20 Movies That Weren't Worth The Wait

Though the third recent Avatar film, Avatar: Fire and Ash, was released just three years after the previous outing, Avatar: The Way of Water, the second and third film were originally announced together in 2010 and intended to release in 2014 and 2015 respectively.

Both films were extensively delayed as director James Cameron developed new technology to shoot performance capture scenes underwater, and so they ultimately released in 2022 and 2025.

But there was a collective chorus of "Is that it?" when Fire and Ash released back in December. 

While certainly not a bad film, to many it simply felt like Avatar 2.5 - a retread of the themes, plot beats, and even action sequences in the two previous films that puzzlingly failed to do much interesting with its fiery focus.

Though The Way of Water was a genuinely tectonic technological leap from the first Avatar, Fire and Ash felt strangely samey, lacking the wow factor that propelled The Way of Water to such staggering box office success.

It'd be ludicrous to say that Fire and Ash's current $1.46 billion box office haul is a poor showing, but considering it's sitting far below The Way of Water's $2.33 billion, it certainly indicates that mainstream audiences weren't nearly as enamoured with it.

If Cameron wants to win the masses back for Avatar 4, he needs to make sure the story and aesthetics are markedly different.