I suspect a lot of people will be seriously wondering if there was a demand for another one of director James Cameron’s Avatar movies. Sure, that first movie made, like, a bazillion dollars, but did it catch on in the public imagination like, say, Cameron’s Terminator movies? It looked to me like it was a movie that was pretty to look at but maybe not that interesting to experience. Factor in that and a 13 year gap between movies, and I would not be the only person wondering why anyone would even bother. If that first movie beloved enough that it will do the same sort of box office again?
You know what? I don’t much care for box office, and that first movie didn’t impress me overly much. But I am on vacation, and since I am still not comfortable with crowds, the first screening in the giant IMAX screening room should be about right for me.
It’s been a few years since the humans/sky people were driven away from Pandora by Jake Sully (Sam Worthington), the human given an avatar Na’vi body who then went native after falling in love with Neytiri (Zoe Saldana). The two have since gone on to start a family, most notably three kids of their own, a Na’vi child born to the dead avatar of Dr. Grace Augustine (Sigourney Weaver, also playing the daughter), and there’s a human orphan they have more or less adopted named Spider (Jack Champion). However, the humans came back, and Jake has been leading raids against them ever since. It looks a bit like neither side is completely able to drive the other out.
But then the humans come up with what might best be described as a new weapon: Na’vi clones of Marines killed in the first movie, most notably Colonel Quaritch (Stephen Lang), the character who acted basically as the face of human hostility to Pandora’s natural balance. Since Pandoran wildlife keeps humans from hitting back at the Na’vi directly, using some avatars with the memories and personalities of dead marines should be sufficient to sneak past the Na’vi’s defenses. Fearing his family will be targets for these new threats, and rightfully so, Jake moves his wife and kids to some nearby islands. The “sea Na’vi” there eventually welcome Jake and his family, but it may only be a matter of time before Quaritch and his marines find Jake and try to bring him down again.
I have mixed feelings on this movie. On the one hand, the visual effects are magnificent. Yeah, the Na’vi strike me as more goofy looking than anything else, but their world is creative to look at if nothing else. Cameron does know how to frame an action scene too for the final act, and I can at least say that this probably will play out better on a big screen, with or without the 3D (I could take it or leave it honestly), than it will on Disney+ whenever it ends up there. Movies like this one were made for big screens and probably need to be seen there to be fully appreciated. I’ll even say I was mildly impressed in the physical differences between the forest Na’vi and the reef Na’vi, enough to make them look almost like they might be slightly different species.
That said, I can’t say this movie is going to stick with me. As much as I can’t point to anything wrong with it, I likewise can’t point to anything that made me want to know more about this world and the people who live there. If anything, the movie seems to be very much a repeat of the first movie. Humans are ravaging Pandora, this time making the target alien whales over alien minerals, there’s a romance between two young Na’vi that could be a retread of Jake and Neytiri, and Colonel Quaritch, despite having superior officers, quickly becomes the face of the opposition despite the fact he’s at best a symptom and not the disease. It feels very much like a retread, disappointing considering what happened the last time Cameron made a years-delayed sequel to one of his big hits. It’s basically a Captain Planet episode given the directness of the environmental messaging, but no one has ever really accused Cameron of being subtle. Let me put it this way: were it not for Wikipedia, I couldn’t tell you the names of most of the characters here, only really remembering Jake and Spider. Plus, there’s something weird about a sometimes petulant teenage girl having Sigourney Weaver’s voice. I didn’t hate this or anything, but I can’t say I loved it either. There is a lot of visual razzle-dazzle. Consider the grade is heavily influenced by those impressive visuals, remember Cameron is actually a good visual storyteller even if his script-writing isn’t always as impressive, and go from there.
Grade: B-
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