356. Avatar - The Way Of Water; movie review

 

AVATAR - THE WAY OF WATER

Cert 12A

192 mins

BBFC advice: Contains moderate violence, threat, injury detail, infrequent strong language

As water droplets sprinkled down in front of my nose in the third row of Nottingham Cineworld's IMAX auditorium, I felt as if I was actually part of James Cameron's new epic adventure.

There is no doubt that The Way Of Water is visually stunning and I was engaged with its storyline.

However, catching up with the original Avatar is an absolute must for it to make sense and if an hour had been cut from its running time, it would have been much better.

And given the number of repeated themes, I would question whether there is enough material for the planned three further films.

The Way Of Water is set more than a decade after the Na'vi successfully fended off the human invasion of their home planet, Pandora.

Jake Sully (Sam Worthington) is now so firmly ensconced that he is a clan chief and has an extended family with his wife Neytiri (Zoe Saldaña).

However, the humans are back and the leader of their force is an avatar of Colonel Miles Quaritch (Stephen Lang), the ultra-alpha male who was killed in the previous battle.

He has inherited the colonel's memories, so has a vicious grudge against Sully and is out for revenge, whatever the cost.

Consequently, that his presence endangers his own people, Sully takes his family to hide among the water tribe a long distance away.

So, the film is split into two.

Firstly, there is the difficult and literal immersion of his wife, sons and daughters into this new environment after the tentative agreement of the leader (Cliff Curtis) of the water people and his wife (Kate Winslet).

This is followed by the inevitable arrival of Quaritch and a brutal battle between the indigenous folk and the invaders.

Both parts have loud echoes from the original film with a few new interesting strands.

Meanwhile, there are amazing scenes with new wildlife under the waves.

As said, I found the story compelling - however, we simply cannot get around the biggest selling point of the original Avatar - namely, its freshness.

By now, we already know the key characters and plot lines, while the wow factor of humans and avatars mixing seamlessly is no longer there.

Nevertheless, it is dazzling, especially in 3D.

Now, where's that cream for a numb bum?

Reasons to watch: The visual spectacle

Reasons to avoid: Way too long

Laughs: None

Jumps: Two

Vomit: None

Nudity: None

Overall rating: 8.5/10

Did you know? Kate Winslet held her breath for over seven minutes after being trained in special techniques while shooting Avatar: The Way of Water. Sigourney Weaver held her breath for six minutes.

The final word. James Cameron: "The overarching idea is, the family is the fortress. It’s our greatest weakness and our greatest strength. I thought, ‘I can write the hell out of this. I know what it is to be the asshole dad.'" The Hollywood Reporter

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