With the long-awaited sequel to Avatar finally in cinemas, James Cameron is stressing the importance of protecting our oceans. With the use of stunning special effects that breaks new grounds for cinema, Cameron does not simply tell us why we should save our seas. He shows us.
With all of the predictable fanfare and chatter about James Cameron’s Avatar finally returning to our screens with Avatar: The Way of Water, one important conversation has been lost amongst the new visual technology Cameron is returning with: what the implications these special effects have on the subject matter being shown. With Avatar: The Way of Water, James Cameron shows his audience why we need to protect our oceans, with his trademark not-so-subtle messaging. He shows us the sheer beauty of the oceans, and their vitality in sustaining life, connection, and family. He shifts his attention away from the forests of Pandora for this sequel, and with it, he advances our collective conversation around climate change.
Avatar is now thirteen years old. Back in 2009, much like Avatar: The Way of Water today, the level of special effects was ground-breaking. One of the main reasons for spending so much time with Jake Sully (Sam Worthington) in these hyper-realistic environments, as he learnt the ways of the forest, was to show viewers the necessity of the forests in the eyes of the Na’vi. When the forest came under attack by the sky people, Avatar rallied its audiences against them to protect the forests and the home they represented. The same can be said for the oceans in Avatar: The Way of Water.
Avatar: The Way of Water sees Jake, Neytiri (Zoe Saldana) and their new family being hunted by a familiar enemy. As they are forced to abandon the forest, they find themselves seeking protection from the water tribe. Similar to the original, the bulk of the film is spent with them learning the ways of their new surroundings. This renewed focus on the oceans says a lot about our climate priorities in 2022, compared to the original in 2009. Cameron’s emphasis on ocean conservation feels like a much more tangible message of urgency, and he has never been better equipped to show us why we should treat this global crisis as such. The enhanced special effects provide Avatar: The Way of Water with that tangibility. James Cameron is not telling us that the forests are beyond saving, nor does he disregard them; quite the opposite. Avatar: The Way of Water expands his environmentalist message into a new landscape, from forests to oceans, in order to emphasise the original’s message and to reach a wider audience to show that climate change is a problem on various terrains, not just the forests.
One of the more impressive feats is how Cameron manages to make 2009’s Avatar feel like not too long ago. The world of Pandora still feels as alive as ever, and it does not take much to get back into its lush vistas. However, when watching, it is hard to escape the notion that our ideas of climate change have shifted from 2009, along with our cultural perception of the term. Back then, the culture felt comparatively more naïve about what climate change meant for us, and how it would impact us in the coming decade. This lack of urgency in 2009 was felt mostly in the lack of commitment to enact lasting change at that year’s United Nations Climate Change Conference in December, the same month that Avatar was released. The conference ended with no legally binding commitments to reducing emissions. The Copenhagen Accord, which emphasised the threat of climate change, was not passed unanimously at the conference.
Since 2009, we have seen several environmental catastrophes, including wildfires in Australia in 2020, the Haiti earthquake in 2010, and Hurricane Sandy in 2012. Given the number of climate events that have happened, James Cameron’s message telling us to protect our oceans feels like one that speaks to the current moment. It feels more tangible because every year climate change becomes more and more drastic, and closer to being irreversible. 2022 is no different, with COP27 seemingly being the most important one yet. Climate change has become a more recognised threat since Avatar was released, and Avatar: The Way of Water uses this increased public awareness to deliver a stronger message, that climate change is as important now as it was back in 2009.
The idea of climate change has evolved significantly in the last decade in film. Apart from the echoes Avatar had on the film industry in terms of its 3D effects, many filmmakers adopted Cameron’s environmental messages, to varying degrees of success. As they always have, disaster films have stuck around, with a newfound environmental angle that somewhat attempted to meet the climate moment. Disaster films such as Dean Devlin’s 2017 film Geostorm and Brad Peyton’s 2015 San Andreas sit on the low end of that spectrum. However, some notable efforts from the last decade, such as First Reformed and mother! take the conversation to a comparatively metaphorical place, that is able to sustain audience interest mostly, asking the difficult questions as to the current state of the world. Arguably, First Reformed does a better job at posing nuanced questions about climate change, channeling its disillusionment through Ethan Hawke’s character Ernst Toller. mother! chooses to deliver these questions with decided shock value that at a point numbs the viewer rather than inspires them.
Despite the ranging successes of climate change-oriented cinema in the last thirteen years, this metaphorical approach shows that the industry is taking notice of James Cameron’s message, and is finding new ways to adapt these messages to a modern-day audience. Cameron finds himself in an interesting position. No matter the financial performance of Avatar: The Way of Water, there seems to be little doubt that we will see the next instalment in this series. With the climate conversation picking up more speed than ever compared to where he found himself in 2009, Cameron is the largest-scale filmmaker to have the microphone right now, and there does not seem to be anyone who can take that position from him.
With Cameron’s stunning visual effects and his planned sequels reportedly releasing every two years until 2028’s Avatar 5, he has the unique opportunity to release a series that is constantly speaking to the ever-growing climate emergency, as it takes increasing shape in the cultural zeitgeist and on the planet itself. Climate change is going to keep growing, and as the special effects of the Avatar universe do as well, Cameron can in turn awe his audiences, whilst showing them that this awe comes at a price for our natural world. Cameron wants us to know that our home is with the ocean, and as the way of water connects all things, including our forests, it is our responsibility to protect them.
Words by James Evenden
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