After 13 years of waiting for a second Avatar movie, finally the world has received ‘Avatar: The Way of Water.’ It was released on December 16, 2022 and people, including myself, instantly bought tickets the day of the premiere and crowded the theaters. The movie starred actors Sam Worthington who plays Jake Sully, and Zoe Saldaña who plays Ney’tiri in the original Avatar. This new film was exciting to just think about because it shows a more peculiar and nuanced exploration of Pandora.  

‘Avatar: The Way of Water’ is based on the first movie ‘Avatar’ which was released in 2009. An Avatar is a human who controls a lab made Na’vi body. Pandora is the planet where all the Na’vi live and humans from Earth are trying to mine a rare mineral called unobtanium. Jake Sully is one of the humans who turns into an Avatar and is sent undercover to relocate the Na’vi. As he is spending more time with them he learns how they live and learns so much about their culture. He then falls in love with Ney’tiri and gets accepted into the Omitaya clan to fight the humans off of Pandora. 

     The genius return of Pandora in ‘The Way of Water’ was the most amazing cinematic experience. Sam Worthington did an outstanding job making a huge impact with his acting, along with help from his costars Zoe Saldaña, Sigourney Weaver, and Britain Dalton who really stood out to me and brought this film to life. I think that director James Cameron refined the first ‘Avatar’ with this one and he did not disappoint. 

The beginning of the movie showed lots of character development. Also, with new characters that are now added to the story which are Jake Sully’s kids, Neteyam, Lo’ak and Tuk who helped complete the film by bringing in good emotion. In ‘The Way of Water’ Jake Sully is now the leader of the Na’vi tribe and alongside them he has to fight a new threat to Pandora who are committed to exploiting the planet’s resources. Jake and Neytiri have to find a way to keep their family and the Omiticaya safe so they decide to hide among the Metkayina clan which are located among the oceanic reefs. (Spoilers ahead) Something that stood out to me was when the whale/ tulkun named Payakan is introduced as an outcast. Payakan led the tulkun who chose to follow him, to charge the humans who killed his mother, and they all died attempting to do so. The clan shunned him and he had to live with the guilt. The story of Payakan fascinated me and so did his character in general.

Out of all the movies I have watched in theaters this was the most surreal, and I genuinely thought it was a beautiful movie. I enjoyed every part of the movie but the only part that I disliked was that it lasted 3 hours. I have a new perspective on Pandora which other people who have also seen the film most likely do as well. If you liked the first Avatar film I definitely recommend ‘The Way of Water.’