The long awaited sequel to the movie Avatar, by James Cameron, brings us back to the world of Pandora where we catch up with Jake Sully and the Navi. 16 years in the movie world have passed and in the real world, it took 13 years before the movie was released.
Jake Sully is the leader of the Omaticaya clan with his mate, Neytiri. His family has grown to include his 2 sons, Neteyam te Suli Tsyeyk’itan (Neteyam Sully) and Lo’ak te Suli Tsyeyk’itan (Lo’ak Sully), and daughter Tuktirey “Tuk” te Suli Neytiri’ite (Tuk Sully). The couple also adopted a daughter Kiri te Suli Kìreysì’ite (Kiri Sully), who was born from Grace Augustine’s inert avatar, and a human boy named Miles Quaritch “Spider” Socorro, the son of Colonel Miles Quaritch who was unable to be transported to Earth due to his young age at the time.
The Resources Development Administration (RDA) has returned to Pandora to redouble their efforts in colonization, due to the continued inhabitability of earth. Among the new arrivals are Recombinants—Na’vi avatars implanted with deceased human soldiers’ memories, including Quaritch’s recombinant as the leader. Jake, in the year after occupation resumed, begins a guerilla campaign against the RDA. During one raid, his children are captured, but Quaritch and his subordinates. Jake and Neytiri arrive to free them, including killing a few soldiers, however Spider remains captive, with Quaritch realizing he is his son.
The RDA attempts to gain information from Spider, however their interrogation techniques fail to gain any useful information. Quaritch decides to attempt to draw him to his side by including him in their mission to find Jake Sully by learning more about Navi culture and language, as well as the environment of Pandora. Knowing the danger Spider poses knowing their whereabouts, Jake, and his family begrudgingly exile themselves from their people, the Omatikaya, and leave the region heading to the eastern seaboard, seeking refuge with the sea Navi, the Metkayina clan. They are accepted on the condition they learn the ways of the reef people. In the process, Kiri develops a spiritual bond with the sea, Lo’ak befriends the chief’s daughter.
Avatar (2009) was planned to be released all the way back in 1999 following the success of Cameron’s film Titanic, however, the necessary technology wasn’t yet available to achieve his vision. Filming began in 2007, and the film was released in 2009. Its sequel, Avatar: The Way of Water, followed a similar path. To achieve Cameron’s vision of being under the water of the world of Pandora, it took 11 years following the release of the first film for technology to catch up.
The result was a truly beautiful immersive underwater world, and even longer for the visual effects and writing to occur. This extended writing period also caused the movie’s run time to be over 3 hours. Even with such a long run time, there were many loose ends still to be tied up, causing it to almost demand a sequel, which was shot simultaneously. The proposed release for this next installment will be in December 2024, however, there has been a history of delays in the releases of Avatar movies.
