Zoe Saldana And Kate Winslet Deserved Better In Avatar: The Way Of Water

The following post contains spoilers for "Avatar: The Way of Water."

Audiences have returned to Pandora almost a decade and a half after our first visit to James Cameron's "Avatar." The sequel takes place 14 years after the original film, and Jake Sully (Sam Worthington) and Neytiri (Zoe Saldaña) have a family of both biological and adopted children. Since most of the humans left Pandora, there have been years of peace. Now the RDA (Resources Development Administration) has returned, with Colonel Miles Quaritch (Stephen Lang) in a Na'vi avatar (it's complicated). Earth is dying, and there are riches to exploit here. You see where this is going. 

The Sully family has to evacuate after the children are captured, but the RDA is hunting them. They move to join the Metkayina, a faraway group of Na'vi who have evolved slightly differently to swim in the sea and commune with sentient whale-like creatures called Tulkun. They are given varying degrees of welcome by the leaders of the land; chief Tonowari (Cliff Curtis) is friendly, but his pregnant wife Ronal (Kate Winslet) isn't particularly happy to have them there. 

"Avatar" featured Neytiri as a main character, and her family is obviously central to the plot of "The Way of Water." However, Neytiri has a vastly reduced part in the sequel. Ronal's part is also small, and it feels like a missed opportunity to feature actors of this caliber. What happened?

Let's start with Ronal. We've all been reading stories about how Kate Winslet learned to free-dive and hold her breath underwater for seven minutes and 15 seconds. That's an incredible feat and mind-blowing to think about. However, it never did seem like we saw Ronal for that long. Her part seems to consist of grumbling at the Sullys, getting mad at the humans who use science to heal Kiri (Sigourney Weaver) because it's not traditional medicine, and snarling at enemies and her kids. We never learn who she is as a person and what she cares for other than her bonded Tulkun. 

Of course, there's got to be more to her. Visually, Ronal is stunning, and I wanted to know more. Perhaps if the film does well, and we're given all the promised sequels, we'll get more insight into who she is. It's hard to know what the entire arc will be without seeing it all, but this is the film I watched, and when you have a film that is three hours and 10 minutes long, having so many characters that still feel like strangers at the end is very odd. 

Add to that the fact that this is Kate freaking Winslet we're talking about, and it's a crime. Look, you can make a statement with a small part if you're good — which she is — but if you have nothing to work with other than being angry all the time, it's a losing battle. She has an Oscar, a Grammy, two Emmy Awards, five Golden Globe Awards, and three BAFTAs in addition to all her nominations. How do you not give her more to do? 

Neytiri was a massive part of the first film. She is a warrior deeply connected to Pandora and her people. Now she's a partner to Jake, a mother to their children, still a warrior, and damn it, I wanted to see more of her. All we got here was Neytiri getting angry, sobbing, or yelling, and it felt like she was barely in the story. It's something we see here and there with movie moms. They get stuck in the parenting-only trap. Sure, Jake and Neytiri do go on a "date" that lasts a few moments, but considering how much we see of Jake's character development and that of each of the children, she seems to do no more than react to her children's plot points until the final battle. This woman is a warrior and was capable and powerful long before Jake shows up. I didn't count the minutes that she was on the screen, but they can't amount to much. 

Of course, this could have something to do with scheduling. Zoe Saldaña is a busy actor with major franchises going on at the same time. She just felt shoved to the side here, and that's a real shame. The plot for the first film was pretty thin, but at least Neytiri was a fully developed character. This time around, I barely remember her doing more than yelling until right at the end. Perhaps future films will give her more of a chance to shine. One can at least hope. 

"Avatar: The Way of Water" is in theaters now.