Avatar: The way of Water, what does a war hero do without a war?

Avatar 2... entire empires have risen and fallen before this one even took off the ground! And yet, even though every grifter and their mother was doing their best to predict what a box office meltdown this is going to be it became yet another James Cameron movie to cross the two billion mark and keep going like a car with no handbrakes on a steep incline.

And here we are, less than four years, not even half of the gap between one and two and Jamesy boi is coming out with the third, will it be as good as the first two? The reviews I have seen don't seem to think so, but based on the track record I think I will reserve judgement.

But that is not what we are here to talk about, you are here to see me glaze the second movie, a movie that suddenly reminded Hollywood that Sam Worthington still exists, I mean after Terminator Salvation and Clash of the Titans and its amazing sequel, people really gave up on this sure to be next Tom Cruise.

And can you blame them?

People did not like those films and the box office showed.

But ol' Sammy boi while not even being close to the first choice for Jake Sully in the first movie, played him flawlessly, and just like Jake didn't think that a Jar head like him could ever find happiness much less on an alien planet, Sam Worthington is back in a two billion dollar movie after his career took a nose dive into Tartarus.

Anyways, after all this year, Zoe Sald... I mean Neytiri and Jake have had about as many children as they can manage(and who would blame them they are both hot, and I don't think the Na'vi have contraception, oh but wait some humans still exist on Pandora... wouldn't they give him... Why am I spending so much time on Alien Condoms? This is a bracket, it should be over by now wtf? anyways...).

Three bio children, Neteyam, Lo'ak, and Tukiri/Tuk, The daughter of Grace's Avatar which survived the death of her human body but no longer has a mind to control it and hence lies in Stasis in a tank in the one permitted Human Settlement on Pandora.

The only reason her Avatar has been kept alive is because for some strange reason she was Pregnant after her Human body died...

Who got her pregnant?

Well it had to be norm right?

Could have been a better choice of words Kiri especially from an Indian's perspective, but alright.

Sure, we have no clue who it is, but she is Grace's and so Jake and Neytiri consider her family.

Alongside these four however is a little hiccup, you see kids, specially babies aren't able to survive Cryosleep(for obvious reasons) and so there was no way Miles 'Spider' Socorro could be sent back to Earth alongside the rest of the humans.

And it seems most people really wanted to as while very little is known about his mother Paz Socorro, everyone knows his Father Miles Quaritch.

Absolutely, Miles is the son of Miles.

I mean I had to make that joke right? I simply had to.

But we still have Miles to go before that joke becomes even remotely relevant.

Because right now the first main thing to happen in the movie is that the conflict needs to restart, I mean if Jake really thought that the "Sky People" are going to stay gone after their defeat at the hands of one of their own then he was wrong,

And boy do they make a comeback.

And while we are talking of making comebacks, one thing that definitely disappears out of no where is unobtanium, apparently the humans just forgot about this super rare mineral that they were going to uproot entire civilizations for.

They also apparently forgot that they once called Pandora as the most hostile environment known to man, a place where even the air isn't breathable and they need new bodies to move about and interact with the environment properly.

Because now they want to colonize this planet entirely and fuck earth apparently because that place is fucked now.

I mean it was fucked when it decided to have humans but okay...

And as if the whole we trying to colonize thing wasn't a drastic change, now suddenly... whaling is a problem...

But before that a bigger problem is the problem that should have died in the previous movie...

Colonel Miles Quaritch has been resurrected as a recombinant, wtf is that? That is the human version of what happened to Jake and the main character from the Movie Tie in game.

In the world of the Na'vi the consciousness of a human being is able to pass through the planetary Neural Network of Eywa and then re-enter the body of their Avatar, and hence they can live as their Avatar self forever without needing a linking Chamber.

Before the final battle, Quaritch and a few of his good men were chosen to become recombinants, i.e. in the event of their death their memories that are stored prior will be re integrated into a custom body.

This honestly is one of the best decisions in this movie, because Miles Quaritch was just such a badass villain that it would have been next to impossible to replicate that presence...

And at the same time they very much make it a point to show that while this person has Miles's memories and feelings, there are some fundamental differences, the most obvious one aside from the new blue and enhanced body is that everything from the point of the back up to his death is missing, essentially, Quaritch doesn't remember the final battle and his own death.

For that he has to go to his own death site and watch the suit's security recording.

Miles has one of the most interesting character arcs in this movie, essentially, he hides all of the emotions he feels behind his single minded obsession with finding Jake Sully.

But he definitely feels a lot, for one there is a very obvious Identity crisis as he is very obviously much closer to a Na'vi than a human, but in his mind he tells himself that he knows which team he is fighting for.

On the other hand there is this inherent need to "one up" Jake Sully and do everything that he did exactly as he did it, but better...

But the most prominent of all emotional conflicts is that his son Spider has been living as a human with the Na'vi and as a part of Sully's family no less...

For all he knows Spider was sent back along with the rest of those who sided with the humans, unfortunately for him...

Miles' feeling's towards his own son are complicated to say the least.

On the one hand he clearly has love for his own flesh and blood(at least in a sense).

While on the other hand, Spider is not simply going to get up and leave all these years of connection to the Na'vi world, I mean if you think about it, Jake and Neytiri are the only parents he has ever known, the Sullys are his only family, and from the human's perspective, that makes him Feral, in subordinate, but most importantly, a source of information.

They torture and use different methods to get information out of him, including something that will let them read his mind, but he doesn't concede.

While this is a roadblock for the humans, in a surprising moment of humanity, Quaritch decides to actually talk to him like a father, and actually respects him for being loyal to his family, he asks him something much simpler, to be a guide on their journey on Pandora.

Somehow, this ends up becoming a bonding trip for Miles and Miles where Miles burn down villages searching for Jake and Miles acts as the middle person translating and "building trust" although there ain't much trust when you got flame throwers.

But that is still only one half of the story, or less than half I should say, the other half, or side of the story is the one where Jake realizes who the humans are actually looking for and decides what his priorities are.

The tribe is in trouble because of him, and so is his family, and so the only way out is to leave behind the place he has built his life in and go to a completely different tribe.

This on the whole, not only makes sense, but is a great way to introduce the audience to the newer aspects of the world this installment wants to introduce.

The way of water, it is obvious that given how big pandora is It is going to have different tribes of people, Jake became a part of the forest tribe because that's where his avatar fit in the best, but right now, he needs to hide, and so he goes to the Water Tribe.

The Metkayina were amongst those who fought beside Jake as Toruk Makto in the previous movie.

But as Jake says...

But war isn't done with him, though that is for much later, right now is the time to learn how to tame the creatures of the water like an Ilu, a Metkayina Warrior mount and of course learn about Kiri's unique connection to Eywa, a connection that somehow gives her unique powers while simultaneously stopping her from actually plugging into the global neural network.

Stops her to such an extent that she gets an epileptic seizure every time she tries to get close to Eywa.

Now at this point the movie enters a point where I had a slight issue with everything because the humans such as Norm tell Jake that this is a simple case of epilepsy, and that is why she is getting religious visions, and if she tries to plug in again and seizes underwater again, it could be fatal.

However, the Tsahik of the tribe Ronal, wife to Tonowari, comes in and heals using her own methods...

Where the humans fail...

Now... correct me if I am wrong, but the whole point of the movie is essentially that the religious aspects of the Na'vi are scientifically backed... so... why do this?

Especially since I have seen Fire and Ash I know how much worse this is...

but regardless, but the end, it is very clear that Kiri is Eywa's "Avatar" in a sense, a Jesus figure....

But she isn't the only one on a hero's journey, the main journey of this movie belongs to Lo'ak the youngest son of Neytiri and Jake, Someone who like Jake is a Knuckle head, he is initially bullied heavily by Aonung(the son of Tonowari) and his group not just him, pretty much all of the Sully kids...

The Tonowari Kids are high on their being the chief's children and make fun of the Sully kids for being different (their tails are short etc.) Aonung deserved the punch Lo'ak gave him after he harassed Kiri.

And for obvious reasons he is the one who gets told off because the Sullys are guests here, so when he goes to make up with the chief's kids, he is taken "hunting" and left there...

Now while this is pure shitty behavior, it has the opposite of the intended effect, for one, we learn of the rogue Tulkun: Payakan who develops a relationship with Loak, after saving him from an underwater attack and secondly, when Tonowari tries to discipline Aonung, Loak seeing himself in the kid, lies for his sake...

Somehow what Jake wanted happened anyways and all the kids became friends...

But there is still the case of the Rogue Tulkun, outcast for his "killing".

To learn the truth Lo'ak bonds with the Tulkun and learns that his pack was attacked by the Sky people and he only killed in self defense, but regardless by the Tulkun ways, a killer is a killer...

Perfect...

But why attack the whales right? On earth it happens mainly for whale oil, and some meat and blubber, while most of it is wasted.

Similarly, Tulkun brains produce a substance called Amrita, named after the Sanskrit word Amrit meaning Elixir of Life, as taking it apparently just stops Human Aging...

Well... so what way does Quaritch have to catch Jake.... I mean they hunt Tulkun and the Tulkun and Metkayina treat each other as family.... hmmmmmmmm....

So they start hunting the bonded Tulkun...

And the Metkayina initially begin to act exactly how it was predicted, until... Jake steps in and gives them a much more subtler plan, to remove the marker that tracks them for a killing

They do that... for a while... until Payakan is marked, and then the family is kidnapped.... unfortunately Jake's attempt to run from war didn't really work...

It appears that when a War hero runs from a war, the war follows him...

The battle leads to a lot of moments, including one where Neytiri drops her mask and threatens to kill Spider if Quaritch harms Kiri.

Neytayam dies, which I know I haven't mentioned him much, and that is not exactly because he isn't a good character, it just appears that his whole character begins and ends as Lo'ak's elder brother, which unfortunately a lot of elder sibling do turn into when especially because of the way their parents treat them...

And unfortunately that is how Neyteyam dies, being the ideal kid and the good elder brother...

Quaritch and Jake throw down with their bare fists, and knives, Jake is saved by Lo'ak as Kiri saves Neytiri and Tuk as the ship begins to drown and fill with water...

Spider, seeing his father drowning, is unable to stop himself and saves him as well, but that is it, he then leaves for the Sully family...

And so that is where the perfect second entry ends, with the Sullys part of a new tribe, the previous villain very much alive but also very much conflicted about his position and the world of Avatar expanded way more than before...

Where will it go next I wonder...?