James Cameron brings us back to Pandora with the long awaited sequel to his 2009 blockbuster, Avatar. 

In 2009, Cameron presented never-before-seen intricately rendered landscapes using CGI. From the way the trees moved, to the way creatures and machines swooped through the screen, Cameron created a new future for filmmaking that was full of possibilities. After a 14-year hiatus, you’ll feel a sense of nostalgia as you put on your 3D glasses and watch the screen light up with familiar blue creatures in Avatar: The Way of Water, which released Dec 16.

Is it worth the wait? Although Cameron delivers a masterpiece of visuals to the screen once again, with even better technology and detailing to the film, there are mixed reviews.The movie is visually stunning, but there is little to no character development.  

 In Avatar, Cameron uses his decades-long dream to create a two-hour, 46 minute joyride through an alien-inhabited moon.  Set in the future (the year 2154), humans arrive in a spaceship where the passengers, including a paraplegic ex-marine Jake Sully (Sam Worthington), are awoken from a yearslong sleep after landing on the distant moon. 

Since, a lot has happened in Pandora. Jake turns fully into Na’vi––having ended Avatar by fully having his mind and soul added to his new body––and falls in love with Neytir i(Zoe Saldaña). 

The Way of Water takes a turn because, although the humans in the first movie are removed from Pandora as they are driven off at the end of the movie, they make a destructive return back into Pandora with new tech and defense in the beginning of the second movie, led by the heartless General Ardmore (Edie Falco) in an attempt to completely colonize Pandora. 

When watching the movie, I felt immediately hooked in as the first scenes showed Jake Sully’s family growing in every shot and the fun little moments in his childrens’ childhoods. Soon, my confusion grew. The humans are back on Pandora with bigger and better technology and mechanics. They are shown to have learned from the first movie by having Colonel Quaritch (Stephen Lang) and a group of soldiers turn Na’vi in order to see where Jake Sully and his family are because Colonel Quaritch is looking for revenge. Quadritch and his platoon of Na’vified humans use a video of the human version of Quadritch explaining to them what’s going on and why they are in these new bodies. 

This is a cliché and obvious revenge story because although Quatritch does not die because Jake kills him, he still believes Jake is responsible for everything that went wrong with project ‘Avatar.’ Quadritch and his group launch an attack on Jake by capturing his children because they want to lure him in and capture and kill Jake. My emotions were especially connected with his kids as I felt saddened for his youngest son Lo’ak, because he would scold him throughout the movie. 

I understand Jake Sully’s frustration because all he wants is to keep his family safe because that’s all he has. Neytiri and Jake decide they should move to somewhere remote to protect both their tribe and children. They flew to a remote island and that’s where most of the movie’s action takes place.

 His family is welcomed to the community of Metkeyina and they are introduced to the way of the water people. As Spider is captured, the humans have an advantage to use him to capture Jake and also to hunt a sacred whale-like creature known as the Tulkun, to extract a brain fluid with incredible capabilities. They put tracking devices on the Tulkun mothers, and it helps to track down which island Jake is hiding at. The people of Metkeyina decide to go to war with the and help Jake “sky people ” because they are harming the community that they have built from generations ago. They win but in the process, Jake loses his older son. The humans retreat back to their ruined planet.

 Throughout the movie, there are too many unnecessary scenes. There are multiple water scenes of the kids swimming that I felt like they added to make it longer then it should have been. I enjoyed the plot of the movie, even though it is a bit obvious about how different situations were going to turn out. This sequel should’ve had a different storyline that did not involve the ‘sky people’ coming back to Pandora bigger and better. If this series continues, I hope that we could see a better storyline for Jake and his family and a better comeback of Colonel Quadritch.

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