Oscars Awards 2023 Best Picture nominee: Can Avatar 2 win the trophy?

Surprising everyone except those who have closely followed the career of James Cameron, Avatar: The Way of Water broke pretty much every box office record. The director once again proved that he is not, not ever, to be underestimated. The film started off just fine, numbers-wise, but its December release meant it was consistent and had long legs. It was more of a tortoise, but once as fast as a hare. At the time of writing this, it has grossed $2.26 billion, and has become the third-highest-grossing movie of all time in terms of worldwide box office figures. A sequel to 2009's Avatar, The Way of Water continued the story of the Sully family and pitted them against an old enemy in new, er, Avatar.

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Four Oscar nominations

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In the Oscars 2023, Avatar: The Way of Water has scored four nominations, including the Best Picture category. Other nominations are technical, and include Best Sound, Best Production Design, and Best Visual Effects. Let's talk about the Best Picture possibility of the Cameron movie.

Is Avatar: The Way of Water a great movie?

It kind of is. Cameron is one of the finest, if a little temperamental, makers of blockbusters around today. Few, if any, can match up to his ability to craft exciting action and stunning and imaginative visuals. With the Avatar franchise, he ventured into conceptualising and creating an entirely new alien world (or moon, if you are being pedantic) with its own flora, fauna, ecology, atmosphere, and so on. Not only everything was rendered in mind-boggling detail, despite all the bright colours and fantasy-like feel, it was authentic — after a fashion. It really did seem as though Pandora exists somewhere in the outer reaches of the galaxy (okay, it is meant to exist in the Alpha Centauri System, which is actually the closest star system to our solar system).

The Way of Water was only better. Everything was more lifelike, more detailed, and prettier. A lot of the film was set underwater, and Cameron once again showed mastery over envisaging fictitious and yet somehow tangibly real life forms.

It will take your breath away. Everything is gorgeous in a cinematic, dynamic way. It sounds weird when I say this, but despite being so beautiful, the film managed to be subtle. The visual elements seamlessly blended into one other, and the film encouraged one to forget everything one is looking at was created in computers. In a few shots, particularly in the water, it is certain Cameron was showing off. And indeed my jaw was hanging slack, wondering how in the world he did it.

Will Avatar: The Way of Water win the Best Picture Oscar?

That is the big question. My guess is no. Sure, the Academy might pull off a surprise, and not every movie that gets an Oscar is deserving or indeed worth watching. But it is likely that The Way of Water will not win an Oscar. The reason is, with all its splendour and eye candy, The Way of Water's story is strictly serviceable. The director has never been an impressive deviser of complex, gripping plots and characters beyond surface level. He does have the uncanny ability to build exciting narratives around action set pieces, and The Way of Water is no exception. The Way of Wateris, in effect, a typical Cameron movie with all its glories and downfalls. It all comes across as something we have seen before, and done much better.

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Even the themes are pretty much the same, as sweeping and simplistic as before. Just like Avatar, none too delicately, hammered home the point that we should protect our forests, The Way of Water brings our attention to the oceans. New creatures in the film include over-friendly whale-like mammals called tulkun, and naturally, there are whalers extracting from their blubber the Pandora equivalent of whale oil, Amrita. Similar to the nectar in Hindu mythology that is supposed to make its consumer immortal, Amrita stops aging.

Yes, the natural world and the equilibrium in fragile ecosystems are worth preserving. And yes, many indigenous populations have a strong connection to the flora and fauna in the regions they inhabit. Oh, and technology can often be dangerous. But we knew that already, Cameron. Say something new!

I jest, but only a little. The Way of Water is certainly worth watching once in the theatre in 3D. It is, I would say, a quintessential movie-viewing experience, and will wow you with its beauty. And yet, once you get out of it, the simplistic story rears its ugly head.

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