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Posted in: 20th Century Studios, Kaitlyn Booth, Movies | Tagged: 20th century studios, avatar, avatar 2, Avatar: The Way Of Water, james cameron
Avatar: The Way of Water Review: Visually Stunning & Utterly Mediocre
Avatar: The Way of Water struggles under the weight of thirteen years of expectations and fails to be anything other than mediocre when it comes to anything other than the visuals.
Director: James Cameron
Summary: 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 came out in 2009 and became one of the biggest movies of all time. The technology and its use of 3D was something that most audiences hadn't seen before. The movie literally made more money than the GDP of small countries, it was a wild time to be alive, but when people talked about Avatar, they didn't talk about the story or the characters. They talked about that world or that technology but not the characters or the story. That's not necessarily a bad thing; it's not a terrible idea to take a fairly basic story and put a whole new coat of paint on it. That's why, when Disney was making a ride based on Avatar, they basically made a sightseeing tour because the world is the thing people remember. However, it does mean that Avatar was in a weird place when it came to sequels. They have been in the works for years, but it took until now for Avatar: The Way of Water to finally get released. Now that it's here, James Cameron has done the same thing yet again; he has released one of the most visually stunning movies ever that serves as a backdrop to an incredibly mediocre story.
There is not a single story beat throughout the entire runtime of Avatar: The Way of Water that you won't see coming a mile away because we've seen all of these story beats a million times. Something that is hard to ignore is the fact that the world is very different than the world of 2009; we have seen high fantasy and buckwild science fiction on both the big and small screen over the years. Perhaps, if this movie had come out within two or three years from the first movie, it would have felt more groundbreaking. However, there has never been a better time to be a giant nerd, and Avatar is incredibly nerdy. There isn't anything new or interesting here conceptually that we haven't seen done before or better over the years. It makes the film feel dated in a way because there is this lingering knowledge that a version of this story could have come out in 2011 and lit the world on fire. There just isn't much to set it apart, aside from the visuals, in 2022.
Cameron has said that they heard the criticism of the first movie, and they attempted to really lean into the characters this time around. By doing that, he centers large swatches of the film and the story on the children of Jake and Neytiri and a human child that had to be left behind because he was too young to evacuate. Avatar: The Way of Water spends the entire runtime attempting to make you care about these children characters, but they are extremely poorly written to the point that they become frustrating. The characters in Avatar are already incredibly archetypal, but they move straight into being cliche and one note when it comes to the children. Children and teenagers are not small, dumb adults, but Cameron apparently doesn't think these Na'vi children have basic common sense.
They apparently got that from their parents since Neytiri is the only parent with a single brain cell. The movie spent large swatches forgetting that she existed so they could focus on the children instead. Jake is praised for being a good leader and warrior, but we don't see that within the narrative. The entire movie is based on him making a stupid decision that doesn't make any sense if you spend more than two minutes thinking about it. Jake, someone who spent most of his life as a human being and knows what technology humans have, should know better, but he doesn't. Everything about the narrative is derivative and could have used a fresh coat of paint.
And that is what the visuals of this film should be; that fresh paint over all of these cliches and story points we have seen a million times. There are moments when Pandora feels and looks so insanely beautiful that you truly believe that it is real. There are moments when you are staring at that IMAX screen, trying to ignore the budding migraine from the eyestrain, awestruck by these oceans and forests that Cameron has created. Those moments are wonderful, and, at its core, Avatar: The Way of Water is the ocean scene tour of Pandora that will often take your breath away. However, those visuals are not enough to sustain an over three-hour runtime, and there are moments when Cameron doesn't seem to have confidence that his world can tell a story on its own.
The "show, don't tell" is all over the place for Avatar: The Way of Water. The opening prologue starts poorly in this regard as we catch up to everything that has happened since the first movie by using narration rather than visuals. But the most egregious example of Cameron not letting the world of Pandora speak for itself is in the second act. Jake and his family take refuge with Na'vi that live by the ocean. The entire second act is Jake and his family learning the ways of these new Na'vi and how their way of life will change. However, none of this is just shown to us on the screen through organic storytelling. Instead, everything is explained to people in meticulous detail. There will be people who want to know all of those details, but they should be saved for encyclopedias, not for the film. Cameron is so caught up in the world he created that he is convinced not a single detail should be left out or not explained carefully. However, this world is beautiful, and we don't need characters to explain things. We can simply learn the customs of these new Na'vi by seeing Jake and his family assimilate without narration.
Avatar: The Way of Water is a three-hour ocean scenic tour of the world of Pandora and not much else. Everything else crumbles under the weight of thirteen years of hype, expectations, and the inevitable passage of time. In another universe, a version of this film came out a decade ago and cemented the legacy of this franchise as something that will truly stand the test of time. In this one, the already shaky foundation this series is sitting on is starting to develop more cracks, and the final legacy of these films could be nothing more than gorgeous visuals and the best ride in the worst park in Walt Disney World.
NOTE: In terms of the 3D and how it might impact people with eyes strain issues or who are prone to migraines, as someone who very much struggles with my eyes, if anyone is going to be affected, it's going to be me. By the end of the film, which I saw in IMAX 3D, my eyes hurt quite a bit, but I didn't have a full-blown migraine. I was nauseated, however, which has only ever happened two other times when films gave me severe vertigo [Everest, The Walk]. Take that as you will.
Avatar: The Way of Water
5/10
Avatar: The Way of Water struggles under the weight of thirteen years of expectations and fails to be anything other than mediocre when it comes to anything other than the visuals.
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