Episode 20 - Avatar: Fire and Ash — Spectacle, Spectacle, and More Spectacle | Fork Rating

Avatar: Fire and Ash, the third film in James Cameron’s Avatar franchise, returns audiences to Pandora as Jake Sully, Neytiri, and their family encounter new threats and new Na’vi clans.

Nominated for Best Visual Effects and Best Costume Design at this year’s Academy Awards, the film continues the series’ themes of environmental stewardship, family, and the spiritual connection between the Na’vi and their planet.

In this episode of Movies I Give a Fork About, AJ breaks down the film’s extraordinary technical achievements, the scale of its visual spectacle, and where the storytelling begins to feel familiar within the larger Avatar universe.

AJ also examines the film’s Oscar nominations and asks whether the categories it’s competing in truly reflect the work on screen.

Is this massive blockbuster spectacle worth the time investment?

Or does the scale of the filmmaking overwhelm the story it’s trying to tell?

🍴 Movies I Give a Fork About  

Movies don’t get stars — they get forks.

Hosted by AJ Jones, this podcast cuts through hype, marketing, and awards buzz to answer one simple question:

Is this movie actually worth your time?

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New episodes drop when a movie earns a fork.

Transcript

SPEAKER_00 0:00

Welcome to Movies I Give a Fork About, the podcast where we don't use stars, we use forks. Because not every movie deserves your time, not every movie earns your emotion, but when one truly does, that's when you give a fork and mean it. I'm AJ, and today's movie is Avatar, Fire and Ash. Okay. I just spent three hours and 17 minutes watching Avatar, Fire and Ash in a theater, and that is three hours and 17 minutes of my life I am never going to get back. The only reason I watch this is because it was nominated for two Academy Awards this year: Best Visual Effects and Best Costume Design. And after sitting through the entire thing, I have one question. Costume design? Really? Let's talk about it. This is the third film in the Avatar franchise directed by James Cameron. Once again, we return to Pandora, following Jake Sully, Natiri, and their family as new threats emerge and the new Navi clans are introduced, including the Ash Clan referred to in the title. Like in the previous films, the story centers around the conflict between humans and the Navi, along with themes of environmental stewardship, family, and the spiritual connection between the people of Pandora and their planet. And those themes, the connection to nature, the importance of the planet, motherhood, community, and the matriarchal elements within the Navi culture are genuinely beautiful ideas. But unfortunately for me, this film just feels like the same old story told again and again. Okay, so let's start with what did work. The visual effects are incredible. Technically, this is an extraordinary achievement. The underwater sequences, the flying scenes, the jungle environments, visually, it is all stunning. But here's the problem. There is so much spectacle that for me it felt like I was watching a digital art demo. At times I found myself thinking, oh, is this the final battle? No. Okay, is this the final battle? Still no. Okay, surely this now is the final battle. Nope. There are so many fucking action sequences and battles that they start to feel repetitive. And by the middle of the film, I started thinking, oh, look what a battle looks like underwater. Oh, look what a battle looks like when they're flying. Oh, and look what it looks like when they're being chased through the fucking jungle. For me, it became spectacle for spectacle's sake. And after three hours and 17 minutes, it became fucking exhausting. So, flipping over to Oscar Award chances, this film is nominated for Best Visual Effects as well as Best Costume Design. For me, the visual effects nomination definitely makes sense, but the costume design nomination? I genuinely do not understand it. Most of what we see on screen are CGI characters. The few human characters we see are mostly wearing either A military gear, B, sweatpants, or some sort of hiking style clothing, which is because that's what fucking scientists look like apparently in the future. So to put that in the same category as the work we've seen from winning costume designers like Ruth E. Carter on Black Panther or Paul Tazewell in Wicked, who create who both created entire worlds of costumes for massive casts, this feels fucking absurd. Again, I get the special effects nom. It's worth it. Absolutely. But the costume one just feels wrong. And I get that James Cameron has earned his place in history, Titanic, Avatar the Original, which was unbelievable and worthy of the accolades, but it feels like rinse repeat, let's keep cashing in on a known franchise. But let's not forget, when the original Avatar, which is a far superior film to this film, was up against Best Picture nominations, it also did not win. I know this film is not up for Best Picture, that's not being debated. But the original Avatar lost to Catherine Bigelow's The Hurt Locker, happens to be James Cameron's ex-wife, and I couldn't have been happier in that moment because we can't just award people for their past efforts. Titanic did win him the Oscar, and it was deserved. But when you keep relying on past efforts to justify your existence to be there in the future, to me, that's bullshit. And the Academy needs to do better. And let me be clear, The Hurt Locker was a phenomenal film, and I was very glad that Bigelow was the winning director that year. So my fork rating for Avatar, Fire and Ash is one fork. Just skip it. That being said, if you like a movie for visual effects, they are worthwhile and they are impressive. And the story feels like a repeat of the first two films. And by the end of it, I honestly felt like I had watched the same sequences over and over again. However, if you have three and a half hours and you don't particularly care how you spend it, sure, go ahead. Go see it. But for me, I hope it wins nothing. And that's today's fork. If you enjoyed this episode, please follow the show. Share it with someone who actually gives a fork about movies. Until next time, watch boldly, judge honestly, and never be afraid to give a fork.