression capture is also worth recognising here too. It was a major feat at the time and it’s still a brilliant quality here too. With a lot of these actors having their performances captured and generated digitally, there’s clearly no loss of detail here. All facets of emotions are captured in pristine detail here without any loss of detail.

It's clear that James Cameron wants to commit to this series with every fibre of creative control he is given. I have my own misgivings with Cameron as a person based on the way he has treat people in the past for the sake of his creative process. That being said though I can’t fault the end products he creates. There’s a reason nearly every film he’s put out on screen has broken records at the box office, the man seems capable of making a bad film. While I don’t think Avatar: Way of the Water is a perfect film on all parts, it’s hard to deny it got pretty close. It is such a solid film with so much wonderous aspects to it to appreciate. Just make sure if you do go see it, you get to see it on a big screen as the scale of the screen is where this sort of stuff can be appreciated the most.