It’s finally time for the third Avatar movie. Fire and Ash cranks up the action and danger for a sequel that’s better than the second installment, but leaves the future of the franchise in uncertain waters.
This is a direct sequel to Way of Water, so there’s no large time jump (such as that between the second and third movies). After the death of his firstborn son, Jake Sully and his family are struggling to remain unified. The RDA is still on a warpath to capture or kill Jake, but their focus shifts to Jake’s adopted son, Spider, who gains the ability to breathe the air on Pandora in the first act.
The biggest problem with Fire and Ash, however, is that even though Pandora is compelling as a setting and its stories are interesting on a macro level, the individual characters are still lacking. Jake and Neytiri have their own arc in overcoming issues caused by grief, but it doesn’t make for particularly interesting characters. The rest of the Sully clan have a little more depth, except for the youngest one, Tuk, whose only job is getting kidnapped.
Stephen Lang as Colonel Quaritch still makes for a good villain in his Na’vi form. He’s easy to hate and represents humanity’s blind desire to pillage all of Pandora’s resources, and he’s not alone this time. This film introduces the Mangkwan tribe of Na’vi, a group that believes the spirit of the planet has abandoned them and is now bent on destruction through fire.
The pacing of the plot is significantly improved over the second movie. Even though it’s still a three-hour experience, there’s not as much meandering around to just show off the visuals and develop the lore of the setting. There’s great action in the first half hour and a steady stream of drama and escalation before the bombastic climax.
James Cameron and his team have done a great job of fleshing out this franchise and making it feel like a real, lived-in place. A lot of the worldbuilding related to this plot was established in the previous movie, so it’s fair to say that the story of Way of Water walked so Fire and Ash could run. It does mean that there aren’t as many gorgeous shots of Pandora as there were in the last movie. That being said, it’s a worthy trade.
This continues to be a franchise carried by its visuals and worldbuilding. It’s not a character-driven story, which is a shame because great characters have been the missing piece of Avatar since its start. It’s been the difference between something impressive and something generational.
The constant conflict with the RDA makes Fire and Ash the same as its predecessors, but with different people involved. While there are still loose ends, it’s also possible that this is the last Avatar movie for a while. James Cameron could be feeling some fatigue, and each one costs a fortune to make. It’s a fine trilogy capper, but it lacks that feeling of catharsis one would expect from a big saga ending.
Author Bio:
Ulises Duenas is a senior writer and film critic at Highbrow Magazine.
For Highbrow Magazine