Avatar: the Way of Water review
First of all I like this movie A LOT more than I thought I would. Similar to most everyone else, I didn’t remember much of the first Avatar movie but you don’t really have to. Avatar: the Way of Water is its own story (kind of) that builds off the main characters from the original. With the time that has passed and the new environment, there’s plenty that makes this movie stand on it’s own.
But before I get into spoilers we gotta talk about James Cameron. Here’s a guy that has bashed Marvel, DC and Star Wars in the past for their lack of family elements and that new stories need to be told.
This may come as a stunner but no one goes to see the Batman because they want to see how Bruce Wayne handles his work life balance. I deal with my own work life balance. I don’t want to see Batman fighting a custody battle trying to revive his relationship with his kids.
New stories are told all the time. Just because a movie doesn’t make $2 billion dollars at the box office doesn’t mean they don’t exist.
Spoilers
The overall story of Avatar: the Way of Water isn’t too different than the original. In one sentence, bad humans come to Pandora harvest a substance with the ultimate goal of inhibating the planet.
If you had told me before going into the movie that they essential cloned Colonel Quaritch as a Na’vi to kill Jake Sully I would’ve rolled my eyes so hard they’d be stuck in the back of my head. BUT the reasoning behind his coming back and making him a Na’vi made plenty of sense and did add a nice element to the story.
While it felt like it took a while for the movie to get to the water, it was really enjoyable once we did. The change of scenery made for great world building. We get a new race(?) of Na’vi people. They had very little to do with the war from the first movie and for all intense and purposes were essentially an island tribe. The scenes with exploration and the Sully family learning how to navigate the water were some of the most enjoyable of the movie.
Colonel Quaritch learning to live like a Na’vi was enjoyable as well. Didn’t need him trying to connect with his son that isn’t really his. A lot of that didn’t make much sense to me. Especially when the Spider saves him at the end. So are we just going to get the same bad guy for the third movie?? If the third movie is Jake Sully vs. Colonel Quaritch vol. III I might be out.
Some final quick thoughts:
This movie’s a ton of fun but I’ll probably never take the 3+ hours to watch it again
Neytiri using her bow and arrow were the best parts of the action scenes
Spider stunk
Every “bro” or “cuz” from the kids was the most forced, unnatural shit ever
What was the deal with the Australian army dude? “Get some!” ??? He’s straight out of a Michael Bay movie.
Sigourney Weaver’s daughter being the weird one made a little too much sense
Rating:
