Avatar 2 review: Visuals, emotions make up for hackneyed storyline, weak plot

“James Cameron has done it again!” If that is what you are expecting from this review, then you will be as let down as I was by Avatar: The Way of Water.

I will henceforth refer to it as Avatar 2 for the sake of brevity, something I wish Cameron had heeded when making this film.

At three hours and 12 minutes, this film is longer than Avengers: Endgame and RRR. Heck, it is at least half an hour longer than the film that started this alien-world franchise!

And that runtime is painfully apparent in several places throughout the movie, where I had to refer to my watch to figure out how much time was left.

Meanwhile, OTT-only releases of films have inculcated in me — and probably several others — the habit of skipping through some scenes where we know what is about to happen, so the “how” becomes irrelevant.

Avatar 2 has several of these scenes, where I involuntarily reached for a nonexistent keyboard in front of me before being jarred back to the reality that I was watching a film in a cinema hall.

And that is what sets great cinema apart from good cinema: You never want to miss a single scene when it comes to the former.

A simple story

If you have seen the trailers, you are somewhat — if not quite thoroughly — aware of the plot.

If not, then be satisfied with this: Humans return to Pandora, and Jake Sully (Sam Worthington) — who by now has a sprawling family with Neytiri (Zoe Saldana) — must fight them off again.

Spoiler alert: In case you haven’t read the interviews, Stephen Lang is back as Colonel Miles Quaritch, the chief antagonist from the first part. And of course, his mark is Sully.

So, who ends up getting whom, who ends up offing whom, and how the water people feature in all of this form the story of the film.

To be honest, if that seems pretty straightforward, it is. There is little meat in the overall story, which appears very similar to that of the original Avatar.

Hackneyed plot and some bland storytelling

And it’s not just the story that is unoriginal.

Instead of teen angst in humans, Avatar 2 shows teen angst in the Na’vi.

Instead of misunderstandings within a human family that could have been solved with a simple heart-to-heart conversation, we see exactly that within this alien species.

Even the “us versus them” narrative — between Sully’s family and the people with whom they seek refuge — feels decades old. Replace the Na’vi faces with those of humans, and you will have seen a hundred such scenes before this.

As for the storytelling, Cameron gets immense help from three other screenplay writers, but his imaginative visuals do a little more talking than the plot’s stale drama.

This is especially evident in the first couple of hours, when the film almost plods to a halt and the characters stagnate.

It is only in the second half that the story gets a boost through a sequence that any animal-rights organisation would feel proud of if they are able to replicate it.

And therein lies the movie magic that Cameron weaves. That sequence alone stands out for its juxtaposition of unsullied cultural heritage and all of the human vices.

Marred only slightly for its exposition, this is the only sequence that helps provide a lot of context for the audience.

It helps them connect emotionally and root for the good guys. It is the reason for the solitary whoop of cheer at the screening I attended, and that outburst comes when a secondary antagonist gets his comeuppance of sorts.

After that, the film piles on the emotions, to the point where you do end up with a lump in the throat, which you walk out with.

However, that feeling dissipates quickly when you try to think back to the story and can remember only that aforementioned sequence and little else from the story. Like I said: The visuals overshadow the story.

The world-building suffers

One big plus for Avatar 2 is the acting. Each performer stands out, albeit for different reasons.

And it makes for more pleasant viewing because their physical and vocal traits are passed on to the characters, even as physical features and attire help the viewer tell them apart.

The music does add a new dimension to Avatar 2 as Simon Franglen takes over from James Horner, whom we lost in 2016.

Even the sound department does a good job when it comes to taking the story forward, be it through the background score, songs, animal sounds, and vocal effects.

However, even though we get new tribes and new species of animals, the world-building that Avatar brought to the table seems to have slowed down in the sequel.

There is little addition to the lore of the Na’vi, and Mother Goddess Eywa is almost absent throughout the film, with only hints given of a bigger role she could play in the future Avatar films through one of the new characters.

Visual spectacle

It is only in the second half that Avatar 2 starts to burrow into the viewer’s heart, with emotional scenes setting up what turns out to be a partial payoff.

The visuals wow from the first half itself and save the story from coming to a complete stop.

The wonder of 3D cinema may be wearing off more than a decade since Avatar was released, but Cameron and his visual department keep the magic alive with some great visual storytelling.

Thus, exposition takes a backseat as the story unfolds on the screen through the character and Pandora itself.

The final word

Given how Avatar 2 plays out, one can get the distinct impression that the storyline Cameron planned for the sequels is being stretched across four films with considerable effort.

And he is seemingly trying to make up for it with the visuals as several other things — from the plot to world-building, as mentioned before — could do with more of his attention.

Avatar 2 is not a multi-watch film, but it is a good Christmas offering for the whole family. Just don’t expect it to win too many awards beyond the technical ones.