‘Avatar: The Way of Water’ Review: Water Weight
A gorgeous template for a virtual tourist experience, 'Avatar: The Way of Water' is less compelling as a sci-fi adventure.
James Cameron is looking to spend a lot of the next decade in the fictional realm of Pandora, and he wants you to join him for at least another three-hours-plus voyage to the distant moon planet in Avatar: The Way of Water (★★☆☆☆).
The sequel to Cameron’s groundbreaking 2009 blockbuster that ushered in a wave of industry trends before receding from the public consciousness, The Way of Water, visually, is almost worth the time-consuming trip. Presented in sharp, deep 3D, the film explores stunning new land- and seascapes, as the forest-dwelling Na’vi are forced to find refuge among the semi-aquatic Metkayina tribe who live in harmony with the ocean.
From glow-in-the-dark forests, and mountains floating in brilliant skies, the movie whisks us to glow-in-the-dark reefs with fishes glimmering in bioluminescent seas. The environments are a hallucinogenic alien dreamland rendered with substance and detail, uncannily inviting.
In its earnest mission to take you there, the film gladly forgoes advancing plot or character for brazenly long stretches of just gawking at the scenery. An extended sequence of Na’vi teens frolicking on the backs of porpoise-like sea ponies gives way to another overlong swim through the depths with one renegade Na’vi who’s upped his game to riding a notoriously unrideable whale-like behemoth.
The swimming-with-whale sequence establishes a vital bond between the creature and its rider, Lo’ak (Britain Dalton), son of the first film’s Neytiri (Zoe Saldaña) and Jake Sully (Sam Worthington). But then, whale and rider just keep swimming, and swimming.
The whale actually has its own backstory, adding an oasis of relative intrigue to a film — scripted by Cameron, Rick Jaffa, and Amanda Silver — that metes out so scant a plot across so much running time. And so much of it rehashes the original.
Formerly human Marine Jake is all Na’vi now, and, like father, like son, his boy Lo’ak is the brash interloper learning the ways of an unfamiliar culture, now that their family lives among these sea folk. In the first film, Jake was the broncobuster who tamed an unrideable beast. That mantle now rests with Lo’ak, although Jake and Neytiri have two other biological kids, and an adopted daughter, 14-year old Kiri, born of the Na’vi avatar left by deceased human scientist Dr. Grace Augustine.
Sigourney Weaver, who performed the voice and motion capture behind Dr. Augustine, offers an affecting portrayal here of restless Na’vi teen Kiri, searching for purpose and connection. The first film’s pro-environmental themes are continued predominantly through Kiri, and via representatives of the oceanic tribe, like clan leader Tonowari (Cliff Curtis) and his wise wife Ronal (Kate Winslet).
Cameron and crew innovated significant technological advances in the performance capture process in order to shoot the motion capture cast underwater, which had never been done before. As a result, the motion capture performances, whether characters are on land or sea, appear more fluid and precisely true to human-like movement. Rather than looking like loping cartoon giraffes, the Na’vi stand, run, fight, swim, and gesture with onscreen weight and presence.
Their doe-eyed faces still don’t emote with much impact, though, despite a story that tugs hard on the heartstrings. Worthington’s delivery is as wooden as ever, with his Jack effectively passing the action-hero torch to Dalton’s Lo’ak. Saldaña’s Neytiri feels largely sidelined — once a warrior, now a mom, when she’s advising and comforting her family, and a warrior mom when she leaps into the climactic battle for their new home.
In an explosive, all-out war on the water — a frenzy of suspense in a film often devoid of tension — Neytiri finally gets to kick some ass, battling forces led by a Na’vi clone of the first film’s evil Colonel Quaritch (Stephen Lang).
Crusading Marine Quaritch personified in Avatar the worst aspects of war and conquest, referring to the Na’vi as savages, roaches, and an aboriginal horde. For some reason, The Way of Water both casts Clone Quaritch as its villain, and also attempts to possibly redeem him through his relationship to a wee Pandora Tarzan named Spider (Jack Champion), a human boy who grew up between the Na’vi and the few humans allowed to remain on Pandora.
Spider feels fairly superfluous, except as a potential romantic interest for Kiri, in one of the film’s two lukewarm threads of adolescent attraction. Of course, teen romance worked wonders for Titanic, and The Way of Water’s climactic rescue is even set on a sinking ship. No one would fault the filmmakers for aiming at another shot of Leo Mania. But there’s only one Leo, just like there could be only one Titanic. Meanwhile, Cameron’s already at work on at least three more trips to Pandora. Hasta la vista, baby.
Avatar 2: The Way of Water is playing at theaters nationwide. Visit www.fandango.com.
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