Avatar: Fire And Ash reviews: £300m third film is panned by critics

The third film in James Cameron's record-breaking Avatar franchise has been widely panned by critics, ahead of its UK release on Friday.

Early reviews have come in for Avatar: Fire And Ash, which cost a staggering £300million to make and boasts a star-studded cast including; Zoe Saldana, 47, and Sigourney Weaver, 76. 

Not holding back, some critics awarded the film a measly one star and blasted the 'recycled' plot, agonising 3 hour and 15 minute run time and even urged the director 'to quit while he's ahead'. 

The film also holds a franchise-low critical score on platforms like Rotten Tomatoes (approx. 69–70%). 

Avatar: Fire and Ash marks the third entry in James' long-planned series, following the record-breaking original film of 2009 and the 2022 sequel Avatar: The Way of Water.

Reviewers believe the ending offers closure and question the need for future sequels, as fourth and fifth Avatar films have been planned - but are relying on the success of Fire And Ash. 

The Telegraph's Robbie Collin gave the film one star and blasted it as 'humourless'. 

He wrote: 'Tip some glitter into a fish tank and burn £300m: ta-dah, it’s another Avatar film. James Cameron’s semi-amphibious sci-fi franchise is back, with a new chapter even longer, more humourless and cheesily colour-coordinated than the last.

'While it’s entirely fair to point out that he must be doing something right, since the combined global box-office takings of the Avatar films now exceed $5bn (£3.7bn), the question remains as to how much more of that something cinema-goers actually want, or can take, given how astonishingly little this latest instalment has to add.'

Avatar didn't fair much better in critic Peter Bradshaw's review for The Guardian. 

Scoring just two stars out of a possible five, Peter wrote: 'While the rest of the cinema industry has quietly abandoned 3D without ever quite admitting it, theatres showing James Cameron’s giant new three-hour hunk of nonsense are still handing out the 3D specs to the customers.  

'Avatar is as gigantically uninteresting and colossally impervious to criticism as ever: a vast, blank edifice that placidly repels objection.'

Meanwhile the BBC's Nicholas Barber wrote: 'Avatar and Avatar: The Way of Water are two of the highest-grossing films ever made, so you can hardly blame James Cameron for keeping his sci-fi adventure series going. 

'But its third episode, Avatar: Fire and Ash, strongly suggests that he should quit while he's still ahead.

What did the critics say?  

Time Out 

Rating:

[Three stars] 

'If ever a movie could give your eyeballs gout, Avatar: Ash And Fire is that film. 

'At three hours and 17 sometimes spectacular, occasionally stultifying minutes (two more than Schindler's list) your mind will struggle not to wander'

The Guardian 

Rating:

[Two stars] 

'Avatar is as gigantically uninteresting and colossally impervious to criticism as ever: a vast, blank edifice that placidly repels objection'

BBC 

'Each Avatar so far has been longer and worse than the one before, and this one – a full half-hour longer than the 2009 original – is 197 minutes of screensaver graphics, clunky dialogue, baggy plotting and hippy-dippy new-age spirituality.' 

The Telegraph

Rating:

 [One star]

'Tip some glitter into a fish tank and burn £300m: ta-dah, it’s another Avatar film. James Cameron’s semi-amphibious sci-fi franchise is back, with a new chapter even longer, more humourless and cheesily colour-coordinated than the last.' 

Deadline 

'With truly dazzling production elements all around this is a movie hard to resist, even if you think you have already seen what wonders Cameron has in store for this franchise.' 

'Each Avatar so far has been longer and worse than the one before, and this one – a full half-hour longer than the 2009 original – is 197 minutes of screensaver graphics, clunky dialogue, baggy plotting and hippy-dippy new-age spirituality. It's terrifying to think that Cameron still has two more sequels scheduled'.

Time Out's Phil de Semlyen awarded three stars also complained about the length of the film. 

'If ever a movie could give your eyeballs gout, Avatar: Ash And Fire is that film. 

'At three hours and 17 sometimes spectacular, occasionally stultifying minutes (two more than Schindler's list) your mind will struggle not to wander as human-turned-Na’vi Jake Sully (Sam Worthington) and his blue clanspeople tackle new-yet-entirely-similar threats in a straining sequel that again zeroes in on Pandoran whale juice as its McGuffin. 

'You will try to make it through this movie without needing a pee. You will not succeed.'

There were some critics who applauded Cameron's latest film. 

Deadline's Pete Hammond wrote: 'With truly dazzling production elements all around this is a movie hard to resist, even if you think you have already seen what wonders Cameron has in store for this franchise. 

'He isn’t committing firmly to the hoped for and scripted 4th and 5th films in the Avatar universe until he sees how this one performs, but my guess is people are gonna go more than once.' 

Critics also tended to agree on Cameron's use of action sequences and impressive Pandora landscapes. 

Written by James alongside Rick Jaffa and Amanda Silver, the film continues the saga of Jake Sully and Neytiri as they navigate new threats to their family and their world.

The film introduces a major new dynamic: the emergence of the Ash People, also known as the Mangkwan Clan.

Unlike the sea-dwelling Metkayina of The Way of Water, the Ash People occupy a once-hidden corner of Pandora's ecosystem, one shaped by fire, volcanic landscapes, and harsh survival.

At the forefront of this new tribe stands Varang. Early descriptions paint her as a fierce, calculating leader who is willing to take extreme measures to secure the future of her people.

A synopsis reads: 'Jake and Neytiri's family grapples with grief after Neteyam's death, encountering 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.' 

While Fire and Ash is intended to conclude the first major arc of the Avatar saga, it is far from the final film - James has already outlined plans for Avatar 4 and Avatar 5.

Avatar: Fire and Ash will hit UK cinemas on December 19.

The original Avatar's road to box office history was an unusual one, with most top-grossing films accomplishing this with top-loaded massive opening weekends.

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Zoe Saldaña looks effortlessly chic in a black gown as she joins her co-stars at Avatar: Fire and Ash premiere in Paris

Avatar's success ($2.92billion) was largely due to consistent viewings at a level rarely seen at the box office and still remains the highest grossing movie of all-time.

Filmmaker James, 71,  said of the 2025 sequel: 'The fire will be represented by the 'Ash People.'

'I want to show the Na'vi from another angle because, so far, I have only shown their good sides.

'In the early films, there are very negative human examples and very positive Na'vi examples. In Avatar 3, we will do the opposite.

'We will also explore new worlds, while continuing the story of the main characters,' he said. 'I can say that the last parts will be the best. 

'The others were an introduction, a way to set the table before serving the meal.'