Why Avatar 3 Doesn’t Have The Wow Factor (In My Opinion)

I predicted over a year ago that this movie wouldn’t hit as hard as the sequel. But before we talk about it, I want to take you back in time when dinosaurs roamed the earth and our finger unlocked something game-breaking.

It’s summer 1993 (33 years ago), you’re sitting in your local cinema and you’re 20 minutes into Jurassic Park. The Brachiosaurus appears on screen and like me, you will have been utterly mesmerised at what you’re looking at. This is a ‘real’ dinosaur and it’s mind blowing – remember?

It’s summer 1997, I’m sitting in a staff screening at Metro Centre UCI (I was dating a girl there) and I’m 20 minutes into Jurassic Park: The Lost World. I’m completely captivated because I can’t wait to see the dinosaurs again. The Stegosaurus appears on screen for the first time and…meh. It was a meh moment because dinosaurs were no-longer new and I was disappointed that I no-longer felt amazed. I was young (23) and hadn’t foreseen this emotional cliff fall.

From ’93 to ’97 we had seen an explosion of CGI in movies due to the groundbreaking work of Industrial Light and Magic (ILM) who are the pioneering effects house created by George Lucas in the mid 70s to help him create Star Wars. In 1995 we had Jumanji filled with ‘real’ animals. That same year we also had Casper. Complex renditions of anything and everything were now normal and we were already becoming accustomed to seeing them. In 1997 dinosaurs were already starting to feel extinct. I hadn’t appreciated this fact in advance while I was locked into the feeling of nostalgia.

One of my favourite events ever is the Apple Keynote from January 2007 when the iPhone was introduced. I’ve seen it many times (I’m a nerd) but recently rewatched it again on YouTube it’s that good (https://youtu.be/2MlSJLPxGYs?si=RR0jUNM8voN0XVgB 👈🏼) There’s a key moment that stood out for me while researching this article and it happens at 16 minutes 19 seconds where Steve Jobs demonstrates how to locate an artist in his music library by using his finger to scroll. Wow. There’s an audible gasp, cheer and applause from the packed auditorium. That was groundbreaking – like seeing the Brachiosaurus in Jurassic Park. This was the first and last time we ever heard gasps, cheering and applause for ‘scrolling’ in any mobile phone launch. As an audience we have now seen it. We’ve reacted. We’ve accepted. And we’re ready for something bigger and better #IndominusRex anyone?

Are we learning yet?

Life Finds A Way

From biology to technology, there is always a new breakthrough. Cinema is an entertainment industry and its goal is to take our money and in exchange they will entertain us for a period of time (a bit like a brothel). In December 2009 we were given a monumental leap forward in the form of Avatar. Technology in this movie was built from the ground up specifically to bring James Camerons vision to life on the big screen. Where were you when you watched it? And if you say on a shitty portable TV from a memory stick you’re dead to me. I was at the Odeon – Metro Centre, screen 11 in the recently opened ‘Gallery’ seats. It was IMAX 3D and it was introduced by a member of staff giving a safety briefing on the 3D glasses and on just how amazing this new experience was going to be. He was right. I also remember he got an applause because that was new – just like scrolling.

Now let’s jump forward 13 years to December 2022 and the launch of Avatar: The Way of Water. I’ll be honest I wasn’t really hyped for it because I never looked at Avatar and wondered about how the story might continue. I was happy with there being just one movie. But in 2017 work started on Avatar 2, 3 and the potential 4th and 5th films in the franchise. I really wasn’t bothered at all about any of this to be honest.

However 2022 is a significant period of time from the first movie and I was intrigued to see what was going to be new so I went to see it with open 3D eyes and was pleasantly pleased with it. One of the huge limitations of graphical rendering has always been particle effects and in particular water. The water in this movie was incredible. The overhead Atmos sound was great. But that was it. Regardless, I remember saying to my friend on the phone I would probably never watch it again but I’m pleased I’ve seen it in IMAX. To this day I’ve never bought it or rewatched it on Disney +.

We Spared No Expense

Here are some stats on Avatar: The Way of Water.

Domestic Opening (USA) $134,100,226. Released December 14th 2022 with a run time of 3 hours 12 minutes.

Here are the key differences in production and projection between both movies.

• 2009 – Avatar 1 Performance capture + live-action integration – Fusion Camera System for stereoscopic 3D – Green screen heavy production – CGI characters with keyframe + motion capture – Pre-lighting & virtual cinematography – Digital 3D / IMAX 3D projection adoption – Standard Dolby Digital / DTS sound

• 2022 – Avatar: The Way of Water Underwater performance capture breakthrough – Higher-resolution stereoscopic 3D cameras – Real-time rendering pipelines for CGI – Advanced water, hair, skin, muscle physics – Volumetric lighting, subsurface scattering, global illumination – Laser IMAX projection, HDR 3D, higher frame rate (48 FPS in select theatres) – Immersive Dolby Atmos audio

There’s quite a bit of advancement made in that period of time I’m sure you’ll agree. And remember, while making Avatar: The Way of Water, they’re already making Avatar 3, 4 and 5 with the same technology. For the record only a small amount of performance capture has been made for 4 and 5 and that was only of the child actors to preserve their movements at a young age before they grew up. One of the actors was 9 at the time her performance was captured in 2017 just in case 4 and 5 went into production.

So with these changes locked in for making 2 and 3 at the same time, we were never going to get anything substantially groundbreaking with Avatar: Fire and Ash other than some really cool fire effects. This movie has to be story driven. It’s only been 3 years (not 13) since the last movie and the technology hasn’t evolved at all. No new projection systems, no new sound formats and no new rendering technology that’s perceivable on current screens with human eyes at the presented resolution. It’s all well and good the effects house claiming that each particle of fire and ash consists of X amount of pixels that are all shaded with X Y and Z components blah blah…but if we can’t see it then it’s just marketing hype and white noise. It’s bit like a new energy call centre opening and telling you on LinkedIn that they’re different.

Here are some stats on Avatar: Fire and Ash

Domestic Opening (USA) $89,160,860. Released December 17th 2025 with a run time of 3 hours 17 minutes.

This movie opened 33.5% lower domestically than The Way of Water, with no new technology advances in production and presentation and is essentially the same runtime length (4 minutes longer if you want to split incredibly realistically rendered hairs).

There is a local cinema to me with a national footprint who gave me some stats shortly after it opened. Wicked: For Good took £11k in the first week and a half. Avatar: Fire and Ash took just £4k in the same time period. The Wicked movies were designed as a two parter with only one year separating it. Avatar: Fire and Ash was bolted onto a bigger vision, released 3 years after part 2 with a run time one hour longer than Wicked: For Good. It’s pretty simple to me – people get bored easy and Avatar: Fire and Ash simply doesn’t have the WOW factor. It’s just the same dinosaurs in different environmental conditions.

After Careful Consideration, I’ve Decided, Not To Endorse Your Park

What has happened? Well in 2022 we were just coming out of the pandemic so going back to the cinema for a huge blockbuster was very appealing as Top Gun: Maverick proved. In 2025 we have evolved in human age a few years, our tastes are constantly adapting, time is becoming more precious and people have become even more addicted to short form crack cocaine content and the luxury of streaming services. Sadly many families are still not financially free to go and pay nearly £22-£25 a ticket for IMAX 3D at Odeon Silverlink (that price from their website on Sunday 28th December at the 19:30pm showing) plus drinks and sweets. Imagine the logistics and cost of taking 2 adults and 3 iPad addicts to the cinema at today’s prices.

And in truth people are cautious and listening to reviews then deciding not to fully endorse one mans billion dollar dream project. This movie had a review embargo of 2 days before release. If a movie is good trust me the studio wants the reviewers to shout about it early. Press screenings were 1 month before release in some areas of the world. But keeping reviews from only 2 days out of release speaks volumes. As I wrote this on December 28th 2025 – Rotten Tomatoes had Avatar: The Way of Water at 76% and Fire and Ash at 66% – however the amount of reviews has a variance of -141 for the latter.

As a diehard movie fan, technical fanboy and professional creator there’s no way I’m going to sit for 3 hours 17 minutes (that’s with 10 minutes of credits obviously) on a movie that’s being reviewed as ‘ok’ and the weakest of the 3. Or so I told myself. I did go and see the movie between Christmas and New Year and left after 90 minutes exactly.

Or so I told myself. I did go and see the movie during week 1 of 2026 and left after 90 minutes exactly. I was bored to tears. Yes the first battle scene was fantastic to look at but that spike was like a shot of espresso. I felt I was watching a National Geographic documentary on tribes.

At the end of its global run it pulled in $1.486 Billion ($1B less than Avatar 2) and the entire franchise has more than paid for itself a few times over. James Cameron is still one of the greatest writers, ideas man, creators and directors of our time. Avatar is still one of the most technically impressive and immersive experiences in the cinema I’ve ever had. This movie, its creator and the entire team have forged new pathways and created new pipelines for digital jazz. This can never be underestimated or ignored. But when you hit a home run you visit the 4 bases once and sit down not go around and around.

The iPhone 17 is meh compared to the iPhone 16. The iPhone 17 is absolutely incredible next to the iPhone 7. Interpret that as you will.

Man creates dinosaurs in movies. Man destroys dinosaurs in movies. Man creates the Navi in movies. Man destroys the Navi in movies. Woman inherits the earth.

And when it’s all said and done Avatar will still be regarded as one of the greatest sci-fi action movies ever made. No hold on, that’s The Terminator. No it’s Aliens. Hang on no it’s The Abyss. Damn it…no, it’s Terminator 2!

Regardless, it’s a James Cameron movie.  Tell me I’m wrong.

I’ll be back (with an article on why we won’t see Top Gun 3).

*No AI or LLM were used to write this.  This is my work from my 60 words a minute touch-typing digits.