Avatar — The Way of Water

Film #633

THE PLOT

Jake Sully lives with his newfound family formed on the extrasolar moon Pandora. Once a familiar threat returns to finish what was previously started, Jake must work with Neytiri and the army of the Na'vi race to protect their home.

THE REVIEW

A common refrain from a few of the reviews I’ve read is that in the 13 years between movies, the original Avatar has mostly faded from memory. While I was (and remain) a booster of the original, and this franchise, the flaws have become more apparent and easier to see.

Avatar was transformative, influential; literally transporting you to a different world, a different time, a different way of life. Avatar: The Way of Water is similar in many ways. It’s another technological marvel, hits all the same A+ blockbuster qualities, and gets you invested in the characters and life of Pandora more than you expect. It’s a quintessential “big screen” film and part of my enjoyment is probably my return to “the movies” and getting lost in the spectacle of the sight and sound of a massive screen, laser projection, and Dolby Atmos sound. But the film itself is also hard for me not to like.

Why do I like it? Beyond the vague generalities I’ve already used, it’s hard for me to put in words. Marvel, amazement, technical spectacle, transformative. I do truly enjoy this movie, will definitely watch it again, and may even trek out to the theaters for another viewing. And it’s not just because it’s a blockbuster and that blockbusters go down easy. There are true emotional moments in this film where I connected with the characters. There are great “set pieces” that both set up and deliver on action and character-driven moments. It also masterfully speaks the language and art of cinema (ugh, did I really just write that?). Action in particular is filmed in a coherent, digestible, and recognizable way. No shaky-cam, no pitch-black cinematography, and no deafening, bombastic sound.

But the reality distortion field has faded slightly. The amazement you feel in the theater isn’t any less true, but it feels superficial. When you’re in the moment, awash in the glory of the waves and Tulkun, the floating mountains and the Ikran, you really are transported. What could feel like a three and a half (!) hour slog, feels like a quick two hour jaunt. I feel invested, I get emotional, and quite unlike me, I audibly reacted to a few moments in the film (no spoilers, but I’ll refer to it as a Jaws-like sequence).

But there are apparent detractors, more so than the original Avatar. Let’s start with the technical. One of the more surprising things I noticed re-watching the original Avatar was just how middling some of the VFX were. The world is impressive, but some of the details are questionable. The Na’vi are a little cartoony, the viperwolves are super shiny in an unnatural way, and the interaction between machine and nature can feel out-of-place. A lot of what I remember being awesome was probably a reality distortion field. Even (hopefully) accounting for the reality distortion field this time, The Way of Water is more impressive. The water, the lighting, the skin details, the atmosphere; all of it has the same feeling I remember the original Avatar having.

Watching films like The Way of Water is hard because I alternate between being focused on the film, and being focused on the craft. But a supposed draw is Cameron embracing the 48 FPS technology that Peter Jackson experimented with for The Hobbit trilogy.

I can see the appeal more than I did with The Hobbit. For some of the action scenes, and the landscape/establishing shots in particular, the 48 FPS really hit me as being a “window into the world”. It just worked. I saw the potential of 48 FPS rather than the made-for-TV aspect that can come across. But I couldn’t enjoy it. Seemingly every other scene, and at times shots within the same scene, appeared to stutter. From what I’ve read, this appears intentional. Cameron insists that not every moment needs the 48 FPS tech, and it should be reserved for the more expansive, action-like moments. But in practice, I find it very distracting. This matches up with one reviewer I saw commenting how it felt like a video game experiencing a rendering problem when there’s too many sprites on the screen. 48 FPS is already distracting enough, having been rarely seen before. Jumping back-and-forth between buttery-smooth and “are these shots fully rendered already?” makes it more jarring and hard to get lost in the moment. It’s similar to a feeling I have with Christopher Nolan IMAX films that switch between the IMAX aspect-ratio and traditional 16:9, but for The Way of Water, it is a lot more distracting.

And now for the non-technical. Story-wise, there are two elements that stick out: 1) the opening to the film (and the entire retconning to make Avatar 2-4+ make sense); and 2) the unobtainium of this film—amrita.

For lack of a better word, the “prologue” to the film does a whole lot of work. It’s hard not to laugh at the gall Cameron and co. have at how nonchalantly they cover: 1) Quarritch had a son that was left behind because “kids can’t do cryo”; 2) Sigourney Weaver is like Holy Mary and bears a child through immaculate conception; and maybe a more nitpicky 3) the humans who did stay behind are getting supplies from where? It is a whole lot of exposition in the first 20 minutes or so to explain what happened in the past 13 years, why what you’re going to see in the next 2+ films makes “sense”, and oh by the way, the humans are returning with a shit-ton of ships, because we need some big bad as an instigating action. It’s… not the best story I’ve seen.

Two quick notes about the amrita. First, going back to positives for this film, a huge welcome addition is Jemaine “Who’s got the harpoon now?” Clement. Second, there was literally one mention of the amrita in the entire film, and in my opinion, has no effect on anything that happens. We know the whole MacGuffin of the first film was unobtainium and that played a major (?) role in the events that took place. Amrita could not have been mentioned and I would have still had the same emotional involvement in what happened. If they double down on this for future films and have some un-needed MacGuffin just to have one, I’m going to become less and less enthralled with this franchise.

The other non-technical element I’d like to focus on is characters. They’re not bad per se, but a lot of my connection and enjoyment with these characters was definitely “Disney animal side-kick” vibes. Most of the film revolves around Jake Sully’s kids, and the hijinks they get into. Of the four, Lo’ak and Kiri are my favorite, and arguably the main characters of this film. And then eldest and youngest are… around. I certainly connected with these characters, but I come back to things being superficial. I really felt for these characters while I was in the theater, but as I continue to write this review over a week later, I’ve forgotten almost everything about them, and have not thought of them once since I left my seat. They have the appearance of being complex characters, but they don’t retain that gravitas. Same for all the main characters as well. Jake Sully is ostensibly the leading character, but feels strangely absent in the film. All the humans—with the exception of Jemaine Clement—also appear disposable (which is a shame for whoever Edie Falco’s character is). I can’t say I’m not surprised, but it is a little disappointing.

So, what’s my recommendation? I think it’s totally worth the price of admission and a film that anyone can find something enjoyable in. It both surpasses the original Avatar but also shows the growing pains and downsides of being released 13 years later. The Way of Water is not going to be your new favorite film, but it will be a rip-roaring good time that will engross you as you’re watching it, and will be almost entirely forgettable afterwards. Nevertheless, I’m still 100% on board with James Cameron’s vision.

I’ll end by dropping this novel insight from a podcaster I follow: “The Way of Water is the best sequel to Titanic that I never knew I wanted.” That statement has only gotten more true the more I think about it.

THE RATING

3 out of 5