Director: James Cameron
Writers: James Cameron, Rick Jaffa, Amanda Silver
Cast: Sam Worthington, Zoe Saldaña, Sigourney Weaver, Stephen Lang, Kate Winslet, Oona Chaplin, Joel David Moore, Jemaine Clement, Giovanna Ribisi, Britain Dalton, Jack Champion, Trinity Jo-Li Bliss, Bailey Bass

James Cameron’s epic part-CGI, part-motion-capture, part-live-action saga returns in its third instalment. The Avatar films have quickly risen to become some of the most expensive yet profitable in cinema history, perhaps mainly due to the technology used to the bring the world and characters to life, tech that has had to play catch-up to Cameron’s vision and ultimately amazed audiences worldwide. With no signs of slowing down (fourth and fifth films are planned at minimum depending on how the series fares financially and critically), Avatar: Fire and Ash further fans the flames (pun intended) of the conflict between the colonial humans and the native Pandorans, specifically the Na’vi. Does Fire and Ash keep the fire burning, or are we as audiences starting to feel the burn-out?

Warning: there will be spoilers for the previous films.

Taking place within weeks of the ending of The Way of Water, the story picks up with Jake Sully (Worthington) and his wife Neytiri (Saldaña) as they grieve the loss of their son. They come to the decision to take Spider (Champion) away from the clan and back to the human settlement to keep everyone safe should the humans come looking for him. As they travel with him and their other children, they are set upon by the Mangkwan, an aggressive Na’vi tribe also known as the Ash people. The Sully family are separated from one another and desperately try to reunite while being hunted not only by the Ash people, led by the fearsome Varang (Chaplin), but also by Miles Quaritch (Lang), who continues his search for Spider and his vendetta against Jake.

I found Avatar (2009) to be an averagely interesting story with some terrific graphics and action, but The Way of Water was more interesting as it delved into the Na’vi and their story, though it was lighter on the humans and overall action. Fire and Ash does a good job of balancing the Na’vi story with that of the humans and going deeper into character, but it keeps up an almost exhausting pace of action so that the character interactions feel wedged in at times. The best thing that Cameron has done is spend years on this story to make sure that each one doesn’t follow the other purely for the sake of putting out a new film; knowing that the humans are intent on colonising Pandora means that this story could go on for some time, and fortunately this is clear within Fire and Ash. The peril plays out quite naturally; none of it feels forced, and so the story has a sensible flow to it, though it is indeed perhaps too action heavy as mentioned. However, I am of the belief that once the entire saga comes to an eventual end, the ebb and flow of action versus character interaction, expansion and drama will weave together more coherently on a ‘bigger picture’ scale.

As expected, the visuals of this film were truly astounding. I didn’t see the previous films in the cinema (I may have seen the first but I can’t be sure), so I’ve only seen them on the small screen, and I do think that does them a great disservice. I’m not a big fan of films in 3D, but I don’t think that aspect should matter in an overall evaluation of the film; just seeing this on a laser screen in a higher-than-normal framerate was awesome enough. The colours were crisp, the scenes in the sky and water were stunning, and the interaction between the mo-capped Na’vi actors and live-action actors were seamless. Add in the sound and music and Fire and Ash really does become an audio-visual treat for the senses. The mo-cap is also some of the best its ever been, where the actors’ mannerisms and expression come through clearly, particularly those of actors whom we’re more familiar with when it comes to displays of emotion (namely Zoe Saldaña and Sigourney Weaver).

The performances have become much more solid on the whole, perhaps due to how comfortable the actors have become with their characters; they know them and can express their thoughts quite instinctively. This is none the more true than for Sam Worthington. His portrayal of Jake has made the character all the more confident and likeable. The only issue I have is with his consistent dipping in and out of the American accent. They really should have let him do full Aussie from the beginning. Saldaña’s performance hasn’t altered quite as much, retaining the fighting spirit and maternal instincts that Neytiri is known for, however I do feel there was too much overacting from her in Fire and Ash that rendered Neytiri somewhat unlikeable at times. Stephen Lang’s Quaritch is still the main antagonist of the piece, however the lines of good-and-bad become more blurry for him in this film, and Lang supports these transitions well in both his physical and vocal performances. Oona Chaplin really set Varang apart as a new villain, her physicality speaking volumes about the sinister new character, perhaps more so than her vocal performance. I continue to find it odd that Sigourney Weaver portrays a Na’vi teenager in Kiri, especially in one particular scene and in hearing her speak. It’s a good performance, but the suspension of disbelief is difficult for this one, even atop the mo-cap.

I still don’t fully understand how Avatar (2009) rose to become the highest grossing film (adjusted for inflation) of all time. You can’t convince me it’s because of the ticket pricing for a 3D showing – I don’t believe 3D could be that popular. But, even if that was the reason, the story and action was hardly worthy of the title. I do however now see why the series has continued to rise in overall popularity. Although James Cameron was always set on utilising technology to bring his vision to life, it’s his storytelling talents that come through the clearest. Without a tight story that is solidifying well as the series progresses, these films would be nothing but empty spectacle and would likely not have survived this long (or at least probably wouldn’t go further than Fire and Ash). I’m enjoying that the series is getting better and more interesting, but I think we could easily do with a shorter running time and cut out just a handful of action sequences to perhaps create something even tighter and a tad lighter in the next instalment.