The original Avatar stands alone at the top as the highest grossing movie at the box office in history. Its recent rerelease into theaters pushed it back above Avengers End Game. So clearly James Cameron showed in his opening movie of the franchise that it could be a big money maker. So Disney not only backed Cameron’s vision, they gave it an absurd amount of money to create the sequel. So for Avatar: The Way of Water to be successful financially, it has to be in the top five highest grossing films of all time. That is a serious vote of confidence for this man and his vision, but he has a great track record outside of Avatar, and so far, the money has been flowing into the box office.
Ten years had passed since the war between the Na’vi, and the people who tried to colonize their planet for natural resources, and Jake had risen to power amongst the tree people, but as he says, peace and happiness can change in an instant. Some humans were allowed to stay on Pandora for scientific research purposes, but new ships are arriving, and they are not there for research. Quaritch has returned, and he has had his consciousness implanted into a Na’vi, and so have some of his old military friends, and their sole purpose is to seek revenge on Jake. After an encounter that results in Jake’s family almost being captured, and that did result in Spider, a human that was raised by the Na’vi, being captured, Jake decides it is best to try and hide. So he takes his family from the tree kingdom to the water kingdom.
The ruling family of the water land is not too friendly to start out. The kids start fighting, and this hurts the relationship between the parents at first. After some tense moments, the kids eventually start to get along, and Quaritch is coming, and he does not care what burns in his wake, so the water kingdom must rise to face a great enemy. The Tulkans are whale like creatures that live in the ocean that are revered by the Na’vi, but the humans have started to kill them to extract some fluid from their brains. Quaritch finds this out, and he decides to use it as another way to hurt the Na’vi, so he starts hunting the tulkans out in the open for everyone to see, and this draws out Jake for an epic battle.
The first movie was mainly focused on colonialism and the military industrial complex. They were just trying to extract unobtanium, and they did not care what they were destroying to get it. This is also true in this movie, but it is more about environmental terrorism. There are humans out in the ocean on boats hunting tulkans, and when they kill the tulkan, they drill into their brain and extract a fluid that is worth a lot of money on Earth. After they get the liquid, they just dispose of the rest of the carcass as waste. The tulkans are incredibly intelligent creatures. They communicate with the Na’vi, and they are basically family members, so when the humans start to kill them, there could be no greater offense, and it is made even worst so, because they are just wasting the rest of the carcass after. In the world of Native Americans, which the Na’vi are based on, if an animal is killed, like a buffalo, the whole animal is used, there is no waste. It is also very similar to how humans actually treated whales to get their oil, and how they hunted many of them into endangered species.
Quaritch and his goons are also burning the other villages after their interrogation. This is just totally unnecessary. The towns, that the water Na’vi built, are basically all made from a rope like material and wood, so when it is lit on fire, everything burns. In a way, this is also an act of cultural terrorism. In the original, they killed the massive tree where the Na’vi lived, but it is so much more than just a tree, it is their connection with the Earth. It is where they lived and their ancestors. The same can be said of the infrastructure that the water Na’vi had built.
Both Avatar movies are good, but these things listed above also make them hard to watch. Although it is a fictional story, it is largely based on how humans treated other humans, and still treat other humans. The colonizers who came to America basically did this to the Native Americans, and they slowly forced them out of their homes, in some cases very violently. So while watching one cannot help but feel guilty for living on land that was unfairly stolen, and in a way that resulted in the decimation of so many people. On the syllabuses of Syracuse University classes, they literally have a clause in there talking about how this land was Onondaga Nation land, and growing up in Georgia, which was also a key place for Native Americans, watching the movie just makes the heart sink down into the stomach.
Looking past that, this movie is truly an immersive experience, especially if it is seen in IMAX 3D, as it was intended to be seen. This was like nothing that I have ever seen before. The CGI was stunning, normally CGI is used as a point of complaint in movies, but in this case, it was a massive strength. In the first movie, I thought all the night scenes looked great, but in the daytime, I was unimpressed. The same cannot be said for this film. At worst, it looked like the most realistic video game ever, and at best, it felt like you were transported to another world. The water scenes were special as promised, and the new creatures that were invented for this movie also fit the world well. It is almost indescribable how amazing this looks. The commercials on the tv do not do it justice at all.
The problem with the movie is that it is three hours and ten minutes long, and lot of that time is just spent to look at how amazing the world is, which is cool, but it definitely could have been trimmed down. At times, there was a total lack of plot, and the story was not being advanced in any meaningful way. When they were focusing on the plot, it was well done, especially at the end. The final action set piece was amazing, and it followed the main line of the story more so than any other part of the movie. The other problem is that at the end of the movie, it feels like nothing was really accomplished, and that everyone was basically back in the same situation as they were. So I do not like how that sets up the third movie.
This was a great movie, it definitely has it moments where it feels like it is stretching long, but it does things that no other movie has done before, and that helps build it up. My biggest recommendation is that it is seen in IMAX 3D. It is a totally different experience than any other movie. I cannot say that I would go and see it again, but if they had a special showing for just the last hour, when the movie is climaxing, I would do it. The end action sequence is amazing! I gave this movie 4 stars.
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