James Cameron wants you to believe. He wants you to believe that aliens are killing machines, humanity can defeat time-traveling cyborgs, and a film can transport you to a significant historical disaster. In many ways, the planet of Pandora in "Avatar" has become his most ambitious manner of sharing this belief in the power of cinema. Can you leave everything in your life behind and experience a film in a way that's become increasingly difficult in an era of so much distraction? As technology has advanced, Cameron has pushed the limits of his power of belief even further, playing with 3D, High Frame Rate, and other toys that weren't available when he started his career. But one of the many things that is so fascinating about "Avatar: The Way of Water" is how that belief manifests itself in themes he's explored so often before. This wildly entertaining film isn't a retread of "Avatar," but a film in which fans can pick out thematic and even visual elements of "Titanic," "Aliens," "The Abyss," and "The Terminator" films. It's as if Cameron has moved to Pandora forever and brought everything he cares about. (He's also clearly never leaving.) Cameron invites viewers into this fully realized world with so many striking images and phenomenally rendered action scenes that everything else fades away.
STORYLINE
Maybe not right away. "Avatar: The Way of Water" struggles to find its footing at first, throwing viewers back into the world of Pandora in a narratively clunky way. One can tell that Cameron really cares most about the world-building mid-section of this film, which is one of his greatest accomplishments, so he rushes through some of the set-ups to get to the good stuff. Before then, we catch up with Jake Sully (Sam Worthington), a human who is now a full-time Na'vi and partners with Neytiri (Zoe Saldana), with whom he has started a family. They have two sons—Neteyam (Jamie Flatters) and Lo'ak (Britain Dalton)—and a daughter named Tuk (Trinity Jo-Li Bliss), and they are guardians of Kiri (Sigourney Weaver), the offspring of Weaver's character from the first film.
The film's midsection shifts its focus away from Sully to the region's children as Jake's boys learn the ways of the water clan. Finally, the world of "Avatar" feels like it's expanding in ways the first film didn't. Whereas that film was more focused on a single story, Cameron ties together multiple ones here in a far more ambitious and ultimately rewarding fashion. While some of the ideas and plot developments—like the connection of Kiri to Pandora or the arc of a new character named Spider (Jack Champion)—are mostly table-setting for future films, the entire project is made richer by creating a larger canvas for its storytelling. While one could argue that there needs to be a stronger protagonist/antagonist line through a film that discards both Jake & Quaritch for long periods, I would counter that those terms are intentionally vague here. The protagonist is the entire family and even the planet on which they live, and the antagonist is everything trying to destroy the natural world and the beings that are so connected to it.
Avatar: The Way of Water (2022)
Cast
Sam Worthington as (Jake Sully)
Zoe Saldaña as (Neytiri)
Sigourney Weaver as Kiri
Stephen Lang as Colonel Miles Quaritch
Kate Winslet as Ronal
Cliff Curtis as Tonowari
Joel David Moore as Norm Spellman
CCH Pounder as Mo'at
Edie Falco as General Frances Ardmore
Brendan Cowell as Mick Scoresby
Jemaine Clement as Dr. Ian Garvin
Jamie Flatters as Neteyam
Britain Dalton as Lo'ak
Trinity Bliss as Tuktirey
Jack Champion as Javier 'Spider' Socorro
Bailey Bass as Tsireya
Filip Geljo as Aonung
Duane Evans Jr. as Rotxo
Giovanni Ribisi as Parker Selfridge
Dileep Rao as Dr. Max Patel
Director
Writer (story by)
- James Cameron
- Rick Jaffa
- Amanda Silver
- Josh Friedman
- Shane Salerno
Cinematographer
Editor
- Stephen E. Rivkin
- James Cameron
- David Brenner
- John Refoua
Composer
Comments
Post a Comment