For years, the most critical of ‘Avatar’ we’ve been talking about its cultural irrelevance: a decade later there were no parodies or homages, beyond a fabulous episode of ‘How to with John Wilson’. Pandora had been left uninhabited, or so we thought. There was some reason for the discredit, but as much as we have the feeling of cultural irrelevance, it has certainly become clear that socially it continues to be the order of the day and the public wants more adventures in three dimensions.
Despite everything, some we feel a bit grinch Faced with all these signs of praise and respect for James Cameron, I couldn’t help but find ‘Avatar: The Sense of Water’ as a lackluster continuation with more or less impressive battle sequences but which it doesn’t stop to amaze us neither artistically nor technically.
And in these days when it’s inevitable to talk about the Cameron sequel in all sorts of social circles, it is time to give a consciously controversial point of view but -I think- understandable: the one of the things in which the sequel is not capable of equaling the original… and those in which he manages to overcome it. To Caesar what is Caesar’s.
the wow factor
The first time we entered Pandora, at the end of 2009, everything was new: an unexplored planet, three dimensions like we had never seen before, a new race with its own language… The sense of wonder ran throughout the film, and there was no shot that wasn’t fascinating. However, its sequel does not innovate enough to continue to leave you speechless: the Metkayina are too similar to the race we already knew and seascapes are not as impressive as treescapes.
At the end, leaves a feeling of return, but not surprise: continuity may still cause gasps in this sequel, but Cameron has to make a very deep change in the third part if you don’t want to start sounding like a broken record.
Villains
In ‘Avatars’ there was an understandable ecological conflict: It’s not that humans were villains by definition, but rather that they needed Pandora’s resources to save an Earth on the brink of extinction. In the end it all came down to a fierce fight, of course, but humans had different layers, represented in a Jake Sully with a duality between hero and villain that made him more interesting.
However, in ‘Avatar: The Sense of Water’, Colonel Quaritch’s motivation is to kill Jake Sully, period. The same reasoning as in the previous part is dropped again, but it is inefficient: as if it were a direct-to-video sequel, the well-constructed argument of the original becomes a simple excuse that serves as a starting point, but to repeat to the villains -literally the same ones!- as enemies, without giving them a twist, It is more like a bad video game made in a hurry than a worked movie for more than a decade.
the Na’vi
When James Cameron released ‘Avatar’ announced that they had created a new language with the help of various linguistsin the style of Tolkien’s Quenya: academies were even created to learn Na’vi, and in the sequel, which took place entirely on Pandora, one would have expected that the language in question would be spoken much moregiving more credibility to the whole.
However, with the excuse of “The Na’vi already felt like my own language”, James Cameron he makes the cowardly decision to shoot the film in English, leaving that language for a couple of loose sentences. Granted, reading the subheadings on Papyrus all the time would have been terrible, but the solution that is provided is not better and detracts from the authenticity of the whole.
The frames per second
I know James Cameron is very proud of the 48 frames per second created when shooting in 3D HFR, and beware: There are people who not only don’t notice it, but applaud it! It is valid, really… but it is inevitable that a handful of especially sensitive viewers Let’s note the famous “soap opera effect” so typical of poorly calibrated televisions.
It is true that the invention has improved since Peter Jackson used it in ‘The Hobbit’, and action sequences can look more spectacular, but what for some is an advantage and sees it inevitably as the future of cinema and a unique immersion, others of us inevitably perceive it as extra-fast movement for no reason, in which the characters move in strange ways. Added to 3D and that technology still needs to be perfected, the result is a bit of a headache.
Once again: this, for some, is an advantage, and I am glad if you are among them, but for me it was what got me the most out of what I was seeing. Perhaps if I had seen it at 24 frames per second continuously (Cameron mixes between both modes) I would have been more interested, who knows: the truth is that it was impossible to concentrate throughout the film, more aware of my brain , accustomed to the format of a lifetime, try to decode and normalize what he was seeing than to enjoy the trip. And it’s a shame.
Rhythm
Anyone you talk to about ‘Avatar: The Sense of Water’ is going to tell you that the last hour is incredible, pure action, pure show, pure Cameron. The problem is that to get to that epic ending (frankly: yes, it is, but it didn’t take my breath away either) you have to endure. two hours of absolute tedium, very nice screensaversscript manual situations and embarrassing dialogues.
The first two hours of this film are the exact sample of how well placed Cameron is in the visual section… and how poorly lately it seems to master the art of storytelling. The story is uninteresting, the pacing is shaky, and if it weren’t for the final battle, it would be more like an IMAX whale documentary than a fantasy film. The story of ‘Avatar’ drank from a couple of too obvious sources, but in this case seems willing to offer the most chewy and soft plot possible, with a lulling pace. Sorry but no.
Of course, not everything is going to be negative in ‘Avatar: The Sense of Water’, and I have been able to scratch a couple of things that actually surprised me. let it not be said that the bitterness is total.
Characters
In the first part, only Jake Sully was capable of having his own plot and doubts about becoming -or not- the hero that the Na’vi needed. The rest they were flat characters, who were only placed in the script around the hero. Were they in favor? Against? Did they help you? Were they her lovers? no one seemed to have a trip that was not exclusively linked to its protagonist.
Luckily, in the second part, by expanding the world and the family, there are different objectives, internal journeys and plot arcs: Spider and his family ties to deal with, Lo’ak’s internal conflicts feeling like an outcast even with his own parents, Neytiri’s evolution as a mother and warrior… The film becomes richer, evolves by allowing yourself to speak not just about a single story, but to allow yourself to grow in different directions.
the cgi
It’s undeniable: You’ve never seen CGI like ‘Avatar: The Sense of Water’. As much as I’m not a fan of his designs or passionate about what they’re telling me (or how they’re doing it), Cameron has created a world out of nothing and He has managed to bring it to life in the most realistic way possible. This is the first time we have seen such a large and compelling world created exclusively by computer on the big screen.
Whatever it means for the future of cinema, Weta’s creation is incredible and manages to improve on the already very convincing shots of the first part. I don’t know if the rest of the sequels will manage to raise the level or how they will try to surprise us, because this seems like an impossible ceiling to overcome.