Grab your banshee popcorn bucket and fly into Pandora, the spectacular world of James Cameron’s Avatar: Fire and Ash, the most recent addition to the Avatar franchise. Director James Cameron continues to impress global audiences with his camera work, unique visuals, and extraordinary world building. While this edition to the saga didn’t see as much success in the box office, the movie carried the same depth and meticulous storyline as its predecessors.
The story picks up directly after the second movie, Avatar: Way of Water, where the Sully family find themselves recovering from the grief of their first born, Netayeum (Jamie Flatters), who was shot by the Sky People while trying to save Spider (Jack Champion) at the end of the second movie. Neytiri (Zoe Saldaña) mourns through her connection with the Na’vi goddess figure, Eywa, while Jake (Sam Worthington) copes with the loss through taking further actions to protect his family.This includes including posing the idea of bringing Spider back to the Sky People’s base, ultimately setting the stage for the rest of the film.
This grief plays a central role in the film as characters must accept this loss while being forced to adapt to the new conflict of the film. Cameron’s gentle but honest approach to each character’s unique experience with grief is quite remarkable. From showing the stages of acceptance through Neytiri’s journey to Lo’ak’s (Britain Dalton) struggle with self blame, Cameron crafts eye opening storylines that are heartbreaking to watch develop.
One of the most negative effects of Neytiri’s grieving is her character’s growing resentment and eventual hatred of the Sky People. This is most obvious through her hostility towards Spider, whom she doesn’t come to accept until later in the film. This relationship with Spider is directly addressed in his heart tugging, near death experience when Neytiri stops Jake from sacrificing him. However, the movie fails to resolve Neytiri’s bitterness towards her own children regarding their human heritage. Although she has lost so much throughout this saga at the hands of the humans, she ultimately made the decision to choose Jake, making this storyline feel a bit random. While her acceptance of her kids is vaguely implied through her improved relationship with Lo’ak, Cameron fails to explicitly solve this issue, leading to one of many grievances with the plot.
However, it is certainly clear that family plays a huge role in the film, illustrated through the repetition of the phrase “This family is our fortress” and many displays of sheer love through sacrifices each member of the family makes to protect the others. The idea of a chosen family is introduced with Spider, who while not a biological member of the family, forms a sense of belonging through his dynamic with the Sully children.
In a sense, another family is ‘chosen’ through Varang (Oona Chaplin) and Colonel Miles Quaritch’s (Stephen Lang) strategic and romantic alliance. With this new addition of disorder, the action in the film became intense, cutthroat, and persistent. Cameron introduced Varang as the leader of the Ash people, the new antagonists that appear in the film who challenge the Na’vi way of life. While her character was a highly anticipated addition to the series, there was a much higher expectation regarding her storyline. Until their partnership, Varang embodied the strong willed, fearless, and sadistic character fans had hoped for. However, Quaritch’s storyline greatly overpowered hers once their paths merged. It was frustrating to see her become more of a side character and lose that independence that had made her so appealing to fans in the first place.
While he did introduce important themes around family, Spider’s character was still unfortunately a huge setback to the film. While he had so much potential, the Avatar team gave him very little depth. His character served only for comedic relief, which felt extremely out of place in the film, and his one-liners had no contribution to the plot of the story. While it is heartwarming to see him accepted by the Na’vi in the final scene, his personality and actions throughout the rest of the movie were unbearable to witness.
One of the most impactful scenes from the movie was Ronal’s (Kate Winslet) death. After hours of watching Neytiri and Ronal’s complicated relationship, Cameron highlights the sisterhood the two ultimately share. While they had opposing views in regards to most decisions, Neytiri’s respect for Ronal and her family pushes her to help the dying tsahìk and deliver her baby, Pril. This show of connection truly makes an impact on the viewer, as unlikely forces are continuously joined. This successfully creates commentary on the necessity of collaboration and viewing humanity in others despite unlikely circumstances in a tumultuous world.
Per usual, Cameron’s graphics and action-packed scenes did not disappoint. The beautiful world of Pandora was filled with immaculate scenery: lush forests, otherworldly creatures, and dreamlike biomes. The consistent conflict had viewers on the edges of their seats through the entire movie. Battle scenes were well choreographed and unpredictable, making it all the more interesting.
On a lower note, the ending was rather disappointing due to the incomplete storyline that remained. While the ending made a homage to the first movie when Spider is accepted to the Na’vi just as Jake was welcomed to the spirit world, viewers were left with too many questions. It’s uncertain if the humans remain on Pandora, and Quaritch’s death is unclear which leads to the question of whether the Sully family is truly safe.
Not only that, but a major theme of this franchise has been the idea of home, and it’s disappointing to see the Sully family never truly feel welcome with the sea tribe or return to their original clan. The last, and most upsetting unanswered question is Eywa’s fate. Eywa, or rather her presence as a goddess is felt through the movies, so the ambiguity of her end is frustrating. Why did she take so long to respond to Kiri’s calls? Why didn’t she help sooner? This movie marks the end of her storyline, so it’s very possible these questions will never be answered.
In all, while Avatar: Fire and Ash proved to be a movie fit for lovers of the franchise, while facing its fair share of faults. Although these shortcomings may leave fans feeling a bit disappointed, it still serves as an enjoyable way to enter into the incredible world of Pandora.