Euronews Culture's Film of the Week: 'Avatar: Fire And Ash' - An epic but tiresome rehash

If it ain’t broke and makes billions at the box office, don’t fix it.

That’s clearly the mantra being repeated by James Cameron and the execs at 20th Century Studios, who continue their quest to dupe audiences into thinking that if they’re watching something that’s expensive and technically masterful, it must mean that it’s thrilling.

It’s not. Rollercoaster rides get less interesting the third time around – especially if it's the same thing all over again.

Avatar: Fire and Ash picks up where Avatar: The Way of Water left off. Jake Sully (Sam Worthington) and his family mourn the death of Neteyam, who was killed by the colonist “Sky People.”

The kids - Lo’ak (Britain Dalton), Tuk (Trinity Jo-Li Bliss) and immaculate conception Kiri (Sigourney Weaver, the 76-year-old legend still playing a teenager for reasons still best known to no one) - are all feeling the loss, especially Lo’ak, who blames himself for his brother’s demise. As for Neytiri (Zoe Saldaña), she is taking a lot of her grief out on Spider (Jack Champion), the adoptive human child who happens to be the son of their arch-enemy Colonel Miles Quaritch (Stephen Lang).

The latter is still hellbent on destruction and decides to arm the Mangkwan, a fire-worshiping Na’vi clan led by Varang (Oona Chaplin). They have “forsaken Eywa” (the all-knowing nature goddess – keep up) and don’t buy into the free-spirited benevolence of the other Na’vi. They’re more into scalping.

It turns out to be a perfect alliance, particularly when Varang’s idea of flirting includes bringing Quaritch to her tent, blasting him with psychedelics before threatening to eat his heart.

That’s some quality courtship right there.

While all this is going on, the children are being chased and rescused (rinse, repeat); Lo’ak is still having chinwags with underwater creatures (and their hilarious subtitling); Spider is granted the ability to breathe on Pandora (that was easy); and your retinas routinely get gangbanged by big CGI action scenes that look like video game sequences due to the incredibly distracting 24/48 frame per second switches.

Let’s not waste the same time Fire And Ash’s runtime does: this third adventure may be superior to The Way of Water, but it adds nothing new or fresh - except Oona Chaplin. Her sultry sorceress with an unquenchable bloodlust is the most memorable character here. But as if to prove once and for all that Cameron isn’t concerned with well-rounded character arcs or any narrative cohesion, the character of Varang never gets anything to do other than be wrathful, and is even bafflingly sidelined in the final act.

Speaking of which, let’s address that last act, which is a complete rehash of the previous instalment’s climax (with the addition of a sky beam), making it obvious that all the world-building and special effects will always take precedent over satisfying storytelling. Cameron has gone so far into his technical realm that he's forgotten - worse, dismissed - the fundamental foundation of any good film: a decent script. And while he may think he’s tackling themes of grief and cyclical violence, it's evident that the only thing he’s truly interested in is paying them the briefest of lip service before dropping any proper narrative payoffs altogether in favour of another repetitive helping of been-there-seen-that action sequences.

Granted, for many viewers, the appeal of the Avatar franchise is maximalist spectacle rather than narrative - and these audience members won’t mind the episodic plotting, the catharsis-threatening repetition, nor the abrupt editing that undercuts any potentially engaging character moments. However, considering a reported budget of over $400 million, is it too much to ask for both thrills and a semblence of substance?

It is when you’re stuck on Pandora, where scattershot storylines feature risibly poor dialogue like “the fire of hate leaves only the ash of grief”, “when you ride the beast, you become the beast” and “I am dying but first I will push out this baby”.

Yep, those made it past the first draft.

There’s no denying the eye-popping technical wizardry at play here, and no one is saying that this isn’t epic filmmaking. But impressive technological leaps don’t amount to much without an engaging – let alone new – story, and the audience risk becoming numb to the cosmetic backdrop if they feel insulted by an afterthought script serving up a reheated mishmash of disjointed plot threads.

What’s crystal clear with this third instalment is that once you’ve seen one Avatar film, you’ve seen them all.

Oh, and Mr. Cameron, if you’re reading – when your bladder-punishing film inexplicably drags on for 197 minutes, having your most annoying dreadlocked character say “I’ve gotta take a huge leak” only adds insult to injury.

There are apparently two more Avatar films in the works, and it’s evident where this franchise is going next: nowhere. It’ll be more risk-averse formula regurgitation, designed for the sole purpose of raking in an extra $2 billion.

We see you, James Cameron – and the diminishing returns of your one-trick-pony franchise only emphasizes how the resources and talent you have at your disposal could and should be better used elsewhere.

Avatar: Fire And Ash is out in cinemas now.