“Avatar: Fire and Ash,” the sad decline of an obsessive James Cameron who abandoned storytelling in favor of technology

In 2022, at the time of the release event ofAvatar: The Way of Watera sequel to the biggest success in the history of cinema that had been hoped for for thirteen years, the wait was immense, even excessive among the most fervent fans of a film which, while carrying an ecological and humanist message, revolutionized in 2009 the use of 3D and motion capture. James Cameron explained that he took his time so that digital technologies lived up to his ambitions and in fact, this Avatar 2 enchanted during a long underwater sequence of unprecedented realism.

Alas, the scenario ended up getting bogged down, ultimately leaving the impression of a long war film in the mode of imperialist cowboys against animist Indians, far from the trouble caused by the first Avatarwhich saw American soldiers and scientists going back and forth between their rear base and – by directing avatars from a distance – the lush forest of Pandora, inhabited by the Omaticaya, one of the tribes of the Na’vi people. A soldier having to lead an infiltration mission, Jake Sully ended up embracing the indigenous cause and managed to abandon his human shell to become a full-fledged Na’vi and marry Neytiri.