After multiple delays and a protracted period spent in development hell, the next film on James Cameron's conveyor belt line of Avatar sequels, Avatar: Fire and Ash, is finally here. And while the two previous entries had enjoyed unprecedented levels of success at the worldwide box office, one has to wonder if it is only a matter of time before the series starts to run out of steam. So does the new Avatar film come with its own bag of new tricks, or is it merely more of the same?
The film is set immediately following the events of the last one, in the aftermath of the battle between the Metkayina Clan and the RDA. The Sully family is still mourning the loss of Neteyum, while still trying their best to earn their keep. But when a new threat emerges in the form of raiders from the Mangkwan Clan, a group of Na'vi who have shunned the goddess Eywa, and their bloodthirsty leader, Varang, the Sullys must once again fight for their lives and the future of all of Pandora.
There's been all this talk about the Avatar films over the years, and how they've failed to leave any real kind of cultural footprint despite being some of the highest-grossing movies of all time. And while there is indeed some merit to that claim, there is no denying the mass market appeal of the first two films in the series, serving as the kind of tentpoles that demand to be seen in a cinema. A lot of that has to do with the technology behind the films, as they utilize cutting-edge CGI and 3D effects to immerse viewers in its alien world like never before.
But once you've seen and experienced that world twice before, it starts to lose a bit of that novelty. And therein lies the main hurdle ahead of Avatar: Fire and Ash and the remaining forthcoming sequels, that unshakable feeling of been there, done that. This is why it is important for each movie in the series to introduce something that could potentially help shake things up before things become too stale. In the last film, it was the Metkayina (or Water Na'vi), and this time around, it is the Mangkwan (or Ash People as they are called).
Except the movie still follows a lot of the very same story beats used in the first two that it soon starts to feel more like a greatest hits compilation than a meaningful progression for the series. In fact, there were a few shots that felt like they were ripped straight out of the first two films, so much so that I imagine it would be fun to line them all up and play a game of spot the difference. To be clear, I am not saying the movie is derivative, only that it is pulling from the same old bag of tricks.
It also bears stating that the movie is very long at 3 hours and 15 minutes. And somewhere around the two hour mark, I started to feel that length, which was a problem I never had with the previous films. It doesn't help that it takes a while for things to get going, and that we spend a good deal of time watching characters make questionable decisions, as though they were beholden to the demands of the plot and not their own freewill and autonomy.
This is also the most fantastical that the series has ever been, so hard sci-fi purists might find themselves scratching their heads a few times during the movie. I mean, there was even a frigging sky beam that shows up at some point to further mess with the gravity, which definitely looked incredible and was used to cool effect, but it made about as much sense as it sounds. But this is Avatar we are talking about here, the series about tall, blue, alien cat people, being implausible is baked into the premise.
And despite all these shortcomings, I'd be lying if I said I didn't ultimately have a blast with Avatar: Fire and Ash. This is because the film knows what it is good at, which is delivering gorgeous visuals that pushes the boundaries of what is possible with CGI. There were even one or two shots in the film that were so striking that they almost crossed into the realm of surrealism. I also enjoyed the further expansions into the lore of Pandora that we got, and found that the movie worked best when it slowed down to allow for that information to be doled out.
Then, of course, there is the action in the movie, which is another clear highlight and the reason why a lot of people will be seeing it in the first place. I was on the edge of my seat through most of it, even if that action did lack a lot of the emotional resonance from the first two films. I didn't see the film in 3D or IMAX, unfortunately, nor do I plan to, so I can't speak to the quality of either effect on the movie. But I imagine they were every bit as transformative as they were in the last film, and that they help make all the already great action scenes that much more amazing.
Avatar: Fire and Ash is a bloated, overlong follow-up that is every bit as spectacular as its predecessors. But if the series is to survive going forward, it will need to do more to shake up its formula. What that shake up might look like is anyone's guess, and it is possible that James Cameron already has just what the series needs waiting in the pipeline. All I know is that not many films offer the kind of movie magic we see in these Avatar movies, and this new one is a solid reminder of that.
