4 Things Parents Should Know about Avatar: The Way of Water

Jake Sully is a loving father and husband who has experienced the best of everything the universe has to offer.

He grew up on 22nd-century Earth, the home of his twin brother, Tommy, and the parents who shaped him for life.

Then he moved to Pandora, a distant moon around a distant star, where he fell in love with and married a bluish native woman, Neytiri, the mother of his children.

Life couldn't be better. Family life is so enjoyable, he says, that it seems "like a dream."

But Jake's peaceful life soon gets interrupted. It seems Earth's resources are depleted, and its population is crowded. The people of Earth need a new home, and they've sent an army to tame the natives of Pandora. Even worse: Jake is a wanted man by the army.

Will he and his family survive?

The new film Avatar: The Way of Water (PG-13) tells the story of Jake and his family. It stars Sam Worthington, Zoe Saldana, Sigourney Weaver and Kate Winslet. It was written and directed by James Cameron.

Here are four things parents should know about the film:

1. It's a Sequel to a 2009 Blockbuster

Way of the Water is a sequel to the 2009 movie Avatar, which also was written and directed by Cameron and became the highest-grossing film in the U.S. It supplanted Titanic at No. 1, yet since has been passed by several movies and sits at No. 4 on the all-time domestic charts – although Avatar remains the top-grossing movie in worldwide gross (at $2.9 billion).

The 2009 version of Avatar told the futuristic story of a (human) Marine, Jake Sully, who is sent to the moon Pandora in the Alpha Centauri star system in order to help mine a valuable mineral, unobtanium. Sully, though, becomes torn between fulfilling his mission and protecting the blue people of Pandora (the Na'vi). Toward the end of the film, Jake ceases to be human and becomes a Na'vi. (If you're curious, the Na'vi use a magical plant called the "Tree of Souls" to accomplish this.)

Avatar received high praise from critics who applauded what was – for the time – groundbreaking motion capture effects and CGI animation. "I have seen the future of movies, and it is Avatar," Tom Long of the Detroit News wrote in 2009.

The Way of Water begins 10 years after the 2009 film.

2. It's All About Nature … and Worldviews

The native people of Pandora consider nature their equal. They worship nature. They communicate with nature. They receive their energy from it.

In one scene, a Na'vi pregnant woman talks to a pregnant whale-like sea creature, exchanging stories and wishing each other well. In another scene, an underwater creature saves the life of a Na'vi teen who seemingly had died drowning. In still another scene, a Na'vi girl "controls" an underwater plant with her mind, turning it into a weapon against the enemy. We also hear a Na'vi woman pray to nature itself. ("Mother help us," she prays to the nature god, named "Eywa.”) As one Na'vi native tells another one: "The way of water has no beginning and no end. The sea is around you and in you. The sea is your home before your birth and after your death. The sea gives, and the sea takes. Water connects all things – life to death and darkness to light."

We're even told that sea creatures are smarter than us, more emotional than us, and more spiritual than us. (This is partially because they have more brain neurons, a scientist says.)

The worldview of the Na'vi slams into the worldview of the invading humans, who not only want a new planet ("Earth is dying. Our task here is to tame this frontier," a general says) but also are hunting for a rare anti-aging chemical that is found only in a gland of massive underwater creatures (one jar is valued at $80 million).

In the real world, theologians label the unbiblical worldview of Avatar a cross between animism (the belief that everything has a soul or spirit) and pantheism (the belief that everyone and everything is God).

By comparison, the Bible teaches that there is but one God. He created everything and is over everything. We are to worship the Creator, not the creation (Romans 1:25).

3. It's All About Family

Family is a major theme of The Way of Water. In the film's opening moments, Jake Sully explains how he and his wife, Neytiri, had two biological boys (Neteyam and Lo'ak), a biological daughter (Tuk) and adopted a daughter, Kiri. We watch the kids play with each other and with their parents. Alas, he says, time with his children "goes by too fast." (It's "like a dream.”) Happiness, he says, is taking a "date night" with his wife and getting away from the kids. (We see them flying on a massive winged creature at night, laughing and chatting.)

Jake's peaceful life, though, is transformed when humans again invade Pandora and the film's antagonist – an avatar clone of a dead man named Quaritch – targets Jake. For the rest of the film, Jake is on the run from Quaritch. Yet wherever he goes, his family travels with him – largely so he can protect them. (This includes a lengthy hideaway across the sea to live with a different tribe of Na'vi who reside along the reefs and are more green than blue.)

"This family is our fortress," Jake says.

Jake views himself as the family's defender.

"A father protects," he says twice in the film. "It's what gives him meaning."

4. It Isn't Kid-Friendly

The people of Pandora may be smart, but they aren't modest. Men and women wear loincloths that leave their backsides exposed. (Na'vi, of course, also have tails.) The women drape jewelry around their necks to cover their chests, although it often falls short of its goal. The Way of the Water may be free of sexuality – there are no bedroom scenes – but it has plenty of (blue computerized) nudity.

It has a moderate amount of coarse language (details below) and a considerable amount of violence, with multiple explosions and gun battles (including automatic weapons). We see people killed via arrows to the head and heart. We see another man stabbed. Teens punch and fight. A whale-like female sea creature is separated from her calf and poached. A man's arm is ripped off from his body. (We see it fly through the air.) A Na'vi teenage boy dies.

Then there's the movie's length. At roughly three hours, it surpasses the bladder limit of every child I know.

No doubt, you could have cut about 30-45 minutes from the film and maintained the exact same plot. On the other hand, you would have lost many of the underwater visuals that make the film so fun.

The Way of Water is a visual delight, with colorful, other-worldly sea creatures often filling every inch of the screen and natives swimming along in peaceful bliss. The final 45 minutes of the film make it worth the wait.

Some people say The Way of Water is better than the first Avatar. They're probably right.

Rated PG-13 for sequences of strong violence and intense action, partial nudity and some strong language.

Entertainment rating: 3.5 out of 5 stars.

Family-friendly rating: 2 out of 5 stars.

Language details: b--ch (2), h-ll (7), SOB (2), Jesus (1), a-- (5), s--t (9), d--n (3), b-----ds (1). We also see a child/teen display the middle finger.

Photo courtesy: ©Disney, used with permission.

Michael Foust has covered the intersection of faith and news for 20 years. His stories have appeared in Baptist Press, Christianity Today, The Christian Post, the Leaf-Chronicle, the Toronto Star and the Knoxville News-Sentinel.