The third installment in James Cameron’s blockbuster blockbuster series is “197 minutes of screensaver graphics, clunky dialogue, limp plotting, and a hippy-dippy new-age mentality.”
with avatar Avatar: Water Path are two of the highest-grossing films of all time, so you can’t blame James Cameron for keeping the sci-fi adventure series going. However, the third episode, “Avatar: Fire and Ashes,” strongly suggests that he should quit while he is still thinking about the future. All previous Avatars have been longer and worse than their predecessors, but this one is a full 30 minutes longer than the 2009 original, but it’s 197 minutes packed with screensaver graphics, clunky dialogue, clunky plotting, and hippy-dippy new-age mentality. It’s scary to think that director Cameron still has two more sequels planned. How much longer can they be more selfish?
Most insultingly, despite its ridiculous, bladder-testing running time, Avatar: Fire and Ash doesn’t work as a standalone film with a beginning, middle, and end. Cameron makes no concessions to viewers who aren’t die-hard fans of the series, assuming that we’re already deeply interested in the characters, their relationships, and the environment that surrounds them, and that a complete, propulsive story goes above and beyond.
It feels like billions of light years have passed since the excitement of the first movie. The idea was that humans had messed up the Earth so much that they decided to exploit the mineral resources of a pristine, Garden of Eden-like satellite named Pandora. The plan was unpopular with Pandora’s blue-skinned humanoid inhabitants, the Na’vi, but human Marine Jake Sully (Sam Worthington) had his mind zapped into the bodies of Na’vi-human hybrids in order to blend in with the local population. He then falls in love with Na’vi princess Neytiri (Zoe Saldanha) and joins her tribesmen in fighting the invaders from Earth. In short, Avatar was a scenario ripe with conflict and environmental issues, where Pocahontas meets the Smurfs in space.
The current situation is that the Na’vi are still fighting the human forces, but Prime Minister Cameron seems to have lost interest in Jake and Neytiri and now prefers to spend time with their teenage children. it’s deadly error. Worthington may not be the most charismatic actor in the world, but at least his character was unique, while Jake and Neytiri’s nearly naked offspring are sometimes hard to tell which is which, and they’re all equally annoying. Sometimes a big battle happens, or a human scientist who hasn’t appeared in a movie in years appears. Sometimes we have to have long, respectful discussions about Na’vi beliefs. And at times, you get a glimpse of the hard-edged Empire vs. Rebels eco-thriller this film could have been. But at its heart, Avatar: Fire and Ashes is a California melodrama in which forgettable dreadlocked surf dudes ride dragons and scream phrases like “That was insane, bro” and “That’s disgusting, cuz!”
Source: BBC Culture – www.bbc.com
