‘Avatar: Fire and Ash’: James Cameron’s Third Film of His Groundbreaking Franchise Focuses on Pure Spectacle

Alci Rengifo

The first two films in legendary filmmaker James Cameron’s “Avatar” saga broke box office records and introduced technological breakthroughs in cinema. While audiences had to wait 13 years between those movies, Cameron now returns three years after “Avatar: The Way of Water” with “Avatar: Fire and Ash.” Both projects were shot simultaneously. In this entry, Cameron feels free to fully indulge in pure spectacle, climaxing his gorgeous sci-fi fantasy with one breathless sight after another, still demonstrating 3D as a format that can be incredibly immersive if used properly. Once again Cameron also makes sure to give the story genuine meaning. Despite having some of the typical third movie flaws you tend to find in franchises, this remains a striking anti-colonial and ecological parable. 

The action is set after the events of “The Way of Water.” On bioluminescent planet Pandora, human Marine turned Na’vi Jake Sully (Sam Worthington) tries to keep his community on guard from the invading forces from Earth known to the indigenous of Pandora as “the Sky People.” His home is still feeling the pain from losing son Neteyam (Jamie Flatters) in battle. Jake’s wife, Neytiri (Zoe Saldaña), remains a warrior in mourning. Their son, Lo’ak (Britain Dalton), feels guilt over the loss. Yet, they must focus on other challenges. Their adopted human son, Spider (Jack Champion), still has to wear a mask to breathe in the Pandoran environment. He is closest to Kiri (Sigourney Weaver), the mysterious offspring born out of the avatar of Dr. Grace Augustine. Meanwhile, their prime nemesis, a Na’vi avatar with the consciousness of Colonel Miles Quaritch (Stephen Lang), remains obsessed with capturing Jake. His interests will converge with those of Varang (Oona Chaplin), the warlord leader of a tribe known as the Mangkwan.

At 197 minutes, you need to set aside an entire afternoon for “Fire and Ash,” especially with the amount of trailers and ads now packed before a film at your local multiplex. Yet in a year where our cultural obsession with superheroes clearly began to wane and major franchises struggled to break even, Cameron can still make the sort of entertainment that merits being called an event. Just as a viewing experience this is a spectacular achievement. Cameron and cinematographer Russell Carpenter make use of every single frame with the VFX team to fill it with details grand and small. Rich jungles with glowing foliage drink us in. Conversations can take place with the smallest elements, like leaves, breezing past us in 3D. “The Way of Water” pioneered underwater motion capturing and Cameron uses it again to great effect here for exhilarating action sequences. Ever since “The Abyss” and “Titanic,” Cameron has been one of the world’s great aquatic filmmakers. You can still feel the rush when characters fly through the air with Simon Franglen’s soaring score, which keeps the theme first composed by the late James Horner. 

Where “Fire and Ash” most differs from its predecessor is in the feeling that this chapter is less concerned with revealing exciting new vistas or expanding the story. Now it really becomes a showdown between the main players. What is new is still impressive, like the introduction of the Mangkwan, who are a fierce tribe of fighters with a cultish air. Their key elements seem to be the use of fire, hence the title. Varang is designed with a great look, elegantly spinning a pair of blades, dancing with her warriors around a fire and building sexual tension with Quaritch. The colonel and the warlord make a formidable pair. Cameron has studied colonial history well and knows that most invasions require collaborators from within the societies they seek to dominate. Varang is so obsessed with setting Pandora ablaze that she doesn’t care for guiding in the marauding humans. Quaritch is the character given the most intriguing expansion. He begins to see Varang as more than a tool, since she is as ruthless as he. But his superiors, like Giovanni Ribisi’s returning toxic corporate suit Parker Selfridge, and General Ardmore (Edie Falco), are imperialist racists. Finding Jake has an added high stake for Quaritch in the fact that Spider is his son.

There is a lot that goes on in this film, as if Cameron wants to assure us every penny of a surely massive budget was well spent. At one point he uses the 3D format to evoke the sense of getting high when Varang makes Quaritch inhale a substance in order to make him easy to interrogate. Story-wise the script can get overlong and events rush by without too much context, like Kiri’s mystical connection to Eywa, the Pandoran version of Mother Earth. Important characters introduced in the last film, like Tonowari (Cliff Curtis) and his wife, Ronal (Kate Winslet) of the Metkayina oceanic clan are reduced to just standing around ready to snarl and pose to fight the enemy. The same is even truer for the teenage characters, which get a bit more in the third act when Cameron uses them for a rather moving ecological angle involving the planet’s hunted whale population. It would be easy to suggest some material could have been cut out to shorten the length and tighten up the narrative, but “Fire and Ash” works so well as a popcorn experience that it can feel like complaining about too much of an impressive delivery.

In the tradition of Steven Spielberg or recent names like Christopher Nolan and Denis Villeneuve (both who have no doubt studied this director well), a crucial element to James Cameron’s success is that all of his astounding technical skill is put at the service of what amounts to a very good story. The eye-popping shots of Pandora’s sunrises, armies of speeding boats headed for a whale cover, the Earth army’s eerie industrial base, and visceral battles in the air would be quite stale if we didn’t care about the characters. When the film slows down Jake still has to make tough choices about how best to protect his family. Neytiri is played by Zoe Saldaña as a heart in genuine anguish over the recent loss of a child. Quaritch makes a good villain because he’s the obsessed soldier who could be happy on Pandora if he stopped serving his vile masters. The action is, of course, pure glory, as we would expect from the director of “Terminator 2: Judgement Day” and “Titanic.” Like “Return of the Jedi,” this is a worthy, rousing third serving of a groundbreaking franchise that may not equal its predecessors, but remains great pop art. Reportedly, there might still be two more films to go. With this level of craftsmanship, there will no doubt be good reasons to get back on the ride.

“Avatar: Fire and Ash” releases Dec. 19 in theaters nationwide.