December 17, 2022 • 21 mins
This week from deep space w/ host Jon Justice
- AVATAR: THE WAY OF WATER Instinctive Reaction Review
An exciting mix of Fast and Furious, Star Wars, Ready Player One and the sci-fi adventures of the 70’s - 1990’s
EMBARK: Book 1 and EMBARK: Treasure in Darkness (Book 2) EMBARK: The Vanishing War (Book 3) Gahan Corbijn and the Asteroid of Misfortune, The Rocket Queen (Book 5) Fear the Dangerous Night (Book 6) are available now in ebook, paperback, audiobook and free on Kindle Unlimited!
EMBARK Battle Planet (Book 7) is now available!
www.MyNerdWorld.net
https://www.amazon.com/dp/B07K7LLFZY
Email: TalkShowNerd@gmail.com
Twitter @TheMyNerdWorld @JonJustice
Instagram TheJonJustice
Facebook Jon Justice
Join the mailing list! TalkShowNerd@gmail.com
- AVATAR: THE WAY OF WATER Instinctive Reaction Review
An exciting mix of Fast and Furious, Star Wars, Ready Player One and the sci-fi adventures of the 70’s - 1990’s
EMBARK: Book 1 and EMBARK: Treasure in Darkness (Book 2) EMBARK: The Vanishing War (Book 3) Gahan Corbijn and the Asteroid of Misfortune, The Rocket Queen (Book 5) Fear the Dangerous Night (Book 6) are available now in ebook, paperback, audiobook and free on Kindle Unlimited!
EMBARK Battle Planet (Book 7) is now available!
www.MyNerdWorld.net
https://www.amazon.com/dp/B07K7LLFZY
Email: TalkShowNerd@gmail.com
Twitter @TheMyNerdWorld @JonJustice
Instagram TheJonJustice
Facebook Jon Justice
Join the mailing list! TalkShowNerd@gmail.com
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
(00:09):
It's my nerd World, a Spaceopera show, and I am your host,
John Justice. Long overdue new episodeof a Space Opera Show because I
want to talk about Avatar The Wayof Water. This is my instinctive reaction
review of the next installment of JamesCameron's Avatar series. Do you want to
(00:33):
email me Talk show nerd at gmaildot com. Can also leave a comment
up on YouTube if you happen tobe watching there as well. Be sure
you like and subscribe to the channeltoo, so and check out the back
episodes of a Space Opera Show.Yeah, it's been a while since I've
recorded an episode, and I've I'vehad several ideas in mind of what I've
(00:56):
wanted to do for quite a longtime. And because of my recording weekly
of the Star Wars show that Ido, the biweekly once a month,
the Depechemente podcast I do, andthe full time job of being a radio
host, I just haven't found time. But I was so inspired after seeing
the Way of Water earlier this weekon Thursday Night, that I wanted to
put something together to share with youmy thoughts of this amazing film. So
(01:19):
let's start off. Let's start offhere. First, I want to talk
about a little bit about the OriginalAvatar, and I'll go back even further
and just mentioned upfront. I'm amassive James Cameron fan, probably next to
George Lucas. I put James Cameronup there with j j Abrams, with
Christopher Nolan of my favorite directors.All have different unique storytelling styles. I
(01:44):
like them. I like the originalstories that James Cameron puts together. I
like the way that he lays outhis storytelling. Was the Original Avatar derivative
of other stories that had come beforeit, specifically you know, Dances with
Wolves and Ferngalie. Sure, butwhat George Lucas did with Star Wars was
(02:08):
also derivative of your william S Burroughsin Queen from Mars, John Carter from
Mars, your Frank Herbert Doune aswell. I don't have any issue with
that, So I just kind ofwant to put that out there up front
and just say that I know thatthere are riffs that James Cameron has pulled
(02:29):
from, but everybody does that.I mean, when I wrote my science
fiction space opera series in Bark,it's a riff on your disaster films,
your space operas, your Star Wars, Fast and Furious, all the things
that inspire me and that I enjoyin my entertainment, whether it's books or
movies. So I really loved thefirst Avatar. I have a unique connection
(02:51):
to it because my oldest now twentyyear old son, Logan was right on
an age when he really enjoyed it. I remember as we went to go
see it on Thursday night together,him making a small Scorpion helicopters. He's
now a private pilot working on gettinghis instrument rating to become a commercial and
cargo pilot as well. So Ihave a personal, you know, family
(03:15):
tie to to Avatar. And becauseof that, and this is a you
know, a very subjective, sortof instinctive reaction review of Avatar, the
Way of Water really hit home forme because of the themes surrounding family.
Jake Sully and his his motivation toprotect his family were just all notes that
(03:37):
struck a chord in this original Avatarfan. That being said, I wasn't
like clamoring for an Avatar sequel.I was looking forward to it, but
not in the way that I wouldlike a Star Wars film. Um Star
Wars is you know, my firstlove as it relates to my fandoms,
and you know, with Star Wars, I'll seek out every little nugget and
(03:58):
tibit I possibly can. I wasable to avoid all of that. While
I was certainly looking forward to seeingthe next Avatar movie, it wasn't something
that I was like counting down thedays to go see like I would Star
Wars. That's gonna change after seeingthe Way of Water. So my expectations
going into this film were kind ofmuted. I was like just ready to
take this adventure to see what JamesCameron had created again after making this stunning
(04:20):
spectacle of the original Avatar film.It met and exceeded my expectations in a
major, major way. I wantto talk about this movie in the three
parts of the three hours. Itreally sort of lays out that way.
You could, in my opinion,have split this up into three separate films
(04:40):
if you'd push the envelope in termsof the running time. But you have
the part one, the set up, the conflict, Part two, the
Way of Water, and then youhave part three, the War of Water
as I like to call it.So let's start off with part one,
the setup and and the conflict.In here we're reintroduced to the Nave on
(05:00):
Pandora. There's this weird sort ofhybrid aspect now of the Nave within the
forest. Almost Ah, they've gotthis this way that they are, that
they're living now, um, youknow, free from free from conflict.
And immediately we have the arrival ofthe RDA, which I thought was just
(05:23):
stunning. The original film, withthe arrival of the ship that carried the
passengers, there was, you know, the the opening of that movie,
after we're introduced to Jake Sully,and you just you get these massive,
impressive, impressive, spectacular opening shotswith the thunderous music of the ship arriving
(05:43):
to Pandora. And then in thisfilm you get many of these ships arriving,
which for me, being just aspaceship science fiction fan, it just
it struck it struck me as justominous, very much reminiscent of say,
the Empire strikes back our arrival onPandora, wiping out portions of the forest
as they upend after ten years ofJake and Nachierie building their family. My
(06:09):
son Logan, who's twenty, saidhe could have spent an entire movie just
with that arrival on the conflict thaterupted. There we have the reintroduction of
correct of a chorus, which Iactually thought was perfect. This is what
I love about James Cameron. We'renot gonna, you know, bore you
with a ton of exposition. Justhey. And again spoilers throughout this.
Obviously, Hey, we downloaded theirmemory from their consciousness and we stuck it
(06:33):
into an avatar. You're not thatperson, you're a copy of that person,
but you have all their memories.I'm like, all right, I'm
good to go. And we're notjust doing it with the main bad guy,
We're doing it with his whole teamfrom the original movie. I'm good.
Now. Now you get this hybridNavy rebel part of the story.
(06:54):
Yet in this part one setup,I love the fact that the Navy,
along with Jake Sully, have grabbedhold of the technology that they had access
to and are using their skills asnave as well as modern day warfare technology
and their fight against the humans,if you will, that have arrived on
the planet to establish this as Earth'shomeworld. It's not touched upon a lot.
(07:17):
It's sort of mentioned in passing,but Earth is no longer going to
be inhabitable and they want to setup Pandora as a new home for humanity.
Then you have this escape to waterWorld and family. After the confrontation
with Corrige, we know that thewhole drive of the movie is going to
be him going after Jake to seekrevenge. This, of course, is
(07:40):
going to be building to what we'llsee in the third installment of the franchise.
James Cameron has said that there couldpotentially be five Avatar movies, and
if The Way of Water isn't successful, they'll release three, and Call of
the Day looks like based off thebox office numbers heading into this weekend,
there'll be more films coming out inthe future. The Escape of the Family
(08:03):
of a Jake and n Terri andtheir children heading to the to the Water
tribe. And you have to forgiveme for not using specific names on all
this. I still can't track allthe names of all the characters apart from
Jake and Nteria at this point intime, but really enjoyed that flying on
their banshees um over the water.The moment where the youngest daughter, who
(08:24):
is absolutely just adorable, makes thesort of are we there yet? The
relatable refrain for any family member that'sgone traveling with children before. And then
we get to part two, TheWay of Water. We're introduced to the
to the tribe there in the inthe in the ocean portion of the planet,
whether or not they are going toaccept them in, and you really
(08:46):
do have a whole separate movie inand of itself as a children get to
know the other children of the ofthe tribe, the conflicts that build between
the tribe leader and their son Jakeand a Terri's young son and uh and
and the other family there as well. There was one point during the Way
(09:07):
of Water portion, in the middlehour of the movie where I completely forgot
I was even watching a film.I just sat there and like, oh,
I'm like I've arrived. I mean, really, it feels like I'm
gonna jump ahead to something. Itfeels like the immersive storytelling of this.
It's like you've gone on on acruise, right or you're you're visiting,
(09:30):
taking a boat ride or a carride through an exotic locale, whether it's
the you know, the African Serengetti, or you're in the Caribbean or Alaska
or Norway. For me, Ijust didn't feel like I was watching a
movie. I was completely immersed asthe the Jake and the Terry family learned
(09:50):
the ways of the water people,the connection they have not only with the
animal, with with the animals ofthe with the animals of the sea,
and learning more about them as well. Again, the youngest daughter of jacon
Nti was an absolute standout. Shewas completely adorable. Goes without saying.
The special effects were fantastic. Thatlooks completely real. Talk a little bit
(10:11):
about the frame rate here in justa moment, the Sigourney Weaver character,
So this is the and again spoilers, So this is the daughter of them,
the scientists from the first films,A Grace Grace, right, yeah,
Grace who died. This is heravatar god pregnant. They don't know
(10:33):
how um And so this is ayoung teenage daughter to the scientist played by
Sigourney Weaver, playing a younger versionof her navy of her navy self.
Loved the character. Curious what youthink? Talk show nerd at gmail dot
com or leave a comment up onYouTube. I think it's pretty clear in
(10:54):
her search for her father that herfather doesn't exist. When Grace died and
they tried to transfer her consciousness intoher avatar and it didn't work in the
original film, and then we findout the avatar was pregnant because of the
daughter's connection with the planet and thepower that she has within the planet,
(11:18):
within the plant life when she sufferedthat that seizure, when she tapped into
their version of the soul try.I think it's pretty clear that this is
like an immaculate conception. She isthe daughter of Grace, and the entity
the deity awa Away is the fatheressentially. I dig this, though.
(11:39):
I'll get into more of this herein just a moment. I dig this
though because James Cameron has taken thisidea of this planet being alive and this
mythology and something that I didn't quiteget into in the first film. I
didn't quite get into all the oh, you know, sort of the the
chanting and all of that was itwas fine, but it just wasn't anything
that I was really grabating towards.I like what he did in the Way
(12:01):
of Water, because now this isalso a fantasy. It has its own
set of rules, and now we'rethinking about, at least in my opinion,
the myth building of this the similaritiesthat this has with Star Wars.
Within the fandom of now questions beingraised in this film specifically, they didn't
(12:24):
answer the question of Sigourney Weavers theyou know, the Avatar characters father.
Again, I think it's pretty obvious, but it could be something different.
You know, that character's daddy issuesthe extraction of the whale fluid to stop
aging. This all has the potentialin a way that the Star Wars original
(12:46):
trilogy did in inviting fandom intrigue andspeculation, and again sort of has Avatar
playing by its own set of rules. And I think that's why in the
original film it was it was supposedto be grounded in reality, and this
is too as well, and that'swhy the whole planet being alive took me
out of it just a little bit. But now I'm accepting this more as
Okay, this is kind of thisfilm's own rules within its own reality,
(13:09):
and I'm perfectly fine with that.Tom Gun Maverick kind of has its own
rules this way, not in afantasy way, but rules that apply the
top Gun of Maverick that don't applyto real world aesthetics. Fast and Furious
for example, same thing. Sothis whole middle portion of the film I
thought was just incredibly immersive, visuallystunning on rewatches at home, I can
(13:33):
see it as a way you couldprobably get past this and just get right,
you know, do the conflict inthe beginning and war at the end.
That being said, I loved it. I thought it was great,
a completely different type of experience withinthe theater. And then you get to
Part three and this is the Warof Water, and I loved how this
portion of the film was sort ofpaired down a bit to the original movie.
(13:56):
This was more of a singular battlestruggle of Quarach wanting to kill Jake
Natiri, and less about the completedomination of the planet, which I expect
will be coming in in Part threelarge scale battle relative to the plot that
again sets up a major confrontation forthe third film, Natiri going mama bear
(14:20):
nuts at the end of the conflict, leading into after we believe the Korrich
is dead, and then we're notdone with the storytelling yet, as our
heroes need to get out of thisum ship this rda sea dragon that has
now sunk, which there was amoment where I was like, oh,
this is going on a little long, but then really enjoyed it. When
(14:43):
you consider them the adopted daughter ofthe avatar of Grace's avatar, Grace Avot,
Grace's Avatar's daughter. I should havejust learned her name before I did
the show this week. M Shetaps into again the animals and the and
the energy from the planet to saveher a sort of adopted family, And
(15:05):
I thought it was really really cleverconflict building between Korrige, Spider and Nutri,
because I wasn't one hundred percent surewhether or not Nterri was just using
Spider in order to get Korig tolet their adopted daughter go, or if
(15:26):
she really would have straight up killedhim and she cut him and she was
going crazy. But I thought theway that James Cameron played this out at
the end worked one hundred percent.Spider saves his Avatar father but then leaves
to go back and join his Navvifamily. The conflict that's brewing in there.
They established that earlier in the filmof Nteri not quite being accepting of
(15:48):
Spider, and now you have thisother story element that you can play with
potentially in the next film along withAgain, I had a bit of an
argument with my fifteen year old son, who saw it with my wife last
night on Friday, didn't think thatthe whale fluid being able to stop aging
would become a major plot point.Thought maybe it was just a mcguffin the
way the unobtainium was in the firstfilm, and I'm not sure about that.
(16:11):
That seems very specific, especially relatingto the ability to transfer consciousness into
avatars stop aging. I think there'smore that they're going to be playing with
that, but I could absolutely bewrong on that. And by the end
of the film, I didn't wantit to end. I was sitting there
for three hours, and while Iwas happy that we were wrapping this up,
(16:34):
mostly because I had the work thatnight, I need to get some
sleep. This was a film whenI was watching that at no point I
was saying to myself, I reallywant this movie to end. I never
really felt that way. So myfinal thoughts on the Way of Water it
had me clamoring for Part three ina way that Part one didn't. This
film is not going to please everybody. I think the three D is going
(16:56):
to be troublesome for some people,as three D typically is, because it's
something that just really didn't ever catchon. James Cameron does it better than
anybody else, though, the highdefinition frame rate and the toggling between the
two frame rates. I know thatit kind of bugged me in the beginning
of the film, but by thetime I got about an hour into it,
(17:17):
I forgot it was there. Andto be quite honest, I would
love to see a film that wasall high frame rate. I know this
has been played with with some ofPeter Jackson's Hobbit films, but it really
is hyper real. It's just notsomething you're used to seeing on the big
screen. On the big screen,you're used to seeing a certain you know
that the film look a certain way. This was as if somebody was standing
(17:40):
right there in front of you becauseof the high frame rate. And I
know that it's not going to befor everybody, but once I got adjusted
to it, I really really likedit. The storytelling. People are always
going to have a problem with JamesCameron's storytelling. I personally happened to love
it. I know it can behokey and corny at times, but I
really dig that there's a level whereit doesn't take itself too seriously. James
(18:03):
Cameron's movies never really have. Someof them have been a little bit more
heavy on the comedy. This onewasn't. But there just is this grounded
sense of again self awareness and alittle bit of hokiness to it that I
really really enjoy in his storytelling,and that certainly plays out in the Way
of Water. I also have ahard time calling this a movie again.
(18:26):
I feel like this is an experience, like taking a boat ride through an
exotic locale, or a plane flightthrough the Alps something like that. It's
not like just going and watching amovie. It's like you're taking a journey,
all right. So that's my instinctivereaction review for The Way of Water
on the second Avatar film. Cannotwait for Part three. It's already been
(18:48):
filmed. I'm sure they're working onthe production of it now. It will
be out in December of twenty twentyfour, so thankfully we don't have to
wait very long. And I lovethe fact that this feels like Star Wars
for me like it did when theoriginal trilogy when I was a kid.
I really am beginning to love thisfranchise with a second movie now the way
that I did that original Star Warsfranchise, and to be quite honest with
(19:11):
you, I think Star Wars canlearn something from this. There's going to
be a scarcity to the Avatar contentthat we're getting that I think is only
going to benefit the fandom of AvatarStar Wars. That ship is sailed in
terms of scarcity, but there issomething to be said about the mythology and
the myth building that I think Avatarhas picked up on in the way of
(19:32):
water that's been missing from a lotof the live action storytelling content that we've
received from Disney Plus and Star Wars. And I know that it really just
appealed to me as somebody that likesthat science fiction fantasy element, likes the
intrigue, and likes the speculation,And this movie left some questions out there
that I think a lot of podcastersand individuals like myself can speculate on.
(19:56):
And I know that I'm going tobe looking for other people's views and opinions
on this to see what they thinkabout those questions that were not answered in
this film. So again, whatdid you think? Talk show nerd at
gmail dot com, leave a commentup on YouTube. Thanks for checking the
show out, and I hope you'llgo and pick yourself up a copy of
(20:18):
my Embark science fiction space opera series, available in ebook, paperback, and
audiobook, as well as Earth Facesits End, The Fight to Rule the
Stars begins really in large part inspiredby George Lucas and James Cameron's got a
bit of romance, a ton ofaction. Written for adults, but great
for ages. Eleve lost seven booksin the series again audiobook, paperback,
(20:40):
hardcover and ebook, and right nowthrough Sunday you can pick up the ebook
for Embark for free as a holidayspecial. So again, thank you so
much for checking the show. Leaveme a comment, leave me a drop
me an email, and maybe I'llpump out another another space opera show sometime
in the beginning of the new year. So I hope wherever you are,
(21:02):
you are happy, you are healthy, and you are safe. And I'm
looking forward to going back to Pandorahere coming up next Friday. I already
got my tickets. Bye, mynerd World.
It's my nerd World, a Spaceopera show, and I am your host,
John Justice. Long overdue new episodeof a Space Opera Show because I
want to talk about Avatar The Wayof Water. This is my instinctive reaction
review of the next installment of JamesCameron's Avatar series. Do you want to
(00:33):
email me Talk show nerd at gmaildot com. Can also leave a comment
up on YouTube if you happen tobe watching there as well. Be sure
you like and subscribe to the channeltoo, so and check out the back
episodes of a Space Opera Show.Yeah, it's been a while since I've
recorded an episode, and I've I'vehad several ideas in mind of what I've
(00:56):
wanted to do for quite a longtime. And because of my recording weekly
of the Star Wars show that Ido, the biweekly once a month,
the Depechemente podcast I do, andthe full time job of being a radio
host, I just haven't found time. But I was so inspired after seeing
the Way of Water earlier this weekon Thursday Night, that I wanted to
put something together to share with youmy thoughts of this amazing film. So
(01:19):
let's start off. Let's start offhere. First, I want to talk
about a little bit about the OriginalAvatar, and I'll go back even further
and just mentioned upfront. I'm amassive James Cameron fan, probably next to
George Lucas. I put James Cameronup there with j j Abrams, with
Christopher Nolan of my favorite directors.All have different unique storytelling styles. I
(01:44):
like them. I like the originalstories that James Cameron puts together. I
like the way that he lays outhis storytelling. Was the Original Avatar derivative
of other stories that had come beforeit, specifically you know, Dances with
Wolves and Ferngalie. Sure, butwhat George Lucas did with Star Wars was
(02:08):
also derivative of your william S Burroughsin Queen from Mars, John Carter from
Mars, your Frank Herbert Doune aswell. I don't have any issue with
that, So I just kind ofwant to put that out there up front
and just say that I know thatthere are riffs that James Cameron has pulled
(02:29):
from, but everybody does that.I mean, when I wrote my science
fiction space opera series in Bark,it's a riff on your disaster films,
your space operas, your Star Wars, Fast and Furious, all the things
that inspire me and that I enjoyin my entertainment, whether it's books or
movies. So I really loved thefirst Avatar. I have a unique connection
(02:51):
to it because my oldest now twentyyear old son, Logan was right on
an age when he really enjoyed it. I remember as we went to go
see it on Thursday night together,him making a small Scorpion helicopters. He's
now a private pilot working on gettinghis instrument rating to become a commercial and
cargo pilot as well. So Ihave a personal, you know, family
(03:15):
tie to to Avatar. And becauseof that, and this is a you
know, a very subjective, sortof instinctive reaction review of Avatar, the
Way of Water really hit home forme because of the themes surrounding family.
Jake Sully and his his motivation toprotect his family were just all notes that
(03:37):
struck a chord in this original Avatarfan. That being said, I wasn't
like clamoring for an Avatar sequel.I was looking forward to it, but
not in the way that I wouldlike a Star Wars film. Um Star
Wars is you know, my firstlove as it relates to my fandoms,
and you know, with Star Wars, I'll seek out every little nugget and
(03:58):
tibit I possibly can. I wasable to avoid all of that. While
I was certainly looking forward to seeingthe next Avatar movie, it wasn't something
that I was like counting down thedays to go see like I would Star
Wars. That's gonna change after seeingthe Way of Water. So my expectations
going into this film were kind ofmuted. I was like just ready to
take this adventure to see what JamesCameron had created again after making this stunning
(04:20):
spectacle of the original Avatar film.It met and exceeded my expectations in a
major, major way. I wantto talk about this movie in the three
parts of the three hours. Itreally sort of lays out that way.
You could, in my opinion,have split this up into three separate films
(04:40):
if you'd push the envelope in termsof the running time. But you have
the part one, the set up, the conflict, Part two, the
Way of Water, and then youhave part three, the War of Water
as I like to call it.So let's start off with part one,
the setup and and the conflict.In here we're reintroduced to the Nave on
(05:00):
Pandora. There's this weird sort ofhybrid aspect now of the Nave within the
forest. Almost Ah, they've gotthis this way that they are, that
they're living now, um, youknow, free from free from conflict.
And immediately we have the arrival ofthe RDA, which I thought was just
(05:23):
stunning. The original film, withthe arrival of the ship that carried the
passengers, there was, you know, the the opening of that movie,
after we're introduced to Jake Sully,and you just you get these massive,
impressive, impressive, spectacular opening shotswith the thunderous music of the ship arriving
(05:43):
to Pandora. And then in thisfilm you get many of these ships arriving,
which for me, being just aspaceship science fiction fan, it just
it struck it struck me as justominous, very much reminiscent of say,
the Empire strikes back our arrival onPandora, wiping out portions of the forest
as they upend after ten years ofJake and Nachierie building their family. My
(06:09):
son Logan, who's twenty, saidhe could have spent an entire movie just
with that arrival on the conflict thaterupted. There we have the reintroduction of
correct of a chorus, which Iactually thought was perfect. This is what
I love about James Cameron. We'renot gonna, you know, bore you
with a ton of exposition. Justhey. And again spoilers throughout this.
Obviously, Hey, we downloaded theirmemory from their consciousness and we stuck it
(06:33):
into an avatar. You're not thatperson, you're a copy of that person,
but you have all their memories.I'm like, all right, I'm
good to go. And we're notjust doing it with the main bad guy,
We're doing it with his whole teamfrom the original movie. I'm good.
Now. Now you get this hybridNavy rebel part of the story.
(06:54):
Yet in this part one setup,I love the fact that the Navy,
along with Jake Sully, have grabbedhold of the technology that they had access
to and are using their skills asnave as well as modern day warfare technology
and their fight against the humans,if you will, that have arrived on
the planet to establish this as Earth'shomeworld. It's not touched upon a lot.
(07:17):
It's sort of mentioned in passing,but Earth is no longer going to
be inhabitable and they want to setup Pandora as a new home for humanity.
Then you have this escape to waterWorld and family. After the confrontation
with Corrige, we know that thewhole drive of the movie is going to
be him going after Jake to seekrevenge. This, of course, is
(07:40):
going to be building to what we'llsee in the third installment of the franchise.
James Cameron has said that there couldpotentially be five Avatar movies, and
if The Way of Water isn't successful, they'll release three, and Call of
the Day looks like based off thebox office numbers heading into this weekend,
there'll be more films coming out inthe future. The Escape of the Family
(08:03):
of a Jake and n Terri andtheir children heading to the to the Water
tribe. And you have to forgiveme for not using specific names on all
this. I still can't track allthe names of all the characters apart from
Jake and Nteria at this point intime, but really enjoyed that flying on
their banshees um over the water.The moment where the youngest daughter, who
(08:24):
is absolutely just adorable, makes thesort of are we there yet? The
relatable refrain for any family member that'sgone traveling with children before. And then
we get to part two, TheWay of Water. We're introduced to the
to the tribe there in the inthe in the ocean portion of the planet,
whether or not they are going toaccept them in, and you really
(08:46):
do have a whole separate movie inand of itself as a children get to
know the other children of the ofthe tribe, the conflicts that build between
the tribe leader and their son Jakeand a Terri's young son and uh and
and the other family there as well. There was one point during the Way
(09:07):
of Water portion, in the middlehour of the movie where I completely forgot
I was even watching a film.I just sat there and like, oh,
I'm like I've arrived. I mean, really, it feels like I'm
gonna jump ahead to something. Itfeels like the immersive storytelling of this.
It's like you've gone on on acruise, right or you're you're visiting,
(09:30):
taking a boat ride or a carride through an exotic locale, whether it's
the you know, the African Serengetti, or you're in the Caribbean or Alaska
or Norway. For me, Ijust didn't feel like I was watching a
movie. I was completely immersed asthe the Jake and the Terry family learned
(09:50):
the ways of the water people,the connection they have not only with the
animal, with with the animals ofthe with the animals of the sea,
and learning more about them as well. Again, the youngest daughter of jacon
Nti was an absolute standout. Shewas completely adorable. Goes without saying.
The special effects were fantastic. Thatlooks completely real. Talk a little bit
(10:11):
about the frame rate here in justa moment, the Sigourney Weaver character,
So this is the and again spoilers, So this is the daughter of them,
the scientists from the first films,A Grace Grace, right, yeah,
Grace who died. This is heravatar god pregnant. They don't know
(10:33):
how um And so this is ayoung teenage daughter to the scientist played by
Sigourney Weaver, playing a younger versionof her navy of her navy self.
Loved the character. Curious what youthink? Talk show nerd at gmail dot
com or leave a comment up onYouTube. I think it's pretty clear in
(10:54):
her search for her father that herfather doesn't exist. When Grace died and
they tried to transfer her consciousness intoher avatar and it didn't work in the
original film, and then we findout the avatar was pregnant because of the
daughter's connection with the planet and thepower that she has within the planet,
(11:18):
within the plant life when she sufferedthat that seizure, when she tapped into
their version of the soul try.I think it's pretty clear that this is
like an immaculate conception. She isthe daughter of Grace, and the entity
the deity awa Away is the fatheressentially. I dig this, though.
(11:39):
I'll get into more of this herein just a moment. I dig this
though because James Cameron has taken thisidea of this planet being alive and this
mythology and something that I didn't quiteget into in the first film. I
didn't quite get into all the oh, you know, sort of the the
chanting and all of that was itwas fine, but it just wasn't anything
that I was really grabating towards.I like what he did in the Way
(12:01):
of Water, because now this isalso a fantasy. It has its own
set of rules, and now we'rethinking about, at least in my opinion,
the myth building of this the similaritiesthat this has with Star Wars.
Within the fandom of now questions beingraised in this film specifically, they didn't
(12:24):
answer the question of Sigourney Weavers theyou know, the Avatar characters father.
Again, I think it's pretty obvious, but it could be something different.
You know, that character's daddy issuesthe extraction of the whale fluid to stop
aging. This all has the potentialin a way that the Star Wars original
(12:46):
trilogy did in inviting fandom intrigue andspeculation, and again sort of has Avatar
playing by its own set of rules. And I think that's why in the
original film it was it was supposedto be grounded in reality, and this
is too as well, and that'swhy the whole planet being alive took me
out of it just a little bit. But now I'm accepting this more as
Okay, this is kind of thisfilm's own rules within its own reality,
(13:09):
and I'm perfectly fine with that.Tom Gun Maverick kind of has its own
rules this way, not in afantasy way, but rules that apply the
top Gun of Maverick that don't applyto real world aesthetics. Fast and Furious
for example, same thing. Sothis whole middle portion of the film I
thought was just incredibly immersive, visuallystunning on rewatches at home, I can
(13:33):
see it as a way you couldprobably get past this and just get right,
you know, do the conflict inthe beginning and war at the end.
That being said, I loved it. I thought it was great,
a completely different type of experience withinthe theater. And then you get to
Part three and this is the Warof Water, and I loved how this
portion of the film was sort ofpaired down a bit to the original movie.
(13:56):
This was more of a singular battlestruggle of Quarach wanting to kill Jake
Natiri, and less about the completedomination of the planet, which I expect
will be coming in in Part threelarge scale battle relative to the plot that
again sets up a major confrontation forthe third film, Natiri going mama bear
(14:20):
nuts at the end of the conflict, leading into after we believe the Korrich
is dead, and then we're notdone with the storytelling yet, as our
heroes need to get out of thisum ship this rda sea dragon that has
now sunk, which there was amoment where I was like, oh,
this is going on a little long, but then really enjoyed it. When
(14:43):
you consider them the adopted daughter ofthe avatar of Grace's avatar, Grace Avot,
Grace's Avatar's daughter. I should havejust learned her name before I did
the show this week. M Shetaps into again the animals and the and
the energy from the planet to saveher a sort of adopted family, And
(15:05):
I thought it was really really cleverconflict building between Korrige, Spider and Nutri,
because I wasn't one hundred percent surewhether or not Nterri was just using
Spider in order to get Korig tolet their adopted daughter go, or if
(15:26):
she really would have straight up killedhim and she cut him and she was
going crazy. But I thought theway that James Cameron played this out at
the end worked one hundred percent.Spider saves his Avatar father but then leaves
to go back and join his Navvifamily. The conflict that's brewing in there.
They established that earlier in the filmof Nteri not quite being accepting of
(15:48):
Spider, and now you have thisother story element that you can play with
potentially in the next film along withAgain, I had a bit of an
argument with my fifteen year old son, who saw it with my wife last
night on Friday, didn't think thatthe whale fluid being able to stop aging
would become a major plot point.Thought maybe it was just a mcguffin the
way the unobtainium was in the firstfilm, and I'm not sure about that.
(16:11):
That seems very specific, especially relatingto the ability to transfer consciousness into
avatars stop aging. I think there'smore that they're going to be playing with
that, but I could absolutely bewrong on that. And by the end
of the film, I didn't wantit to end. I was sitting there
for three hours, and while Iwas happy that we were wrapping this up,
(16:34):
mostly because I had the work thatnight, I need to get some
sleep. This was a film whenI was watching that at no point I
was saying to myself, I reallywant this movie to end. I never
really felt that way. So myfinal thoughts on the Way of Water it
had me clamoring for Part three ina way that Part one didn't. This
film is not going to please everybody. I think the three D is going
(16:56):
to be troublesome for some people,as three D typically is, because it's
something that just really didn't ever catchon. James Cameron does it better than
anybody else, though, the highdefinition frame rate and the toggling between the
two frame rates. I know thatit kind of bugged me in the beginning
of the film, but by thetime I got about an hour into it,
(17:17):
I forgot it was there. Andto be quite honest, I would
love to see a film that wasall high frame rate. I know this
has been played with with some ofPeter Jackson's Hobbit films, but it really
is hyper real. It's just notsomething you're used to seeing on the big
screen. On the big screen,you're used to seeing a certain you know
that the film look a certain way. This was as if somebody was standing
(17:40):
right there in front of you becauseof the high frame rate. And I
know that it's not going to befor everybody, but once I got adjusted
to it, I really really likedit. The storytelling. People are always
going to have a problem with JamesCameron's storytelling. I personally happened to love
it. I know it can behokey and corny at times, but I
really dig that there's a level whereit doesn't take itself too seriously. James
(18:03):
Cameron's movies never really have. Someof them have been a little bit more
heavy on the comedy. This onewasn't. But there just is this grounded
sense of again self awareness and alittle bit of hokiness to it that I
really really enjoy in his storytelling,and that certainly plays out in the Way
of Water. I also have ahard time calling this a movie again.
(18:26):
I feel like this is an experience, like taking a boat ride through an
exotic locale, or a plane flightthrough the Alps something like that. It's
not like just going and watching amovie. It's like you're taking a journey,
all right. So that's my instinctivereaction review for The Way of Water
on the second Avatar film. Cannotwait for Part three. It's already been
(18:48):
filmed. I'm sure they're working onthe production of it now. It will
be out in December of twenty twentyfour, so thankfully we don't have to
wait very long. And I lovethe fact that this feels like Star Wars
for me like it did when theoriginal trilogy when I was a kid.
I really am beginning to love thisfranchise with a second movie now the way
that I did that original Star Warsfranchise, and to be quite honest with
(19:11):
you, I think Star Wars canlearn something from this. There's going to
be a scarcity to the Avatar contentthat we're getting that I think is only
going to benefit the fandom of AvatarStar Wars. That ship is sailed in
terms of scarcity, but there issomething to be said about the mythology and
the myth building that I think Avatarhas picked up on in the way of
(19:32):
water that's been missing from a lotof the live action storytelling content that we've
received from Disney Plus and Star Wars. And I know that it really just
appealed to me as somebody that likesthat science fiction fantasy element, likes the
intrigue, and likes the speculation,And this movie left some questions out there
that I think a lot of podcastersand individuals like myself can speculate on.
(19:56):
And I know that I'm going tobe looking for other people's views and opinions
on this to see what they thinkabout those questions that were not answered in
this film. So again, whatdid you think? Talk show nerd at
gmail dot com, leave a commentup on YouTube. Thanks for checking the
show out, and I hope you'llgo and pick yourself up a copy of
(20:18):
my Embark science fiction space opera series, available in ebook, paperback, and
audiobook, as well as Earth Facesits End, The Fight to Rule the
Stars begins really in large part inspiredby George Lucas and James Cameron's got a
bit of romance, a ton ofaction. Written for adults, but great
for ages. Eleve lost seven booksin the series again audiobook, paperback,
(20:40):
hardcover and ebook, and right nowthrough Sunday you can pick up the ebook
for Embark for free as a holidayspecial. So again, thank you so
much for checking the show. Leaveme a comment, leave me a drop
me an email, and maybe I'llpump out another another space opera show sometime
in the beginning of the new year. So I hope wherever you are,
(21:02):
you are happy, you are healthy, and you are safe. And I'm
looking forward to going back to Pandorahere coming up next Friday. I already
got my tickets. Bye, mynerd World.
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