Unlike the first “Avatar”, in which the Na’vi used their own language to communicate with each other, the characters speak human language almost all the time in “The Way of the Water”. But how to explain this change?
Thirteen years ago, in the first Avatar released in 2009, as Jake Sully timidly took his first steps into a new civilization, you could hear the Na’vi using their own language when communicating with each other. The sequences in question were therefore subtitled in French.
Set several years after the events of the first film, at a time when Jake Sully has now become a true inhabitant of Pandora, one would have expected The Way of the Water (in theaters since December 14) to be subject to the same rules. Mainly populated by Na’vis who – most of the time – talk to each other, this new 3:10 film would then have been almost entirely subtitled.
However, there is nothing. And for most of the movie, the Pandora natives communicate with each other in English (or French, depending on which version you choose). Some spectators have also wondered why, sometimes going so far as to criticize this second feature film for a real inconsistency compared to the first.
Walt Disney Company
However this change of language, which intervenes as of the prologue of film, is completely justified by the narration of Cameron. Indeed, while Jake Sully’s voice-over tells viewers how the years that followed the first Avatar unfolded, the hero explains that over time, by dint of hearing the Na’vi spoken, this language is become for him “like English”.
From this moment, the film does without subtitles, and the natives of Pandora begin to speak a language intelligible to the public. In concrete terms, and through a skilful screenwriting process, the spectator thus accompanies Jake Sully into his understanding of the Na’vi language.
This little trick, thanks to which Cameron saves us an entire feature film listening to an unknown language, had already been used several times before, and in particular in films by John McTiernan such as The 13th Warrior or In pursuit of Red October.
Note also that in The Way of the Water, the subtitles occasionally return over the course of the feature film, for example when the Metkayina use sign language underwater, or when they speak with the Tulkun.
(Re)discover our interview with James Cameron…