The biggest cinematic mistake I made this year was getting impatient, and watching “Avatar: The Way of Water” in 2D. Do not do this! I need to watch it again, in its natural habitat of 3D and IMAX. And if I feel compelled to see a film twice, in a short period of time, it gets an automatic 4.5 out of 5 stars. So 3D will put “Avatar” at a solid 5 stars.
Ambition: Oscar
That said, if there was an Oscar for pure ambition, director James Cameron’s rivals might as well just forget about it. His original “Avatar” (2009), a 3D action epic about 9-foot-tall, blue-skinned, tiger-striped, green-eyed extraterrestrials, remains, by some measures, the most successful movie ever made.
What’s most impressive about “The Way of Water” are the nature-appreciation themes, and the honoring of the lost traditions of the human community and tribal life. And while the wondrous world of Pandora can be taken as utopian and idealistic, Cameron grounds all of the above in life’s inherent messiness, as well as the bonds we all form, while at the same time reminding us of how simple it is to achieve happiness.
Quick Recap
Underlying their science fiction trappings, the “Avatar” films are basically an extended romantic adventure tale about a colonizer who “goes off the reservation” and “native,” a tradition that’s as long and venerable as the art of storytelling itself.By the end of the first “Avatar” film, former Marine Jake Sully (Sam Worthington) had abandoned his human body to live an avatar life as a Na’vi (aforementioned blue aliens), who live in tribal harmony with nature on Pandora, an idyllic, lush, triple-canopy jungle moon situated a galaxy away from Earth, where all the flora is luminescent and all the fauna have two sets of eyes. In the 13 years between the films, Jake Sully and his Na’vi mate Neytiri (Zoe Saldana) have raised four children.
Jake then leads a band of Na’vi insurgents against the resource-hoovering “Sky People” (human invaders). Jake’s former commanding officer, Miles Quaritch (Stephen Lang), the first film’s villain, returns as an even bigger threat because now he’s got his own Na’vi avatar body (with memories and personality uploaded)—all the better to infiltrate the natives. His transformation, however, is strictly camouflage; in his heart he remains a semper fi, gung-ho jarhead with the sole mission of ending Jake Sully.
On the Lam
Jake and his family are forced to flee, and eventually they take refuge with an ocean-dwelling clan known as the Metkayina. This is where one almost expects to see plaques like at New York’s Museum of Natural History: “Metkayina, a subspecies of Aquatic Na’vi.” They’re turquoise-skinned, have more tribal tats and bigger muscles, plus marine-adaptations such as a finned tail, and broad, fin-like forearms.
But before Colonel Quaritch arrives, there’s plenty of time for the family to get situated in their new digs, go exploring, and for all the combined tribal kids to make friends (and rivalries) and take us with them on adventures.
Each of Jake’s four kids play a pivotal role. While Jake may no longer be human, he’s still the kind of powerful Southern military father whose kids show respect and call him “sir.” However, younger son Lo’ak (Britain Dalton), unlike his older brother, is not his dad’s pride and joy and has trouble adjusting to aquatic life and marine hunting grounds, and feels like a n’er-do-well in his dad’s eyes.
Lo’ak is the movie’s emotional core. His loneliness and his eventually finding sanctuary in the ocean, with its exciting creatures, is as touching on an emotional level as the underwater sequences and visuals are truly gorgeous.
More on the Kids
Sigourney Weaver plays a dual role here, in flashbacks as Dr. Grace Augustine of the first “Avatar” and also as Kiri, who was born of Grace’s Na’vi body (talk about pseudoscience). While it’s a bit of a stretch for 73-year-old Weaver to play a 14-year-old teen, she turns in such a highly convincing, youthful performance that one can’t imagine anyone else in the role.
But there’s an undeniable bond between father and son. Their relationship is powerful and conflicted as father-son bonds tend to be, and further complicated by the fact that Quaritch is a mission-obsessed, merciless killer-Marine, but also undeniably human and actually surprisingly relatable.
Overall
The calm first hour of “The Way of Water” is worth sitting through to get to the action-packed climax (which puts all Marvel and DC equivalents to shame), not to mention the sheer beauty of the colors and creatures. It builds excitingly throughout, and peaks in its final hour with probably the best action sequences of Cameron’s career.The film is a refreshing ode to traditional family values, and while the whole story line about settling into a new home has an enjoyable 1950s’ vibe, the scale is ultimately grand, the stakes immense, and the final sea battle filled with incredible moments and even humor.
As mentioned at the outset, “Avatar: The Way of Water” is the one film you absolutely must see in 3D and IMAX. And while this ocean-going version of Pandora is unquestionably the film’s greatest character in the same way the jungle version was before it, and while the Sully family is captivating, and things don’t wrap up as cleanly as in the original (it’s gotta set the stage for the third chapter), this episode still feels complete and totally satisfying.
If for nothing else, see the film to enjoy this smorgasbord of visual marine delights, bequeathed to us with love by the director who digs the sea so much that in 2012, he spent a record-breaking six hours in a submersible, diving 2.3 miles down in the pitch-black ocean all by himself to the notorious Mariana Trench. Talk about your thorough research.
That’s just not good. And so I’m giving “Avatar: The Way of Water” a 5 out of 5 for movie magic, and a 2.5 out of 5 for subversive themes that are ultimately destructive to society. I do applaud its family values, though—too bad it’s not humans with those human values.
