Avatar: The Way of Water
U.S.A. 2022

Opening 15 Dec 2022

Directed by: James Cameron
Writing credits: James Cameron, Rick Jaffa, Amanda Silver, Josh Friedman, Shane Salerno
Principal actors: Sam Worthington, Zoe Saldana, Sigourney Weaver, Stephen Lange, Kate Winslet

It is hard to imagine but James Cameron’s Avatar series illustrates the intensity of his life’s work. He started working on this first epic science fiction Avatar film in 1994 and finalized it for its screening in 2009. He truly had a vision of how the film had to be seen. He need not only to develop the language that the Na’vi tribes spoke and the exotic environment where they lived but would need the development of groundbreaking visual effects to give its unique look. The film was using new motion capture filming techniques and was released in 3D. Now having said that, it is not a surprise that it took some time for the sequel to be developed. Cameron clearly likes a challenge and this time he wanted to create an environment near and in water. In order to do that meant more advanced development in technology to capture underwater scenes which had never been done before.

The film opens with a carefree Na’vi family; Jake Sully (Sam Worthington) and Ney'tiri (Zoe Saldaña) teach their children to survive on Pandora and are committed to staying together no matter what happens. Not only do they have two boys Neteyam (Jamie Flatters) and Lo'ak (Britian Dalton), a daughter Tuk (Trinity Jo-Li Bliss), an adopted daughter Kiri (Sigourney Weaver), but also Spider (Jack Champion), a human and son of their enemy Colonel Quaritch (Stephan Lang) lives with them. The idea of survival takes a closer look at fight or flight and becomes a difficult decision to make for the Sully family who are born warriors. Ultimately there is not much choice since their enemy from the past returns to Pandora looking for them, they join the Metkayina reef people clan at Pandora's eastern seaboard where a whole new way of life opens up to them.

The film is long but time flies, and due to all the new technical innovations, you just want to see more. So, what will Cameron come up with next? It is a difficult challenge to please an audience, but I can only say that this member of the audience has a smile on her face, a bucket of popcorn in her hand, and is just waiting for the next sequel coming. (Shelly Schoeneshoefer)