James Cameron has always acknowledged that Star Wars was a major influence on him to get into filmmaking. Growing up reading and watching a lot of science-fiction, it is a genre that has consumed most of his directorial career and in 2009, Cameron got to make his passion project Avatar, the highest-grossing film of all time. However, it seemed that Cameron wasn’t ready to leave the world of Pandora and taking cue from George Lucas’ space opera, Avatar became a franchise starting with 2022’s The Way of Water and this year with Avatar: Fire and Ash.
Three years after the previous installment, Avatar: Fire and Ash feels more like part two to the narrative that began with The Way of Water, in which we see Jake Sully (Sam Worthington), Neytiri (Zoe Saldaña) and their children settling into their home with the Metkayina clan. Grappling with grief over the death of their firstborn Neteyam, each member of the Sully family is trying to find their purpose while preparing war against the human-driven RDA, with Miles Quaritch (Stephen Lang) seeking an alliance with the fire-obsessed Na’vi tribe led by Varang (Oona Chaplin).
No matter how grand its world-building or how much Cameron ups the scale when it comes to the action, the Avatar series has always been about simple storytelling. This is probably why it has many detractors who can never get past its not-so-subtle environmental message or the fact that Cameron is a big softie when it comes to family and romance that has always been major themes throughout his work.
The theme of family, in particular, brings out some of the film’s most compelling arcs, from Neytiri developing a hatred towards humans, even if her husband was originally one himself. Each of the Sully children have their own path, from Britain Dalton’s Lo’ak, the second son who is trying to live up to the older brother that he recently lost, to Sigourney Weaver’s scene-stealing Kiri going through a spiritual quest that ties her to Pandora. Even Jack Champion’s Spider, the teenage human trying to be a part of all things Na’vi, is being pursued by his actual father Quaritch, who is still driven by revenge towards the Sullys. Essentially one big family soap opera, this is where Avatar: Fire and Ash is at its dramatic best.
Three movies in, this series is not going to change the minds of the haters, but that is not to say the third installment is without fault. As is always with a lot of Cameron’s films, this is long with a running time that is close to 200 minutes and overstuffed with plotlines, some of which are carried over from its predecessor. Remember Jemaine Clement as the marine biologist Dr. Ian Garvin from the previous film? Well, he’s back and has his own little arc, just like the many characters that populate this movie.
Whilst the original Avatar was really a mishmash of many other influences, the curse of both its sequels is the recycling of the first film itself. Despite the inclusion of new elements from the Wind Traders and their wonderous flying merchant ships to Oona Chaplin standing out as the devilishly fun Varang, many of the film’s plot points are just a repeat of what came before, including its grand climax. However, what it lacks in novelty, it makes up in epicness as Cameron knows how to deliver the 3D spectacle from the wide range of fantastical creatures that roam Pandora through air and water, to the grand mechanical vehicles that get demolished throughout. For as much going on with a cast of thousands, it is surprising that Cameron’s approach to action is coherent and satisfying.
