Visually Impressive But Offers Nothing New
Summary
Avatar: Fire and Ash is overlong and the final battle just feels like a rehash of the last movie however, it still has stunning visuals and Varang is a cool new antagonist. Perhaps the world of Pandora is losing its sheen but we’ll see how it fares at the box office.
Plot: Jake and Neytiri’s family grapples with grief after Neteyam’s death, encountering a new, aggressive Na’vi tribe, the Ash People, who are led by the fiery Varang, as the conflict on Pandora escalates and a new moral focus emerges.
Review: The third (and possibly final) entry in the Avatar franchise has arrived and I can’t wait to see what the box office is for this one. These movies tend to make literally billions of cash and yet no one ever talks about them. Director James Cameron has said he is holding off working on the 4th movie until he sees how this one does, so maybe he isn’t so confident about this entry… but we shall see and we should never underestimate James Cameron.
Avatar: Fire and Ash is every bit as gorgeous looking as the previous movies, but the ridiculous and self-indulgent runtime of 3 hours and 15 minutes will likely put many off going to see it in the theatre; after watching it I wouldn’t be in a rush to rewatch it. Cameron needs to reign his ego in and learn to edit his movies down a bit. There is no reason for this movie to be as long as it is especially considering it’s mostly just a rehash of the second movie with all the familiar themes – environment – good, humans – bad. The final battle sequence takes place on and under the sea and brings nothing we haven’t seen before. It is still packed with spectacle and as it’s Cameron you know the action will be shot well.
There are some nice character moments in this one and it even has some emotional scenes too. I think the most interesting character in Fire and Ash is Quaritch (Stephen Lang) who gets a bit more depth and character development than before mostly due to the troubled relationship with his son, Spider (Jack Champion). The new villain Varang (Oona Chaplin) is a welcome addition and comes across as quite unhinged, but the finale has so much going on that she gets lost a bit in the chaos.
Jake Sully (Sam Worthington) isn’t as sympathetic as before making some odd decisions especially the way he treats his son Lo’ak. Neytiri (Zoe Saldana) is still as crazy as ever and she’s become quite cold since losing her son in the last movie. I think I said this with part 2 is that there are too many Na’vi characters and it’s hard to tell the difference between them at times as they all look the same.
The score still maintains James Horner’s themes and has some epic choral moments for the action scenes and is one of the movie’s highlights.
Overall, I won’t say anything else to avoid spoilers but Avatar: Fire and Ash is my least favourite of the trilogy and I hope this is the final entry. There are some great action sequences, and the visuals are as stunning as ever, but it’s overlong and you could easily trim the first 30 minutes as nothing really happens. If you love the world of Pandora, then you’ll still have a fun time, but this won’t create any new fans.