Avatar: The Way Of Water – The BRWC Review

14th December 2022

Avatar: The Way Of Water – The BRWC Review. By Shani Harris.

James Cameron brings fans back to the alien planet of Pandora with his new sequel Avatar:The Way of Water. Avatar became a global blockbuster at the boxoffice thirteen years ago. The special effects and immersive 3D experience brought audiences flocking into theaters to watch the stunning CGI film. We are introduced to Marine Jake Sully (Sam Worthington) in the first film. He is a human who is given the mission to use an expensive Avatar body to bond with the natives. A corporation called RDA is financing deforrestation to mine for a valuable substance called unobtainium. Jake works as a representative for the colonizers and reports to RDA security leader Colonel Miles Quaritch (Stephen Lang) with information to aid in the destruction of the planet.

Sully gets aid from a team of scientists let by botanist Dr. Grace Augustine played by Sigourney Weaver. He meets Na’vi warrior Neytiri ( Zoe Saldana) who introduces Jake to the traditions and spiritual beliefs of the Omanticaya clan. Grace used to run a school that taught English to the Na’vi. In a deleted backstory Neytiri had a sister who was killed by the “sky people” aka colonizers when she tried to protest and attacked a bulldozer. Grace was banned by the tribes, but she is welcomed back after Jake becomes a member after peforming a ceremonial ritual.

Jake falls in love with Neytiri and they become monogamous mates for life according to the law of the land. He changes his loyalty to the people of Pandora and uses his military expertise to fight the evil RDA forces. Colonel Quaritch gets killed by Neytiri in the first movie when he takes a couple of poison arrows to the chest. Jake is paralyzed in his human form and must rely on a wheelchair to get around. Grace gets shot and while she is dying the tribe prays to their deity Eywa. They try to transfer her spirit from her human body to her Avatar body but she is too week and passes away. Jake participates in the same ritual at the end of the first film as his frail human form is placed beside his Avatar. He is stronger than Grace and the first film ends with his Avatar opening his eyes to show that the body transfer process was successful. Everyone connected with RDA is kicked off the planet and forced to return to Earth except for a select few from the science team.

Avatar: The Way of Water begins years in the future as Jake and Neytiri are together as husband and wife. They are living a happy life on the land, while raising their kids and still finding ways to have date nights. Three of their children are biological offspring and two are adopted. Their large brood is filled with oldest son Neteyam (Jamie Flatters), Lo’ak (Britian Dalton), Kiri (Sigourney Weaver), Miles aka Spider (Jack Champion) and Tuktirey (Trinity Bliss). All of their children have been raised with a warrior spirit and trained in military combat including their adopted human son Spider who has dreads and paints himself blue to fit in with his family.

The paternity of Spider and Kiri push the plot forward and drive the story. It is revealed in the beginning of this new chapter that Spider is Colonel Quaritch’s son who was stuck on Pandora because he was too young to travel back to Earth when the sky people were expelled. Kiri was born after her mother Dr. Grace Augustine’s Avatar mysteriously becomes pregnant while floating in the amniotic fluid of her containment tank. There are some uncomfortable jokes about her origin story. However, it is possible that she is the reincarnation of Grace’s spirt after the Eywa prayer ritual conducted in the first film.

Jake and Neytiri assume they are safe but the sky people with RDA have returned under the leadership of Colonel Ardmore (Eddie Falco). Their technology has advanced so they can build their developments faster to colonize Pandora. Colonel Quaritch perished in human form. But he is resurrected as a Terminator version of an Avatar. Quaritch has a new mission to kill Jake Sully and his family because they are causing too many problems for RDA. He is turned into a recombinant which is a Na’vi body that has his memories buried inside of the brain. He embarks on his journey with a band of fellow recombinants to take out Sully and hunt him down.

Sully is very protective of his wife and kids like the patriarch of The Incredibles. He decides to seek safety once he learns that they are in danger. There are many other clans in Pandora. But Jake understands that the water lands on the reef are the best place to seek refuge. Tonowari (Cliff Curtis) and his wife Ronal (Kate Winslet) are leaders of the Oceanic Metkayina clan who grant them permission to stay. The Sully family is from the land and know how to ride direhorses and fly winged creatures to travel. New challenges arise when they have to immerse themselves in the ocean. We are told with an omniscient voiceover that, “the way of water connects all things before your birth and after your death.” They now have to learn how to ride ILUS and befriend compassionate whale like Tulkuns who have the intellectual capacity for speech. The new precious currency being mined is a glowing liquid produced by the whales which puts them in jeopardy for survival. Dr. Ian Garvin (Jermaine Clement) and his partner decribe this serum is a valuable fountain of youth worth millions of dollars.

The visual effects and 3D scenes filmed underwater are stunning. James Cameron had the actors train with professional divers to master the technique. Sigourney Weaver was able to hold her breath for over 6 minutes while her co-star Kate Winslet stayed under for over 7 minutes and broke Tom Cruise’s record. The Sully children are the stars of this film as they undergo growing pains like middle son Lo’ak who falls in love at first sight when he watches in awe as Tsireya ( Bailey Bass) emerges from the sea.

The themes of family bonds and what is a family are examined. James Cameron explained.“I had to figure out a way to get Stephen back into the story. His story is about family because he has this interesting relationship with the son. It is the son of his biological former self. Is that his problem?”

Sully’s children are ridiculed by the reef people for being Na’vi hybrids because they inherited some of his human DNA and traits which makes them feel more like misfits who don’t belong. The third act of the film which includes an homage to Titanic is where the stakes become dire and the danger all the protagonists face becomes harder to overcome. There used to be a cardinal rule in Hollywood that children and animals were always protected from harms way on screen. But successful franchises like the Hunger Games changed that mantra. Movies are a form of escapist entertainment. That is why Lin Manuel Miranda vowed to have a dead house resurrected in his Disney hit Encanto to empower the audience with happiness and hope. I won’t give anything away. But there are some decisions made by Spider that may grant the audience a feeling that he’s a Trojan horse as he deals with his own inner conflict about who is his father and where his loyalties lie. The underwater joyride is what makes Avatar: The Way of Water a must see cinematic adventure.

Grade: B

Avatar: The Way of Water opens in theaters on December 16^th.

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