Avatar: The Way of Water (2022)

After 13 years in the making and many false release dates we finally had the next Avatar movie. The early reviews for this movie was very mixed and I can understand why. It all depends on what you are walking into the movie expecting.

The Avatar movies are dark. They are a commentary on colonization and with that comes death and destruction. With this movie moving away from the forest and deforestation, it moves to focus on the seas and whaling. It was not only a commentary on modern whaling, but it also harkened back to the westward expansion and the massive destruction of bison just for their skins. Many times the animals were left to rot on the plains and just like that the humans on Pandora leave a wake of destruction for a special brain juice that can stop human aging. These darker themes can impact how people take in a movie.

Looking onto the processing platform of the whaling ship in Avatar: The Way of Water.

Looking into the belly of a modern whaling ship.

A Historical photo of a slaughtered bison that had been left to rot after people took its hide.

The main plot of the movie is Jake trying to find a safe place for his family while being hunted by human/avatars that are set on his destruction. This change of scene allows watchers to explore other biospheres on Pandora and see how different living conditions even impact the locals of different regions. As an anthropologist, I find these movies much more interesting then a lot of what is produced now a days because of the deeper conversations they can start.

Many of the same actors returned for their roles and then we also get some interesting new ones. One such character is Spider, played by Jack Champion. He was supposed to be a baby when the last movie happened and was too young to be sent back to earth. He ends up being raised by both the humans that stayed behind and the locals. In a way he is a child of both worlds that dose not fully fit into either. He ends up doing something he shouldn't have near the end of the movie that plays into this pull between the two worlds, but this event will be a driving force for at least one more movie. This is one of the few movies where I really feel that the actors poured their full being into the characters and it is easy for watchers to make emotional connections with the characters.

The special effects are even more amazing then the first movie. I have heard people criticizing the detail, but this one felt realer and less CGI due to the details bringing out the rougher details like skin texture. I normally have a hard time with 3D movies. I just have bad eyes and trying to watch them causes me to get headaches. For this movie I went with a group of people and the time slot we needed was the IMAX 3D only. I decided to just be ready for a headache and planned to just charge on. This movie was amazing with the 3D effects. I will admit that the largest impact was when they were under the water and less impressive when they were still in the jungle areas. Even with that, doing the 3D was totally worth it for this movie. I would highly recommend that everyone see this movie in 3D at least once. It made me understand why it took so long to make this movie.

This is one of the movies where I am not going to give my normal score. I'm doing this because it is not a normal movie and as I said in the first paragraph of this review, people will be impacted differently. I think that anthropologists and historians will have a deeper understanding of this movie and get different things from it then your average sci fi or fantasy geek will. The CGI was amazing, but when it comes to CGI there are people that just don't like it at all. For me this was a good movie. Would I watch it more then once... that's where the question gets harder for me. Personally I do not like dark or depressing movies. I find enough of that in our world and for me movies are an escape from the world. I do not enjoy movies that have darker emotional impact. I will just say that this should be watched and that everyone should build their own view of it.

Top Picture From: https://collider.com/avatar-2-the-way-of-water-james-cameron-zoe-saldana-interview/

Picture 2 From: https://www.polygon.com/23502100/avatar-2-way-water-delay-explained

Picture 3 From: https://www.coolantarctica.com/Antarctica%20fact%20file/wildlife/whales/whaling3.php

Picture 4 From: https://www.kshs.org/km/items/view/219947

Picture 5 From: https://www.cnn.com/2022/12/13/entertainment/avatar-the-way-of-water-review/index.html

Spider Picture From: https://www.cnet.com/culture/entertainment/avatar-the-way-of-water-ending-explained-and-some-lingering-questions/

Under Water Picture 1 From: https://ew.com/movies/avatar-the-way-of-water-james-cameron-scene-breakdown-interview/

Under Water Picture 2 From: https://www.hollywoodreporter.com/movies/movie-news/avatar-the-way-of-water-opens-box-office-1235284282/