It's nice to see that 25 years after Titanic, there is still no director more capable of capturing and framing the sheer scale and weight of a colossal structure sinking into water in heart pumping, exhilarating mini-sequences than James Cameron, as this film recreates that final 40 minutes of Titanic once again on a much grander scale, except the the added bonus of being set on an alien planet in an ocean filled with sea-monsters.
Now, with this long anticipated sequel finally here, I'm once again seeing the same exact criticisms of the first film resurfacing to describe this film, chiefly, "nice visuals bad story," and I've already addressed that tired criticism in my recent revisiting and reappraisal of the first Avatar movie. It's become very popular to criticize the first film for neglecting the fundamentals of character and story structure in service of its aesthetic, a criticism I've come to find unfounded 13 years later, mostly because it seems that people have been conflating "simple" and "bad." Avatar's characterization is intentionally simple, it is not bad. Obviously Cameron is relying on extremely broad, instantly recognizable archetypes so that its audience can immediately understand the gist of who's who within minutes of screen-time, because Cameron's primary goal is to jump straight into discovery and world building, the very thing that made the first film such a magical and unique experience, which is why he got away with a 20 minute first act and a 100 minute long second act. And people were so quick to jump to the conclusion that the simplicity of the characterization in the first film was a product of ineptitude or neglect, rather than the entire intention, that they missed out on the frequently genuinely funny character interplay and the lovely bits of characters' personalities spritz throughout (seriously did nobody pay any attention at all to the jubilation in Jake's face after getting to walk for the first time in years?) This all goes without even mentioning how solid the original screenplay was, with loads of setup and payoff, as people also like to criticize the first film for its "weak writing," as they are mistaking weak writing for cheesy dialogue, two distinct things that are not synonymous with one another.
With all of that out of the way, how does this film measure up to its predecessor? That's a stupid rhetorical question, as you can see from my rating, they're almost on equal footing. I adored every minute of my re-entry into this world. I'm overjoyed I've gotten to re-experience it once again anew at an age where I can finally fully appreciate it. I'm grateful Cameron has managed to (mostly) successfully recreate that same joy in discovery, and that his primary focus of efficiently expediting characterization and setup in favor of jumping straight into exploration and world building has remained (mostly) unchanged after 13 years.
Before seeing this movie, I saw an unverified rumor being circulated that James Cameron originally handed in a 9 hour cut of the film to the studios and wanted the VFX team to visualize all of it before he was willing to begin cutting it down. At first glance I immediately brushed this unverified rumor off as a joke (though secretly hoping it to be true, if only for the memes), but at this point, I 100% believe that rumor as the gospel truth and nobody can convince me otherwise. Just so you can understand what I mean, in the first act of this film (which is about 50 minutes now, instead of the condensed 20 minutes of its predecessor), we get three separate retconned storylines added in as events that happened concurrently with the first movie in order to acclimate us to returning characters and explain the existence of two new characters, and a total of eight new main characters are added to the cast, introduced, given screen time and introductions and setup with their own distinct personalities to setup what functional roles they're going to be given throughout the rest of the story, all of whom are going to be tracked as they (along with the returning characters) begin splintering off into sub-groups during the conflicts that arise in the second and third acts. So the fact that all of this plot and all of this characterization is crammed in, as well as an almost comprable amount of world building with even more action beats than the first movie, all manages to fit inside only a three hour runtime is an astonishing feat, and I eagerly await that 9 hour cut (or whatever extended version we eventually get out of this film in the future, as that extra 20 minutes of content in the first's extended edition proved to be extremely valuable) to further flesh out these characters and this world.
That being said, as much as people love to criticize the first movie for being light on plot, I hope those people come to realize that they should be careful what they wish for, because this movie absolutely does provide more plot (waaaaaaay more plot). Now I'm going to do some spoilers so if you don't want to know anything about this film before going in (why are you even reading reviews this far in?), then stop reading now because I feel the need to add just how much they manage to fit into this movie:
- Grace's avatar body was apparently impregnated before her death and her daughter has a mystical connection to plants with many questions remaining to answer.
-The villain from the first film returns to life in an Avatar body and is seeking revenge. Oh and also he had a son who was left behind in Pandora who's basically been raised by some scientists and by Jake's Na'vi family and the two of them are given an entire contentious dynamic between familial bonds, mutual resentment for being on opposite sides of the conflict, as well as a mutual desire to connect with one another in spite of their opposition. Oh and also again, this kid has an unspoken interspecial romance with one of Jake's kids and Neytiri also habors some resentments against him which fester in a viscious third act turn. (yeah, all of the plot surrounding this one kid alone is downright LOADED)
-Jake and Neytiri had four kids since we last saw them, and yes, every single one of them are named, given personalities, plot functions, and are individually tracked throughout the action heavy third act -The entire family is uprooted and sent to live with island tribes, and yes, multiple members of the island tribes are given names, personalities, functions in the plot, and are tracked throughout the action heavy third acts.
-there's an entire new plot thread introduced regarding plans to colonize Pandora to be suitable for human civilization
-an entirely new resource is discovered on Pandora in order to bring venture capitalism into the oceans with a sub-plot focused around whaling (which adds themes of animal cruelty to the pre-existing anti-colonial, anti-capitalist themes holding over from the first film).
And this is all just what I can immediately recall from a single viewing, which I hope has done something to impress upon you exactly how much is going on in this movie in between the real reasons we are all here, for discovery and action, which it pulls off astonishingly well, and if I have even just one complaint this time around, it's that I wish it had gone just as light on plot this time as the first time around, because the segments of this film dedicated to discovery and exploration (which 100 minutes of the first film are dedicated toward) are nothing short of breathtaking. This underwater motion capture tech is on full display in all of its glory and every single underwater scene is bloody magical. I visibly smiled and audibly gasped multiple times, so much so that I wish that they had tacked at least another 30 minutes of non-plot non-action related runtime just to soak (pun intended) this new piece of the world in. As much time as we're given to swim with the creatures in this vast, vibrant ocean, I just desperately wanted more of it before we got into the action heavy final act, which of course, is an absolutely spectacular sequence in which James Cameron flexes for us, for the third time in a row, that not a single working director possesses his ability to setup the kind of heavy, weighted, mind boggling scale that he's done twice now since Titanic.
I don't know what the reception of this movie is going to look like several years down the road, whether it will become subject to the same backlash in spite of its achievements, whether it will be doomed to suffer the same cliched, overly tired criticisms that it neglects proper storytelling and characterization, just as the first, but I really hope it's able to rise above that general perception. Either way, I've adored my return trip to Pandora, and I really hope to not wait another 13 years before before I get to go back again.
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