Avatar : The Way of Water

Thirteen years in the making and without getting into the story there’s a personal feeling that it looks dated, technically. The 3D it originally led never took off properly and has by and large been dropped. The high-frame motion, that was most notoriously experimented with by Peter Jackson has been pretty much left to the realm of the gamers from whence it came.

So the version of the film I saw – and there are at least four in various 3 and 2D and the high-frame rates formats – looked spectacular but very strange and lifted straight from a games consul at times.

The effect of that was the supposed heavy-duty war-machines and space ships of the earthers when they return to Pandora look very lightweight with little or no density. That could apply to the story too. Though the Na’vi here are shown as family, spiritual and also a lot of fun as the interact with some of the remaining humans and go about their lives. With the youngsters being wild and teenagers – or whatever the equivalent are on Pandora.

That is all thrown into turmoil when a character from Jake Sully’s (Sam Worthington) - who is no longer human having taken over the Na’vi body - past returns on a personal mission, with a commando attack squad, then a much larger invasion force.

Led by and knowing that Colonel Miles Quartich (Stephen Lang) presence will endanger the forest community, he and his family escape to the sea where they meet the sea tribes – more gaming influence with the world building.

They are subtlety different having evolved to live in and use the sea’s resources. With some trepidation they are accepted into the community by chiefs Ronal (Kate Winslet) and Tonowari (Cliff Curtis) only for them to be tracked down for a final confrontation.
That’s the basics of it which manages to stretch the three hours plus. On the one hand James Cameron has to be acknowledged as one of the great action directors. The battle sequences are some of the most spectacular that anyone will see in cinema. Coupled with some of outstanding beauty when the film goes underwater.

The problems are with the wishy-washy script and highly unimaginative language that the actors are asked to work with. At times it looks like a kids tv programme which doesn’t blend that well when the adults get involved.

As expected there is a very strong eco theme to the film as well as the rights of indigenous people all layered on with a trowel. On a more soulful note, there’s the Na’vi’s relation to the planet itself and their reverence to it. There is joy and fun and there is fear and death for the characters, yet at no point did I feel any real connection to them.