The sequel to James Cameron’s critically acclaimed “Avatar” is a brave, gaudy, visually striking, and simple story encapsulated by shades of blue, green, and white. “Avatar: The Way of Water” (2022) comes 13 years after the first, amping up anticipation years before its release.

The story is well known by now – “Avatar,” released in 2009, was a box office behemoth. In January 2010, days after Avatar made $1 billion dollars, Cameron announced the sequel. He then announced that a third and fourth film were made alongside the second, turning the world of Pandora into a multimillion dollar film franchise. 

If there are no delays, the third Avatar film could be released as early as December 2024.

With the announcement of several “Avatar” films, the public, albeit excitedly, also had critiques to give the notoriously stubborn director. “Avatar: The Way of Water” was criticized for culture appropriation by social media users. 

Cameron is accused of stealing themes, imagery, and important history of Native American and Indigenous groups and cultures. It doesn’t help that most of the film relies on the quintessential “White Savior” trope in which a central white character adopts a culture and rescues a non-white character from unfortunate circumstances. 

Similarly to the first film, “Avatar: The Way of Water” follows the story of colonizers who attempt to take the land of Native people and their resources. Amidst this, protagonist Jake Sully (played again by Sam Worthington) becomes a target of the military. 

The film also boasts it’s predominantly all-white cast, save for Zoe Saldaña, a Black Latina actress who plays the role of Neytiri; Cliff Curtis, who is of Maori descent and who plays the role of Tonowari; and Bailey Bass, who plays Tsireya. 

Yuè Begay, a Native American influencer, suggested that people join Native and Indigenous groups in boycotting the film. 

“Our cultures were appropriated in a harmful manner in order to satisfy some white man’s savior complex,” says Begay on Instagram.

Another Twitter user slammed Cameron’s inspiration for the film, in which they reference a 2010 interview where Cameron revealed he was inspired by the Xingu people of the Amazon in Brazil, “Why watch a ridiculous movie about blue aliens when you could just support actual Indigenous people and our struggle for clean water here on Earth? Yes, we do exist.” 

Despite the boycott, the film still had its fair share of supporters, and as of today, the film has made $2.3 million at the global box office and has become the third highest-grossing film of all time. 

During the time of theatrical doomsaying, streaming, and post-pandemic discomfort, however,  Cameron cashed in on it like a precarious, eccentric carnival barker. 

“Avatar: The Way of Water” has a lot of boastful technical achievements to its name, with its motion capture technology being praised by many veterans of the industry. It makes for an effective party event in which people can admire the complexities of motion capture technology. 

The audience becomes transfixed by shimmering and mellifluous fluoro blue skies, and soft and striking visuals of the water that appear real. The underwater shots of Pandora are ethereal and honeyed hues of blue and green that dance across the screen could even be taken as wallpaper. 

The level of detail and dynamism of the 3D world of Pandora Cameron spends his time prying into is a spectacle the audience can’t help but admire and applaud. It’s a parcel of artwork, a magnificent use of 48fps presentations, and a glitzy sci-fi flick for all who are interested in watching 3 hours of CGI and self-indulgent VFX. 

The sequel follows the same simple plot elements as the first, while delivering a more disjointedly sentimental narrative about animal and human camaraderie, like a bucket of buttery popcorn being shoved down the audience’s collective throat. 

The plot follows a group of humans wanting to obtain more resources, as well as an age-stymying liquid found in the brains of Tulkuns, a hyper-intelligent, whale-like species. Additionally, Quaritich (played by Stephan Lang) a marine from the first film is back in the body of a Na’vi, and with a desire for an incomprehensible logistical revenge mission against Jake Sully and his entire family by association. 

In this film, the baton of drastic dilemmas is passed onto his kids, a quartet of maternal and sensitive girls, and hot-headed boys. Neteyam (Jeremy Irwin) is the oldest, and then comes Kiri (Sigourney Weaver), Lo’ak (Britain Dalton), and Tuktirey (Trinity Bass). 

Cameron is known for having often surface levels of ambiguity and sophistication in his characters, and for this film, the case isn’t any different. He doesn’t add any levels of narrative trickery or sophisticated character design to this film. 

Additionally, the film doubles-down on the sentiment of family, in a sometimes cheesy way. “Sully’s stick together. That was our greatest weakness, and our greatest strength,” says the often serious and blunt marine, Jake Sully, through a voice-over of disjointed, and quick montage-esque clips of his time in Pandora following the events of the first film. 

Although there is an awkward dichotomy and rather superficial story, the film still delivers totally cosmic spectacle by presenting a visually striking and immaculately immersive world. 

James Cameron is an image-maker, but the story and its characters fall flat. If there were no superfluous amounts of entrancing and gaudy cinematography, would the film perform as well? Luckily, audiences don’t have to wait another 13 years for the answer.  

Cameron has now used every card in his aesthetic hand and as audiences see how the world of Pandora pans out, they’ll see the “Titanic” director test the waters with the upcoming “Avatar 3.”

Don’t worry though – you can still sit through 3 hours of self-indulgent CGI, cartoonish plotlines, and exquisite and immersive visuals and feel like your bucket of popcorn and time was worth it. Because, as propaganda for anti-capitalistic/colonizing white people with dreads, it’s a success.