Avatar: The Way of Water

“The character of Spider is the embodiment of cultural appropriation in Avatar: The Way of Water.”

Title: Avatar: The Way of Water (2022)
Director: James Cameron 👨🏼🇺🇸
Writers: Screenplay by James Cameron 👨🏼🇺🇸, Rick Jaffa 👨🏼🇺🇸, and Amanda Silver 👩🏼🇺🇸

Reviewed by Carolyn Hinds 👩🏾🇧🇧🇨🇦♿️

—SPOILERS AHEAD—

Technical: 2.5/5

Sixteen years after the successful defeat of forces that invaded their home planet of Pandora, Avatar: The Way of Water finds the Na’vi once again at peace. Former mercenary Jake Sully (Sam Worthington), now clan chief of the forest-dwelling Omatikaya people, and his wife Neytiri (Zoe Saldaña) are raising their children: oldest son Neteyam (Jamie Flatters), second son Lo'ak (Britain Dalton), precocious preteen daughter Tuk (Trinity Jo-Li Bliss), and Kiri (Sigourney Weaver), their adopted daughter. Unfortunately peace doesn’t last long, as their idyllic life comes to a crashing halt with the return of the Resources Development Administration, or RDA, the military organization that Jake worked for before turning to the side of the Na’vi.

When it comes to creating technologically and visually stunning films, director James Cameron proves his mastery across genres, from action flicks like Terminator (1984) to romance classic Titanic (1997), and of course, the sci-fi action-adventure Avatar (2009). In its sequel, The Way of Water, variations of every color on the spectrum visible to the human eye paint the underwater world of Pandora with marine plants and animals that are both strange and familiar, present and prehistoric.

Narratively, however, The Way of Water is as weak as its predecessor. Its plot lacks originality or substance, and scenes feel directly lifted from past blockbusters like Disney’s Pocahontas (1995) or Dances with Wolves (1990), among others. In The Little Mermaid, there’s a sequence where Ariel is chased by a great white shark through the wreckage of a sunken ship; here, Tuk and her siblings are chased through a kelp forest by submersibles, with parts that match Ariel’s underwater sprint almost shot-for-shot.

Later, Jake and Quaritch (Stephen Lang) duke it out in a fight that takes them through and around the core of a massive RDA ship as it sinks into the ocean, a setup that will feel incredibly familiar to anyone who’s seen Titanic. Though this repetitive action and admittedly beautiful CGI may be enough to distract some viewers, anyone taking a closer look will realize that there’s very little in the way of an actual story being told.

Gender: 2/5
Does it pass the Bechdel Test? NOPE

The Avatar films are as conventional as they come when it comes to gender dynamics. Female characters young and old alike are left without much to do. Their plot developments exist to serve Jake’s narrative; that, or to provide surface-level ornamentation that fits a cliched perception of women from ethnic cultures.

For starters, upon arrival to their potential new oceanic haven, Jake pleads for refuge with Metkayina clan chief Tanowari (Cliff Curtis) and his wife Ronal (Kate Winslet). He does most of the talking and winds up antagonizing the leaders with his attitude. It would’ve made more sense for Neytiri to do the negotiating, given her familiarity with the clan, and would’ve served the dual purpose of giving her more scenes among her fellow Na’vi.

It’s a shame that female characters have devolved since the first film, which came out over a decade ago. In Avatar, we got to see Neytiri have conversations with her mother Mo’at (CCH Pounder), who’s also the spiritual leader of the Omatikaya clan, about the invaders and the dangers they posed. But apart from a single scene where Mo’at has only a few lines, she’s pretty much nonexistent in The Way of Water.

Nor has this familial relationship been passed on to Neytiri and her daughters. We could have seen Neytiri interact with Tuk and Kiri in the quotidian ways that mothers and daughters do; or Ronal could have taught them all about Metkayina culture. Instead, practically all conversations between these women and girls revolve around Jake and the RDA.

Performance-wise, Saldaña does the best she can. Her emotions are palpable and relatable, making Neytiri the most charismatic character in the entire film. But she’s frustratingly one-note, either shouting in fear that her home is once again in danger, weeping in despair over the death of a loved one, or sidelined altogether. Same with her daughters Tuk and Kiri.

And I’d be remiss not to mention the unnecessary sexualization of Tsireya (Bailey Bass), Ronal and Tanwari’s young daughter who serves as the freediving instructor of the Sully children. In a scene that blatantly echoes the iconic image of Halle Berry exiting the ocean through the male gaze in Die Another Day (2002), Tsireya is introduced to the Sully family (and audience) by rising out of the sea with Lo’ak ogling and practically salivating over her. Not only is this an unnecessary way to introduce any female character in a film, as it sets them up as sexualized objects rather than human beings, it’s especially distasteful as Tsireya is barely a preteen. Her actor Bass was 13 years old when she began filming in 2017.

In a final letdown, RDA representative and mission commander General Frances Ardmore (Edie Falco) would have been an interesting villain, given a bit more thought. It would’ve been cool to see a woman in a position of power fight with cool-headedness and leadership. Instead, audiences get stereotypical portrayals of machismo, xenophobia, military propaganda, and cultural ignorance from the RDA mercenaries sent by the company.

Race: 1.5/5

Though Cameron attempts to critique western colonialism, his message is weakened by inauthentic casting. While Metkayina leader Tonowari is voiced by Cliff Smith (of Māori descent) and Tonowari’s son Rotxo is voiced by Duane Evans Jr. (mixed Māori, Tahitian, and European heritage), they’re far outnumbered by non-Indigenous actors, many of them white.

There’s no clearer example of the film’s fundamental misunderstanding of what respect for other cultures looks like than the character of Spider (Jack Champion), a boy who lives his life halfway between the RDA lab he left behind and the Na’vi community he strives to join.

The embodiment of cultural appropriation, Spider gets blue tattoos and turns his hair into a matted mess in a way that’s meant to resemble the braids, cornrows, and locs worn by the Na’vi. It doesn’t help that fundamentally, the Na’vi themselves appropriate from Black culture: In addition to wearing natural Black hairstyles, several characters use speech and mannerisms derived from African American Vernacular English (AAVE). All the while, Black people are visibly missing from the human world of Avatar, and among the Na’vi—whose actors are hidden behind CGI—only Saldaña and Bass are Black, both of them light-skinned and biracial.

In short, it’s nearly impossible for any filmmaker to adequately portray the oppression of a people without giving said people a voice in their own story. “(Cameron) might be telling that story of colonization, but he’s telling it through the lens of a White male,” says Crystal Echo-Hawk, president and CEO of IllumiNative. By making the Na’vi an amalgamation of multiple Indigenous peoples, and presenting them with feline behaviors and appearances, Cameron has contradicted his messaging from the very beginning by portraying the Na’vi as Other—quite literally, they’re another species altogether. Even if Cameron makes these fantastical blue cats sympathetic, how is this any different than exoticizing, and thus dehumanizing, the Indigenous peoples they’re meant to be an allegory for?

Deduction for Disability: -0.25

Using a film technique known as heightened frame rate to make computer generated images appear more realistic, the people, creatures, and environments of Pandora have a visceral feeling to them. But it’s actually this increased frame rate—and the inconsistent use of it—that makes the film’s multiple intense action sequences difficult to watch for many, and especially for people with visual impairments and processing issues.

On the other hand, CJ Jones, the esteemed Black and Deaf actor, was hired to develop the Na’vi Sign Language used by Metkayina characters to communicate underwater. Though he wasn’t credited for the role he played as a Metkayina interpreter, at the very least, his name appeared alongside production crew as the language’s creator.

Mediaversity Grade: F 1.92/5

Overall, little is done to show who the Na’vi are outside of narrow stereotypes about Indigenous and Black people of color. It’s the second film in the franchise and we still don’t know much about them, nor about their cultures beyond them having a close connection with nature.

Na’vi aren’t the ones who teach us about their home planet, and they seldom get to speak up for themselves and protect their land. Instead, we’re told about these people and their homeland through the perspectives of Jake and Spider, each of whom put the Na’vi in danger through different ways.

It’s these elements that make The Way of Water so much weaker than it had to be. The writing just doesn’t stand up to the amazing work done by the hundreds of people who worked in VFX, cinematography, and other art departments.

Like Avatar: The Way of Water? Try these other sci-fi titles about colonization.

Grade: FLiMarch 3, 2023Female/Nonbinary Creator