Avatar: The Way of Water Review

Avatar 2 is a brilliant rehash o the first movie.

Avatar: The Way of Water. Image credit: 20th Century Studios

Avatar in 2009 was a big success and significantly impacted the direction of distribution and digital filmmaking. Of course, a lot of changes have come in digital technology since then, so one can only expect things to improve. But is it even possible to expand upon an already brilliant movie? Apparently, nothing is impossible for James Cameron. Avatar: The Way of Water has turned out to be engaging and surprising, despite the fact that the original movie was already full of amazing visual effects.

Yet once again, James Cameron managed to amaze the viewers with the stunning visual effects and the setting. The plot of Avatar: The Way of Water is more focused on interesting characters. It serves as a gap and shows us what really happened after the RDA decided to retreat from Pandora.

Avatar pilot and now a Na’vi, Jake Sully starts a family with Neytiri as they both are now leading the Omaticaya tribe. The family now has two adopted children along with three biological ones, and that is the main driving force that causes Neytiri and Jake to go into exile after the RDA starts plundering again.

This time, General Ardmore is leading the entire expedition. The early scenes give us some important details about the status quo. The movie is not short by any means. Avatar: The Way of Water is 190 minutes long. However, at every point, the movie successfully reinforces the plot elements.

Furthermore, it is quite amazing how an entire decade of advancement in technology has changed Pandora on the screen. The results are truly magnificent. Of course, the film does give viewers some looks at the forest seen in the first movie. However, the remaining part of the film is set in the seafaring Metkayina tribe’s territory. It is an underwater ecosystem, which turned out to be no less than a pallet for Cameron to paint on. And he did a damn good job at it.

The underwater life gives Pandora more life and an even deeper purpose. We see rainbows bouncing off the waves of the sea, with marine life that has been designed with great thought. But of course, there also come times when the tranquility is non-existent, after all, the movie has to feature some explosive action. And again, Cameron does not fail at it.

Avatar: The Way of Water delivers the most complex action sequences in a very thrilling and readable way. These sequences are designed in such a way that it becomes difficult to take the eye off the screen, even for a brief moment.

Nevertheless, the larger plot of Avatar: The Way of Water revolves around the environmentalist interests of James Cameron. Along with that, we see familiar archetypes that a clear message that the good guys in this film are the Na’vis. At the same time, it is shown that the bad military guys are less important individually as compared to their collective plundering presence.

It appears that significant effort has been done to revive Stephen Lang as the primary villain of the movie. He plays the role of Miles Quaritech, who carries a drill sergeant persona from the past. It is nothing but a vessel to carry the colonialism aspects of Avatar: The Way of Water. But nevertheless, Lang keeps the character extremely interesting.

Miles Quaritech has been given another chance to take revenge along with some new physical prowess. This increases his presence and threatening side. Of course, what you would expect from a military guy of his stature and nature does not flesh out his vendetta.

Overall, Avatar: The Way of Water has been an absolute success. However, not much is surprising about that since it was already very hyped after the success of the first movie, more than a decade ago. Nevertheless, what actually matters is Cameron’s ability to expand on an already rich universe and successfully outdo himself. Would there be a third Avatar movie after this? Reports say that a third Avatar movie may be in production and would be set to release in 2024.

At this point, the Avatar universe has expanded significantly. It would be interesting to see where the franchise goes next and whether it continues to outdo itself as it did in Avatar: The Way of Water.