If you saw Avatar: Fire and Ash in James Cameron's format of choice (high frame rate 3D), you might be wondering why some scenes looked so smooth. The Avatar movies often experiment with technology, with varied frame rates becoming the norm since Avatar: The Way of Water, for many of the franchise's underwater sequences in particular.
But if you're curious about the 'smooth' look to some scenes (or are eager to read Cameron's passionate rebuttal), then you're in the right place. Below, we'll take you through Avatar's shifting frame rates in layman's terms, including why some 3D scenes might look blurry to you, and why Avatar sometimes stays away from the traditional 24 frames per second.
Then, make a splash elsewhere by submerging yourself in our bumper explainer to the Avatar: Fire and Ash ending, as well as a look at when Fire and Ash could hit streaming.
Avatar: Fire and Ash frame rate explained
Some, but not all, scenes in Avatar: Fire and Ash run at 48 frames per second (FPS), particularly the underwater scenes. That’s double the standard 24 FPS that’s used in the vast majority of movies – which is why you’re probably not used to everything looking so smooth, especially in 3D.
48 FPS is often referred to as High Frame Rate (HFR) and can often change how a movie ‘looks’. That includes, but isn’t limited to, lighting, how smooth an image looks, and how ‘real’ it can seem. The trouble with the Avatar trilogy is it utilizes both 48 FPS and 24 FPS, sometimes within minutes of each other. That can be perceived by the human eye – which can see between 30 FPS-60 FPS – as jarring and instantly noticeable. In some cases, it can even break the immersion and be too distracting.
So why has James Cameron used HFR? For the director, there is an underlying narrative reason for the back-and-forth frame rate shifts.
At 2022's Busan International Film Festival (H/T Variety), Cameron explained why he opted for 48 FPS.
"We’re using [high frame rate] to improve the 3D where we want a heightened sense of presence, such as underwater or in some of the flying scenes. For shots of just people standing around talking, [high frame rate] works against us because it creates a kind of hyper realism in scenes that are more mundane, more normal. And sometimes we need that cinematic feeling of 24fps," Cameron said.
Years later, prior to the release of Fire and Ash, Cameron was far more blunt in his reasoning.
"I think $2.3 billion says you might be wrong on that," Cameron told DiscussingFilm, when responding to naysayers who have issues with the frame rate. "Well, that's the argument from authority. But the argument from artistic is: I happen to like it, and it's my movie.
"I like what it does to smooth out the 3D experience," Cameron elaborated.
"If you want to get technical on this, we have a lot of different neurons that do a lot of different things, but we have dedicated neurons for parallax. So when people say they get eye strain watching 3D, it's not eye strain. It's brain strain, because we integrate into a stereoscopic perception of the world in our visual cortex.
"Those parallax-sensitive neurons can't fire if the vertical edges of things are jumping," he continued. "The brain can't process that. So if we're having a stroboscopic effect that's degrading the 3D experience, then we'll use high frame rate. It interpolates to a level that we actually can process 3D and then that brain strain goes away."
So, yes, Avatar: The Way of Water and Avatar: Fire and Ash do things differently. If you’re noticing smooth scenes and scenes that appear to stutter slightly more, that’s down to the director choosing to use technology that isn’t used in the majority of movies. What you’re seeing is 48 FPS vs 24 FPS in action. It’s a big change – but one you’ll get used to on return trips to Pandora in Avatar 4 and Avatar 5.
Avatar: Fire and Ash is out now. For more, check out our Avatar: Fire and Ash review, plus a look at whether there's an Avatar 3 post-credits scene.
