Avatar: The Way of Water

Official Australian release date: 15/12/22.
Viewed: 20/12/22.
Director: James Cameron
Actors: Sam Worthington, Zoe Saldana, Stephen Lang, Sigourney Weaver
Genre: Action / Sci-Fi
Rating: M

 

‘Avatar: The Way of Water’ (or Avatar 2) comes almost exactly 13 years after the original broke all box-office records. The film does well to simultaneously make it feel like you’ve never left Pandora, but also to remind you of the characters and catch you up on the new ones, including Jake Sully (Worthington) and Neytiri (Saldana)’s four kids – eldest son Neteyam (Flatters), Loak (Dalton), Kiri (Weaver) & little Tuk (Bliss). The explanation for Kiri being Grace (Weaver’s original character)’s daughter is not clear at all, but Colonel Quaritch (Lang) is back, with a far simpler explanation – he and his marine team were cloned on Earth and sent back in Navi Avatars.

Once we re-establish that humans are the worst and still trying to colonise Pandora and exploit it’s resources, Sully & Neytiri take their family away from the fighting to the coral atolls/islands of the Metkayina tribe, led by Tonowari (Curtis) & Ronal (Winslet). This creates some interesting dynamics, but also introduces a whole new underwater ecosystem for the camera to explore. Probably the most impressive thing about these films is how Cameron makes everything seem so real and all the creatures plausible – all seeming like slightly different evolutionary branches of Earth’s creatures. The ‘whales’ are particularly remarkable.

It's good to see a little comedy thrown in (& Aussies/Kiwis), with Jermaine Clement & Brendan Cowell. However, just when the film seems like it might be a repeat of the first, the second act turns it on it’s head and focus on the inter- and intra-family dynamics and has a narrower focus on how the ocean-dwelling Navi interact with their environment. This serves the film well, as rather than try to fight every human colonist and machine, it is more intimate and you get to care for the main characters by the end. Bring on the next 3!

Overall: Still visually stunning, with a good story

Gav’s Rating: 4 stars.