Movie Review – Avatar: Fire and Ash
Director: James Cameron
Starring: Sam Worthington, Zoe Saldaña, Sigourney Weaver, Stephen Lang
Year: 2025
I have seen the most visually stunning movie of the year. Every frame is a painting. Every effect is seamless. The 3D is used in ways that make you forget you’re wearing glasses.
I have also seen a movie where the story could be summarized on a napkin. Where the characters remain archetypes instead of people. Where the environmental message is delivered with the subtlety of a brick through a window.
Welcome to Avatar: Fire and Ash.
James Cameron takes us to a new biome this time — volcanic regions near Pandora’s equator. A tribe that lives with fire instead of water or forest. They’re grey-skinned and tougher and apparently in conflict with both the humans and the other Na’vi tribes. It’s worldbuilding. Lots of worldbuilding.
The villain is still Colonel Quaritch in his Avatar body. Stephen Lang doing gruff military antagonist for the third time. The character works because Lang commits completely but there’s only so much you can do with “guy who wants to exploit resources and doesn’t care who dies.”
Sam Worthington’s Jake Sully has become. What. A leader? A legend? I honestly don’t remember much of what he does in this movie other than look concerned and give speeches. Zoe Saldaña’s Neytiri gets more to work with including an action sequence that’s probably the highlight of the film.
The kids continue to be central. They’re older now. The deaf daughter has her own subplot that actually works emotionally. The son who was connected to Quaritch continues to be conflicted. It’s. Fine. It’s character development by checklist.
Here’s my problem with these movies and I don’t think it’s solvable. Cameron wants to make spectacle. He’s the greatest spectacle filmmaker who ever lived. But spectacle needs something to anchor it. Story. Character. Stakes we care about. The original Star Wars had Luke’s journey. Jurassic Park had the wonder of seeing dinosaurs for the first time. Titanic had Jack and Rose.
Avatar has blue people in pretty environments saying things about nature while humans do bad things. For three hours. Beautifully filmed. Technically unprecedented. And I felt. Nothing.
The movie made 1.5 billion dollars in its opening week. Cameron will make two more of these. The machine will continue. And I’ll keep going because the visuals ARE impressive enough to justify theatrical viewing.
But when I walked out all I remembered was the colors. Not the characters. Not the story. The colors.
My rating: ★★☆☆☆
Avatar: Fire and Ash on IMDb | Avatar: Fire and Ash on Rotten Tomatoes
