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Varang (Oona Chaplin) in 20th Century Studios’ AVATAR: FIRE AND ASH. Photo courtesy of 20th Century Studios. \u00a9 2025 20th Century Studios. All Rights Reserved.<\/p>\n
Avatar: Fire and Ash, directed by James Cameron is in cinemas now<\/p>\n
In 2009, director James Cameron set the bar for immersive visual effects with Avatar, his alien world saga, but also set a worrying trend for jarring storytelling wrapped up in carny-style spectacle.<\/p>\n
\n Sixteen years later, with NZ$9 billion
\n in box office receipts, the third film, made largely by W\u0113t\u0101 FX in Wellington, shows Cameron has learnt nothing over time about writing a script to match his team\u2019s FX wizardry.\n <\/p>\n
In this latest, which comes in at a bum-numbing three and a quarter hours \u2013 and feels every moment of it \u2013 Sam Worthington\u2019s former-marine-turned-blue-skinned Na\u2019vi Jake Sully and his clan are cracking under the weight of grief following his son\u2019s death in the previous outing, Avatar: The Way of Water.<\/p>\n
Family life is further complicated when they\u2019re split after an attack by the Ash people, a fire-worshipping Na\u2019vi subtribe entranced by the arrival of guns. They are led by terrifying shamanistic leader Varang, played with real menace by Oona Chaplin \u2013 one of the film\u2019s few highlights.<\/p>\n
But it\u2019s here Cameron begins to lose his grip on proceedings, with competing storylines struggling to offer any emotional heft. Deciding audiences will be more invested in the children\u2019s adventure \u2013 and their street-bro language \u2013 as well as one kid\u2019s quest to find a banished whale-like creature proves excruciating, no matter that it ties into the peace-loving, tree-hugging vibe of the franchise.<\/p>\n
There are also disturbing signs Cameron is suffering from a lack of creativity when it comes to the film\u2019s third act. Fire and Ash\u2019s denouement, a water-based battle, is more or less the same as The Way of Water\u2019s finale, a cacophony of creatures fighting back and gunfire bringing it all to an end. It\u2019s symptomatic of the rinse-and-repeat ethos that pervades much of Fire and Ash, and signals a worrying trend for the planned fourth and fifth movies.<\/p>\n
Someone needs to ask Cameron what his end game is for Avatar. At the recent Wellington premiere, as well as railing against the growing use of generative AI in movies, he indicated the franchise\u2019s future is no sure thing. But unless Cameron retools some of the essential elements of the story, moves away from the continual trope of the villain escaping at the end only to return in the next movie, and remembers how to tell a compelling tale rather than focusing on how cool his films look, it\u2019s probably time this Pandora\u2019s box was closed for good \u2013 for all our cinema-going sakes. <\/p>\n
Rating out of five: \u2605\u00bd<\/p>\n
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