December 21, 2022
FILM: AVATAR: THE WAY OF WATER
DIRECTED BY JAMES CAMERON
STARRING: SAM WORTHINGTON, ZOE SALDANA, SIGOURNEY WEAVER
RATING: 2 1/2 OUT OF 4 STARS
By Dan Pal
Ok, so there’s no denying that James Cameron’s sequel to the highest grossing film of all time is a major achievement in technical and special effects innovations. Avatar: Way of Water is incredibly beautiful to look at. Uses of color and visual effects are truly wondrous to view. Cameron has created a world that is unlike anything we’ve seen before and it could, and perhaps should, earn many accolades for this achievement.
Beyond this I found watching the film a pretty frustrating experience. It’s been thirteen years since the first one was released and, frankly, I’ve not watched it since (despite the Oscar-winning cinematography from my high school friend Mauro Fiore.) I didn’t remember much about it. Like many of you, I recall the blue “people”, Sigourney Weaver, Zoe Saldana, and Sam Worthington, and the film’s themes of invasion, nature, and racism. Is it necessary to know other details going into the sequel? Maybe. Although to require this knowledge from a general audience is a bit much. People who are obsessed with the first film (do such people exist?) might have all of this down pat. Not me, and I suspect most of you.
That said, I found the plot of the new film a bit unclear. My biggest issue was wondering who all of the characters were and how they related back to the first film. It took me about halfway through the film to realize (and only because I’d heard she was playing this) that Sigourney Weaver’s teenaged self was one of those characters. I didn’t think she particularly looked or sounded like her so I was a bit lost on that front. The same goes for the characters played in the previous film by Sam Worthington and Zoe Saldana. I kept wondering when these three actors would appear in the film and then it hit me (during one of the many moments when my mind wandered) that they’d been in the film all along. I was thrilled to see Edie Falco though! She wasn’t in the first film but I thought her precense was a good sign that the other familiar actors were not far away.
Therein lies the problem for someone of my age and film passion. I often go for the actors not the spectacle. Jordan Peele’s superior film Nope from earlier this year explores the mass audience’s fascination with spectacle. While I like looking at things that dazzle as much as the next guy, I become disinterested when the fights, explosions, and chases go on too long. Avatar: The Way of Water can be divided into three parts: hour one – the muddled exposition, hour two – an extended look at the beautiful world of Pandora, and hour three – the fight, the war. It goes on…and on…and on.
I give a lot of credit to the production designers though who made the beauty pop throughout the film. The characters themselves are a curious bunch of very lean and muscular figures. Apparently, there are no overweight people in Pandora. Hair is attractively corn rolled. Then there’s the pretty young Jack Champion who plays the “half-breed” Spider. I don’t think it’s much of a coincidence that he looks like Justin Bieber from a a few years back when the character was being developed. All of the characters look good. While I was a bit lost on whom Kate Winslet was playing, her avatar, like all the others are part of the aesthetic here. They evoke an exotic and other worldly sensibility.
Speaking of Winslet, Cameron does his best to provide us with a remake of Titanic during the film’s last hour. Even the music by James Horner echoes that “heart that goes on” throughout the earlier film. In essence, Cameron is appealing to those of us who made Titanic the highest grossing film of its time while clearly reaching out to a younger audience. So many of the teenaged characters use expressions like “bitch” and “bro “ to ground this fantasy in today’s reality. Sadly, it is those very contemporary words that will help date this film for future generations.
So, maybe I’m sounding like the older guy that I’ve become. I know what works for me and Avatar: The Way of Water didn’t. I know there are people who will love it (although the first weekend’s grosses were a bit disappointing according to the studio) and good for them. After seeing this and RRR, which I didn’t review, I’m ready to go back to adult themed independent and foreign films which present something more than just spectacle: humanity.
Avatar: The Way of the Water is currently playing in wide theatrical release.
FILM: AVATAR: THE WAY OF WATER
DIRECTED BY JAMES CAMERON
STARRING: SAM WORTHINGTON, ZOE SALDANA, SIGOURNEY WEAVER
RATING: 2 1/2 OUT OF 4 STARS
By Dan Pal
Ok, so there’s no denying that James Cameron’s sequel to the highest grossing film of all time is a major achievement in technical and special effects innovations. Avatar: Way of Water is incredibly beautiful to look at. Uses of color and visual effects are truly wondrous to view. Cameron has created a world that is unlike anything we’ve seen before and it could, and perhaps should, earn many accolades for this achievement.
Beyond this I found watching the film a pretty frustrating experience. It’s been thirteen years since the first one was released and, frankly, I’ve not watched it since (despite the Oscar-winning cinematography from my high school friend Mauro Fiore.) I didn’t remember much about it. Like many of you, I recall the blue “people”, Sigourney Weaver, Zoe Saldana, and Sam Worthington, and the film’s themes of invasion, nature, and racism. Is it necessary to know other details going into the sequel? Maybe. Although to require this knowledge from a general audience is a bit much. People who are obsessed with the first film (do such people exist?) might have all of this down pat. Not me, and I suspect most of you.
That said, I found the plot of the new film a bit unclear. My biggest issue was wondering who all of the characters were and how they related back to the first film. It took me about halfway through the film to realize (and only because I’d heard she was playing this) that Sigourney Weaver’s teenaged self was one of those characters. I didn’t think she particularly looked or sounded like her so I was a bit lost on that front. The same goes for the characters played in the previous film by Sam Worthington and Zoe Saldana. I kept wondering when these three actors would appear in the film and then it hit me (during one of the many moments when my mind wandered) that they’d been in the film all along. I was thrilled to see Edie Falco though! She wasn’t in the first film but I thought her precense was a good sign that the other familiar actors were not far away.
Therein lies the problem for someone of my age and film passion. I often go for the actors not the spectacle. Jordan Peele’s superior film Nope from earlier this year explores the mass audience’s fascination with spectacle. While I like looking at things that dazzle as much as the next guy, I become disinterested when the fights, explosions, and chases go on too long. Avatar: The Way of Water can be divided into three parts: hour one – the muddled exposition, hour two – an extended look at the beautiful world of Pandora, and hour three – the fight, the war. It goes on…and on…and on.
I give a lot of credit to the production designers though who made the beauty pop throughout the film. The characters themselves are a curious bunch of very lean and muscular figures. Apparently, there are no overweight people in Pandora. Hair is attractively corn rolled. Then there’s the pretty young Jack Champion who plays the “half-breed” Spider. I don’t think it’s much of a coincidence that he looks like Justin Bieber from a a few years back when the character was being developed. All of the characters look good. While I was a bit lost on whom Kate Winslet was playing, her avatar, like all the others are part of the aesthetic here. They evoke an exotic and other worldly sensibility.
Speaking of Winslet, Cameron does his best to provide us with a remake of Titanic during the film’s last hour. Even the music by James Horner echoes that “heart that goes on” throughout the earlier film. In essence, Cameron is appealing to those of us who made Titanic the highest grossing film of its time while clearly reaching out to a younger audience. So many of the teenaged characters use expressions like “bitch” and “bro “ to ground this fantasy in today’s reality. Sadly, it is those very contemporary words that will help date this film for future generations.
So, maybe I’m sounding like the older guy that I’ve become. I know what works for me and Avatar: The Way of Water didn’t. I know there are people who will love it (although the first weekend’s grosses were a bit disappointing according to the studio) and good for them. After seeing this and RRR, which I didn’t review, I’m ready to go back to adult themed independent and foreign films which present something more than just spectacle: humanity.
Avatar: The Way of the Water is currently playing in wide theatrical release.