Avatar: The Way of Water
Summary
WhileAvatar : The agency of Water ’s Tulkun hunting subplot might seem entirely original , the plot line secretly thumb on an former James Cameron pic ’s plot . James Cameron has a fistful of consistent obsession that show up throughout his oeuvre . FromTitanictoAvatar : The mode of Water , toThe Abyss , to his disowned directorial debutPiranha : The Spawning , it is clear that the visionary director is fascinated by water and how the enormousness of the oceans can be capture on - concealment . Judging by theAvatarmovies , The Abyss , andAliens , it is also fairish to say that alien contain a certain fascination for him .
However , whileAvatar : The Way of Water ’s endingmarries these two life history - long obsession for Cameron , there are some subtler example of the theater director ’s interests making their way into his movies . The Terminatorand its sequelTerminator 2 : Judgment Dayfeature a lot of high - technical school futuristic weaponry , as doesAliens . What viewers might be more likely to miss is the fact thatThe Way of Water ’s lengthy Tulkun hunt episode also highlight some impressive military engineering . Since these weapons are wielded by pocket-size villains , it is easy not to point out that the framing ’s nidus on them echo Cameron ’s earlier heavy weapon - heavy film .
Avatar 2’s Tulkun Hunting Story Mirrors Aliens
Aliens and The Way of Water both focus on humans hunting aliens
Similarly , Avatar : The path of Water ’s entire Tulkun hunt game mirrors the floor ofAliensalthough the 2022 sequel bring a more sympathetic vista of its exotic characters and a far dimmer sentiment of their human assaulter . In bothThe Way of WaterandAliens , to a great extent armed human space traveler attempt to trap an alien mintage to overwork them as a resourcefulness , only to pay with their lives . However , whilethe plannedAvatarmoviesmight shew that the Tulkun have a colored side , inThe Way of Waterthey are firmly depict as the victims in this scenario .
Aliensis more complicated since , while the Xenomorphs are n’t actively hunt down the movie ’s human persona , their assaulter also are n’t aware of what they are doing . The humans hunting the Xenomorphs inAliensdon’t realize this is the sole objective of their missionary post and they are n’t too happy about it when they learn the Sojourner Truth . The Way of Water ’s Tulkun hunter have no job attacking and killing the Pandoran creatures , even split a baby from its female parent to kill both animals . In contrast , the human character ofAliensmay have turned down their mission if they knew its real use .
Avatar 2’s Tulkun Plot Changes Its Perspective
The Tulkun are the heroes of their story instead of the monsters
The bountiful remainder betweenAliensandThe Way of Water ’s alien hunt plot line is thatAliensdoesn’t take place from the POV of the Xenomorphs . However , The Way of Watertechnically is n’t say through the Tulkun position either , with the Na’vi liaise most of their screen time . Although viewers do hear from one Tulkun , Payakan , he is a lone outcast for most of its runtime and his subplot still focuses on his Na’vi friend , Lo’ak . As such , there is an argument to be made that neither movie focus the POV of its exotic victims over its human/ Na’vi part .
That said , no matterwho theAvatarfranchise ’s material protagonistis , The path of Water ’s human characters are portrayed much less empathetically than the protagonist ofAliens . The most likable Tulkun hunter is Jermaine Clement ’s conflicted Dr. Ian Garvin , and his role is more than overshadowed by Brendan Cowell ’s outright sadistic Captain Mick Scoresby . More broadly speaking , the human characters are much more complicit in the Tulkun huntingthan the heroes ofAliensare in procure Xenomorphs for Weyland - Yutani . Ripley , Newt , the android Bishop , and Hicks are portrayed as hero sandwich , while many of the rearm Colonial Marines are at the very least sympathetic .
Avatar 2’s Tulkun Plot and Aliens Share A Primary Theme
Aliens and The Way of Water both have a dim view of corporations
WhileThe Way of Watermight be much less forgiving of its human characters , bothAliensand theAvatarsequel portion out a common theme . The two moving-picture show are about human corporations being more vicious and inhumane than any of the aliens that they run , as Ripley delicately noted in one noted inverted comma . The fact thatPayakan the Tulkunis falsely portrayed as a killer for defending himself against human Orion reflects this , with his role in the massacre essentially amounting to a Xenomorph ’s response when hard armed man get into its den and set about round the alien and its family .
Both picture posit that the corporation trying to educe resources from these alien are the one at fault rather than the species themselves . IfAliensdidn’t make this clear enough when Ripley observe that the Xenomorphs would n’t rat each other for the sake of net profit , The Way of Wateroffered an even more blatant , less ambiguous retelling of the same story . Here , the human hunters were entirely aware of their unethical body of work , the Tulkun were entirely harmless and defenceless , and the corporation ’s decisiveness to attack them was undeniably unwarrantable as a event . It is a more direct revision of the same game .
Avatar 2’s Tulkun Storyline Highlights Cameron’s Biggest Career Shift
Cameron’s career has seen him change allegiances in human/alien conflicts
Throughout his career , James Cameron has gotten a lot less veiled in his metaphorical storytelling . Payakan the Tulkun is initially introduced as a definitive movie monster , but Cameron soon reveals that his community treating him as a killer Ishmael is unfair and inaccurate . WhileAvatar 3promises nefarious Na’vi , this depiction of the Tulkun line up them with real - aliveness endangered species like killer hulk to make it light that they are unambiguously heroic compare to the nefarious humankind . Thus , The means of Wateroffers a more charitable portrayal of its aggrieved alien species than the originalAvatar .
InAvatar , the Na’vi were mostly symmetrical but from time to time hostile and tight - minded . This in itself was a much more empathetic take on an jeopardize species thanAliens , wherein the Xenomorphs were portrayed as unthinking killing car that still did n’t deserve to be exploit for gain . As Cameron ’s career has work up , his aliens have get less monstrous as their human attackers have become less relatable . As a result , each subsequent moving-picture show nudges viewing audience nearer to the approximation that , when corporations are allowed to trace a species for net , they become the real villains of stories likeAvatar : The Way of Water ’s Tulkun subplot .
Cast
