When I saw Avatar back in 2009, I was 12. I was in middle school and I saw it with classmates. I don't clearly remember the movie, but I do remember liking it, especially the visuals. The world-building, to my 12 year-old eyes, was fantastic and I genuinely enjoyed the movie. Returning to Avatar 13 years later, I wondered if I would have similar feelings.
Right off the bat, I'll say I didn't love this movie. If Avatar was a white savior movie, then Avatar 2 is a white guy bringing problems for indigenous people movie in the style of human history and colonization. Full disclosure, I ate an edible before seeing this film, and I was very high during it. That being said, I don't think me being high really influenced how I feel about the movie.
Spoiler alert, but for those unaware, the basic premise of the plot is that Jake and Neytiri have 3 biological and 2 (we'll get to it later) adopted children. When the humans come back, so does Quaritch (the previous villain) now as a Na'vi and a clone of the dead human Quaritch. Quaritch starts hunting Jake, so the family peaces out and flees to the Metkayina Reef Clan. To nobody's surprise, Quaritch follows them to their new home and you can probably guess the rest.
The plot is truly mind-boggling and no rational person would/should ever agree to half the shit the people in this movie agree to. Jake Sully is a walking liability, and you can't convince me otherwise. Combined with Sam Worthington's limited acting range, the character is really not that compelling. Personally, I would've told him and his family to keep moving. Is that mean? Maybe. But what did the Metkayina really get from having the Sullys around? Not only are the Sullys not biologically adapted to being in the water, but they bring along with them the threat of destroying their entire village. Ronal (played by white actress Kate Winslet) was completely right not wanting them there and I don't blame her. But, since this is a movie after all, Tonowari (played by actor Cliff Curtis, one of the few people of color in the film) allows them to stay. Watching this movie, I didn't feel as if Jake's character was as much of a white savior as the last film, instead he's just a white burden in this movie. Is that better? idk.
If Jake Sully is a walking liability, his kids are a walking class action lawsuit. His middle son Lo'ak, starts shit with everyone then befriends an outcast whale, his oldest son is the only one who's somewhat rational, and his youngest daughter is like 8 years-old and needs a babysitter that's not also a child. The Sullys adopted children don't fare much better. His adopted 14 year old daughter Kiri, played by 72-year-old Sigourney Weaver with little to no voice modification, is presented as someone with schizophrenia and Kiri's mom's Na'vi fetish was passed down to her. Watching the character, gave me similar feelings I have about weeaboos. That brings us finally to Spider, my least favorite character. What the hell is up with this kid? Not only does he save Quaritch's Na'vi ass resetting the entire story in the process, he then joins the Sullys to stay permanently with the Metkayina. If Ronal was annoyed with having the Sully's she's going to justifiably lose it when she finds out she has to take in some human child.
This movie works best if you go into not expecting a decent plot. As I've recapped above, the plot kinda sucks. For some reason, Neytiri is nowhere to be found in this movie even though her adaptation would've probably been the most interesting. Na'vi culture is not monolithic, and watching Neytiri adjust to a different Na'vi culture would've been an excellent vehicle for us to explore how deep the differences in Na'vi culture are. Instead, she's nowhere to be found, and we're stuck babysitting the kids for most of the movie. For me, I felt this movie's greatest failure was its lack of plot, or character development. I don't expect much with action movies like this, but the almost exclusive focus on visuals was detracting for me after a certain point. This isn't Planet Earth, where viewers are astounded by the natural things around us. Instead, we're astounded by CGI, which feels less satisfying to me. Had the movie focused even a little bit more on character development, or a sensible plot, I think I would've enjoyed this movie significantly more.
Overall, I'd probably watch this movie again. Though the visuals may be heavily CGI, that doesn't mean they're not spectacular. And though I may not have loved the plot, I think that Avatar 2 did its job of reintroducing us to Pandora while setting us up for the sequels.
Other Observations
My friend pointed this out, but when the Sully kids were young, they have an American accent, but then they have a Na'vi accent when they're teenagers.
The humor in this movie is awful. It's so poorly timed and random that the funniest part is how bad it is.