Avatar: The Way of Water - 4 nominations

 

Best Sound Julian Howarth Gwendolyn Yates Whittle Dick Bernstein Christopher Boyes Gary Summers Michael Hedges

Best Achievement in Visual Effects Joe Letteri Richard Baneham Eric Saindon Daniel Barrett

Best Motion Picture of the Year James Cameron (producer) Jon Landau (producer)

Best Achievement in Production Design Dylan Cole Ben Procter Vanessa Cole

Jake Sully is back in this beautiful sequel to the original Avatar film.  He has married Neytiri, and together they have 4 Na'vi children and one semi-adopted human child (known as Spider). Jake serves as the chief of the Omatikaya clan in the forests of Pandora.  Though killed in battle in the first movie, Colonel Miles Quaritch and others are back and reincarnated as Na'vi avatars who have had the human soldiers' memories implanted in their brains, and they are ready for another fight.  Driven by revenge and a need to take over Pandora's resources, the members of the "RDA" are eager to kill Jake and his family. They manage to kidnap Spider and bring him back to the military ship to interrogate him and hopefully turn his allegiance to the humans.

The Sully clan determines that their presence among the forest Na'vi is putting the entire community in danger so they flee and ask for refuge among the Metkayina clan who live by and commune with the ocean.  Reluctant to bring danger into their community, the tribe ultimately welcomes the family and teaches them how to live among their people.

But the RDA soldiers are not going to give up.  They chase the family and hunt the Tulkun whale-like creatures who live in spiritual harmony with the Na'vi tribe as a means of drawing Jake Sully out to kill him.  All this for both profit and revenge, again kidnapping Sully's children and threatening the peaceful existence of the clan.  Though I won't offer any spoilers, part 3 of this 5-part saga is well set up with this story, both for characters who will want revenge and for the fate of Pandora and its Na'vi inhabitants.

As expected, Avatar: The Way of Water has swept the technical categories for nominations.  As the first one was, this film is visually and audibly stunning (I even paid extra for the 3D experience, and it was worth it). The story is emotional and compelling, and it delivers on the big budget epic Hollywood experience that only James Cameron can produce.  Is it a must-see film?  Not really.  If you see it (and you saw the first one and liked it) will you love it?  Absolutely.