Avatar 3’s Biggest Strength Is Also Its Biggest Weakness

The best part about Avatar 3, also known as Avatar: Fire and Ash, also winds up being the movie’s greatest weakness.

20th Century Studios and James Cameron’s Avatar: Fire and Ash is now playing in United States theaters and IMAX. The sequel to Avatar and Avatar: The Way of Water once again sees Sam Worthington, Zoe Saldaña, and Stephen Lang reprise their respective roles as Jake Sully, Neytiri, and Miles Quaritch, while the film also introduces a new villain named Varang, played by Oona Chaplin.

What is Avatar 3’s biggest strength and weakness?

Varang proves that she’s a force to be reckoned with from the minute that she enters Avatar: Fire and Ash. For the whole first half of the movie, she’s a memorable character who shows us a different side of the Na’vi that we haven’t seen in any of the previous films. Chaplin’s performance and the motion capture are so intriguing that you immediately want to learn more about her and the Ash People.

And then the movie completely forgets about her in the second half.

Shortly after making an alliance with Quaritch, Varang and the Ash People travel to Bridgehead City to, at least temporarily, live among humans. At that point, the plot of the movie shifts, and Avatar 3 focuses on the humans’ efforts to commit a whale massacre rather than anything that’s related to Varang.

Varang is still in the second half of the movie, granted, but she’s largely sidelined. Instead of further exploring the character, Cameron decides to do another giant water-based battle sequence that feels notably similar to the climax of The Way of Water, to the point where it becomes distracting. Quaritch and his never-ending conflicts with Jake once again become the focus, which then gives Varang very little to do in the narrative.

The movie is called Avatar: Fire and Ash, meaning it’s reasonable to expect this to be largely about the Ash People. Cameron provides that in the first half of the film. And it’s cool! That promise, however, disappointingly falls to the wayside in the second half, and the film is worse off for it.

Originally reported by Brandon Schreur at SuperHeroHype.

Source: Comingsoon.net