Avatar: Fire and Ash
Rating: 4/5
By: Nathaniel Simpson
Avatar has been a staple of blockbuster cinema for the last 17 years, with James Cameron promising to go above and beyond in each film that comes out in this series. Now, over fifteen years after the release of the original, Cameron has released the third entry in this overarching saga, Avatar: Fire and Ash. A major problem I had with this film's predecessor, The Way of Water, was how long it turned out to be, showing how Cameron runs out of steam too quickly in the three hour picture but fills the rest of the runtime with fluff before the major climatic battle. Now with this third installment, which is somehow just a tad bit longer, I was absolutely loving what he was doing in the first hour and a half of this picture. But, he proves again that sometimes maybe shorter is better. This movie loses steam and doesn't deliver as well as the first half, unfortunately bogging the film down with fifty-minutes that could have easily been cut from the final runtime.
The movie starts shortly after the final moments of the last film, with the Sully family adjusting to life after the loss of one of their own. They are trying to figure out this new family dynamic and how to co-exist with one another after such a tragedy. However, as everyone knows, there will always be someone out to get you, which comes in the form of Colonel Miles Quaritch (Stephen Lang), who they were able to bring back in Avatar form. Not only do they have to deal with him and the human military who wants to destroy everyone on Pandora to colonize it for themselves, but also with the volcanic Mangkwan clan, led by ferocious leader Varang (Oona Chaplin), who will stop at nothing to get her hands on the human weapons.
While I enjoyed a lot of what The Way of Water did, I did find myself struggling to find interest in a variety of things that they did as well, such as spending a large chunk of the runtime on underwater sequences and trying to do too much world building in this one small area where the Sully family was located at. I was worried that was going to be the problem here, and for the first half of the movie, I truly thought Cameron had fixed his problem of making movies longer than they truly needed to be. In fact, I think the first half is some brilliant filmmaking, and I loved the events Cameron was setting up for this movie. The themes he started to explore about family and how to cope with loss were great, and the performances from the Sully family (Sam Worthington, Zoe Saldaña, Sigourney Weaver, Britain Dalton, Trinity Bliss, and Jack Champion, who plays the practically-adopted Spider) were fantastic. Not only did they bring these characters fully to life, but each single one of them had amazing chemistry with one another.
With no spoilers here, Cameron also sets up this plot that is simply engaging and keeps the audience hooked on what is going on. It is action-packed, thrilling, and makes the audience worry for the wellbeing of these characters that we have grown to love. The introduction to the Mangkwan clan is perfect, in my opinion, and I think the character of Varang is so fun to explore. Chaplin gives a terrifying performance as Varang, and I think this is one of the best antagonists that has been introduced to the world of Pandora so far. I thought the inclusion of Quaritch in this part of the film was a very interesting concept, and offered a lot of ideas that could possibly be explored in future sequels.
However, after this sort of storyline concludes halfway through the movie, Cameron now has the job to finish crafting this story he wants to tell. While I think there are some great ideas and brilliant segments, such as when Quaritch approaching Varang in her camp, the movie simply doesn't have enough material to cover another hour-and-a-half. There was a moment in the film that I think would have been perfect for them to end the movie and leave the audience anticipating the next installment in the series, but Cameron decides to continue on this film for another fifty minutes or so. I don't know what his fascination and determination for him to have these incredibly long films for, but I think someone needs to tell him that his movies would work better if they were trimmed up quite a bit. I also want to mention I'm not too huge of a fan of the water moments or the creatures that exist, which Cameron decides to take so much time and dedication in crafting. I'm not sure if this is just a demonstration of filmmaking to show these moments he can create or if he has something big planned later on, but I think they are simply wastes of time for the most part.
The movie then concludes with an epic battle that is very reminiscent of the battle at the end of the second film in the series, and I don't understand the inclusion of such a big battle again. It seems like Cameron is pretty much rehashing the same thing that happened at the end of The Way of Water, and I desperately want to see him do something different. I'm tired of our Avatar characters fighting against the humans, and I was hopping that with the inclusion of Varang and her tribe, we would have gotten a much more different battle at the end.
However, with all that being said, there is no doubt this movie is brilliantly crafted and gorgeous to look at. This world that Cameron crafts is so beautiful and vast, presenting locations we haven't seen before and showing us different aspects o Pandora that are so unique and wonderful. The CGI is breathtaking, and the graphics in the characters and this fictional world are awe-inspiring. There is no doubt that the Avatar films have some of the best digital graphics in modern cinema. At the same time, the performances here are top notch, with each and every single actor giving their all in these performances and having wonderful chemistry with one another. I especially enjoyed Champion in this movie, and I think Spider is one of the standout characters here. There is a fantastic emotional segment with Spider and Jake towards the end of the movie that will have every audience member choked up and terrified about what is going to happen next.
There is no doubt that this is an expertly-crafted, beautiful film. I was already expecting that when going into seeing this movie, and watching it in 3D at a special early screening made it so much better. There is so much right going on throughout this movie, and it is unfortunate that it is simply too long and doesn't have enough of a story to warrant such the long runtime. I can't stress enough that if Cameron was able to trim down this film and make it a lot more focused and tight, it would genuinely be so much better. But, all in all, this may genuinely be my favorite Avatar movie so far.
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