“Avatar” still stands to this day as the most successful box office hit of all time. The sequel, “Avatar: The Way of Water,” also became a huge hit, garnering close to $2 billion at the box office worldwide, and claiming its spot as a top ten highest grossing movie. Its stunning visuals and outstanding digital effects are definitely one of a kind. Although the special effects were an impressive feat, the story itself is questionable leaving viewers wondering if it was the movie of the decade or an empty spectacle.
Most viewers felt the special effects were stunning but sort of detracted from the plot itself. Senior Angelina Alkhouri shares the same sentiment.
“The cinematography was really nice and overall it was a great production but the storyline was a very typical Marvel type movie and I felt like it was too long,” Alkhouri said.
In this movie, the character development is clearly not as fulfilling for the viewer as the first movie. In the first movie, Jake is a marine who initially has the goal of mining a valuable resource in the land of Pandora but later changes his motives to protect the land and the Na’vi who reside there. This character development is very strong and emotional, while for the second movie Jake initially wants to hide from the danger the humans pose to his family but then realizes he cannot, so he fights which can be perceived as a little dull. Sophomore Leo Chen felt this dullness as well.
“The visuals are pretty good for watching inside the theater but the storyline isn’t as good as the first one,” Chen said.
Moreover, the character motivations are on the thin side. Sully decides that instead of gathering the forest tribe to fight the humans that he will bring his family to the water Na’vi to hide. The problem with this is that it is counter to the logic that brought his family and his tribe enough peace. What director James Cameron was probably going for was to show that Sully has changed his priorities after he starts a family from an ardor for fighting to an affinity for protection. Overcoming hesitancy to fight does not make the most attractive action movie.
The antagonist motivations are also muddy in this movie. The “sky people ” including Colonel Miles Quaritch, who returns with his consciousness transferred to a Na’vi body comes back to try and hunt down Jake who killed his human form in the previous movie. At some point in the movie, it feels unproductive to show this vengeance story, but it serves as a buildup for the great action scene at the end which is what Cameron strives for the most.
The second act where Jake and his family get to the water part of Pandora feels more like a special effects exhibition than a contribution to the story. The scenes are beautiful but it dampens the trajectory of the plot and it makes the audience ask themselves questions like “why am I seeing this?” In an attempt to create a visually beautiful movie, it seems the production team dedicated less time to the script-writing.
The Na’vi used a lot of modern vernacular language like “bro” and “cuz”. Cameron and his production team were probably looking to cater to the younger audience but one could have interpreted it as cringy.
“Avatar: The Way of Water” will definitely be a memory similar to that of the first “Avatar.” Visceral, pretty to look at, and complete eye candy, but the plot is mostly forgotten. Nonetheless, one cannot doubt James Cameron’s ability to create an entertaining blockbuster movie. With the huge success that both films have generated, there is no doubt the franchise will continue and it will be interesting to see how it plays out.