Review: “Avatar: Fire and Ash” is visually stunning but struggles emotionally

The third installment of James Cameron’s “Avatar” franchise provides gorgeous visuals but fails to deliver on essential emotional beats.

By Michaela Ely

“Avatar: Fire and Ash” was released in theaters Dec. 19 and follows the story of Jake Sully’s family after the events of “Avatar: The Way of Water.” The second film in the franchise left off with the death of Jake and Neytiri’s son, Neteyam, and Spider saving Colonel Quartich’s avatar from drowning, setting him up to be the main antagonist yet again. 

“Fire and Ash” begins shortly after where “Way of Water” left off, where Neytiri and Jake begin to grapple with the grief about losing their son. Neytiri already disliked humans in the first and second film, but this dislike evolved into abject hatred after her son was killed. Jake and Neytiri also decide that Spider would be better off going to live with humans which the Sully children object to. 

This film has a runtime of 197 minutes and honestly feels about that long, if not longer. Going to see this film in theaters, I felt that there were several spots where the film might have ended, only for it to keep going. As visually gorgeous as these films are, I feel like there is a limit to how long you can keep a story going, especially if it repeats key aspects of other films in the franchise.

Beyond that, with this runtime, you would think that they would spend more time on delivering the emotional beats that make you connect to these characters. Unfortunately, it feels like several of these points are just glossed over and moved past with no real resolution. A key example of this is Quaritch’s entire character and his arc. 

While I understand that Stephen Lang is a brilliant actor, particularly in this role, the lack of resolution when it comes to Quaritch’s character has been incredibly frustrating. This film set up a “will he, won’t he” scenario when it came to his character, his relationship with his son and a potential for some sort of redemption. This film still leaves his character arc unresolved, but I can’t say I’ll be pleased if he pops up as the antagonist in the fourth installment as well. 

There is another scene about halfway through the film that seems like it was included more for shock value than anything else as the events are never discussed after, and once again there is no real resolution to it. While some may attribute the resolution to emotional growth, the lack of discussion in the rest of the film leads me to believe there was not any character growth.

Something that “Fire and Ash” did very well, along with the other two films, is making the viewer understand the impacts of settler colonialism. While this film can not and should not be generalized to any particular indigenous group, it provides a view into what colonialism does to communities and the environment itself. A recurring plot point from the second film, the hunting of the whale-like species of Tulkun, illustrates this impact in a perfect yet horrifying way.

While this film feels repetitive at times and I am unsure as to how the writers and James Cameron will continue to tell the story of Pandora, I can’t help but recommend this film. The visuals are immersive and gorgeous and worth seeing on a movie theater screen.