Groundhog Day on Pandora. "Avatar: Flame and Ashes" Movie Review
On December 19, the world premiere of "Avatar: Flame and Ashes" took place - the third part of one of the highest-grossing film franchises in the world. The film only reached Russian cinemas on January 15, so the review was slightly delayed. Let's figure out what James Cameron succeeded in and where he failed.
Lots of Film, Little Sense
The plot of the third part begins a week after the end of the second. Jake Sully (Sam Worthington) and his family remain on the coast, along with the marine Na'vi clan. They mourn the death of Neteyam (Jamie Flatters) in "The Way of Water" — the eldest son of Neytiri (Zoe Saldana) and Jake. Especially Lo'ak (Britain Dalton): the youngest son, changed by the loss of his brother. In the film, he is the one who tells the story.
Miles Socorro (Jack Champion), nicknamed Spider, the son of Colonel Quaritch (Stephen Lang), still lives with them. But he is human and cannot breathe freely on the surface of Pandora — the planet where the events unfold. He needs a special mask — if it breaks or the battery runs out, Miles will die. Therefore, Jake decides to deliver Spider to the people so as not to risk his life anymore.
They set off on a journey with the air nomad Na'vi, but the Sully family is unlucky. They are attacked by the Mankwan tribe, who turned away from the goddess Eywa, sacred to the inhabitants of Pandora. They want to destroy all the customs of the other Na'vi clans. Meanwhile, Colonel Quaritch is on Jake's trail again.
The third "Avatar" resembles "Groundhog Day", where the hero experiences the same day. So it is here: from film to film, the story hardly develops. Evil people attack the inhabitants of Pandora in an attempt to get rich, and Jake stands up to protect the locals. He tries in vain to draw the enemies' attention to all the richness and depth of this planet, and the same Quaritch is always hunting him. It seems that we have a cartoon series in front of us, where the same thing happens from episode to episode: the villain tries to achieve a cruel goal, and the hero always defeats him. The formula of the trilogy remained the same, even though they are trying to make changes to it — but more on that below.
The duration of "Avatar: Flame and Ashes" is 197 minutes — this is the longest film in the franchise. Too many storylines have been crammed in here, some of which are meaningless.
Despite its length, the film feels crumpled. Sometimes events happen too suddenly, which looks unnatural. It seems that the picture was heavily cut: according to rumors, about 45 minutes were cut out. From this material, it would have been possible to make two films of two hours each, everyone would have benefited!
This also applies to the final segment of the film: there are many culminating moments here, following one after another. At some point you might think: "how much can you take?!" And the editing is strange — it would have been possible to arrange the events much more compactly without losing the meaning!
In addition, the story is replete with illogical moments. For example, when Jake surrenders and is sentenced to be shot, no one even thinks about arranging a fair trial (or its appearance) — although he is still human, at least legally. And it would be okay if it was the usual arbitrariness of the military and corporations, but no — a crowd of onlookers gathered near Jake's cage are happily filming everything on their phones. The Na'vi for them are nothing more than aborigines without any rights.
Instead, the script could have been at least partially built around Sully's attempt to draw the attention of ordinary people to the atrocities of the RDA corporation on Pandora. As an option, through a court hearing taking place against the backdrop of a battle with Mankwan and Quaritch. Or with the help of a simple speech by Jake.
When Emotions Are Stronger Than the Script
There are also interesting moments in the plot, but there are also questions about them.
Kiri's story... is intriguing. The heroine is somehow more connected to Eywa than the others, even though she has some problems with it. Her actions often greatly help the other protagonists. However, some scenes are slightly out of tune with the overall tone of the franchise. It seems that we are no longer dealing with science fiction, but with real fantasy. Thanks to her, you can feel all the magic of Pandora in the truest sense. This makes the viewer understand why Jake is so keen to protect this world.
For example, Kiri saves Spider and changes him. This leads us to an important storyline that merges with the one where Jake was captured. Their common culmination is Sully's difficult but logical decision. However, the potentially dark and tragic moral dilemma led to nothing. The authors only created the appearance of it.
I liked the Mankwan people: they add a new side to the established vision of the world and conflict. This expands and deepens the universe, because the Na'vi can also be evil. Their leader, Varang (Oona Chaplin), stands out in particular. The heroine has a unique charisma that is felt through the screen. Thanks to the design and character of the character, the actress's movements and facial expressions, as well as the overall tone, she fascinates with grace, cruelty and unwavering spirit. It is a pity that her disclosure was limited to a couple of lines in the dialogue, and the outcome of her story turns all Mankwan into an empty formality. Replace them with someone else — nothing will change!
Colonel Quaritch still took a small step forward in development. He is no longer such a stupid soldier — he is trying to be a father and understand himself. But the changes are too insignificant and this is more of a reserve for the future than a full-fledged growth.
Most of the characters in this film get noticeable storylines. Here we see real emotions that create living characters. They feel, and therefore commit, at times, senseless acts. Partially, the stupid things I mentioned above are connected with this. We often make mistakes under the influence of emotions. Here the title of the trilogy — "Flame and Ashes" — is used in a figurative sense, reflecting the inner state of the protagonists and their emotions: Neytiri's hatred (flame) and Lo'ak's grief (ashes).
The creators of the film tried to dilute the previous plot by adding gray tones to the story — an attempt to change the formula, as I said earlier. Here we have a maniacal Na'vi tribe, and Jake Sully, facing a moral choice, and Quaritch, who sometimes doubts, and even Neytiri, who wants revenge. But since almost all the story arcs become meaningless or simply break off, it is difficult to feel all this for yourself. The film does not give answers to many questions: What happened to Quaritch as a result? Where did Varang go? What will happen to Kiri next? Will the hunt for Jake continue? And so on.
A Film That Our Cinema Can't Handle
The problems of "Avatar: Flame and Ashes" are not limited to a controversial script. The plots of "Avatars" have always been simple, but visually they are attractions. They allowed the viewer to enjoy the beauty of Pandora: forests, seas, and so on. Here, all this remained at the level: the mesmerizing nature and its mystical element — all this still pleases the eye! The elaboration of the skin, effects, facial expressions of the characters — it creates the impression that you have entered a video game where the graphics have reached realism. When real actors and drawn Na'vi meet in the same frame, there is no dissonance!
The action is also pleasing, although it is simple: there are no interesting camera solutions, any unusual staging or scope. Ordinary battles, although some individual moments are good: you can recall the scene of Jake's escape from captivity with the help of a huge bulldozer.
But a few nuances kill the impressions of all this beauty.
Firstly, again referring to the subtitle of the trilogy — "Flame and Ashes" — I want to note: there are not so many effects related to fire in the film. And a significant part of them were shown in the trailers. The film shows water much more often, as in the second part. And there is almost no ash at all. It's as if Cameron collected half of the film from scenes shot for "The Way of Water", but not included in the final cut — again, secondary!
The authors missed a number of opportunities to demonstrate fiery effects in all their glory — although it would seem that the entire Mankwan clan was invented specifically for this. The same backstory of Varang could have been shown in detail in a flashback: a volcanic eruption, lava flows, ash emissions and everything connected with it. But this is not here.
One might assume that the director wanted to play on the contrast between fire and water. If so, it turned out interesting, although there are few scenes where these two elements come into contact.
Secondly, to fully appreciate the beauty of the picture, you need to watch the film not just in a cinema, but in special IMAX halls equipped with the latest technology. James Cameron even sent letters to American cinemas explaining exactly how to calibrate the equipment.
In our cinemas, the film is most often shown in simple 2D, which, apart from the screen size, is no different from a regular monitor. This often harms the image, as the picture is greatly stretched. And the cost of such sessions is exorbitant: in my cinema, the ticket price was 750 rubles, regardless of the time of day. And this is not the highest cost, it can be even higher — I checked!
IMAX screenings are available in the Russian Federation, but their quality leaves much to be desired — at least because the equipment in them is often outdated. In this regard, a real scandal erupted online: viewers accuse some IMAX cinemas of using "screeners" or regular 2D files for screenings. This has a terrible effect on the image quality. Ticket prices reach 2000 rubles. Be careful!
Verdict
"Avatar: Fire and Ash" is a controversial film.
The visual component of the project remains top-notch, demonstrating excellent detail in the characters, the nature of Pandora, and various effects. But the authors again use the same techniques as in the previous film, and there is no longer a sense of novelty. And what is there is difficult to feel in our cinemas, which often show simple 2D sessions at inflated ticket prices.
The authors tried to solve the plot problems of "The Way of Water" by deepening the characters' stories by increasing the emphasis on their emotions. But due to the inflated running time and crooked editing — despite the duration of three hours, it seems that a lot was cut out of the plot — coupled with the problematic ending — many plot lines remained unfinished, and the final act is tiring — the attempt is far from ideal. Although it is still better than the second film.
The thirdquel became the lowest-rated part of the franchise: on the Rotten Tomatoes platform, the film has about 68% positive reviews from critics, compared to 76% and 81% for the sequel and the original, respectively. On the iMDB service, the third film has a rating of 7.4 out of 10, the second — 7.5 out of 10, and the first — 7.9. The box office of "Avatar: Fire and Ash" confirms this: at the time of writing, they did not reach 1.3 billion. This is a lot, but it makes it clear: viewers have begun to lose interest in the franchise.
Like James Cameron. He does not plan to leave the post of director of the following films, but he will pay much less attention to them, ceasing to control every minor detail of them. What will happen to "Avatar" next is an open question.
