The Avatar Flame Contunies to Burn in Fire and Ash

            16 years ago, the first Avatar came out, and it made an absurd amount of money at the box office, and people fell in love with the world that James Cameron created. Then almost half a billion dollars and thirteen years later, Avatar Way of Water came out. People were excited to return to Pandora and explore a new aspect of that world, and this movie also made over a billion dollars at the box office. This time though there was just a three year wait, and now we find ourselves back in Pandora again for another three-hour epic, but how does it hold up to the others?

            Fire and Ash picks up where Way of Water left off with the Sully family with the water tribe. The problem is that they are now trying to send Spider back to the more colonized part of the planet, so that he can get the battery packs for his mask more easily, but he does not want to go. They settle on the whole family taking the trip to bring him back, and then they will go from there. So the Sully family boards a giant airship led by some Pandoran beast. While on the journey, raiders from the fire and ash tribe attack, and they crash the ship. This separates the family, and as Spider runs away with the kids, his mask dies.

            Kiri, who is very in tuned with the natural world around her, has the roots infuse with Spiders body, and once they have been fused, Spider no longer needs the mask. He can breathe the air of Pandora safely. Although this made Spider safe, it also now made him a huge target, because the colonists would do anything to make it so that they could breathe the air on Pandora so that they could take over the planet completely.

            So now there are the Fire people who are now the Sully’s enemies, and there are the colonists too who have been seeking him since the first movie. These two antagonistic forces join due to General Quaritch, who is Spider’s dad, so the general has two motives for capturing Spider. After the capture of Jake and Spider and more whale killing, it all leads to one final battle.

            My biggest problem with this climatic final battle is that it felt so similar to the previous movie. Most of the fight in that movie took place on the water, and there were also sequences that took place on the ship. So it felt like after a whole other three hours it just brought us right back to where we started with some additional character development, but not that much seemed to of changed from this movie from the last.

            Also from the first movie to the second movie, we got to experience a new side of Pandora, the water. So it would have made sense that in this movie, we would learn more about the fire people. This is only partially the case. We learn about them as people, and we get to see some of their rituals. Including a cool drug sequence when Quaritch comes to visit, but other than his brief visit to their home, we do not really get to see anything from their side of the world. I was looking forward to seeing what James Cameron could do with the fire side of Pandora, thinking it would have been filled with volcanoes or maybe it would look like Mustafar from Star Wars, but no, all we got was some black sand and a slightly crisped landscape.

            I know so far this has all sounded negative, but it really was a great movie. It is the perfect movie to watch in theaters, and it demands to be seen on IMAX and in 3D. Avatar is the only film that I feel this way about. There is no other franchise that makes me rush to see it in 3D. James Cameron knows what he is doing with this technology, and it really adds depth to the world helping to make it feel more real. I would love to see him film a nature documentary this way. That would be incredible.

            Not only is there beauty in these movies, but there is also violence. James Cameron is an excellent action director as well, and this massive final action scene is incredible and grand, and even the little battles in-between over the course of the film hit too. There is action underwater, on land, and in the air, and he can do all of it at a high level.

            He also uses the violence to add emotional weight to the movie. Tulkun, the whales in the movie, are a tribe, and they do not believe in violence. So despite being slowly wiped out by the colonists, the Tulkun do nothing in return. Their brain juices just continue to be taken, and the rest of their bodies are discarded with no repercussions. Lo’ak, Jake Sully’s son, continues to try to convince the Tulkun to fight back, and eventually he wears them down, and they agree to fight, and they prove to be formidable allies when they help to take down massive ships.

            Although they did help, it did sadden me to see this, and This was the most emotionally potent moment of the film. It signifies a loss of innocence in a way, and it makes it feel like violence is engrained within humanity, and that they will spread that sin to others. Not only do they spread that, but they also harm the environment. It really is a depressing depiction of humanity and their impact on corrupting the natural world.

            There is also a strong religious aspect to this movie, and it comes in the form of naturalistic spirituality. It reminded me of Hamnet in that way. There is a very strong connectiveness in this world. Kiri is the strongest proponent of this idea. She is constantly trying to connect with nature, and she does so many times. Others also spiritually connect via their ponytails when they connect to the tree of life, and when they connect to the memory organism under the water. The natural world deserves to be respected and venerated no matter what religious background you come from.

            Overall, this was a great movie. It was over three hours long, and I did not check my watch once to see how much time is left, and I do that in almost every movie. This world sucks you in with its unique and imaginative visuals. The story is also constantly moving. There are no slow moments. So although it did not go into a completely new realm, and they said the word bro way too many times, it is still a cinematic experience, and that is the reason why these movies continue to make so much money at the box office. I will probably never watch this at home on my tv, but I will gladly go see a new chapter into the Avatar story in IMAX. 4 Stars