Avatar: The Way of Water: That's how good James Cameron's return to Pandora is

Created: 12/14/2022 10:03 am

By: Thomas Willman

Avatar: The Way of Water hits theaters.

13 years after the first film, director James Cameron returns to Pandora.

© Courtesy of 20th Century Studios

Avatar: The Way of Water hits theaters.

13 years after the first film, director James Cameron returns to Pandora.

Our film review:

James Cameron is a man of contradictions.

A vegan and eco-ambassador with a strong military and gun fetish.

An egomaniac macho who established mothers as true action heroines in "Aliens" and "Terminator 2".

A former B-Picture director who touches on the titanic, the mythical.

And he's one of the last to run blockbusters as pure auteur cinema.

Who also – in the tradition of the Lumière brothers to Stanley Kubrick – invents the cinema technology required for his visions himself.

Avatar is considered the most financially successful film of all time

His "Avatar" from 2009 (benefited by inflation, 3D and overlength surcharges) was long considered the most financially successful film.

In the collective consciousness of pop culture, however, it fizzled out with surprisingly no residue.

Cameron is famous for taking his directorial sequels to a whole new level, but now, for the first time, he's delivering more of the same.

While "Avatar" was still a very classic "A White Man Goes Wild" Western in the costume of science fiction, "The Way of Water", which is already being released in German cinemas today, is now completely immersed in the fantasy world.

The film spends the first hour positioning characters and story in a rather awkward manner.

Villain Colonel Quaritch is resurrected in Avatar form and returns to Pandora to settle scores.

Jake Sully, Neytiri and their now four children flee the Space Rainforest, seeking refuge with the maritime Na'vi tribe of the Metkayina, in Pandora's Polynesia, so to speak.

In short: This is Tiki "Avatar".

It's amazing that Cameron is now even more hesitant about plundering very specifically terrestrial, non-white cultures to outfit his animal aliens with.

James Cameron is continuing 'Avatar' with four films

Once the film settles into the island village and focuses on Sully's kids, it finds its groove.

Again he tells of strangers, of outsiders who have to find their way in a new world.

But this time, that's the typical perspective of teenagers.

The emotional center is - "Free Willy" says hello - the friendship between a boy and a lonely whale.

Anyone who had problems with the aesthetics of "Avatar" 13 years ago, the mix of black light poster, computer game and Vietnam War film, will not be much happier here.

After all, technical progress ensures that the world looks more uniform, the figures no longer look as if they were just copied into the background.

Their movements and facial expressions are more natural, their skin and hair more physical.

But the dedicated

This estimable ensemble now only provides the coloring template for the computer animation and is digitally painted over, although the diving scenes were actually shot under water.

Cameron also uses "HFR" - that is twice as many frames per second as the usual cinematic 24. This makes the 3D smoother, more tolerable, but can also easily tilt into the previous evening series video look.

That's why he reserves this technique for underwater scenes and fast (camera) movements.

However, the constant jumping back and forth between the formats is very annoying.

more tolerable, but can also easily tilt into the early evening series video look.

That's why he reserves this technique for underwater scenes and fast (camera) movements.

However, the constant jumping back and forth between the formats is very annoying.

more tolerable, but can also easily tilt into the early evening series video look.

That's why he reserves this technique for underwater scenes and fast (camera) movements.

However, the constant jumping back and forth between the formats is very annoying.

James Cameron at the premiere of Avatar: The Way of Water in London.

© Vianney Le Caer/dpa

The director - himself a father of five children - returns to the patriarchal scheme of "True Lies" in terms of content in this film: "The Way of Water" is the story of two fathers, Quaritch and Sully, and tells us that it is the destiny of dads is to protect her family.

But Cameron's original way of expressing emotion was always the action - the movement and collision of the greatest possible masses.

The first truly gripping sequence in The Way of Water is a brutal whaling, creature versus technique battle.

And although you miss the physique of "Terminator 2" in the sea of ​​pixels: When in the finale the space Moby-Dick and the Na'vi fight back and the earthly invader fleet splash flat, you know again what made James Cameron great.

And you remember what action cinema can do if someone does it with brains, heart and a little bit of madness.

Sinking ships, Cameron can do that!