Review: Avatar: Way of Water brings emotional tension, gorgeous special effects
Avatar: The Way of Water
Moving Pictures by Mo Burford
Let’s get this out of the way: I absolutely loved Avatar: The Way of Water.
Now I know there are a lot of things to be cynical about in 2022, and so it is perhaps easy to dismiss something like Avatar: The Way of Water, the long awaited (13 years) sequel to the absolute box office behemoth that was the first Avatar. It’s a movie about big blue people on the faraway planet of Pandora–a movie with a lot of big themes, big emotions, and big action sequences, by the director of both Terminator 2 and Titanic. So one’s cynicism and skepticism would be understandable.
But it would also be wrong.
I was lucky enough to see the re-release of the first Avatar this fall, and I was reminded what solid filmmaking chops James Cameron still brings to his work. The movie aged fantastically, which I was honestly not expecting: the visuals were still stunning, the storytelling still broad and effective, and the environmental message of the first movie, sadly, has not gotten any less poignant in the last 13 years either. And all of these qualities are true of the sequel as well.
In Avatar: The Way of Water, we return to Pandora to find our heroes from the first Avatar film having built a life in the ensuing years, making and raising a family on this strange and beautiful world. But their reality becomes threatened when humans return to Pandora, motivated to make it their new home in place of a dying Earth.
What follows is three hours of some of the most jaw-droppingly gorgeous special effects I have ever seen, paired with Cameron’s masterful ability to create emotional tension. Classic film tropes are put to artful use in order to convey dramatically high stakes: there are children in peril, animals in peril, claustrophobic spaces, bitter rivalries, and teenagers coming into their own sense of self, all happening within the umbrella of huge soaring action. The score by Simon Franglen is also a real treat, akin to something you might hear from John Williams, with big bombastic themes and sweet ethereal soundscapes.
And everything is so cool.
Not only does Cameron know how to make awesome crab-like mechanical suits that humans pilot through the ocean, or two-person submersibles, or flying fortresses, but he also really creates a world, one that feels lived in and that was grown from the people’s connection to the land. When it comes to science fiction writing, there is always lots of talk of “world building,” but in science fiction films it can be a tougher thing to accomplish – even with a three-hour run time. But Cameron has put in the hard work to build a world for us, a place that is as beautiful as it is dangerous as it is precious. In Avatar: The Way of Water, we marvel at the beauty of the ocean, as well as the power, majesty and intelligence of its inhabitants. The gift of spending time in Cameron’s alternative world is being able to return to our own and recognize it as just as beautiful, and dangerous, and precious.
Avatar: The Way of Water (dir. James Cameron)
★★★★1/2
(four and a half stars)
Avatar: Way of Water is currently showing at Columbia Cinema in The Dalles, Hood River Cinemas
Violent Night
I also want to quickly mention another film currently in theaters, Violent Night (dir. Tommy Wirkola). A nutty, violent and crass film, but not unenjoyable. At the very least it is worth the price of admission for a very violent homage to Home Alone. My partner and I saw it and had a lot of fun, but I can’t imagine I’ll ever really think about this movie again.
Violent Night
★★1/2
(two and a half stars)
Questions, comments, movie suggestions? Email Mo at movingpicturesccc@gmail.com
For more reviews and to see his up-to-date movie log, follow Mo at Letterboxd
