Avatar: The Way of Water (2023)

It's the biggest movie in the world.

And it is a sequel to one of the previous biggest movies in the world.

It's Avatar: The Way of Water (2023).

What is it?

Jake Sully and his family need to leave the safety of their tribe because they are being hunted by the Skypeople. They travel to New Zealand the coast, and meet the Maori Metkayina tribes. There they settle into a new life, learning new ways... of water. Until the Skypeople find them anew.

The Good Stuff

Technical Marvel

This movie looks insane. The CG is as good as CG has ever been. The skin textures, and hair, and water elements, and lighting are all incredibly detailed and realistic. This movie has set a new benchmark for CG elements, much like its predecessor.

James Cameron Knows How to Tell a Story Visually

James Cameron knows he has a lot of world building to do. So he devises shots and sequences designed to deliver information to the attentive viewer. You can see the Na'vi culture, and the skypeople technology. These details allow the audience to infer a lot of things about the world of the movie without resorting to giant exposition dumps (but, hey, Cameron loves those, too) that bog down the pace of the movie (but, hey, this movie is three hours long, so...).

This is a simple story told simply. Cameron is a deft hand, juggling world-building elements and maximizing the storytelling returns on just about every minute of screen time.

Perfectly Fine Entertainment

This movie is entertaining. It is exciting and thrilling in the right places. Cameron knows how to set up and shoot a set piece. He keeps the pace brisk, for a three hour epic. The movie is inoffensive (not really, but we'll get to this later), and as such can be easy entertainment for the whole family. Much like the first movie. You'll be able to turn on either Avatar movie and go about your chores (I say either movie, because they are kind of the same movie (more on that later)).

The Bad Stuff

White Savior Squared

Jake Sully is a "white savior." Without giving you a great deal of additional reading on the subject, I will explain the concept simply: a white savior is a character, a white one (often a man), who leaves his society to join another culture (almost always an indigenous or ethnic minority), where he learns the ways of that society and saves them from some outside force (usually his past society). Jake Sully, a white man, lucks his way into a flight to Pandora where he gets transplanted into the body of a vat-born Na'vi (the cultural appropriation metaphor is strong with this one, but, I digress). He ingratiates himself into their society and learns how to be a warrior. Only, he kind of does it better than they do. By the end of the first film, he becomes a Na'vi leader and fights the evil scape corporation.

In the SECOND movie, Jake travels to a new Na'vi village, ingratiates himself into THEIR society, and, along with his children, proceeds to learn the new ways. Except, kind of better than the coastal Na'vi. There are times where the plot revolves around Jake and his family learning secrets that these coastal Na'vi have not learned, and, ya know, teaching them a lesson. It is kind of fucking silly.

All of that is problematic on its own terms: how the hell are these fucking newbs just automagically grasping this culture in a way that people who have been living it for thousands of years have not? But when you take into account the myriad ways the Cameron codes the Na'vi as various kinds of ethnic minorities... the problem compounds on itself. The Na'vi were ALWAYS an analog for indigenous tribes, but in the sequel, Cameron doubles and triples down. Now they had dread-locked hair. Now they have Maori face tattoos. If the Na'vi are their own culture, why can't they just be their own damned culture? If James Cameron wanted to tell us a story about the evils of colonialism, why didn't he just tell us REAL HISTORY?

Probably because there aren't giant laser cannons and space whales in those stories... And those stories aren't exciting so much as they are deeply depressing...

Tonally Confused

It would be one thing, if, like Michael Bay, James Cameron had self awareness about the kinds of movies he makes. Michael Bay is the Frat Boy Explosion Auteur of American cinema. You always know to kind of turn your brain off and let the absurdity flow over you. Cameron, on the other hand, insists his movies are different. He likes to take pot-shots at the MCU; he enjoys reminding us how STRONG his female protagonists are (even though he kind of relegates the prodigiously talented Zoe Saldana to the role of a cardboard mannequin that gets trotted out occasionally to ugly cry for us); he insists that his film is a retelling of colonization, and is, like, deep, man.

His characters talk about being "warriors who are striving for peace," and the duality of that. They talk about "the way of water," where all things flow, and live in harmony. He wants Jake Sully to reckon with the fact that he is a man of violence who infects wherever he goes with violence.

But he also wants to have a 40-minute action extravaganza on a boat with murders, and gun fights, and explosions. James, my guy, you cannot have it both ways. If you are indicting violence, you actually have to indict it. You can't let it be cool. Because genocide and murder and warfare are NOT cool. They are terrifying.

You shouldn't be able to scarf popcorn while you watch them.

And look, I wouldn't mind so much if Cameron weren't out here insisting his art is fundamentally different than something like the MCU. You shouldn't get points for shitting on popcorn entertainment and then turn around and spend twenty years of your career devoted to mindless popcorn entertainment.

Too Familiar

This is pretty much the same plot as the first Avatar (2009). Cameron even devises a way to resurrect that film's villain and have him come back for a second round. For all of the polish and shine, this movie feels way too reminiscent of other movies: the first movie was, justifiably, hand-waved as Dances With Wolves (1990) in space. The space corporation (what even is their name??) looks an awful lot like the space marines from Aliens (1986). And then, by the time the giant boat capsizes into the ocean, I leaned over to my wife and said, "oh, great, now he's ripping off Titanic??" 

Is the movie entertaining? Sure. But Cameron doesn't exactly say anything new. And the elements all feel cribbed from older, better movies.

And that is disappointing.

Too Goddamned Long

I will watch a three hour epic. Stalker (1979), and Barry Lyndon (1975) are two of my favorite movies, and they ARE LONG.

But this? This shit doesn't need to be three hours long, James.

I get it. Cameron kind of wants this to be Nat Geo: Pandora, and show us all of the pretty jungles and whales and stuff. But, my dude, we don't need all of this stuff. For a film that runs so long, this one does not say a whole lot. And that makes the runtime feel bloated and unnecessary.

The Final Word

James Cameron is the Kenny G of modern American cinema: his films are slick, technically marvelous entertainment tailor-made for the masses, as long as you can kind of wave away the slight stench of cultural appropriation and vapidity of the art itself.

But hey, this movie has made (literally) a billion dollars, and we are going to get another Avatar sequel. Maybe in another ten years or so.

Should you see this movie? Probably not. But the numbers suggest you already have. Perhaps twice.

There are other, better movies to spend your money on, though.