Avatar: Fire and Ash – Film Review
by Brian Merriman

Directed by James Cameron
Screenplay by James Cameron · Rick Jaffa · Amanda Silver
Story by James Cameron · Rick Jaffa · Amanda Silver · Josh Friedman · Shane Salerno
Produced by James Cameron · Jon Landau
Cinematography Russell Carpenter
Starring: Sam Worthington (Jake Scully) , Zoe Saldaña (Neytiri), Stephen Lang (Recom Miles Quaritch), Sigourney Weaver (Kiri), Joel David Moore (Dr Norm Spelman), CCH Pounder (Grandmother Mo’at), Giovanni Ribisi (Parker Selfridge), Dileep Rao (Dr Max Patel), Matt Gerald (Lyle Wainfleet), Kate Winslet (Ronal), Cliff Curtis (Tonowan), Edie Falco (General Frances Ardmore), Oona Chaplin (Varing) David Thewlis (Peylak) Britain Dalton (Lo’Ak) and many more.

Duration: 195 minutes

Avatar: Fire and Ash is the third instalment of the Avatar series, which continues James Cameron’s epic saga. Fire and Ash is 195 minutes, just 3 minutes longer than The Way of Water, but no one is counting time in this visual and dramatic cinematic delight.

This new movie features Jake and Neytiri’s family as they face grief, renewed danger and revenge, stoked and abetted by a volatile new Na’vi faction, the Ash People. Their leader, Varang, an angry and sinister Oona Chapin, aligns with old enemies to destroy the Na’vi and exploit their mineral wealth. The plot really leaves no space for redemption of the greedy and violent pink-skinned, who, it is noted, have already ruined their own planet. There is a lot of truth in that.

The film expands Pandora with new tribes, including the majestic and peaceful Wind Traders led by Peylak, an authoritative David Thewlis, who try to avoid the crossfire. We pick up the epic story as Sam Worthington’s powerful and commanding Jake Sully and his wife, Zoe Saldaña as a ferocious and loyal Neytiri, as they mourn their late son, Neteyam (Jamie Flatters), who died during The Way of Water’s climactic battle.

The family storyline is at the centre of the emotional arc. They are now parenting their own offspring and Miles Spider Socorro, a diminutive and charming Jack Champion, and Kiri, a mystical 14-year-old with supernatural powers (Sigourney Weaver).

It very much feels like a coming-of-age sequel for the next generation, with Scully and Neytiri in charge and being challenged by the emergence of their survival and courageous genes in their own family tree, with a lovely maturing performance of the second son, Lo’ak from Britain Dalton.

The growing of these young characters in the face of great danger is another key part of the heartstring-tugging success of the strong dramatic arc, which is as riveting as the on-screen spectacle.

There are so many other layers to the rich and gripping screenplay by James Cameron, Rick Jaffa and Amanda Silver. These are best left unspoiled in a review, to be teased out by the viewer, leaving the reviewer in awe of the cinematic spectacle that is Fire and Ash.

Director Cameron and cinematographer Russell Carpenter are on top of their creativity in this epic production. The locations, the artistic details, the use of the elements, the contributions by the animals and mammals, the mysticism, the ancestors, the violence, the battles, the means of transport, the electricity, and the God Ewya are all magical in their design and delivery. The scale and beauty of the design are jaw-dropping. To know that the visual creators were conveying the detail of the actual stage work of each actor proves that, despite the stunning technology, it is still the human interpretation of the story and its characters that triumphs in creating and communicating this fantastic story.

Cameron and colleagues create a new dimension, in glorious 3D, which stimulates, if not bombards, all areas of the human imagination. It is spectacular in its concept and delivery.

The musical score is another layer that enthrals, entertains, and keeps us on edge throughout a cinematic journey, which leaves you knowing you need to return again to notice even more of the exquisite details that fill the 48 frames a second, in this almost incredible cinematic achievement.

There are many ways to convey a story based on good, evil, revenge, love, survival, war, the inhumanity of man and the humanity of those who are not human. Cameron does this, with the undisputed power of Ewya, with great authority and cinematic majesty.

We are promised Avatar four and five. With the next generation now fully blooded in this epic, it can only whet our impatience that these sequels are produced as soon as it takes to try to top number three. That will be almost an impossible task, but James Cameron seems to love achieving the impossible!