"Avatar: Fire and Ash" Is More Lukewarm Than Anticipated

[the following review is spoiler-free]

The saying “never bet against James Cameron” has become even more popularized over the last few years since The Way of Water’s release. The “Avatar has no cultural impact” people certainly lost the war with that film since it still grossed well over 2 billion dollars. I fully went into Fire and Ash with the expectation that was set up by the filmmakers that this was going to be a bold, emotional, and often challenging new direction. And it is, sort of...

Given how much Big Jim has been soft-launching this potentially being the final entry in the franchise, at least for a while, and for how crammed and rushed much of Fire and Ash is, that this might actually be the straw that breaks the camel’s back for a lot of people. I’m sure the film will still cross the billion dollar mark…but for Avatar standards that’s far from enough. 

The new film follows the Sully family, who while still reeling from the death of their eldest son, now face off against both the human military, and a ruthless, fire-worshipping Na’vi tribe, run by the diabolical Varang. As far as visuals go, this is somehow the most stunning of the three movies. When The Way of Water came out, it was pretty difficult to imagine any visual element of that film being topped, but Fire and Ash is once again on a whole new playing field. My screening was in Dolby 3D, which is Cameron’s preferred format for the film, and the high frame rate blends so much better this time around, and the 3D is sensational. 

It’s no secret that Zoe Saldana is these movies’ secret weapon when it comes to performances. Everyone puts in great work, with Oona Chaplin being an incredible addition to the cast as Varang, but Zoe Saldana’s performance in Fire and Ash is so wonderful that it warrants her Oscar being re-engraved to properly reflect her work, and erase the “legacy” of whatever the hell Emilia Perez was. 

The score is also a massive improvement over The Way of Water, whose score seemed to be more of a “best of” compilation from the first movie rather than its own thing. There are brand new full songs, hymns, and motifs in this score that compliment the previous films, but emphasize the darker tone of Fire and Ash beautifully. 

Let’s talk about that darker tone for a second. There is an action sequence about a half hour into the film that is so thrilling, and has such an immediate, gravitational sense of stakes to it, that it genuinely left me on the edge of my seat. Unfortunately, the film never quite reaches those heights again, and resorts to quite a few story and character arc retreads from the previous two movies. I’m going to be as vague as possible with these points because a lot of my issues with the film tread into spoiler territory and I obviously won’t go there this early, but I will unfortunately have to concede one point to the “the story in these movies suck” crowd for this one. 

It is definitely the most plot heavy of the three movies, which I appreciate. Characters are split up into groups for a large portion of the film, and each group is working towards its own thing. What’s annoying is that all of these things are just plot points from the first two films repackaged for this one. There’s a military whale hunting subplot, a sacred homestead under threat subplot, a terraforming subplot, you name it. If the first two films did it, this one’s got it. 

Admittedly, the thematics of this one are also more dense and unique from the previous two…which makes the character arc retreads even more annoying. There’s one character in particular whose arc in this film is essentially the exact same one, beat for beat, from their arc in The Way of Water. The only problem is, the arc was complete by the time The Way of Water was over, so it’s almost entirely regressive here. There’s even some moments in action sequences that are blocked like shot-for-shot remakes of stuff from the first two movies, just with the improved VFX on display. The whole thing plays like a hodgepodge of ideas thrown into a blender without a ton of care, and it feels like James Cameron got nervous about this one being forced to be his last, so he crammed every idea he ever had into this one to get it all done, just in case. 

A lot of the thematic emotionality of the film rests on the shoulders of Spider’s character. He was already one of my least favorite parts of The Way of Water because of the young actor’s performance, and the dialogue written for him not doing him much of any favors. And unfortunately, Jack Champion’s acting chops have not improved enough in between movies to have this much of a role in the parts of the film most desperate to make you cry. There is one scene with him in particular, that is supposed to be a huge, emotional bookend for a particular arc, and any feeling I may have, and should have gotten, was stifled by his frankly, quite bad performance. 

I think how you’re going to react overall to this one comes down to your attachment to the franchise already. I know that my screening was overall really split. The people that walked in excited, mostly left happy. And the ones that walked in irritated, left irritated. I’m certainly more mixed on it than I was hoping to be, but I still plan on seeing it again this weekend. The visuals alone are more than worth the price of admission, and a second watch of a movie this gargantuan is almost always required to make sure you’re soaking everything in…burns and all.