After 14 years the blue people are back!
Fourteen years is a long time to wait for a sequel to any movie, let alone the most successful movie in the history of cinema. I know James Cameron waited years until the technology was right to make the first movie and it seemed to pay off. People loved that movie (especially internationally). I’ll be honest… I saw it once in the cinema and thought it was good. Nothing special but a well made movie that wasn’t bad. I still don't know how it became the most successful movie ever. The memes at the time called it Pocahontas in space, but to be fair, movies are generally the same 7 or so stories. I think this time it was just so obviously Pocahontas with blue people.
Anyway, the new one. Much like the first is a technical and graphical masterpiece. It is also a simple movie with a simple plot and big action. The water is outstanding. I did forget that the movie is basically an animated film at times. There are a couple of real life human people thrown every now and again. I did think they looked a bit Spy Kids 3-ish. They stood out a bit as “added after the fact” and weren't as seamless as the rest of the movie but they're so infrequent that it didn't really matter.
Here’s the thing… It worked last time. I don't think the movie worked this time. In fact I actually disliked the movie. A first for a James Cameron movie (yes including Piranha II: The Spawning). Avatar 2 is basically The Abyss without the interesting bits and with a not overly thought through revenge story tacked on.
To be honest that was the thing that had the most potential. See, the baddie from the first movie is back from the dead as a Na’vi Avatar and is hunting Jake Sully and his family for revenge. That sounds awesome. Why a massive colonial corporation who is looking to mine the planet’s resources and bleed it dry would allow this - I have no clue. Don’t think about it too much… look at the water - ooh- isn't it great?
And here lies the problem with this movie. It does things that are interesting then leaves them for like 60 or 70 minutes and comes back to be all 2look, remember this?” then another 40 minutes of alien sea life. Here's an example.. There is a human child known as Spider. I say human he looks like a 20 year old rugby player who could bench a double decker bus, but anyway. He gets captured by the bad blue people and within 5 minutes seems to be on their side. Well he helps them get the flying dinosaur birds and how to speak the language but by the end of the movie Jake Sully is like, “Spider I'll save you” - “Oh thanks Jake Sully them there baddies are bad”, all after he leads them right to Jake Sully. I mean it made no sense to fight against the baddies, then to help the baddies, then to fight against them again, then save the main baddie. like, really? Did the character forget about his morals as much as the movie forgot about his character?
Anyway… Most of the movie surrounds Jake Sully and girl Na’vi from the first movie’s kids. They’re hardly in the movie. Jake Sully does some narration and fights in the big action set piece at the end and their mother shows up when some anger or worry is needed in a scene. She does nothing in this movie but get upset or annoyed, that is all. And the kids keep doing the same thing. Be told not to do something, end up doing and getting in trouble, being told not to do it again, the cycle repeats.
But look at the pretty water.
I mean there's a bunch of examples I throw out but really the movie is a showcase for amazing computer effects. It won Best Visual Effects at the Academy Awards, how it was nominated for Best Picture i have no clue.
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