Warning, spoilers to follow for “Avatar 2: The way of the water“.
From the Na’vi attack on a human weapons platoon, to Blue Quaritch’s (Stephen Lang) first encounter with the children of the Sully family, to the heartbreaking Tulkun hunt, and of course the explosive, all-encompassing finale: in many of the 192 minutes of “Avatar 2” get to the point – James Cameron’s mega blockbuster certainly can’t be faulted for a lack of action. However, one particularly spectacular and epic chapter in the war between the humans and the Na’vi has been withheld from us.
Director James Cameron focuses not on epic battles, but on the family of Jake Sully (Sam Worthington) and Neytiri (Zoe Saldana), showing how the ex-Marine mastered the language of the Na’vi and what it is like Kiri (Sigourney Weaver) and Spider (Jack Champion) – before jumping into the new everyday life of the Omatikaya Tribe, who have moved to the here and now after the events of “Avatar: Pandora’s Adventures”. Much of what happened in the years following the events of the first film is lost in the cinema.
Some of Cameron’s ideas ultimately had no place in Avatar 2: The Way Of Water, but found their way into a narrative companion to the films – in the form of Avatar: The High Ground. The comic series, which consists of three parts and is already available in its entirety, is by no means a must to follow the long-awaited sequel to the most successful film of all time. But it fills in some gaps that will definitely help you better understand the events of the second “Avatar” movie.
* / “Vol. 2”* / “Vol. 3”* / complete edition*
After “Vol. 1” it has already been revealed, among other things, who is actually the mother of human child Spider, it appears from “Vol. 2” is now a space battle that many fans would have liked to experience on screen…
“The High Ground” is an adaptation of an early screenplay that ended up not becoming a movie. Many of the ideas found their way to the canvas, albeit in a modified form…
This is what happens in the space battle
For example, Jake Sully’s gaze at the ominously radiant sky as the humans return. It’s in the comic too, except the ex-Marine immediately starts planning a Na’vi counterattack – in space. Far from Pandora, he wants to prevail and protect his new homeland from the human invaders. However, since the Earthlings are already back, they take temporary shelter in the Hallelujah Mountains (as in the movie).
Meanwhile, Jake and Neytiri make an offer of peace to the humans to prevent further bloodshed by meeting General Ardmore – in an RDA (Resources Development Administration) space shuttle. Jake offers to give Ardmore, played by Edie Falco in the film, over $3 trillion worth of unobtanium that the Na’vi are hiding on an abandoned ship. In return, Sully demands peace and freedom for his people. But Ardmore remains steadfast.
More understanding of the characters
Sully has no choice but to carry out his earlier threat and blow up the unobtanium depot, but soon after reveals that there are other deposits of the valuable resource, also bombed just to be on the safe side, that he would be willing to give up for a deal . . But then it goes in quick succession:
With a deal in sight, Spider’s adoptive father kills an ally of Sully’s. Jake and Neytiri also learn via radio message that their other explosives have apparently been defused. Moreover, their children were also captured by the humans (we also know that from the second “Avatar” movie).
Ultimately, a brutal, epic battle ensues in space, taking the war between the humans and the Na’vi to a whole new level – and causing many, many casualties. All of this takes place between the events of the two films. And if you know that part of the story, you will also start with the characters and their emotional world in “Avatar 2” easier to understand. The author of this article speaks from his own experience: Going back into the movie with the knowledge of “The High Ground” makes the cinema experience a lot more intense and also more understandable.
“The Way Of Water”: Family Peace Instead Of International Wars
The space battle would have been a logical continuation of “Avatar: Pandora”, but James Cameron consciously decided to put a new focus in the sequel. After the epic battle at the Tree of Souls, the original script design for Part 2 aimed to catapult the war between the humans and the Na’vi to a new level. Following the usual follow-up recipe: more is more.
However, the filmmaker missed “critical elements” that he deemed necessary for the continuation of his first Pandora adventure – also with regard to the subsequent sequels. After all, “Avatar 3” has already been filmed and is scheduled to hit theaters in 2024, “Avatar 4” and “Avatar 5” will also follow.
The concept “didn’t sufficiently comply with ‘Avatar’ rules,” Cameron said (through ), which refers to the spirituality of Pandora’s “dream world”, which humans can only understand to a certain extent using their biochemical knowledge.
Lead actor Sam Worthington recalls that the script was more or less finished, but it was all about “them.” [Anm. d. Red.: die Na-vi] are just heroic warriors and continue their war”. Continuing events in this way would have been obvious, but would have pushed into the background a quintessential Cameron element that should have been at the forefront of the sequel: family.
Talking to the For example, Worthington recalls that Cameron had a precise vision: “I want to tell a story about family rather than heroes.” It was precisely this realization that led the sci-fi fantasy saga in the direction in which the “Avatar” universe, which is just beginning, should go in the coming years.