'Avatar The Way of Water' Is A Wonderous Theme Park Attraction
Thirteen years later, Avatar is still relevant thanks to The Way of Water's technical craftsmanship, which James Cameron encapsulates. Avatar: The Way of Water has its problems. But so does every James Cameron film, as does any film that exists. What makes a movie stand out is its magistery of the tools made available by its craftsman. Titanic isn't one of the greatest love stories of all time. There are lives of real people the film could have focussed on who are far more fascinating than Jack and Rose. The film would have never worked if not for the ship sinking so realistically.
Like Steven Spielberg, James Cameron has a talent for tapping into universality. Spielberg's unity rests in genuine sentimentality. Cameron's tapestry for the public exists in his knowledge of entertainment. In layman's terms, he knows what people like.
The Titanic sank before on screen, but it never cracked in half. And never before have we seen the real remnants of the ship brought to life on the big screen. Turning the Terminator into the good guy to fight another robo-badguy was an unexpected action twist upon the film's release and played perfectly to The Terminator, a horror film. The filmmaker is the magician; who must fool his audience, whether it be the plot or the visuals. Once again, Hollywood's greatest man of magic does what he does best, even if it's the same thing.
Avatar: The Way of Water doesn't perform any new tricks. But it's done far better than the impersonators. 2009's Avatar re-popularized three-dimensional cinema. 3D existed before Avatar, dating back to the 1950s, to Terminator 2 3D. Whar Avatar TWOW continues to show how it's supposed to be done.
The Way of Water might throw you off with its HFR (High Frame Rate). In between scenes, the film switches from 24 frames per second (the industry standard for film) to 48 fps. 24fps is on for the quiet, intimate scenes between characters, and 48 fps for the action sequences. The switch between frame rates is a first-rate experience that nauseated audiences in 2012 with Peter Jackson's The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey. When audiences detested the frame rate, Director Peter Jackson adjusted for a clocked-down 24fps, which shot in such crystal clear vision exposed how fake everything in middle earth looked.
The high frame rate in The Way of Water does look like a video game at times. Especially during the sweeping landscape shots. Typically this would be a criticism, but thanks to the magistery of James Cameron, it works as the film's strength. Cameron knows the audiences are fully aware of CGI and its appearance. So he flips the book letting the audience in on the artificiality of CGI by increasing the frame rate, not losing any detail during the action, and slowing things down when he wants to draw you into the story.
After all, you see Avatar, not for its plot but to step foot in Pandora. Or, in this case, dive into the ocean. A ground Cameron has covered from The Abyss to the T-1000's Liquid Metal. James Cameron loves H20. If you're watching the movie in 2D at 24fps, everything looks like a PS5 game. But in 3D on the big screen, you're enjoying the ride.
It's no secret that Martin Scorsese isn't a fan of Marvel movies, as he compares them to theme park rides. As laughable as it seems, the first movie ever made sure felt like a thrill ride to its audience. A train moving in live motion in 1886 fooled audiences into thinking they would be hit by it, rendering a thrilling experience. The inception of cinema itself is a thrill ride, and Avatar: The Way of Water, indeed, is one.
As much as I tried, I couldn't hold my pop down for all three hours of Avatar 2. Fortunately, there's so much action in The Way of Water one could release theirs during the film's dazzling sequences and not miss much of the plot. Now officially a Navi, Jake Sully (Sam Worthington) has settled with Neytiri (Zoe Saldaña) and has children. But that doesn't stop the ghosts of the past from coming to haunt Jake, putting his family at risk.
The Sky People (U.S. Marines) are back for revenge when Jake Sully foisted their plans of destroying Pandora in Avatar. The Marines are back and meaner than ever. The leader of the Sky People is an antagonist who represents all the evils of America. The war-mongering greedy end of the land of Liberty. The story's direction is a logical step that sets up a clear path for further sequels if James Cameron succeeds in cheating mortality with a thirteen-year gap between films.
The Way of Water might be three hours, but it uses a big chunk of it for action scenes. It provides a sense of awe and scale, akin to The Lord of The Rings trilogy. Far from superior to it in the emotions department, Avatar: TWOW earns its thirteen-year gap by once more defining the 3D landscape. Cameron knows how to tinker with film because he has an ingenuity few possess. The Way of Water can drag, where The Return of The King's is emotionally triumphant, which is perfectly fine since the trip to Pandora is worth the price of admission alone.
James Cameron doesn't strive for profound emotional complexity, nor should he have to. His message of the terrible pillagers is enough to still resonate with a tad more subtext than the last picture's homage to the white savior subcategory from Hollywood. Proving the naysayers wrong (myself included), James Cameron conducts a masterstroke in delivering a theme park ride with enough investment in character to render an exhilarating time at the cinema one never to be experienced on a t.v. or telephone.
