Avatar: Fire and Ash Movie Review – It's Been 84 Years…

Let’s get the obvious out of the way first: Avatar: Fire and Ash clocks in at 197 minutes, and there’s no reason for it to be this long. It’s indulgent, pretentious, and a grueling test of everybody’s bladder. A colleague said, “Don’t forget your bedpan at home,” and he wasn’t joking.

Now, here’s the ironic part: It actually needed to be longer to establish itself as a great rather than good movie. It sounds contrary, yes, but there’s something missing here. As a matter of fact, it’s surprising how James Cameron glosses over some of the deeper emotional moments so blatantly since everything else feels like more of the same. It’s the times when you believe a rousing speech is forthcoming from a character, but nope, it’s a quick voiceover to demonstrate how “somehow Palpatine returned.” Well, the poor editors had quite the job on their hands to ensure this didn’t turn into a 76-hour film, so at some point, they must have taken the scissors to anything and everything out of pure spite.

Everyone knows that Cameron isn’t about to shortchange the audience with visual and aural pageantry, and Avatar: Fire and Ash continues this trend, building on the sensational technological advancements of the previous films and unleashing a sensory overload. Look back at 2009’s Avatar then watch this film to see how far we have come, because Cameron makes movies that deserve to be seen on the biggest screens possible. You want a good reason as to why cinema is still relevant? Here you go! Do yourself a favor and watch this movie on IMAX and 3D for the full experience, as Fire and Ash sucks you into the majesty of Pandora – and this is coming from someone who called 3D nothing more than a headache-inducing scam for the longest time.

Image Credit: 20th Century Studios

The pomp and circumstance aside, it’s Avatar: Fire and Ash‘s touching story that surprises the most. Taking place after the events of 2022’s Avatar: The Way of Water, Jake Sully (Sam Worthington) and Neytiri (Zoe Saldaña) cope with the death of their son Neteyam. There’s tension in the family, especially because of the presence of the human Miles “Spider” Socorro (Jack Champion). Does he belong with the Sullys? That’s the divisive question among them. Consequently, Spider turns out to be an unintentional catalyst of what happens – plus, the film’s undisputed MVP – as Sully and his family encounter the Mangkwan clan – led by the brutal and fiery Varang (Oona Chaplin) – and the return of Colonel Quaritich (Stephen Lang), who still does the RDA’s bidding but also wants to bring his son, Spider, back home.

The tale straps the audience into a teary-eyed journey through grief and a family having to find their center again, all while dealing with the mounting dangers threatening to destroy the paradise known as Pandora. In terms of the antagonists, Varang wastes no time in bringing the smoke – pardon the pun – and becoming one of the more interesting villains in the franchise. She and her clan’s motivations remain clear throughout the film, as they become a thorn in the Sully family’s side and embody the adage of “the enemy of my enemy is my friend.”

Once again, this latest Avatar film presses on the notion that selfishness, apathy, and lust for power only results in total annihilation, but it continues to drive home the conversation that empathy and humanity are the most necessary weapons for fighting back. Certain key characters face pivotal questions about themselves and others around them, as these moral dilemmas are likely to be addressed in future sequels.

Image Credit: 20th Century Studios

This is only touching the surface of what happens in Avatar: Fire and Ash, as so much occurs across three hours-plus. As mentioned before, there are critical parts of Avatar: Fire and Ash that feel downplayed when they could have added more substance to arguably the strongest emotional arc in the series yet. There’s actually a point in the movie where you could have likely ended it then continued the story in another film entirely. Doing this would have allowed for better flow and increased poignancy in the overall narrative structure rather than cram everything into a loud and busy motion picture.

Regardless, most people are likely to walk away from Avatar: Fire and Ash buzzing and in awe of the sheer spectacle. It’s impossible to explain the Avatar phenomena, really. People joke about how no one knows what the movies are about, or how they’re so long that everyone celebrates two birthdays while in the theater, but then a new film comes along and cleans up at the box office – eating everyone’s lunch and leaving no scraps for dessert. It’s remarkable. Avatar: Fire and Ash might not be an epic on the same level as The Lord of the Rings trilogy, but don’t be surprised to see it putting a few more billion in Disney’s coffers.