Avatar: Fire and Ash ~ Review

By: [email protected] on Fri, 12/19/2025 - 12:54

James Cameron’s Avatar is possibly the strangest franchise. The first two movies are among the highest-grossing pictures ever made. And yet, with the exception of two video games, two theme park rides, and minor comic book and toy lines, there hasn’t been much in the way of cultural footprint. Now, I’m not here to take part in the “does Avatar have cultural relevance?” discourse that has swirled around these movies since 2009. Honestly, I don’t think that discussion is particularly interesting. What is interesting is that these movies are Cameron’s passion projects, enormous operatic sagas using the latest cutting-edge cinematic technology.

Cameron doesn’t have anything to prove to audiences or Hollywood at large at this point, so his “small little passion projects” just so happen to be these weird spiritual adventure tales. The third entry in the Avatar saga, Fire and Ash, feels a bit repetitive, relying on familiar narrative beats from the prior two films. Ultimately the world of Pandora is a window into James Cameron’s sprawling imagination, and it’s a pretty fun place to spend three and a half hours.

Mild spoilers follow. Okay, so we’re back on the moon Pandora, picking things up right after the previous film (Way of Water). The Sully family: Jake (Sam Worthington), Neytiri (Zoe Saldana), Lo’ak (Britain Dalton), Kiri (Sigourney Weaver), and Tuk (Trinity Jo-Li Bliss) are still reeling from the death of their son Neteyam (Jeremy Irwin). Jake, still the reluctant messiah figure, has gone into stoic overprotective dad mode, much to the chagrin of his children. Neytiri has spiraled to the point where she wants to kill all the humans, directing her ire at Spider (Jack Champion), the semi-feral human child who’s been hanging around the Sully family for the past 16 or so years. Meanwhile, Col. Miles Quaritch (Stephen Lang), still in a Navi body, has fallen in with the Mangkwan tribe – a super aggressive Navi clan who do not believe in Eywa (the god of Pandora) and hate everyone who does. The Mangkwan are led by Varang (Oona Chaplin). These various factions, including a group of space whales who don’t believe in killing will are all primed to collide in an all-out war for Pandora.

Avatar: Fire and Ash is possibly the biggest movie in the Avatar saga. The film has a much bigger scope, a larger cast of characters, and an exploration of grief, revenge, and redemption. Fire and Ash is mostly successful, but it has one major problem: this is basically the second half of Way of Water. Because of that, the film either walks back emotional arcs completed in the previous film, or retreads story and action beats from the prior two films. It almost feels like there was a point in the production where these two movies were more connected, but at some point, things were reshuffled to hammer out a more complete emotional story for the films. Whatever happened, Way of Water and Fire and Ash have nearly identical climaxes, which makes the films feel uneven. It makes the story function like an Edgar Rice Burroughs Mars book (which Cameron has cited as an inspiration), wherein the hero is repeatedly captured and then escapes until the final climactic battle. But perhaps I’m overthinking this. The story of the Avatar films is mostly secondary, functioning as guardrails allowing James Cameron to knock your socks off with the coolest and sci-fi imagery ever put to screen.

Cameron is a filmmaker who has internalized cinematic language in such a way that he constructs sequences so they are 1) easy to understand and 2) create the most impact. Fire and Ash is no different in that respect, especially when it comes to the action sequences – an early air battle with the Wind Traders is one of the most thrilling sequences this year.

The film has a huge cast, and they’re all great, but I want to single out a few key players. Saldana continues to impress as Neytiri. It’s hard to believe that she’s been doing this off and on for almost 17 years, but she gives Neytiri a true heart and soul. Here she has to take the character to some truly dark places, and shockingly, it all works.

Sigourney Weaver is amazing, playing a sixteen-year-old girl dealing with not only the trials and tribulations of puberty, but also possibly being a messiah herself. Weaver and Jake Champion have a great rapport and good chemistry together. Champion himself probably has the hardest role in the film. Think about it, he’s usually the only live action element in his scenes, and has to react to the wild creatures of Pandora OR the mocap actors around him who are all playing characters much taller than him! Champion comports himself well, playing Spider like a cross between Tarzan and John Connor from Terminator 2.

But for me, my favorite performances belong to Oona Chaplin and Stephen Lang. These two both understood the assignment. Lang continues to be the best thing about these movies, and he chews the scenery without mocking the material - a hard line to walk. Quartich was mostly one note in the first Avatar, but here and in Way of Water, Lang gives the character more depth of feeling. Chaplin slinks her way through film as the villainous Varang, and she’s clearly having a ball.

Avatar: Fire and Ash is a bit of a mixed bag story-wise. But the film has so many eye-popping visuals and ideas to spare that it’s absolutely worth the price of a 3D IMAX ticket.

Three out of Four Stars