Through stunning visuals of the unique immersive world that is Avatar, we are transported trillions of miles to return to Pandora for a new sequel, Avatar: Fire and Ash.
The opening scene shows us the spectacularity the original movie captured, but in higher definition and immense detail. It truly is something to see on the big screen, noticing the smallest of elements and appreciating the time and effort poured into the world seen on the screen. But looking past the visuals, it immediately feels flat and reminiscent of stories we’ve seen before.
The sci-fi movie series is all about the effects of colonialism and exploitation on Pandora and its people, exploring how Jake Sully adapts to this new world, and realizing the grave mistake destroying it would be.
The first 80 minutes of the movie feel intentional, giving thoughtful performances from the protagonists, the Sully family, who face hurdle upon hurdle in the second film. We see the contrast in their suffering, and how each character handles the turmoil of the events of the last movie.
Neytiri, portrayed by Zoe Saldaña, really demonstrates this in a powerful way. She is reserved and sad but enraged and full of hatred at the same time, whereas Sam Worthington’s character, Jake, is filled with resentment and a need to protect his family. But something’s missing: it doesn’t feel quite like the same characters that we saw before. Around this point in the movie is where things start to go awry.
As more conflict arises, we see an organic introduction and expansion of world building and new cultures. This is where I am reminded that this is an action film, which breaks out in battle to introduce the Ash people. They are whom the title refers to, and the new antagonists in the Avatar franchise. While the original antagonists are still a problem, and still putting up cartoonishly bad acting, the major threat is definitely this violent offshoot of the Na’vi people.
This brings a new perspective into the story, but much of the acting feels cheesy, predictable and all together lacking the emotional resonance at least the other movies were able to retain. The allegory for colonialism is still very much present, but instead of having them focus on colonizing the planet they’re looking for just Jake Sully and his family. If I were in the military, searching the furthest reaches for an ex-military and his family would not be that high on my priority list, no matter how much or how little he retaliated against them.
For an hour straight it’s just back and forth going from place to place and splitting everyone up to get prepared for the unnecessarily long and unsatisfactory ending. The pacing is quick and confusing at some points and then all of a sudden it’s as slow as molasses to focus on parts that have little significance. Instead of delving deeper into the more meaningful story lines, all of the budget and time is spent on the action sequences and it’s just a total bore fest.
In terms of the ending, the shots are the exact same as or similar to the second movie and follow a very similar arc, finishing things on a terrible note.
My main criticism of Avatar: Fire and Ash is that it doesn’t work on its own. As a standalone movie it would make absolutely no sense, relying heavily on the other films and feeling empty in terms of emotion. Really the only part of me that was moved were my eyeballs. The visuals are always nice to look at, but unless you’re solely focussing on surface-level cinematography, then you won’t get anything out of this movie. I have no clue on how James Cameron plans to milk another six hours from this franchise considering how obvious it is that he’s running out of ideas. I mean, what’s next, Avatar: Earth and Rock?
