Avatar: Fire and Ash
Starring Sam Worthington, Zoe Saldaña and Stephen Lang
M
3.75/5
The third film in the Avatar franchise, Avatar: Fire and Ash is another serviceable, visually stunning sci-fi action movie in a franchise running low on ideas.
On the alien world of Pandora, Jake Sully (Sam Worthington) and his Na’vi family grapple with mounting human imperialism and the warlike Mangkwan clan.
Beyond the staggeringly beautiful, immersive visuals, grand score and soaring action sequences – James Cameron is still a tremendous technical director – the best parts of this alien adventure are human, more-or-less.
Spider (Jack Champion), a plucky human boy born on Pandora, is a headstrong but deeply likeable character who is loyal to the Na’vi but feels increasingly outcast. Colonel Quaritch (Stephen Lang), who was resurrected in an engineered Na’vi body in the previous film, is still a fun swaggering zealot but has far more nuance this time, as he tries to be a better father for Spider and forms a relationship with Varang (Oona Chaplin), the fierce Mangkwan leader. Quaritch still serves the human occupying force, so it’s intriguing to watch him integrate more with the natives after meeting one as unhinged and nasty as he is (and some people online jokingly compare Quaritch to real white supremacists who paradoxically have non-white partners).
Like the other Avatar films, most of Fire and Ash’s characters are underdeveloped, Jake Sully is a bland hero and the conflicts carry little weight or lasting peril. For example, Jake’s wife Neytiri (Zoe Saldaña) develops an understandable hatred of humanity after the death of her son in the second film, and she rejects Spider as a result, but we know she won’t do anything to him because Varang already fills the “Evil Neytiri” role in the plot. The long (just over three hours) but undernourished narrative suffers from being a middle instalment, retreading many of the same plot and action beats from the first two films (including a tired subplot about whale pacifism) and setting up further sequels without accomplishing much on its own.
Some people still argue that the Avatar franchise has no cultural relevance, but they’re mistaken. The fact that each Avatar film rakes in over a billion dollars globally, helping to keep cinemas alive in the process, is cultural relevance. The fact that we still discuss Avatar in terms of visually beautiful but thinly-written epics, or as Ferngully in space or Dances With Wolves with nine-foot Smurfs, is cultural relevance, for better and worse. The recurring question of whether Avatar has any cultural relevance, ironically, is relevance.
Each Avatar film has, broadly speaking, focused on a different classical element. The first film followed an air-themed Na’vi tribe, The Way of Water featured a Māori-inspired water tribe and Fire and Ash features a volcano-dwelling fire-themed tribe. James Cameron has planned two more Avatar films, and I predict the fourth Avatar film will feature an earth-themed Na’vi tribe to complete the classical elements. By the way, while the Avatar franchise is Cameron’s baby, it would be nice if Cameron brought new directors into his universe, like how other filmmakers took on the Terminator franchise after him, or how Cameron himself followed Ridley Scott’s Alien with the amazing Aliens.
Featuring a great antagonist in Quaritch but otherwise too similar to its predecessors, Avatar: Fire and Ash is another landmark special effects extravaganza and a resplendent thrill-ride that isn’t as deep as it thinks it is, and is playing in most Victorian cinemas.
– Seth Lukas Hynes
