Review 765: Avatar: Fire and Ash

In a lot of ways, Avatar: Fire and Ash feels like the culmination of an adventure across a three film saga (though a fourth film is reportedly coming), that began all the way back in 2009. Had this film been the conclusion, I would've been content to never take another trip to Pandora 

Set a year after the events of The Way of Water and settling in with the Metkayina Clan, Jake (Sam Worthington) and Neytiri's (Zoe Saldana) family grapples with grief after their son Neteyam's (played by Jamie Flatters in The Way of Water) death. Eventually, they encounter a new, aggressive Na'vi tribe called the Mangkwan aka Ash People, led by the fiery leader, Varang (Oona "Talisa from Game of Thrones" Chaplin), who has allied with Jake's old enemy, Quaritch (Stephen Lang), as the conflict on Pandora escalates to devastating consequences.

Family, Home & Trust, Multiculturalism, grief as well as the irreversible damage colonialism leave behind are the core themes of Fire and Ash.   In James Cameron's own words "The fire of hate leaves only the ash of grief. That grief, that loss, that trauma fuels the fire of hate." Cameron understands that Jake's grief for the loss of his son is its own form of destruction, slowly burning the bridges to his loved ones out of a misguided sense of duty. 

the score by Simon Franglen is monumental, the flying and underwater sequences are jaw dropping.  The use of strobe lighting and POV shots when Quaritch is under the influence of a hallucinogen that the Mangkwan inhale is one of many reason why I've never done drugs. The lighting and cinematography are all gorgeous, creating an absolutely stunning landscape that looks and feels like

Large scale science fiction spectacles like James Cameron's Avatar films help explain why films like Disney's glut of Star Wars films feel so focus tested and leave me feeling empty, unsatisfied and frustrated as a result. The world of Pandora is so vast 

The Ash People are meant to represent the "Dark Side" of Pandora, they're cult like in their practice and beliefs. They wear their trauma like a second skin, so consumed by the disaster that befell them that they have anointed their pain as a theology and started spreading to anyone in range.  At least, that seems to be the case on paper, because in a film that's well over three hours, they were shockingly underdeveloped. Oona Chaplin's Varang feels like a secondary villain in this film to Stephen Lang's Quaritch.

Sam Worthington continues to shine in the role of Jake Sully. Jake is a character buried in stoic masculinity; a holdover of the kind of human masculinity he was steeped in before his transformation. Jake thought that he could protect his family but over this film, we see that belief be put to the test. The big hearted papa wolf we were introduced to at the beginning of The Way of Water is on life support by this point. Neteyam's death closed him down. He's shed that goofy dad persona and buried it favour of a more sheltered, pragmatic  who's focused on protecting his family while maintaining a firewall to mitigate paternal emotions. He's stopped communicating with Neytiri, stopped listening to his son and he considers horrific solutions because they're decisive. Jake has accepted that he cannot run from the threats chasing him, he hasn't yet accepted that reclaiming the mantle of  is required to face them because in order to do that, you would have to confront the price. He's earnestly afraid in the deepest sense of becoming the beast and loosing himself to the violence that are intertwined with that power and Neytiri starting to see the more human aspects of Jake don't help. It only seeks to ostracise him further. 

Zoe Saldana  as Neytiri  Neytiri is nearly consumed by her grief. It mutates into a bigotry so intense that it veers into homicidal cruelty. Her hatred of the "sky people" is rooted in the loss of her child and her community, her home and her father. But she directs her anger at Spider - a human child raised in the Na'vi culture who they invited into their family. Even though he's related to Quaritch, he's not responsible for the cycle of generational violence. And yet Neytiri can't look at him without seeing the enemy. But the film constantly prods at the idea of whether or not her hatred is outweighs her empathy. After all, she did fall in love with a human (Jake) and have hybrid children. Does that mean she hates the human parts of them as well? I'm not sure but it's certainly something she is forced to reconcile over the course of the film? Does her hatred outweigh her empathy? 

This is the first time in Cameron's Avatar Trilogy where I unconsciously accepted Stephen Lang's Miles Quaritch as the main antagonist of these films. In the first film, he was a slightly archetypal Col. villain Cameron introduced and wasn't really sure he warranted a return in The Way of Water. Here however, Quaritch steps up his game to become a formidable arch nemesis to Jake Sully because some of the things that he does are truly despicable. At the same time, Quaritch begins to suffer some identity crisis as he resists the pull of the freedom his new lease of life offers, but he can't help but indulge in the    As a result, Quaritch simultaneously respects and hates Jake. He can't help but admire how Jake has raised a family including his son Spider whom he desperately wants to the father that Jake is, but he can't look past (the way he sees it) Jake's betrays of the humans to the Navi, he'd rather stay stuck and hate as he struggles to reconcile his personal mission with the reality that the RDA don't have his best interests at heart.

Falco commands authority, ruthlessness & determination in every scene she's in.  

We even get some larger appearances from Joel David Moore and Giovanni Ribisi as Norm Spellman and Parker Selfridge after being demoted to cameos in The Way of Water

Oona Chaplin (who you'll most surely recognise as Talisa, Rob's wife in Game of Thrones and in other shows like Sherlock) is clearly having a blast playing Varang, leader of the Mangkwan Clan aka the "Ash people"  she's not just disconnected from Pandora, she rejects it on purpose   the Mangkwan Clan were once like ordinary Na'vi but have abandoned they're worship of Eywa after their home was destroyed by a volcano and they're prayers fell on deaf ears. From Varang's perspective, this wasn't just a natural disaster, this was abandonment. She doesn't just oppose Eywa, she exists outside of it. She sees herself as the protector of a dying way of life fuelled by righteous fury. Her rejection of Eywa isn't just like losing faith, it's like rejecting reality itself. Varang is, unfortunately, forced to play second fiddle to Lang's Quaritch  

James Cameron's Avatar is an astonishing filmmaking achievement; the type of cinema experience that only comes along once in a lifetime. All three films are such visionary and revolutionary use of all the special effects tools at Cameron's display, such a pure spectacle that it can only be properly experienced on the big screen. The result of a filmmaker taking his time to craft something so much deeper and thoughtful and honing that craft to create something truly spectacular.