Avatar: Fire and Ash
I quite enjoyed 2009's Avatar which, despite its simple setup, brought an immersive experience on an alien world to life. While still an enjoyable popcorn movie, I was less impressed with 2022's Avatar: The Way of Water which followed the Sully clan, still hounded by human armed forces, to new lives as part of a Na'vi water tribe. Avatar: Fire and Ash feels very much a continuation of the second movie, continuing the story of the Sully clan against a very familiar antagonist.
One thing the film does offer is the introduction of Oona Chaplin as the fire-obsessed Varang adding a bit more variety to our baddies, even if the nature-destroying humans are still the main villains of the piece. Lacking anything resembling subtlety, the thrid movie in the franchise wears it themes on its sleeves as Jake (Sam Worthington) and his family struggle to come to grips with the loss suffered in The Way of Water and come together to make yet another fateful stand against the invaders with the help of Eywa.
Although Varang is a nice addition to the story, yet another return of Quaritch (Stephen Lang) continues to keep the film from advancing all that far in new directions while staying stuck in replaying the same conflicts of the original film yet again. The script teases some marginal character growth for Quaritch, but in the end he's the same guy he's always been (just a bit taller and bluer than when we first met him).
The third film does offer more visually impressive scenes in the water and air of Pandora, but this feels like a franchise of diminishing returns with each subsequent entry and the final conflict just feels like CGI overload (even in 3D IMAX). Desperately needing new characters and themes to explore, Avatar: Fire and Ash continues to pass more of the load onto Sully children with them stepping up, each in their own way, in the third film. However, the this feels mostly like more of the same for a franchise that desperately needs to shake things up a bit more (especially given its near 200-minute running-time).
- Title: Avatar: Fire and Ash
- IMDb: link
