Avatar: The Way of Water - Second Verse, Same Visual Spectacle As The First

James Cameron's sequel to the highest-grossing film ever is frustratingly simple at times, yet it enhances the original's foundations for a visually stunning experience.

Theatrical Release Poster For Avatar: The Way Of Water. Photo: 20th Century Fox

James Cameron has a history of proving his doubters wrong, so it should come as no surprise that Avatar: The Way of Water was another success for the acclaimed director. For anyone who doubted that audience attitudes had shifted away from visual-effects-heavy films, the fact that it grossed over $2.3 billion—making it the third-highest-grossing film of all time behind Avengers: Endgame and the original Avatar—rendered such doubt fruitless. As for the film itself, whilst the bar for improvement wasn't exactly high after its distinctly average predecessor, Avatar: The Way of Water feels more competent, whilst indulging in the same positive and negative qualities that befell the original.

If you were to ask anyone back in 2009 what their favourite part of Avatar was, barely anyone would have said the film's plot. It was simple yet bland, engaging yet predictable, effective yet middling. Naturally, Avatar: The Way of Water chooses to be derivative of its predecessor, as it's the same core characters, villain, major story beats, and exploration of culture, yet again. This is not necessarily too harsh a criticism. Still, one would've hoped that the 13-year gap between releases would've been enough for James Cameron and his writing team to come up with a story that could sustain the audience's interest for the very lengthy runtime. Alas, it does not.

Speaking of its runtime, Avatar: The Way of Water is 192 minutes long, and does nothing in its power to justify said runtime in the slightest. James Cameron is a director known for lengthy films, as, bar Piranha II and the original Terminator, all of his films are over 2 hours long. Yet, for some indiscernible reason, his Avatar films feel the most bloated in runtime of his entire filmography, even more so than his other 3-hour-plus epic, Titanic. Films with runtimes this long have to be something special to warrant their length, especially for future rewatches, and this film just isn't that special, especially with how similar its story beats are to the original.

Thankfully, this film excels in its most important area: the visuals. Shockingly enough, the film, which reportedly has a budget in the range of $350-460 million, boasts great visuals; I never would've guessed that in a million years. In all seriousness, much like its predecessor, The Way of Water is stunning to see in a cinema, and once again justifies the use of the 3D technology that has all but faded away in the past decade. Just like the first film, James Cameron has delivered an entertaining audio and visual spectacle at the expense of a semi-average story. The technological improvements over the past decade have also enabled some truly spectacular underwater motion capture, resulting in absolutely gorgeous visuals that, just like with the first film, will ultimately be the film's strongest lasting memory.

If this series does end up as a five-film saga, the only guarantee, besides the great effects in each film, is that there will be nothing by 2031 to convince audiences that Sam Worthington was a justifiable choice to play the main character. To his credit, he is trying, but his acting is still not as good as it should be, and Jake Sully remains an especially uninteresting protagonist. Zoe Saldaña delivers a great performance once again, but her character feels underutilised due to her relatively limited screen time compared to other characters. Stephen Lang's Quaritch is arguably more interesting as a Na'vi Recombinant than he was as a human in the first film, and Lang himself, just as with the first film, is giving a great performance. Surprisingly enough, casting Sigourney Weaver as the teenage daughter of Weaver's Na'vi avatar from the first film is possibly the wildest and strangest move James Cameron has made in quite some time, and it somehow works. The absolute madman.

Speaking of surprises, The Way of Water improves upon the original's foundations in two major ways. The first is in its themes, specifically revolving around the development and exploration of family. There are enough mentions of it that would make Vin Diesel's Dominic Toretto rise from his chair, bottle of Corona in hand, and gleam whilst uttering the word 'family', but in all honesty, the film treats this theme with simplicity, yet in a calm manner that helps it stand out from its predecessor in a better way. The second is its action sequences. Whereas the first Avatar had decent, if unremarkable, action sequences, The Way of Water blows them out of the water, for lack of a better word. The final climactic battle, in particular, is extremely thrilling and almost makes the excruciatingly long runtime worthwhile.

Ultimately, Avatar: The Way of Water is an improvement on the first film's efforts, and an enjoyable film in its own right, but if you never found the original all that great to begin with, it's likely you won't get much out of this one. To those who found themselves enamoured by the original, or even those who could see the appeal yet wished for something greater, this film will more than likely satisfy. Whether future Avatar films can continue to raise the stakes and quality remains to be seen, especially with Avatar: Fire and Ash grossing another billion at the worldwide box office. Regardless, Avatar: The Way of Water is a fun, albeit long, experience that once again showcases James Cameron's power to direct films that practically everyone can enjoy.