HOLLYWOOD—There are movies that are made that are so iconic, words cannot be used to express them. One of those flicks is “Avatar.” When that movie arrived in 2007, it blew audiences away and rightfully so. It was unlike anything ever seen before and it broke all sorts of box-office records.
With that said, the movie has now become a franchise, with the 2022 flick “Avatar: The Way of Water” stunned some people. Visually epic, a fun story, and just an extension of the story from the first movie taken to new heights. Was it better than the original? No, but it was pretty damn close.
Only 3 years later, we have a third entry in the franchise, “Avatar: Fire and Ash.” What are my thoughts? It felt like I was watching the same story again, and I didn’t love it. You can only have the same villain so many times in a movie before it becomes stale, unless you’re a horror franchise and even those can get stale with repetitive behavior and tropes.
I love James Cameron; I believe he is one of the greatest directors to ever live. He knows how to take a previous movie and make it better. I don’t need to list those flicks; any cinema buff should already know them. “Fire and Ash” introduces a new element that is fun to watch, but it did not wow me; I was not blown away by what I was watching. I love Zoe Saldana as Neytiri in previous flicks, but her character has become flat for me; this hatred for humans has just continued to grow and grow to where it got to the point as a viewer that I don’t care or want to hear it anymore.
Jake Sully (Sam Worthington) is doing all in his power to keep his family united after the death of their son in the previous film. We have the return of Kiri (Sigourney Weaver), Lo’ak (Britain Dalton), Miles ‘Spider’ (Jack Champion), Tuk (Jamie Flatters), and a few others from the previous flick. All memorable characters in their own right, but I think Kiri might be the strongest of the bunch as we see her character as a pivotal in the narrative this second time around. The bond of the family is still as strong as ever, if not stronger, as a direct result of the family losing a loved one. What is different this time?
The threat is not directly from the humans, it’s from Varang (Oona Chaplin), the leader of the Mangkwan clan, that gives audiences a first like of the Na’vi people who may not all be good. We see a dark side, evil, to the point that it raises the stakes a bit to be honest. It is fun, until it isn’t because we resort back to this war between the Na’vi people and humans, and that gets boring after a while. With the introduction of Varang, and the Mangkwan clan, it gives you an opportunity to see the Na’vi individuals in a new light.
That is explored slightly, but not as much as Cameron could have explored it to a deeper level, one that makes you truly invested to watch. What makes “Fire and Ash” so great is the visual storytelling that Cameron does for the movie. You feel immersed in a universe that you know is not real, but with every fiber in your bones you hope something like this actually exists. However, after 3 movies in, the visual effects alone is not going to hide the narrative that feels like we are seeing the same thing over and over again, that is where I’m sick and tired of Colonel Miles Quartich (Stephen Lang).
Is Quartich a fun villain? Yes, but I’ve seen him as the villain two times before, and now I have to sit thru it a third time. I’m bored; I need something fresh to shake things up. “Avatar: Fire and Ash” is an entertaining movie, but it’s not better than the first two flicks. If there is a fourth flick in the franchise’s future, which I think is going to happen, Cameron had better shed the skin of what we’ve seen in the previous entries because the audiences want to see something else that takes us on a wild ride, similar to what the 2007 movie did.
