I'm Blue Im a Da Ba Dee- 'Avatar: The Way of Water'

 Now, now, 'Avatar: The Way of Water' was 3 hours and 12 minutes long—don’t worry, this review won’t be that long.

It kind of felt like I not only had to go see the much-anticipated 'Avatar' sequel but that I’d also have to write about it. You could argue that, due to its huge budget, the hype, and its box office success, it was the biggest film of 2022. I can’t really say I have a film blog if I don’t write about it. First, let me set the scene for all the opinions I’m about to dump below—when 'Avatar' came out, I was eight. Sooo, no, I didn’t see it back in 2009. I can’t actually remember when I saw it for the first time, but it was definitely in the cinema. My memories of liking it are vague, and I definitely only saw it once. Like most people at the time, it was mostly a visual experience. The first film literally embodied the ‘Pandora Effect’—something I recommend reading up on if you’re not familiar with it. Going into 'Avatar: The Way of Water', I wasn’t putting as much pressure on it as some who had to wait those long nine years, so I was just interested to see if it was worth the runtime!

First things first, 'Avatar: The Way of Water' looks incredible. This won’t be a shock, but I was very pleasantly surprised at just how impressive the visuals are. I’d read here and there about the new technology James Cameron mentioned being developed so the actors could be CGI’d underwater to create the swimming Na’vi. Whatever that new technology was, it works brilliantly. The film was so crisp and so visually stunning it was hard not to watch every single scene wide-eyed. With a film delivering so well on visuals, it puts a lot of pressure on the score. I often consider the two sides of the same coin. The sequel’s score gets the job done, further creating the atmospheric Pandora experience everyone knows and loves when watching 'Avatar'. However, I do still prefer James Horner’s score for the first film in the franchise.

My overall summary of why the first one did so well is down to the viewing experience and the intensely detailed world-building. Viewers were introduced to Pandora and its out-of-this-world habitats, bioluminescent creatures, and spiritual core. This is what caused the ‘Pandora Effect’. So, it makes sense that for a sequel to deliver with the great pressure and expectations it faced, it needed to introduce something new to the world—something viewers hadn’t seen before. James Cameron was clever enough to do just that by introducing the water world and the water-Na’vi. This brought back that viewer curiosity and sense of exploration as this new world appeared on screen.

The plot of the sequel follows Jake Sully, played by Sam Worthington, as he lives with his newfound Na’vi family and they’re uprooted by the evil sky people! Obviously, the film can’t just rely on its gorgeous cinematic experience—it has to have a storyline. The key theme in the sequel is family. This was cute and easy to digest, and I was perfectly content with it. If anything, I was happy that the whirlwind visual experience didn’t add in a super complex, deep plotline to follow. This is without even mentioning all the motifs of humans over-exploiting our Earth, the violent colonisation of indigenous people, and the debate over cultural appropriation— but I haven't go the time to delve into any of that! For me, those themes are better explored without wrapping it up in a science fiction world of wonder and very tall blue people. Like I said, the in the scheme of things simple plot worked for me, over analysing it to bring out these themes for me isn't applicable here. I liked the addition of a younger generation of Na’vi. Seeing the storyline through the perspectives of the children made sense for the franchise, giving me almost House of the Dragon-esque vibes. That being said, one thing’s for sure—I hated Spider. His character arc was predictable and uncreative, basically shoving a Tarzan into the film for reasons I’m not too sure of. I thought his character was cringe-worthy, either offering a terrible role for Jack Champion to deliver on or the actor was just rubbish. Take him out and my review would be practically perfect.

As you can tell, I really enjoyed the film and the overall viewing experience. I did see it on its release day in a packed cinema—very exciting! I doubt I’ll be rewatching it anytime soon (unless I’ve got over three hours to kill and a high-quality surround sound setup), but I recommend seeing it at least once in the cinema… even if just to say you’ve seen it. I feel like it’s one of those films people will ask if you’ve watched.

Evie 20 December 2022