Avatar: Fire and Ash: Movie Review

Cast: Sam Worthington, Zoe Saldana, Oona Chaplin, Sigourney Weaver, Jemaine Clement, Stephen Lang, Edie Falco, Kate Winslet, Cliff Curtis, Jack Champion
Director: James Cameron

The third Avatar outing plunges us back into the world of the Sullys and the Na'Vi, but outside of a couple of new elements, it feels like creatively and narratively it's dragging its heels.

 

Plus, with endless confrontations that are never fully resolved, it can't help but seem like the Harry Potter series, which would introduce elements but also end up with a confrontation with Lord Voldemort before he escaped.

This time around, as Jake and Neytiri lick their wounds from the loss of their son, the family unit that was once strong is now creaking under the weight of grief. Added to that, the fact that human Spider (Champion, one of the purveyor of some of the worst dialogue in the film) is struggling to breathe and live in a mask, the Sullys decide it's time for Spider to go back to the humans.

However, when Quaritch (Lang, the film franchise's antagonist and Sully nemesis) targets them, they find themselves attacked by the Ash people, led by a truly menacing Varang (Chaplin, easily the film's MVP - for the first two-thirds, anyway). With time running out and some impossible choices to make, the Sully clan must fight for their lives, as well as Pandora's future.

The somewhat bloated three and a quarter hour run-time does little to help Avatar: Fire and Ash, with large swathes of the opening sequences once again revelling in the idea of what the technology can afford the franchise. But while it's technically adept as creatures swoop and soar through the air, it's narratively redundant and largely pointless.

It's a repetition of what went before and becomes endemic of the film's creatively stifled edges, and Cameron and his team's need to fall back on action that feels like it's the second part of Avatar: The Way of Water.

In an expansion of the world, the film's CGI, one trippy sequence aside, feels as solid as it did - and is in no sign of creaking.  But add to that the fact that the final battle is more or less a retread of Avatar: The Way Of Water and it becomes clear that Cameron's creative sauce may be spread a little thin for a franchise to keep going.

Far more successful - initially anyway - is the introduction of the ferocious Ash people, easily the series' most interesting nemeses. Led by Chaplin's slinky and menacing Varang, these mix of Na'vi and Slenderman looking hostiles pose the most intriguing debate about colonisation as they revel in the fire power that's afforded them. There's a real sense of a civilisation corrupted by first contact here but intoxicated by the possibilities that affords them.

It's too bad though that Cameron largely shoves them to the side once Quaritch becomes part of their story and while there are hints that there's more to come from them, it feels like their potential is squandered in the final wash.

Avatar: Fire and Ash can't help but keep up its pro-ecological message (something which is to be definitely applauded) and its use of echoes of The Cove are chillingly played out. (And there's a cheeky Aliens reference from an original character too). But that it ends in a hail of bullets and nature fighting back is no real surprise - after all, that's what happened in the previous film.

You can't help but wonder what Cameron's endgame is for the Avatar series - after three films, albeit technically dazzling, the narrative still feels distinctly hollow and the conclusion weak and unformed. Cameron himself has hinted a fourth film is no certain thing - but while he lays the blame at the movie market itself, it's probably time for him to step back and reassess what exactly is the roadmap for Avatar.

Because its repetition and weak story-telling is really what will sink this franchise in its own fire and ash unless there's a very quick course correction.