AVATAR: THE WAY OF WATER (2022)

AVATAR: THE WAY OF WATER (2022)

Tagline: Nope. I guess when you spend $350 million on your movie, you can’t afford a tagline guy. 

(Action, Sci-Fi, Why So Blue?) [PG-13]

Then let's get it done.

In this one, Jake and Neytiri have had 3 kids and adopted 1. This is a non-spoiler review, so I am not going to say who they all are. As it turns out after years of peace the “sky people” or “earthlings” have returned to Pandora because the earth is dying. The ideas of Colonel Miles Quaritch have survived and rather than taking Pandora using accords and agreements, the new settlers are violent and ready to conquer but their efforts keep getting thwarted by Jake and the forest warrior’s raids. Now events have taken place to force Jake and his family to take drastic steps for the safety of all as it becomes clear, he is now target number one. 

I think the most glaring thing about this movie is that it’s 30 minutes longer than the original. If you ever watch that thing, it doesn’t feel like 2 hours and 42 minutes long. This movie feels every bit of its 3-hour and 12-minute run time. The crazy part here is that I saw this in broad daylight, so I didn’t go into this tiredness or anything. One thing this movie does not have going for it is being “new”. When AVATAR first came out, it blew people’s minds. This is mostly because the designs and ideas were all super new. We also didn’t live in a world that seemed quite as much like it was trying to scold us for waking up in the morning. I'll get to that later. 

So do we get anything really that new in AVATAR: THE WAY OF WATER? Well, design-wise, not really. One of the big sales pitches on this thing was all of the water moments we were getting. Kate Winslet (who did the motion capture for Ronal) broke Tom Cruise's underwater filming record from MISSION IMPOSSIBLE ROGUE NATION (2015) time, with a record of seven minutes and 14 seconds. So the water in this movie is real, but it’s not light years above the water stuff we’ve seen in other films. Honestly, there are a LOT of shots in AQUAMAN that looked aesthetically better. Even the creature designs in that flick were better. I also have to say that none of the promos I watched for this movie really captured my imagination the way the first film did. My other issue with this thing is that there are several things that we are shown that either don't make any sense or could make sense, but would have gone over better if they were explained. 

What is a giant improvement in this movie over the first one is the fact that Jake now has a family. The relationships between his kids and the other kids in the film. The character development is top notch and the story is actually quite a bit better while delivering an emotional punch. This thing really gets going in the last hour or so and it’s pretty spectacular when it does. So in spite of my points that sound less than enthusiastic, James Cameron and his crew gave us a thrilling cinematic experience that is still in the TOP 5 efforts of 2022 when it comes to movies. 

I do have some suggestions for this. Like the first movie, you want to see this in the biggest theater you can and in 3D if possible. Just the scale of this thing is beyond worth the $55.00 movie ticket you will have to buy to see it. Just kidding. I think they are about $18.00 or so in most areas, but just in case you live in a high-inflation area, bring $55.00. 

Regarding the amount of detail this film gives us, it’s probably second to none. You can tell the sets were expertly crafted and a lot of the mechanical designs are amazing even if they are familiar. Acting wise we get Sam Worthington again as Jake. His mannerism is right back to what they were in the first film and the way they do the follow-up, it feels very connected to the first film. Worthington is best known for AVATAR and the CLASH OF THE TITAN movies, but his best acting was in THE SHACK. We also have Zoe Saldana returning as Neytiri. She is about 100 times nicer to Jake in this one. Saldana is probably best known now for GUARDIANS OF THE GALAXY, but if this movie blows up, we will eventually get 5 AVATAR films. Joel David Moore returns in a lesser role for this one. Playing Norm in AVATAR is still probably his biggest role. I won’t give away too much about who else shows up because it might give away some more important plot points, but the cast overall is epic. 

Overall AVATAR: THE WAY OF WATER comes across as a bit preachy, but it’s a celebration of the importance of family and being a real man when it counts. So in other words, probably leave your “I wonder what the message is?” mind, at the door. If you think too much about that, it’s probably going to aggravate everyone one way or another. 

AVATAR: THE WAY OF WATER is a solid 6 out of 7 and something you definitely want to catch in theaters. Don’t wait for the streaming, it simply won’t capture everything there is to enjoy here. 

GRAPHICS ARE THE PROPERTY OF 20TH CENTURY STUDIOS AND ARE USED FOR REVIEW PURPOSES ONLY.