🎥 Avatar Fire and Ash
Creation Date: <% tp.file.creation_date() %>
Year: 2025
Directed by: ”James Cameron”
Writer: ”James Cameron”, ”Rick Jaffa”, ”Amanda Silver”
Starring: ”Sam Worthington”, ”Zoe Saldaña”, ”Sigourney Weaver”
Genre: Action, Adventure, Fantasy
Run Time: 197 mins
Box Office: $102,483,177
Awards: 13 wins & 33 nominations total
RT: “Rotten Tomatoes: 66%”
YouTube Trailer
🗒️Plot
Jake and Neytiri’s family grapples with grief, encountering a new, aggressive Na’vi tribe, the Ash People, who are led by the fiery Varang, as the conflict on Pandora escalates and a new moral focus emerges.
⭐ Quick Ratings
- Story:
- :Story = 7
- Acting:
- :Acting = 7.8
- Cinematography:
- :Cinematography = 9.2
- Music:
- :Music = 7.5
- Overall:
- (:Story + :Acting + :Cinematography + :Music)/4 =
📺 My Thoughts
Khushil and I had a long discussion about the film after watching it. While the visuals were impressive, we both felt the pacing and character utility were a bit off.
Khushil’s Perspective
- Runtime: Felt the 3 hour and 15 minute length was way too long for the story being told.
- Standout Moments: Really liked the sequence where Jake Sully goes with the Ash People and Neytiri shoots an arrow into his leg. He also thought the scene where Neytiri flies off to save him and destroys half the city was insane.
- Lack of Payoff: Was disappointed that the gathering of the tribes and the big speeches didn’t lead to a major fruition. He compared it to Lord of the Rings but felt this fell short because the clans were too similar and the setup lacked a satisfying payoff.
My Perspective
-
Jake Sully’s Role: I found Jake Sully to be surprisingly useless in this movie. He genuinely did zero and felt like he had no impact on the outcome.
-
The Children’s Impact: I noticed that the kids actually did more than the adults. The daughter used her connection to Eywa, the son got the matriarchs passionate about the fight, and even the “monkey boy” had his moments.
-
Hero’s Journey: I was critical of the “hero’s journey” for the younger characters. It felt like one of them was just a “journalist” going out to see people getting messed up and then just coming back to report it.
-
Metaphors: I found the “eye for an eye” metaphor to be incredibly heavy handed, especially with the character/creature that was literally blinded.
-
Character Critique: Felt that “Smaug” (or the equivalent character) didn’t actually do much in the end.
-
World Building: Khushil noted that the clans gathered weren’t diverse enough. It felt like just a few similar villagers rather than gathering distinct groups like an “air tribe.”
Felt very similar to Avatar 2, from the plot to the visuals (fire tribe felt sidelined, even though Varang the female fire antagonist was badass). More like Avatar 2.5.
Overall Summary
We both agreed that while the setup and cinematography were cool, the movie suffered from a lack of payoff and a protagonist who felt sidelined by his own children.