From the Forest to the Ocean

In his book Reef Life: An Underwater Memoir, marine biologist Callum Roberts writes about his first diving experience at a coral reef in the Red Sea: “Few moments in life can compare with the sudden arrival on a reef; that headlong rush from the realm of air and people, buildings and cars, into the fluid domain of creatures that crowd and jostle, fearless and unconcerned.” In Avatar: The Way of Water, the long-awaited sequel to the highest-grossing movie ever, director James Cameron has replicated this sensation on the big screen. Indeed, as characters dive into the water for the first time about a third of the way into the film, what I was most reminded of was my own first scuba dive in the Mediterranean, aged fourteen. Although this sequel has the same issues as its predecessor, overall it is a magical, immersive experience, in which innovative technical achievements serve a strong ecological message.

In the years since the humans were defeated on Pandora, Jake Sully (played by Sam Worthington) and Neytiri (Zoe Saldaña) have had children and are living a happy, peaceful life. However, their married bliss is interrupted by the return of the “sky people”, who are now not merely setting up a mining camp but aim to make the planet their new home. Accompanying them is a “recombinant” avatar, to whom memories have been uploaded of Colonel Quaritch (Stephen Lang), the antagonist from the first film. Quaritch and his team hunt down the Sully family, prompting the latter to seek refuge with the Metkayina, a clan who live in an archipelago surrounded by coral reefs. The Metkayina seem to have been inspired by groups from Polynesia, Melanesia, and Indonesia, such as the Maori and the Bajau. The plot, as in the original, is very straightforward, and it is not here where the wonders of The Way of Water lie. It should perhaps not be surprising that Cameron would reuse the formula that made Avatar such a success, but it is indeed disappointing that the characters are not well developed (although Colonel Quaritch is more complex this time around in his new Na’vi body, even having, dare I say it, a Hamlet-like moment in which he contemplates his own human skull) and that the dialogue is as awkward as before: the annoying Corporal Wainfleet has even been brought back to grace us once again with his lines like “oorah”, “light ’em up”, and “get sum”.

Despite these shortcomings, The Way of Water is absolutely worth the trip to the cinema, and I emphasise “cinema”, not your home TV. This is because it is unlike anything you have seen before. Cameron, who has spent over 2,500 hours in the ocean in real life, and has made a solo dive in a submersible eleven kilometers into the Mariana Trench, brings all his knowledge and passion for the sea to the project. At least half of the movie takes place underwater. As with the first Avatar, motion capture technology was used, only this time these scenes were also shot underwater, which required the development of new technology, and was the main reason for the delay of the sequel. This shooting process placed extreme demands on the actors, to whom credit must be given, who learned from professionals how to free dive (i.e. holding their breath) and then had to emote several meteRs underwater. Some facts to put this in perspective: Stephen Lang and Sigourney Weaver are now in their seventies! Kate Winslet was eventually able to hold her breath for seven minutes!

Thanks to the marvels of motion capture technology, the 73-year-old Weaver plays a teenage Na’vi girl, Kiri, an outsider with a deep spiritual and sensuous connection to nature, who also suffers from epilepsy: just like the well-known case of the writer Dostoevsky, she undergoes religious ecstasy before the onset of a seizure. As well as capturing the highs and lows of adolescence, from first love to fights with other boys, as the Sully family try to integrate with their new tribe in an aquatic ecosystem, the film contains some extraordinary set-pieces. These include a whale hunt, reminiscent of scenes from Moby Dick, in which insane sailors with harpoons would descend from the main ship into smaller boats in pursuit of a sperm whale, and of course the final battle on the ocean. Cameron has criticised Marvel movies for the fact that “although epic things happen in them, like a city gets blown up, they don’t feel epic”; the climax here essentially consists of just one big ship versus a clan, but it does certainly feel like it is happening on an epic scale.

A quick note about the technology: The Way of Water was filmed using a “mixed frame rate”, meaning some parts were shot at the usual 24 frames per second (FPS) while others had 48 FPS. I saw the film twice, first in IMAX 3D and then in regular 3D. In the second case, the movement was not as smooth in some sections, and there was a distracting flickering light throughout (I’m not sure if this was widespread or a singular occurrence); in IMAX, however, the colour and fluidity were perfect. It seems that to view Cameron’s movie as it was meant to be seen, one must watch it only in IMAX 3D, which is admittedly a pretty high bar.

There are so many more points that could be made about this three-hour visual feast. Edie Falco from The Sopranos plays a general - not an inspired casting! Jemaine Clement from Flight of the Conchords pops up as a conflicted marine biologist. As in all of Cameron’s movies, there are strong female characters: Kate Winslet’s Ronal does not let being pregnant prevent her from riding into battle, and towards the end, Neytiri goes on a Mars-like killing rampage atop a sinking ship. Speaking of the ship, Cameron clearly remains fascinated, even after Titanic, by ships that founder, explode, fill up with water, capsize, sink, you name it. The ending does not have the finality of the first film, and obviously sets up Avatar 3 (no way was Quaritch going to be killed that easily). Finally, Simon Franglen’s music is both tribal and monumental - listen to the track “Happiness Is Simple”. The composer deliberately maintains coherence with the deceased James Horner’s score from the first film. For example, when the whale (“tulkun” in Avatar-speak) is killed, Horner’s trademark motif, itself inspired by the beginning of Rachmaninoff’s Symphony No. 1, is recycled, signifying that now the humans have truly gone too far in their ecological sacrilege, just as it was in the first Avatar when Hometree was blown up.

Marine scientist Callum Roberts has commented that a coral reef’s multi-hued blizzard of life makes diving there feel like tripping without drugs. Avatar: The Way of Water successfully brings this spectacle to theatres. It is far from flawless, but some of the harsh reviews I have read seem to be disingenuous - for sheer ambition and technological innovation alone, it is essential viewing (especially in IMAX 3D!). There were times when I thought that it would be good if every child in the world could see this movie: released just as Cop 15, the UN Biodiversity Conference, was taking place, The Way of Water might encourage them to fall in love with the ocean.