Avatar: Fire and Ash Review

Avatar: Fire and Ash Review

This weekend the third film in the Avatar franchise, Avatar: Fire and Ash hits theaters. How does this movie compare to the previous 2 films? Is it better? Worse? Let’s talk about it!

The Review

I went into Avatar: Fire and Ash with pretty modest expectations. I didn’t expect anything fantastic. I expected a movie that I would enjoy on the same level as the previous two. The movie I got was a big step down from my already modest expectations. I didn’t hate this movie, there’s still so much I appreciated about this movie in terms of the technical aspects. But on a story, character, and pacing level this movie didn’t work for me. I find the Avatar franchise to be so fascinating as it’s movies that people flock to the theaters to go see. They want to experience them on the biggest screen possible in 3D and in IMAX but after they leave theaters nobody talks about them or rewatches them at home. Leaving the theater I thought to myself, I don’t know the context in which I’ll rewatch this movie. Maybe I’ll rewatch it when the fourth film comes out and do a ranking (not doing one this time folks). But even then, I’m not really looking forward to rewatching it. It’s a frustrating movie because you’re swept up in the CGI and Cameron’s direction but are underwhelmed by the story and the characters. 

Of course, the thing you have to talk about with this movie is the CGI. This franchise continues to be the gold standard of CGI. Every scene, every shot, every frame is immaculate and fantastic. There’s so much detail in everything going on that it feels like Pandora is the real world to go and explore. I’ve heard people describe these films as IMAX nature documentaries and you watch the movie and that’s 100% right. It feels like James Cameron got a film crew together and flew to Pandora and shot scenery. It’s fascinating watching these Avatar films in an era where so many blockbusters have such generic CGI that doesn’t look good. So many modern comic book movies have such noticeably bad CGI that sticks out. They cost $250 to $300 million and they don’t look good. Part of the magic of James Cameron is using every penny he has with this movie and making it look incredible. Every sequence is just gorgeous to look at. Every frame can be a work of art in a museum and it’s just sad watching this movie and contrasting it with other blockbusters that don’t look as good. I’m so excited about what Cameron is able to do with the next two Avatar films and where he’s able to go with the CGI and everything. I don’t normally see movies in 3D, I saw Fire and Ash in 3D and before that it was The Way of Water. The next movie I’ll see in 3D is probably the fourth movie. The Avatar are some of the rare exceptions I have of movies that I love to experience on the big screen wearing 3D glasses. 

James Cameron is one of the greatest directors of the last 40 years. The direction of the movie is very well done. It’s clearly a big epic action adventure film with tons of incredible action set pieces. He’s great at immersing you into this world and making you feel like you’re a part of it. As soon as the movie starts and you get these characters flying through Pandora you instantly feel immersed into this world again. Even when we are doing the big action set pieces the way they’re shot and the cameras are framed it’s incredible to watch because you feel like you’re in the action with these characters. Despite not being the biggest fan of this movie, it’s hard not to get immersed in this world because you have the great James Cameron behind the camera. Even the direction here is very impressive because the actors have to do a lot. It’s not just them wearing motion capture suits being directed. It’s them wearing motion capture suits while having to do all of these stunts and sometimes being in the water. There’s all of these layers and steps that go into the actors’ performances and Cameron is doing everything to make sure the audience is engrossed into this world. Unfortunately, the CGI and world building of the film are fantastic and top notch. The movie as a whole has a lot of flaws and isn’t great. 

The big problem with this movie is I simply didn’t care about the story or the characters. That’s what’s so fascinating about this movie and why I think the film hasn’t connected with pop culture outside of the theaters. These movies are famous for their groundbreaking and legendary CGI. Despite the previous two movies making $2 billion, nobody remembers the name of the characters. This movie is very character driven and focused and I think that brings the whole movie down. In particular with the main human good guy, Spider isn’t a great character. He’s the driving force of the movie, he’s a mcguffin in the movie. Everybody is trying to get him and rescue him at one point in this movie and it’s not super interesting to me. The performance by Jack Champion who plays Spider feels off from the rest of the movie. It feels like he’s acting in a completely different movie from everybody else. They try to make him the comedic relief character, but the more there is in this movie makes the film’s tone uneven. When the movie is so focused around the characters and you don’t care about them, it’s hard to enjoy the movie. I did like our villains in the movie, Quirrich and our new villain, Varang are solid characters. They do some interesting character work with Quirrich in this movie. Stephen Lang’s performance was really good and the arc they gave him I thought was pretty powerful. But even then, Quirrich isn’t a top tier movie villain so even praising him isn’t saying much because there’s still so much that I’d want from him. 

The other big glaring problem with this movie is that it’s simply way too long. The movie is 3 hours and 15 minutes long and there’s a great movie if you cut 45 minutes to an hour from it. It means that the movie drags on and on and you feel bored watching it. Especially in the third act of the movie there’s multiple times where you think it’s the end and it keeps on going for like another 15-20 minutes. It keeps on doing this to the point where you feel exhausted. You’re checking your watching just to see how much time there is left. I feel like they could’ve cut from 45 minutes to an hour from this movie. How much of it is James Cameron’s ego and his inability to listen to the word “no”? That’s probably some of it. When you’re a guy that’s made three back to back to back movies that grossed over $2 billion, your ego is probably going to be big. Sometimes if producers or whoever is telling you no, you should listen to them. At the same time, because James Cameron has made the studio a lot of money, the executives probably don’t want to tell him no because he’s made $7 billion between three films. What’s crazy about Fire and Ash being 3 hours and 15 minutes is that this is designed to be part 2 of a story. If you didn’t know, Cameron wrote this movie and The Way of Water as one movie. Then he decided that it needed to be two movies because there was so much in there, so he broke them in two. When you know that watching this movie, it makes zero sense why both installments are over 3 hours long. If this movie’s runtime was 2 hours and 30 minutes, 45 minutes shorter I think there’s a very good movie. But at 3 hours and 15 minutes this movie overstays its welcome. 

Final Thoughts: Avatar: Fire and Ash wasn’t a movie that I was particularly excited for. I really dug The Way of Water in the theater but have had no desire to go back and rewatch it. Fire and Ash is fine. It’s not a disaster, I don’t think you say this movie is a disaster because of the craft that went into this movie. But it’s not a great movie. It’s overly long and filled with characters that you don’t care about. It’s cool to see on the big screen, I love seeing these films in 3D. My excitement for the fourth and fifth film went way down even though my excitement was never super high for those films. 

The Score: 7.7/10 (C+)