Movie Review: Avatar – The Way Of The Water

Avatar: The Way Of Water, a sequel to the highest-grossing film in the world, has hit the screens amidst sky-high expectations. James Cameron, the mastermind behind the epic story of Avatar and its sequel, already revealed the story in the trailers itself. Still, he makes the movie a great experience to watch with his outstanding characterizations and screenplay.

Set more than a decade after the events of the first film, Avatar: The Way of Water begins to tell the story of the Sully family (Jake, Neytiri, and their kids), the trouble that follows them, the lengths they go to keep each other safe, the battles they fight to stay alive, and the tragedies they endure.

James Cameron’s direction is splendid. The genius filmmaker once again gets it right. He takes his own sweet time to establish the world and the conflict, and in the third act, he goes all out in giving viewers a an exceptional experience. As expected, he handled the scale flawlessly. We saw the fascinating world of Pandora in the first part. Here, it shows a different part of the moon, and the underwater element enhances the visual impact. Follow SpotLife ASIA for the latest news and updates.

On the flip side, nothing much happens in the first half. Like the first part, James Cameron does the build-up and helps viewers understand the world before commencing the action bit in the second half. While the intent is understandable, one still does get a bit impatient, especially due to the long length.

Cameron locates everything universally good in the Pandoran people and everything evil in the human beings; in a fable, that might have worked. But “The Way of Water” isn’t intended as a fable, but as a profound environmental pronouncement. In that context, Cameron’s self-hating humanness seems reductive and naive, not the product of serious thought but of an impulse to show off.

The gravity with which Cameron presents the Pandorans would be laughable, if only it were just a little more fun. “My grandfather gave me that bow on his deathbed!” Neytiri says of her bow and arrow. Of course, he did. Death is a major production on Pandora. Folks say something wise and amazing, just as their spirits ascend to join their ancestors.

In terms of narrative sophistication and even more so dialogue, this $350 million sequel is almost as basic as its predecessor, even feeble at times. But the expanded, bio-diverse world-building pulls you in, the visual spectacle keeps you mesmerized, the passion for environmental awareness is stirring and the warfare is as visceral and exciting as any multiplex audience could desire.

What’s most astonishing about The Way of Water is the persuasive case it makes for CGI, at a time when most VFX-heavy productions settle for a rote efficiency that has drained the movies of much of their magic. Unlike other directors who have let technological experimentation at times smother their creative instincts — Robert Zemeckis and Ang Lee come to mind — Cameron thrives in the artifice of the digital toolbox.

Working in High Dynamic Range at 48 frames per second, he harnesses the immersive quality of enhanced 3-D to give DP Russell Carpenter’s images depth and tactile vibrancy. Skeptics who watched the trailer and dismissed the long-time-coming Avatar sequel as a video game aesthetic hybrid of photorealism and animation that ends up looking like neither may not be entirely wrong. But the trippy giant-screen experience, for those willing to give themselves over to it, is visually ravishing, particularly in the breathtaking underwater sequences.

On the whole, Avatar: The Way Of Water is all about family and emotions. The film has breathtaking underwater visuals to make one dwell in the ocean world. The film runs at a slow pace and one needs to spend over 3 hours to enjoy the visual spectacle. If you are okay with lengthy runtime, give it a watch on the biggest screen possible to experience this crazy magnum opus.