3 Short Paragraphs (Or Not): Avatar: The Way of Water

2022, James Cameron (True Lies) -- download

How is James Cameron still a house hold name? Titanic was in 1997. And this movie's predecessor, in 2009, is the only fictional work he has done since. Sure, he's done a lot of producing and documentary material, but shouldn't we have forgotten all this by now? How is he getting a sequel almost 15 years later? Sure, it was talked and talked and talked about since the first one generated such buzz, negatively and positively but even that fizzled out. So, why? And that's with me being unabashedly a fan of the first. I just don't understand and of it. I guess he's made enough money to whatever the fuck he wants, passion projects and all that?

Anywayz, given it comes in at just over 3 hours, it took a few sittings to get through. And, as I totally expected, it was quite enjoyable. What wasn't expected was that it isn't really all that epic. Much of the three hours are expositional, re-introducing you to the world of Pandora (ahem; the moon...), and catching you up on what happened since Jake Sully and his blue Na'vi allies kicked most of the humans off the lush moon. Spoilers: it didn't take. But what comes afterwards is not so much an epic recreation of the Na'vi tribes fighting back against another human incursion but a smaller story of Sully and his grown up family fighting back against an old nemesis, a fight that doesn't really account for the bigger picture. Remember, there will be more movies after this.

The movie picks up 16 years after the first, (re)introducing us to a world where the remaining humans work along side the Na'vi, where Jake has raised a family with Neytiri, including two teenage boys, a younger daughter and their adopted daughter Kiri, who was Grace Augustine's avatar body's daughter. No, they don't really explain how that came about, but suffice it to say, it was a way for Sigourney Weaver to be in the film again. Jake is raising this family in bio-luminescent bliss when.... yeah, did you really expect the company RDA to just roll over and show their belly? They come back, in force, with lander ships that literally burn off the forest homes of the Na'vi, probably killing off most of the population we knew, sending Jake and the survivors hiding in those floating rocks from the first movie.

A year later, a time frame that didn't sit well with me, as the teenage boys have aged considerably, but fits well for the response, in which there is now a full city in the crater left by the lander, and Jake & family fight a guerilla war against the new interlopers. And guess who's back? Quaritch didn't let a little thing like dying keep him from coming back to take revenge on Jake Sully. Apparently, the military likes to clone special people, syncing up memories and whatnot. In a video recorded for his not-dead, and currently embedded in an avatar, self, Quaritch explains everything AND dials up the vendetta.

Jake learns of Quaritch's return and decides that makes the remaining Omitikaya (of the trees) a target. Not sure why this would make them any more a target than their current attacks on everything human, but whatever, it gives Jake pause and drags his family off into the unknown, the watery abode of Metkayina, greener skinned, fishy tailed, deep sea diving folk who lives on protected shoals and have a tight relationship with Pandora whales. 

Also, of note, Jake was raising a human child, now teen, left behind when the rest abandoned the moon, because babies cannot go into hypersleep/space/whatever. And its Quaritch's kid. And he is captured by Quaritch. And they make some toxic bond.

So, yeah this is all super extended setup so we can focus the bulk of the movie on Quaritch hunting down Jake & Family. And also lots of expositional, but totally enjoyable World Building all around the contentious relationships around tree folk trying to integrate with water folk, despite the challenges present. Its all rather beautiful and touching and the whales are people too.

The final third of the movie has Quaritch hitching a ride on a whaling boat, because Unobtanium is no longer the resource that RDA is focused on exploiting. The newest, hottest, weird stuff is basically Pandora Whale pituitary gland goo, that allows humans to live forever. Not sure if they knew that before Jake kicked RDA off the moon 16 years ago, or they have just learned that in the year of their return, but this wholly reprehensible activity makes us hate RDA all the more. They capture and kill the whales, just to extract a minor amount of glowing goo, and dump the rest back into the ocean. And considering that whales are obviously people here... 

So, we don't get a massive battle between RDA's new army and The Jake Sully Army; that is likely left for however many movies are left in this new endeavour. Instead we have Quaritch and his Avatar Buddies vs Jake Sully Family, with allies the Pandora Whales and some Metkayina. I do have to admit, I liked the less than epic confrontations, the more personal agendas, and the amount of new World Building that was allowed to happen. Immersive CGI is now a fully expected beast, so we expected that 98% of the movie was computer generated and didn't begrudge it. The few humans on screen were usually Bad Guys, along with a smidge of allies and a smidge of those suffering moral quandaries. 

But all that recap done, what did I think of it? It was OK, which is my usual direction for movies these days. The Oh Wow factor of the first is obviously not attainable and we already know I am not going to do a pan of James Cameron - I will leave that to K'ent.

In the alternate reality I just side-stepped from, Kent had written a post for rewatching all the Terminator movies and included in it a commentary on how just doesn't care much for James Cameron; maybe I am misremembering the Aliens rewatch post. 

But this move is fully enjoyable for what it is, I just don't think its good enough to be a resurrection of the franchise nor as a sequel to a long standing, divisive movie. It had to be more than just OK, it had to be more epic, it had to re-set the stage for incredible visuals. But it didn't. And that is incredibly disappointing.