No matter how impressive the cinematic experience is sometimes the returns can’t help but feel diminished….

Now in theatres, this third installment of the franchise; Avatar: Fire & Ash is still a highly entertaining science-fiction action adventure but as it actually gives itself an out you can’t help but feel a general sense of malaise as you can’t help but feel like we’ve reached the limits of this world of Pandora and the universe it lives in.

As Jake and Neytiri’s family grapples with grief after Neteyam’s death, they encounter a new, aggressive Na’vi tribe, the Ash People, who are led by the fiery Varang, as the conflict on Pandora escalates and a new moral focus emerges as Quaritch is still looming large, looking to settle his vendetta with Jake which has evolved in new and disturbing ways.

Ultimately, here’s the thing.  There’s no doubt that Avatar: Fire & Ash will satisfy audiences across the world and make a crap load of money because it’s a quality action movie with immersive visuals that you can’t help but get sucked into but as co-writer/director James Cameron is quite possibly hitting a little bit of a malaise because when you’ve revolutionize a genre and bring new technology to the forefront in spectacle tent pole filmmaking, it’s hard to find a way to keep innovating in ways that has been your signature style for well over 40 years now.

Honestly there’s really nothing about Avatar: Fire & Ash that I can knock.  It’s got a strong story (better than the second one anyway, it obviously looks great as we’re fully invested in this world that Cameron has built and the characters that we’re emotionally invested in, however like most sequels there’s a problem that it can’t get away from.

Nothing really happens that advances the overall arch of the story about humanity horning their way in on this beautiful new world.  The crux of it all was the same as it was 16 years ago and that just feels a little underwhelming which is ultimately the cost of Cameron having this ambitious idea in the first place.

Short of being able to beam the movie into our cerebral cortex’s while sitting in the IMAX, D-Box, 4DX, HFR, 3D etc etc ways of seeing the film, I can’t help but feel like Cameron may have hit the glass ceiling on this one because it’s hard to imagine where he could go.  At this stage it would almost be more ambitious to try and go a little more lo-fi like he has to in the 80’s, if only for the challenge of it.

Sam Worthington and Zoe Saldana are obviously invested in the characters and franchise and certainly do fine work while Stephen Lang finds new ways to chew the scenery as our primary bad guy in all of this.  The real stand out however is Oona Chaplin as the new villain Varang who makes even the menace of Stephen Lang’s Quaritch feel a little muted and does successfully breathe a little life into the whole affair.   Sure all the supporting players return like Sigourney Weaver, Cliff Curtis, Joel David Moore, Kate Winslet and Giovanni Ribisi reprise all their roles even dragging along Edie Falco as a new military commander for some reason, but none of them really have any work to do as it’s the faceless children of Jake and Neytiri who take up more of the emotional weight in this struggle for Pandora.

At the end of the day with Avatar: Fire & Ash,  James Cameron and company gave themselves a pretty solid out if this chapter underperforms and doesn’t warrant another monster production budget to make the initially planned 4^th and 5^th chapters in this universe and that’s actually OK.  With a hall of fame career of melting our eyeballs and delighting audiences craving some spectacle cinema in all corners of the world, James Cameron might need an excuse to get back to basics and put us on ride (inside the frame of the camera lens) like only he can and leave the jumpsuits and blue ping pong balls that allowed Pandora to come to life on the shelf for a little while.