Ivan Radford | On 10, Jun 2023

Director: James Cameron
Cast: Sam Worthington, Zoe Saldaña, Stephen Lang, Joel David Moore, CCH Pounder, Giovanni Ribisi, Dileep Rao, Matt Gerald, Sigourney Weaver, Kate Winslet
Certificate: 12

“The way of water has no beginning and no end,” a character says partway through Avatar: The Way of Water. About an hour into James Cameron’s overdue and overlong three-hour sequel, you’ll begin to think they’re right.

The film picks up from the first Avatar film, released all the way back in 2009, which saw former marine Jake Sully (Sam Worthington) use an “avatar” – a remote-controlled body – to befriend the Na’vi aliens who live on the planet Pandora and ultimately side with them in a battle to stop their natural world being mined, exploited and destroyed by humans. Now living permanently as one of the humanoid Na’vi, Jake is raising a family with Neytiri (Zoe Saldaña) and they have several kids – including, notably, Kiri (Sigourney Weaver) and the adopted Spider, son of the villainous Colonel Quaritch (Stephen Lang). When the human forces return to Pandora, and Jake and his family flee to the planet’s ocean outskirts, the first film’s familiar narrative tensions escalate into a full-on family affair.

That upping of both scope and stakes means that Avatar: The Way of Water is an hour longer than the original movie. But while you feel those 60 minutes in the first act, every decision behind the camera ultimately pays off with more emotional and thrilling spectacle in front of it. That’s partly because the narrative we’re following has evolved from the problematic white saviour vibes of the initial adventure – this is an intergenerational affair that gives agency and prominence to a wider pool of people than merely Jake, which makes their campaign against the corporation and species trying to consume their natural world all the more satisfying and sincere.

The complexities build throughout the slow first two acts, as Jake and his family try to fit in with the reef-dwelling Metkayina, led by Ronal (Kate Winslet) and Tonowari (Cliff Curtis). Their children, and those of Jake and Neytiri, become the beating heart of the movie, from their coming-of-age tensions to their learning how to live alongside the ocean and its inhabitants with respect and care.

For Trinity Jo-Li Bliss’s endearing youngest daughter Tuk and Weaver’s wonderfully compassionate Kiri, this is a journey of discovery and curiosity – for young men Neteyam (Jamie Flatters) and Lo’ak (Britain Dalton), it’s a battle of peer pressure, egos and purpose. But as Lo’ak becomes isolated on his own, and befriends a Tulkun (a whale-like creature) called Payakan, the two threads eventually intertwine into a spine-tingling demonstration of solidarity and environmental stewardship that owes a debt to Free Willy.

Amid it all, Zoe Saldaña and Sam Worthington are superb as the now-veteran parents who can convincingly hold their own in combat and now have more to fight for. But they’re generous supporting players to a wider ensemble that finds room for complex explorations of identity and family – Spider’s subplot is one of the sequel’s best and most surprising elements – as well as heated outbursts of revenge and defiance.

All this shouldn’t work, and in most filmmakers’ hands, it probably wouldn’t, but Cameron wields every part of this gargantuan epic with a genuine heart that would captivate even without the astonishing technical trickery on display. The visuals are repeatedly gobsmacking, the set-pieces a masterclass in excess without feeling empty and the action so balanced in its final act that the epic runtime feels worth it. Whether the franchise continues to finds its end or not, this is a winning splash of blockbusting bombast that makes you want to find your nearest sea and dive in.

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