Avatar: Fire and Ash (in theaters)

“Avatar: Fire and Ash” is the best “Avatar” movie James Cameron has ever made.

Whether this qualifies it as being a good movie is a much more complicated question. It’s definitely more emotional than the previous movies, with moments of real feeling that land better than anything in the earlier films. There’s also a lot of narratively satisfying moments that were missing from the second movie, making audiences feel far more rewarded by the experience.

If you compare it to non-”Avatar” movies, however, it doesn’t hold up as well. Like the previous movies in the series, “Avatar: Fire and Ash” is at least an hour too long and made mostly from plot clichés and baked-in racism. The racism gets more pointed with the new group of villains, who pull from every “savage” stereotype you’ve ever seen mashed all together.

Which is tragic, because their leader (Oona Chaplin) is by far the best actress and most interesting character in the movie. Zoe Saldana is also good, with what relatively little screen time she gets, but as always the movie mostly goes to the men. One particularly pivotal scene that should have been Saldana’s ends up going to Sam Worthington, and the results are either infuriating or absurd depending on how invested you are. 

The movie is just as visually striking as previous entries in the series, with what feels like more action scenes and fewer nature shots. Grabbing a 3D IMAX screening adds to the effect, though if you’re prone to motion sickness it might not be worth it. 

If you’re already a fan of the series, however, “Avatar: Fire and Ash” is definitely worth a watch. 

Grade: Two stars 

Oh. What. Fun. (Prime)

Someone give Michelle Pfeiffer a better movie to star in. 

Her latest, “Oh. What. Fun.,” isn’t anywhere close to being worthy of the actress. It’s also not worth the mothers it supposedly celebrates, turning what could have been a cute idea into a strained slapstick mess that wastes a wonderful cast. Rather than genuinely trying to explore and validate the theme of a mom who feels ignored during the holidays, they duct tape together plots from a bunch of better-known Christmas movies. They even name all the movies they’re referencing, giving you the opportunity to turn this one off and choose any of the other vastly superior options. 

Trying to be an adult version of “Home Alone,” the movie features Pfeiffer as a mom of grown children who puts in a ton of work at Christmas. When her kids don’t pick up on her hints to nominate her for a national mom competition, then accidentally drive off without her for a Christmas concert, she snaps and runs off. What follows is an unhinged cross-country journey as Pfeiffer travels to a live taping of the mom awards. 

Pfeiffer is as charming and charismatic as ever, but even an actress as good as she is can’t find much legitimate emotion in the script’s nonsense. The rest of the cast is equally wasted, particularly Danielle Brooks and Joan Chen. 

There’s a good, heartwarming Christmas movie that could be made from a family realizing just how important their mom is. “Oh. What. Fun.” is a bad sitcom episode that goes on far, far too long. 

Grade: One star

Jenniffer Wardell is an award-winning movie critic and member of the Denver Film Critics Society and the Utah Film Critics Association. Drop her a line at [email protected].

Credit for photo ©20th Century Studios