When James Cameron released Avatar to the world in 2009, it sparked a massive following. Sci-fi films tend to do fairly well, and Cameron was no stranger to the genre. But Avatar was something different. It was a unique concept, the story following Jake Sully, a marine who’d lost the use of his legs. He gets a second chance to walk again by agreeing to transfer his consciousness into the body of an alien, his avatar. As the film progressed, Sully ingrained himself with the alien race, the Navi, reaching the point where he felt he belonged with them. The ending scene poignantly ended with his human body being laid to rest and he became reborn as his avatar. It would have been just fine if the movie was left alone. But there’s money to be made, and sequels are very lucrative. After over ten years, and suffering a few delays, Avatar: The Way of Water is finally released to the world. One of the most hyped movies, possibly ever.
I enjoyed Avatar and thought a sequel was a good idea. The movie opens with a swelling score, and dramatic pan out shots of places like the Hallelujah Mountains. It’s as if Cameron is saying, ‘welcome back to Pandora.’ The sequel is very similar to the original movie. Jake Sully continues to narrate the events of the movie, just like the original. It’s worth noting that James Cameron explained he wanted to film Avatar in the mid-nineties but said that technology hadn’t caught up enough for him to do it. In 2009, we were witnessing film production as its highest. Avatar 2 really does raise the bar of film-production yet again, the scenery, the dramatic shots, it’s all quite staggering.
But we’re here to talk about story. The story of Avatar 2 is a little bit strange. First of all, there’s no in-depth plot here. I kid you not when I tell you the overall story is almost exactly the same as the original. Within the first twenty minutes Sergeant Barnes comes back from the dead, via cloning, and the next two and a half hours of the movie revolves around his revenge vendetta. In terms of plot, that’s all she wrote folks. Despite the fact Avatar 2 grossed over three billion dollars worldwide, there were fans and critics who felt like they deserved more.
There’s another way to look at this movie. Personally, I enjoyed Avatar 2. Here the focus isn’t so much on a series of plot and sub-plots. Here we’re really watching the saga of Jake Sully and his family. Fittingly Avatar 2 takes place ten years after the events of the first movie. Jake is now a father and a leader. His sole purpose is keeping his family safe. The entire story is really told through the characters, watching Sully and his family survive.
Let’s discuss another big aspect of the sequel. I remember seeing an interview where Cameron mentioned he was focused on expanding the world of Pandora. That’s an ambitious task. Avatar 2 does a very good job of that. We now see there are multiple tribes of Navi. We’re used to seeing the forest tribe, here we see there are other tribes who are coastal. Who live on villages constructed on the ocean. Watching Sully and his family try to adjust to a new way of life is actually quite engrossing. As a writer I found the attention to detail very impressive. There are a lot of scenes that take place underwater, and that’s where Camerons gift for production really shines. Vibrant colors and varied alien fauna are brought out in eye popping detail.
I will say this movie isn’t exactly perfect. I do think that for a three hour film, there are aspects that easily could’ve been added to make the movie more suspenseful. There were a few scenes that were dragged out a little. There are also a few underdeveloped elements that could’ve added to the overall story. For example, one of the new characters is Kat, Sully adopted daughter. Her mother was the scientist from the first movie, but her father is unknown. Exactly how she was even born to begin with is strange enough, especially given her mother dies at the end of the movie. Kat throughout the movie displays almost supernatural abilities, and this is never given so much as a hint of explanation. Kat was a memorable character for me, and had these aspects been developed a bit more, it would’ve gone a long way to adding complexity and depth to the story. (Or it could just be a plug for a third movie, that’s also a possibility) I also thought that writing in Sergeant Barnes as a clone was interesting. This was a golden opportunity to add a comment on human cloning, a very hot button issue. I can think of a dozen ways to do it. But that was another underdeveloped aspect. Rather than being a meaningful addition to the story, it just felt like cloning was thrown in as a way to add Sergeant Barnes back in. Again, when you have a three hour film, you’re not exactly pressed for time.
But I digress. Despite all that, I still think Avatar 2 is very entertaining. As a writer, the main takeaway was watching the way the story was told. Everything is done from a first person perspective, much like the first. Rather than writing in a Tom Clancy-esque plot (which I wouldn’t have minded by the way) instead the movie follows the lives of Sully and his family. Watching them survive together, argue, try to adjust to a new way of life is all kind of endearing. I also think the world building is something to emulate. So much detail was added that truly does give Pandora a more realistic feel. In my opinion, it’s as much a sci-fi masterpiece as the first one.
