Avatar: Fire and Ash

Avatar: Fire and Ash

Released December 19, 2025

Written and Directed by James Cameron

* No Spoilers - but some brief discussion about the overall themes and story*

James Cameron thankfully did not make audiences wait another 13 years to see more of this mesmerizing and beautiful world. Avatar: Fire and Ash picks up right after 2022’s Way of Water and continues many of the unresolved threads while diving deeper into its characters. Jake Sully, Neytiri, and the family continue to be hunted by Colonel Quaritch and the sky-people with a rogue tribe of Na’vi raiders join the mix. Expanding the lore and blurring the lines between Na’vi and humans, both physically and philosophically, the film asks some powerful questions in a grand and spectacular fashion. Though this is the third film, Avatar is not a trilogy, and Fire and Ash makes it clear the story is far from over.

On a technical level this is some of the most remarkable filmmaking ever put to screen. The world of Pandora and its many creatures have never looked more breathtaking or convincing. For most of this movie’s gargantuan run time, I almost forgot that these eight-foot blue creatures aren’t real, breathing beings put in front of a camera, particularly when they are seamlessly interacting with sets or human actors.

It’s especially remarkable because of how much more action and character focused this is. After the opening it is non-stop action, one set piece after another. James Cameron has mastered motion capture and continues the trend of pushing the cinematic and theatrical experience forward by leaps and bounds.

That same momentum, unfortunately, does not fully carry over to the narrative, which feels more like baby steps in the right direction rather than the decisive leap the story deserves. I know Avatar 4 is already in post-production with a 2029 release, but I don’t think it’s unreasonable to want things to feel a bit different.

While still thematically rich and full of intense character moments, the film retreads too many of the same story beats from Way of Water, leaving Fire and Ash feeling more like “Avatar 2.5” rather than a proper third film.  Normally I would excuse the episodic inching ahead because the character arcs are deeply moving, but at 3 hours and 17 minutes there was enough room to make the plot feel more fresh.

Like the last two movies, this is packed with hard hitting themes like environmental exploitation, colonization, corporate greed, and genocide. Basically a greatest hits of how terrible humans can be. Whether you call them “sky-people” or “pink-skins”, Cameron is putting a mirror up to the audience, specifically those living in decadent Western countries, as we exploit and pillage the Global South for our ongoing convenience.

People criticize these movies for retelling other stories (Pocahontas or Dances With Wolves) but maybe we need to keep telling these stories because we never learn from them. Fire and Ash has Sully challenge Quaritch about not using his “new eyes.” Now in a Na’vi body, he still doesn’t understand. He doesn’t see the evil of the sky-people’s exploitative colonial genocide. For the Na’vi, the greatest form of understanding is to tell someone “I see you”. The film is asking the audience why we can’t see the parallels between the fictional world we want to preserve and the real one we continue to destroy.

That question becomes painfully concrete in a moment where a the youngest Sully child is cowering in terror as bombs explode overhead. Audiences can watch and empathize with a little blue refugee child but stay silent as tens of thousands of not-so-blue refugees experience the same thing in real life, with the bombs paid for by our taxes. Millions will watch this movie, but how many will truly “see”?

As damning of humans as this movie is, there is a lot of nuance. Not all Na’vi respect the “Great Mother” or live in harmony with the planet, and not all humans are monstrous colonizers. That blurring of the divide is one of the major story threads. At one point, a human stands up and challenges the violence. He is told, with a diplomatic smile and all the pleasantries of an innocuous board meeting, that “(his) protests are noted.” It’s cold and callous but completely authentic. The machine continues to move, running over those who dare to voice their concerns. Fire and Ash posits that violence only begets violence, but also that pacifism is not viable when faced with insatiable greed and bloodlust. The sky-people will never stop.

Grief, guilt, crises of faith, challenges of identity, and even loss of the will to live, are at the core of this story’s profound character arcs. Though there are jokes and moments of levity, this is at times a difficult journey through complex and gut-wrenching emotions. It’s not just one or two moments either, it is a constant push and pull, a tug-of-war that takes you between hope and dread, eventually settling not in triumph but contentment.

The acting is hit or miss, and the weaker performances suffer by how starkly they contrast with the other incredible talent on display. Among the returning cast, Sam Worthington (Relay) as Jake Sully has always been a bit wooden, but he has improved, especially in a scene before the last act that was full of pain and conflict. Zoe Saldana (Elio) as Neytiri is as incredible as ever despite the reduced screen time, embodying broken grief and raging fury with a palpable intensity.

Similarly, the newly introduced chief of the Ash tribe, Varang, played brilliantly by Oona Chaplin (Taboo) is frightening, unhinged, but strangely captivating. Her character takes a once-sacred bond between Na’vi and their animal companions into a violent and profane form of coercion. Chaplin depicts this with a hypnotic sadism that leaves no room to doubt why she is such a dominant force. I was also pleasantly surprised with Stephen Lang (Sisu: Road to Revenge) who  stands out as Colonel Quaritch, delivering a performance that is nuanced, conflicted, and underrated. I loved how Cameron forces sworn enemies Quaritch and Sully into situations where they can’t fight protect those they love. It leads to some tense moments resolved with conversation rather than violence.

Britain Dalton, Sigourney Weaver, and Jack Champion as Lo’aq, Kiri, and Spider are fine but a lot of their line deliveries feel off especially since there is more focus on them this time. Part of it is the weak dialogue, but thankfully these movies speak more powerfully with images than with words.

I had little doubt this would be an audio-visual spectacle of the highest order, but Fire and Ash steps things up in every way. Whether it’s a harrowing pursuit in the jungle or a climactic battle within an electromagnetic vortex, this is nothing short of epic. The colours, bioluminescent glows, and bursts of flame look phenomenal and put you right into the action. The audio is also breathtaking, with a choir-filled score and some incredibly unique sound design. This is clear with how the whale creatures communicate: deep resonant bass shakes the whole theatre and is seen visually with a fascinating ripple effect in the water around them.

As much as I wantedsomething that felt as fresh as either earlier film, this is still an emotional, intense, and gorgeous experience. The slight missteps in story don’t discount the heartfelt character moments or exciting spectacle. This is a big budget action blockbuster full of monumental set pieces that MUST be experienced in IMAX 3D. Some have complained that the high frame rate is distracting but I did not feel that at all. This is deeply immersive and technically superb. Story and character are part of why these movies resonate, but in the end the real selling point is that this is an event film, designed to be witnessed in all of its cinematic glory. In that sense Avatar: Fire and Ash more than makes good on its promise; that this is a mythical character study full of Biblical allegory and biting social commentary is just a bonus.

8/10 - If you are a fan of the previous films, you will get everything you want here: spectacle, action, brilliant visuals, deeper lore, and characters that you can’t help but feel invested in. Despite the familiar story beats holding it back, Fire and Ash remains a grand and epic theatrical experience.

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