Avatar: The Way of Water

 

Gillipedia Official Rating: Because when the first one makes 2b, you don’t not make a sequel

Score: 6/10

          If you’ve heard middling to great reviews for the Avatar sequel, that’s exactly what you’ll see here too. I saw this movie in 3D in a packed theater, and everyone’s opinion ranged from it was okay to it was great. I am seriously shocked that this film is nominated for the Golden Globe for Best Picture – Drama because I fall into the crowd that it was fine. Let me explain.

          We can talk about the long gap between movies, how scenes were shot 4 years ago, how utterly expensive this film was to make, etc., but let’s focus on the product at hand. Despite my score and initial reaction from above, I want to first say that this film is beautiful. If you plan to see it in theaters, 3D is honestly the way to go—and this is coming from a guy who doesn’t even know what the last 3D film I saw was because I don’t like chalking up the extra bucks (I think it was like an adorable panda movie at a museum). Where the first film was ground-breaking in its innovative motion-capture, this film truly takes things to the next level. My understanding is they even filmed some motion-capture underwater for some scenes, and even with that knowledge, I still have no idea how they pulled off what they did.

          From the very start of the film, when you’re looking at the Na’vi and Avatars, even the texture on their blue skin is the most realistic visual effects I’ve ever seen. And it doesn’t stop there. Even the motion capture they’re using is crisp and the movements look and feel natural. One big complaint I’ve had with Marvel visual effects is characters occasionally looking rubbery in their movements. And there’s a section in the film about 45 minutes long where the whole The Way of Water subtitle comes into play with a new setting in their world of Pandora, and the audience is treated to tons of water sequences, new Avatars, and many new creatures. And it’s gorgeous. It truly reminded me of the ride at Disney World, and in this movie you really get to sit back in 3D and marvel at this incredible world around you. You'll see sunsets with this fake but so realistic water glistening, and you will wish you were on Pandora at that point.

          And the above paragraph is the high marks I can’t ignore about this film. I feel bad about any other film that gets nominated for Best Visual Effects because it truly isn’t a competition. Surrounding that roughly 45 minutes of pure wonder, however, is a subpar plot with uncompelling characters.

          It takes about an hour of the film to quickly remind us that Jake, Sam Worthington’s character, married Neytiri (Zoe Saldana), and they now have some children of their own. The bad guys of the film, humans, retreat after their unsuccessful attempt at that unobtainium and return to Earth. We go through a few years as the kids get a little older, but there’s also one character with a baffling background…

          I remember Sigourney Weaver playing a good doctor in the first film. She got injured or something, tried to fully connect with her Avatar, it didn’t work, and she died. But through some weird cloning/pregnancy/I don’t remember because it was like two lines of dialogue, we have another kid Avatar that is basically raised by the Jake household. Her name is Kiri, and I hope you’re ready for a big subplot involving her connection to Pandora and not knowing who her dad is, and I hope you’re also prepared for it to be setting up more plot points in the sequels because it doesn’t get resolved here.

          Along with the strange Kiri, the kids hit very familiar marks. The eldest son obeys Jake’s orders willingly and wants to prove he can grow up to be a strong leader while the younger son is more rebellious but has a good heart that Jake fails to recognize at time. There’s also a human boy that sticks with the Avatars, and while I wished his character was given less screen time just because he wasn’t interesting, it becomes apparent later on that he’s one of the bigger characters in the story due to his background. And boy is that background a doozy.

          You remember Stephen Lang’s one-faced villainous marine from the first movie? First, the human boy in this film is his son. Second, are you wondering who the villain is in this film? Well, the humans took DNA from some main players and technology has reached far enough to successfully implant a person’s DNA into a new Avatar. So Lang’s memory’s are put into a new Avatar that is both that boy’s father but also technically not since he himself is a clone. And it’s easily the thing I hate the most about this movie. Oh yeah, you remember the one-dimensional villain we had the first time? Let’s literally clone him. So once again, this clone named Quaritch played by Stephen Lang is the villain, and humans are the overarching villains having returned to Pandora about 15 years later because Earth is dying and they now need to colonize Pandora to start anew.

          One more thing really quickly. Sigourney Weaver’s cloned daughter Avatar thing is like a 14-year-old girl—still played by Weaver. It’s kinda stupid, but Weaver actually kills it in her mannerisms, and I didn’t even know it wasn’t a child actor until I learned it after the movie was over.

          To avoid spoiling the plot, basically what you might care about is the humans are specifically hunting Jake and his family, and this forces a tough decision on their part to leave their home. They come across aquatically adapted Na’vi with more webbed limbs and greenish tint to the standard blue creatures. Again, the world building is incredible, the water effects and creatures are breath-taking, and I fully embraced the new setting.

          But it doesn’t last as the Jake clan attempt to fit in while the humans continue their search. Throughout the film are multiple action scenes, and by and large, all of them are too long. There was one single moment of action that truly stood out—a guy’s arm gets ripped off—and that’s it. Everything in the motion-capture looks fluid and great, but there’s just so much excess. And this is highlighted by the climax of the film. The last hour of the film is a huge sequence with multiple characters fighting their own battles. I didn’t emotionally connect much with the characters, so I didn’t care much about the tension, and by the end, I really just wanted it to be over. Because to make that sequence (and the other action scenes) as long as it was, you have to manufacture tension and force characters into tight situations that they have to think on their feet to come out of. And every big character has their own situation going on. Which is really where the deviation in how people feel about this film come into play. If you really connected with the film throughout, you’ll feel very invested in the outcome of the final battle; but if you’re like me, then you’ll start getting agitated that this already long movie keeps going on pointlessly. This is not The Godfather where more scenes about the family makes me care more about what goes on around because the actual character drama doesn’t feel novel.

          I don’t remember the last time I saw the original Avatar, and I do want to factor in how ground-breaking the technology for that film was for the industry in the decade following; however, I actually still think this film expands on the world of Pandora in a way that is better than the first film. James Cameron also honestly deserves a Best Director nomination. Forget about the plot; how he's able to pull performances from his cast and imagine the world around is truly remarkable, and I still honestly have no idea how he even was able to make this film. And when I have no idea how you do what you do, that will always earn high marks from me. And for the animation, I have regarded Blade Runner 2049 as my favorite visual effects of all-time, but from a pure technical perspective, The Way of Water has no rival and it’s not even close. This film is beautiful beyond measure, and the few extra bucks for 3D is worth it. I’m beyond frustrated by the stupid villain, some of the subplots are completely unnecessary and more than content with being resolved in the sequels, and the plot is disappointingly underwhelming. Which is why this movie is just fine. You don’t have to watch it, but if you do, seeing it in theaters in 3D is easily the route to go for that experience. Also, I can’t tell you how often I mistakenly called this movie The Shape of Water. It was in development so long that was actually probably its original title before Guillermo del Toro won Best Picture.