Avatar: The Approach of Water clocks in at three hours and ten minutes with none intermission. It is a daring runtime for any film, however particularly one that could be a sequel 13 years within the making to a movie that will or could not have had any cultural influence.
Whether or not or not most of the people remembers Avatar, the sequel is right here, and it is determined to be an epic on the dimensions of author/director James Cameron’s earlier outings like Terminator 2: Judgment Day, Titanic, and naturally, Avatar. Sadly a bloated runtime doesn’t make an epic.
Are We Actually Nonetheless Doing This
The Approach of Water picks up some years after the primary movie’s finish and re-introduces the viewers to the lead couple from the final film. The human-turned-Na’vi Jake Sully (Sam Worthington) and Neytiri (Zoe Saldaña) have made a life for themselves after the expulsion of the colonial people from the resource-rich moon of Pandora on the finish of the primary movie.
The couple has 4 youngsters, two boys, and two women, and stay their life in concord and steadiness with the natural world of Pandora. Till the “sky individuals,” as people are referred to as, assault once more. Not solely are people attacking once more, however the movie’s primary villain is as soon as once more Stephen Lang’s Colonel Miles Quaritch, who has been resurrected as a result of, as Cameron says, “it is a science fiction story in spite of everything.”
However although the principle plot is a straightforward retread of Avatar‘s already rote white savior story, The Approach of Water takes its time getting began. The movie spends its first third on arrange earlier than we lastly transfer to an island village of a water clan of Na’vi often known as Metkayina.
But it surely’s not simply the storyline that begs the query of a seemingly countless repetition of poor choices. Apart from The Approach of Water being one other story by which outsiders carry battle to a inhabitants solely to “save” them, some extra particular inclusions really feel like they need to have been left behind with the primary movie (and even earlier than that).
The one “good man” human is a white boy with dreadlocks, an aesthetic that has been acknowledged as culturally insensitive, or at the very least ignorant, for years. And the movie additionally doubles down on the rape imagery inherent to the idea of Na’vi utilizing their neural connective braids to subdue and take management of animals. It was a weird selection within the first movie, however together with a number of scenes right here the place characters power these neural connections on unwilling animals in a world the place “braid rape” has an entry on City Dictionary is stunning.
Typically Stunning, All the time Too Lengthy
As with the primary movie, defenders will argue that the movie’s story is secondary to its spectacle. And there’s undoubtedly spectacle right here, however Cameron’s priorities really feel all incorrect. For a film titled The Approach of Water, there’s remarkably little time spent marveling on the lovely world that Cameron and his colleagues have created below the oceans of Pandora.
The movie’s center third gives a travelog of the Sully household’s new island residence that features the perfect photographs within the film. From seemingly bioluminescent sea creatures to a completely new set of plant life below the water, these photographs ship on the promise of a beautiful spectacle from a legendary filmmaker.
Not essentially detrimental to the facility of those photographs, however price noting is that these scenes look extra like the subsequent era of Sq. Enix’s high-definition cutscenes than something resembling actuality. It’s unclear whether or not the choice to shoot motion scenes in 48 frames-per-second contributes to that unreality or not. Cameron’s frequent digital camera actions, from large-scale motion to a selected battle, additionally really feel drawn from the world of video video games.
What’s extra detrimental than the unreality of those photographs is that there will not be sufficient of them. The movie focuses not on this underwater visible feast however on bombastic motion scenes that overwhelm the water with human vessels of grey metal and fiery explosions. A few of these motion sequences are thrilling, however even these overstay their welcome.
Whether or not it is the movie’s hour-long ultimate battle or earlier scenes of guerilla warfare within the forests, The Approach of Water delivers much more motion. This overabundance of motion could be nice if the motion have been all exhilarating and visually beautiful, but it surely’s not. As a substitute, the outsized motion turns into numbing in some unspecified time in the future, pushing the movie from leisure to a endurance check.
4/10 SPECS
Avatar: The Approach of Water releases in theaters nationwide on December 16.
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This text was produced and syndicated by Wealth of Geeks.
Kyle Logan studied philosophy and now continuously overthinks music and films.
He’s a movie and tv critic and common popular culture author who has written for Cultured Vultures, Chicago Movie Scene, Citadel of Chills, and Filmotomy. Kyle has coated digital movie festivals together with the inaugural Nightstream competition in 2020 and the 2021 Fantasia Movie Competition. Kyle is concerned with horror movies, animation, Star Wars, and Journey Time, in addition to older style movies written and directed by queer individuals and ladies, significantly these from the Seventies and 80s. Together with writing, Kyle organizes a Queer Movie Problem on Letterboxd.
