“Jake Sully and Ney’tiri have formed a family and are doing everything to stay together. However, they must leave their home and explore the regions of Pandora. When an ancient threat resurfaces, Jake must fight a difficult war against the humans.“
Title: Avatar: The Way of Water
Cast: Sam Worthington, Zoe Saldana, Stephen Lang, Vin Diesel
Director: James Cameron
After 13 years since the premier of the first Avatar, James Cameron comes with his long awaited project of Avatar: The Way of Water. It took 13 years of technological development to allow Cameron to take his cinematic craft to the water realms. Avatar 2 takes place 10-15 years after the first film where Jake Sully (Sam Worthington) and Neytiri (Zoe Saldana) make a life for themselves on the planet Pandora. All is safe after Sully joins the Na’vi and has 4 kids of his own. He and Neytiri raise their kids in the forest and teach them how to become experts in the terrain. Of course, the kids are somewhat half breeds of human and Na’vi, but their skills are nonetheless fierce.
Meanwhile, Colonel Quaritch and a group of about 20 other military members are cloned into Na’vi avatars. Just like Jake Sully, they are now part Na’vi and have their physical traits. They were copied due to their deaths, and are told to find and kill Jake Sully. After invading the forest, they almost capture Sully’s kids in the forest but ultimately only capture one kid, Spider (Jack Champion), a human kid who has adapted to the Na’vi ways. Knowing what the humans are capable of and the destruction they may bring, Sully and his family flee their village and travel to the nearby water village of the Metkayina Clan located off the shores of a large reef area.
Here they are greeted with hostility. For one, the Metkayina have different physical features that make them very agile in the water. They are able to hold their breaths for a long time, their arms look like small paddles with webbed fingers, and their tails are much larger. Na’vi on the other hand are designed for trees. At the same time, the Metkayina leader and his wife do not want to bring any war to their village. But, due to the respect that they Metkayina leader has for Sully, and their virtues to always fight and protect, they bring them in and teach them the way of the water.
The rest of the plot shows how the water people live and how Sully and his family learn how to ride the water creatures and become acquainted with the Tulkun, the large whales that swim nearby. Each Metkayina has a bond with a Tulkun, almost as if they are brother/sister and the bond between the two is sacred. Colonel Quaritch spends his time trying to find Sully while connecting with Spider, as he is the son of someone Quaritch was very close with. Spider is now forced to lead the military to the Na’vi as he can speak the language and translate. Quaritch gains intel that Sully is located amongst 100 islands, and goes searching for the one he is on.
What did I think of the film? First, let me start with the Pros. For starters, Avatar 2 is the best film of its kind of producing the most real looking CGI characters and effects as well as creating an immersive world. The film was mainly spending time creating a highly immersive world that feels real. In fact, there were multiple times I forgot that I was looking at CGI created land and objects. The lighting and graphics that the producers used for this film are world class. In fact, Cameron waited so long for technology to develop in a way that would allow him to create these shots and effects underwater. The wait was worth it as this film was every graphics and animation student’s dream. The way Cameron built this diverse planet with different clans and species is truly an epic.
If you come to watch this movie, show up for the effects and CGI, not the dialogue. One problem about this movie is that IT WAS LONG. The cinematic shots were great, but they were so drawn out to the point where they almost felt cheesy in some areas. The dialogue between characters felt a little underdeveloped as well. There were many dialogue moments that felt like they did not belong, which made the film somewhat choppy. This movie tried to have a sub-plot with each kid and honestly, I could not keep up with them. The dialogue tried for some meaningful character development but it honestly got lost between everything else that was going on. This movie could have been probably 45 minutes shorter and I think it would have done the job just as well if not better. Many moments felt ruined or underdelivered due to cheesy dialogue.
Nonetheless, I still enjoyed this movie and experiencing the new-age of graphics and CGI. I give this a must-watch strictly for those aspects. I do warn though, after about one hour of the film, the dialogue makes this a little boring to watch.
