Movie Family Therapy: AVATAR The Way of Water

How do you accept influence from your children? How do you create a safe family environment?

Licensed therapist Jonathan Decker and filmmaker Alan Seawright are watching Avatar: The Way of Water and diving into movie family therapy with the Sully family. They focus mostly on Jake and his military-like parenting style and how he treats his family like a squad. Jonathan explains what it takes to feel safe in a family, both physically and emotionally, and how to let your children make their own decisions and mistakes. Alan comments on the mind-boggling work that goes into making lifelike digital characters and world. And he praises the actors’ motion capture performances, particularly Sigourney Weaver playing a teenager and crushing it!

This episode was filmed during the Writer’s Strike.

According to SAG-Aftra, independent film reviewers are welcome to discuss movies that have already come out. These films were produced under previous contracts and wouldn’t be affected by any changes resulting from the strike.

Any praise for the films we discuss is praise for the writers, actors, directors, and so many other artists and craftspeople who made them. Without their labor, we wouldn’t be able to watch our favorite films together. Without their labor, our show wouldn’t be as impactful. Without their labor, our show wouldn’t exist.

Support us!

Cinema Therapy is:
Written by: Megan Seawright, Jonathan Decker, and Alan Seawright
Produced by: Jonathan Decker, Megan Seawright, Alan Seawright, and Corinne Demyanovich
Director of Photography: Bradley Olsen
English Transcription by: Anna Preis

Connect with us!

[rillegas_vods]

It's important to mention that Jake wasn't always a strict father. In the first few minutes, we see him teaching and playing with his kids, going on dates with his mate, and happy. It wasn't until he saw the RDA's ships that he reverted back into soldier mode

[yourstrulykaai]

Neytiri’s reaction to her oldest dying Is so real. I’ve seen movies where the reaction on the death of a child where it’s just a silent cry or maybe a sob. But this? If I lost a child, or my mom or sister or my partner? This is exactly how I would react. I’d be crying, screaming, denying, wailing… Zoe is incredible

[trinaq]

"The blood of the covenant is thicker than the water of the womb." I loved that Kiri is depicted as having a close bond with the Sullys, despite not being biologically related to them, and they treat her as one of their own.

[santos]

I don't think that Zoe Saldaña (Neytiri) gets enough credit for what a great actress she is and I think a lot of that is because she's usually playing humanoid aliens in genre movies. Her performance as new Gamora in Guardians 3 is one of that movie's most underappreciated aspects.

[nichole]

The editors kill me every time.

Someone give these guys an award. 😂

[trinaq]

You'd be surprised at how effective the 73 year old Sigourney Weaver was at playing a 14 year old girl. It sounds ridiculous on paper, but she really made it work. Her voice sounds huskier and older, though not unrealistically mature.

[valeereon]

Jake's "I see you, son" at the end was where I lost it. Such a beautiful and powerful sentence. I really liked how the kids stole the show at the end by saving both of their parents. They did exactly as Jake asked "Learn fast", and they did. Watching this movie in theaters, in 3D, was such an unforgettable experience 😄

[robert]

Minor detail in the dialogue that I love: Neytiri says to Jake at one point "this is not a squad, it is a family".
At some point during the last ten years, Jake likely opened up to her about his past life as a Human and his military service and she learned the word "squad" from him as a result.

[heynhamnham]

It was cut off from the first movie but Jake has lived so many wars. He was a soldier in the human wars, he was a soldier in the human Na'vi wars, he was a soldier as a na'vi. With a life like his I wouldn't blame him to have become a stone. He never dreamed of having a family, he most probably never even cared if he died or not but now he has a big family that depends on him and we can see clearly how desperate he is. He wants his kids to grow up as fast as possible and become warriors so that they can protect themselves when he's gone. He's terrified.

[riakun]

I felt the #cryingwithalan during Neteyam’s funeral. The family coming together to lay him to rest with Eywa, and then connecting to the tribe’s ancestral tree and seeing him again. Them officially accepting the place as their home, and where they can still feel their son’s spirit.
I’ve never lost a child, but I have lost friends and family members, and I feel like that scene really captures those emotions.

[spirit]

I agree that Lo'ak is almost the exact replica of young Jake - and that is why I believe Jake is harder on him, because he KNOWS what he brough upon himself with his behaviors and stuff, and when he saw that in his younger boy, he tried to stop it from happening. and i agree 100% with everything you are saying - you practically say everything i think and feel

[michaelkaduck]

I love that they made Way of Water more personal for Jake and his family. In the first movie, the personal story was small just because the main story was about the larger conflict of Pandora's Wildlife vs the Human Corporations. While that is still at play, and is more relevant with rising lea levels and pollution of bodies of water, Jake's journey as a loving, but flawed father makes it feel so much more down to earth. And him saying "I see you, son". by the end feels so earned.

[TheBellaOfBaritone]

As an army brat, seeing this hit so damn hard for me. Everything Jake does, I remember my brother doing after he got out of the army, to the point where I remember thinking "Who the hell is this? Idk who came back from post, but it isn't my brother. This isn't the guy who stood up to school bullies for me, this isn't the guy who helped me get my first experience of a runner's high that made me fall in love with running, this isn't the guy who spent weeks modding an Xbox to give to me for Christmas...I don't know this guy. He's just someone who treats me like a lowly recruit now, and I was born into this family. I didn't ENLIST into it." Seeing the kids clearly having that same sense of hurt, confusion and resentment is just....wow. Like looking in a big, tall, blue mirror.

The military changes a person. And even when in peacetime, it's not easy for someone to just shift back out of that mindset, especially when they're afraid. Just like Jake is afraid for his kids, and he goes back into Soldier Mode to cope with that, but it's just...not a healthy dynamic for a family. When the threat's gone, they're you're kids, not your troops.

[Marquia]

This episode is SO important for me right now. My husband is so hard on our son and he’s still very tiny and I’ve been trying to voice to him that he doesn’t have to just be hard but he needs to be open w him and thank y’all this was a beautiful episode

[carleeelders]

When I heard Sigourney Weaver would be returning in Avatar The Way of Water I expected she would be her previous character Grace in a memory. No, the 65 year old (now 73) played a deceased Grace's 15-year old daughter...and nailed it! Also shout out to unknown Britain Dalton's amazing performance as Lo'ak. These actors, and the movie itself, deserves a lot more credit. Loved it! 🤩

[Sarah-qxvz]

When they’re all next to the whale together and Jake says “Sullys stick together, ” it reminds me of my parents driving 12 hours up to help me escape and move away from my abusive (now ex) husband. We all got together and planned my escape and my parents jokingly said “go team [last name]!” To try and alleviate the heaviness of the situation.

I love them.

[crystalgonzales]

I actually found the siblings dynamic very real. I'm the older sibling and I'm expected to be an example, to take responsibility, to keep the others out of trouble, especially when I was younger. Always trying to do right, and always seeking your parents' approval. Your younger siblings might hate you too for always being the "perfect" one, etc. So I really felt the dynamic between the two brothers. That's me and my younger sister, the "rebel" one. It's pretty complex. And I can understand both sides. I just wished they showed a bit more about Neteyam's struggle and the weight he was carrying in his shoulders.

[complexlive]

Many people for some reason didn't like this movie but I think it's actually better than the Original. Way of the Water takes a great approach of mental family tolls. It makes you see the depth and development of the whole Sully Family. It shows the emotional toll on the children when told orders and confronted about their issues. But immediately afterward shows that they do care for each other. Even down to their son's death, it shows the love and mourning they are all facing especially Neytiri.

[alicenolfi]

I liked the family dynamic well enough, though I found it kinda messed up that, not only do they seem only minimally concerned when Spider is kidnapped, but nobody confronts Neytiri for what she did to him. I get that Jake saw him as a ‘stray cat’, frequently seen but not really ‘theirs’, but aside from Kiri mentioning missing him ONCE, the kids seemingly forget all about him until the climax rolls around.

[dbs]

Jake saying "I see you, son" really struck me harder than I was expecting it to, I was trying to keep from making sobbing noises in the theater for the rest of the movie after that. That's what I've wanted from my parents my whole life, to be seen, as I am.