Reactions to Fire and Ash are mostly positive, but there are some criticisms we can’t ignore

We’re just weeks away from returning to Pandora, as James Cameron’s latest epic blockbuster show, “Avatar: Fire and Ash,” is almost upon us. Unlike “The Way of Water,” audiences didn’t wait more than a decade for a new adventure with Jake Sully (Sam Worthington) and the Na’vi. Instead, it’s only been three years, even though the success of the second film has reinforced the idea that everyone on the planet is running to the cinema to see Cameron deliver unprecedented cinematic bliss on the big screen.

The new film will put us more than halfway through James Cameron’s plan for a five-film epic in the world of “Avatar.” By now, most of the franchise’s world is established and it’s time to start moving towards some sort of conclusion, or at least a climax. Of course, Cameron keeps saying he has a way to end the franchise if the new films aren’t profitable, but that seems increasingly unlikely, so we’ll likely see his full vision come to fruition. All of this is to say that “Avatar: Fire and Ash” just had its first screenings, and industry professionals and critics have already seen the film and started sharing their thoughts. Unsurprisingly, these are mostly overwhelmingly positive, praising Cameron’s eye for visuals and spectacle, with Perri Nemiroff of Collider stating “Visually, every point of this film is breathtaking.”

Still, there are some criticisms in the early reactions, and they mostly have to do with the film having a lot of story and some of it feeling repetitive. As indie writer Jesse Hassenger describes it, it is “the first James Cameron sequel that feels a bit like a regular follow-up rather than an innovative reinterpretation of its predecessor’s world.”

Even the most mixed reactions still agree that “Avatar: Fire and Ash” is spectacular and visually dazzling, with Comicbook.com editor Chris Killian calling it “every bit as magnificent as one would expect,” while independent reviewer Mike Ryan simply said “there’s nothing else like it.”

Still, the reviews are intriguing. Many critics seem to agree that “Fire and Ash” repeats many of the beats of “The Way of Water,” with CBR editor Sean O’Connell calling it outright a “remake” of the previous film, saying “entire narratives are recycled.”

This is a little worrying, but it’s also not very surprising. With “Fire and Ash” following the Sully family traveling to another, very different clan within Pandora, it’s likely we’ll get yet another fish-out-of-water story, the third in the franchise. James Cameron knows that the plot of “Avatar” is not extremely important and that it is not essential to introduce so many nuances into the story because it is supposed to be simple but universal, which is the key to the success of these films. Indeed, the magic of “Avatar” lies in the fact that the story is not that complicated or novel, but it serves as an entry point into a vast fictional universe, a fully fleshed-out world that is the true star of the franchise.

The other criticism of “Fire and Ash” seems to be that the film is a “transitional film,” as InSession writer JD Duran described it. Again, this isn’t really surprising, but it’s quite intriguing.

Now that we’re on the third of five installments, the “Avatar” saga is fully into its second act, so “Fire and Ash” has to do a lot of setting up for the final two films. We know that the fourth film is expected to introduce a time jump, following the 16-year time jump between the first two films.

We also suspect that “Fire and Ash” could allow Jake Sully to be captured by human forces, which I have speculated in the past as being the beginning of the end of the Toruk Makto. Indeed, with two films left before the saga ends, combined with James Cameron’s many comments that this franchise is a family saga rather than one man’s epic, it’s very likely that the next few films will shift the focus from Jake to his children, especially by the time the franchise eventually comes to Earth, as Cameron’s producer Jon Landau once teased (RIP). Before that can happen, Jake Sully has to be taken out of the picture one way or another, and this seems to be the movie where that storyline comes into play.

Granted, this is exactly the type of development that would make a movie feel like a bridge, because it’s very possible that “Fire and Ash” ends on a big cliffhanger, and most of the movie is set up for the big conflict of the next one – but then again, so does “The Lord of the Rings: The Two Towers,” and that movie is still magnificent.

“Avatar: Fire and Ash” will be released in theaters on December 19, 2025.