Avatar: Fuego y Cenizas

The movie dazzles with breathtaking action sequences and visuals that are truly a joy to watch - every battle and landscape feels alive on the big screen. Yet, the story leans too heavily into melodrama. Nyetri seems caught in tears almost every time, which makes the emotional beats feel repetitive rather than powerful. Sully, once decisive and commanding, now comes across softer and overly dramatic in his choices, which slows the momentum. Tashik of the Ash Clan, who looked so promising in the trailer, doesn't deliver the same impact in the actual film, leaving his presence underwhelming.

Compared to the earlier parts of the saga, this installment feels weaker and may earn lower ratings. Still, as a cinematic experience, it had its moments - the visuals and action carried the weight, and sharing the first movie date with my wife made it memorable. Overall, I enjoyed it, but my expectations were set much higher than what the film delivered.

Far from perfect and far too long, the flaws in James Cameron's third Avatar outing, Fire and Ash are there for all to see and in reality, far from surprising but as per his first two multi-billion dollar outings Cameron's latest visual feast is still a fun and entertaining blockbuster that deserves to put bums on cinema seats.

Arriving 16 years after Cameron's original Dances with Wolves courtesy of the Blue Man Group box office behemoth dropped into the big screen world, Ash continues on with the pattern the legendary filmmaker set in place with his 3D extravaganza and if anyone is expecting Ash to deliver in the unexpected, they should temper expectations in a major way and learn to just enjoy the ride.

In a world that seems to find things easier to hate rather than like, Ash could become a bit of a punching bag for those wanting to bemoan the fact Cameron hasn't tried to rewrite the rulebook here but the same naysayers are probably just as likely to have enjoyed the likes of Harry Potter, Lord of the Rings, Star Wars or Marvel's plethora of big screen outings, all franchises and brands that have stuck to what works for better and worse and managed to enthral millions of cinemagoers across the decades.

Kicking off right where The Way of Water finished, Ash finds Sam Worthington's Jake Sully and Zoe Saldaña's Neytiri struggling to maintain their edge and freedom in the face of growing adversity, adversity that includes their continued battle with Stephen Lang's Quaritch and new adversary Varang, solid new addition Oona Chaplin who brings a fierceness to her fire queen.

To call Ash's narrative barebones basic would be perfectly acceptable, even kind in many facets and it's a shame that Cameron and his fellow screenwriters Amanda Silver and Rick Jaffa haven't managed to fix the series weakish script work but if people can move past the fact it's always likely the original Avatar was an outlier in regards to it's all round winning ways, Ash much like its predecessor provides much in the way of cinematic joys and spectacle.

While failing to maximise the addition of the new fire clan led by Varang, who appears set to become the films secondary focus only to be overshadowed by the presence of Quaritch and the impressive performance of Chaplin, Ash still does a lot of things very well including a great opening stretch featuring wind traders and the increasingly stunning special effects work that brings Pandora to life in mesmerising ways, especially in the intended 3D format.

Releasing at a time and place in movie history where many big-scale films have failed to reach the audience they had hoped for, there's much lying on the shoulders of Cameron and his Na'vi friends to bring joy to the Hollywood universe and cinema chains around the globe, while it's very unlikely that Ash will reach the highs of Avatar or Way of Water, there's enough here to suggest audiences will be happy with what they see and spread the word, encouraging others to make the effort to get back out and partake in the big-screen experience.

Having listened to Cameron's recent commentary regarding his future plans for the Avatar cinematic space there's a high chance we may have seen the last of a Cameron lead Avatar feature and if that's the case, we can be thankful Cameron did so much for the medium he loves even if he never managed to recapture the lightning in a bottle magic he did with his 2009 launch.

Final Say -

Walking a familiar path and dancing to the same beat that's been danced too before, Avatar: Fire and Ash isn't able to reach grand heights but as a fun and visually outstanding big screen spectacle, Cameron proves he is still king.

3 1/2 helpful vines out of 5.

The third chapter of Avatar is stunning, just like the previous ones. Visually it's on another level, with some of the best CGI and world-building you'll see in a cinema. The soundtrack does a lot of heavy lifting too, in my opinion. So the cast does.

But once again, the length hurts . It feels overstuffed and could easily lose 30-40 minutes without losing anything too important. The story itself is fine, familiar Avatar territory, but it drags in places and starts testing your attention.

Worth seeing on the biggest screen possible, and 3D, mainly for the spectacle. Just be prepared to sit there for a while.

I had a good time with this, but make no mistake: this is just the same movie as the sequel with some slight variation. Again, we have Quaritch as the bad guy playing cat and mouse with Jake. Again, we spend a majority of the movie following a subplot about harvesting a precious liquid from whales (or whatever you call them), which seems like it's tacked on to bring the movie to the 3 hour runtime for no good reason (an Avatar tradition at this point). Again, the finale involves the same characters battling it out in the same circumstances with a frustrating lack of resolution. The first two acts introduced some more darkness and stronger emotional beats than either of the first two movies, and the addition of the Ash people was an interesting take to finally see the bad side of Navi. But the third act just phones it in and goes for the familiar route.

I'm probably being generous with a 7. The visuals are stunning, as expected, and the action isn't necessarily bad - it's just nothing we haven't seen before.

Some time ago in the previous century, James Cameron first developed the idea for the Avatar films. When he realized that the tools available at the time weren't sufficient to fully realize his vision, he refused to compromise and made a decision: to put the project completely on ice until technology caught up with what he had imagined. Over the following years, he focused primarily on technological research, working on innovative filming systems and motion-capture methodologies.

Only in the 2000s did Cameron bring the project back to life in a technologically groundbreaking process. Following the astronomical success of the first film, Cameron began mapping out an entire saga, spanning multiple films and decades of work, all while developing new technologies that would allow him to expand the world he'd created in innovative new directions. The second film, The Way of Water, was released some 13 years (!) after the first, marking a noticeable shift in approach: less a technological showmanship and more with an emphasis on character and story, with the technology serving as a tool to enhance the experience rather than dominate it.

Fire and Ash arrives at a point where the technology is fully mature with Cameron completely adept at using it, and the story is ripe and well developed. Unsurprisingly, the film is visually stunning and, in my opinion, absolutely must be seen in an IMAX theater. Given its bloated runtime, it's hard for me to imagine watching this at home on a TV - it would diminish so much of what makes the experience work.

The issue, however, is that it feels like the technological innovation aspect has reached a saturation point of sorts. The visual spectacle, while impressive, is no longer that far from what we've come to expect from other major blockbusters in recent years - at least in the way it is perceived by the viewer. Anyone who remembers the frenzy surrounding the original film's release in 2009 will recall just how unprecedented it felt at the time, while now we kind of got used to it.

On the plus side, what's been lost in terms of the original film's jaw-dropping "wow" factor is made up for by a level of technical maturity that allows Cameron to fully unleash his unique strengths as an action master. The result is some of the most ambitious and visually stunning action sequences I've seen in quite some time - with long stretches of the film functioning as pure, awe-inducing spectacle.

Unlike the second film, which opened with a significant time jump, this one picks up exactly where its predecessor left off-for better and for worse. On one hand, it maintains that feeling I love that this is one long, continuous epic rather than a series neatly divided into chapters. On the other hand, the film makes little effort to refresh viewers on key plot details or world-building elements, which may leave audiences who haven't revisited the previous film in a while feeling a bit lost.

From what I remember, there's noticeably more humor here than in the earlier films, and the story does indeed venture into interesting narrative territory. A lot of characters get more depth, new intriguing characters are added, and the stakes are at an all-time high. At the same time, a lot of it feels familiar, safe, even recycled-and there's a sense that the plot is beginning to circle back on itself. The ending left me desiring something a bit more as well.

The film lays intriguing groundwork for the (at least additional two) upcoming sequels, and if Cameron takes some of the criticism aimed at the second and third films to heart, there's real potential here for an amazing conclusion.

This has to be said: as good as the film is, and as much as I genuinely enjoyed it, it is unquestionably too long. Very few films, in my view, justify a runtime of around three hours - and this one pushes past that by roughly a quarter of an additional hour, which feels extremely excessive. It's not that the film is boring, but tighter script editing could have made the experience far smoother for many viewers. The only real upside to watching it at home might be the ability to take breaks - but when a movie reaches the point where a break feels necessary, it's usually a sign that the writer and editor became a little sloppy.

It may sound like I'm being mostly critical here, but the fact is I really did enjoy the film on the pure "experience" level. While far from perfect, it's highly entertaining and presents a sweeping, richly textured story that delivers breathtaking action and visuals that truly shine on the big screen.

Will I be able to re-watch it soon? Not likely. But James Cameron knows what he is doing, and the initial experience is definitely one to be had. Imagine a big-budget adventure/war film that blends classic sci-fi and fantasy elements - with characters and story in the background that we are invested in for years already.

Fire and Ash isn't a film that will change your outlook on life - or on cinema, for that matter - but it makes up for that by being a rare kind of spectacle, even by 2025 standards. As the third entry in a planned five-film series, it represents the midpoint of what has effectively become the life's work of a visionary director who has devoted decades of his life to realizing the fruits of his imagination. While it's very enjoyable and succeeds in pushing the story into interesting places, it's also guilty of leaning too heavily on familiar tropes from previous installments, and ultimately feels like it could have been a bit more refined.