ADVERTISEMENT The first trailer for James Cameron’s sci-fi adventure Avatar: Fire And Ash – the third instalment in the Avatar franchise – has been released… And fans aren’t impressed.
The film, which is scheduled to hit theaters on 19 December, comes three years after Avatar: The Way of Water.
It sees Sam Worthington, Zoe Saldaña, Sigourney Weaver, Stephen Lang and Kate Winslet return to the series, and introduces a new group called the Ash People – led by Varang, played by Oona Chaplin.
“Your goddess has no dominion here,” Varang ominously declares at the end of the trailer.
Quality when it comes to plot doesn’t seem to have much dominion here either, as the trailer feels… well, a bit naff.
See for yourself:
The trailer has racked up millions of views on the official Avatar YouTube account.
However, comments haven’t been too kind…
“Every shot looks like a desktop wallpaper”.
“Visually looks amazing as per the other two but does anyone actually care for the story or characters?” said one fan, while another questioned what the impact of the ongoing Avatar franchise will be on Cameron’s legacy as a filmmaker: “James Cameron has become obsessed and consumed by Avatar. Wasting his time and talent when he could be making great action, scifi and horror.”
It’s true that plot and character development don’t seem to be Cameron’s main priority, as evidenced by the first two films – especially 2022’s Avatar: The Way of Water.
In our review, we described the second chapter as a “soulless sequel” and “an empty spectacle that is nothing more than a showboating exercise in CGI engineering and worldbuilding.” We added that it was an “insanely expensive passion project that is a feast for the eyes but completely devoid of heart, revealing Cameron to be a master image-crafter but a godawful storyteller.”
Read our full review here.
To make matters worse, we reported in January that Avatar: Fire And Ash was going to be a punishingly long ride, as it is supposed to be 3 hours + long.
While hardly surprising considering how the first Avatar film clocked in at 162 minutes and its sequel was a butt-bruising 192 minutes, those who are already sick of the style-over-substance Smurfs-meets-Pocahontas-in-spaaaaace saga are going to need powerful bladder control to sit through this next episode.
Avatar: Fire and Ash is set for theatrical release on 19 December 2025. Despite our reservations, we keep an open mind – stay tuned to Euronews Culture for our December review.
Three more Avatar movies are coming in the next six years. Avatar 4 will hit theaters in December 2029, followed by Avatar 5 in December 2031.
We’re not making any promises for those ones just now.
