Avatar 2: The Way of Water, was released in theatres on December 16th, 2022, thirteen years after the first movie came out in 2009. Cascade High School students were excited to see the movie because it was released the same day as the start of Christmas break, meaning they could see it on a half day of school. Once the movie came out, director James Cameron had already started filming three more movies for the series while the child actors are still the same age as their characters. The arrival of The Way of Water was long anticipated and blew the box office with a revenue of over $134 million dollars in North America from just the first week of its release. A portion of the original cast was brought back to play the same characters including Sam Worthington as Jake Sully and Zoe Saldana as Neytiri (Neigh-tear-ee), and some bigger names, such as Kate Winslet who plays Ronal, starred as new characters introduced in the second movie. After years of improvement in CGI, The Way of Water gives a fresh look to the Navi (Nah-vee), making the blue ten-foot-tall humanoids have a more realistic look, especially shown in the texture of their skin.
Although Avatar 2: The Way of Water was an intensely long movie, coming to 3 hours and 12 minutes, each minute was worth the watch. Maralys Fonseca, a sophomore, said, “it didn’t actually feel as long as it was, it felt really short.” Long films are notoriously hard to watch without falling asleep, but with the bright eye-catching colors and CGI shown in The Way of Water, you are sure to stay awake till the end. The great plot and action make the movie feel like a short watch and leaves people wanting more.
The Way of Water has many similarities to the original Avatar, including a familiar plot. The villain, Miles Quaritch, still plans to get rid of the Navi in order to mine for the rare metal, unobtainium, hidden underneath the home tree on the Navi moon, Pandora. However, this time, Quaritch becomes his own avatar and creates an army of other avatars to have a better way of tricking the Navi. The main protagonist, Jake Sully, has also made changes in his life. After the events of the first movie, Jake stays in his avatar body to stay with Neytiri. The movie continues with Jake narrating and explaining events that happened in between the movies, such as him marrying Neytiri, becoming leader of their Navi tribe, and having four kids. Mariamne Fonseca, a sophomore, said, “the second movie was much better because they had kids and it just makes it so cute.”
One of the kids, Kiri, is a reincarnation of Dr. Grace Augustine, who died in the first movie via gun shot, and is adopted by the Sully family. Kiri is played by Sigourney Weaver, who played Dr. Augustine in the original. Throughout The Way of Water, Kiri struggles with feeling like she belongs among the Navi and wants to know who her father is. She develops special traits, such as manipulating plants’ movements, that separates her from other Navi and is bullied by others because of it.
One of the biggest questions after watching The Way of Water is “Why is almost the whole movie in English instead of the Navi language?” The simplest answer is given during Jake’s narration at the beginning of the movie. He reflects on how his knowledge of the Navi language has improved and mentions “it might as well be English.” From there on, Jake is translating the whole movie through his point of view, which helps the actors because they did not have to learn the whole Navi language and not been able to understand what their lines are.
Avatar: The Way of Water gets its title from the main plot of the movie. The Sullys are forced to hide amongst the Metkayina (Met-Kai-ina) clan after Quaritch attempts to capture the children. The Metkayina are more related to water unlike the Sullys’ who are upon the Omatikaya (Oh-ma-tic-kai-ah) clan whereas they live in the forests of Pandora. The Metkayina also has different physical features such as thicker forearms and tails so they can be stronger swimmers, unlike the Omatikaya, who have feline features like their triangular ears and long tails that help them be aware of their surroundings and climb trees and cliffs. They teach the Sullys how to live within the ocean and interact with the aquatic animals. During the scenes where the kids are learning how to swim better and exploring the ocean, a romance develops between Jake’s second son, Lo’ak, and the Metkayina Chief’s daughter, Tsireya (See-re-ah). Much like the romance between Jake and Neytiri during the first movie, where she teaches Jake how to be a part of the Navi.
Lo’ak has a lot of scenes that are from his point of view. He feels as if he’s an outsider because he doesn’t follow orders as well as the rest of the kids and his older brother, Neteyam (Na-tay-um), always takes the fall for his actions in order to protect him. Lo’ak tries to fill the hole of not fitting into his family by bonding with an outcast, whale-like creature, Tulkun, and trusting Tsireya with expressing how he feels about being an outcast. Sophomore, Maralyz Fonseca said if she were to relate to any of the characters it would be Lo’ak because, “he felt that he had to be more like his brother and was tired of living in his siblings' shadows.” Lo’ak feels this way because he tries to protect his family like Neteyam would, but instead he messes up and gets himself into trouble.
One thing that isn’t a plus to watching The Way of Water, is the character, Spider, who is the son of Quaritch. Spider spends the first part of the movie tagging along with the Sullys and trying to prove that he is Navi, even though he is a human and because he is human, he has to wear an oxygen mask for most of the movie because humans can’t breathe the air on Pandora. Spider can be described as annoying and what CHS students might call a “pick me” because he is constantly complaining about his evil father and how he is Navi when he’s really not. At the start of the conflict, Quaritch kidnaps him to get information about the Navi’s whereabouts and how to effectively attack them.
Almost everyone's favorite part of the movie was the CGI and graphics. “The graphics were really good,” said sophomore, Shane Slette. Due to the creative minds used to create this movie, the best way to describe it is magical and unreal. Mariamne Fonseca, a sophomore, who saw the movie in theaters after break said “I think the CGI was really cool, my favorite part of it [was] the underground flowers they made. The movie was beautiful to watch. I loved it.” She also said her favorite part of the movie was “when they went underwater and turned into cool water people.”
Anyone who likes Sci-Fi and futuristic movies should watch Avatar 2: The Way of Water because of the impressive use of CGI and the complete process of creating such a big movie with actors that have been in the original movie. The characters are easy to love and show exciting potential for future Avatar movies and the whole setting of Pandora is an extraordinary sight with all the vibrant colors and creatures that live on it.
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