SINK OR SWIM (AVATAR: THE WAY OF WATER)

© 20th Century Studios 

Review By Chris Pitt

James Cameron's 'Avatar: The Way of Water' has taken 13 years to follow its record-breaking predecessor.

The sequel to 'Avatar' - the biggest grossing movie of all time - has landed in cinemas with confident talk of new innovations in performance capture technology and plans for at least two more sequels.

With a build up like that, surely James Cameron has to deliver a spectacular success.

But does he?

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Sadly, no.

For those unfamiliar with the first 'Avatar' film, Cameron's story was set on the moon of Pandora where humans were looking to exploit the natural resources around them by deploying scientists and a squadron of marines to crush all resistance.

As they plundered the planet, their military industrial forces came up against the Na’vi, a tribe of giant, blue native people who weren't going to let humans destroy their natural habitat.

As Cameron's film developed, Sam Worthington's marine Jake Sully increasingly found himself becoming more aligned with the locals than with his gung-ho, shoot-first, ask no questions comrades.

Falling in love with Zoe Saldana's Na’vi warrior Neytiri, he switched sides and fought in his avatar form with the tribe to rid Pandora of his fellow greedy human beings.

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Thirteen years have elapsed since we last visited Pandora. 

Cameron's sequel takes place 15 years after the Na'vi resisted the ransacking of Pandora's resources.

Jake now has a family with Neytiri and they have been living in peace until those pesky humans led by Edie Falco's General Frances Ardmore decide to return to colonise Pandora because the Earth is dying.

The ex-marine turned Na'vi tribesman stages a successful resistance campaign but the arrival of another character from the past, Jake’s former colonel, Stephen Lang's Miles Quaritch stirs things up.

Those who saw the original will know Quaritch was a crazed and obsessive villain.

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He was also killed.

But technology - and the need for Cameron to have a charismatic bad guy - allow him to return and all he wants is revenge on Jake Sully. 

Aware of the risk to him and his family, Sully is forced to take them all into hiding, seeking refuge among the water folk of Metkayina who are led by Cliff Curtis' chief Tonowari and his wife Kate Winslet's Ronal.

The young Sullys, including Jamie Flatters' Neteyam, Britain Daltan's Lo'ak and Trinity Jo-Li Bliss' Tuk, must adapt to their new surroundings and the ways of their sometimes hostile hosts.

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But with Quaritch appearing to bond with his Pandora born son, Jake Champion's Spider with the intention of really learning the ways of the Na'vi and with the Colonel also charting a whaling vessel to extract an anti-ageing serum known as amrita, another showdown with Jake and the Na'vi is inevitable.

After a 13 year wait for an 'Avatar' sequel, does Cameron do enough to justify its return and avoid the franchise becoming a damp squib?

There are certainly things to enjoy in 'Avatar: The Way of Water'.

The forest world is as vibrant as before and the new underwater realm that Cameron and his visual effects team have created offers some genuine visual delights.

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The performance capture, for the most part, is impressive, with the Na’vi becoming ‘normal’ to our eyes.

In fact, it is sometimes a small shock to see actual humans appearing alongside them.

The action sequences deliver a few thrills, with an attack by the water people of Metkayina riding their winged mounts into battle stirring audience emotions and evoking memories of iconic movie moments like the rebel attack on the Death Star in 'Star Wars'.

But are these moments enough, particularly for a three hour plus film with a $400 million plus budget?

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An honest examination of the plot reveals it to be pretty thin.

Cameron's story of a rebel leader going into hiding but being tracked down by his nemesis is not particularly original.

And while the world he builds has its moments, there are none which really make you gasp, which surely the Oscar winning director of 'Titanic' would have been aiming for given how important the visual aspect of the films are to him?

There are also a few moments where the performance capture jars and you suddenly become very aware that you’re looking at a computer programme.

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And unfortunately for Cameron, that just pulls audiences out of the film.

The movie's character development is thin too, with neither Jake Sully or Neytiri really changing at all from the first film.

Winslet and Curtis, as the leaders of the Metkayina, are excellent actors but they struggle to bring their characters to life.

A lot of time and focus falls on the children, with the most interesting storylines belonging to Lo’ak (Britain Dalton), Jake’s youngest son, and Kiri, their adopted daughter, played by Sigourney Weaver who audiences will recall was the scientist Dr Grace Augustine in the original.

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With performances that are simultaneously interesting and creepy, both characters are clearly being set up for larger roles in the sequels.

However for such a long film - ironically one filmed in 3D - 'Avatar: The Way of Water' is a disappointingly one dimensional movie.

The bad guys are cartoonishly evil.

There’s barely any humour, other than a valiant attempt by Brendan Cowell as an obnoxious Australian hunter Captain Mick Scoresby, who at least raises a smile or two despite being.. well, cartoonishly evil.

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The teenage rivalries are nothing we haven’t seen before.

And that begs the question: who is this film actually for?

Cameron’s films are generally crowd pleasers with a tough edge - 'Aliens', 'The Terminator' and 'Terminator 2: Judgment Day' - but those movies deliver just as much for adults as they do a younger, teenage audience.

With the focus so much on the younger Sullys, 'Avatar: The Way of Water' feels like a YA movie (young adult movie).

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And while there's nothing wrong with that, it just doesn’t feel like a particularly good YA movie.

Compare it to 'The Hunger Games'.

There, the lead character Katniss evolves through massive trauma.

Here, the young Sullys just have to contend with a few mild discomforts.

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To be fair to Cameron, my teenage son really enjoyed it and the film has cleared the $2 billion box office bar the studio had set itself to break even.

The audience review scores have also been higher than those of the critics.

Just two days ago, it remarkably landed, like its predecessor, a Best Picture Oscar nomination.

A franchise is now guaranteed which means mission accomplished for Cameron.

However I’m not planning on dipping my toes in this water again.

('Avatar: The Way of Water' was released in UK and Irish cinemas on December 16, 2022)

Chris Pitt has loved films since watching a rhino play football in 'Bedknobs and Broomsticks'. Happy switching between the classics and the Marvel Cinematic Universe, he always falls back on 'Hot Shots Part Deux' when times get hard. He's still waiting for the live action version of a rhino playing football, though