Big Jim is back baby! Yes, James Cameron is taking us back to Pandora in the sequel to 2009’s box office monster, Avatar: The Way of Water. Returning from the first film are Sam Worthington (Jake Sully), Zoe Saldana (Neytiri), Sigourney Weaver (returning as Kiri, an adopted daughter of Jake & Neytiri born from Dr. Grace Augustine’s avatar), and Stephen Lang (Quaritch).New additions to the Pandora story are Kate Winslet (Ronal), Cliff Curtis (Tonowari), Britain Dalton (Lo’ak), Jamie Flatters ( Neteyam), Trinity Jo Li Bliss (Tuktirey), Bailey Bass (Tsireya), & Jack Campion (Spider). Warning, a few plot points are mentioned ahead but nothing in the the spoiler category.

Taking place 10 years after the events of the first movie, Jake and Neytiri now married have a family of four children consisting of two boys, Lo’ak & Neteyam, and two girls Kiri, and Tuktirey Aka Tuk. Kiri is the daughter of Grace Augustines avatar who died in the first movie. In addition to their 4 children they also take care of an adopted human boy named Miles Aka Spider, a boy who was left behind after the Navi defeated the humans in the first film.On top of being a father, Jake is now the chief of his own tribe. The military makes their return to Pandora to continue their mining of the planets resources ( no unobtanium this time around), and also conducting a pl mission to kill Jake Sully for revenge for destriying their operation in the first movie. Quartich returns to lead the charge to kill Jake but this time as a younger avatar version whom the militray were able to trasfer his DNA into before his death. Quaritch has a group of marines in avatar forms as well who were all killed in the first movie. Sensing that his family are in danger with the return of Quartich, Jake and his family head to the safety of a Navi tribe living on the eastern seaboard called the Metkayina. Once there, the new translaplants begin learning how to live in the water and understand the new people they live with and the creatures they share the ocean with. An event occurs that brings Jake and the Metkayina people in conflict with Quartich and his marine group. Is Avatar: waterworld worth spenidng 192 minutes in the theatre for? Lets discuss some pros and cons.

Pros:

The movie is visually incredible. Shocking right? Their ais much discussion out there about if James Cameron is wasting so much time making these movies, but I think if you can make a movie look as good as this is and put in so much detail into every shot,character,creature, wave, than I say let him keep doing it if he really wants to. Wieather you choose to see this movie in a 3D format or a regular format you will be amazed either way but be advised if you go to see it in 3D that it will look like a video game but personally it didnt really bother me.

Cameron adds emotional beats for this movie that help raise it to a higher level than the 1st film. These emotional beats come through the struggle of Jake to protect his family from the ongoing danger while they also try to adapt to a new world that they can survive in. Much like the first first, a big theme in this movie is the relationship of these characters to the environment they live in and the creatures they share it with. The Metkayina trible shares deep personal connections with all the life in the ocean, to the point where they can speak with them, this is played to great emotional affect in the end of the second act and in the 3rd. I will say out of all the performances in the movie the one who really steals the whole thing is Zoe Saldona , particuarly in the final hour where she really excels. .

Cons:

With so many characters in this movie, a majority of them being new, the movie really has a tough job at times giving eveyone their screen time and development. The first 45 minutes of the movie has a lot of focus on Jake and how he leads his family, the middle of the movie focuses a lot on Lo’ak and Kiri, and than the third act just kinda shoehorns everyone else in. You really dont learn a lot about the new Metkayina characters accept for the fact that they have a bond with the ocean. It felt like for a large part of the movie Jake & Neyteri were sidelined while trying to jump around with their kids and the new tribe characters. A chartcers that really could have been scrapped is the charcter Spider, a human boy who lives with the Navi. He is literally running around the whole movie in a Tarzan type outfit going back and forth between the Navi and the marines, while developing a romance with Kiri. It just didnt flow (no pun intended) with the story and the character could have been cut off for the best. Outside of that I wouldnt say there arent any other bad performaces here but a mjaoirty of them are just not exemplorary. Like the first film though, many of these characters are not memorable. For me personally I found myself a bit bored at times especially in the middle acts which never happened with me in the first one.

Plot wise the movie has a pretty simillar template the first movie. Characters go into a unfamilliar environment, must adapt and learn among the new people, develop bond with the enivornment, fight off evil invaders. Though obvioulsy not identical to part 1, the criticism is valid that Cameron prioritized making people go “WOW look at this” over making a different story. And yes, at 3 hours and 15 minutes, the movie does feels like it could be significantly shorter, give or take a few characters, and plot points. I dont have a problem with a movie being 3 hours long as a lot of my favirote movies are 3 hours, but when you are watching something and you think “do we really need this?”it can make the experince a bit sour. If anything though, the runntime is defentley worth it when you make it to the last hour which is nonstop action, and some very brutal kills even for a PG-13 movie.

Review:

Avatar: Way of Water is another beautful, technical marvel in James Camerons arsenal, but the abundance of characters with scatterbrain development are what keep it from being one of his best, though the movie is still full of breathtaking action and delivers strong emotional moments. 7.5/10.