Avatar: The Way of Water (Mini-Review)

Avatar: The Way of Water is the sequel to Avatar (2009). Over a decade after the first film, Jake Sully is leader of the Omaticaya clan with Neytiri and their four children. His peace is ruined when humans return to Pandora. Once it's revealed that a cloned version of Colonel Miles Quaritch and his team are hunting Jake's family, the human turned Na'vi retreats with his family to the Metkayina reef people clan. While Jake's family learns how to adapt to their new home, Quaritch continues to hunt Jake. Avatar: The Way of Water was released in 2022. It was directed by James Cameron. It stars Sam Worthington, Zoe Saldaña, and Sigourney Weaver.

This movie doesn't have any post-credit scene. However, during the first part of the credits there's a scene of tulkun (whale-like creatures) swimming.

Jake Sully and Neytiri are secondary characters in this sequel. It reminded me of 'requels' that have legacy characters but don't focus heavily on them so as to help viewers become interested in the new characters. Jake's family has a lot more to do in this film than he does. The two family members that get the most attention are Kiri and Lo'ak. Kiri was birthed from Doctor Grace Augustine without anyone knowing how. She also has special abilities. Lo'ak has one of the stronger, if not the strongest, character arcs of the movie.

Colonel Miles Quaritch has one of the most interesting backstories of the movie. He died at the end of the first movie and yet the company won't let him stay dead. Instead they saved his memory and put it into an avatar. As there's a term for what he is now, a Recombinant, this might be standard practice. Besides dealing with hunting Jake, he also reconnects with his son that goes by the name Spider. He's the only character I care about seeing in sequels. Well...him and Kiri. As there aren't any answers about what is going on with her in the sequel.

This film looks stunning, I saw it in IMAX 3D, but it has a bloated runtime. The biggest part of the film that drags on for too long is the final battle. As the battle goes on it makes less and less sense why people don't leave. At one point during the final battle a character points out that they can't believe they are in the same position as the start of the battle. Since it really doesn't make sense. There are scenes earlier in the film that drag on but at least it's showing off the graphics. The one thing I wanted when going into this movie was to see breathtaking scenery. I didn't trust the plot to be deep as the original Avatar had a very simple plot.

One major problem I have with the film is the backstory of the tulkun. Nature is beautiful because it defies any semblance of human morality. Even in its darkest moments, it is wonderful. So having the tulkun be pacifists and abhor any violence doesn't make sense. In fact it is a perversion of the natural world. It's putting human morality where it doesn't belong. Their pacifism seems to be in the film only to explain why such powerful creatures aren't fighting back against the humans hunting them.

I would highly recommend Avatar: The Way of Water to fans of the first movie as this sequel is more of the same. I would also recommend Avatar: The Way of Water to those looking for a beautiful science fiction film.