Editor’s Note: The following contains Avatar: The Way of Water spoilers.
2009’sAvatarbecame the highest-grossing film of all time and carved its place in cinema history. However, not every aspect of Pandora aged as well asJames Cameronintended. Yes, the first movie is still beautiful to look at, especially afterAvatar’s 4K re-release. The story does not do justice to Cameron’s magnificent universe. Part of the reason the story doesn’t work too well is that the focus lies on humans, petty and miserable creatures that get in the way of us enjoying Pandora.Avatar: The Way of Waterdrastically reduces the runtime dedicated to humans, showing that Cameron learned from his past mistakes. Still, future sequels could do better if they invested more time in the alien moon and its inhabitants.
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How ‘Avatar: The Way of Water’ Cleverly Gets Rid of Humans
At the core of bothAvatarmovies is the conflict between Pandora’s native people, the Na’vi, and greedy and violent colonizers coming from outer space, aka us, humans. So humans will probably always be part of theAvatarworld, as they serve as the franchise’s main antagonist and help to underline how our behavior here on Earth is damaging the environment and destroying our natural resources. Using humans as a faceless menace is not necessarily an issue, butAvatarspends too much time delving into individual humans we simply don’t care about.
ForAvatar: The Way of Water, Cameron wanted to give protagonist Jake Sully (Sam Worthington) a worthy adversary, so he brought Colonel Miles Quaritch (Stephen Lang) back from the dead. However, instead of featuring the Colonel in his human form,The Way of Watershoves Quaritch’s memories and personality inside an avatar body as part of the Recombinants project. Instead of being hunted by humans, Jake and his family are chased by avatars that look just like the Na’vi, have all their strengths, and can move around Pandora using the local wildlife. That decision makes the villains more complex and takes the focus away from the ugly industrialist human culture.
Avatar: The Way of Wateralso introduces a new generation of heroes for us to follow. During thefifteen years between the original movie and the sequel, Jake and Neytiri (Zoe Saldaña) had two sons named Neteyam (Jamie Flatters) and Lo’ak (Britain Dalton), and a daughter named Tuk (Trinity Jo-Li). The couple also has adopted Kiri (Sigourney Weaver), a baby born from the deactivated avatar body of Dr. Grace (Weaver). There are many more Na’vi for us to care about, and Jake, who’s originally a human, is no longer alone in the spotlight. Even Neytiri gets much more to do in the sequel, thriving both as a mother and a warrior.
All of that means futureAvatarmovies might eliminate the former-human protagonist and allow native people to prosper on their own. Nevertheless, as much asAvatar: The Way of Waterrepresents an improvement when it comes to bloating the universe with boring humans, there are still too many earthlings in the sequel.
There Are Still Too Many Humans in the ‘Avatar’ Universe
Avatar: The Way of Watershines the brightest when it focuses on Pandora’s native people and their costumes or the fantastic flora and fauna of the alien moon. There’s much to explore in Pandora, but Cameron seems to be afraid of a story without a human people can relate to. That’s probably why one of the main characters ofAvatar: The Way of Wateris Spider (Jake Champion), a human child who grew up in Pandora and learned the Na’vi ways. There’s much to love about Spider because he turns his back on humanity and embraces the wildlife. Still, his addition feels like an afterthought sometimes, as a way to anchor the wild storyline of the Avatar franchise in recognizable human relationships.
Then, we have all the human side characters working for the Resources Development Administration and giving Quaritch and the Blue Squad support while they hunt down the Sullys. If these humans were empty tools for Quaritch to use, their inclusion would be more forgivable. Still,Avatar: The Way of Watertries to turn them into characters, spending precious minutes exploring the wicked personality of the whaler captain (Brendan Cowell), the pragmatic general (Edie Falco), or the ethical marine biologist (Jemaine Clement).
The movie even underlines how these human characters have unfinished arches and will most definitely return forAvatar 3. Yes, an intergalactic war is brewing on an alien moon that’s filled to the brink with life… but let’s focus on a B-character that doesn’t affect the plot at all. The focus these human characters get underlines the main issue with the Avatar franchise: it doesn’t dare to break the mold and push humans entirely to the side.
While we still need to resolve the main conflict between humans and Na’vi, it also feels like a wasted opportunity that so far the franchise didn’t focus on stories wholly set in Pandora. The world Cameron built is so rich and filled with details that we could spend the rest of our lives exploring the Na’vi clans, their history, their struggles, and their culture. Besides that, Pandora’s complex ecosystem also offers opportunities for newAvatarstories to explore more of this vibrant natural world. Still, stories that don’t focus on humans are usually relegated to less-known spinoffs, such as comic books and video games.
Yes, we are happy that the franchise makes some effort to explore Pandora beyond the human menace, and we can’t wait to keep consuming every product James Cameron wants to throw our way. However, it’s hard to argue the theatrical releases are the dorsal spine of the franchise. And at least in theaters,Avatarstill has too many humans, when the franchise proved it could thrive by focusing more on Pandora and its native people.
It’s too early to tell howAvatar 3will deal with Jake Sully and other human-based characters. Fortunately, the path seems to give more space to the Na’vi people. Let’s hope Cameron realizes he doesn’t need to be so afraid of dumping humans, asAvatar: The Way of Wateralready proved there’s enough to explore in Pandora without earthlings messing everything up.
