Avatar: Fire and Ash (2025) - A Guest Review by Chad Dixon

This is the third in what Director James Cameron says will be five feature films set in the mid 22nd Century on the alien moon of Pandora. This outing follows on directly from the dramatic events of Avatar: The Way of Water, which was released in 2022 and again concentrates on the Na'vi family of Jake (Sam Worthington) and Neytiri (Zoe Saldaña) along with their three free-spirited children and adopted human son, Spider.

Still dealing with profound grief after the death of their eldest son Neteyam, their ongoing relationship with Spider (Jack Champion) is getting quite strained, especially as Neytiri feels that as he is the biological son of (hard to kill) Col. Miles Quaritch (Stephen Lang), he is the reason that the human forces are relentless in going after all of them and generally trying to destroy the Na'vi way of life in their greedy plans to get hold of the rare natural mineral resources on Pandora.

Against the wishes of their children, they decide to take Spider back to the friendly human scientist's base for everyone's future safety. As a compromise, the entire family hitch a ride with a balloon-travelling trader-tribe for the journey but en route, encounter a new, aggressive Na'vi tribe, the Ash People, led by their fierce female chieftain, Varang (Oona Chaplin). During the dramatic air battle, their balloon crashes in the jungle and as they try to escape on foot, Jake's metal automatic rifle falls into the hands of Verang who immediately feels it's a weapon that her and tribe must get a lot more of.

At 3 hours and 17 minutes, this film would definitely be considered on the long side but the story keeps moving at a nice pace so I certainly didn't feel bored. Empathy was flowing in all the right places as the script was much more engaging than the last film's. I'm not sure if motion capture technology used has improved since 2022 but I think that the expressiveness of the all the Na'vi faces are much more emotion-filled this time.

That point is illustrated best by Chaplin, who steals every scene that her character is in, with the most expressive performances - and with the unexpected relationship she develops with Lang, now permanently transposed into a Na'vi avatar body himself, the intensity is ramped up to eleven! His motivation involves ever more maverick attempts to try to capture the "traitor", Jake, and re-engage with his estranged son, Spider. I also have to mention the stunning topographical visuals of the multiple locations we are taken to, with all their amazing alien flora and fauna, which again are a critical part of the landscape of this franchise.

Of course, the ongoing war between the human colonists and the indigenous Na'vi is what this franchise is mostly known for and although they feel a bit relentless after, now, three films, the choreography of these particular battles have escalated to a believable level and happily, took up just about the right amount of screen time. The character development of the core family and their other Na'vi friends was what mostly I'll remember this time as it reminded me much more of the experience I felt after seeing the first film in 2009. I'll point out now that unlike that time, I didn't go to see the 3D version, which is widely available - but it was still very entertaining and much better than I was expecting!