Rating: 8.5/10 | Verdict: Worth a watch!

As someone working toward her degree in marine science, I have often pondered what the ocean’s myriad wonders looked like when our Creator stood back and declared them “good”. In my studies, I have learned that species extinctions and pollution have degraded marine ecosystems worldwide over time. They are in a worse state now than perhaps they have ever been, with the widespread presence of microplastics and other harmful toxins causing measurable and visible harm. Our planet’s ocean contains countless beautiful creatures even now, but ecosystems such as coral reefs were even more incredible sights just one hundred years ago.

What does this have to do with Avatar, you might ask? My answer: Everything!

Avatar: The Way of Water immerses the audience in an underwater world that takes its inspiration from our own planet’s ocean as it once thrived, helping us to appreciate the ocean we still have and need to strive to protect now. Enchanting scenes filled with beautifully designed marine creatures occupy a significant chunk of screen time, and might be considered too slow or long if they were in any other movie. But they fit right in during Avatar’s over three-hour run time.

Themes of human greed and the dark side of capitalism are on full display as they were in the first installment in the Avatar franchise, but there is less evidence here that human colonizers can change their destructive ways. Rather, the superiority of indigenous wisdom over science and valuing creatures and land based on cultural and spiritual significance instead of potential monetary gain are emphasized even more than they were in the first movie.

The value of a loving and supportive family in overcoming life’s challenges is championed in this film’s many heartwarming and heart-wrenching scenes involving Jake and Neytiri’s new family, and is just as much a focus of the story as the environmental message. The reliance of the characters on Eywa’s provision, protection, and sovereignty are a good example for how we should depend on our own Creator, but descriptions of Eywa as “mother” and her physical connections to Pandora’s many creatures are too suggestive of a pantheistic Mother Earth to be a direct analog for the true God Almighty.

Avatar: The Way of Water allows us to see the next chapter in the lives of the characters we became attached to in the first Avatar while bringing up many complex and thought-provoking topics—some easily agreed with, some more controversial. When considering capitalistic practices versus socially-motivated decisions, or indigenous wisdom versus modern science, the harmonious balance between nature and civilization displayed in the world of Avatar may be a good inspiration, as opposed to putting down one extreme at the expense of the other.

One thing, though, is for certain: James Cameron’s Avatar: The Way of Water is a beautifully crafted labor of love that audiences will be enjoying for years to come.