(film review) - Avatar: The Way of Water

It is kind of hard to believe that, a man named James Cameron made a movie called Avatar which came out in 2009 and 13 years later he makes a sequel to it creating a buzz that has gripped the world. While some people have their opinions and are divided on whether this is 13 years too late or no one actually cares about blue people in space to a rip-off of FernGully, what is this one going to be about? Let's be clear here, James is a revolutionary director with 9 movies to his name since 1982. In case you are not counting, that is 9 movies in just over 40 years. Christopher Nolan, a more recent director has 12 movies to his name since 1998. Zack Snyder has 11 movies to his name since 2004, but there is a stark difference between these three types of directors. Steven Spielberg has 30 movies to his name since 1975. But the difference between all these directors is, James is the only director who has two of the highest grossing movies of all time and every time (well almost) he created the highest grossing movie, he has also created cutting-edge technology that never existed before, revolutionising the movie-going experience. For Avatar there were 6 technological innovations he used re-inventeing motion capture, not to mention what he did for Titanic. So then it begs the question, why take this long to make a sequel to the highest grossing movie? Because, James was busy creating underwater motion capture to accurately capture movement underwater bringing this films budget to $350-$460 million dollars when it was all said and done. So, in the end you may be asking, "well, was it worth it?" 13 years for a 192 minute movie (3 hours and 10 minutes), yes...yes it was worth it.


We pick up 15 years since the events of the original Avatar movie and Jake Sully (Sam Worthington) now lives with his family Neytiri (Zoe Saldana) and 5 children. The RDA invasion of Pandora sent the humans back to earth but the humans are now back, forcing Jake to fight once again, to protect his family and to protect his people from a known threat with a vendetta against him.


If you had not seen the original Avatar, while it is not imperative that you must to understand the storyline, watching it will definitely help. I will start off with my negatives first. I felt the movie for the first 10 or so minutes was moving at a break-neck pace that forced me to focus on what was going on. There was a lot of narration and while I was taking time to adjust to the 3D glasses at first, I was finding it difficult to settle into what was going on, what was happening, who was who etc, but soon after that, the movie seemed to have slowed down to a steady pace which had me following everything nicely. The 3D was, well...3D and although it was amazing, what would I expect since I saw the first movie in 2D and 3D and it was great in both mediums, but 3D was just soo much better. Although not really a negative, I could have just done without the 3D on this occasion, although great, the 3D film over your eyes does wear a bit thin after 2 and a half hours. In one area specifically, the movie slowed down a bit for me and while I did get a tad bored in this moment, it was indeed, James Cameron flexing his muscles at this point. It was an underwater scene and it just looked beautiful and soo real, well...as much as a blue skinned humanoid person standing at around 9 feet tall swimming in water belonging to a planet in space, could look.


As for the positives, this film is colourful, vibrant and simply beautiful, so so beautiful. The planet of Pandora, while I believe the first movie had more terrors and creatures that could harm a Na'vi creature, the planet just has creatures, amazing looking creatures, vast and huge. You can also tell that, considering the introduction to another "tribe" of Na'vi, the world of Pandora is massive or at least we are led to believe this. With the design of the creatures, James had created such a beautiful place the first time around, the second time around, the world is simply expanded introducing newer and bigger threats and things making up the planet. Pandora is not just a planet with trees, it is also a planet with wast amounts of sea so it would be interesting to see how far reaching we can go in this world. The music was great, the acting goes without saying. Zoe Saldana has the best cry-face ever on camera. She is the best cryer. The actors playing the children are also great. They are pretty much the main focus of the movie but what they were getting upto along with the dynamics simply took me years back to how I was when I was a child many many moons ago. The sound design, amazing! There was a specific scene where something was going on and it was the sound design that took me out of the film a little as I stopped and marvelled at the sound design used. The story, while not too riveting or wheel re-inventing, I had no issues with the story at all. Without going into spoilers, a film about a man trying to protect his family from a known threat. However, when watching this movie, I saw traces of nearly every film Cameron had directed before this one. The Terminator, Avatar (obviously), Titanic, maybe even The Abyss and definitely Aliens.


This is Jimmy's 10th movie in around 45 years and in case you did not know, he has written and directed sequels to "The Way of Water" already and yet to film some more sequels after the follow up sequel. We are talking about Avatar 3 and 4 and considering this movie is likely to make 1 billion, Jimmy is going to be, AGAIN...in the highest grossing movies of all time (likely) and potentially with 3 films. Definitely worth the watch, especially the 3rd act where a lot more of the action takes place. I had watched the original recently and the film still holds up graphically with the special effects, the fact this movie is pretty much 98% special effects, it is a marvel how Jimmy does it and captivates us all the same. Great storytelling that is, he get's us with great storytelling. And at 3 hours and 10 minutes (other than the bit I personally felt a little slow - it was not that long a shot, if I am honest), this film sails by and you barely feel the length of it at all.

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(trailer review) - Avatar: The Way of Water

(Teaser Trailer)

There is a reason why this man takes a while to make a movie. This man stays creating and breaking boundaries. Underwater motion capture!? So another trailer has dropped and James, James is just swinging for those damn fences...and clearing them!  This trailer looks all types of great and not only does the trailer not give you much, the trailer gives you a whole lot more than the teaser trailer and it is absolute great.

In my last review I said Jake now has a child, but it seems like he has a few children. There is a character who seems to be listening to the planet, another character who wants none of anything Jake is warning them about, a possible civil war between the Na'vi AND the humans, or now other avatars are back bringing the war. I have no idea what exactly this is about, but just like the first one, I will be watching this, and quite possibly, in both 2D and 3D like I did before. The music sounds great and it goes without saying, the visuals look amazing. It is just a wonder how well this movie will do now that it is 13 years away since the first movie. I mean, Top Gun was older and they achieved great success with the sequel.

(film review) - Avatar 2D & 3D

Do you know who James Cameron is? He's one of those directors who needs as much of an introduction as Steven Spielberg! He is the guy who directed 'Escape from New York', directed and wrote, 'The Terminator' to then do it again and produce, 'Terminator 2: Judgement Day'. He did work with Arnie on a string of films since T2 with, 'Last Action Hero' & 'True Lies' and not only did he do 'Aliens with Sigourney Weaver, 'Titanic' with Leonardo DiCaprio & Kate Winslet, he also had some kind of involvement with 'Terminator 3: Rise of the Machines' and 'Terminator Salvation'. This guy is out there with the greats. You should know all of this and if you didn't, well now you know.

The rumour I heard surrounding Avatar was, this film has been 15 years in the making. Avatar had been in development since 1994 and was really meant to come out in 1999 after Titanic. However, he thought that technology needed to catch up with his ideas and so he left it to 2009. In all honesty, I don't blame him and he did the best thing as Avatar is a marvellously beautiful and REAL LOOKING film.
I say REAL LOOKING because in reality, I haven't seen 15 foot tall creatures that speak a different language and a little bit of English on the streets of London, however, if one had lived inside a closed box and knew everything about special effects and all that jazz but haven't seen another real person other than themselves and the outside world, watching this film would get this person thinking that the Na'vi are real and other special effect films are just, well, special effects. What I mean is, the effects are so good, you'd be mistaken into thinking that you are watching a documentary of some sort or just real actors.
When you see the facial expressions of the Na'vi and how they move so fluidly and how the light bounces off their hair, eyes and skin, you see that a lot of thought has gone into the effects and that it looks so real that, like I said, you'd think you are watching real actors.

The planet of Pandora resembles earth, however Pandora is beautifully abstract and very colourful (from what we have seen thus far). Rich in minerals that are very valuable in which the Humans are trying to cash in on. So, in saying that, that is what the film is about. Humans come from earth to go to Pandora, set up shop and then rape the planet of it's minerals for profit. Unfortunately, where all the most valuable materials are, is underneath the Na'vi village(Hometree) who are described as blue monkeys and savage animals who live in harmony only to be barbarically attacked by the humans for their own selfish money making schemes. Obviously, they put up a fight as the humans basically say, move or be pushed out of the way and that is where a full scale war with the Na'vi against the Humans start.

The war is led by a Human, Jake Scully(Sam Worthington) who has been sent to infiltrate the Omaticaya's village in his Avatar body, to learn their ways and convince them to move. However, as the Omaticaya see him as a deluded member of their own species, they teach him how to do things their way. This leads to falling in love with a native, Ntiri(Zoe Saldaña), who also falls in love, but as time runs out for Jake to get the Omaticaya clan to move, the corporation move in and start destroying the forest. When Jake tries to stop them and destroys the camera on one of their machines, he is disconnected from his avatar and imprisioned. He is then broken out and then heads back into his avatar to try and convince the Omaticaya clan that he meant no harm and he wants to help them win the waging war against the humans.

I saw this in 2D and 3D and all I can say is, it isn't necessary to watch this film in 3D, but it does add to the experience. This film is so good that, running for 3hours, it still manages to keep you entertained and wanting to know what happens next.

Brilliant and Excellent watch. I recommend this as a must watch for 2009 and a must purchase, especially if there are gonna be sequels.
Trailer: