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Avatar 2: Watching Avatar again today, 13 years after its theatrical release, still arouses those visceral emotions that only a few cinematic works have the strength to evoke. What James Cameron conceived and produced has resisted the passage of time admirably to present itself to today’s viewer as a rare experience, to which unfortunately we are less and less accustomed. 

The cinema of recent years has changed profoundly, also thanks to Avatar himself, and although the technological progress has been enormous, the film event capable of leaving a significant mark in the seventh art can be counted on the fingers of one hand. There was therefore great expectation and curiosity towards Avatar The way of water, the first of the four sequels announced.

Now that this film has finally arrived in theaters (the only possible place, this time more than ever, where you can really enjoy it at its best), we can say it: James Cameron has kept all his promises, reaching new impressive artistic goals. 

The return to Pandora, that wonderful and wild world where every creature lives in profound harmony and connection with the surrounding nature, is once again configured as an unparalleled cinematic experience, where every element of the mythology created by Cameron is recovered and made to evolve in exciting new forms.

Jake Sully in 20th Century Studios’ AVATAR: THE WAY OF WATER. Photo courtesy of 20th Century Studios. © 2022 20th Century Studios. All Rights Reserved.

Regarding the plot, without going into too much detail, suffice it to say that Avatar – The Way of Water is set more than a decade after the events of the first film and follows the story of the Sully family, made up of Jake (Sam Worthington), Neytiri ( Zoe Saldana) and their four children Neteyam, Lo’ak, Tuk and Kiri (Sigourney Weaver), 

as they encounter new populations and discover extraordinary new habitats on Pandora, as well as confront dangerous enemies from the past. In an attempt to protect each other, like any self-respecting family, the Sullys will soon understand that they can only rely on the love that binds them to each other.

Avatar The way of water and the power of images

It can safely be said that Avatar: The Water Way is the most anticipated sequel of the last decade. This is because the first film represented a significant leap forward in the use of CGI and 3D technology, creating new artistic levels that many of the blockbusters that hit the big screen in the years to come could not fail to inspire, without however equaling those results. 

With this second chapter, Cameron had promised, even more, developing technologies that made it possible to realize his very ambitious visions and giving an even superior viewing experience. In particular, the Oscar-winning director had guaranteed that he would witness the most realistic underwater scenes ever made.

(L-R): Ronal, Tonowari, and the Metkayina clan in 20th Century Studios’ AVATAR: THE WAY OF WATER. Photo courtesy of 20th Century Studios. © 2022 20th Century Studios. All Rights Reserved.

The scenes of the film that include the element of water and the exploration of the abyss are actually something never seen before, offering extraordinary attention to detail. The way in which the light filters through the water, the way it wets the bodies of the characters and shakes as they move is a constant source of amazement. 

A rare sense of wonder that Cameron manages to bring out from every image of this type, prompting the viewer to wonder how it was possible to achieve all this. Difficult not to feel literally immersed in this environment, enveloped by the images which, thanks to 3D, which has also been taken to a new level of magnificence and of which Cameron proves to be the undisputed master, acquire an even greater fluidity and sense of reality.

What is equally pleasant to note is how Avatar – The Way of Water goes against the logic of many blockbusters and does not forcefully slam everything possible and imaginable in the face of the viewer, with the risk of confusing confusing, but instead offers an experience seductive, engaging, which knows how to dose its elements and towards which one becomes more and more willing. 

The action scenes, for example, are never chaotic but always precise in showing what is really needed, boasting a dynamism and staging solutions that offer entertainment and aesthetic beauty with equal weight, generating a healthy emotional tension and amazement which is renewed scene after scene.

Ronal in 20th Century Studios’ AVATAR 2. Photo courtesy of 20th Century Studios. © 2022 20th Century Studios. All Rights Reserved.

Difficult to better describe what Cameron and his team have achieved, as each image seems to ask to be experienced in a direct and personal way. From the cinematography of Russell Carpenter, former Oscar winner for Titanic, to the enveloping sound work (especially relating to the underwater scenes), 

Cameron once again reminds us of the power of images and his faith in them and in their communicative value, conceiving forms, colors, and compositions that awaken from years of lazy or, even worse, standardized products, in front of which one can easily become passive spectators.

James Cameron and the art of the perfect blockbuster

There is therefore no longer any doubt, if ever there could have been one, that Avatar – The River Road is the achievement of a new level of cinematic experience in theaters. There were more questions from a narrative point of view, also considering how hastily the first Avatar was branded as a “Pocahontas with blue aliens”. 

What was certainly a simple story, based on ever-recurring archetypes, was however linked in a particularly close way to the technological component, which even if it stole the show allowed the viewer to be taken to an uncontaminated territory and to show all its wonders. therefore also proposing itself as an ecological story a few years ahead of today’s trends.

Ronal in 20th Century Studios’ AVATAR 2. Photo courtesy of 20th Century Studios. © 2022 20th Century Studios. All Rights Reserved.

In this sequel, the story written by Cameron together with Rick Jaffa and Amanda Silver (also authors of Dawn of the Planet of the Apes and Heart of the Sea) is configured as more structured, strongly focused on the desire for protection and revenge, but equally as a pretext to tell primarily through images. 

Cameron allows himself long digressions during which he can always create new opportunities to show all the beauty of Pandora’s unprecedented environments. These “narrative pauses”, which could hurt the patience of some, are actually functional to connect with what is shown, reflecting on or anticipating the main themes of the film. 

In addition to the care for nature and the spiritualism that binds the characters to it, the element of the family takes over here in a strong way. The family declined in several nuances, from the one including blood ties to the less traditional one, which is continuously transformed and renewed. 

There is therefore a very strong need on the part of all the characters to feel accepted and recognized for their worth. Avatar – The Way of Water then reworks the great themes of its predecessor to speak to us again of connections, where the community must prevail over the ego and where the bonds between fathers, mothers, and children are really a source of hope for the future, by Pandora-like our world. 

Cameron breaks his 13-year cinematic silence to bring to theaters around the world a film that is the perfect example of everything a blockbuster should be, eschewing any easy fix to provide wholesome entertainment, arouse amazement and pure emotion and offer new reinterpretations of our contemporary.

James Cameron creates Avatar – The road of the water a sequel that exceeds its predecessor for ambitions, structure, and artistic goals. In the face of an astonishing aesthetic work for attention to detail and consequent power of the images, a more complex story is approached, moved by dynamics similar to the themes of the first film but here reworked and updated also on the basis of the values of current society. The film, therefore, as a whole is a visual experience that establishes new directions for the future of the seventh art.