Movie: Avatar: The Way of Water
Genre: Science Fiction - Epic Fantasy
Cast: Sam Worthington, Zoe Saldaña, Sigourney Weaver, Stephen Lang, Kate Winslet, Cliff Curtis, Joel David Moore, and Others
Director: James Cameron
Produced By: James Cameron, Jon Landau
Music: Simon Franglen
Cinematography: Russell Carpenter
Runtime: 192 minutes (3hrs 12mins)
Story
After winning over the sky people and sending them back, Jack Sully (Sam Worthington) with Neytiri (Zoe Saldana) and their four children live a happy life leading the Na'vi clan. They have a human friend Spider (Jack Champion) who lives, learns and grows with them. As time passes, on one day, Jack comes to know that Colonel Miles Quaritch (Stephen Lang) who was killed in the first part, returns in an Avatar form to seek revenge on Jake and Na'vi people. He decides to leave the Na'vi clan and move away with his family to keep his family and people safe. Jack Sully with his family reach the Metkayina clan, the water people. Colonel kidnaps Spider and uses him to find the whereabouts of Jack and his family. What will happen now? How will Jack save his family? How will they adapt to the new lifestyle of Metkayina? This forms the rest of the story.
Artiste Performances
Sam Worthington as Jack Sully does a fantastic job. Though he doesn't have much to do in the initial portions, his performance from mid point of the movie till end is impressive.
Zoe Saldana gives a subdued in the first hour then provides an emotional connect to the movie towards the climax and shows her rage in the Climax with her stellar performance.
The four kids Sigourney Weaver, Jamie Flatters, Britain Dalton and Trinity Jo-Li Bliss have given a fabulous performance.
Stephen Lang is menacing as the antagonist. Brendan Cowell bring the conflict between sky people and Metkayina clan.
Kate Winslet and Cliff Curtis have done well in their pivotal roles. Jack Champion as Spider is good with his supporting performance.
The rest of the cast have done their best.
Plus Points
Performances
Initial Portions
Training with the Metkayina clan
Beautiful Screenplay
Metkayina - Tulkun bonding sequence
Kiri - Eyva connection
Neytiri emotional rage
Artwork and Detailing
Visuals and Visual Effects
Action sequences
Background score
Emotional connect
Drawbacks (Which I Felt)
Thin plot line
Dragged at places
Feels slow due to the runtime
Analysis
Avatar is one of the most widely acclaimed and the highest-grossing movie in the world. James Cameron has taken the audience into a completely different world and gave a never-before cinematic experience to the Audience in 2009. After 13 years, finally, the sequel Avatar: The Way of Water hit the screens amit lots of anticipation.
Without wasting a minute, right from the first frame, we are taken into the Beautiful world of Pandora. The music, visuals, forest, and every frame give a nostalgic feeling of Part 1 and we are very much into the world.
Jack Sully and Neytiri are seen happy with their family and teaching them hunting, their Way of life, and having an amazing family life. As shown in the final sequences of Avatar, Jack Sully keeps contact with the good sky people who stayed behind.
The first action sequence involving Jack Sully's family and the colonel's army is shot stunningly. The Visual effects, background score, screenplay, choreography everything is terrific and made the scene one of the highlights.
The First act of the movie is very engaging with the Screenplay, gorgeous Visuals of pandora, and an action sequence.
The second act introduces The Water world of Pandora and its spellbound. James Cameron does the magic with his marvelous way of portraying the water world and sea life which is an absolute eye feast.
The second act suffers from slow narration and dragged scenes but all that is overshadowed by extraordinary Visuals of underwater adventure and Pandora's sea creature sequences.
We can observe a subtle resemblance in the Screenplay with Part 1. In Avatar we are introduced to the sky people's world and then taken into the world of Pandora and then the Protagonist knows about Na'vi cultures, way of life, hunting, and war techniques. In The way of Water, we are introduced to the forest in the world of Pandora, then we are taken into the water world and then Jack Sully's family gets trained by the Metkayina clan, water people on their way of life, survival, culture, and techniques.
Jack Sully and Neytiri don't have much to do once they reach the water world, but it's their children the director focuses on. Their characters and connections are established and we travel with them for most of the second act. The whole thread of Kiri having connections with Eyva is presented superbly and convincingly.
Cameron takes his time to build the water world and he does it extremely well. As there is not much story to tell, it feels slow at places but, you can't take your eyes off the screen as the Visuals are fascinating.
There is an episode with Metkayina clan, Na'vi clan, and The Tulkuns which is very heartwarming. The emotional connection water people have with The Tulkuns, a group of whales is shown in a heart-touching, way.
From the midpoint of the second act, the action starts in the water world where the colonel gets back with his army. From here the movie is back to its engaging mode with a racy screenplay.
The action sequence in the pre-climax is one of the best in recent times. It gives a never-before experience and arrests you to the screen completely with the way it is choreographed and narrated. We can feel the shades of Titanic throughout the climax.
The movie has all its emotional weight piling up from the midpoint of the second act and the director gets the emotions in the right place.
The warrior Neytiri whom we saw in the first part was missing for most of the movie comes back in the Climax action episode with her emotional rage. The whole sequence is jaw-dropping.
Following the action sequence, there is another Beautiful scene where Eywa helps the Na'vi clan. The movie ends with a heartwarming scene. Jack Sully and his family stay with the Metkayina clan promising that he will keep fighting for his people, setting the stage for Part 3.
Kudos to the Art department who did a fabulous job in giving us such an awesome Water world of Pandora. Detailing is brilliant. Every frame shows the hard work, blood, and sweat that went into making this movie.
Audience will be highly impressed with the way the beauty of Pandora's water world is captured. It's just phenomenal. Hats off to the Cinematography by Russell Carpenter. He takes us into the world created by Cameron.
Background score is yet another major asset to the movie. Music takes us into the Pandora, maintains the atmosphere and mood throughout the movie. Sound. Design is terrific too.
James Cameron's vision is spectacular. Though he had a thin storyline to deal with, he doesn't bore us at all with the way he presents the Sea world of Pandora. This is definitely one of his best works and many scenes show why he is master in story telling.
(MY) Final Word
James Cameron carves the world of Pandora slowly, carefully yet beautifully. Keeping aside the runtime and pacing issues, he succeeds in giving a never before experience with The way of Water. Comparatively, this movie has less story and drama from the 1st part, but in all other aspects, it wins. On a Whole, Avatar: The Way of Water is a out of the world cinematic experience which will take audience on a wonderful journey into the Water world of Pandora. Go for it!
Bottom-line: Avatar: The Way of Water - Cameron's yet another Visual Extravaganza!
Note: This is my take on the movie. That is why I am not rating the movie. I respect each and every movie. Making people read my review and influencing them to form an impression of a movie before watching the movie is never my intention. I am a Movie lover too. This is just to express my view on the movie. 😊
Review by a Movie Lover