Avatar: Fire & Ash (2025) Dir: James Cameron

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James Cameron's science fiction trilogy; 'Avatar', may be the most profitable franchise of all-time at the box office, but, in my opinion, it may also be the most overly-hyped, style over substance franchise ever. I was hoping that this third film would finally impress me with more than just its audiovisual prowess, but I went into the cinema with expectations at a suitably middling level. I had waited a week to see it, if only to see reactions emerge, but I knew that this third film could really go either way for me.

The one thing I was fairly certain I would love about this film was its visuals. Unlike many, I hadn't been blown away by the graphics and special effects of the original, but I had enjoyed the cinematography of the second film a lot. It was no surprise, therefore, that I was impressed by the majority of the film's audiovisuals. The water sequences looked phenomenal, and the nature exquisite. The only aspect I wasn't keen on was the fire. It looked a little off - like it wasn't really there.

Unfortunately, this was where my positives ended. My reasons for this were twofold. It was extremely frustrating to see that the narrative of this film was essentially that of 'The Way Of Water' but bigger. Even worse, for an almost three and a half hour film, almost nothing of significance happened that hadn't already happened in one or both of the previous two films, which left me extremely bored, and more than a little disappointed. Cameron promised much, but delivered essentially the same thing for the third time in a row - not good enough.

Sam Worthington did slightly better than in the previous film, but I still found his performance frustrating. This was as much a writing issue as an acting one. His character has had very minimal character development over the course of three very long films, which is extremely irritating, when we as an audience have to watch his character make the same choices and mistakes over and over without much change - the same can be said of the majority of characters as well.

Zoe Saldaña's performance was passionate, but the writing made her character feel like such a horrible person that I ended up not liking her very much at all. Her character did at least have layers, and some development, but it was hard not to spend most of the film disliking her. I will say, however, that Saldaña's acting was, itself, very good. This kind of role suits her incredibly well, and you can see her athleticism, as well as her acting ability shining through.

I had very mixed feelings about the rest of the supporting cast, something chiefly evident with the performance of Sigourney Weaver, which was oddly inconsistent and strangely uncanny, considering her character is a teenager, but sounds like a much older woman. Oona Chaplin's performance on the other hand was excellent. I thought she was the most intriguing aspect of the film, up until her character became just another villain, instead of a significant character.

I much preferred her acting to that of Stephen Lang's, whose performance was as the franchise's main antagonist showed signs of running out of steam. It feels like his character only has two ways to go, and James Cameron is resisting it as long as he can. I was more impressed by the acting of Britain Dalton, whose acting showed significant growth from that of the previous film, and meant that he was one of the better non-visual related aspects of the film. I know that Jack Champion has been criticised quite heavily for his portrayal as 'Spider' in this film, and whilst I agree with a fair amount of those criticisms - he was very wooden, at times - I also think they are a little bit harsh.

Overall, I once again find myself confused as to why so many people seem to enjoy these films so much. They're okay, but the story repeats over and over, and the issues remain the same. The white knight stays atop his horse, and James Cameron fails to provide anything new beyond some admittedly impressive CGI. It feels like there was one, maybe two, good films to be had from these films, but instead we have three bloated, overrated, and half-baked stories.