Thirteen years later, we finally have Avatar: The Way Of Water. But is it actually worth watching? Has it been worth the wait of 13 years? Well, James Cameron is Mr. Sequel-Man, right, he has done Aliens (a great sequel), and he’s done Terminator 2 Judgment Day (a great sequel).
Does Avatar 2, AKA Avatar The Way Of Water, stand up to those movies? Or better yet, is this better than the first Avatar film? Well, I’ll answer that question for you. Avatar, The Way Of Water, is directed by the man, the myth, and the legend James Cameron.
The man who gave us the first Avatar film, Titanic, Aliens, Terminator, and Terminator 2 Judgment day. I’m gonna give you my honest, no BS non-spoiler Avatar The Way Of Water Review for you today and tell you if Avatar 2 is worth a watch. Here is Avatar: The Way Of Water Review.
Avatar The Way Of Water Review
Here are some quick thoughts about the first Avatar film, a movie that I watched in the theater and as everybody else in 2009. I was blown away. I walked out in awe because I had never seen anything like that visually before.
Now you look back, and on subsequent re-watches, the story is not as impactful as it was on the first watch. It makes me think that I was just so blown away by the visuals I didn’t realize that it’s kind of a conventional and cliche story.
That being said, I still enjoy the first Avatar. It wasn’t in my top 10 of the year, but it’s still one that I go back to, and I’m just really impressed because it changed filmmaking, it changed the box office, and James Cameron has devoted his life essentially now to telling these stories.
I mean, there are numerous other Avatar movies planned after The Way Of Water. So was the 13-year build-up worth it? Was the time spent on developing the story in technology worth it?
Visuals And 3D
We usually start with the story in the movie review, but we’re not doing that now. I want to start with two very specific points. Firstly, you have to see it on the biggest screen possible because without that you would not get the full experience, the intended experience of what this film is and what it’s supposed to do.
Number 2, I’m actually going to recommend the 3D, and I’ve never done that ever. Even the original Avatar I saw in 3D, and I liked it, but it wasn’t as immersive as I wanted it to be. Just seeing it on a big screen was good enough. With this one, I think that will be good enough.
I believe seeing this in IMAX is going to blow you away. But the 3D added an extra dimension to it that made it unlike anything I’ve ever experienced in a theater, and it sounds like hyperbole.
It feels like I’m making it up, just me saying that out loud, and everyone walked out kind of on the same page like that’s worth seeing in 3D, and all of the reactions that I’ve seen, everyone’s kind of nodding their heads saying “is that the one that we’re going to have to recommend watching in 3D”.
And again, I usually don’t do this, but I say you have to do it. Let’s just talk about the visuals. Let’s talk about the technical elements of this film. Creating a World and World building that makes this movie feel so authentic.
They had the building blocks from the first one to where they could give us a compelling story, but they build off of that not only through the story but through the visuals taking us to other parts of this world, to other parts of Pandora.
Being able to explore backgrounds and scenery obviously created by CGI, but a big part of it is the production design, the value of looking at what these Landscapes are doing for the visceral experience itself and elevating it to a degree unlike again I’ve never really seen on the big screen before.
And this is not me saying that’s the best movie I’ve ever seen in the theater. That’s not the case. But when you’re talking about an immersive experience, that’s a big reason why.
Also Read: 15 Avatar 2 Interesting Facts That Are Crazy For The Current Cinema
Water And Family
The movie’s called The Way Of Water. What does water have to do with it? Well, the new tribe that they join, they’re essentially like the Navi, but instead of being in the forest, they are next to the water, and they have adapted in ways that will kind of blow you away when you’re watching.
They know how to go under hold their breath for a long time, to fight in the water. Under the circumstances, Jake Sully and his family must adapt to this new tribe. They must learn The Way Of The Water. And a big portion of this movie is this family learning, and because of that, you get a nice family dynamic in there that again elevated this in a way that I did not anticipate it.
The last film was full of some characters that I found interesting, I thought Stephen Lang crushed it in the first movie, and I thought Worthington did a nice job as Jake, and Zoe Saldana, you had Sigourney Weaver in there. Weaver’s actually back in this film as Kiri. She’s playing this younger character, obviously covered in CGI, so she’s able to do that.
It did kind of take me out of the movie at times because she’s playing a different character. But it’s still Sigourney Weaver, and she had already played a character in the first movie.
I mean, the voice was different, but it just kind of sounded like a character from the first film. All right, I was able to look past that. She kind of feels like one of the kids that go on this adventure together.
A New Perspective
But they also have two boys, and there’s this brotherly Dynamic there and one that, at first, I was questioning. I’m like, “are we really going to focus on these younger characters, maybe even more than the adult Avatars? I don’t know if that’s the route you should go down”.
But the more we got into it, and we also have this human character by the name of Spider, who fits in perfectly with this storyline, it’s fairly obvious how he fits in at the beginning to the point where they just go ahead and tell us there’s not even a build-up for that big reveal.
But it’s the dynamic between the younger characters, and when they join this water tribe, they’re joined by other characters of that age, and that’s where we are. I would say throughout most of this movie with these characters, so we’re able to see this through their perspective as opposed to the perspective that we saw in the first film, and that, to me, was really nice to see.
Villains And Length
Again it’s a three-hour movie, so you’re gonna have plenty of time to cut back and forth between the Good guys and the Bad guys. And you guys know Stephen Lang is back in this film, and I’m not going to tell you the exact part that he plays.
However, I will tell you that it’s a very similar vibe that we got from the first. So obviously, he’s going to crush that because he is really good as an actor, and he’s the type of guy that you look at, and you’re just like, “I’m scared of this man.”
And to be honest, I feel like the combination of the lengthy three-hour run time and so many characters to kind of parse our way through and so many storylines to pick up on. You know, if we go 20 minutes without checking in on these guys over here, well, obviously, the movie’s gonna have to cut over there eventually.
Thankfully I feel like we didn’t leave too many plot points to the side for too long. We would always cut back when we needed to. But there are points in the film when we’re going from here, to over there, to over here. So I do feel like they were overdoing it, even for a three-hour movie at times.
Cliches And Conventions
There are cliches and conventions in this script, and that’s absolutely the case. Do we get anything as on the nose as an obtain in the first film? Do we get anything that is maybe as cliche as some of the character actions of the first movie? There are obvious times when you have this coming-of-age vibe, and the kids are scoffing at the parents.
And I’m not even saying the dynamic between these two brothers is all that original, but it is more compelling than I expected it to be. And even though I wasn’t necessarily here for the story at the beginning of the movie, even though the First Act.
We pick up where the last one left off, and they give us a bit of a rundown, “Okay, here’s here’s what you missed, here’s where we are,” and then it all goes down fairly quickly in this film. So you don’t have a lot of time to maybe get as sucked in the world as you need to be.
But the action sucks you in, it really gets you on board, and once you’re on board, even with that three-hour run time, I don’t feel like a lot of people are going to struggle with this story.
Music And Action
Again I try to point out as many things as I can, and even though there are cliches in the story, as there are most big Blockbusters like this, it always manages to stay afloat. With a visceral moment here, an amazing action scene there, or that score, you know, taking from James Horner’s score in the first film, rest in peace, obviously.
But giving us moments that feel so just impactful and emotional through the music and through what you’re seeing on that big screen. The only time I really had a problem with the visuals, and it wasn’t even a big issue. You know some people are going to struggle with the 48 frames per second.
I get that; I completely understand it. Again, my eyes hurt sometimes. But I never struggle with that. It did sort of make a few of those Navi on Navi action sequences look a little like video games, but even then, I’m still impressed and intrigued, and I’m in awe of what’s happening on this big screen.
The textures on these characters, the hair, the way that they’re walking around in front of these incredible landscapes, in front of this incredible background. I was just so consistently blown away by what I was seeing on the big screen.
And isn’t that why you want to go to the theater? You know, even if you do have story issues, and I may have had one or two, but not nearly as many as I had with the first film, and this was so much more of an experience.
And I don’t say that knocking down the first Avatar movie. Obviously, we’ve come a long way with the visuals in 13 years. You have an opportunity to correct some of the mistakes that the first movie had but also bring us new elements.
Themes And Experiences
I know they’ve been working on that underwater technology for a long time, and you can tell. Whenever they’re underwater, you’re holding your breath with the characters, and you can’t look away; I could not look away from the screen.
There are also some really nice unexpected themes in here that I thought added another layer to the story. There are some underwater characters that our main Navi characters befriend, but at the same time, they’re being hunted.
So it’s a nice storyline, but you’re always kind of on edge as to what is going to happen. And you care about those characters so much, but once you see them, you’re going to be in awe of them, and that adds another Dynamic to the story that we already had.
And then there is an intensity at the end of the third act of this film, and you get that in the first Avatar movie. But there’s another emotional layer, a level that the first film didn’t hit, and I believe some will see some of these plot points coming when they come about in the third act, so that’s unfortunate.
But even then, they’re still gonna hit you regardless because they’re pulling on those heartstrings. There’s a motion there that you need and a blockbuster like this. Suppose we wouldn’t get that. I don’t know if I would have been as satisfied with the story. But you have three hours of build-up, and then that impact, that gut punch at the end, and that worked so well.
Also Read: 31 Movies Like Avatar That Show the Modern Film Industry
