Avatar Fire and Ash Opens Today With 3 Hour Runtime and James Camerons Same Exact Formula
James Cameron made the same movie three times and we are absolutely all going to watch it anyway.
Avatar: Fire and Ash hits theaters today, December 19th, clocking in at a bladder-testing 3 hours and 17 minutes. The reported budget? $400 million. The Rotten Tomatoes score as of this morning? 69%. And none of these numbers matter even a little bit because this thing is going to make approximately one billion dollars.
Look I’m not here to pretend I’m above it. I saw Way of Water in IMAX 3D and my jaw was on the floor for three hours straight. The man knows how to make a spectacle. Its just… do we need to pretend theres a compelling story happening? There isnt. There never was.
The plot, from what early reviews are describing, involves the Sully family facing yet another existential threat to Pandora. This time involving fire people or ash people or some combination thereof. Jake Sully will look conflicted. Neytiri will hiss at humans. There will be a big battle. The good guys will win but at great cost. Someone will probably die to make it feel important.
You’ve seen this movie. You saw it in 2009. You saw it again in 2022. Now youre going to see it again with slightly different colored aliens.
And here’s the thing that drives me crazy – I cant even be mad about it. Because Cameron delivers exactly what he promises. Visually stunning worlds that push technology forward. Action sequences that actually feel weighty. Environmental themes that are about as subtle as a sledgehammer but at least hes trying to say something.
The Broadway adaptation success story is one thing. But Cameron has been making the same environmental colonizer guilt movie since 2009 and somehow each one makes more money than the last. Way of Water made $2.3 billion worldwide. The original made $2.9 billion when you adjust for inflation.
Critics are being kinder than I expected honestly. The consensus seems to be “gorgeous but hollow” which is exactly what everyone said about the last two movies. Some are calling the fire clan sequences the most visually ambitious thing Cameron has ever done. Others are noting the runtime feels every minute of its 197 minutes.
What nobody is saying is “the characters have depth” or “the dialogue is sharp” or “the story surprised me.” Nobody. Because those things arent true and theyve never been true with Avatar.
But you know what? It doesnt matter. Were all going anyway. Because sometimes you just want to sit in the dark and watch something impossibly beautiful happen on a screen thats too big. And nobody does that better than James Cameron.
Fire and Ash opens everywhere today. Bring snacks. Bring an extra large drink. And dont drink it until at least the two hour mark.
