So, the overall sentiment from most critics who have seen it is that “Avatar: Fire and Ash” is very much an Avatar movie — a take-it-or-leave-it proposition. You know exactly what you’re getting here: nothing new, nothing fresh, just the usual visually stimulating 3D, clunky dialogue, full-throttled action, etc.
Like many of my cohorts, I attended a 9 a.m. screening on Monday of James Cameron’s third entry in the franchise. With the review embargo still in place, only social media reactions are permitted, and they’ve been mixed so far. The consensus, more or less, is that this is “Way of the Water 2.0.”
The film runs 3 hours and 14 minutes. Cameron is really pushing it here. The big question is whether it will snag a Best Picture nomination like the first two. It might get “Wicked: For Good” reviews. Avatards seem to like it. I don’t know. At this point, James Cameron should stray far away from this IP and make something entirely different. He’s 71 and has been working on Avatar for almost 20 years now. Hard to imagine he was 51 when he put everything else aside and decided Avatar would be his legacy.
All this to say, this movie will probably make a boatload of money, but enough to warrant the greenlight on a fourth? That remains to be seen. The film is currently tracking for a $100M opening weekend, which would be well short of ‘Way of the Water’s’ $134M opening. We still have time, and ‘Avatar’ movies tend to have legs during the holiday season.
The new film introduces the fiery Ash People, a clan that has “forsaken Eywa,” locked in conflict with the Wind Traders, who embody a more peaceful side of Pandora. The setup feels recognizable. For many viewers, the appeal is the spectacle itself rather than the narrative, which is composed of what feels like ten different storylines.
As one reader recently pointed out, the first two films were undeniably massive hits. That much is clear. Yet their triumph speaks less to their storytelling impact than to the current state of Hollywood — and perhaps to where Cameron now sits in the culture. For all the billions earned, did these movies have as much of a cultural footprint as Cameron’s earlier work did? Have filmmakers been inspired, influenced, to make the next ‘Avatar’ in the same way they tried to replicate “Aliens,” “T2: Judgment Day” and “Titanic”?
‘Avatar: Fire and Ash’ is slated for release on December 19, 2025.
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