How strange to see yet another long-gestating sequel less than 12 months after watching Top Gun: Maverick! I mean, Avatar: The Way of Water barely compares in terms of elapsed time (three-and-a-half decades vs just over one) but the latter spent a lot of that time in production, so the anticipation for some folks might have been even more pronounced.
Strangely, that anticipation was not increased for me, despite enjoying the first film quite a bit (in spite of its many flaws); we had talked about seeing it over Christmas but never got around to it. And honestly, the three-hour-plus runtime made weekday viewings impossible afterwards, but we had a window to see it Sunday afternoon, over two months since its release, and we took it - mostly so its four Oscar nominations could bring our "seen it" total to 55.
So although the plot is a big improvement over the simplistic original, some of its other problems remain: both the "noble savage" and the "mighty whitey" tropes are in full display, although the latter is perhaps a bit more subdued now. Writer/director James Cameron has maintained the "fish out of water" angle by having former earth marine and current Na'Vi Jake Sully (Sam Worthington), his mate Neytiri (Zoe Saldana) and their four children flee their forest home after the Sky People (earth folks) return. The threat of losing their children to the newly recombinated and incredibly vengeful Col. Quaritch (Steven Lang), now in his own Na'Vi body is just too much.
And the retread itself is not problematic, but when you see the amount of cultural appropriation in the depiction of the Matkayina clan (or reef people), it is difficult to see why the filmmakers did not foresee this as a problem. It is one thing to have a hunter give thanks to an earth-spirit of mother nature figure after making a kill like we saw in 2009's Avatar, but there are whole pages torn from South Pacific islander culture here. From the facial tattoos to the weapons to some of the names to the tongues stuck out in defiance just prior to going into battle, there were so many Maori callouts I was astonished they didn't try to shoehorn a re-named haka in there someplace.
But as unfortunate as that was, I have to say that, overall, we all enjoyed the film. (Sigh.) And it is all due to a visionary filmmaker being allowed to pursue his passions.
In addition to being a good writer and great director (YMMV), Cameron is a committed diver and underwater enthusiast who also uses his fame and money to highlight ecological causes. He is a man with a deep-seated and obvious love for his homeworld, in particular the enormous portion of it that lies beneath the waves. In The Way of Water, he gets to idealize an unspoiled aquatic paradise, populate it with all manner of fascinating creatures (only some of which are essentially analogs to existing earth fauna), and then introduce them to the Sullys, and thus, to us.
The visuals of the movie are simply spectacular, with little to none of the uncanny valley effect that seems to still plague so many digitally generated characters, particularly when jumping or falling, or when interacting with flesh and blood actors. If I was a harsher critic, I might say it is a shame that Cameron had to ruin his brilliant travelogue by throwing a brutal revenge plot in there at all, (and if he ever makes his Pandora travelogue, you can sell me an IMAX 3D ticket to it right now, thank you).
But the truth is that Steven Lang is a great character actor and fantastic villain, and I was so happy to have him back in the story that it almost made up for watching him threaten children in practically every. Scene. He is in.
The action sequences are clear, well-executed, and intensely dramatic in places - Cameron has lost none of his edge in the intervening decade! And his child characters dwell pretty consistently in that grey area of bright, brave and curious offspring who are neither boat anchors nor saviours.
There is also no mention of the miracle mineral unobtanium this time around - there is an even more valuable prize to be found in the seas that Clan Sully hope to call home, and even if there wasn't, it turns out that the Sky People (us, basically) have used up their own home now and are anxious to resettle on Pandora, with the marines (and Col. Quarritch's Blue Team) here to literally pave the way.
As a result of this, Avatar: The Way of Water does not conclude as tidily as the original, but with three more sequels on the way, we suspected this going in, right?
In the end, my enjoyment and appreciation of this flawed but amazing piece of moviemaking stems from the same place as it did in 2009: a movie that not only takes me away from my own reality for three hours as a form of escapism, but which depicts another world with such immense detail and applied immersion that I honestly come away with the sensation of having been elsewhere.
Or, at the very least, having imagined that I have, aided by tremendous visuals, an engaging story and the most effective use of 3D since, well, 2009.
If you liked the first film at all, you owe it to yourself to see it on a big screen and despite the fact I normally forego the 3D presentation, I highly recommend that as well.
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