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There's no denying that James Cameron's Avatar franchise is one of the great movie franchises of our time. When the first installment, Avatar, was released in 2009, it was immediately praised for its incredible visuals and effects, and it in fact won a staggering number of awards for that reason, including Oscars for Best Achievement in Cinematography, Best Achievement in Visual Effects, and Best Achievement in Art Direction, alongside multiple other Oscar nominations and numerous other awards and nominations. The movie also has solid Rotten Tomatoes scores (81% with critics and 82% with audiences).
It was followed by the sequel movie Avatar: The Way of Water more than a decade later in 2022, and it likewise found critical acclaim, including yet another Oscar for Best Achievement in Visual Effects, as well as a host of other Oscar nominations and numerous other awards and nominations. This movie, impressively, also managed to pull off the very difficult feat of performing better than its predecessor with audiences, at least based on its Rotten Tomatoes score, which is an impressive 92% (although, notably, the critic score dropped to 76%).
In part, that success was due to the originality of the script, which built upon the first movie but also took things in a new direction by focusing on a new clan among the Na'vi, the Metkayina, who are water-based. That unique focus made the movie feel new, even as it repeated several beats from Avatar (including by bringing back the primary antagonist, Colonel Miles Quaritch). However, the most recent addition, Avatar: Fire and Ash, largely failed to do the same. That movie saw an even greater plummet with critics, with a bleak 65% Rotten Tomatoes score.
In fairness, the movie held onto a solid audience score of 90%, but critics called out a number of issues with the movie, including the fact that it once again recycled many of the same plot points—such as, yet again, the return of the same antagonist—and, critics argued, relied too heavily on the same visual excellence it had pulled off before, without truly making substantial improvements. In addition to those issues, though, this latest Avatar movie had numerous flaws, and many of them, confusingly, have gone unaddressed in reviews.
Avatar: Fire and Ash's Plot Was Doing Too Much
James Cameron is obviously a brilliant filmmaker, and it's perhaps for that reason that Fire and Ash got away with things that other, newer movies probably would not have. Among those issues is the fact that the plot is doing far too much. The new clan introduced in the movie, the Mangkwan Clan, is genuinely fascinating and terrifying, and they made for very compelling new antagonists. Unfortunately, Fire and Ash refused to rely on them as the sole antagonists, so Quaritch was back yet again, which is part of the reason the plot felt so tangled.
It would have been infinitely better had the Ash People been the only antagonists, not only because their chilling behavior was so much more interesting than yet another return of this same guy, but also because it would have proven that the Avatar franchise could successfully move on beyond what it's now done several times over. Tied to this was the issue with the movie's numerous storylines, which caused the plot to feel, at times, jumbled and difficult to keep track of. Various storylines that deserved more attention also ended up feeling rushed because the movie had so many loose ends.
Among the storylines that deserved more attention were those of, unfortunately, two of the more significant female characters in the movie, Neytiri and Ronal. The former is arguably more frustrating than the latter, for myriad reasons, but in both cases, the handling of these female characters is disappointing—especially compared to the female representation in Avatar.
Fire And Ash Was A Major Step Down For Its Female Characters
When Neytiri was introduced in Avatar, it was clear that, yes, she was going to be a love interest, but she was also a valiant, heroic, and brave character who was never going to choose a man over her people. Even in the face of the death of her father, Neytiri never gave up the fight. Avatar: The Way of Water revealed that she had multiple children now, but motherhood hadn't taken that fight out of her (a common issue with representation on screen)—at least, that is, until her oldest child, Neteyam, died right in front of her.
Understandably, that affected her deeply, but it was nevertheless disappointing to see how Fire and Ash dealt with that. In the latest movie, Neytiri is not only a shadow of who she once was, but also, her morals seem completely different than they'd ever been before, which included her temptation at multiple points to kill Spider, who had once been like a son to her, as well as her comments about resenting the human parts of her children. Sure, she comes around on both by the end of the movie, and she was obviously grieving.
Even so, this was a major step down for her overall, and it felt like a betrayal. Also egregious, however, was the handling of Ronal's character. Killing off a new mother and/or a pregnant mother is low-hanging fruit in terms of raising the stakes, and it's unfortunately been done to death (pun intended) at this point.
To put it perhaps too bluntly, James Cameron is better than this scene, in which Ronal gives birth to her baby and then immediately dies. This isn't to say that women shouldn't ever die—Grace is actually a good example—but killing Ronal off right after she birthed her baby was frustrating.
What Does The Future Of This Franchise Look Like?
Despite these issues and the ding to the movie's critic score, Avatar 4, a different title for which will presumably be revealed eventually, is confirmed to be in the works. The movie is slated for a December 2029 release date, meaning we are still quite a long way off from seeing the new installment. Among the details confirmed about the plot is the fact that it will include a time jump, reportedly of about eight years.
While that's not much to go on in terms of actual story details, it does suggest that this upcoming movie could finally be the change that the franchise needs. Already, there are theories that this time jump could mean the death of the franchise protagonist, Jake Sully, which fans have long speculated about.
That would feel right as far as a new direction, especially because it's likely that one of his children would take his place as leader (presumably Lo'ak, but that's not necessarily the case). No matter Jake's fate, though, Avatar: Fire and Ash proved that it is time for these movies to try something new.
