4 Stars

It’s been exhaustively questioned as to whether James Cameron’s Avatar, the highest grossing film of all time, originally unseating Cameron’s own Titanic, has sustained its influence on pop culture as it did on filmmaking technology, with many claiming it came and went with little relevance. How exactly you make nearly $3 billion and not retain relevancy makes almost no logistical sense, yet that’s one of the biggest conversations surrounding Cameron’s return to Pandora after 13 years away. Do audiences still care about Pandora and the Na’vi? While this year has been rather stellar for large scale epics, seek no further than SS Rajamouli’s RRR, Robert Eggers’ The Northman and Matt Reeves’ The Batman to name a few, the long-awaited return to the Avatar world couldn’t have come at a better time. In an age where directors of big, effects-laden superhero movies that lean too heavily on animatics and the crutch of a sea of understaffed, underpaid visual effects artists to create magic for them has reached a critical level. The Oscar-winning master of cinema seeks to disprove the naysayers and has returned with a moving, gargantuan epic of limitless scope and imagination that will only further immortalize that old saying, you just never bet against James Cameron.

Following Jake Sully (Sam Worthington) and Neytiri (Zoe Saldaña) almost 15 years later as they’ve become a family with five children, a mix of their own as well as two adopted. When the sky people of Earth return to Pandora, Jake and Neytiri are forced to fight for the safety of their family and their new home, now living among the Ocean-dwelling Na’vi tribe of the Metkayina, led by Tonowari (Cliff Curtis) and Ronal (Kate Winslet). Cameron takes the same approach used in T2 by taking the original film and greatly expanding its horizons, both thematically and in sheer spectacle. This is a sprawling epic of flawed families and unbreakable bonds that is able to introduce entire new ecosystems and species on Pandora while still telling a layered, emotionally dense story at the center of it.

The original Avatar lacked the emotional heft that Cameron so masterfully crafted in Titanic, and was often criticized for villains that felt a bit cartoonish and exaggerated — although, now at the end of year 2022, it’s an unfortunate reality that these portrayals have aged quite sufficiently. The Way of Water retains the healthy balance between sweeping scale and intimate character drama that warrants being compared to Titanic. Family is the core theme of this sequel, and the script, written by Cameron, alongside Rick Jaffa and Amanda Silver (Rise of the Planet of the Apes) gives each family member enough screen time for you to invest in their personalities and relationships. You can feel Cameron’s genuine paternal soul in the film coming through with some of the most piercingly emotional and moving images in a mega-blockbuster of this caliber. In many respects, this feels like Cameron’s most personal film to date. It’s not a knock against the film but rather a large compliment that an enormous whale creature could be the films most impactful character arc.

The returning cast are given more compelling layers to their characters with Zoe Saldaña’s Neytiri having transformed from the graceful warrior princess-turned fierce mother and wife. Stephen Lang returns in a complex, potently defined turn. In a bold, but successful creative move, Sigourney Weaver returns, this time as Kiri, the teenage daughter of Jake and Neytiri. Among the younger generation of actors, Britain Dalton’s Lo’ak, the angsty younger son of Jake and Neytiri, is a commanding character backed by a performance that echoes the charisma of a young Leonardo DiCaprio.

To say this is a game-changer in vfx technology is obvious, but Cameron is just that great of a filmmaker that the sheer amazement of the spectacle never grows stale. This is a stone-cold stunner for all of its 192 minutes. The performance capture technology has become so advanced that microscopic details in an actors performance such as facial tics are picked up. Hairs on characters skin are rendered so photorealistic and truly blur the line as to what looks tangible and real against a digital creation. A large portion of the film is spent exploring the new Oceanic seasides of Pandora and it’s as fully realized and immersive as you would hope. There are moments where you can get lost trying to soak in all the new creatures and guffaw-inducing locations that are consistently flowing in and out of the frame.

Cameron’s strengths as an economical storyteller are also on full display. The editing, credited to Cameron, Stephen E. Rivkin, John Refoua and the late, David Brenner, is cut with breathless precision maximizing every minute of the runtime to make it feel half the length. In the exhilarating final hour that blends everything from the boat destruction of Titanic, to the environmental battle of nature vs man reminiscent of Princess Mononoke, we follow more than a dozen characters and not once does the film lose focus of its many shuffling pieces. The third act has some of the most clear, concise sequences of action Cameron has staged since the days of T2 and True Lies.

Cameron continues to utilize 3D to transport audiences to Pandora and tinker with high frame rate (HFR). We’ve seen the use of high-frame-rate 3D before to largely negative results. Ang Lee utilized it in Gemini Man which worked to add another layer of immersion to the action sequences, built left a big distraction for the quieter talky moments, of which there were many. Cameron’s recent restoration of the original film saw him implementing it in short bursts throughout the runtime, to winning effect. He masters it here, with select shots and moments being projected at a smoother 48 frames per second, double the standard 24. What the HFR does is allow the traditional barrier to wash away, bringing you closer to the characters, allowing their dynamics to feel more  visceral as you feel you’re right there alongside them. A 3+ hour epic in 3D with altering frame rates sounds like a nightmare for the eyes, but Cameron knows how to naturally present the story and visuals as not to obliterate the health of his audience.

James Cameron continues to flex his status as one of modern cinema’s greatest visionaries with Avatar: The Way of Water. A rousing and expansive achievement in filmmaking that is rich with emotional depth and endless visual wonder.