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DokBrowne [ 6.5 ]
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ooks like this franchise crested with part 2; is it true that the first two "Avatar"s played stronger because we hadn't just seen an "Avatar" movie a few years prior? Can't say for sure but I do have a litany of complaints about part 3 here that never came to mind during the other ones; I say the burn-out is on the creative end over with James Cameron and his team. You could've just made 2 great "Avatar"s and moved on, buddy, why'd it have to be a planned 5, or even 3 if you can't even make it through that many without repeating yourself to harshly diminishing returns?
Most of us were skeptical about the 2nd one before it came out, like oh who needs this, was the first one really even all that good, even if it was you can't catch lightning in a bottle twice, the whole Native Americans-on-an-alien-planet premise of this IP is a bit tiresome anyway, etc. but then I think I speak for that same 'most of us' in declaring "The Way of Water" a hugely entertaining success on all fronts. Newly gorgeous to immerse into, shrewdly emotional storytelling, an incredible action climax bonanza, it refreshed the "Avatar" brand and arguably improved it. Gave reason to keep faith that "Fire and Ash" would turn out fantastically too despite its so-so trailers, but alas this time the worry was warranted.
You might still have a good time with "Avatar 3", it's not like the visual effects, the action or the earnestness have been outsourced to inferior craftsmen. Has the same epic feel and heartfelt ardor. But the entire movie plays like a greatest hits comp, not a bracing new chapter. Over and over again I kept thinking "haven't they done this exact scene before?" The conflicts are recycled, the stakes are cagey and less convincing than ever (lots of irksome fake-out almost-deaths, obviously THAT person is coming back from the dead in part 4 so who gives a damn, and was there even closure to Oona Chaplin's primary antagonist character, at all? She just disappeared during the end), we're not exploring new worlds just going back to the jungles and the whales again, and the only component being introduced as the 3rd movie's novelty is this fire tribe, but a) they're characterized merely like savages with no interesting perspective or agenda to mull over, and b) they basically just become the old villain (Stephen Lang's avatar'd Quaritch)'s platoon of flunkies. Not much of a fire or ash aesthetic to the movie, either. There was probably the same amount of arson on screen in "The Way of Water".
Zoe Saldana's angry-mom Neytiri has turned into quite a pill, too, for someone who's supposed to be an iconic hero. There's a magnificently stupid scene where two good people plan to kill an innocent child for "its own good" that pretty much tilted me off the movie's board altogether, like why am I invested in any of this when the drama's so fake and ill-conceived? And what's up with sliding Quaritch back and forth from enemy to friend to enemy again to friend again to enemy again..? I mean sure adding sympathetic, redeeming qualities to a long-term villain could be a rewarding development but here it's just broad whiplash: one minute he's threatening to murder Jake's entire civilization of Na'vi, the next they're bonding so hard I thought this was about to become a love triangle. Was 195 minutes not enough time to lather in some nuance?
The spectacle wasn't inspired either, sorry to say. Same ol' same ol'. The franchise has plateaued. It needs new ideas, new imagery, new heights to scale. And why does James Cameron persist in showing us the whale torture, wasn't it enough in part 2, c'mon. I get it, it's happening, stop reveling in depictions of it. Starting to resemble a fetish. Oh the whales are going to mount a massive cathartic counterstrike? Why does that seem so familiar...can't say I was psyched by all the blatant deus ex machina Christ allegories with Sigourney Weaver either.
I want to like this movie. I'm not one of those people who thinks himself too cool for "Avatar". The first two were excellent. I just find it startlingly clear that Cameron's imagination for this world pretty much shut down entirely after he made them, and now he's on autopilot with the biggest franchise of all time. Just like he made two amazing "Terminator"s and then scaled back to story contributor/sorta-producer with those films, he shoulda handed the directing reins to someone else after 2 "Avatar"s, not so that part 3 would be better because it wouldn't have been, but because at least its mediocrity wouldn't stain his filmography's batting average. Like it now does. This is the worst movie of his career if you don't count "Piranha 2: The Spawning". Get out while you still can, Cameron.
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| Weighted Rating | : 6.7 |
| No. Ratings | : 1 | |
| No. Reviews | : 1 | |
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