The first Avatar was a Sci-Fi film which aroused audiences worldwide. It created the idea of what visiting an intelligent alien planet would look like. Specifically in the movie regarding scientists and Earth’s military’s mission in exploring the new world. One thing to understand from the previous film was Jake Sully and his epic breakthroughs in his character arc. Once a disabled military personnel who gained the ability to fight fully with the Na’vi body or his Avatar. Stranded alone in the darkness he began understanding the beauty and terrors in the world of Pandora.
This isn’t going to be a synopsis about the original movie as many have watched it many times over in 2009 and onwards. In short with a spoiler alert Jake Sully decided to integrate fully with his Avatar and join the Na’vi to fight off the invading humans. He then fell in love and that’s where the second story began in Avatar 2. With appearances of redounding success, audiences everywhere loved the reintroduction to the world of the Na’vi and Pandora. However, the joy of the victory was somewhat short lived as we’ll discuss further.
Avatar 2: Understanding the Story
This new movie which was released in December of 2022 gives us an insight to what the creators of the film wanted us to feel. Jake’s new family bonds increases his anxiety about losing his children as most fathers and mothers will feel. The progression of the story mostly encloses his fear of losing his family to the invaders over everything. It appears that the clans, Pandora, Eywa, and his leadership simply take a step aside for him to focus on his main priorities which are his family.
Due to the change of rhythm of the storyline there are audiences who considered the movie to not be as good as the original. With the original Avatar focusing on the ideals of greed, colonization, beauty of the planet, ecosystems, exploration, adventure, and coexisting. Only parts of Avatar 2 gave us a feel for the original when the family was exploring the new areas of the ocean with the Metkayina. As beautiful as the ocean world was it seemed to feel almost as an accessory to the story rather than the story itself.
There was a further analyses in Avatar 2 with Kiri somewhat being involved with Pandora and the Great Mother Eywa. However, it fell short with her only being able to guide them out of death at the end of the film. As there are new releases planned in the new trilogy with Avatar 3 coming out in 2024, Avatar 4 coming out in 2026, and Avatar 5 coming out in 2028 there is a large chance the directors wanted to save Kiri’s abilities and transform them over time. Many hope that her abilities may play a larger role in the storyline in the future films.
Some areas of the storyline were overused such as the hissing which sometimes felt out of pocket in certain scenes. Especially as Spider the human child growing up with the Na’vi seems to have gained the ability to hiss quite well. Other areas which felt out of the realm were the conversations among the children with their verbiage seeming like valley raised kids in California. As interesting as it was to watch it did play a role in alienating the audience from the immense world of Pandora. Kiri for example seemed much more in-tune with her surroundings.
A great aspect of Avatar 2 showed the segregation of different tribes with our world comparisons which may be understood as ethnicities. Feeling unwanted simply for being different was shown in massive detail regarding the kids trying to fit in with their new surroundings at the ocean tribe location. Many harmful associations were brought up with bullying, the feeling of othering, and hardships with fitting into their new surroundings. Many humans on Earth can also engage with these emotions as there has been incidences of these with stereotypes and segregation.
Lastly, in Avatar 2 we can physically watch a grudge unfold between Miles and Jake. The grudge is somewhat symbolism to the destruction caused by such heinous and furious thoughts. As we see the efforts to kill Jake and Neytiri there’s always an aftermath that follows. In theory when someone has a grudge it doesn’t only take a toll on the people involved, but it takes a massive chunk of someone’s being. We can see some slight alterations away from the grudge when Miles is talking to his son Spider and at the end choosing not to allow Spider to be killed. However, with all of the efforts conducted by Miles we see constant fires, damage, and loss of life in the wake.
Ultimately one of the greatest parts of Avatar 2 was the saying the water Na’vi had. The quote entailed in the movie had to do with how the ocean and the cycle of life really operates. There’s no judgement in the cycle of life in the water as it will always move forward. The water to the clan is an overarching euphemism to life itself. There is no end to life and there is no beginning as the cycle will endlessly continue until time itself comes to an end. Their environment is the home in which they are birthed and say their farewells to with the ocean being the womb of the world to the clan. The sea in this case can be harsh or unforgiving, but it can also provide life or an environment to live inside. They also stated in the film that there is a connection between all living beings and the planet through the ocean which surrounds them.
Recreation of Pandora
After Jake better known as Toruk Makto fought with Neytiri against the sky people we see them fully enveloped in the world with their new born creations. Their children began learning from Jake as their father and his children with Neytiri are essentially half-breeds. The world is as beautiful as we remembered it and the new technologies in animation allowed for a much more over-arching environment. The movie begins with the fact that the sky people or earthlings came back to the planet in Avatar 2 with renewed dedication to make a colony.
The recreation of Pandora gives us the notion that the world will continue evolving throughout it’s lifespan. As the sky people reenter the orbit destroying large swaths of the land, we can easily see the immediate devastation they cause the planet. The two sons of Jake and Neytiri and their daughter are joined in this second movie with Kiri and Spider. These five were a large part of Avatar 2 giving us an eye of the children who are growing up as half-breeds in this new world. They will play a major role in the film causing mischievous troubles for their father and mother.
Apart from their children, Kiri who was born from one of the Avatars without a host and Spider who was a baby on Pandora which caused him not being able to be put into cryogen. Kiri and Spider share a very odd bond in Avatar 2 as we see they have a deep connection throughout the film. Kiri somehow is connected to the great mother Eywa and Spider allows us to see what a human child can be capable of if they grow up with the Na’vi. Spider’s father is the original Miles Quaritch’s son and the new Avatar body with the memories gives him a slight feeling to his son.
Storyline and Progression
Act 1:
Avatar 2 mainly focuses on the idea that Jake or Toruk Makto is being chased by Miles Quaritch’s new Avatar body and team. They have been reborn from the memories of their past with an ultimate mission to destroy the native forces, but more specifically to take out Toruk Makto. There’s an immense grudge the Avatar Miles feels toward Jake and his wife Neytiri. This ambition of the former Miles leads them to conduct multiple strategies to take down Jake. For example, early on they captured the children and they nearly escaped with the loss of Spider going into enemy hands.
In this period of progression it feels really jarring as we are quickly reintroduced to the world of Pandora with the Sky People already making their own entrance. Following on early in the film it’s difficult to really immerse ourselves into this world as a lot is happening and very quickly. Jake and Neytiri again quickly decide to run away from their tribe in hopes of protecting their children instead of trying to fight the new gang who is on their tails. They leave in a somewhat panic from their Omatikaya Clan giving the reigns to another one of their members.
Jake was able to narrowly convince Neytiri into abandoning their tribe and title wishing for a better life for their children. As we know from the previous movie from 2009 the Na’vi who are part of the Omatikaya Clan are mostly involved with the forest as forest people. They have high attributions to the land, trees, animals, and sky of their zone. With whatever reason Jake had them moved to a more remote location by the ocean of Pandora joining with the water tribe known as Metkayina. As they are not part of the forest people this difference is heatedly shown with the segregation Jake, Neytiri, and the children face which is almost immediate. However, the Metkayina tribe’s leaders show remorse to them by allowing them sanctuary in their village with the agreement that they must be useful.
Act 2:
The story in Avatar 2 moves with great speed which makes it difficult to follow at the beginning of the movie. Over time the progression eventually slows allowing the audience to begin feeling the new world by the ocean. The visuals are fantastic which truly gives the feeling of a completely different world in Pandora. The ocean extremely unlike what Jake and his family faced during their time in the forest. The children of the Metkayina tribe give tutorials on the ocean to Jake’s kids with only Kiri being able to adapt at a rapid pace. However, Kiri connects to the spirit tree located at the water tribes area which causes her to have a violent reaction underwater. This causes them to request aid from their scientist friends which causes Miles to track their general location.
Again, a bit rushed with a complete disregard to the fact that their location may become available to their hunters. It seems in Avatar 2 that their decision was mostly caused by the emergency situation to save Kiri who could have potentially died in that moment. The weirdest part of this story is that the scientist buddies were completely unable to help Kiri’s condition. Essentially their visit was completely useless and caused the family to be on the radar of their hunters once again. This decision was controversial in the story due to the fact that they moved away from their original clan in hopes to stay away from the people who are trying to hunt them down. Now they are also brining in another clan who will face casualties caused by their choices.
Avatar 2 begins to move with great haste again as Miles commandeers an ocean vessel which was originally designed to hunt the whales of Pandora. Whales on Pandora are called the Tulkun which are extremely intelligent and communicate directly with the clansmen of the Metkayina tribe. They have formed bonds with the Tulkun and they are in a way separate family members of the Metkayina. The vessel sets sail to the islands where Jake and his family are located with the resolve of ending Jake’s life. As the story progresses in this area they are met with many difficult decisions of choosing to fight or continue to hide. However, the choice becomes clear when Miles and his new team decide to murder one of the main Tulkun members who is bonded to the female leader of the Metkayina. An uproar begins within the tribe and it’s conveniently laid out that one of Jake’s sons has a bond with the outcast Tulkun known as Payakan. To save his son a planned assault goes underway which ensues in a fiery battle between Jake, the Metkayina, and the invaders.
Box Office and Revenue
In the original Avatar movie there was a total of $237 million sunk into the film. With its debut, everyone was funneling into the movie theatres to see such an amazing film. It was an original idea unlike the many remakes we see in today’s movie industry. The original Avatar was able to rake in over $2.9 billion dollars with a total revenue of $2.686 billion. This was after the production costs and the original amount which was put into the development of the movie.
Avatar 2 has many different estimates into its production cost from $250 million to $460 million to make. However, it appears James Cameron stated on an article from Variety Magazine that it needs to be the 3rd or 4th highest grossing film to break even. Lucky for the new trilogy Avatar 2’s income amounted to $2.3 billion dollars with the original estimate of $250 million causing it to have a revenue of $2.064 billion dollars. It might have in his estimate at the very least broke even for the film.
Some may attempt asking the question regarding the difference of the original film to Avatar 2. Why did the original Avatar have $600,000,000 more in revenue? The answer has varies different qualities to it as it was a leader in it’s field at the time. Adding the additional factor of inflation it appears that the original Avatar actually scored in $3.955 billion of today’s monetary value. This film was meteoric in it’s field with every family and every individual watching the film worldwide. In today’s day and age it seems that there’s a lot of different avenues to obtain entertainment such as the numerous new streaming platforms which didn’t exist 14 years ago.
Maybe the new film was just not as well thought out as the original, but it would be difficult to make a comparison to the two. As there’s a 14 year delay from the original to the one released now much has changed in the world and the original Avatar had lost its traction over the decade. In no way, shape, or form was Avatar 2 a flop. It still provided some much needed entertainment to audiences worldwide allowing for a break from today’s unknown circumstances surround the world. From inflation to war much of today’s atmosphere on Earth has altered. Giving humanity the ability to forget about their everyday problems and country wide affairs is peace in mind for people everywhere.
On many different websites and review areas on the web it seems that the majority of people who watched Avatar 2 genuinely enjoyed their time. Google users reviewed the movie giving it a 93% like. Rotten Tomatoes audience review seems to follow the same motion with the audience score giving it a 92%. However, the critic review was a bit lower at 76%. Other platforms also gave it a lower rating including IMDB at 7.7 out of 10. Metacritic was the harshest of them all giving the movie a 67%
Positives and Criticisms
Positives:
The movie brought some amazing visuals of the new ocean scenes and allowed for it to be a spectacle among the 3D audiences. Avatar 2 also embodied many social issues among the real life world such as segregation, adaptability, and family. It created an environment we can enjoy following along with the children who were born into their new world. The new area which was discovered in the movie gave an insight to how vast the world of Pandora can be. Relationships with the Tulkun gave additional insight to how wonderful the Na’vi are at working with their environment, creating creatures who are friends, and living off the land they are set in. One of the best parts of the movie was the quote regarding the ocean with how beautiful yet relentless it can be. The cycle of life is one that can be given and taken in a single heartbeat breathing into the idea of lightness and darkness.
Negatives:
There are many negatives in the new film as it simply follows a revenge arc with the previous colonel against Jake. There are also many plot holes such as the method of which the colonel discovered the location of Jake with no outcome involving the scientist friends visiting Kiri. She also played a very minor role even though the movie hinted at her majestic bond with Eywa the Great mother. Other issues regarding Avatar 2 are in it’s storytelling which lost much of its exploration, adventure, character building, environment building, and in-depth analysis. For example, the reason the Sky People re-landed on earth was for the Tulkin brain juice which stops aging, yet it was only mentioned in a quick and unthought scene. Additionally it seems the Sky People have played a very minor part in the new film as they are simply there, but the major part of the story simply focuses on Mile’s quest to murder Jake.
Conclusion
As this was a decade later sequel to the original Avatar movie it gave people everywhere joy to watch the movie. The scenes in it were spectacular giving a sense of immersion into the world of Pandora. The movie also focused on many aspects of current human problems in our real world through the characters in the movie. Even though much of it was lost and rushed the movie somehow made it to the three-hour mark. This caused a slight upset with audiences as the movie was too long for their liking. Aspects of loop holes, repetitive storyline, and unused potential caused some people to feel the sequel was a bit underwhelming.
Regardless of some of it’s criticisms Avatar 2 did very well in the box office. Much of the audience scores were highly rated amongst communities worldwide. Keep in mind that this is only the first part of the other two movies which will be released before 2030. Hopefully with continued development and feedback the other two sequels can allow some of the audience to retract back into the world of Pandora. It’s visuals and theme still hit a soft spot of people everywhere as we continue to imagine the potential of alien worlds. In theory, Pandora can exist somewhere out there in the universe with it’s own intelligent lifeforms.