FILMS X JENI’S: Avatar 2: The Way of Water
Considering how highly anticipated this movie was, it really could have been better.
While I’m not an “Avatar is the greatest movie of all time” person, I can get with the hype for it and have a lot of respect for the ground the original broke back in 2009. However, when it takes 13 years to release a sequel, there are a certain amount of expectations that are going to be assigned, and in my opinion it fell short.
There was a lack of character development. The pacing was off. We had a weird and completely unexplored side plot of immortal substance within whales. 70 year old Sigourney Weaver was voicing a 16 year old. There was also enormous potential in Zoe Saldana’s character to be featured and fleshed out as the strong female role model that she is and yet there was little expansion upon her character from the first movie.
My overwhelming issue with this film was that the plot was essentially the exact same as the first: humans come to Pandora and commence an attempt at conquest to attain resources. Add in a small element of revenge because of the events of the first movie and you essentially have your film. I would have liked to have seen a more internal struggle, perhaps concerning the Na’vi tribes breaking into a civil war for some reason or banding together to save their planet (moon) considering the amount of destruction it went through in the original film, but instead we got virtually the same storyline that took place in water instead of the forest. It gave the impression that James Cameron didn’t expect the amount of success he received from the first movie and realized it should’ve been made an entire franchise, so that’s what they’re now trying to do; however, instead of moving forward with the story they already started, they went back to square one and just retold it.
I think the two main purposes in creating this movie were to:
A. Start a franchise (and this is the main reason).
B. Test the boundaries for what kind of cinema can be created underwater.
There are YouTube videos detailing behind-the-scenes of the training the actors went through to have the ability to film for so long underwater and the difference in video quality between the underwater and above-water scenes, and these bring really interesting logistics to light that most viewers probably aren’t thinking about when watching the movie. In this respect, the movie was appealing to a niche group of cinematography and behind-the-scenes geeks, while the former franchise reasoning relies on the hysteric following of groupies. Basically, this wasn’t a movie for those actually looking for a serious plot or something they hadn’t seen before; this was for people who just wanted action, something pretty to look at, or something with more interesting behind-the-scenes than actual scenes.
Would I watch it again? Not anytime soon. It was way too long for that.
Tear level: Dry eyes.
Watch when: you want Avatar action or something that’s just vibes
Soundtrack/score: This I actually remember keying in on parts of and thinking “okay but this is cool.” Water movies always have good soundtracks.
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The Jeni’s Pairing
We’re having a single scoop for the unoriginality but we’re putting it in a waffle cone because it’s a long movie and we had to make it fun somehow. Our one flavor is going to be Supermoon mainly for the colors and vibes: 1. The blue & orange marshmallow flavors are like a fusion of two worlds within the same universe, reminiscent of the blending of the forest and water tribes. 2. Pandora is one huge moon.
MORE ON THE FLAVOR:
Inspired by two classics marshmallow flavors: super familiar fluffy vanilla marshmallows, and colorful, almost floral, dehydrated cereal marshmallows. Jeni crafted Supermoon so that the pure scent and flavor of these marshmallows, not their textures, shines through. We use all-natural essences blended just for us to give Supermoon its unique flavors: The yellow half tastes like the most marshmallowy marshmallow ever, and the blue side is like sweet and floral candied violet, which Jeni has always thought tastes like Lucky Charms marshmallows. It’s two takes on marshmallow in one ice cream: one familiar and one unexpected.
