Avatar: The Way of Water has many familiar details.
After the first week of global release, Avatar: The Way of Water has really become a “blockbuster” as expected with huge revenue, far ahead of projects that are showing at the same time. James Cameron’s latest project brings audiences back to Pandora, but there are many other interesting details. Many segments in Avatar 2 remind the audience of many old works, spanning different cult brands.
Inspiration for the sea clan Metkayina
According to the team, the image of the Metkayina clan is deeply inspired by the Maori – a minority tribe living in New Zealand. In fact, some Maori actors assisted the design team to create the right setting and costumes for the Metkayina characters in Avatar 2.
Learn how to be a Na’vi
That is the strategy of General Quaritch after returning to Pandora once again. He advised his teammates to learn to walk and talk like a true Na’vi to blend in, like Jake Sully did in the past. This detail is reminiscent of some popular film projects in the past, when the main character also had to “integrate” into the mountains to survive, like Dutch in Predator or Walter in Apocalypse Now.
Kiri’s convulsion
Kiri is the daughter of the old Doctor Augustine Grace, whose father’s identity is still a mystery. However, Kiri has a very special identity, associated with Eywa – the Mother of God and is a god worshiped by Pandora. Kiri herself shows many signs that she is Eywa’s new “vessel”, such as the ability to control nature, being able to breathe long underwater… In the segment when linked with Metkayina’s Tree of Souls , Kiri had a convulsion and lost consciousness. These are all very familiar details in a series of horror movies about exorcism, when the character goes through many events and eventually becomes linked with a non-scientific entity.
Tarzan of the land of Pandora
It is easy to see that the Spider boy character is built with many similarities with the famous Tarzan guy through Disney animation. Like Tarzan, Spider also had an unhappy childhood, no family and was protected and raised by a different kind of human (here, the Na’vi). Since then, Spider has behave and live more like Na’vi people than humans. Even his hair and appearance are reminiscent of Tarzan.
“Step into the belly of the beast”
Lo’ak is the second son of Jake Sully and Neytiri, always feeling like an outsider. That’s why he befriended a Tulkun fish named Payakan, who was also shunned and abandoned. To understand what happened to Payakan, Lo’ak performed a ritual to enter the fish’s mouth, attaching his hair to Payakan’s cells to revisit the past. This is an expression of a commonly used term in cinema, “into the belly of the beast”, to refer to the darkest milestone a character passes in order to develop. In addition, this scene is reminiscent of the scene where Pinocchio’s grandson’s boat got lost in the belly of a classic whale.
Fishing
Near the end of the film, the audience had the opportunity to be outraged and heartbroken when watching humans hunt and kill many Tulkun fish just to get a little bit of fluid from their brains. This series of compounds can help people stay young forever, considered the most valuable substance that the people in Avatar 2 have ever found. This detail is closely related to a real-life event, when there was an operation of sperm whales to exploit Ambergris – a substance secreted from their digestive system and used for production. perfume.
Tribute to Titanic
Avatar: The Way of Water as a way that James Cameron pays tribute to his “love history” in the past – Titanic. In addition to inviting “Rose” Kate Winslet to return to the sea, James Cameron also brought a shipwreck scene at the end of the film, making viewers as suspenseful as the 1997 film. The whole human shipwreck. into the deep sea, in which many characters are in danger such as Jake Sully, Neytiri, baby Tuk and General Quaritch. In particular, the scene of mother and daughter Neytiri trapped in a compartment filled with water and panicking really “smelt” of Titanic.
Learn from Ghibli movies
After all, Jake Sully lost his eldest son Neteyam in the battle with humans. The whole family made Neteyam’s funeral in accordance with the rites of the Metkayina clan, taking his body to the sea and then sinking it, releasing him into the lap of Metkayina’s Tree of Souls. This detail is inspired by the detail in the cartoon The Princess in the Valley of the Wind, when the heroine Nausicaa used to lie in a place with similar visual effects.
Besides, Avatar 2 also has many familiar details, reminiscent of part 1. The return of General Quaritch in Na’vi form similar to Jake Sully in the past, or how the characters must respect the difference. In particular, looking at the surrounding life with a different lens is also clearly shown. The film is showing in theaters nationwide.
Image source: 20th Century Fox
