People across the world still rave about Hollywood films like Terminator, Aliens, The Abyss, Titanic, and Avatar and wonder about their creator, James Cameron's creative, innovative, and visionary expertise and inborn talent. Avatar magic created by James Cameron is still fresh in the minds of not only movie lovers and also all sections of people even after 13 years and no other film could break the box office collections record of around 3 billion dollars. When James Cameron announced Avatar 2, everyone got curious. Finally, their curiosity will come to an end as Avatar2-The Way of Water is released today December 16,2022 in an extravagant manner.
Avatar 2: The Way of Water story continues from where it ended in Avatar. Jakes Sully (Sam Worthington) permanently becomes a Navi after leaving his human body and becomes the chief of Omaticaya after falling in love and marrying Neytiri (Zoe Saldana) and having his own family. But their happy life in Pandora is disturbed by the humans who are out to take over it before the earth becomes extinct. What happens in the conflict between Jakes Sully and Colonel Miles Quaritch( Stephen Lang) resurrected as an embedded avatar and the connection with Tonowari(Cliff Curtis), chief of Metkayina and his wife Ronal (Kate Winslet) form the rest of the story. James Cameron continued the story from Avatar to Avatar 2 in an interesting way. The way the story proceeds smoothly without any confusion and deviation, he should be complimented.
Avatar 2 Story Review Rating: 2.5/5
James Cameron is renowned for his flawless screenplay. People still remember the lasting impression he created with human emotions and how he highlighted it in Avatar when Jakes Sully gets injured while saving the avatars and his leg is amputated but still goes on a mission to pursue his love and save Neytiri and the entire tribe. He tried to do the same in the second part Avatar2: The Way of Water but failed to create a similar impact. The soul of emotions featured in the first part of Avatar went missing in the second part. He tried to repeat the same but when Jakes Sully left his Avatar tribe, only to save his family, his mission got minimized and his character arc came down drastically. The family emotions went into a repetition mode and this only increased the duration. Over and above 3 hours duration impacted the film in a big way and this decreased the interest of movie lovers as the narration reached the stunning climax.
This sent the wrong signals that Jakes Sully deserted his tribe and people as a leader and became selfish to save his family. Another flaw in the screenplay and narration is, when the humans decide to occupy Pandora before the earth becomes extinct, they could have easily done so after Jakes Sully leaves Pandora along with his family. Instead, they forgot the entire mission and go on a personal agenda to eliminate Jakes Sully and his family. Much to the disappointment of all, even the great and experienced, renowned James Cameron missed the small but simple logic. Seems more importance is given to the VFX than the screenplay. This gave credence to the thinking that James Cameron took up Avatar-The Way of Water only as a bridge between Avatar and Avatar 3. Except for a few misses here and there, the screenplay is intact.
Avatar 2 Screenplay Review Rating: 2/5
Avatar: The Way of Water is high on technical values and it must be because the film is made with a whopping budget of over $400 million. Visual effects are breathtaking and the Pandora scenes captivated all. They are brilliant and apart from it, the 30 minutes of climax blows all with the rich visuals and intense action elements. The climax is the highlight of the film which makes viewers sit on the edge of their seats. The background music of Simon Franglen elevated the scenes giving goosebumps to the viewers. The cinematography of Russel Carpenter is extravagant and rich. The editing could have been more crispy. Production values are of top class. Right from the storyboard to the title cards, in the end, the makers maintained richness throughout. On the flip side, the association of talented Telugu actor and Director Avasarala Srinivas with Avatar2 excited everyone. Many expected him to leave his mark in the Telugu dialogues. But Avasarala Srinivas did what is required of him and didn't do more than it (Avasaramainanta Varake). The dialogues looked like just the translation of English dialogues.
Avatar 2 Technical Review Rating: 4/5
James Cameron is known for getting the optimum out of his cast and crew. All the actors came up with brilliant performances. Jakes Sully standout by showing variations in expressions and emotions. He maintained the same intensity to make an impact. Zoe Saldana, Clif Curtiss, and Kate Winslet blended with him to elevate the scenes with their performances. The actors who played the roles of their children brought in good emotions to complete the story.
Avatar 2 Performances Review Rating: 3/5
Altogether, Avatar2: The Way of Water by James Cameron promised stars but left everyone in the sky. Such are the standards set by James Cameron that even if he offers a delicious dish with all varieties, people will be unsatisfied. For all the diehard fans of Avatar, the Way of Water missed the lead pair's romantic angle and emotions associated with it, the tree of souls along with the beautiful feelings, the powerful antagonist according to the story, and also the visual impact along with the unique looking flying animals present in the Avatar. A little fine-tuning of the script and tightened screenplay along with reduced duration would have turned Avatar-The Way of Water into a Stunner and Avatar 2 would have reached astronomical heights had the protagonist taken the decision he took in the climax at the beginning itself. Considering all these points, Cinejosh goes with a 2.5 rating for Avatar 2 aka Avatar: The Way of Water.