The review of Avatar - Way of Water, the new film by James Cameron, sequel to the highest-grossing film in the history of cinema.
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| Image Credit: 20th Century Studios |
The most ferocious criticism regarding the first chapter of Avatar, but also the first thought, direct and visceral, that accompanies us as we leave the theater, once the credits of Avatar: The Way of Water, the sequel to the film, have finished box office hit of 2009, and the second installment of five planned by record-breaking director James Cameron.
Records that do not only refer to the takings of his latest films, but also to an increasingly broader, spectacular, and grandiose vision, not to mention unique in its kind, regarding technology at the service of ideas and of such a pure conception of cinema to be primordial, and therefore out of time.
And yes, after having been immersed again, 13 years after the first time, in the world of Pandora for 192 (very fast) minutes, we can only say that there is no story. Because, as we will see in our review of Avatar – The Way of Water, when behind the camera there is a director like James Cameron, in this guise of a demiurge with a gigantic heart and an irrepressible desire to give meaning to the time spent inside a cinema, the result is a unique experience that has no rivals.
A plot not to be underestimated
We can start talking about the most problematic aspect, the one that made the first film an incredible success, but which has always been defined as the weak point of the Avatar project: the plot. Too formulaic and simple, based on archetypes that belong to the dawn of time of storytelling, Avatar seemed more memorable for the visual effects than for the story it wanted to tell.
This second chapter had the double duty of making those disappointed by the first chapter think again and expanding the narrative of the saga, laying the foundations of a long story but in any case, resulting in itself.
The plot of Avatar 2 resumes the events of Jake Sully (Sam Worthington), now a complete Na'vi, and Neytiri (Zoe Saldana) who have become parents: three biological children, Neteyam, Lo'ak, and the little girl Tuk, a now-adolescent adopted daughter named Kiri, born from the avatar of Doctor Grace (Sigourney Weaver in the first chapter and here the body and voice of the young Na'vi), and an adolescent human who grew up with them called Spider. Life in the forest of Pandora seems to proceed in harmony, until the humans of the RDA, led by the evil Colonel Quaritch, whose memories were recombined in the body of an avatar after he died in human form in the first chapter, return to Pandora to bring destruction and, above all, take revenge on Jake.
The Sully family is therefore forced to flee from their own people and find refuge with a Na'vi population with a different culture called Metkayina. Here the Sullys will have to learn the customs of the marine people, who do not look favorably on the arrival of these Na'vi who are different from them and sought after, but also manage a fracture in family relationships, which will gradually become wider.
Simple does not mean banal, and archetypal does not mean devoid of importance and complexity. The story of Avatar 2 does not intend to complicate the vision of the film in the eyes of the public but replicates that formula - almost belonging to another time and another way of making cinema - which made the success of the first chapter. The dynamics between the characters, each with their precise role in the narrative, are always clear, the most complex innovations are properly explained, and the dialogues intend to underline the flow of the narrative rather than replace it.
It is a writing that at times appears a little out of date but crystalline and precise in its intentions and execution. Because the strength of Avatar – The Way of Water lies not so much in the twists (which there are anyway) or in the difficulty of the plot, but in the themes it intends to address. Themes that he stages with crystalline elegance, direct enough, without ever coming across as blackmail: there is the environmental and ecological discussion, but also particular attention to spirituality and the renewal of one's identity - of course - but where Avatar 2 it strikes deeply, thrilling without the spectator's possibility of defense, it is in the relationship between parents and children. Here, Avatar – The Way of Water proves to be a complex and above-average blockbuster compared to other recent productions, which makes emotion and empathy its best ingredients to transport and immerse the audience within this ever-present story bigger.
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| Image Credit: 20th Century Studios |
A new generation cast
If emotions arrive it is thanks to the presence of characters you cannot help but love. A few minutes of the presentation are enough to immediately feel connected to their stories, which will become more and more accentuated as the minutes pass due to a CGI that honestly has no rivals (and not only in recent times), where the faces of the actors, recognizable under the digital mask, are so hyper-realistic that they break that visual barrier that would label them as digital, preventing us from believing what we are seeing.
But the greatest merit goes above all to the acting cast, which shines with its own light. Especially the new entries of the new generation of protagonists, who give life to a group of teenagers and young people who literally steal the show from the old guard, although Jake Sully remains the narrator of the story and Neytiri (the most sacrificed of the historical characters) has some of the best moments of the film.
Speaking of the individuals: Britain Dalton in the role of Lo'ak, the second son of Sully, and Bailey Bass, the daughter of the Metkayina leader named Reya, bring with them the beating heart of the film, while the little Trinity Bliss (Tuk) surprises for his personality although, due to force majeure, his role is more secondary, like Jamie Flatters' Neteyam.
The real miracle concerns Kiri, the most important character for the economy of the saga, a teenager played by a seventy-three-year-old Sigourney Weaver who leaves you disconcerted in a positive sense with how she moves and how she feels perfectly at ease in the body of a young girl. More in the shadows is the human Spider played by Jack Champion, who lives thanks to the writing of the character and his role within the story.
The great strength of this cast, however, is in the symbiosis and synergy between their characters: you have the sensation of seeing a true, natural, alchemical relationship, devoid of artificial construction that passes through writing and paper. It is the film's trump card and the best result that this sequel had to achieve, to guarantee a continuation of the saga in a transgenerational manner.
Because this successful cast (and Sam Worthington, Zoe Saldana, Kate Winslet, and Stephen Lang will forgive us if we mention only in passing their great talent present in this film) allows us to speak directly to a new generation of spectators, too young in 2009 to live the experience that the now grown-up audience of the first film remembers well, and which now represents the audience most interested in the theater experience.
Only with the birth of their passion and interest in this world will the saga set on Pandora be able to continue successfully, consolidating the franchise. And it is here that Avatar – Way of Water lands its masterstroke, placing the spotlight on blind faith in the future and in young people, demonstrating once again how James Cameron manages to participate in a championship of his own, making films that They are immediately striking for their staging, but over time they transform into eternal classics.
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| Image Credit: 20th Century Studios |
Breathe underwater
It's time to address the elephant in the room of Avatar 2, that element that has struck us since the first promotional images and that we can't help but reiterate, despite it being literally there for everyone to see. And at the risk of reiterating the obvious and appearing obvious, we must admit the harsh truth: we have never seen something like Avatar – The Way of Water at the cinema, from a purely visual point of view. Never.
Especially after having become accustomed to increasingly cheap visual effects in recent years (and above all to accepting them and making do with them, lowering our expectations but also not demanding a curative need for our increasingly lazy eyes), Avatar 2 turns on a blinding light again, so warm enough to numb our chest, enough to remind us why the cinema exists, with its big screen and loud sound.
With the help of 3D, which in addition to some playful pop-out effects gives a depth of field and a three-dimensionality to the faces that leaves us astonished, we feel truly immersed. Not only in the crystalline waters of Pandora, where we will discover an underwater world that will leave you speechless but also in the emotional relationships between characters and creatures that populate the film.
Thanks to a photograph by Russell Carpenter, former collaborator on Titanic, highly sought after, where naturalness and artistic choice blend together through a show that has no precedent, one cannot help but be completely amazed and inserted into the events, both in the moments more relaxed as in the more excited ones. We cannot fail to mention the last act of the film, where action reigns supreme, the result of which is the most precise and perfect one can expect from a film worthy of the name: spectacular, adrenaline-filled, powerful.
“The way of water connects all things,” they say in the film, and so it really is. Visionary, empathy, transportation, screen, and audience: everything comes together in total fluidity. The result is a show that defines the concept of a cinematic experience, which teaches you to breathe underwater but can't help but make you feel free diving.
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| Image Credit: 20th Century Studios |
Merits and limits of a cinematographic poem
James Cameron continues along the path he has always taken, never denying his personality but rather renewing it with the awareness of maturity. His Avatar – The Way of Water intends to approach a narrative that passes above all through images, a choice that today appears almost in contrast with consolidated contemporary formulas, where dialogue and exposition through the word count more than the meaning of the images.
In the best moments of Avatar 2, one shot is enough to tell everything: the developments of the plot, the thoughts of the characters, the emotional transport, life on Pandora... The narration passes above all through the eyes and glances (which once again underlines how the visual effects are state of the art: how much courage and trust does it take to focus so much on the facial expressions of digital creatures to tell stories?), which on the one hand gives the film a departure from the canons of the blockbuster by making it approach the indie arthouse cinema, on the other hand creates, on certain occasions, a loss of that cohesion that the first chapter had.
The editing plays on alternating narratives and must bring together many characters and different stories, linking them from an emotional or figurative point of view. Especially in the central part, the target is not always hit, giving the sensation of a somewhat fragmented narrative, always with a high pace but a little dispersive (even if, as we already mentioned a few lines above, the third act ties everything together and does it incredibly well).
One could say that this sequel is almost a remake of the first chapter, set in the water instead of in the forest, but this is not the case. Certainly, Avatar - The Way of Water does not hide its nature as a second chapter, stimulating certain dynamics and taking up, especially from a musical point of view, certain themes that can give the effect of déja-vu, especially when inserted in certain scenes. However, this is a conscious and deliberate choice. On the other hand, in a poem we expect rhymes.
In reality, it is the new point of view, especially about the historical characters, that makes Avatar 2 the most natural and best continuation of the saga, at the same time development and a new starting point of a franchise that yes, we need.
Avatar – The Way of Water responds to a desire, that exemplifies the grandeur and uniqueness of cinema in an almost religious way.
The gaze is an act of love. And then leaving the room and being able to think that no, there is nothing comparable to this type of experience, to this type of emotion. No, there's no story at all.