Avatar: The Way of the Water (2022)

Title: Avatar: The Way of the Water

Year: 2022

Genre: Adventure |  Action | Sci-Fi |

Runtime: 192 min

Director: James Cameron

Starring: Sam Worthington, Zoe Saldana, Sigourney Weaver

7.8/10

Jake Sully lives with his newfound family formed on the extrasolar moon Pandora. Once a familiar threat returns to finish what was previously started, Jake must work with Neytiri and the army of the Na’vi race to protect their home.

Avatar is back.

Three months later, I still don’t know whether it is a good idea that James Cameron still makes these films. The fascination of the first one was the mesmerizing visual effects and the interception between two different worlds combined with an enigmatic story. That was then. We have moved on from the world of ugly, tall, blue people disillusioned through Cameron’s ambitious project.

This 3-hour snooze-pill with decent CGI, as the whole movie is animated, does not provide an impressive return. In this sequel, the same formula was given in the 2009 original film but with a new family, a tribe and a character returning after death. What’s weird is that Weaver both a teenage girl and Grace, speaks and interacts with each other. Like so many other films with James Cameron, he is obsessed with the military. For an expensive film with up to $250 million USD, it’s a craphole show. It takes forever to move into the grounded conflict.

For some, this is a necessary escape route from their ordinary lives. Cameron is a capable director for use of an update on an old plot. A most character has weird bad haircuts, does weird stuff along the way and follow a Hollywood formula that ain’t new. We have seen this before and just because the world is a little different, it doesn’t change the first impression of such a movie. The revenge plot is expected yet an exciting feature. It’s first at the end the story delivers on the hype.

In some regards, the special effects do the job but as the water is a big deal in the film, it still doesn’t look like it has improved since the first film. Most effect shot does make the action sequences look fake. These characters are very generic written, doesn’t have deep personality and don’t exist outside of the story. Although Neytiri is a fascinating character that’s saved by Saldana’s performance. Kiri is also an interesting character that probably will go far in this long-term series.

Can’t but wonder why Cameron insisted on making a similar story and why wasting so much time and money on such a generic franchise.