Two thoughts dominated my mind as I took in the long-awaited follow-up to James Cameron’s titanic (ugh) blockbuster, Avatar, a film that briefly changed the way distributors and studios displayed their big budget adventures. Remember when everything was offered in 3D?
Thought #1: the first Avatar came out a few years before the Marvel Studios machine became, not even dominant, but a thing that normal people recognized as a brand. Iron Man had just come out, Chris Nolan was still plugging away at Batman, Zack Snyder had just put out Watchmen; it was a very different time. Now, years later, Marvel is arguably on the wane, Nolan doesn’t even work with Warner Bros anymore, and Snyder…well…you know. And here comes James Cameron with another Avatar. finally, like a poetic bookend for an era of tentpole franchises.
Thought #2: there aren’t a lot of filmmakers that actually excel at making these things on their own terms. No one in the Marvel stable is a particularly gifted shooter of scale and incident, and even when you pull the lens back more broadly, one can only think of a few really great filmmakers of this scale that also produce works of quality. Sadly, there just aren’t a lot of Chris McQuarrie’s or George Miller’s or even Denis Villeneuve’s out there. But when one of the grand poobah of adventure filmmaking drops something in your lap, you quickly remember “Oh right. This is what these are supposed to look like”.
So how is Avatar: The Way of Water? Pretty damn good when it gets going, but your ability to navigate an hour of setup in a three hour movie could be the determining factor.
Honestly, I could only barely remember what happened in the previous film other than a bare bones description. But worry not, none of that matters (with one exception), as Cameron and company give you a quick rundown of where things stood right before the credits rolled in 2009. Though, they immediately dash that in a very clumsy way because just as the humans were driven off Pandora, they come right back! And it sets off in short-hand a planetary struggle between the invaders and the Na’vi with everyone’s favorite uber bland hero Jake Sully (Sam Worthington, pulled from cold storage somewhere I guess) leading the charge to protect his family and adopted people.
And then the movie shifts gears again as a much more personal struggle between Sully and the film’s antagonist, the mechanics of which I won’t spoil, because they’re pretty good, begins to dominate. It’s a herky-jerky start to say the least and to some degree, the actual motivations of the humans doesn’t make much sense. Are they going to all this trouble just to get Sully? That hardly seems fiscally responsible. And if you ask me what Edie Falco is even doing in this movie as a general, I couldn’t begin to tell you.
But, and this a big one, once (redacted) shows up, and once the actual “water” part of The Way of Water kicks off, suddenly everything snaps into place. The film becomes not only a deeper and more thrilling experience than anything in the previous, but it also does the impossible by making you interested in what an Avatar 3, 4 and 5 might look like.
What much of the appeal of this new outing boils down to is that the storytelling scope, while not growing exceptionally wider, does at least broaden itself to becoming a story about Jake’s growing family. Rather than the bland leader that he’s become, we spend more of our time with his two sons (played by Jermane Flatters and Brittain Dalton), his adopted daughter (Sigourney Weaver, in a role that physically works, but occasionally bends credulity vocally) and and their adopted human son “Spider” (Jack Champion) whose parentage is critical to the plot, among other children. Sadly, Zoe Saldana gets the shaft as Neytiri is mostly shunted to the background for glowering, though she does get one of the more impressive action sequences before the film ends.
But the point being, once we get away from the dull human POV character, we’re able to enter into what plays more like “advanced studies in Avatardom” and Cameron is able to let his ability to create solid emotional sweep take hold, especially in the film’s moments of human and animal connection. To wit, there’s a point where a whale starts making small talk with Kate Winslet’s character that almost had me jumping in my seat. I was so exhilarated by what a madman Cameron is.
Of course, if I don’t mention the visual splendor, I’m not exactly doing my job here. I have my doubts how well Avatar: The Way of Water will play at home, as its prequel doesn’t really stand up too well. But it must be said that in the Dolby HFR 3D format that I caught it in, it was the most mesmeric experience I’ve had in a theater this year, perhaps in a few years. The film struggles occasionally with looking a bit too much like a video game cutscene, particularly early on. But once the underwater shots begin, it becomes easily the best usage of the high frame rate output that we’ve seen. I couldn’t take my eyes off the screen. In addition, the new wrinkle in the Avatar mythos, the Metkayina – basically underwater Na’vi – add just enough complexity to what was largely a bit of a dull example of world building, that you find yourself wondering just what else might be hiding out on that planet. Could we get like volcanic ones next? Or even a polar tribe?
Despite my nitpicks with what is clearly intended to be sequel bait; the convoluted ongoing battles with humanity, and some hanging plot threads with another child that are approaching “chosen one” territory, it’s just thrilling to see a good blockbuster again (that doesn’t star Tom Cruise). An epic that stages clear and memorable action sequences, its emotional through-lines ring true, and it leaves you wanting more. I never could have predicted I would have felt this way going, but by god, Jimmy Cams, you did it.
You can read more of Kyle Pinion’s work at ScreenRex.
