Best Pictures #85: 2022 (95th) Academy Awards Best Picture Nominee: Avatar: The Way of Water

 by A.J.

Best Pictures #85: 2022 (95th) Academy Awards Best Picture Nominee

Avatar: The Way of Water

“The way of water has no beginning and no end.”

Thirteen years after the release of the record-breaking mega-hit blockbuster Avatar, the long-delayed sequel, Avatar: The Way of Water, finally made its way to theaters, also becoming a mega-hit. I was no fan of the first Avatar—its admittedly dazzling and impressive visuals were not enough to overcome a mediocre, derivative script and stiff acting from its lead, Sam Worthington—so I was, at best, indifferent about a sequel. Upon this visit to the alien moon of Pandora, the visuals and special effects are still dazzling but somewhat less impressive because we’ve been here before and know that the visual effects goals of writer-director James Cameron are achievable. However, I was much more caught up in the story and events in the Way of Water. For most of, but certainly not all, of its 3-hour 12-minute runtime I was well entertained. 

Sam Worthington returns as the ex-marine Jake Sully, who left his human body permanently for his Na’vi avatar in the first movie. Years have passed and Jake Sully and Neytiri (Zoe Saldana) now have children of various ages and find their home and lives again threatened by invading militaristic humans. Jake and Neytiri have also adopted the young teen-ish daughter of Sigourney Weaver’s character from the first movie, who died. How she came to have a Na’vi daughter is glossed over and forgotten. However, Weaver brings a believable youthful energy to her performance of an adolescent character. Stephen Lang as Quaritch, the villain from the first movie, who died, also returns as a Na’vi clone/hybrid and the “how” and “why" of this are glossed over and forgotten as well. In the first movie the peaceful, nature bonded Na’vi were being driven from their homes so humans could mine a precious mineral. Here, Quaritch and his band of human-Na’vi hybrid soldiers are unleashed simply to seek and destroy Jake Sully in the hopes that this will put down a larger Na’vi insurgency (but this too is glossed over and forgotten). 

If Avatar was James Cameron’s allegory for the plight of Native Americans against Westward Expansion, then The Way of Water is Cameron’s allegory for Vietnam—scenes of the human-Na’vi soldiers harassing natives and burning villages could be taken from any number of Vietnam war movies. This connection is interesting but does not do much to enhance the story’s substance.  

It is not until Jake and Neytiri seek refuge with the seafaring Metkayina Na’vi of Pandora’s coastline and the focus moves decidedly to the kids and their attempts to learn, adapt, and fit in with the teenage/adolescent Metkayina Na’vi that the Way of Water really hits its stride. Indeed, for most of the movie the adult Na’vi are more supporting players. Perhaps the most memorable sights and scenes from this Avatar sequel are the intelligent whale-like Tulkun that the sea-Na’vi share a deep bond with. One of the teen Sully boys forms a bond with an outsider whale that ends up being pretty meaningful.

The action scenes are exciting and thrilling, especially the climax, that is until it drags on and on. At a certain point it felt like things were going wrong just for the sake of making the movie longer. Too many scenes take far too long to revel in the majesty of the natural beauty of Pandora, which is more time for me to think: of course this looks spectacular, it was painstakingly made over years in a computer. As good as this movie is and as much of an improvement over the first film in terms of story, it never really earns its over 3-hour runtime. 

Nominees: James Cameron, Jon Landau, producers

Director: James Cameron

Screenplay: James Cameron & Rick Jaffa & Amanda Silver; story by James Cameron, Rick Jaffa, Amanda Silver, Josh Friedman, Shane Salerno

Cast: Sam Worthington, Zoe Saldana, Sigourney Weaver, Stephen Lang

Production Companies: Lightstorm Entertainment, TSG Entertainment

Distributor: 20th Century Studios

Release Date: December 16th, 2022

Total Nominations: 4, including Best Picture

Other Nominations: Production Design-Dylan Cole, Ben Procter, Vanessa Cole; Visual Effects-Joe Letteri, Richard Baneham, Eric Saindon, Daniel Barrett; Sound-Julian Howarth, Gwendolyn Yates Whittle, Dick Bernstein, Christopher Boyes, Gary Summers, Michael Hedges

Remembering the Titanic on film

by Lani

This weekend marks the 100th anniversary of the Titanic tragedy. The story of the Titanic's fateful maiden voyage has been portrayed on film many times over the past century, most notably of course in 1997's Titanic, written and directed by James Cameron. The epic scope of this story seems to invite filmmaking on a massive scale and Cameron's production was famously troubled. But unlike the ship of the same name, Titanic the film was a resounding success, becoming one of the highest-grossing films of all-time and winning the Best Picture Academy Award. For those who were among the very small minority who did not see Titanic the first time, or perhaps were not yet alive in 1997, Titanic in 3D in now in theaters. This weekend ABC is also showing a new miniseries, coincidentally called Titanic, which was written by Julian Fellowes, lately of Downton Abbey fame. If you're interested in some "classic" film portrayals of the disaster, ."A Life at the Movies" blog has a nice round-up of the major Titanic films, and makes comparisons between older films and Cameron's film.

One of the most interesting Titanic-themed entertainments I've come across this weekend is Nazi Titanic on The History Channel's H2. During WWII, Nazi propaganda minister Joseph Goebbels became obsessed with creating a blockbuster film to rival those of Hollywood. He thought he had the perfect subject in the Titanic, and set out to make a film which blamed British capitalists for the disaster and loss of life. A fictional German officer was added to the story as a heroic voice of reason amidst the greedy ship owners and a captain concerned with speed records rather than safety. Unrivaled resources were put behind the production (it was then the most expensive German film ever made), German ship the Cap Arcona was taken out of active service to stand in for the Titanic and hundreds of German soldiers were brought in as extras. However, the production became a disaster of its own when the circumstances of being at war made filming nearly impossible. The crew shot for weeks on the Cap Arcona without getting any usable footage. Furthermore, after making inflammatory statements against the German army, director Herbert Selpin was denounced and sent to prison where he died of an apparent suicide. Nazi Titanic also discusses the topic of propaganda movies of the 1940s from both sides of the war. Before now I had never thought of 1942's Casablanca as a propaganda film. It does fit the bill for effective pro-Allies propaganda; however, Casablanca also transcends that label due to smart writing, memorable performances, and a great sense of atmosphere--qualities which many propaganda pieces lack. When Goebbels' Titanic film was finally finished in 1943, he feared that the sinking ship would be seen as a metaphor for the Third Reich. Though the film was shown in Nazi-occupied Europe, it was never released in Germany.