Review: "Avatar: The Way of Water"

On December 18th, 2009, James Cameron’s blockbuster film Avatar was released to theaters. The film became the biggest movie in the world, grossing a total of $2.9 billion dollars at the box office and winning three Oscars: Best Cinematography, Best Visual Effects, and Best Art Direction. This week—13 years later—James Cameron released the long-awaited sequel to the film Avatar: The Way of Water (2022). Here’s my review:

Jake Sully has happily adjusted to life on Pandora with his Na’vi mate, Neytiri and their children. They have three biological children: Neteyam, Lo’ak, and Tuk and one adopted daughter, Kiri. Life is bliss, until suddenly Jake Sully’s enemy, Colonel Miles Quaritch comes back into the picture. He, too, has been reincarnated as a Recombinant, “an avatar who has a memory of being human,” and he is out to exact revenge on Jake and his family along with the same gang of Marines from the first film. Hence, Jake and his family must team up with the rest of the Na’vi to protect their home planet, and in doing so, they befriend a new tribe of Na’vi called they Metkayinas who live on Pandora's eastern seaboard.

Jake Sully has a line in this movie “Sullys stick together!” His family is everything to him, and while it may be complicated, he believes sticking together is the only way to win. Family is the main message of this movie, which is different from the first film because that was about how Jake started as a marine, but then decided to join the Na’vi in favor of protecting them over serving under the corrupt Colonel Quaritch (not to mention his and Neytiri’s love story).

The movie is 3 hours and 12 minutes long, totaling at 192 minutes, 30 minutes longer than the first film’s 162 minutes. While that may require a snack and/or bathroom break for some people it all becomes worth-it in the end! (It makes you wonder how long the the third, fourth, and fifth Avatars will be!)

  “The Way of Water,” reunites the superb cast of Sam Worthington as Jake Sully, Zoe Saldana as Neytiri and Stephen Lang as Colonel Miles Quaritch, along with original film cast members: Sigourney Weaver, CCH Pounder, and Giovanni Ribisi. The film also inducts Kate Winslet into the Pandora World as Ronal, the wife of Chief of the Matkayinas, marking Winslet’s first time under James Cameron’s direction since Titanic (1997). Once again James Cameron directs, co-writes, and co-produces with Jon Landau, and he is also is one of four credited editors for the film along with Stephen E. Rivkin, David Brenner, and John Refoua. The film’s Cinematography was done by Russell Carpenter who won the Best Cinematography for “Titanic,” though the first “Avatar’s,” Cinematography was done by Mauro Fiore. The film’s music was composed by Simon Franglen, and while James Horner composed the first “Avatar” score, Franglen received a Best Original Song Golden Globe Nomination for writing the song “I See You,” for the first “Avatar” along with Horner and Kuk Harrell. 

All in all, “The Way of Water,” is a beautiful film. One could say it doesn’t quite equal the awesomeness of the first film, but its beauty can entertain whether you were a fan of the first film or not. It underscores the visionary that is James Cameron and it is another one of 2022’s best films. “The Way of Water’s” predecessor didn’t win the Best Picture Oscar, but this one might!