The 2009 film Avatar was a unique feature film across the board. From its deep and reflective theme, to its wildly impressive graphics for the time, topped off with a 3D theater experience, it was an absolute viewing pleasure. Undoubtedly, this movie’s concept and creation made it a film ahead of its time. Perhaps that’s why it took so long for creators to come out with a sequel film – over a decade, to be exact.
It comes as no surprise it would take a while to create a film that is so costly and requires such extensive work between the production and editing portions of its creation. Still, 13 years feels a bit excessive in that regard. That said, it did take four years to make the first film. So if the long gap suggests anything, it’s that creators surely took their time putting together this sequel, which one would assume speaks to its quality.
The first film was so successful that fans were still talking about it, and hoping for a sequel, for years after it was released. Of course, having been released over ten years ago, that talk has dwindled some, which is what made it so surprising when the announcement of the coming sequel was made. Furthermore, fans were surprised to learn that the sequel would follow a very similar story structure to the original film. It was also announced that the sequel will be in 3D, just as its predecessor was.
Because of these obvious similarities between Avatar and Avatar: The Way of Water, many viewers and critics are questioning what the sequel will have to offer. Since so many of these qualities are what allowed the first film to receive so much credit, fans are scared that creators might be leaning too much on that. On the other hand, some fans feel that these are what make the franchise unique. Certainly, Cameron and Disney better hope that’s the case if they intend on making several more movies, like they’ve expressed.
Cameron is clearly setting up a thematic formula for this franchise, especially by following a similar storyline as the first film. In the sequel, viewers we will get to experience entirely new views and creatures of Pandora, but the goal of the story will be the same. The protagonist must protect some significant element of the planet, like it’s his home – because it is now.
In the first film, this looked like Jake becoming one with the Na’vi and realizing he was on the wrong side of the fight as humans planned to drain this planet’s vital resources. As a result, he changed sides andtoprotect Pandora and the Navi for good. In the second film, Jake and Ney’tiri have a family when they are forced to explore other parts of Pandora, eventually leading them to the water. There, a great threat arises and ultimately leads to the Na’vi facing off against the humans again.
Thematically, the point of following storylines like this is to reflect issues within our own society. Particularly, it points out that we should not only be fighting for our planet, but that humans and their greed are the reason that the planet is struggling in the first place. It then goes a step further by pointing out that humans, with their persistence, would probably go so far as to destroy our own planet and then go after others. The sequel follows the same story structure in the first film for the same reason: to draw awareness to an environmental issue. The fact that the second film is set on water certainly seems to suggest that our own environmental focus should be on Earth’s water, perhaps the dangers our oceans are facing.
So while the sequel may not be particularly unique from the original film, it should be noted that it’s a sequel — so it’s not intended to be. It sticks to the formulas the first movie used, probably to help tie them together. The point of a sequel isn’t for it to be completely different from the original movie, but to add something to the conversation. The aim is to be uniquely familiar, and in this case, the setting is supplying that. Just like the Fast and Furious movies are always essentially the same thing in different places, with different vehicles, all for the sake of speed, the Avatar movies are exploring different creatures and landscapes in Pandora, all for the sake of preserving the environment.
Unfortunately, what allows the environmentally-focused theme to even still be relevant after the 10+ year gap between the coming sequel and the first film, is that our planet is still in serious trouble. The only way that this may be able to change is if people are inspired to do something about the problematic state of the world we live in. Though Earth being our home should certainly be enough for people to step up and make change in any way they can, not enough people are currently doing so. Our planet is still going downhill, and stories about environmental impact are still more than relevant. This is what allows the same story focus to be carried over through such a large gap of time in the first place.
So while fans may not be getting the same awe-striking experience of exploring a brand-new world that they got in the original movie, they can guarantee they will be getting a different view of Cameron's sci-fi world. And if the sequel is successful, they may even end up with a different view of our own world too.