Avatar: The Way of Water – Film Review
By Manuel A. Melendez
On December 16, 2022, after thirteen years of developing the technology needed to film motion-capture underwater, shooting the live-action mo-cap, visual effects breakthroughs, and pandemic delays, Avatar: The Way of Water finally made it to theaters. With Cameron’s fascination and propensity for powerful, water-driven narrative, does The Way of Water live up to expectations?
Before we, ahem, take a dive into what makes this first of four sequels flow or recede, please understand one thing: James Cameron understands the ocean better than most of us ever will.
From his very first film, Piranha II: The Spawning (1982), to the aggressively underrated The Abyss (1989), all the way to the leviathan that continues to be Titanic (1997), two deep-sea documentaries, Ghosts of the Abyss (2003) and Aliens of the Deep (2005), and now the first of four planned sequels to Avatar (2009), Cameron’s filmography has always thrived when immersed in the depths of oceans and under the waters he certainly does not take for granted. Since becoming a vegan in 2012, Cameron has fully supported and funded efforts towards sustainable agribusiness, the mitigation of climate change, and the combating of industrial disasters like the Deepwater Horizon oil spill—all while continuing to build his own universe, Pandora, the world of the Na’vi introduced so many years ago and that will now give audiences worldwide a peek at its colossal oceans and coasts, the place where, I suspect, Cameron feels most at home.
It is, then, no shock to discover that The Way of Water comes fully to life during its second act, when Pandora’s world expands and the Sully family voyage to the eastern seaboard of the planet, the home of the Metkayina clan. Just as the flying sequences from the original film were a favorite for viewers back in 2009, the underwater sequences of the sequel are clear highlights of the new innovations in visual effects and 3D technology that has made both Avatar films possible. Cameron has always championed and celebrated the pioneering efforts of visual effects wizardry, responsible even for the creation of the very first computer-generated 3D character: the pseudopod from The Abyss (1989). That work of art won his visual effects team the very first Academy Award for Visual Effects ever given to fully CGI-rendered effects.
Everything coalesces when Jake and his family and the other characters venture out into the ocean worlds of Pandora, from the ethereal qualities the music takes (which is otherwise a soporific affair from Simon Franglen) in these sections and the closest it comes to emulating James Horner’s lovely original themes for the original film (Horner passed away in 2015), to the spectacle of the effects work, astounding in detail and enormity, to the sheer overwhelming nature of Cameron’s ability to still weave real movie magic through his expert editing and composition. Even now, no one puts together action quite like Cameron. The arrival of one underwater creature, in particular, is the catalyst for the film’s gentlest and most beautiful subplot, while simultaneously being responsible, later on, for the film’s one real cheer-worthy moment. Quite simply put, the film is breathtaking when it explores the nether regions of Pandora, taking its cues from the full-bodied nature of Flight of Passage, the Avatar flying-simulator ride found in the Animal Kingdom at Disney World, a journey that, alongside more than one moment in this film, left this reviewer in tears.
What about the times the viewer is left above the surface, then? Well, that’s where the film loses some of its luster and Cameron’s deficiencies as a filmmaker become most apparent. As the first act unfolds, viewers are given a relatively perfunctory overview of Jake Sully, played by Jake Worthington (still a worthless narrator and a lifeless protagonist), and Neytiri, played by Zoe Saldaña (still fierce with her bow but given shockingly little to do in this installment), and the new life they’ve embarked on since the end of the first Avatar, a life that now includes five children: three their own and two adopted. The first act is unfortunately quite weak, but it does set up the rest of the story, and though Cameron has never been a strong dialogue-writer, he remains an expert storyteller precisely because he understands cliches, tropes, and audience expectations—the film is three hours even without the end credits (featuring a horrendous song by The Weeknd), but not once did I feel the time. Performances from the cast range from adequate (Kate Winslet, in particular, in a minor role, flounders with mo-cap acting, overselling many of her lines) to good (Cliff Curtis plays Tonowari, the leader of the Metkayina clan, with sufficient gravitas and heart) to promising (Sigourney Weaver plays Kiri, Jake and Neytiri’s adopted teenage daughter, and manages to do so with enough believability for most audience members to forget she is also the voice of Ellen Ripley from the Alien series, a feat in and of itself), but none stand out as crucial pieces to the story’s puzzle, even as Kiri, alongside Lo’ak (Jake and Neytiri’s second son, played by Britain Dalton) and Miles “Spider” Socorro (Jake and Neytiri’s pseudo-adopted human son, played by Jack Champion with admirable commitment), begin to take center stage as the second act gives way to the third, or, as everyone knows in a post-Marvel Cinematic Universe world, the act where everything blows up and everyone fights. I commend Cameron for taking risks in this final act, however, leaving character reveals or fates unanswered even as seeming threads for the next sequels begin to appear. But that’s par for the course nowadays, anyway.
Thankfully, most of The Way of Water takes place at sea, and it is still supreme entertainment because of this. But that’s all this is—entertainment. The work put behind the scenes is all over the screen, and for that, no one that has made the Avatar films possible needs to apologize. Sometimes movies are made to be enjoyed, and as a viewer like any other, I confess that Cameron has done it again.
And what of the box office hopes for The Way of Water? Since it cost anywhere from $350 to $460 million and because it was shot simultaneously with the third sequel (95% of which has completed shooting), even Cameron admitted that this film needed to dominate theaters until the next Marvel Cinematic Universe behemoth arrived (Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania, released on February 17). With a domestic gross of almost $660 million and a worldwide total of $2.240 billion as of this past week, it’s safe to say Cameron and his Na’vi will return to theaters in 2024 for Avatar 3.
Is this revolutionary storytelling? Absolutely not. Will it convert non-fans of Cameron’s work into devotees? Also no. Are these films worthy successors of the blockbuster genre? Undoubtedly.
By all means, go to the Regal Goldstream cinema, snag a 3D seat in the middle of the fifth or sixth row, procure the largest tub of popcorn imaginable, accompany it with a frosty-cold beverage, and let Cameron do his thing. As with all pure adventures—this is one that is meant to be experienced, not merely seen, and as cinematic escapism goes, there will be nothing out on big screens quite like this for a long time yet.