TL;DR Review: Avatar: The Way of Water is everything I thought it would be. A dazzling, kinetic, soaring spectacle that knocks 99% of other blockbusters out of the park, despite some minor plot and character stumbles (4.5/5☆)
Synopsis: Jake Sully and Ney'tiri have formed a family and are doing everything to stay together. However, they must leave their home and explore the regions of Pandora. When an ancient threat resurfaces, Jake must fight a difficult war against the humans.
Do people still care about Avatar?
In quite an ironic fashion, the most persistent bit of discourse surrounding 2009's Avatar in the decade since its release is whether it was still culturally relevant or not ("can you even remember the main character’s name?").
The Way of Water's incredible box office performance so far should put this argument to rest. Avatar is memorable. It just happens to be memorable for the exact opposite reason that, say, the MCU became such a pop culture sensation. The MCU captured people’s hearts because we followed the characters and build-up in plot in the same fashion as a long-running TV show. Avatar, meanwhile, has remained in public consciousness not for its characters but almost solely for its epic filmmaking, spectacular world and sweeping other-worldliness. It’s a quality much sought after in other movies and seldom captured.
The same is absolutely true in the sequel however I think the characters are more likable overall since there's less focus on the American 'sky people' soldiers and more on the Pandora natives. For every James Cameron-ism in the script (cliché dialogue, an oddly structured plot, slightly overcooked finale), the visual storytelling makes up for it in spades. Unsurprisingly, this is an absolutely dazzling blockbuster that captures a sense of wonder and beauty that very, very few films in the last decade have, if any. Disney, Marvel & DC's fully rendered CGI environments feel positively hollow and lifeless compared to a single frame of this.
The Theatrical Experience
It’s difficult to review films like Avatar: The Way of Water because they provide the biggest disparity between the experience you have in the cinema vs the movie that it becomes upon rewatch at home on a standard TV set up. Other films I am thinking of are Dune, Dunkirk, The Batman, Everything Everywhere All At Once, Mad Max: Fury Road and Avengers: Endgame (the latter less to do with spectacle and more the novelty of the hype).
If we’re judging Avatar: TWoW based on the story, it holds up better than the 2009 original, but still not perfectly. The plot is refreshingly simple compared to the convoluted blockbusters of late, but it’s also paced unevenly, with a couple of plot points introduced late in the game and a slightly bloated middle. The characters are classically James Cameron, so if you enjoy his style of action writing (think Aliens) you’ll like it. Personally, there are aspects of it that aren't my cup of tea - the men are typically macho and heroic, the women guided by their hearts and the villains mustache twirling. I also think Ney'tiri, by far the strongest character of the first film, is a tad sidelined in the first half of the film. These things aren't deal-breakers by any means, especially on a first time watch.
On the other hand, Avatar: The Way of Water, just like the original, is one of the best experiences you will have in the cinema. I will touch on this later on, but it is a stunning achievement that Cameron manages to yet again create a one-of-a-kind spectacle in an entertainment landscape that has recently been defined by spectacles. In 2009, the novelty of the fully motion capture environment was enough of a draw, but nowadays fully CGI environments are more common and video games like Horizon Forbidden West have breathtaking visuals. Even with that in mind, TWoW feels lightyears ahead of its blockbuster peers, not only in how it technically utilises its motion capture technology (the facial capture, the water, the creature design!) but in how it evokes wonder. This could have easily been a clinical, technical masterpiece but without its sense of magic, it would have been for nothing.
I'd be interested to see how this holds up at home. I think I'll enjoy watching it without the 3D which enhanced the underwater scenes but was distracting elsewhere, but I do expect the film will feel longer without the theatrical immersion. Weaker elements like the pacing, side-characters, antagonist and HFR (High Frame Rate, a technique also notably used to middling effect in the Hobbit movies) might be more noticeable.
A Visual Masterpiece
It’s almost pointless going on about the technical mastery of the Avatar because it's all been said before. The world is beautifully realised, from the differences in which the different tribes live to the harmony between everything in Pandora's vast ecosystem. The motion capture is stunning, capturing each tiny expression, movement, and familiarity between characters. The CGI models are so detailed, you can see individual hairs and scars. In short, its as technically cutting edge as movies get.
However, having this alone wouldn't make for a great movie. It might make it a great technical demonstration (a perfect comparison is 2019's The Lion King, which was hard to fault CGI-wise but completely clinical and soulless in every other regard). No, it’s James Cameron and his crew’s skill at utilising their technical wizadry to tell Avatar's story that creates the breathtaking experience. It’s things like the camera following the characters as they soar through the skies, the music (by Simon Franglen) twinkling as they explore the beauty of Pandora's underwater environments and the dynamic stunt choreography during the action sequences. The motion capture may be best in class, but it’s the actors who breathe life into characters and flesh them out beyond the restraints of how they are written on paper. I haven't been this swept up in a world since 2021's Dune.
To see such deliberateness in capturing sci-fi wonder is something that has been sorely lacking in cinema - everything nowadays feel murky, grey and cut to hell. (This movie makes Black Panther: Wakanda Forever's underwater sequences look positively atrocious in comparison and do not get me started on that live action The Little Mermaid teaser). This is the pinnacle of blockbuster filmmaking. Where the characters might be too generic to be truly iconic, the uniqueness & detail of the world is undoubtedly going to stand the test of time
Despite my initial trepidation of Cameron's bold plan to make five Avatar films without gauging audience interest for them, I am glad that the first of his sequels is doing well. If 2022 has shown anything, it's that audiences are craving well-crafted, sincere blockbusters - The Batman, Top Gun: Maverick and now Avatar: The Way of Water are changing the game for what modern blockbusters could and should be.
Thank you for reading this review of Avatar: The Way of Water (I almost typed The Last Airbender throughout this review!). What was your favourite blockbuster of the year?
What was your favourite 2022 blockbuster?
Avatar: The Way of Water
Top Gun: Maverick
The Batman
Black Panther 2/Dr Strange 2/Thor 4/ Spider-Man 3
I do not own any of the images used in this post.