Avatar: The Way of Water was easily one of the most anticipated movies of 2022; potentially one of the most anticipated movies of the last few years with the movie being delayed numerous years. The movie is the sequel to James Cameron's 2009 movie, Avatar. James Cameron has always been at the forefront of emerging technologies in movie-making and that was the main drawing point for both the original Avatar and this new sequel.

Avatar: The Way of Water is the perfect sequel. There is often the danger that a sequel will be worse than its predecessor and result in 'ruining' the original movie. (There are countless examples of this and I'm sure you could think of one yourself.) I wasn't a fan of the first Avatar and I spoke briefly about this in my Quick Review of the movie. The best thing about Avatar was its use of new CGI technologies. Since then, however, the technology has been outdated a bit as you would expect after ten years. Additionally, other elements of the movie such as the story and the acting aren't as top-tier. So watching this movie for the first time on a very small screen over ten years after its release didn't really do the film justice resulting in my slight disdain for the movie. However, Avatar: The Way of Water did what all sequels strive to do and improved upon Avatar. This improvement can honestly be seen in the first minute of the film. The creators could see what did and didn't work in the first Avatar and, using an additional thirteen years of advancements in technology, created something that can only be described as nothing less than a masterpiece.

The most obvious way in which the sequel improved was through its use of incredible computer-generated imagery (CGI). What most people (me included) were intrigued by going into this movie was what sort of new technology was going to be utilised by the maestro of CGI, James Cameron. And the famous director certainly delivered as he always does bringing a new standard to blockbusters. The visual effects in this movie were outstanding, to say the least. It is almost unbelievable how realistic this movie looked. As the title suggests, Avatar: The Way of Water incorporates a lot of water elements that look magnificent and don't give the blinding CGI glare that is common in a lot of CGI-reliant movies. Nonetheless, to fully appreciate the most amazing aspect of the movie, viewers must understand how this movie was made and that the majority of it came from a computer. It is also worth the extra money to see Avatar: The Way of Water in 3D as it only makes the movie more phenomenal.

The CGI wasn't the only improvement upon the first Avatar seen in Avatar: The Way of Water. The action choreography was a step up and a personal highlight for me. The acting, which I thought was quite poor in Avatar, was much better in this sequel. (This could have potentially been due to the better CGI which allowed the actors' expressions to come across better but was nevertheless an improvement.) I wasn't impressed with the story of the first Avatar. It was fairly predictable and not very gripping. However, this new story built off the plot of the first movie and was much more entertaining. I even felt that the musical soundtrack was better.

I was appalled when I found out that this new Avatar would be over three hours long. I thought that this was a ridiculous runtime. Avatar: The Way of Water certainly is long and viewers should definitely use the facilities beforehand. However, I thought that the movie didn't feel like 3 hours and didn't feel as overly long as I was expecting. The movie takes the audience on a journey that wouldn't be possible with a shorter runtime. The only time Avatar: The Way of Water felt long was towards the end of the movie when things started to get a little repetitive. There are a couple of long sequences where it feels like James Cameron is showing off his fancy technology by just spending a long time with the characters underwater. These sequences will likely be the hardest to watch in ten or twenty years' time when the technology isn't as impressive as it is now. In fact, I think that the biggest challenge for Avatar: The Way of Water will be that it will not age very well. Movies that are reliant on CGI and other current technologies do not age as well as entirely practical movies.

Avatar: The Way of Water isn't a movie for everyone. As I said, it helps to have an understanding of the technology used to make the movie. This is what makes me think that the movie won't be as popular among older movie-goers. It also helps to have seen the first movie as the two tie in a lot with each other.

I'm not going to say that Avatar: The Way of Water is perfect because it's not. It has a lot of room for improvement as did the first Avatar. Hopefully, this improvement is seen in the coming Avatar movies (we know we are getting at least one more but it sounds like James Cameron wants to make as many as possible during his time on Earth). However, Avatar: The Way of Water is a pretty incredible movie. The CGI alone is enough to make this movie great but the other elements in the movie are similarly of high quality. It will be remembered as one of the greatest movies of the early 2020s but what will be interesting is whether the film is watchable in ten to twenty years' time.

Director: James Cameron

Starring: Sam Worthington, Zoe Saldana, Sigourney Weaver, Stephen Lang

Year released: 2022

My rating: 9/10

Review by Tristan Carr

Last edited: 02/04/2023