From breathtaking action sequences that are arguably better than those
in the first film to the continued use of tired and harmful tropes,
here are the 6 best and 6 worst things about "Avatar: The Way of Water" ranked.
James Cameron is well-known for being at the forefront of advancing the tech behind visual
effects in film, especially with regards to using computer-generated images — or CGI. While there
have been computer-generated visual effects in films going as far back as 1973 with the original
"Westworld", Cameron is famous for continuing to push the technology further with each successive
project. For instance, in 1989's "The Abyss," Cameron used — at the time — state-of-the-art
CGI to create the now-famous "water tentacle" with digitally-mapped 3D faces of the actors.
He then created the first partially-CG main character in Robert Patrick's liquid metal T-1000
form in "Terminator 2: Judgment Day," and later pushed the tech once more in 2009's "Avatar."
It must be said that the CGI in "Avatar: The Way of Water" is indeed pretty impressive. While the
visuals in the original "Avatar" were cutting edge at the time, they — like a lot of CGI
effects in films before it — have shown their age a bit. However, the advancement in visual effects
technology between the first "Avatar" and "The Way of Water" is palpable. It's especially noticeable
when the film focuses on the Na'vi's facial features, or anything involving the physics
of water. Not only that, but there are many effects-heavy scenes in the film, which — coupled
with filming in a higher frame rate — makes it feel like you're literally on Pandora.
Despite the previously mentioned moments of special effects greatness, there are also some
VFX shots that were obviously given more care than others. Despite a long-gestating 13-year
gap between "Avatar: The Way of Water" and the original "Avatar," there's still not an
infinite amount of time to design, plan, and render each shot — especially for a film that
is mostly CG-animated. This is all exacerbated by the fact that director James Cameron insisted
on creating new tech specifically for the film, but also meant that research
and development for the new tech inevitably cut into rendering times for the individual shots.
This is not to mention the lack of unionization in the VFX industry that leads to artist burn-out,
fast turnarounds, and outsourcing some shots to VFX houses offering the lowest bid,
rather than the best quality. This is admittedly an industry-wide issue,
and not just relegated to "Avatar: The Way of Water" — but still. It needs to be mentioned.
James Cameron has had a prolific career as an A-list director, and one of the main things
he's known for is his amazing action scenes. Even his epic period drama "Titanic" — which focused
most of its three-hour-plus runtime on a budding romance — still had an intense, pulse-pounding
40-minute climax, featuring some of the best action sequences in cinema history to this day.
"Ahhhhhhh!"
"Avatar: The Way of Water" is no exception. There are so many great action set pieces in
the film that rival, and arguably surpass, the 2009 original. This
includes an exciting futuristic train heist near the beginning of the film,
a scene where the evil RDA corporation chases down a herd of the sentient whale-like tulkun,
and the climax on the ocean where Jake Sully leads his family and the marine-based Metkayina
tribe against a newly-resurrected Colonel Quaritch and his gang.
The finale in particular is a really breathtaking sequence,
and showcases why Cameron is the top of the game in terms of action genre cinema. The
blocking is clear and precise, the spatial orientation is always legible, and there's
no overuse of either shaky-cam or the overdone Zack Snyder-esque slow-down/ramp-up technique.
James Cameron is no stranger to having long runtimes for his films.
1997's "Titanic," for instance, was three hours and 14 minutes. Even the
original "Avatar" wasn't anemic either, with a two-hour and 41-minute runtime.
While "Avatar: The Way of Water" may not be the longest film in Cameron's career — clocking in
at three hours and 12 minutes — it's still one of the longest mainstream Hollywood films in
recent memory, with only "Avengers: Endgame" coming close at a minute over three hours.
This is not to say that long runtimes are inherently bad — far from it. This year's
blockbuster Tollywood period action-adventure film "RRR" ran for three hours and seven minutes,
and is one of 2022's most financially and critically successful films worldwide.
However, "RRR," along with most of the three-hour-plus epics from decades past,
at least had intermissions, which is not the case for modern theatrical films. To be fair,
James Cameron has suggested seeing the movie multiple times if going to the bathroom is
a problem ... though that seems to be a solution that's more than a bit self-serving.
Whatever critics might say about the quality — or lack thereof — concerning
the visual effects in "Avatar: The Way of Water," the art direction on the film is
at least consistently phenomenal regardless. Honestly, the style of the film truly evokes
the aesthetic of the old Lisa Frank Trapper Keepers from the '80s and '90s — and that's
a good thing. The film is just so full of vibrant, saturated, and bright colors that
nothing else that has come out in cinemas for the last few years looks quite like it.
The production design is frankly next level, and stands head-and-shoulders above a lot
of other big-budget sci-fi films of the same caliber. There's almost no comparison to the
amount of detail that James Cameron has put into building every single nook and cranny
of Pandora. This includes the idyllic coastal Metkayinan villages and the militaristic RDA
corporate facility that contrasts greatly with the naturalistic Pandoran landscape surrounding it.
The various cool and exotic alien creatures in the sequel are often a sight to behold as well,
in particular the sentient whale-like tulkuns, or the "skimwing," creatures
that the Metkayinan Na'vi tribe ride which are similar to the flying ikran from the first film.
One of the biggest issues with the first "Avatar" was the story's
inherent "white savior" issue. While pretty self-explanatory, the term "white savior"
refers to an extremely outdated — and arguably white supremacist — narrative trope in fiction,
where a white person joins a group of marginalized people, and instantly becomes the best of them.
This fits the story of the original "Avatar" to a tee,
as a white man named Jake Sully becomes part of the Indigenous-coded alien Na'vi tribe on Pandora,
and ends up not only being the best of them, but also literally becoming their leader.
To be clear, this is not to say that "Avatar" is intentionally hateful or anything like that. But
it's not great when the film nonetheless reinforces harmful narrative tropes like
"the white savior" and "the noble savage," which fit the depiction of the Na'vi as well.
Unfortunately, "Avatar: The Way of Water" does little to alleviate these problems,
and in fact compounds them. Jake ends up leading an attack on the humans with not
just his own family, but also commanding the literal king of the Metkayina Na'vi tribe as
well. His negligent actions also lead directly to the devastation of many Metkayina villages,
which never amounts to much in the way of consequences for him.
James Cameron is known for making some of the best sequels of all time, whether it's
following up Ridley Scott's classic sci-fi/horror film "Alien" with one of the best sci-fi/action
flicks ever in "Aliens," or continuing his own "Terminator" tale with "Terminator 2: Judgment
Day," that somehow made Arnold Schwarzenegger's deadly Terminator loveable enough to cry over.
"Why the hell'd you do that?"
"Because you told me to."
In both cases, Cameron was able to find a way to turn those original stories on their heads,
but also made sure that what made those films work in the first place remained
intact — such as keeping the xenomorphs scary, or letting both "Terminator" films be explosive,
bloody, and thrilling. The same goes for "Avatar: The Way of Water."
Cameron keeps what worked in the first film — the amazingly-rendered environments,
the anti-corporate message, and the deep spiritual mythology — and adds some new,
much-appreciated wrinkles. One of the most narratively satisfying additions to the
sequel is the inclusion of the Metkayina clan, an aquatic-based Na'vi tribe living on the beaches
near Pandora's oceans. The initial tension between Jake and the Metakayina, as well as
a sense that the Na'vi tribes have long-standing prejudices against each other, makes the world
feel much more real and nuanced. It also raises the stakes by making fighting off the humans that
much harder, which also reflects Indigenous struggles against colonization in our world.
Stephen Lang is a great actor. In many of his roles, he's able to effortlessly exude extreme
intensity and menace, including his performance as "Avatar" main antagonist Colonel Miles Quaritch.
"You crossed the line."
In that first film, Quaritch thematically represents the military arm of capitalistic
imperialism, as the massive corporation RDA contracts the Earth military to aid
in Pandora's colonization — which is based around wiping out or enslaving
the native Na'vi population to ease efforts in exploiting the planet's special resource,
unobtainium. Lang does a great job in the role: he's just the right mix of arrogant,
strong-willed, and scary to be a worthy adversary for the heroes.
However, he's also a bit one-dimensional. It's fine for the story that "Avatar" tells,
which is more about Jake Sully discovering and learning to love Pandora and the Na'vi;
it makes sense that more screen time and narrative real estate is given to that plotline,
rather than developing Quaritch as a character. But unlike fun or interesting villains like
Loki or Hannibal Lecter, Quaritch is just not compelling enough to bring back. As written,
he was always just a stereotypical military guy.
To be fair, Cameron does attempt to add layers to Quaritch in "Avatar: The Way of Water" —
particularly his relationship to his left-behind son, Spider. Still though, even that's hacky and
cliché in its own way, hearkening back to the fact that so many villains have daddy issues already.
Like any good spectacle-filled action epic, there are a lot of applause-worthy moments sprinkled
throughout "Avatar: The Way of Water." However, none are as crowd-pleasing as the scene where a
banished tulkun — a massive, sentient whale-like creature that is a vital part of Metkayina
culture — jumps out of the ocean to completely decimate an RDA-funded tulkun-hunting vessel.
Honestly, the banished tulkun character – who is befriended by Jake Sully's youngest son,
Lo'ak — is a highlight of the film in general. The bond that forms between Lo'ak and the banished
tulkun has all the hallmarks of a classic "A Boy and His X" story, but done extremely well.
The subplot takes its time to tease out the banished tulkun's tragic backstory,
as Lo'ak initially discovers the tulkun covered in injuries with
remnants of Earth tech embedded in its hide. The film's extended runtime also
allows for the tulkun and Lo'ak's deep friendship to grow naturally,
and makes the tulkun's redemption in helping the Na'vi fight the humans that much more satisfying.
As an actress, Sigourney Weaver is a nerdy fan-favorite, starring in many
classic sci-fi genre staples over the years such as "Galaxy Quest," all but
one "Ghostbusters" film, and — of course — as Ellen Ripley in the "Alien" franchise.
Weaver returned to star in Cameron's "Avatar" in 2009, where she plays Dr. Grace Augustine,
a highly-regarded xenobotanist on Pandora who is also the head of the
"Avatar Program" that puts human minds into Na'vi bodies. Dr. Augustine is also
sympathetic to Pandora and the Na'vi, unlike a lot of her human colleagues.
"You need to listen to what she says. You need to see the forest through her eyes."
Unfortunately, she dies before the end of the first film, after an attempt to resurrect her
at the Tree of Souls fails. Surprisingly, like Lang, Weaver returns in "Avatar:
The Way of Water." However, unlike Lang, Weaver returns as a new Na'vi character named Kiri,
the adopted teen daughter of Jake Sully and Neytiri. Unfortunately, despite her best efforts,
Weaver playing a teenager is simply too distracting to work. Weaver, of course,
is an amazing actress, but it's still not enough to hide the fact that she is starring
alongside actual young adults as her siblings. Though her Na'vi form looks like a young,
blue Sigourney Weaver, the voice doesn't, and it comes off as unsettling more than anything else.
Whatever James Cameron's faults are as a storyteller, his lack of subtlety is not one
of them. Say what you will about "Avatar," but the themes of anti-capitalism are very
clear and well-defined in that film. The audience unambiguously witnesses the violent,
devastating effects that careless, untethered capitalistic greed has on
the beauty and balance of nature, and how its lust for infinite growth also leads to
the genocide of entire cultures, like the Na'vi — or Indigenous tribes in real life.
This anti-capitalist messaging is thankfully maintained in "Avatar: The Way of Water." In fact,
that message is expanded upon in the new film. We find out that there's a whole operation run
by the RDA, where they round up and slaughter entire families of tulkun simply to extract a
single vial of brain fluid. Meanwhile, the corpse of the whale-sized creature is left to rot in
the ocean. This is reminiscent of the wasteful and inhumane whaling practices on Earth today.
One of the best characters from the original "Avatar" film was the proud and strong Na'vi
warrior Neytiri, with Zoe Saldaña of "Guardians of the Galaxy" fame doing the vocal and motion
capture performance for her. In fact, Neytiri's beauty, strength, and bravery are the main reasons
that Sam Worthington's Jake Sully switches sides, deciding to protect the Na'vi from
the invading human army. She is Jake's — and the audience's — guide to the wondrous world
of Pandora, and her and Jake's love story is the emotional crux of the entire first film.
"But this woman must also choose me."
"She already has."
Unfortunately, in "Avatar: The Way of Water," Saldaña's Neytiri is pretty much sidelined
for most of the film's arduous runtime. She mostly plays the cliché role of the concerned
wife and mother, usually in the background fretting while Jake and her children get to
do all the narrative heavy lifting. There are even some very uncomfortable moments
when Jake forcefully shuts her up after she brings up valid complaints. Yikes.
To be fair, the sequel shifts the focus away from Jake as well, since the story
is a generational one about their kids, instead of them. But Jake still gets a lot more to do
in "The Way of Water," while in the first one, Neytiri and Jake's importance to the overall
narrative was much more equal. Also, while it's true that Neytiri gets to be an awesome warrior
during the climax, it's also kind of a "too little, too late" situation at that point.