Avatar: The Way of Water was released in theaters on December 16, 2022 and is a huge hit at the box office, leaving viewers with varying opinions.
Avatar: The Way of Water, directed by James Cameron, was just released in theaters 13 years after its prequel, Avatar. The sequel has a lot to live up to, with Avatar being number one on the Top Lifetime Grosses list, which shows the amount of money a movie has made in theaters. While in theaters the movie earned $2.92 billion during its lifetime gross. So far, Avatar: The Way of Water is currently number seven on the Top Lifetime Grosses list making $1.9 billion so far. On Rotten Tomatoes the movie had received a Tomatometer score of 77% and an audience score of 92%.
The sequel has a run time of 3 hours and 12 minutes. It follows the Sully family 15 years after Avatar. Avatar: The Way of Water includes Jake (Sam Worthington) and Neytiri’s (Zoe Saldaña) children. They have two sons, Neteyam (Jamie Flatters) who is the oldest out of all his siblings, and Lo’ak (Britain Dalton). They also have two daughters, Kiri (Sigourney Weaver), who Jake and Neytiri adopted, and Tuk (Trinity Jo-Li Bliss) their youngest child. Kiri is the biological daughter of Grace, who in the last movie died and joined Eywa, their god. The Sully children are friends with Spider (Jack Champion) who is the son of Quaritch (Stephen Lang), the main antagonist of Avatar.
Please be aware of some light spoilers ahead…
When a threat returns, Jake makes the decision to move his family to protect his people, the Omatikaya clan. They find a home with the Metikayina Na’vi, who live by the water on Pandora. The Olo’Eyktan, the leader, is Tonowari (Cliff Curtis), and the Tsahìk is Ronal (Kate Winslet). They have two children, a boy named Aonung (Filip Geljo) and a girl named Tsireya (Bailey Bass). Although the Sully family thought they got away, the threat followed them to the water.
The students of EHHS shared their opinions on the movie. Senior, Mia Flores-Soto felt both good and bad about the movie. She liked the production aspect, but felt that “… the cultural appropriation was controversial.” While junior, Lainie D’Auria felt the movie was depressing to her, with a character being killed off. Lainie did enjoy being able to learn more about the water Na’vi. Some of the students’ favorite parts of the movie were different from one another. Freshman, Mallory Boney had enjoyed being able to watch the scenes between Lo’ak and the Tulkun. She thought the relationship between those two characters was cute, and that Lo’ak is a lovable character. She also thought the final battle scenes were amazing to watch. Then, senior Santiago Zapata liked how after Neteyam died, his mother Neytiri “went psycho.” During the movie Lo’ak became a fan favorite. Mallory said “My favorite character was Lo’ak because of how he is sort of singled out from his family, but still has confidence.” Senior Kayla Astorino was torn between having two favorite characters, Neytiri and Jake. Kayla said that Jake would always be her favorite, but that Neytiri is a strong powerful woman who built herself on family. She said that “I will always connect with her.”
Many people disliked the character, Spider. Mallory doesn’t like the fact that he betrayed the Sully family in the end. Kayla added that she doesn’t think he is needed for the continuation of the story. She believes that the story would have been the same even without the character added. Mia and Lainie disliked other characters instead. Mia did not like the character Ronal, because she wasn’t compassionate enough towards the Sully family and what they are going through. While Lainie disliked the villain, “because he tried to kill the Sully family.”
The students at EHHS are excited for what is coming in the future for the Avatar movies. Santiago is excited to see where they are going after the ending of the movie. Kayla said “I am incredibly excited for the movies that are coming in the future. I have waited my entire life for these movies to come [out.] [It is] something I am very passionate about and even though they’re taking forever [to be released] I cannot wait for what’s to come.”
