Movie Breakdown: Avatar: The Way Of Water
Pre-Screening Stance:
The Avatar franchise exists in the weirdest space. The original film made a gazillion bucks, but it’s always felt easier to find people who like to shit on it than it is to find those that love it. Now, the sequel is here, but it took so long (and cost so much) to get made that it’s already talked about like a misstep James Cameron. Why is that? He’s certainly hit far more than he’s missed throughout his career. In any case, I like the first movie and I think The Way of Water looks good.
Post-Screening Ramble:
To start here, the screening I attended had some issues. I was able to view the first 20 minutes or so in 3D, but then that element stopped working and I watched the rest of the film in 2D. Was what I saw incredible? Yes. Do I know if it got tiresome or remained jaw dropping for the entirety of the film’s three-plus hour runtime? Nope.
As for the film itself, I can’t give it high marks. The basic story is that humans (or sky people, if you’re nasty) have returned to Pandora, and they’re coming in hot because they need it as a replacement for a dying Earth. Angry military man Quaritch (Stephen Lang) is also back, but not as a human. Instead his memories have been imprinted onto his very own avatar, and he (along with many of his best goons), have been tasked with hunting down Jake Sully (Sam Worthington). Once Sully and Neytiri (Zoe Saldana) realize that Quaritch is out for them, they gather up their gaggle of kids and go into hiding with a Na’vi sea clan. As they learn the ways of their hosts (i.e. the way of water), Quaritch hunts them.
Frankly, there’s far, far, more to it than that rundown, and that’s really where I struggled with the film. I don’t know if James Cameron got carried away with wanting to set up the third movie or what, but from front to back, this thing is so cluttered. Even if my life depended on it, I couldn’t begin to name all of the characters that get spotlighted in this film. It also doesn’t help that so few of them feel like they’re in the same movie, which causes the tone to be all over the place, which then makes for a lot of cringey moments and a number of unintentionally funny bits. I was also surprised at how much of a brutal bummer many parts of it are, like the gratuitous whaling scene. My guess is that James Cameron felt the need to double down on the “humans are a plague” motif from the first film, but I think it makes The Way of Water more of a slog than anything else.
Avatar: The Way of Water sure looks nice and there are some moments that’ll blow your mind, but the movie itself is not an overall enjoyable experience. Or at least it wasn’t for me – maybe you’ll be dazzled. Good luck! The film opens tomorrow, December 16.
One Last Thought:
I legit laughed out loud when the credits hit the screen and the Weeknd’s contribution to the soundtrack started blaring. What an absolutely oddball choice.
