‘Avatar: Fire and Ash’ Movie Review: James Cameron’s World-Building Soars Higher, Exhausting Drama Within Struggles To Catch Up! (LatestLY Exclusive)

Avatar Fire and Ash Movie Review: Avatar: Fire and Ash is exactly what you expect from a James Cameron movie, and that expectation, for better or worse, is largely fulfilled. You come in to be stunned by the visuals, you preferably come in for the IMAX experience, you brace yourself for a plot that will be shaky and melodramatic, it is bound to test your patience for the next three hours, and you leave knowing that none of those assumptions were misplaced. ‘Avatar: Fire and Ash’ Review: ‘Glorious Saga’, ‘Overwhelming and Exhausting’ – First Reactions for James Cameron’s Pandoran Saga Call It an Ambitious Wild Ride!

The director who once gave us Aliens, Terminator 2, True Lies and Titanic has spent so many years constructing the mesmerising, immersive world of Pandora that it is easy to understand why he refuses to leave it behind, especially with two more films already lined up. As a theatrical experience, I tried to fully surrender to what unfolded on screen and, for long stretches, succeeded in getting lost in it, until some of the drama inevitably dulled the spell. A major part of me, however, kept wishing Cameron would step away from Pandora and return to the leaner, sharper storytelling of his earlier phase. But then again, not many filmmakers can say they have made three films that collectively persuade audiences to root for the decimation of the human race.

'Avatar: Fire and Ash' Movie Review - The Plot

Fire and Ash picks up after the events of Avatar: The Way of Water, with the Sully family still grieving the death of their eldest son, Neteyam (Jamie Flatters), who was killed in the previous film - resulting, mercifully, in fewer repetitions of the word 'bro.' Jake Sully (Sam Worthington) has grown more sombre and hardened, increasingly convinced that the Na’vi must embrace human weaponry if they are to survive the next inevitable assault by the 'Sky People'. Neytiri (Zoe Saldaña), consumed by grief and rage, directs much of her bitterness at Spider (Jack Champion), their adopted human son.

Perhaps the most emotionally affected is Lo’ak (Britain Dalton), whose grief is compounded by guilt over his inadvertent role in his brother’s death. Kiri (Sigourney Weaver), meanwhile, is grappling with a deeper, more existential dilemma - Eywa, Pandora’s all-encompassing Mother Nature, is not responding to her calls, setting her on a path that hints at greater mysteries and conveniently timed powers.

When the Sullys attempt to relocate Spider to another base for his own safety - essentially because Neytiri can no longer tolerate his presence - they are ambushed by the fire-wielding Mangkwan clan, led by the seductively menacing Varang (Oona Chaplin). This attack plunges the film into fresh chaos, while the ever-persistent Colonel Quaritch (Stephen Lang) returns yet again, determined to hunt down Jake and reclaim his biological son.

'Avatar: Fire and Ash' Movie Review - James Cameron's Visual Storytelling Impresses... Again!

I walked into Avatar: Fire and Ash as a sceptic, as I do with every Avatar film, and as always, Cameron disarms you almost immediately. The opening moments - Jake’s sons soaring through the skies on their mounts - are enough to reel you in. Pandora has never looked clearer or more ravishing; whether this is technological advancements showing off or memory bias is debatable, but the world feels even more vivid and magical than before.

While The Way of Water visually captivated me, it left me emotionally underwhelmed. Fire and Ash benefits from that groundwork laid by the previous movie. The earlier film familiarised us with new terrains, species and secondary characters, even if it did not quite make us care deeply about them. If you did not warm up to these characters there, this instalment is unlikely to change that. Cameron seems more interested in expanding the world than deepening its inhabitants.

What remains undeniably impressive is how Avatar continues to make visual effects feel invisible. The reason audiences keep returning to Pandora - and why these films earn billions - is because Cameron’s world feels lived-in. Almost nothing looks artificial; the creatures feel tangible, and when they suffer, you feel it too. Let me say it here, no other film should win the award for Best VFX at the Oscars 2026 apart from Fire and Ash.

Simon Franglen’s background score further enhances this immersion, swelling at just the right moments without overwhelming the imagery.

The action sequences retain Cameron’s trademark exhilaration, whether it is the Mangkwan clan’s ferocious aerial assault on the Wind Traders’ caravan or the film’s final hour, which is packed with two large-scale set pieces. That said, the climax does suffer from a familiar, slightly predictable 'game-changer' moment, reinforcing the sense that Cameron is increasingly revisiting his own beats. ‘Avatar: Fire and Ash’: Filmmaker James Cameron Slams Criticism of His Film.

'Avatar: Fire and Ash' Movie Review - James Cameron's Actual Storytelling Falters... Again!

And this is where Fire and Ash falters most. James Cameron, the visual storyteller and environmental crusader, remains formidable; James Cameron, the radical filmmaker behind T2 and True Lies, feels conspicuously absent. The plot is once again repetitive, sluggish and emotionally underpowered. There are moments that work - particularly an anguish-filled, effective scene where Jake and Neytiri finally articulate their grief over Neteyam - but they are islands in a narrative that rarely finds momentum.

The Mangkwan clan is an intriguing addition, reminding us that not all Na’vi are peace-loving idealists. Varang initially emerges as a compelling antagonist, only to be turned into a side villain as the narrative once again bends itself around Quaritch, a character now stretched thin across three films. While Lang still delivers some entertaining one-liners, particularly opposite Worthington, the film cannot decide whether this Na’vi iteration of Quaritch is a soulless monster or a conflicted anti-hero, and ends up short-changing both interpretations. Still, his scenes with Varang remain the more engaging moments than anything that is happening at the other ends of the world.

The human characters fare even worse. Reduced largely to irritants whose deaths we are encouraged to cheer, their motivations - once complex and unsettling in the original Avatar - have been flattened. The ethical and existential implications of humanity’s presence on Pandora are drowned out by recycled cruelty. Actors like Edie Falco and Giovanni Ribisi are given almost nothing to do; Ribisi’s character, in particular, is so poorly serviced that one is barely sure what becomes of him, or of Jemaine Clement’s sympathetic marine biologist.

On the Na’vi side, there is plenty happening, but little that truly grips. Ideally, the emotional core should have been Lo’ak’s struggle with guilt and his journey towards redemption. While this arc exists, it feels oddly marginalised in favour of Spider’s continued identity crisis among the Na’vi. Spider's relevance increases when Kiri’s conveniently timed abilities pull him deeper into the narrative, but his constant jumping around and juvenile insults make him more grating than endearing.

Kiri herself remains a figure of perpetual wonder and melancholy, frequently deployed as the film’s narrative escape hatch when situations grow too complicated. Casting a seventy-plus Sigourney Weaver to voice a teenage character still feels like a misstep; the dissonance is distracting, and it becomes genuinely uncomfortable when Cameron nudges her relationship with Spider towards romantic territory.

Returning characters such as Tonowari (Cliff Curtis), Ronal (Kate Winslet) and Tsireya (Bailey Bass) are present more in name than in impact. Ronal fares better, largely because she can go toe-to-toe with Neytiri when it comes to exchanging barbs and is afforded a solid dramatic moment in the third act. Otherwise, they too are swallowed by the film’s clutter, which does little to make Jake or Neytiri more compelling than they already were.

'Avatar: Fire and Ash' Movie Review - Final Thoughts

Avatar: Fire and Ash is, ultimately, a familiar experience - technically astonishing, intermittently stirring, and dramatically underwhelming. Cameron’s Pandora remains a world worth visiting, but the longer we stay, the more we yearn for the filmmaker who once matched spectacle with storytelling of equal force. This is still an Avatar film that you are bound to watch on the big screen at least once, but you would be ignoring it when the movie drops on OTT because the sole appeal that it has on an IMAX screen is never going to be recreated on television screens.

Rating:3.0

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(The above story first appeared on LatestLY on Dec 18, 2025 01:32 PM IST. For more news and updates on politics, world, sports, entertainment and lifestyle, log on to our website latestly.com).