The last time we saw the Na’vi and Pandora was 13 years ago. Does The Way of Water bring back the magic? Is the new movie by James Cameron good or bad?
I had doubts about Avatar 2, and that’s putting it mildly. Like many people, I’d enjoyed the first film as a science fiction movie, but for the most part, I thought the planned trilogy seemed like a rather cynical cash grab. Even after the first Avatar 2 trailer came out, I didn’t think James Cameron’s return to Pandora would be anything but fine.
Well, you can send me to the parts of Hell where film critics who doubt Cameron go, because Avatar 2 is a great movie, maybe even an excellent one. Now, I use the word “movie” very carefully, because I think Avatar 2 is one of the best blockbusters I’ve seen this year. In terms of over-the-top bombast, it’s on par with Top Gun 2. Yet I must caveat this praise by saying not all the individual elements that make up the film are good.
Avatar 2 is like a nice-looking Christmas sweater: from a distance, it looks like the cosiest thing you’ve ever seen, and when you hold it, the wool is so soft that it makes you want to cry. But if you started to pull on the threads that make up the sweater, you would quickly find that there is a lot of flammable polyester for every strand of cashmere.
We’ll start by talking about the plot and characters of Cameron’s movie. Some people have said that the story doesn’t have much going on, and that’s true. The story is so thin that dollar store trash bags are thicker. and doesn’t explain why Avatar 2 is so long. Basically, it’s a story about good vs. evil that supports some fairly neutral environmental causes.
That’s alright. Stories don’t have to be too complicated, but it’s a problem when the script is weak and the characters aren’t interesting. And there were more than a few times when I didn’t understand what the characters were doing or why they were acting the way they were because of poor character development.
Now, we’ve been told not to give anything away, so the best I can do is say that one supposed good guy decides early on to help someone, but the movie doesn’t bother to show or tell us why.
Now, we’ve been told not to give anything away, so the best I can do is say that one supposed good guy decides early on to help someone, but the movie doesn’t bother to show or tell us why.
Now, we’ve been told not to give anything away, so the best I can do is say that one supposed good guy decides early on to help someone, but the movie doesn’t bother to show or tell us why.
Cameron’s Avatar characters work because they are so generic. Like the player character in a first-person shooter, they are blank canvases that can be anything the audience wants them to be.
Now, I don’t want people to think that this means the acting is bad, because it’s not. Everyone does a great job with what they have, but I was most impressed by the younger cast. There isn’t much for them to work with, so it’s hard to pick out something that is especially great. Neytiri, played by Zoe Saldana, is different, though.
Neytiri is a badass, and she is the only Na’vi who really feels like an outsider. She can be scary, and Saldana gives her a strangeness that the other Na’vi, even those who aren’t Avatars, don’t have. I wish she had done more in this movie, and I hope that the sequels will give her that chance.
Before we move on to the things I actually liked about the film (and there were plenty), I also have to mention Cameron’s decision to introduce some absolutely wild McGuffins that had absolutely no bearing on the plot of Avatar 2. As we’ve said, we can’t give anything away here, but there were two Earth-shattering reveals in the movie that had nothing to do with the plot.
Now, anyone who knows how blockbuster movies work knows that these are plot threads that will be picked up in Avatar 3, 4, or whatever. Still, we criticise the MCU for being preoccupied with setting up sequels, so Cameron can’t be allowed to get away with it either.
In fact, a lot of the story of Avatar 2 seems like an attempt to add material for the sequels after the fact, as if the director suddenly realised that the first movie wasn’t enough to work with. Because of this, we get a few beats that feel like retcons but aren’t quite retcons.
Now it’s time to talk about things I like, and one thing we could never say about Cameron is that he doesn’t know how to put on a show. He’s like Michael Bay for smart people, and let’s face it, Cameron has made some of the best action movies ever, so he may be one of the best directors to ever work in the genre.
As you might expect, Avatar 2 is full of intense chases, violent knife fights, and a general level of action that would make Arnold Schwarzenegger blush.
But what makes it even more impressive is that, even though Avatar 2 uses a lot of computer-generated effects, it also has a great mix of real-world effects, and the two work well together.
I never felt like I was watching people interact with giant cartoon characters. Instead, the Avatars, Na’Vi, and all the other plants and animals of Pandora felt like real, living parts of the world that fit well with the practical effects.
It’s also nice to see that the last 13 years haven’t dulled Cameron’s exceptional skill at adding character beats into his set pieces. In fact, we learn a lot about the different aliens and humans we meet through their fights and chases. He’s even able to give non-speaking characters a voice through their actions, which is much more than we learn from the script.
We have to talk about the real reason anyone would go see Avatar 2: to go back to Pandora. In 2009, lots of people went to the movies to see Cameron’s “Alien World.” Is it as beautiful as we remember?
Well, yes, and if anything, the improvements in visual effects over the last 13 years have made it even more beautiful. But while Pandora’s forests are beautiful, the real show comes when we go under the water in its oceans.
It’s no secret that Cameron loves being underwater, and Avatar 2 is a love letter to this underwater world. Getting into the water was always a treat. The coral reefs were beautiful, the water was clearer than it should have been, and the animals who live in this underwater world were so well-made that it was hard to believe.
The Tulkuns were my favourite species. They look like strange whales and are very close to the ocean tribes. I cared so much about the Tulkuns that when one of them got hurt, I started crying. Yes, I did cry because a CGI whale monster got hurt.
That’s the power of movies, and that was one of the times I realised how much Avatar 2 had drawn me in. It really made me feel a lot of emotion, which is why I don’t mind too much that the script isn’t very good, because if it made me feel something, it was clearly working on some level.
As I said earlier in this review, when you look at Avatar 2 as a whole, it works. When you look at it as a whole, there’s a lot to criticise, but cinema is more than just scriptwriting, VFX, or acting. It’s a combination of all these arts, as well as editing, scoring, etc., and when you put all the parts of Avatar 2 together, it works.
I’d most likely blame James Cameron. This movie doesn’t feel like it was made by a group of people. It feels more like it was made by one person with a clear vision, like Top Gun 2. So, when you watch it, you can’t help but admire it because movies like this don’t come out very often anymore.
In the end, Avatar 2 is a visual feast that should be seen on the biggest screen possible. It has great action scenes, and even though the story isn’t very good, you’ll probably be surprised by how much it moves you. Not everyone will like it, but Avatar 2 “blued” me away. Yes, that’s the joke I’m going to end on.
