Director: James Cameron
Cast: Sam Worthington, Zoe Saldana, Sigourney Weaver, Stephen Lang, Kate Winslet
Screenplay: James Cameron, Rick Jaffa, Amanda Silver
195 mins. Rated PG-13 for intense sequences of violence and action, bloody images, some strong language, thematic elements and suggestive material.

I can’t say with any degree of absolute certainty, but if Avatar: Fire and Ash is nominated for Best Picture, it has to be the first film nominated for the award to feature one character calling another character a “butthole.” I could be wrong, I haven’t seen My Fair Lady, but I feel confident enough in my assertion.

Picking up in the aftermath of The Way of Water, the Sully family is mourning the loss of eldest son Neteyam, and they currently reside among the aquatic Metkayina clan. Jake (Sam Worthington, Hacksaw Ridge) is trying everything to protect his family from another tragedy. Neytiri (Zoe Saldana, Avengers: Infinity War) is distraught due to the loss. Lo’ak, now oldest, makes every attempt for his father’s approval while simultaneously feeling drawn to the Tulkan creatures, specifically Payakan, who has been banished from the Tulkan society for not sticking to the pacifism of his species. As the Sully family works to understand this new normal, they are beset upon by the Mangkwan clan, volcano-dwelling Na’vi led by Varang, and they continue to deal with the vengeful Quaritch (Stephen Lang, Don’t Breathe) who believes that, through the Mangkwan clan, he can exact his revenge upon Jake and complete his mission.

Avatar: Fire and Ash catches viewers up pretty well, though I’d argue that viewers who haven’t visited Pandora recently may struggle a bit with the moving pieces, more so for viewers that missed out on The Way of Water completely. This is clearly a film with many moving pieces taking up its 3+ hour run time, and it’s often unwieldy. It’s a packed film from beginning to end, and a good amount of the new characters and story is excellent, but it does have to compete with the remnants of this trilogy for space. I loved the Mangkwan clan and particularly Varang, a menacing but completely understandable villain. Her interactions with the Sully family and most notably with Quaritch were electrifying. Actress Oona Chaplin, most notably from Game of Thrones, imbues so much passion and anger into Varang that she easily becomes the best antagonist of the franchise thus far. I also think that diving into the volcanic and ashen parts of Pandora make for an interesting play off of the ideas of humans using up their own world only to come to Pandora to do the same, when there is a Na’vi faction perfectly fine living with the destruction.

The major problem with Avatar: Fire and Ash is how much of it feels like a repeat of the first two films. It’s not that it’s a carbon copy, but there are seemingly completed plot threads from the first two films that somehow open up once again for this third film, and when the story feels too familiar with these carryover plots, it loses a lot of the impact. There’s this carryover conflict with Quaritch that mostly feels repetitive, and the Tulkan hunting comes right out of The Way of Water, both subplots feeling like we didn’t need to go back to them. When Fire and Ash is treading new territory, it’s thrilling and fantastic, but the screenplay is a bit unfocused, and there are some poor editing choices that force the narrative to jump around too much.

Still, James Cameron (Titanic) directs the hell out these action scenes, the veteran filmmaker knows how to pull the spectacle forward and make you forget about some of the structural problems. The opening sequence is thrilling and makes great use of the surround sound experience, there is a set piece with the Wind Trader Na’vi that effectively introduced new characters and environments and also put a lot of our favorite characters in new types of jeopardy, and I firmly believe that this is the biggest, boldest, and most exciting climax of the trilogy, so if we never got those last two films, the Avatar series would still go out on a high note. That being said, there are enough conclusions here to close out the series if need be, but the hints at where the series is going make me pine for the next one, so Pandora is still an exciting locale to come back to.

Avatar: Fire and Ash is slightly better than its predecessor, full of striking visuals and intense action, though this time around the story is a bit more repetitive, with a number of finished plots returning to the fray. Its new villain dynamic makes up for this, as does the more threat for our main characters. This trilogy capper mostly works, but there’s an all-too familiar feeling like we’ve been here before as well. Still, though, fans of Pandora will get a lot out of Fire and Ash, and viewers should be encouraged to see this sequel on the biggest screen possible, and in 3D. No one out there is making films like James Cameron, and I’m still excited to see where he takes us next.

3.5/5
-Kyle A. Goethe

• For my review of James Cameron’s Avatar, click here.
• For my review of James Cameron’s Aliens, click here.