I never thought that Avatar was intended to be a franchise, I believe this even more now after seeing The Way Of Water. This sequel does expand on the mythology of the first film and introduces some new ideas but overall the film has many of the same issues as its predecessor, which are mainly an uninteresting cast of characters. Their detrimental affect is stronger than it was in the original as we spend an extra thirty minutes with them in a film that’s well over 3 hours, resulting in many periods, especially in the second act, where you’re just bored.

Jake Sully (Sam Worthington) and Neytiri (Zoe Saldana) have created a harmonic existence on Pandora with their four children. An existence they are forced to abandon when humans return hunting for Jake. The family venture out to Pandora’s oceans and are taken in by an aquatic tribe of Na’vi, where they’ll eventually make their stand against the approaching human threat.

The Characters

While they’re more or less just as dull and shallow as they were in the first film, The Way of Water takes the cast of the original and puts them in some new situations, making them quite fun to watch. Jake and Neytiri for example are parents now. Long gone are their days of being star-crossed lovers, they’re now fully mature adults who’re constantly debating how best to raise their children.

Jake is a much more compelling watch here than he is in the original. He’s not another ‘chosen one’ who saves the entire world from a great threat. Well, technically he is but he’s also a worrisome and protective father, which makes him feel more like an actual character and less of an archetype.

Steven Lang returns as Colonel Quaritch whose memories are put inside an Avatar body. As fun as he is to watch, I can’t help but see his inclusion as evidence for this franchise’s spontaneous conception. There were no loose ends at the end of the first Avatar, it was a classic hero-overthrows-tyrant affair. Where do you go from there? It’s like when Agent Smith was brought back in The Matrix Reloaded.

I enjoy watching Agent Smith and Colonel Quaritch but if both The Matrix and Avatar were supposed to launch franchises, why did both films kill off their main antagonists only to bring them back?

Jake and Neytiri have four children but only two of them bring something to the story, Lo’ak (Britain Dalton) and Kiri (Sigourney Weaver). When the family joins the Metkayina clan, the aquatic Na’vi, Lo’ak immediately has issues fitting in. He misses the jungle and the bullying he endures from the Metkayina youths don’t make his transition any easier. While he is relatable, as he learns of the Metkayina’s ways, the film essentially replays a greatest hits montage from the first Avatar.

Like many recent franchise reboots, the context and setting is slightly different but the story beats are the same. Lo’ak, Kiri and the rest of the family go through essentially what Jake went through in the first film, only this time it’s underwater. They learn to ride creatures, understand them as individuals and the roles they play in the reef’s ecosystem. This is the most challenging period in the film as it left me genuinely bored. I knew there’d be a big battle at the end and I was just begging for it to come sooner.

Like with Quaritch’s return, there is a reason behind Sigourney Weaver’s casting as Kiri. However, and I think this is more to do with the film’s motion capture effects than Weaver’s performance, it’s quite hard to see Kiri as a 14-year-old girl. Weaver’s voice appears to have been altered to make her sound younger but for the most part she still sounds like herself, which makes for a strange experience as we hear a grown woman’s voice come from what is supposed to be an adolescent. Maybe the technology’s just not there yet.

The World

Just like with the first one, this should go without saying but Avatar: The Way of Water looks stunning. The Na’vi characters from the first film have a lot more texture and tone, looking even more life-like.

If you don’t know, one technological breakthrough this film achieved was its rendering of water with motion capture characters and I can confirm that the water here looks great. Whenever Na’vi are underwater or above water, their soaked hair and wet bodies look indistinguishable from when the actual humans are in the water. It looks so good that after a while, the awe sort of wears off, it certainly wore off for me. This occurred shortly after Lo’ak and the family begin their training with the Metkayina, which as I stated before, I really struggled to sit through.

Perhaps The Way of Water is more proof that often the best digital effects are the ones you don’t notice.

If you’re loved the first one I don’t have to recommend The Way of Water to you, you’ve arranged to see it if you haven’t already. If you were in that crowd who thought that Avatar was overrated and a rip off of a gazillion other things, then I’d say don’t hesitate to pass on the sequel. If, like me, you were somewhere in the middle then I’d say see it if you can. Ideally on VOD as there are some dull bits and it’s not worth waiting for over 3 hours to go to the toilet or have something to eat.

It’s very derivative of the first film but unlike the first film, Way of Water concludes with a lot of loose ends and while I was never crazy about Avatar, I am curious about where the sequels will take this world and this premise, especially since I believe that these sequels weren’t initially planned. We’ll have to wait and see.

I give Avatar: The Way of Water a serviceable 7 out of 10.