The protagonist of the Avatar franchise is called Jake Sully (Sam Worthington). If you didn’t see that right away, don’t be ashamed. Sully is as a character impressively boring and interchangeable. Also, since Avatar, the blockbuster series has been about great visuals rather than in-depth character studies. Boring main character whose name you immediately forget? What the hell. Show the glowing trees again!
In Avatar 2: The Way of Water, however, Sully’s blandness becomes a real problem. Instead of telling something really new, James Cameron’s sci-fi world revolves around itself and its deadly boring center. For the future of blockbuster movies so there can only be one option: Avatar must finally kill his main character.
Spoilers follow for both previous Avatar films.
Avatar 2 has no idea what to do with Jake Sully – and that’s why it’s a worse film
Actually, Sully should have died in Part 2 if we lived in a better world. Instead, master director James Cameron gives us one in particular slightly modified story variant of what we already know from part 1: Evil people come to Pandora to mine a very valuable substance/open up new lifeworlds. Of course, they are mercilessly superior to the natives of Pandora when it comes to war tools, but the Na’vi can count on the support of flora and fauna – and with Jake Sully they have a former super soldier on their side.
In Part 1, Jake Sully was the savior of the poor aliens who not only wields a gun but can also devise and implement military operational strategies. In Part 2, he’s exactly the same, only now he has kids. Who have to talk to him like he’s an army general. His entire character is made up of it, worried about his family. The entire plot revolves around the fact that not only Pandora, but above all Sully is so valuable to the human military that they set an entire planet on fire and turn lousy equipment into lousy junk.
For comparison: Check out the trailer for Avatar here
Avatar: Departing from Pandora – Trailer (German) HD
When I was talking to a colleague about the final battle in The Way of Water, she finally expressed frustration: “I was hoping Sully would drown!” Instead, one of his sons dies. A missed opportunity. It would have been noble, and maybe even emotionally poignant, for Sully to sacrifice himself to protect his family and adopted homeland. Instead, by the end of the film, he’s what he’s been since the beginning of the franchise, and probably always will be: a noble savior who… Oh, you know the story.
Avatar 3 could finally unleash the full potential of the sci-fi fantasy world with a new main character
Avatar 2: The Way of Water may not tell the most interesting story overall. However, the film manages to establish new characters and relationship dynamics that have quite a lot of potential. Above all, Kiri (Sigourney Weaver), whose mysterious origins and abilities to the most exciting developments in Avatar 2 belonged.
The newly introduced Water Na’vi and their handling of Jake and Neytiri’s (Zoe Saldana) children as the offspring of a human whose species threatens Pandora could also interesting conflicts care for. That their whale friends are the real stars of part 2 is generally accepted anyway. There is enough material.
James Cameron seems to have a clear vision for the future of his sci-fi series. I hope it includes Avatar 3 with another time warp and the magical underwater funeral of Sully begins – or whatever else the filmmaker comes up with that is so impressively beautiful.
But before I have to endure one more Avatar part centered on the deadly boring Jake Sully, I’ll watch rather a full movie about the new space whales. No dialogue at all, only subtitles in Papyrus font. If Avatar 3 wants to be more than a tech demo, which in our technologized age is finding it increasingly difficult to create something completely new on a purely visual level, it has to be brave – and say goodbye to its beginnings.
Streaming recommendations (not only) for Sci-Fi fans
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What do you think: Should Avatar focus on other characters in the future?