Sci-Fi Avatar: Fire and Ash

[blueharvest]

 

[:eek:]

 

[Spider-Fan]

69% on 55 reviews as of now. Lower than I thought it'd be, but not by much

 

[Drizzle]

I was expecting more mid to upper 70's like the second one. This is just pure speculation by me but if you've got a blockbuster that's north of three hours, critics' patience will be tested.

 

[Kane52630]

Avatar: Fire And Ash review: James Cameron's return to Pandora is truly epic cinema

James Cameron's third trip to Pandora finds the Sully family grieving as new villain Varang enters the fray. Read the Empire review.

www.empireonline.com

 

[blueharvest]

 

[squeekness]

I was expecting more mid to upper 70's like the second one. This is just pure speculation by me but if you've got a blockbuster that's north of three hours, critics' patience will be tested.

That makes a difference . You have to hold their attention for that much longer.

 

[psylockolussus]

I saw this in a new cinema, like the cinema was mint fresh because it only reopened today and that didn't even elevate my enjoyment for this movie because the movie was just meh. Great visuals, beautiful visuals but it was 1 hour too long. The new villain was one-note while the other characters, I still don't find them interesting. The alien planet was also more of the same in the previous movies, there was nothing really new in that planet to explore. The new alien animals looked good but those were like decorations.

 

[Pennywise]

 

[Kane52630]

 

[Kane52630]

 

[Link]

I love this world, and I had a good time once again. There's no other experience like it, and I could watch one of these every three years for the rest of my life. I ADORED the new villain and her interactions with Quaritch, even if she was kind of one-note. I was surprised by how redundant the story is, though. Cameron repeats story beats from The Way of Water (and Avatar) to the point of confusion, but there's enough new material that I, as a huge fan, was satiated. I wonder how general audiences will feel about it. There's a small moment, a shot really, late into the movie that was fresh, epic, and exciting, but that's more of a tease for things to come rather than a fleshed-out part of this film. Still, what a visual. I also really enjoyed Spider in this, and even Neytiri, whom I've never cared for. I wish I could go see this again immediately, but I probably won't have the opportunity while it's playing in Dolby 3D HFR, and that's the only way to see it tbh.

 

[blueharvest]

 

[:eek:]

James Cameron And Sam Worthington On Their ‘Avatar: Fire And Ash’ Collaboration, The Declining Box Office And The Real Truth About AI

James Cameron and Sam Worthington discuss their years-long ‘Avatar’ collaboration, box office and tackling AI: “We need to use it ethically”

deadline.com

 

[squeekness]

 

[Drizzle]

While I'm not surprised at execs balking at that 3 hour and 15 minute length, I'm surprised at them challenging Cameron on it this time after The Way of Water grossed $2B with a similar runtime.

 

[Scarlet Spider]

Just came back from my IMAX 3D screening. Really enjoyed it. Very satisfying ending.

 

[blueharvest]

 

[blueharvest]

 

[Drizzle]

This was good. It wasn't on the level of the first one but I liked it a little better than the second one, where it very much felt like a Part 2 to The Way of Water wrapping up arcs started in that one.

The good:

I thought most of it was good but what stood out to me most was Varang. This franchise needed a good Na'vi villain that wasn't Quaritch or some human. I've only ever seen Oona Chaplin in Game of Thrones before so I didn't quite know what to expect from her as a villain but she was awesome here. I really liked that whole storyline with Quaritch where it became kind of a warped and twisted version of Jake's story.

I also really liked Spider here. He kind of felt like the main character in this in the way I thought Lo'ak did in the second movie. His arc was great apart from the romance with Kiri which I'm kind of iffy about, moreso because I can't get it out of my head that Sigourney Weaver is in her 70s and Spider is just a teenager. The scene where Jake was going to sacrifice him just as Neytiri warmed up to him was a highlight. I thought that was a little extreme of Jake because the more proper solution instead of killing him would be to put his consciousness in an avatar body like what happened to him.

I actually thought Jake was a goner in this. Lo'ak getting the narrator role in this plus the scene where he was going to kill Spider seemed to spell out that he wasn't going to make it but I guess this franchise isn't ready for that yet.

Neytiri felt a lot more like how she was in the first movie here, which I liked. She felt more sidelined in the second movie.

Loved the return of Toruk and I loved the death of one-armed Captain Ahab even more. The fact that one whale took out his arm in the last movie and the other more tortured one dragged him down to the depths in this one was so satisfying.

The not as good:

It copied way too many elements of the first two movies, some better than others. But the scene of Jake rallying the clans felt way too close to the first movie. The final battle felt like a mashup of the final battles from the first two movies but it did provide some cool visuals. Another example, that additional scene of the humans hunting another tulkun and its calf was totally unnecessary after we just had the big scene of it in the last movie.

The movie could have been cut down maybe a good 15 minutes or so. And i felt like there were important scenes left out. We had time to see another whale being hunted but no follow up with Jemaine Clement and David Thewlis's characters who just disappeared from the movie? Varang just flew off and that's it? Did she rescue Quaritch after he jumped? What about an epilogue with the water clan dealing with the death of Kate Winslet's character? For a 3 hour and 15 minute movie, it just kind of ended abruptly. I know Cameron has talked about an extended version for this which makes sense, but the Kate Winslet one especially should have been addressed.

The worst part about my IMAX screening wasn't the movie at all, it was that the Odyssey preview wasn't with the trailers, which they only showed two of: Supergirl and Doomsday.

 

[Link]

I ended up getting tickets for the 30th. It's going to be years until there's more Avatar, if there even is more Avatar, so why not go again now.

 

[Lily Adler]

This was good. It wasn't on the level of the first one but I liked it a little better than the second one, where it very much felt like a Part 2 to The Way of Water wrapping up arcs started in that one.

The good:

I thought most of it was good but what stood out to me most was Varang. This franchise needed a good Na'vi villain that wasn't Quaritch or some human. I've only ever seen Oona Chaplin in Game of Thrones before so I didn't quite know what to expect from her as a villain but she was awesome here. I really liked that whole storyline with Quaritch where it became kind of a warped and twisted version of Jake's story.

I also really liked Spider here. He kind of felt like the main character in this in the way I thought Lo'ak did in the second movie. His arc was great apart from the romance with Kiri which I'm kind of iffy about, moreso because I can't get it out of my head that Sigourney Weaver is in her 70s and Spider is just a teenager. The scene where Jake was going to sacrifice him just as Neytiri warmed up to him was a highlight. I thought that was a little extreme of Jake because the more proper solution instead of killing him would be to put his consciousness in an avatar body like what happened to him.

I actually thought Jake was a goner in this. Lo'ak getting the narrator role in this plus the scene where he was going to kill Spider seemed to spell out that he wasn't going to make it but I guess this franchise isn't ready for that yet.

Neytiri felt a lot more like how she was in the first movie here, which I liked. She felt more sidelined in the second movie.

Loved the return of Toruk and I loved the death of one-armed Captain Ahab even more. The fact that one whale took out his arm in the last movie and the other more tortured one dragged him down to the depths in this one was so satisfying.

The not as good:

It copied way too many elements of the first two movies, some better than others. But the scene of Jake rallying the clans felt way too close to the first movie. The final battle felt like a mashup of the final battles from the first two movies but it did provide some cool visuals. Another example, that additional scene of the humans hunting another tulkun and its calf was totally unnecessary after we just had the big scene of it in the last movie.

The movie could have been cut down maybe a good 15 minutes or so. And i felt like there were important scenes left out. We had time to see another whale being hunted but no follow up with Jemaine Clement and David Thewlis's characters who just disappeared from the movie? Varang just flew off and that's it? Did she rescue Quaritch after he jumped? What about an epilogue with the water clan dealing with the death of Kate Winslet's character? For a 3 hour and 15 minute movie, it just kind of ended abruptly. I know Cameron has talked about an extended version for this which makes sense, but the Kate Winslet one especially should have been addressed.

The worst part about my IMAX screening wasn't the movie at all, it was that the Odyssey preview wasn't with the trailers, which they only showed two of: Supergirl and Doomsday.

Sounds like Matrix Revolution syndrome.

 

[Drizzle]

Sounds like Matrix Revolution syndrome.

In the sense that it picks up immediately after the second movie and watching them both back-to-back provides a more complete experience, absolutely.

 

[blueharvest]

 

[Kane52630]