James Cameron\u2019s \u201cAvatar: Fire and Ash\u201d has finally been unveiled to members of the film press ahead of its theatrical rollout later this month, and journalists are calling the third trip to Pandora an \u201cultimate cinematic spectacle\u201d that pushes \u201cvisuals and emotion to new heights.\u201d<\/p>\n
Film critic Courtney Howard praised the film on X, writing that films like \u201cFire and Ash\u201d remind us what \u201cmovie theaters were built for.\u201d<\/p>\n
More from Variety<\/p>\n
\u201c3 films in, James Cameron still has the sauce, making the epic spectacular feel emotionally impactful,\u201d Howard wrote<\/a>. \u201cA glorious saga. Bold, brilliant & awesome in every way, this is what movie theaters were built for.\u201d<\/p>\n Fellow critic Sean Tajipour echoed the praise on X. He wrote that with \u201cFire and Ash,\u201d Cameron \u201ccontinues to push boundaries with every frame.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cI may not be the biggest \u2018Avatar\u2019 superfan, but [\u2018Avatar: Fire and Ash\u2019] proves once again that James Cameron can and will always deliver the ultimate cinematic spectacle, pushing visuals and emotion to new heights and redefining what a true blockbuster feels like,\u201d he wrote<\/a>. \u201cIt\u2019s bold, immersive, unforgettable, and driven by sheer ambition.\u201d<\/p>\n Collider correspondent Perri Nemiroff wrote of the film<\/a> on X, \u201cThree films in and I still can\u2019t get over how magical the [\u2018Avatar\u2019] movies are. Wish I had more original phrasing, but this applies too well \u2014 [\u2018Avatar: Fire and Ash\u2019] truly feels like a ride. I couldn\u2019t believe how quickly I was pulled back into the world of Pandora and swept up in the situation. And once that happens, there\u2019s a noticeable increase in complexity in quite a few aspects of the production.\u201d<\/p>\n Film writer Michael Lee wrote on X that the story left a bit to be desired, but praised the visuals and action as \u201cout-of-this-world.\u201d<\/p>\n He wrote<\/a>, \u201c[\u2018Avatar: Fire and Ash\u2019] is huge on visual spectacle, especially in 3D. Deeper exploration of Pandora & new tribes allow for immense world-building. Story may be lacking, but this pushes technical boundaries in unimaginable ways.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cAvatar: Fire and Ash\u201d picks up after the events of 2022\u2019s \u201cAvatar: The Way of Water,\u201d which notably ended with the death of Jake Sully and Neytiri\u2019s son Neteyam. This latest installment finds the Sully family grieving one of their own when a new threat emerges in the form of the Fire tribe, an antagonistic group of Na\u2019vi\u00a0volcano-dwellers led by the revengeful Varang (Oona Chaplin in her franchise debut). The returning cast includes Sam Worthington, Zoe Salda\u00f1a, Sigourney Weaver, Stephen Lang and Kate Winslet, among others.<\/p>\n Cameron has been blunt in recent interviews in saying the future of the \u201cAvatar\u201d franchise depends on the box office performance of \u201cFire and Ash\u201d this holiday movie season. The director originally envisioned five \u201cAvatar\u201d movies and has a large chunk of a fourth movie already shot. The original \u201cAvatar\u201d remains the highest-grossing movie of all time (unadjusted for inflation) with $2.9 billion worldwide, while \u201cThe Way of Water\u201d is third on the list with $2.3 billion. Cameron told Empire magazine<\/a>\u00a0earlier this year that he\u2019s ready to direct the fourth movie himself.<\/p>\n \u201cI mean, there\u2019s no reason not to,\u201d Cameron said ahead of his 71st birthday in August about directing more \u201cAvatar\u201d sequels himself. \u201cI\u2019m healthy, I\u2019m good to go. I\u2019m not going to rule it out. I mean, I\u2019ve got to make it in a vigorous way, to handle the kind of volume and energy of the work for another six or seven years. You know what I mean? I might not be able to do that\u2026 [but] if I can, I\u2019ll just do it.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cAvatar: Fire and Ash\u201d opens in theaters Dec. 19.<\/p>\n Best of Variety<\/p>\n Sign up for Variety’s Newsletter<\/a>. For the latest news, follow us on Facebook<\/a>, Twitter<\/a>, and Instagram<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"James Cameron\u2019s \u201cAvatar: Fire and Ash\u201d has finally been unveiled to members of the film press ahead of…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":320100,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[27],"tags":[49,48,75,123508,5961,142215,337],"class_list":{"0":"post-320099","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-movies","8":"tag-ca","9":"tag-canada","10":"tag-entertainment","11":"tag-fire-and-ash","12":"tag-james-cameron","13":"tag-movie-theaters","14":"tag-movies"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/320099","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=320099"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/320099\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/320100"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=320099"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=320099"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=320099"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}