A word, or many, in praise of an unparalleled filmmaker:
James Cameron has been a bankable filmmaker, for decades now. He is one of those artists who take their time to craft something so incredibly unique, that the art leaves audiences gasping for generations. May it be an action movie benchmark like the Terminator films, a sci-fi legend like the Aliens series, or a timeless classic like Titanic. He has always been someone who has pushed the envelope further than any of his peers. Especially in the terms of the technical aspects of filmmaking. And nothing stands truer to that testimony than his first Avatar movie, for which he pretty much single-handedly invented and boosted the 3D movie capture technology.
But it’s been 13 years since. So has he lost his touch? Has he chosen the easy way out to create a cash grab of a sequel? No. Absolutely not. In fact, he spent a good part of the last decade exploring the deepest parts of the ocean; notably the Mariana Trench. And the hard work & research show themselves in all their glory in the new Avatar 2 - Way of the water; which pushes the existing CGI tech to its absolute limit. So much so, that once you are immersed in the world of Pandora, he takes your hand and crosses the threshold of that uncanny valley with so much ease, that you pretty much forget that every single pixel of the screen is computer generated. Also, the movie runs at twice the frame rate than usual, making the motion extremely smooth and evocative.
We are all used to seeing overbearing CGI in recent superhero movies & shows. The Marvel 3rd act is jokingly referred to as the pixels finale, for almost all the films. So why is this different, you may ask? It's because, in most movies, you are hyper-aware of the CG, because we are all at some point aware if something is artificial. Not in Avatar 2 though. It is seamless, it is organic and it is beautifully breathtaking.
The storyline:
This is not a spoiler review. I will not want to take anything away from your viewing experience. I'll only touch upon the theme of the movie. And the theme is one of love & belonging, of the battle between duty and the loss that comes with it. It is about our choices. Whether we choose to fight the demons that surround us outside or the ones inside of our hearts. The themes of Avatar 2 are universal, human, and very grounded in reality, while the visuals are simply divine and beyond fantastic.
However, Hail! Cameron once more for a particular segment of the movie, that deals with illegal animal poaching and the greed that drives it. It's a difficult scene to watch, which I think makes it even more important. And I cannot imagine how much weight he must have to pull with the studio, in order to keep it in the final cut. But I have an intuition, that it comes from his love of the ocean and the creatures that live in it.
Conclusion:
Avatar 2 - The way of the water is a historic moment in the world of filmmaking, computer-generated imagery, and character design. Watch it, watch it again, and then do so one more time just to make sure you haven’t missed out on detail in the first two viewings. Highly, enthusiastically recommended.
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