Film Review: "Avatar: The Way of Water" (2022).

"Return to Pandora" with Avatar: The Way of Water. This science fiction epic directed by James Cameron and written by Cameron and Rick Jaffa & Amanda Silver. It is the sequel to Avatar and the second installment in the Avatar film series. Set more than a decade after the events of the first film, this installment begins to tell the story of the Sully family, the trouble that follows them, the lengths they go to keep each other safe, the battles they fight to stay alive, and the tragedies they endure.

In 2006, Cameron stated that if Avatar was successful, he hoped to make two sequels to the film. In 2010, he said the film's widespread success confirmed that he would do so. The sequels were originally scheduled for a December 2014 and 2015 release dates. Cameron planned to shoot the sequels back-to-back and to begin work "once the novel is nailed down". In 2011, Cameron stated that he was just starting to design the ocean ecosystem of Pandora and the other worlds to be included in the story. In December 2009, the sequels were confirmed as continuing to follow the characters of Jake and Neytiri. Cameron implied that the humans would return as the antagonists of the story. In 2011, Cameron stated his intention to film the sequels at a higher frame rate than the industry standard 24 frames per second, in order to add a heightened sense of reality. However, he later opted out of this route, stating that as groundbreaking as the format is for cinema, moviegoers have always been used to a specific way to view films and altering that in any way would simply take the audience out of that experience. Instead, only certain scenes will utilize HFR technology. In 2012, Cameron mentioned a possible third sequel for the first time; and was officially confirmed in 2013. Cameron was then looking to release the sequel in December 2015, but later that year, production was rescheduled for 2014, with the film to be released in December 2016, and to be followed by the two other sequels in 2017 and 2018. Additionally, Cameron stated that the sequels were being written as "separate stories that have an overall arc inclusive of the first film", with the second having a clear conclusion instead of a cliffhanger to the next film. Jaffa & Silver, Josh Friedman, and Shane Salerno were hired to write the sequels as they were such a massive undertaking that Cameron divided the four scripts. In 2013, Cameron announced that the sequels would be filmed in New Zealand, with performance capture to take place in 2014. In April 2014, Cameron expected to finish the (then) three scripts within six weeks, stating that all three sequels would be in production simultaneously and were still slated for December 2016 to 2018 releases. He stated that although Friedman, Jaffa & Silver, and Salerno are each co-writing one sequel with him, they at first worked together on all three scripts. The writing took longer than expected, forcing Cameron to delay the release of the films further in 2015. By 2015, the scheduled release dates for the sequels were each delayed by another year, with the first sequel expected to be released in December 2017; this was due to the writing process, which Cameron called "a complex job". In November, Landau stated that the sequel would have a number of major technological improvements since the first movie. A lot more of the lighting work on the virtual production stage could be done during production instead of post-production, and like Alita: Battle Angel (2019), the crew can use two lightweight HD head cams to record the actors' facial performance. In addition they also used two digital puppets instead of just one; one that is an accurate copy of the real actor, and another that is the actor's character, allowing the team to re-target one onto the other to make it as accurate as possible. In January 2016, Fox announced a further release delay. In February, production of the sequels was scheduled to begin in April 2016 in New Zealand. In April 2016, Cameron announced at CinemaCon that there will be four sequels, all of which will be filmed simultaneously. The four sequels share a $1 billion budget ($250 million each film). Additionally, Cameron announced the four sequels which would be released in December 2018, 2020, 2022 and 2023. In early February 2017, Cameron announced that the writing of all four sequels was complete. 

In March, he stated that this film would not be released in 2018, due to extensive production and the visual effects process. In April, a new December 18, 2020 release date was announced, with all the other sequels having December 17, 2021, December 20, 2024, and December 19, 2025 release dates, respectively. In late July, Wētā FX had commenced work on the sequels. The film will heavily feature underwater scenes, actually filmed underwater with the cast in performance capture. Blending underwater filming and performance capture being a feature never accomplished before, it took the team a year and a half to develop a new motion capture system. By late September, Sam Worthington, Zoe Saldaña, Stephen Lang, Joel David Moore, CCH Pounder, Giovanni Ribisi, Dileep Rao, and Matt Gerald were confirmed to reprise their roles. Sigourney Weaver was confirmed to return in a different role. Kate Winslet, Cliff Curtis, Edie Falco, Jemaine Clement, and Brendan Cowell rounded out the film's cast as newcomers. At the same time, principal photography commenced and wrapped in September 2020. Filming took place in Manhattan Beach, California and Wellington, New Zealand. The film was shot on the new Sony Venice Camera (built by Sony at Cameron's request) with the digital 3-D Fusion Camera System, developed by Cameron and Vince Pace. In late March 2020, filming of the Avatar sequel films in New Zealand had been postponed indefinitely in response to the COVID-19 pandemic. However, in mid June, filming resumed. In May 2019, the sequels were delayed another two years, with this film being scheduled for a December 17, 2021 release date. James Horner was originally reported to score music for the franchise, before his death in a plane crash in June 2015. In December 2019, Simon Franglen, who had previously worked with Horner as a record producer and arranger since Titanic (1997) and completing Horner's score for The Magnificent Seven (2016) after his passing, was hired to replace Horner. In August 2021, Landau confirmed his involvement, while also associating with the forthcoming sequels. Horner's score will be reused in the film, in addition to the original themes produced by Franglen. In August 2020, the release date was again deferred due to the COVID-19 pandemic, and a new December 16, 2022 release date was announced. In late July, the scoring for the film officially began. In late November 2022, the film was completed.

The film stars Worthington, Saldaña, Lang, Moore, Pounder, Ribisi, Rao, and Gerald (reprising their roles), Weaver (returning in a different role), Winslet, Curtis, Falco, Clement, and Cowell as newcomers. The returning cast gets so little due respect over the years for how much of the previous film's characterisations rides on them. The returning cast turn in another terrific round of performances as the fiercely committed characters who put a necessary human face on Cameron's high-decibel action and environmentally-centric bravura. Worthington is more comfortable and assured here than the first time around, reprising a role so perfectly suited to the voice and physique that have established him as a simple yet relatable archetype. Lang is pretty much at his best here, combining badass villain with some human depths that are meticulously added in the right places. Winsley and Curtis are merely terrific when they gather their weapons at hand to do battle with the human antagonists, they kind of make Jake and Neytiri look like a pipsqueaks at times.

Ladies and Gentlemen, never bet against James Cameron! Amazing things happen in Avatar: The Way of Water, things you've never seen in movies -- things you didn't know the movies could do. While bigger isn't always better, writer/director James Cameron's follow-up is genuinely bigger and better in nearly every way. An extremely ambitious sequel that took a pretty sacred first film and built upon it in the most satisfying way. It’s a fantastic sci-fi movie. It’s a fantastic action movie. It’s a fantastic James Cameron movie. It is a far more traditional exercise in immersing the moviegoer; essentially, it re-constitutes the family epic, and in so soing marries alien Godfather to Star Wars. Cameron’s epic return to Pandora can enthral and thrill the audience with breathtaking set pieces, bring them to tears with moving moments, and amaze people willing to explore a fantasy land like no other. Thirteen years after the release of its predecessor, this installment, like its predecessor, proves to be an exceptional blockbuster that makes the most of a simple and predictable story, to further develop a visually awesome and emotional experience that must be had in the cinema.

Simon says Avatar: The Way of Water receives: