Directed by James Cameron (Avatar; Titanic; The Terminator; The Abyss) and starring Sam Worthington (Avatar; Clash of the Titans; Hacksaw Ridge; Everest), Zoe Saldana (Avatar; Guardians of the Galaxy; star Treek; Avengers: Infinity War), Sigourney Weaver (Avatar; My Salinger Year; Alien; Gorillas in the Mist), Kate Winslet (Titanic; Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind; Revolutionary Road; Mare of Easttown (TV Series)), Cliff Curtis (Training Day; Doctor Sleep; Fast & Furious Presents: Hobbs & Shaw), Britain Dalton (Ready Player One; Goliath) and Stephen Lang (Avatar; Manhunter; Tombstone; The Lost City).
Action Adventure; 192 mins; 12+
The sequel to the Oscar award-winning, James Cameron-directed Avatar back in 2009; The Way of Water is set over a decade later...
Jake Sully (Sam Worthington) lives on Pandora with his wife Neytiri (Zoe Saldana), their four children and Spider (the son of Miles Quaritch (Stephen Lang)) who was born on Pandora but was too young to return to earth. The Sky People (humans) return to colonise the planet, wreaking havoc along the way and forcing Jake and his family into hiding.
Colonel Quaritch, who has been cloned into a Na'vi body and with his memories uploaded from before his death, is leading the search for Jake, believing him to be a traitor to humans as Jake had killed him...
Jake and his family flee the forest and seek refuge on a coral reef island with the Water People (refugees fleeing the war, they are taken in by others, facing challenges of assimilation / fitting in, as they are different...). Tonowari (Cliff Curtis) and Ronal (Kate Winslet) welcome them, although their people are hesitant at welcoming strangers.
Together, the Na'vi people must work together to protect each other and their planet. Jake's son, Lo'ak (Britain Dalton), who feels that his father does not understand him, befriends and bonds with a sea creature, a tulkun, who is understood to have been shunned by his family.
And so the scene is set... not that one can simply sit back and take it all in, all three hours and 12 minutes... For part of the film, and for some extended periods of time, one is transfixed at the edge of one's seat, such is the tension... The audience is transported into the world of Pandora, first with the Forest People and then with the Water People: with the latter, the audience explores the stunning underwater world of amazing flora and fauna, with each fish / animal more wondrous than the previous...
The special effects underwater are phenomenal (with 3D glasses on), arguably even more visually stunning than in the forests and the skies. The audience can gloss over the dialogue and the script (basically the storyline is a "revenge mission") and just take in the visually stunning artwork that Cameron and his team have created, with the music score aiding and abetting.
Currently being screened in Luxembourg at Kinepolis and CiNextDoor.
