Avatar: The Way of Water

By Joshua Xiang (written in 2022, republished in 2025)

It would be missing the point to call the proceedings indulgent to the point of self-infatuation: Cameron has built a new world from the remixed bits of this one, and he seems determined that we should not simply visit Pandora, we should live in it. (Rotten Tomatoes, Matthew Lickona)

The prominent voice among the audience is that although it presents to us the world's best CGI and visual effects, people still feel the plot of the movie is pretty pale. One can tell that Cameron really cares most about the world-building for the mid-section of this film, which is one of his greatest accomplishments, so he rushes through some of the set-ups to get to the good stuff. So for example, the villains' motives are sometimes a bit hazy. Around halfway through, I realized it's not very clear why Quaritch is so intent on hunting Jake and his family, other than the plot needs it.

Also, there’s simply no reason for this film to run for 3 hours and 12 minutes. The plot

certainly doesn’t justify it. The special effects and 3D would have been just as pretty in 2 hours and 12 minutes. Avatar 2 could easily be cut by 45 minutes or more, tightening up the pace of the film considerably. A lot of that could be in the final action sequences. I really liked the aquatic stuff, and especially Loak’s relationship with the outcast whale (more on that in a second) so I wouldn’t cut any of that, but there are plenty of other portions of the movie that could be tightened up.

Speaking of that final confrontation, the big battle at the end of the film is a mess. It’s way too long and repetitive, and while there are some cool special effects, and it’s kind of fun to see the Tulkun whale take part in the combat, mostly it just drags. Sully’s kids are captured twice, after having been captured earlier in the film already! Having the kids captured and rescued three times over the course of a single film is just bad writing. And what on earth happened to the water Navi warriors at the end of the fight? Did they just bail on Jake and his family or what?

The reason for that kind of complaint is understandable, but the point is that the audience only remembers and keeps trying to compare the fantastic plot of Avatar, and forgets how the CGI was back then. In many ways, the planet of Pandora in "Avatar" has become Cameron's most ambitious manner of sharing this belief in the power of cinema. The question is can you leave everything in your life behind and experience a film in a way that's become increasingly difficult in an era of so much distraction? As technology has advanced, Cameron has pushed the limits of his power of belief even further, playing with 3D, High Frame Rate, and other techs that weren't available when he started his career.

More importantly, a lot of concepts and world issues are being pointed out, like humans killing whales for their brains and how Europeans invaded native Americans. (A bit cliche, but great)