Avatar: Fire and Ash
Review: Big Jim you’ve done it again! The third entry in the Avatar franchise (and potentially the last from director James Cameron), this one sees the return of every meaningful character from the first two films, with a few very solid additions. We have Sam Worthington & Zoe Saldaña continue to lead the way as Jake & Neytiri with Stephen Lang reprising his role as Col. Quaritch. Sigourney Weaver, Britain Dalton, Jack Champion, & Trinity Jo-Li Bliss return as the rest of the surviving Sully family while Cliff Curtis, Kate Winslet, CCH Pounder, Matt Gerald, & Bailey Bass also return in their Na’vi roles. The human characters we see again are Joel David Moore, Edie Falco, Brendan Cowell, Jemaine Clement, Dileep Rao, & Giovanni Ribisi. We also see the return of my good friend Payakan, and the rest of the Tulkun. Our main new additions are Oona Chaplin as Varang, the leader of the Ash Tribe, and David Thewlis as Peylak, the leader of the Wind Traders, both of whom were pretty fascinating, both in design and lore. We also get to see the Ash Tribe as a whole and let me tell you, those bald suckers are scary looking. The visual effects were of course stunning and I’m excited to go see it again. I saw it in 3D because that was the convenient showtime and that came with a pretty cool result, but also made it look a little video game-esque at times. The effects always receive their due praise, and I’m sure this one will get another Academy Award for Best Visual Effects. Something that I really appreciate about this film that goes a little more under the radar is the score. It really completed the movie experience because it both looks and sounds really good. Some additional notes that I had were that I still think Sigourney Weaver is still a strange choice as Jake & Neytiri’s teen daughter, but I understand the lore and think I see the vision. Another thing that’s really cool is the duality and similarities between Jake & Quaritch, which is very present in this film. Now if you scroll all the way down there will be some spoiler related thoughts.
High: I think Miles Quaritch has become the character in this franchise I’m the most invested in. He continues to grow into the most interesting character and has evolved a lot over the course of these three movies. We’re going to have to wait until 2029 and 2031 for the next two films (assuming they don’t get delayed) and Quaritch’s story is the one I’m most excited to see the next chapter of.
Low: While this didn’t necessarily hold the movie back for me, if I turn on my movie critic brain, I can come up with two big critiques. This film felt a little disjointed at times, but I think that was just a result of it being absolutely packed to the brim. The positive of such a long runtime (3 hours, 17 minutes) is that all the stuff that’s packed in there gets to be fleshed out and developed really well. The other negative feedback that didn’t bother me, but I was very aware of, was that many parts of this film felt very repetitive to ‘The Way of Water.’ There were several storylines, resolutions, and conflicts that mirrored a lot of the second film.
Rating: 9/10
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-SPOILER THOUGHTS BELOW
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I am shocked Jake Sully made it out of this movie alive. I thought he was a goner for sure.
I think the choices made with Spider in this movie were very interesting and the scene with him connecting to Eywa and all the spirits greeting him was really cool. Also, the design of Eywa looked a little odd to me. I really liked the narrative with Spider and the Sullys, and the scene were Jake takes him planning to kill him is so heart wrenching. Spider’s ‘Please dad. Do you still love me?’ got to me. That whole scene was very Abraham & Isaac of them.
I appreciate that this film set up its sequels, but was closed enough to stand solid on its own.
