In Avatar: Fire and Ash, James Cameron made the same movie he made last time, only with cheesier dialogue and lamer family drama. Incredible visual effects and strong action sequences still make the spectacle worth it. But only barely.
It’s sort of amazing that over the course of three hours and 15 minutes, Cameron somehow only manages to regurgitate the same story we saw in The Way of Water without progressing the narrative in any way or form. Fire and Ash is visually bold and absolutely gorgeous to look at, but the storytelling is stunningly, and disappointingly, meek and unambitious. Say what you will about Star Wars: The Last Jedi, but remember that scene where Snoke, the big baddie of the trilogy, is killed midway through? The dynamic shifts instantly, forcing the audience to change its expectations on a dime. Despite multiple opportunities, Avatar: Fire and Ash never does this. Cameron never even tries. There are several instances where Neytiri (Zoe Saldaña), consumed with rage, almost just lets things rip, and each time, her husband Jake (Sam Worthington) raises a hand and tells her to back off. She obliges. Yawn.
As previously mentioned, this new Avatar is over three hours long and there is no reason for it to be. But Cameron has stuffed this franchise with more characters than a George R.R. Martin novel, most of whom aren’t nearly as interesting as his original leads. Instead of focusing on a compelling, new story that centers on Jake and Neytiri, Cameron spends preposterous amounts of time with a bunch of teenagers—again—so that we can hear them call each other “bro.”
The writing simply isn’t good. The dialogue is cheesy, the acting among these newcomers generally tepid. Take Spider, played by Jack Champion; he’s a critical character and yet everything he says and does is hamfisted. Coupled with the fact that this shirtless white kid never gets dirty, Spider is simply a terrible character. Champion isn’t good, but the material does him no favors.
And yet there is good stuff here too. Worthington and Saldaña are still fun to watch. While it’s annoying that Stephen Lang is back again, he leans hard into his love-to-hate-him villain. Though mightily underdeveloped, new “fire and ash” baddie Varang, played insidiously by Oona Chaplin, is a head turner.
The action, of course, is top notch, though no sequence stands out as memorable as those we’ve seen in previous Avatar entries. Even still, when stuff is going down, it’s impossible not to lean into what Cameron is putting to screen.
Visually, too, no one does it better than Cameron. The special effects are out of this world, and while I generally don’t like 3D, the 3D works here incredibly well. It’s easy to take Avatar’s VX for granted at this stage, but Cameron continues to set the bar incredibly high.
All of this makes for a beautiful, visually engrossing movie that feels alive and lived in. Avatar: Fire and Ash is undoubtedly a spectacle, a movie that demands it be seen on the biggest screen possible. But this time around, Pandora no longer feels as fresh or interesting. It’s just more of the same, only stretched over an even longer runtime.
There is a slim possibility that Avatar: Ash and Fire will be the final entry in the franchise. If this movie is any indication, let’s hope that ends up being the case.
Review by Erik Samdahl. Erik is a marketing and technology executive by day, avid movie lover by night. He is a member of the Seattle Film Critics Society.