Avatar: Feu et cendre

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.

If you've seen the first two installments, the third is unlikely to surprise you. What we get once again is flawless, mesmerizing visuals stretched across nearly three hours of screen time, accompanied by familiar characters, predictable dramaturgy, and a storyline reduced to almost primitive straightforwardness.

Yes, the film still boasts a strong, star-studded cast. And yes, the director remains one of the most influential visionaries in the history of cinema. However, there is a lingering sense that Cameron is operating on inertia here: there is little genuine novelty, no truly unexpected midpoint turn, and no tightly constructed narrative twist. The story unfolds along tracks that are easy to anticipate.

As a result, the film becomes an attraction of visual perfection rather than a true dramatic breakthrough. One can't shake the feeling that the franchise is being deliberately stretched indefinitely, relying almost exclusively on technological superiority.

Conclusion: I would recommend this film primarily to devoted Avatar fans and lovers of visually driven cinema who are content to spend three hours simply admiring Pandora and the sheer scale of Cameron's craftsmanship. For everyone else, unfortunately, it's something they've already seen in the previous two films.

I've always had a soft spot for the first *Avatar*. When it came out, I was a kid, and it genuinely felt like something special. The world of Pandora was stunning, the creatures and environments felt alive, and the movie delivered a sense of scale and immersion that very few films had managed at the time. Even though many people criticized the story for borrowing familiar ideas, I never really minded. The execution was strong enough that it still felt fresh and memorable.

The problem started with the sequel. Waiting 11 years for *The Way of Water* set expectations extremely high, and while the visuals were undeniably impressive, the story felt far too familiar. It was essentially the same conflict, just relocated to a new environment and wrapped around a stronger family-focused narrative. The film looked incredible, but once the initial visual awe wore off, it became clear that the plot wasn't really going anywhere new.

That's why *Avatar 3* doesn't inspire much confidence for me. From what it seems, the franchise is stuck in a loop: new region of Pandora, new tribe, the same villains, the same themes, and the same structure playing out again. The action scenes are well made, and the CGI is still among the best in the industry, but visuals alone can only carry a movie so far. A great film needs a story that evolves, raises the stakes, and pushes the characters into new territory.

At this point, the *Avatar* series feels like it's relying too heavily on spectacle while neglecting meaningful narrative progression. If the third movie follows the same pattern as the second, it's hard not to expect the same repetition in the fourth and fifth films as well. The world of Pandora is rich and full of potential, but without a stronger, more daring storyline, the franchise risks becoming visually stunning but emotionally and narratively stagnant.

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.

Seriously, I liked Avatar The Way of the Water, but after Fire and Ash it's easy to think that the sequels shouldn't have been made. There's no history, it's literally empty, it's the same history over again but this time with PS6 graphics. The characters literally are making jokes about the script pretty Deadpool-like. Some situations are very much Scooby-Dooed and you will constantly fight your brain because some situations are just too much stupid to be exposed in a 3 hour movie. The real magic in this sequel is how James Cameron achieved to not develop a single character in 3 plus hours.