Avatar: The Way of Water Review

 


Avatar: The Way of Water is a beautifully shot and breathtaking Titanic-sized epic that at its core is a family drama. That and a story about the environment. Director James Cameron (True Lies, Titanic) saw to that from the lush green forest environments to the depths of the awe-inspiring oceans of Pandora. All of that however is threatened by the formidable Stephen Lang who reprises his role as a U.S. Marine that commands his forces into battle against the Na’vi race with his old nemesis at the top of that kill list: Jake Sully. 

 



Sam Worthington excels here, reprising the role of Sully from the original Avatar alongside Zoe Saldana as his wife Neyitiri as they raise a family on Pandora. At first I wasn’t sure if I was gonna be all that invested in watching mostly “blue people” for an entire three plus hour movie but I quickly found myself engaged by the performers and the dynamics between the Sully family were fun and very relatable to watch play out. And when that family is put into peril and are forced to go on the run we get to see them be the fish-out-of-water when they leave the forest to live with a tribe of “Sea people.” 

 



In a way it kinda feels reminiscent of Dances With Wolves as did the original film and it works all the more for it. The middle of the story does drag a little yet has a lot of rich character moments and puts the beauty of Pandora on full display as James Cameron shows off his innovative underwater technology onscreen in a way that has truly never been seen before. 

 





The ending is full of spectacle as one would expect from Cameron and feels a bit like Avatar meets Titanic with its operatic scope and use of water in a highly dramatic fashion. There is still plenty of story left here as Cameron has Avatar 3, 4, and 5 all in various stages of development ready to follow up this sequel to complete his mega franchise and storytelling saga that he first originated when he wrote the script for the original Avatar back in 1994. 

 

 


 

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Mission: Impossible Dead Reckoning Part One Review

Image
Mission: Impossible Dead Reckoning Part One is a timely tale about the dangers of AI and also a deeply personal story bringing Ethan Hunt's origins at the IMF full circle. This marks the third entry in the franchise that Christopher McQuarrie has both written and directed as he manages to bring to the screen an intensely cinematic film with both high physical and emotional stakes.  The story is centered around an ominous artificial intelligence known as "The Entity" which has become sentient and proceeded to infiltrate its way into the computer systems of prominent nations across the world. Thus when Ethan is recruited by Kittridge (his old nemesis from MI: 1 played by Henry Czerny) to retrieve the other part of a key that governments across the world are racing to obtain in order to gain control of the AI, Ethan decides to go rogue against his government to destroy the AI thinking that that much power is too much for anyone to have. Ethan's
Read more

Sound of Freedom Review

Image
"The most powerful person in this world is the storyteller", Jim Caviezel declares in the special post-credits message to the audience at the end of this film. The story he's talking about is that of the millions of children who are put into slavery in today's 21st century society. Directed by Alejandro Gómez Monteverde, Sound of Freedom is based on a true story and follows Tim Ballard (Jim Caviezel) who saves a boy from ruthless child traffickers and then learning the boy's sister is still captive decides to embark on a dangerous mission to save her. This film was made 5 years ago but faced every road block you can think of on it's way to the theatres due to the studios being afraid to release it until Angel Studios stepped in as the distributor. And now that it's finally out there in the world this film sends a resounding and powerful message that God's Children Are Not For Sale. It also operates on another level working as a film itself
Read more

Barbenheimer Double Feature Review

Image
I confess I subjected myself to the Barbenheimer social experiment and survived to tell the tale. These are two radically different movies to be sure, but both have one thing in common: they are well told. Barbie is directed by Greta Gerwig and follows Margot Robbie as the stereotypical Barbie who suffers an existential crisis that leads her to question her world and her existence. The result is a movie that is paradoxical in tone as it is as silly and irreverent as it is emotionally nuanced. Oppenheimer is directed by Christoper Nolan and follows Cillian Murphy as Robert J. Oppenheimer in his quest to develop the Atomic Bomb during World War Two. For a three-hour drama that isn’t an action film it moves surprisingly fast and is charged with crackling dialogue, breathtaking cinematography, and psychologically wrenching moments.  Returning to Barbieland, Margot Robbie excels as this seemingly one-note character who underneath has all kinds of depth. She is paired with her Ken (Ryan Go
Read more