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December 18, 2022 – The long-awaited sequel to Avatar (2009) has finally arrived, and it certainly is living up to the hype. I usually wait until Monday to watch movies because the local theaters have Monday discounts, but scheduling conflicts caused me to watch the movie on Saturday afternoon in a very crowded theater. It was especially crowded for a 3D screening.
I've seen many a 3D movie alone in an auditorium during an afternoon showing (The 3D looks great, by the way). If this is any indication of the popularity of 3D, then reports of the death of 3D by nay sayers are greatly exaggerated. It seems to me that if you make a good 3D movie, people will turn out in droves to see it in 3D. Or maybe all the 2D showings were full. At any rate this movie seems to be another mega hit for Writer-Director James Cameron.
“Avatar: The Way of Water” (written by Cameron, Rick Jaffa and Amanda Silver) returns to the aquatic themes that Cameron has visited often before in movies like “The Abyss” (1989) “Ghosts of the Abyss” (2003) “Aliens of the Deep” (2005) and many other documentaries about undersea exploration. In 2012 Cameron himself became the first person to make a solo descent to the bottom of the deepest part of the ocean, in the newly-built Deepsea Challenger submersible craft (seen in the 2014 movie, “Deep Sea Challenge”). He has also been on other deep sea expeditions, including dives to explore the wrecks of the ships Titanic and Bismark.
An old foe from the first movie, determined to kill Jake Sully (played by Sam Worthington reprising his role) returns for revenge to the extra-solar moon Pandora in this film. The “Sky People” from a dying Earth return in force, causing massive death and destruction. A new resource in the oceans of Pandora leads to high tech whaling operations on Pandora as well.
Since Sully is a personal target, and not the Na'vi people as a whole, Sully decides to move far away from the forests and jungles he is familiar with to protect his Omaticaya tribe from attack. Sully reluctantly leaves, along with his wife, Neytiri (Zoe Saldana, reprising her role) their sons Neteyam (Jamie Flatters) and Lo'ak (Britain Dalton of “Ready Player One”) his daughter Tuk (Trinity Jo-Li Bliss) his adopted daughter Kiri and a human boy named Spider (Jack Champion of “The Night Sitter”).
Except for Spider, all of these characters appear as Avatars resembling the Na'vi or Avatar-Na'vi offspring. These offspring have some human characteristics, called “demon blood” features by the pure-blooded Na'vi. Kiri is a special case, a part-Na'vi offspring inexplicably born of the otherwise inert Avatar body of the late scientist, Dr. Grace Augustine (Sigourney Weaver, reprising her role).
Kiri seems to be a child of Eywa, a kind of planet-wide biological intelligence network, and also the deity of the Na'vi. In the first film, Grace's mind seemed to be absorbed into Eywa, and Eywa was able to access that information before deciding to utilize Pandora's life forms to combat the attacking Sky People.
Kiri has a special connection to Eywa, and is able to marshall Pandoran life forms to help her and her family and friends when needed. In one scene, she is able to connect directly to Eywa and telepathically commune with the spirit of her late mother, Dr. Grace Augustine, but she is overcome by the experience and suffers a seizure.
Sully, his family, and Spider flee far from the home of the Omaticaya, to a distant sea island inhabited by the ocean tribe of the Metkayina reef people. These Na'vi are a race with slightly different physical characteristics. They are adapted to being underwater for long periods of time. Like the forest tribes, they live in harmony with many sea creatures, using them for travel underwater and through the air. Sully, his family and friends, learn their ways.
Sully hoped to live in peace, far from war, but his enemies among the humans (including General Ardmore, played by Edie Falco of “Megan Leavey”) eventually locate him and attack him, his family and the Metkayina reef people. Members of Sully's family are taken hostage on a whaling boat, leading to a major battle. Several major players in this battle, including Spider, have divided loyalties and difficult choices to make as the battle rages on.
This film looks fantastic, with state of the art visuals, which are extremely imaginative and arresting. The acting is solid, and the action moves right along, despite the long running time (three hours and 12 minutes). The ending of the movie leaves the story wide open for sequels, and at least three more sequels are in the works. Let's hope the next movie in this series doesn't take 13 years to produce. This one was worth the wait, but the wait was way, way, way too long. This film rates a B+.
Click here for links to places to buy or rent this movie in digital formats, or to buy the soundtrack, posters, books, even used videos, games, electronics and lots of other stuff (no extra charges apply). I suggest you shop at least two of these places before buying anything. Prices seem to vary continuously. For more information on this film, click on this link to The Internet Movie Database. Type in the name of the movie in the search box and press enter. You will be able to find background information on the film, the actors, and links to much more information.
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