geezer cinema: avatar: the way of water (james cameron, 2022)

Once in a while, and hopefully not just out of laziness, I'll quote myself to make a point. Here is what I wrote about the original Avatar:

Obviously, if you are the type of person who needs to be in the middle of pop culture mega-events, you need to see Avatar (who am I kidding … you’ve already seen it). If you are the type of person who appreciates the interesting use of newer technologies in movie making, you’ll want to see Avatar (although you might find it ironic that such an expensive, tech-heavy motion picture offers up an anti-technology narrative).

But ... what happens in the movie … you know, the story, the writing, the acting, all the stuff that is outside the realm of technology (although a lot of the acting in Avatar is done via technology, so maybe I’m wrong there). That it runs twice as long as Booty Call tells you something, for while it’s better than Booty Call, it’s not twice as good. There are plenty of subplots supporting the main narrative … Avatar isn’t boring, there’s always something going on … but all the claims of innovative filmmaking are accurate only if you’re talking technology, for none of the various plots and subplots are at all innovative. In fact, they are a mélange of tried and true formulas: the reluctant hero who learns a new way of living, a race of noble savages, mindless military and corrosive businessmen … toss in some New Ageisms and blow shit up in a big battle scene at the end, and you’ve got Avatar. The technology is impressive, but the rest of the movie ain’t exactly Jean Renoir.

Well ... the technology has gotten even more amazing. It's astonishing at first, and then after a while you take it for granted, which is amazing in its own way. The big battle scene at the end is very clear ... I've said it many times, but somewhere along the way movie makers seem to have forgotten how to orient viewers to understand what is happening in battle scenes to clarify basic stuff like where people are in relation to each other and the environment. (They didn't forget, of course, they disorient us on purpose.) Cameron deserves credit for defying this tendency.

Everything I said about the subplots and the absence of boring is still true, even with another half-an-hour added beyond the length of the first one. There is a kitchen sink approach to the world building, as if Cameron had used the 13 years between the original and the sequel to come up with a zillion ideas, all of which he decided to put into The Way of Water. (This is not really true .... he filmed "Avatar 3" back-to-back with this one, and has planned two more sequels after that, so clearly, he hasn't used all of his ideas yet.)

But it is also still true that all of the innovation here is technological. It's narrative is formulaic, the "noble savages, mindless military and corrosive businessmen" are still around, and there might be even more New Ageisms this time. We're still quite a bit short of Jean Renoir. There's nothing wrong with that.