Avatar: Fire and Ash (2025)

Maybe James Cameron’s horniest movie ever made. Chaplin gives one of the most hip-forward performance I’ve ever seen in my entire life. Good for her.

This is some of the best 3D I’ve ever experienced - genuinely incredible, immersive, worth seeing in a theater. But one of the most baffling creative decisions Jimmy made was switching between multiple frame rates within scenes. Even during dialogue, he’d jump between 24fps and 60fps, and it made my brain jolt every single time. I actually think the high frame rate works better for Avatar, so when it switches back to 24 you suddenly realize how jittery everything is. It was distracting for three and a half hours. I hated it.

And speaking of three and a half hours - the worst part for me as someone who genuinely loved Way of Water is how many plot points are just repeated from the second film. It really does feel like James is exploring new territory by making his first third film in a series ever, and not in a good way. I know these were shot back to back and written as one script, but damn - this movie should have ended on top of an erupting volcano. Instead it ended exactly the same way as Way of Water. Unacceptable.

Spider also gives one of the weakest performances in the film and really drags it down, which is unfortunate because he’s kind of the protagonist by default. Weird choice to center a passive character who doesn’t do much or have strong opinions about anything happening around him.

That said - in 2025, this is still an incredible auteur-driven film. For better or worse, it’s a James Cameron movie through and through. He’s putting his vision on screen, meticulously thought out, and I gotta respect that even when it doesn’t totally work for me. I love being in the world of Pandora. Your mileage may vary. If it does, I respect it and I frankly understand it. But leave us Avatar heads alone. Let us enjoy our thing, okay?

Also, those little sea otters? Hands down the best creatures Cameron has ever designed.

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