“Avatar: the way of water” is a stunningly beautiful film in places, with breathtaking ocean scenes. It also has its share of action sequences. But ultimately it falls down in the story-telling with a plot that focuses too much on children and a tired revenge motif.

The movie begins 10 years after the departure of the Sky People (Earth humans) from the moon Pandora. In that time, Jake Sully (Sam Worthington), now a full-fledged member and leader of the Omaticaya, and his wife Neytiri (Zoe Saldana) have had time to start a family. These include Neteyam (Jamie Flatters), Lo’ak (Britain Dalton) and Tuk (Trinity Jo-Li Bliss). In addition, they have adopted a hybrid teenager, Kiri (Sigourney Weaver). These four are often joined in their activities by a human teenager, Spider (Jack Champion), who was an infant when the Sky People left and so could not go into a cryo-chamber.

Things take a turn for the worse when a bright new star is sighted. The Sky People have returned in force. They immediately begin their desecration of the environment.

The picture goes forward a year and the Na’vi, led by Jake, attack a maglev train of the Sky People. In one of many instances to follow, Lo’ak disobeys his father’s orders and so gets chided. Neytiri later argues that he just wants to live up to his father’s reputation.

The Sky People have had enough. They have created a group of recombinant Na’vi, cloned from humans, of their own, led by one who has the genetic memory of Colonel Miles Quaritch (Stephen Lang) implanted into him. As such, his long-time grudge against Jake Sully becomes an obsession for him. This is convenient since their mission is to find the rebels, who are hiding in caves, and destroy them.

Since they are Na’vi, the natural elements of Pandora do not seek to destroy them. In an initial landing, they encounter Jake’s once-again disobedient children and Spider and take some of them captive. Jake is alerted and he and Neytiri rescue everyone but Spider who is taken back to Bridgehead City, the Sky People base.

After torture to get Spider to reveal the location of the Na’vi encampment fails, Quaritch decides to take Spider, who, it turns out, was the human Quaritch’s son, along on further expeditions. As he and the others can barely speak the Na’vi language, Spider becomes their translator.

Fearing that Spider will reveal their location, Jake decides that he must take his family out of the forest and across the waters to islands occupied by a branch of the Na’vi. Neytiri is sad but agrees.

They arrive at an island occupied by the Metkayina clan, led by the chief Tonowari (Cliff Curtis) and his wife Ronal (Kate Winslet). Sanctuary is granted to the Sully family. As they are physiologically different from the sea dwellers, they must learn to adapt to an oceanic way of existence.

Quaritch, having learned the general whereabouts of Jake, his team and Spider join a fishing fleet hunting tulkuns, giant whale-like creatures. By killing a tulkun with bonds to the Metkayina, Quaritch knows that he will incite Jake and his new allies to attack his ship. The final confrontation is set in motion.

The ecological environments of Pandora, whether forest or ocean, are just incredible to see. This is the highlight of this movie. It is a shame that a plot could not be devised that did not involve the Sky People so that more time could have been spent exploring the richness of the Pandoran biosphere. The 3-D effects get you right from the beginning of the film and they are spectacularly rendered. This is a movie that is meant to be seen in a large theater or in IMAX.

Cameron is excellent at world-building. The cultures of the Omaticaya and the Metkayina are very detailed. Not much time is wasted on explication but rather demonstrated through action. The exception is the arrival of the Sully family who have to be taught to thrive in the water, but even this does not rise to the level of the pedantic.

There is a beautiful scene at the end which shows how the Na’vi deal with grieving. I could only wish that this were possible for humans.

The sequences where Neytiri and Jake defend their children are superb. Zoe Saldana in particular as Neytiri displays a ferocity which is utterly believable and intense.

The technology portrayed here is top-notch as well. There are these insect-like robots which erect buildings. The transportation of various kinds is very cool. What hasn’t changed much is weaponry, still as destructive as ever.

Where Cameron and his fellow screenwriters fall down is in the plot. Too much time is focused on Sully’s children. Their lives are not complex enough to be interesting at all. Adults are reduced to side figures, if not archetypes.

Furthermore, Sully’s and Tonowari’s children all seem to be incorrigibly disobedient. I wondered if their parents shouldn’t advise them to do the opposite of what they wanted them to do to compel obedience. These acts of defiance become predictable and tedious. In the third and final act, there are multiple occasions when they don’t listen to their parents. It just never ends.

There is one extended scene involving whaling that was so drawn out in its violence that it seemed over the top. I think that audiences would have seen that whaling is bad without dragging this episode out for as long as it was.

The final act of the movie has some brilliant battle sequences. This reminded me of the Cameron who directed “The Terminator” and “Aliens.” But unlike those taut scripts, this last confrontation goes on and on.

In fact, this picture in general seems to be a model of director cognitive dissonance. On the one hand, we have the beautiful world-building which Cameron did here and in “The Abyss.” On the other hand, we have the hyper-violence of “The Terminator” and “Aliens.” I do not think that Cameron succeeds in merging the two organically or satisfyingly here.

This is no doubt a must-see movie. The visual effects alone are worth the price of admission. But unfortunately the wonder of “Avatar: the way of water” is dragged down by its routine plot.

Three and a half out of five stars

With “Avatar: The Way of Water,” the cinematic experience reaches new heights as Cameron transports audiences back to the magnificent world of Pandora in a spectacular and stirring action-packed adventure. Set more than a decade after the events of the first film, “Avatar: The Way of Water” begins to tell the story of the Sully family (Jake, Neytiri, and their kids), the trouble that follows them, the lengths they go to keep each other safe, the battles they fight to stay alive, and the tragedies they endure.

Directed by James Cameron
Starring Sam Worthington, Zoe Saldaña, Sigourney Weaver, Stephen Lang and Kate Winslet
Screenplay by James Cameron & Rick Jaffa & Amanda Silver
Story by James Cameron & Rick Jaffa & Amanda Silver & Josh Friedman & Shane Salerno