Avatar: The Way of Water (2022) dir. James Cameron

Avatar: The Way of Water is a science fiction epic and the follow up to James Cameron’s wildly successful 2009 hit, “Avatar.” In 2010, Cameron announced plans for two more sequels with the first aiming for a 2014 release. However, the project was delayed several times due to limitations with performance capture technology in underwater scenes. He spent much of his time in preproduction finalizing Pandora’s ocean ecosystem and the lifeforms found there. In 2016, he announced that in addition to The Way of Water, three other sequels were in development for a total of five movies. Filming officially began in 2017 with three years of shooting scheduled. 

Similar to its predecessor, The Way of Water was a massive box office success. At the end of its theatrical run, it had a worldwide gross of $2.320 billion. Becoming the highest grossing film of 2022 and the first post-Covid closure movie to hit the $2 billion mark. Beyond that, it is the third highest grossing movie of all time, behind Avengers: Endgame and the original Avatar.

The film was nominated for four Academy Awards including Best Picture, Best Sound, and Best Production Design. It won the Oscar for Best Visual Effects. 

Sixteen years after the Na’vi defeated the Resources Development Administration and expelled them from Pandora, Jake Sully is now chief of the Omatikaya clan and raising his family of four with Neytiri. Neteyam is the oldest, a disciplined young warrior following in his father’s footsteps. Lo’ak is the younger and more reckless of the boys. Tuk is their youngest and Kiri is their adopted daughter, born from Dr. Grace Augustine’s dormant avatar body.

The RDA returns to Pandora with a vengeance and Jake leads a guerrilla warfare campaign against them. They have successfully implanted the memories of deceased human soldiers in the bodies of Na’vi avatars. Among them is the memories of Quaritch, who Jake previously defeated at the end of the first film. Quaritch nearly captures Jake’s kids as hostages, before they narrowly escape.

When it becomes clear that Jake and his family are the primary target of this counterinsurgency, they must flee their home in the forest for fear of attracting human soldiers to their clan. They arrive in Pandora’s eastern sea where they meet with the aquatic Metkayina clan. Chief Tonowari reluctantly agrees to let Jake’s family into their fold, but they must assimilate into their culture and learn the way of water.

Absolutely breathtaking. Cameron has a unique understanding of cinema as both an artform that can speak to our idealized, higher self and a truly populist medium that can reach mass appeal with its simplicity and striking imagery. He threads this needle so gently as to not alienate anyone from coming along for the ride. It is a larger than life spectacle grounded in deeply human concerns for family, our community, and the world we inhabit. Big set pieces, but even bigger emotions. At over three hours in length, I was intimidated at first. However, once I committed, I was instantly transported to another world. Full immersion, occupying all of my senses, time fading away. This is rare for any film, but especially one of this scope and scale. 

These films are hardly subtle and certainly not trying to be, but the strength of The Way of Water lies in Cameron’s decision to let this movie be more character driven than the original. That way the themes of environmentalism, colonialization, and prejudice influence the character’s relationships to each other and the world as opposed to the characters simply existing as mouthpieces for Cameron’s beliefs. I liked the story of “Avatar” well enough, but don’t have a particularly strong connection to the characters of that film. Cameron gives the audience a reason to care about Jake’s family, taking the time to set up the finer details of who they are. 

The simplicity of the story continues to be divisive with many not vibing with the sincerity and straightforward, good versus evil plot. I get that to an extent, but this is a crowd pleasing blockbuster with a three hour runtime and multiple emerging character dynamics. I do not envy Cameron’s team while plotting out that screenplay and certainly do not blame them for avoiding overcomplicating it. The humans are back, evil as ever, and after a new resource independent of their mission in the last film. The Na’vi are good, connected to the natural world, and with the help of Jake Sully will push back the human invaders. Hardly reinventing the wheel, but when the wheel is the highest grossing film of all time, can you really blame them?

Also the Tulkan are a new sea creature that the water clans share a close bond with. Their introduction in this is one of the most awe-inspiring scenes I’ve seen all year! Can’t get enough of these guys. Great, now I’m crying about whales again.