Avatar: Fire And Ash review | James Cameron wants another 197 minutes of your life

We return to Pandora once again in James Cameron’s latest adventure. Here’s our Avatar: Fire And Ash review.  Avatar: Fire And Ash comes with some pretty heavy pressure on its back. The 2009 original finally saw James Cameron bring to life the idea he’d been brewing for years and the film was a phenomenal success ... Avatar: Fire And Ash review | James Cameron wants another 197 minutes of your life

We return to Pandora once again in James Cameron’s latest adventure. Here’s our Avatar: Fire And Ash review. 

Avatar: Fire And Ash comes with some pretty heavy pressure on its back. The 2009 original finally saw James Cameron bring to life the idea he’d been brewing for years and the film was a phenomenal success with a box office gross of over $2bn. 2022’s Avatar: The Way Of Water, the somewhat belated sequel, also brought in well over $2bn and critics seemed pretty pleased with it too. 

Cameron hopes to bring in similar numbers with Fire And Ash but will audiences still be drawn to the conflict between the blue-skinned Na’Vi and humans? That remains to be seen, but can the third film in this franchise keep the magic alive? Especially with at least two more movies to go?

Well, at the beginning of Fire And Ash, Jake Sully (Sam Worthington) and his family are still living with the water-bound Metkayina clan, but conflict seems to follow them everywhere they go, forcing them to leave. Elsewhere, Colonel Quaritch (Stephen Lang) is still plotting his revenge against the Sullys. 

As if all of that wasn’t enough plot-wise, Cameron also brings in another couple of Na’Vi clans. While the Wind Traders come and go rather quickly, it’s the Mangkwan clan, also known as the Ash People, that team up with Quaritch to cause all kinds of havoc. 

If you’re already a fan of Avatar films, Fire And Ash will likely tickle your fancy again. Cameron once again plunges us into the lush world of Pandora and it hasn’t lost any of its wonder. These films are led by their visuals and immersive 3D and the same applies to Fire And Ash. Although 3D isn’t that popular anymore, Cameron still manages to make it work in Avatar’s favor. It’s not a gimmick like in 2009’s The Final Destination that threw car parts at you or 2013’s R.I.P.D. that seemed to only add the effect because it was popular at the time. 

Yet, despite its wonderful look, Fire And Ash offers very few exciting, new elements and when it does, it tends to quickly take them away. The Ash People and Oona Chaplin’s clan leader, Varang, are a particularly fascinating addition, but just as we get to know them more, they largely fade into the background and the focus goes back to Quaritch as the main villain. It’s the equivalent of being offered a fancy coffee and then forced to grab some grim stuff from the instant jar instead. It’ll do, but we were teased with better. 

Fire And Ash ultimately focuses on the differences between the Na’Vi and humans and how both Jake and Quaritch fit into that. Both men are still Marines at heart and Jake even contacts his wife during battle with “Neytiri, do you copy?” in a moment that comes across as unintentionally funny.

Worthington, for my money, has always been the weakest part of the franchise and he still struggles to make Jake into a complex character (and we’re nine hours in now). Jake is still frustratingly one-dimensional and while Zoe Saldana manages to breathe real life into Neytiri, Worthington struggles to do more than read his lines without much emotion.

Fire And Ash had me thinking this franchise may have worked better as a TV show. Cameron has crafted a thoroughly fascinating world, but he’s forced to shove so much into each film, it’s exhausting. There’s so many characters and clans as well as lore, but we’re only getting small crumbs of it and yours truly is certainly craving for more. 

Even at over three hours, Fire And Ash feels too short as well as too long, but I’d be lying if I claimed I didn’t enjoy Cameron’s latest visit to Pandora. My glutes may have been screaming for help by the time the credits rolled, but these films are experiences with a capital E. They can’t be replicated at home and Fire And Ash certainly continues that legacy, but there was a better film in there somewhere.