Avatar: The Way of Water releases as the last major film of 2022, with the early trailers already proving that Avatar 2 is fixing some problems that plagued its predecessor. James Cameron began planning for an Avatar sequel all the way back in 2006 if Avatar was successful. After many delays due to the film's complex script and the technology required to craft it needing to be perfected, Avatar: The Way of Water is finally expected to release in December 2022.
With the film having many trailers in the run-up to its release, Avatar: The Way of Water is already looking to fix some of the issues of the first film. The criticisms that James Cameron's Avatar lacked sufficient character development, had an uninspired story, had too much time dedicated to the humans of the film, and was overly reliant on technology to carry it to success because of these aspects all seem to be rectified in Avatar 2 if the trailers are anything to go by. Thus far, there's a decent amount of evidence to prove that Avatar's long-awaited sequel may just improve on the highest-grossing film of all time.
Avatar 2 Promises More Character Development & Story
Arguably the biggest criticisms of 2009's Avatar were that its characters and story were thin, and were papered over with the film's groundbreaking visuals. In terms of its characters, many were relegated to different character archetypes found in other movies. Sam Worthington's Jake Sully, for example, was similar to characters found in Dances with Wolves, or The Last Samurai, being a colonizer type before falling in love with the "enemy" culture and people. Sigourney Weaver, who returns for Avatar 2, played a very clichéd scientist character named Grace who opposed the human characters.
Similarly, Stephen Lang's Quaritch was simply a xenophobic macho man whose sole purpose was to be hated. This extended to Giovanni Ribisi's Parker, who like Quaritch was a black-and-white corporate evil man. The majority of the most interesting characters came from the Na'vi which unfortunately received less of a focus because of the film's story. Despite all this, Avatar 2 seems to be promising more character development because of its updated story.
With Avatar 2 , the story begins after a time-jump and will feature Jake and Neytiri with a family who they are fighting to protect while further exploring Pandora. Because of this focus on Jake, Neytiri, and their children, the former will likely receive much more character development alongside Neytiri. The story will also have a greater focus on the more compelling aspects of the first in the Na'vi through Jake's children and the Metkayina tribe.
Avatar 2 Dives Deeper Into Na'vi Culture
The Metkayina is how Avatar 2 will fix the first film's problem of splitting time between the humans and the Na'vi. Cameron confirmed early in The Way of Water's development that the film would explore the other parts of Pandora and the Na'vi tribes that come with them. This lends itself to the title of the movie, with the Metkayina making up the oceanic tribes of Pandora. This will allow for Cameron to delve deeper into what made the Na'vi and Pandora in Avatar so compelling, by exploring their ways of life. The trailers also hint at a further exploration of the Na'vi deity, Eywa, from the first film.
Avatar 2 Is Less Reliant On Technology
Given Avatar: The Way of Water will be providing a larger focus on characters, story, and the Na'vi as a whole, the film will naturally be less reliant on its technology. While the huge budget and incredibly impressive CGI is still present for Avatar 2, a major factor in the first film's success was its visuals and the technology used to craft them, masking its flaws. Avatar 2 rectifying this means it will be less reliant on technology to carry it to success. Hopefully, the Avatar: The Way of Water movie can strike the balance the first could not, and have its technology and a compelling story go hand in hand.