There is no mistaking that Avatar: Fire and Ash is the work of a talented filmmaker. Pandora remains a lavishly imagined, technically immersive world, rendered with a level of craft few directors can rival. But to borrow a phrase, it is ultimately full of sound and fury, signifying nothing.

James Cameron’s third iteration picks up precisely where The Way of Water left off. Following the death of his son, Jake Sully (Sam Worthington) and his family remain in self-imposed exile among the Metkayina water tribe, still pursued by the indefatigable Col. Quaritch (Stephen Lang). The entire logic of this arrangement was meant to spare Sully’s original clan from retaliation. Yet, the film is oddly incurious about the moral contradiction at its core: Sully has no reservations about placing his gracious hosts squarely in Quaritch’s crosshairs.