Avatar: The Way of Water (2022) Review

Jake Sully has been living on Pandora with his now family Neytiri and their four children, but when a familiar threat returns he must do all he can to protect his family and the Na’vi race.

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Over a decade after the Na’vi repelled the human invasion or sky people as we hear them called throughout the storytelling. We catch back up with Jack who at the end of Avatar had been passed across from his human body into the Na’vi avatar he had been using. Now he is a chief of the Omaticaya clan, whilst raising his family with Neytiri, this includes two sons Neteyam and Loa’s, biological daughter Tuk and his adopted daughter Kiri (who was born from Grace Augustine’s avatar) as well as Spider a human boy who was born on Pandora, the son of Colonel Miles Quaritch who was too young to be transported back to earth.

The humans begin to return to Pandora in an attempt to colonise it due to the Earth dying. This sees a new force coming as well as the minds and memories of the dead marines including Quaritch as their leader, but this time they are in Na’vi form which certainly makes them more dangerous and matching the size and power. Let’s face it, everything is all about Jake and he is completely the target of the attacks due to deserting his own kind and becoming “one of them” as it was put across.

In an attempt to protect everyone Jake decides to move his family way to Metkaynia reef people clan which is on the seaboard, although the great threat they are given a place to shelter. It is a difficult move though as they must all learn the ways of the water and how to adapt to the sea. Some of the tribesmen consider them to have demon blood given the partly human genetic heritage.

We are taken on an adventure with the family as they explore the sea, what they must do to survive and how it is different from the forest. It brings challenges for each member of the family and as the children must grow and adapt, we see them clash with the chiefs children and that is something that we can all relate to for people moving to a new place. Although when the attack from the humans begin in the search to find Jake everyone will take a stand together to protect Pandora.

Back in 2009, Avatar was a truly incredible cinema experience really showing just what you could achieve with the 3D format. Pandora was created in the most incredible fashion and I felt as though The Way of Water went above and beyond that with so many amazing visuals really creating the amazing world. This time though we get a look at the water and the creatures that come along with that, instead of just the forest which gives the world on the moon even more depth.

I went to see the film in IMAX 3D and it really was a truly breathtaking experience, and even rather epic. I wasn’t really expecting to be totally blown away by how good it was going to look, so in that sense I guess the experience felt like heading to the cinema in 2009 to see the first film. I guess in someways it is such a shame that we had to wait so long for the sequel! I have to admit that the plot does not have a massive amount of depth and I guess a lot of it was building blocks for the next film(s) but that didn’t really bother me that much to be honest. The main reason I love film and cinema is for escapism and I felt as though this extra layer to Pandora and how incredible it looked really made the 3 hours and 15 minutes running time fly over. I certainly was not expecting to be so emotionally involved and close to tears at times, well done James Cameron.

The performances mixed with the CGI work mean that you can still see which actors are which character and I feel as though that really does give a lot more emotional depth, and makes you feel a little confused at times and sort of forfeiting that you are watching big blue characters! That was certainly a bonus for me and something that I really enjoyed a lot more in this film.