Movie Review: Avatar: Fire and Ash
Due to director James Cameron’s obsession with creating new technology for underwater filmmaking, it took over a decade for him to make a sequel to his 2009 juggernaut, Avatar. Having that technology readily available, the time between the second Avatar film, Avatar: The Way of Water, and the third and newest Avatar film, Avatar: Fire and Ash, has been only three years.
Avatar: The Way of Water was a perfect mix of sequel, reintroduction, and franchise expansion. The story followed the characters from the first film and gave them a new adventure. It expanded the world of Pandora by introducing us to the Water Tribe and other creatures that inhabit the planet, allowing us to revisit Pandora and reacquaint ourselves with the planet we once knew over a decade ago.
Avatar: Fire and Ash hardly does any of that. It isn’t concerned with expanding Pandora anymore, besides introducing us to some new characters (but not letting us go to explore their inhabitants), and it doesn’t need to reintroduce us to Pandora since we were just there a few years ago. Avatar: Fire and Ash is a plot-driven and character-focused sequel on the biggest scale possible.
Let’s state the obvious first: Avatar: Fire and Ash is a visual spectacle, as we’ve come to expect from Cameron and the Avatar films. This is filmmaking on the biggest scale imaginable. Cameron once again utilizes 3D masterfully to add seemingly endless depth to Pandora. The visual effects are extraordinary, and the colors are beautiful and vibrant. The action sequences are thrilling and intense, and Cameron’s use of high frame rate gives these scenes, as well as the scenes in the water, a unique look unlike anything we’ve ever seen in film before. If there is one thing you can expect from Cameron, it’s stunning visuals and exciting action.
Sadly for us, Cameron doesn’t fill the entire three-plus-hour runtime with nonstop action and Pandora exploration. He focuses most of his attention on the Sully family, comprised of Jake (Sam Worthington), Neytiri (Zoe Saldana), their children, Lo’ak (Britain Dalton), Tuk (Trinity Jo-Li Bliss), and Kiri (Sigourney Weaver), and Spider (Jack Champion), the dreadlocked human living amongst the Na’vi. Jake and Neytiri are worried about Spider’s safety and want to get him to High Camp, where other humans and Na’vi allies stay. Their mission goes awry when they are intercepted by the Mangkwan Clan, a.k.a. the Ash People, led by Varang (Oona Chaplin).
Cameron gives every Sully family member their time. From Neytiri getting over the death of her son from the previous film, Lo’ak coming of age to become a warrior for his family, to Kiri learning the full strength of her powers, each character gets their own side plot, along with the film’s main plot. I appreciate Cameron’s effort to develop his characters, but they aren’t all interesting, and it ultimately bogs down any excitement and momentum the film has. I would have much preferred exploring more of the Ash people and Varang than watching all the Sully children and Spider go through their plots. You really feel the film’s runtime in this one, something I’ve never felt in a Cameron movie before.
The visuals and action can only take Avatar: Fire and Ash so far. With too many side plots and not enough exploration of new characters and parts of Pandora, Avatar: Fire and Ash is far and away the weakest of the Avatar films and a let-down for James Cameron fans.
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