James Cameron would like you to believe. He wants you to believe that aliens are killing machines, that humanity can defeat time-traveling cyborgs, and that a movie can transport you to a major historical disaster. In many ways, the planet of Pandora in "Avatar" has become his most ambitious way of sharing his faith in cinema's power. Can you leave everything behind and experience a film in a way that has become increasingly difficult in this age of distraction? Cameron has pushed the boundaries of his belief even further as technology has advanced, experimenting with 3D, High Frame Rate, and other toys that were not available when he began his career.


But one of the many fascinating aspects of "Avatar: The Way of Water" is how that belief manifests itself in themes he's previously explored. This wildly entertaining film isn't a rehash of "Avatar," but rather a film in which fans can recognize thematic and even visual elements from "Titanic," "Aliens," "The Abyss," and "The Terminator" films. It's as if Cameron has relocated to Pandora and brought everything he values with him. (He's also clearly not going anywhere.) With so many striking images and phenomenally rendered action scenes, Cameron draws viewers into this fully realized world that everything else fades away.


Perhaps not right away. "Avatar: The Way of Water" stumbles at first, throwing viewers back into Pandora's world in a narratively clumsy manner. Cameron clearly cares about the film's world-building midsection, which is one of his greatest achievements, so he rushes through some of the set-ups to get to the good stuff. Before that, we meet Jake Sully (Sam Worthington), a human who has become a full-time Na'vi and has started a family with Neytiri (Zoe Saldana). They have two sons, Neteyam (Jamie Flatters) and Lo'ak (Britain Dalton), as well as a daughter, Tuk (Trinity Jo-Li Bliss), and are the guardians of Kiri (Sigourney Weaver), the offspring of Weaver's character from the first film.


When the'sky people' return, including an avatar Na'vi version of Colonel Miles Quaritch (Stephen Lang), who has come to finish what he started, including vengeance on Jake for the death of his human form, family bliss is shattered. He returns with a group of ex-human-turned-Na'vi soldiers who serve as the film's main antagonists, but they are not the only ones. The military, planet-destroying humans of this universe are once again cast as the universe's true villains in "Avatar: The Way of Water," but their motivations are occasionally hazy. I realized about halfway through that it's not clear why Quaritch is so obsessed with tracking down Jake and his family, other than the plot requires it, and Lang is good at playing mad.


The majority of "Avatar: The Way of Water" revolves around the same question that Sarah Connor poses in the "Terminator" films: fight or flight for family? Do you try to run and hide from the powerful enemy in order to stay safe, or do you turn and fight the oppressive evil? Jake initially chooses the former option, which leads them to another part of Pandora, where the film begins with one of Cameron's longtime obsessions: H2O. The aerial acrobatics of the first film are replaced by underwater acrobatics in a region ruled by Tonowari (Cliff Curtis), the leader of the Metkayina clan. Nowari, a family man (his wife is played by Kate Winslet), is concerned about the danger the new Na'vi visitors may pose, but he can't turn them away. Cameron explores moral questions about responsibility in the face of a powerful evil once more, this time in the form of a group of commercial poachers from Earth. They dare to hunt sacred water animals in breathtaking sequences that force you to remind yourself that nothing you're seeing is real.


As Jake's boys learn the ways of the water clan, the film's midsection shifts its focus away from Sully/Quaritch and toward the region's children. Finally, the world of "Avatar" appears to be expanding in ways that the first film did not. Whereas that film was more focused on a single story, Cameron here weaves together several in a far more ambitious and ultimately rewarding manner. While some of the ideas and plot developments, such as Kiri's connection to Pandora or the arc of a new character named Spider (Jack Champion), are mostly set-up for future films, the overall project benefits from having a larger canvas for its storytelling. While one could argue that a stronger protagonist/antagonist line is needed in a film that discards both Jake and Quaritch for long stretches, I would argue that those terms are intentionally ambiguous here. The protagonist is the entire family, as well as the planet on which they live, and the antagonist is everything attempting to destroy the natural world and the beings who are so inextricably linked to it.


Viewers should be warned that Cameron's ear for dialogue hasn't improved—there are a few lines that will make you laugh unintentionally—but there's something almost charming about his approach to character, one that marries old-fashioned storytelling with cutting-edge technology. Massive blockbusters frequently clog their worlds with superfluous mythologies or backstories, whereas Cameron does just enough to keep this impossible world relatable. His deeper themes of environmentalism and colonization may be too superficial for some viewers, and the way he co-opts elements of Indigenous culture may be considered problematic, which I wouldn't argue against. However, if a family uses this as a starting point for discussions about those themes, it is a net positive rather than most blockbusters, which provide no food for thought.


There has recently been a lot of discussion about the cultural impact of "Avatar," as superheroes dominated pop culture in such a way that people forgot about the Na'vi. While watching "Avatar: The Way of Water," I was reminded of how impersonal the Hollywood machine has become in recent decades, and how frequently blockbusters that truly make an impact on the form have displayed the personal touch of their creator. Consider how no one else could have made George Lucas' and Steven Spielberg's biggest and best films. "Avatar: The Way of Water" is an unmistakable James Cameron blockbuster. And I still have faith in him.