Avatar was a big deal when it came out in 2009 and it was the first movie outside of Star Wars that I saw multiple times in the theaters. I loved the visuals, the epic scope, and the sense that I was participating in movie-making history. The long-awaited sequel had a lot to live up to, could it live up to expectations?
I’ll save the suspense: The Way of Water clears the bar set by Avatar. You should absolutely see it.
But… it’s not better than the original. The Way of Water doesn’t improve the franchise like Empire Strikes Back or Godfather 2. Rather, it tells a similar story under altered circumstances. In The Way of Water, the Earthers (Sky People) are back in force, this time with marine Avatars led by the reincarnation of Colonel Quaritch, who force Jake Sully, Neytiri, and their children to go into hiding among the sea tribes. From there, the story follows many of the same story beats as the first Avatar, with several family dynamics thrown in for good measure.
It’s a decent enough story, with plenty of gee-whiz visuals, action, and interesting world building. We see the action hero Jake Sully struggling between his roles as clan leader, warrior, husband, and father and how those dynamics affect his family. It’s not breaking new ground, but it’s nice. Likewise, Colonel Quaritch gets a little more human even though he’s wearing a new Navi body. I wonder if he will turn from villain to tragic hero in future movies. The final act’s epic fight is exactly what one expects from a blockbuster movie and is just over-the-top enough to entertain without becoming cartoonish.
If there are niggles, it’s that even with clocking in at 3+ hours, some of the character development suffers and at some points you have to turn off your brain and just go with the movie logic of how things work at the fringes. I won’t ruin it with spoilers, but after watching, I was puzzling out what would have to be true from the Earth perspective to keep dumping money into Pandora, because the movie explanations — while compelling — don’t add up for me.
Have you seen The Way of Water? What did you think? I’d love to hear from you!
