Latest / The K.B. Radio Network / Avatar: Fire and Ash (2025) Movie Review
Transcript
- 0:17Hello
- 0:18ladies and gentlemen and welcome to the concession stand here on the KB radio network I am your host Kevin Reed and this is the review of the third film in the
- 0:30Avatar franchise.
- 0:33Avatar?
- 0:34Fire and Ash.
- 0:36Disco Around.
- 0:37Once again,
- 0:38we get James
- 0:39Cameron writing and directing this film that brings us back to the world of Pandora or the moon or wherever they are.
- 0:51Somewhere out there where Sam Worthington,
- 0:55Zoe Saldana,
- 0:57Stephen Lane,
- 0:58Sigourney Weaver,
- 1:00or
- 1:00All of them are in motion captioned suits,
- 1:05giving us this beautiful,
- 1:07beautiful world to gawk at.
- 1:10This go-around,
- 1:12Avatar Fire and Ash,
- 1:14picks up right after
- 1:16Avatar The Way of Water,
- 1:18where the Sully family is gripping with the grief of the death of their son and brother.
- 1:27And they encounter a new and a...
- 1:30aggressive tribe the ash people who are led by a fiery no pun intended new villain of varine as the conflict on pandora escalates and a new moral focus emerge like
- 1:47i said this is the third film in the franchise i'm a big fan of the first film love loved it absolutely loved it for what it accomplished telling this story uh
- 1:59through the eyes of i guess if i guess is what people describe it as you know dancing with wolves just with eight feet tall blue aliens and it's pretty much the same story nothing original there but what
- 2:17you went to go see that movie for was the visual spectacle that it was and it was stunning and so when the way of water came out a couple of years ago
- 2:29Pretty much the same thing.
- 2:30You went to see this new spectacle.
- 2:34And it took the world to a whole new level with the water creatures and the water tribe and whatnot.
- 2:42Beautiful.
- 2:44I didn't enjoy the way of water as much as I enjoyed the first one.
- 2:49Especially on rewatch.
- 2:51When I saw it in the theater when it came out,
- 2:54I was like,
- 2:55oh,
- 2:55this is fine.
- 2:56It's up there with the...
- 2:58first avatar film but watching it you know at home and whatnot it just didn't have that same pop it just didn't quite get there and never i would never classify it as bad or anything it just didn't have the same fire
- 3:15as the first film and so we get around to fire and ash and to be 100 honest with you wasn't super looking forward to
- 3:26avatar fire and ash even though i was excited to a degree because watch the first film i'm kind of invested in this franchise i'm invested in the story i'm invested in the characters of jake and this world this new world what more can we explore in
- 3:44on pandora so i was excited in that sense you know is the story going to heighten um no no Oh.
- 3:55uh avatar fire and ash is not it just didn't get there for me i i was i was in and then i got brought down and then i got in a little bit more but by the end of it i was pretty much i
- 4:13came to to the conclusion that i think we have milked this avatar world dry it's it's um i'm pretty i'm good i'm good i i
- 4:26I have no need to go back to the world of Pandora.
- 4:31You know,
- 4:31and the movie wasn't bad.
- 4:33It wasn't bad,
- 4:35you know,
- 4:35pretty much on the same wavelength.
- 4:38Once again,
- 4:38no pun intended of the way of water.
- 4:42But it just felt like a rehash of the second film,
- 4:48just with a couple of more characters added along that...
- 4:54didn't really need to be in the movie it was just there to be there storylines that
- 5:00were there to be there it got too mystical for me not the rapper but you know it just got too fantastical and that's saying a lot being as though this is a science fiction film but
- 5:16it was just too fantastical you know you had characters that all of a sudden they're superheroes all you know they they can they can talk to god and ay and uh the mother and
- 5:29you know summon the powers of pandora and it's like where where are we going with this franchise it just it just took a left a hard left and i was left scratching my head like okay i
- 5:44was good when it was grounded in the first film and i know we're talking about a man that puts his conscious in this avatar alien yeah but it was still grounded it.
- 5:57now we just going way fantastical and it just i couldn't connect with it and in another reason i couldn't connect with it all of the human characters were when they were on screen just it
- 6:13was nothing to connect there you can connect in that first film because you had sam worvington along with his avatar you know but you had the actor that you can connect with with his story and whatnot.
- 6:27and uh stephen lane and uh sigourney weaver and joel uh what's his name joel david mars and uh moore and you know you had characters that were human in the film that you can connect with but
- 6:43as we travel along this avatar trail the human characters take a back seat even though they're the villains you know every human character with the exception of one is the is a villain in this movie
- 6:56And so you really couldn't connect with the characters.
- 6:58And I just could not get on board anymore.
- 7:02I don't even see
- 7:03Jake Sully no more.
- 7:04I just see another blue alien.
- 7:07You know,
- 7:08the,
- 7:09I mean,
- 7:09James Cameron.
- 7:11What can I say about James Cameron?
- 7:13James Cameron is one of the greatest filmmakers of all time.
- 7:17I mean,
- 7:19that's like saying water's wet.
- 7:21But yes,
- 7:21he's one of the greatest of all time.
- 7:23The man makes nothing but block.
- 7:25blockbusters i don't think he's ever made a film that flopped or didn't make his money back i think his least performing film that he directed was true lies and it still made money it was a big hit but it wasn't a monster hit like his other films you know terminator and aliens and so on and so forth titanic and movies
- 7:48of that elk but he makes billion dollar grossing film billion billion would
- 7:55So he is one of the greats.
- 7:57And when it comes to action,
- 7:59he's one of the greatest.
- 8:01The action in here was fine.
- 8:05You know,
- 8:06nothing earth-shattering,
- 8:09nothing that we haven't seen before in this franchise.
- 8:12And,
- 8:13you know,
- 8:14with three films in,
- 8:15we need to heighten it up a little bit more,
- 8:18especially when you introduce a new villain or a new antagonist.
- 8:22We want to see a little bit more.
- 8:24But we didn't.
- 8:25You know,
- 8:26it was a great introduction to that character who's played by,
- 8:30what's her name?
- 8:32Ona Chaplin.
- 8:33And when you hear Chaplin,
- 8:35you're like,
- 8:35oh,
- 8:35man,
- 8:36I wonder if she's related to Charlie Chaplin.
- 8:39She is.
- 8:39She's the granddaughter of Charlie Chaplin.
- 8:43And she is the villain in this film,
- 8:47in her introduction,
- 8:49in this movie.
- 8:50Actually,
- 8:51she was probably the best part of the film.
- 8:53The scenes that she had,
- 8:55I'm like,
- 8:56oh,
- 8:56man,
- 8:56she is a beast.
- 8:58I loved her character.
- 8:59Loved her character.
- 9:00Loved the performance.
- 9:02And she had this sexy,
- 9:07venomous vibe to her,
- 9:09but she wasn't so much of a villain as she was an antihero.
- 9:15You know,
- 9:16she's just a victim of circumstance.
- 9:19And she's making the best out of...
- 9:22what she has and her people have to ash people and i connected with her character i'll say that much you know because i can see i can see her motivations you know and what she stood for and why she did what she did i'm not saying what she did was right she
- 9:40is a villain but i get it and i i like her introduction her story but all of a sudden it was like poof
- 9:49Dude!
- 9:51she was gone it was like there was no there was no adding to it now james cameron has promised like
- 9:59three more films in this franchise god help us and so possibly we'll get a little bit a little bit more of her character uh in future films but i wanted to see it in this one you know i wanted i wanted it wrapped up and
- 10:15nothing was really wrapped up for me there and now before i get to my biggest gripe about this movie i will give some positives because i've been
- 10:26trilling on for about a minute and uh well 10 minutes about what i didn't like but i'll tell you what i did like about the movie number one well i did mention one uh uh on the chaplain she was great i liked her in this film i
- 10:42liked the visuals of course i mean that's that didn't change they didn't they didn't uh uh skip skip on the uh special effects budget it still looks um
- 10:55amazing it is amazing some of the shots in this film were just absolutely you could have paused it took a picture printed it out and framed it on your wall it's that beautiful it was some beautiful looking landscapes throughout this film that
- 11:15i wasn't doubting that none of that surprised me but it it definitely was beautiful uh to look at and that's about it for me
- 11:24That's about it for the positives of this movie.
- 11:28My biggest negative.
- 11:30Well,
- 11:30I'm going to leave you in suspense for a little while longer because I just thought about another negative.
- 11:36I talked about the visuals.
- 11:38Some of the visuals,
- 11:39I don't know if it was my screening or
- 11:42I don't know.
- 11:43Maybe it's my eyesight.
- 11:44But a couple of shots talking about the Navi.
- 11:48It didn't look right in the movie.
- 11:52It looked like.
- 11:53It looked like CG.
- 11:55And I know it is CG,
- 11:56but in the previous two films,
- 11:58it looked flawless.
- 12:00But in this movie,
- 12:02just in a few shots,
- 12:04it wasn't like a
- 12:0630-minute run where it just looked cheap.
- 12:08It was like quick shots where I just looked at mouth movements and stuff like that.
- 12:14And I was like,
- 12:15that didn't look right.
- 12:17It just didn't look right on that character.
- 12:21but
- 12:23Now I'm just nitpicking.
- 12:25But here's something that I'm not nitpicking.
- 12:29This freaking movie was three hours and 15 minutes for no reason at all.
- 12:42Why was this movie three hours and 15 minutes?
- 12:46I promise you,
- 12:48you cut 45 minutes out this movie and it would be awesome.
- 12:53it would have been great i'm sitting there and this is while the movie's going i'm like we didn't need that scene we could have shortened that scene oh we we really didn't need this character in here the movie's still going and
- 13:11at that point i'm like an hour or an hour and a half in i'm like but we don't need all this why is all this in here now is it possible set up for future films probably
- 13:23But at this point,
- 13:24I don't even want to see future films.
- 13:26It feels like I've seen three movies.
- 13:29This movie was three hours long.
- 13:36Was there action throughout?
- 13:38Yes,
- 13:38they had some real,
- 13:39they started off with a nice action scene.
- 13:43They had an action scene in the middle,
- 13:45then the big climax at the end.
- 13:47Yes,
- 13:47there was action throughout the movie,
- 13:50but it was boring.
- 13:53this movie was born you felt all three hours and 15 minutes and no point did i say oh man this movie this movie's flying by never never if
- 14:09i felt like i wasted an entire day watching this movie it truly was a task i don't i don't know why this movie had to be this long
- 14:22This was so unnecessary.
- 14:24I complain about movies all the time on this show.
- 14:30If you shave five minutes here or shave ten minutes here,
- 14:34it could have flowed a little better.
- 14:35It could have pasted just a little bit better.
- 14:38You know?
- 14:39But this?
- 14:42You could have cut this movie in half.
- 14:44He could have made this a two-parter.
- 14:46Go Kill Bill style.
- 14:49It would have been...
- 14:50a little bit better.
- 14:51I think I would have digested it a little better.
- 14:53But having to sit there for three hours and 15 minutes.
- 14:58Let me tell you a story.
- 14:59My wife
- 15:00she wanted to go see kill bill last week the the uh the full movie you know uh quentin tarantino he released it like he initially intended in case you didn't know both part one and part two together as one movie because his intentions were one movie and so it was released and it was four hours and
- 15:23they had an intermission in it you know but uh i just couldn't i couldn't do it
- 15:30And in my rationale to it was what I told her and she went and saw it and she was she was excited,
- 15:37you know,
- 15:37she because she loved the movie and I love the movie.
- 15:40I love both of them.
- 15:41Well,
- 15:41one of them now,
- 15:42but I love Kill Bill.
- 15:45But she was super excited.
- 15:46But the reason I told her I couldn't go because I said,
- 15:50look,
- 15:51next week is Avatar.
- 15:55And that movie's three hours long.
- 15:56I can't picture myself going to see him.
- 15:58four hour long movie and then double back and see a three hour long movie my life as much as i love movies i will watch movies all day ironically enough but the key word in that was movies i
- 16:14don't want to watch one movie an entire day and so i like now i can't i can't picture myself sitting down for four hours to watch that and so she went alone after watching this movie
- 16:28I felt so bad because I should have went and saw Kill Bill last week with my wife who invited me to go for an impromptu date night and I said no
- 16:42I feel less than a husband because I was saving my butt for this sitting to watch this movie and I feel like I got the short end of the stick.
- 16:57Yeah,
- 16:58Avatar
- 16:59Fire and Ash did not hit for me.
- 17:02I wanted it to.
- 17:04I really did want it to.
- 17:05But,
- 17:06you know,
- 17:07I'm not super disappointed because
- 17:09I wasn't really expecting much from it.
- 17:12You know,
- 17:13the promotions leading up to it didn't really catch me,
- 17:16didn't hook me.
- 17:17So I really didn't have much to look forward to.
- 17:19So it was nowhere to go but up.
- 17:22And ultimately,
- 17:24this is...
- 17:24how i went in with it is how i left out with it man uh yeah i think james cameron needs to do something else he's been in the uh pandora world way too long what has been about 20 years he's been doing avatar movies it's time to move on let's do something else go make another terminator and go make another uh alien film i would love that you know something else because
- 17:50i think i think I think this is it
- 17:53I think this is it for Avatar.
- 17:56Of course,
- 17:56it's going to make his money.
- 17:58I'm not knocking it for that.
- 18:00You know,
- 18:01it is watchable.
- 18:03You know,
- 18:03I know this is a doom and gloom review,
- 18:06but it is watchable.
- 18:07It's not a horrible movie.
- 18:10In no shape,
- 18:11form,
- 18:11or fashion will this make the worst movie of the year list.
- 18:14This was all right.
- 18:17But when you spend $400 million on a movie...
- 18:21It needs to be better than all right.
- 18:24And you asking people to sit down for three hours and 15 minutes.
- 18:28It needs to be better than all right.
- 18:31So
- 18:32Avatar Fire and Ash,
- 18:34the third film in the franchise,
- 18:36gets a letter grade of a C.
- 18:40Yeah,
- 18:41man.
- 18:42Yeah.
- 18:43Little let down on that one.
- 18:45But that's one man's opinion.
- 18:48How did you feel about Avatar?
- 18:50Fire and Ash.
- 18:51Did you enjoy it?
- 18:52Did you think it's just as good as the other two?
- 18:55Or do you think
- 18:56James Cameron did a rare,
- 18:58and I mean rare,
- 19:00misfire on this film?
- 19:02Let me know.
- 19:03Email the show,
- 19:03kbradiopodcast at gmail.com.
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- 19:19this video if you don't mind don't forget about the five stars the reviews and sharing this show if you're listening on apple podcast spotify iheart radio wherever you are currently listening to the concession stand here on the kb radio net everybody
- 19:36thank you for joining me for this review of avatar fire and ash and i think i could be wrong i think this is the last one of the no no no i think I have another one.
- 19:49next week before we get to the new year.
- 19:51But this is my last review before Christmas.
- 19:55So to all of you out there.
- 19:57have a merry christmas i hope santa uh have you on his uh uh nice list i was about to say naughty but i hope everybody is on the nice list get what they want won't find a lump of coal in their stocking so merry
- 20:14christmas to all and to all a good night i want you all to know that i love you continue to love everybody and until we speak again you all be blessed