James Cameron is too good of a director to spend the rest of his career trapped in Pandora. Avatar: Fire and Ash, the third of five planned installments, may be the most unequivocal waste of time and talent in any major motion picture this century. At three hours and 17 minutes, this second sequel is the neglected middle child of the franchise—adrift, unsure of its purpose, and mostly forgotten even as it plays out in real time. Despite its nearly endless runtime, so little actually happens that the movie ends in almost the exact same place it began. It’s a truly depressing chapter in a franchise that began with a box-office-destroying splash in 2009 and (shockingly) managed to carry the flame with The Way of Water, a disappointing but still absurdly profitable sequel. Read More
