Avatar 2 The Way of the Water

SPOILERS ALERT

Has it really been like 14 years since our minds were blown by a space opera about blue forest people? Yes. We all feel old now. Which is interesting, but Avatar 2 does just that. This shouldn’t be a spoiler, but Jake Sully and his Navi bride start the movie having a child. Then another child. And a third. Essentially the movie does fourteen years of catching up between the events at the end of the first movie. I think Jake’s oldest son might actually be 14 years old in this movie. (probably older)

Avatar 2 has a lot of good but just as much meh to balance out the wow factor of the movie. There are some cliches revisited that are cool but might not have as big of an impact on us as back in 2009. It drops references audiences wouldn’t understand out of nowhere. There are some attempts to be fresh, but they kinda misstep and certain story arcs aren’t structured as “Save the Cat! Writes a Script” would have expected. This movie definitely isn’t a mess, but I don’t feel it reached its fullest potential.

The movie has a slow opening. Like stated above it catches us up on the past 14-20 years of Jake Sully having children. They have become one with the forest and well respected by the tribe. We’re also introduced to 2 other odd characters. Turns out that Dr. Professor lady with red hair (I couldn’t remember their names if I looked it up on IMDB 5 minutes ago because it’s been 14 years) her avatar somehow got pregnant and had a baby blue girl. There is also a human boy that hangs around because they can’t send children across the galaxy in chryo-sleep. It’s an interesting mix of kids running around and of course trouble has to show up. When the humans/earth decide to attack in retaliation that made sense to me. They receive the message that the Navi are winning and reinforcements show up. However, this sequel has a hard time letting things die. Our main villain isn’t some new military boss, it isn’t conflicting Navi tribes… it’s the same Miles Quaritch as the first film, only this time his memories and training are downloaded into an Avatar body to help survive Pandora and get revenge. I see how and why they went there, but c’mon. 14 years and this is the villain you come up with? The same guy but blue this time? Which ties us into the next issue I mentioned.

There are random mentions that are stated without any back story or information until later in the movie which I personally find annoying. Near the start of the movie they question where red headed science ladies avatar’s baby girl came from. In that same scene the human boy says “Hey, sometimes it’s better to not know who your father is.” Then like a wuss he goes and cried in the corner. Well, with about 30 minutes left of the movie we find out he’s the son of Miles Quarith. This movie thinks it surprises people by doing that at least three of more times. It drags out “Where did red head scientist lady’s daughter come from, and why is she so special?” Apparently, she has powers to control sea life or something it’s that odd. Then there is a whale… yes a whale… that the villagers have a name for and call him dangerous and an outcast for no reason cause the point of this movie is to have a bunch of empty assumptions about characters and there pasts. Again, with the whale we are left hanging until the last 30 minutes to find out what really happened.

So that addresses the cliches and hollowed promises to reveal something big. One of my biggest beef with the movie is it doesn’t follow a proper developmental formula. Not only does it keep too many characters alive (won’t spoil that one) it also kills the wrong ones. See, Jake’s oldest son is awesome. He’s strong, obedient, and not a weakling of an idiot like the younger son is who constantly gets into trouble throughout the 3 and ½ hr run time. His older brother warns him and then Jake yells at him about how disappointed he is. The characters arc works and is correct, however, he’s not the one that dies. Instead it’s his older brother that we hardly know or even care for and the powerful shockwave of his death is no where to be found or felt because of that. The movie should have shown the younger idiot brother to become a great warrior and leader who self-sacrifices himself to correct his past mistakes and save the tribes that he put into the path of danger to begin with. As he dies Jake should have held him in his arms while praising him for how great he’d become and that he’d always loved him. That would have been much more powerful to the audience.

In the end, this movie is about an 85% similarity to the first one. I had a friend who said “It’s a complete carbon copy of the first one.” Which I find to be fair.% New villains would have been nice, a better story arc for the children, about 30 minutes shorter, remove the talking pregnant whale (Yes that was a thing) and I think it would have been a lot better. I would also like to mention about clichés, there are lots of scenes where arrows break through helicopter windows and through the chests of the pilots letting them spiral out of control. I am 100% ok with these repetitive scenes and love watching it happen over and over. I’m not sure how they plan to do 3-6 more movies, but they’re gonna have to be more creative than this one to keep audiences returning.

So overall, I give it a 8/10.