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Avatar: The Way of Water
Movie

Avatar: The Way of Water

2022 • Action, Adventure, Fantasy

Woke Score
6.5
out of 10

Plot

Jake Sully lives with his newfound family formed on the extrasolar moon Pandora. Once a familiar threat returns to finish what was previously started, Jake must work with Neytiri and the army of the Na'vi race to protect their home.

Overall Series Review

Avatar: The Way of Water continues the franchise's overtly political and ideological narrative, which is largely an allegory for anti-colonialism and radical environmentalism. The central conflict remains the struggle between the technologically advanced, capitalistic, and militaristic 'Sky People' (humanity/Western-coded civilization) and the spiritual, indigenous-coded Na'vi people. The film offers a simplistic, binary moral framework where the human faction is irredeemably evil, motivated solely by profit, extraction, and the conquest of a dying Earth's substitute, while the Na'vi are noble, ecological stewards of a perfect planet. While the movie celebrates traditional family structure and complementary gender roles within the Na'vi community, directly opposing a key aspect of 'woke' ideology (anti-natalism/deconstruction of the nuclear family), it is profoundly committed to themes of civilizational self-hatred and anti-Western identitarianism (colonizer vs. colonized), which heavily influence the overall 'wokeness' of the media. The spirituality is explicitly pagan and pantheistic, positioning a reverence for nature (Eywa) as the ultimate moral truth against human materialism. The film's intensity in vilifying human civilization and exalting the 'Noble Savage' trope elevates its score significantly despite the absence of explicit LGBTQ+ or radical feminist messaging.

Categorical Breakdown

Identity Politics9/10

The narrative is a direct allegory for post-colonial critique, explicitly casting the human 'Sky People' as the evil, resource-extractive colonizers, and the Na'vi as the noble, oppressed Indigenous peoples. This aligns with a 'colonizer vs. colonized' or oppressor vs. oppressed hierarchy based on group identity (species/culture) over individual merit. The central hero remains Jake Sully, a former white human turned Na'vi leader, which perpetuates the controversial 'white savior' trope within an anti-colonial narrative. The villainous humans are almost uniformly depicted as incompetent, vicious, and motivated purely by greed.

Oikophobia9/10

The film operates on an extreme form of civilizational self-hatred by portraying Earth as a destroyed, desolate 'dustbowl' and humanity's culture as fundamentally corrupt, driven by destructive capitalism, militarism, and a disordered quest for material gain or immortality. The Na'vi, or 'Other' culture, are unequivocally exalted as spiritually and ecologically superior 'Noble Savages' who possess 'wisdom and intelligence' that human civilization has lost. The underlying message is that Western-coded industrial and technological progress is inherently evil and destructive.

Feminism3/10

The score is low because the core of the film actively celebrates and reinforces the traditional nuclear family. The plot centers on Jake's obsession with protecting his family ('Sullys stick together'), a theme that runs counter to anti-natalism. Mothers, such as Neytiri and Ronal, are fierce warriors and spiritual leaders, demonstrating strength and competence, but their primary motive is maternal/familial protection. The gender dynamics are largely complementary, with both male and female characters having distinct but equally vital roles, resisting the 'Girl Boss' trope that requires the emasculation of men.

LGBTQ+1/10

The film contains no overt messaging, themes, or representation related to LGBTQ+ ideology, alternative sexualities, or the deconstruction of the nuclear family. The narrative is intensely focused on the male-female pair (Jake and Neytiri) and their heterosexual nuclear family unit, adhering to a normative structure.

Anti-Theism8/10

The film's spirituality, embodied by Eywa, is a form of deep-ecology pantheism, depicting a sentient, interconnected planet that the Na'vi commune with. This nature-based system is portrayed as the source of all moral and spiritual truth, directly contrasting with and condemning the human, materialistic worldview. While it does not directly vilify a specific Abrahamic religion, it replaces a transcendent, objective moral law with a pagan, immanent moral law of nature, fitting the high end of the 'spiritual vacuum' score by embracing an alternative spiritual/moral system and framing the human antagonists as materialist and amoral.