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Avatar: The Way of Water came to theaters Dec. 16 and already made more than $1 billion in less than two weeks. The sequel comes 13 years after the blockbuster original wowed moviegoers with incredible 3D visuals. Director James Cameron brings us further adventures on the lush world of Pandora, along with original stars Sam Worthington and Zoe Saldaña back as Na’vi heroes Jake Sully and Neytiri.
“The parental anguish and the engaging journeys of the young characters give The Way of Water emotional heft,” CNET’s Richard Trenholm said in his review. “The sci-fi action is cathartic and exciting, the environmental message is irresistible, and the visuals are just incredible.”
The movie’s Disney Plus release date hasn’t been announced yet, but the first movie is available there if you want a trip to Pandora right now.
Jake Sully and Neytiri’s family are key to the sequel’s ending, after the colonialist humans of the Resources Development Administration, or RDA, return to Pandora and wreak havoc on the world’s native life as they seek a replacement for the dying Earth. They also launch a hunt for the treacherous human-turned-Na’vi Sully, leading us to the movie’s final conflict.
It takes place 15 years after the original, and there’s lots to digest, since this movie flings plenty of terminology and events at you in its three-hour-and-17-minute runtime (and no, it doesn’t have a post-credits scene). Let’s dive into the Avatar sequel’s beautiful blue SPOILER waters.The next generation
Having been killed by Neytiri in the first movie, Colonel Miles Quaritch (Stephen Lang) and a bunch of his Marine goons have been resurrected in Na’vi bodies with a backup of their human counterparts’ memories. The clone Quaritch was surprised to learn that Miles “Spider” Socorro (Jack Champion), a human who’s grown up with Sully and Neytiri’s kids, was the son he abandoned in his old life.
Having been tasked with slaying Sully for the RDA, Quatrich uses Spider to learn the Na’vi ways and hunt his prey, but he clearly grows fond of the teen despite his claims of indifference. Methinks the Na’vi doth protest too much.
The late RDA scientist Grace Augustine (Sigourney Weaver) acted as bridge between the humans and Na’vi, in addition to spearheading the avatar project that allowed Sully to become one of the blue aliens. We discover that her avatar was pregnant when she died, and gave birth to Kiri (also Sigourney Weaver, who’s amazingly convincing as a teenager).
