By Jonah Naplan

December 15, 2022

James Cameron’s epic “Avatar: The Way of Water” is a true cinematic blockbuster—a movie so full of passion for the art form that it becomes infectious. It conveys a remarkable thirteen year improvement in the way modern day directors use technology in their films, acting as an excuse for Cameron to present all of his nifty new gadgets he’s learned how to use during that time span. But “The Way of Water” is not just a three plus hour gimmick. It’s a movie that’s filled with astonishing realism, and not just in the moviemaking sorcery it’s keen to showcase. In a film with such a simple plot on a surface level, “Avatar: The Way of Water” is always grounded with characters that may be fantastical, but ones that are easy to resonate with on their journey.

“Avatar: The Way of Water” is finally here, after a long thirteen year wait for Jake Sully, Neytiri, and the world of Pandora to return to cinemas. Some were frustrated by James Cameron’s refusal to work on any other projects except Avatar installments during that time, and wanted his newest movie to fail. I’m not entirely happy with James Cameron about his decision either, regardless of how I feel about his film, but I can endlessly respect his ambition and will to ensure that his films match his perfectionistic agenda. What he has created with “The Way of Water” is a remarkable culmination of everything the power of film can do nowadays, even if the movie isn’t without its problems.

“Avatar: The Way of Water” allegedly takes place thirteen years after the first one—the same amount of time we’ve had to wait to catch up with the Sully family. Jake Sully (Sam Worthington) is now a full-time (if you could call it a job) Na’vi, living on Pandora with his wife Neytiri (Zoe Saldana), three biological children—Neteyam (Jamie Flatters), Lo’ak (Britain Dalton), and Tuk (Trinity Jo-Li Bliss)—and another daughter, Kiri (Sigourney Weaver), the offspring of Weaver’s character from the first film, of whom they now have guardianship over. But their simple life soon gets overturned when the Sky People return, led by a Na’vi rendering of Colonel Miles Quaritch (Stephen Lang) from Cameron’s first movie, alongside an army of other once human Na’vi soldiers.

The clan is forced to migrate to another part of Pandora, one that they’re seemingly unfamiliar with—a reef region run by Tonowari (Cliff Curtis) and his wife (Kate Winslet) of the Metkayina people. Here is where they seek refuge, but Tonowari is wary that the Na’vi will bring dangers along with them. Much of “Avatar: The Way of Water” is spent in this underwater region—an obvious excuse for Cameron to play with the limits of underwater aerial acrobatics. All of the H20 scenes are visually awe-inducing, and expand the Avatar world to new measures. Seeing the movie in RealD 3D (the best way to see Avatar movies), makes these scenes even more astonishing.

With the Metkayina people, the Sully children adapt to the new environment, learning the ways of the water clan. This leads to some of the movie’s best scenes (well, most of the movie’s scenes, for that matter) as the clan makes allies, enemies, and learns more about their culture. But the danger remains right on their tail. Quaritch somehow knows exactly where Jake Sully and Neytiri are, even if his hostage, Spider (Jack Champion), a lab raised human avatar who used to follow the Sullys around in the forests of Pandora, refuses to tell him anything.

Spider is Quaritch’s inside man on the Na’vi, or at least Quaritch acts like he is. And the movie takes Spider’s character in surprising directions, especially in the third act. Much of the movie’s character development takes place in the second act however, where the movie somewhat slows down to give us more in-depth information about the characters we’re choosing to follow. Because there’s no time for that kind of stuff anymore in Cameron’s brilliantly rendered, non-stop, action packed final hour. The concluding action setpiece in “Avatar: The Way of Water” is a marvel of moviemaking, that often feels like James Cameron is inventing new technology on the spot. It’s equally as quarrelsome to think about how none of it becomes too pretentious, over-blown or boring, as it is pondering just exactly how Cameron was able to accomplish what seems to have been done with ease.

Many see James Cameron as a lost cause nowadays, and for the last ten years they had reason to think so. But if anything, “Avatar: The Way of Water” proves that he was not in fact slacking off during his over decade long absence, even if you don’t choose to recognize his filmmaking artistry. In his jaw dropping finale, Cameron plays with the tropes of big blockbuster setpieces, never hesitating to make them more interesting via his unique, personal spin. If “Avatar” movies didn’t stand out from the crowd of action/sci-fi entertainment, we’d wonder why we don’t go watch another “Fast and Furious” movie instead.

But again, “Avatar: The Way of Water” tells a simple story—an interesting one, but a very simple one. The movie doesn’t need to be as long as it is, and you often feel the duration when the film begins to make it clear that it’s in no rush at all to conclude. The film runs at three hours and twelve minutes, a runtime longer than the original “Avatar,” all of the MCU movies, and even “The Godfather.”

I’d like to make something very clear. A critic does not criticize a movie’s runtime because they aren’t comfortable with the large number. Rather, they criticize the extent in which that runtime becomes unnecessary for the plot and story the filmmakers are telling. With “Avatar: The Way of Water,” Cameron provides his viewers with an ambitious three digit number, and once complained that he didn’t want to hear whines about his movies being too long. Cameron, my friend, I’m sorry. But I thought your movie was a wee bit too long.

I go about saying this cautiously, as I don’t know exactly what I would have cut out for two reasons. Number one being that I don’t know what will prove to be important in other “Avatar” installments, and number two, even the stuff I would consider cutting, I thought was tempering to watch anyways. Here, James Cameron gives the critic a tough job. When “The Way of Water” sets out to impress the viewer, it never once fails at doing so, but time will only tell how well the film ages, much like 2009’s first.

For the time being, I really can’t think of the last time I was this reinvigorated to be sitting in a theater, watching so many new cinematic concepts unfold in front of me that it felt experimental. And I was James Cameron’s guinea pig. “The Way of Water” works at its full potential when the viewer allows themself to be swept away to a place they’ve never been to before, or one that’s comfortably familiar. It’s difficult for a movie nowadays to be this transportive, to help your subconscious relieve itself of all struggles it may be going through in the real world. Cameron’s film may not be all jolly, and cuddles and snuggles, but it reminds us of why we go to the movies in the first place. See it in 3D on the biggest possible screen you can.

Now playing in theaters.