‘Avatar: Fireplace and Ash’ overview: How can a movie be so gorgeous, but so disappointing?

With the primary two movies within the Avatar franchise, Cameron delivered an excellent new sci-fi world I adored getting misplaced in. I went gaga for each new piece of Pandoran natural world the movies launched. Bioluminescent bushes? Gorgeous. Floating mountains? Signal me up. Benevolent area whales? I feel I am in love.

These wondrous creations got here to life via groundbreaking expertise, a lot of it, like Avatar: The Method of Water‘s underwater movement seize, fully new as effectively. That is plenty of “new” to go round.

So why is Avatar: Fireplace and Ash, the third movie within the collection, such a retread of what got here earlier than?

Detractors of the franchise would possibly discover that query humorous. In any case, a standard criticism about Avatar is that it is simply FernGully or Pocahontas or Dances with Wolves, however in area. (Whereas there are a number of stable criticisms of Avatar, these comparisons by themselves don’t robust critiques make, however I digress.) Nonetheless, Fireplace and Ash cannibalizes prior Avatar movies’ greatest set items and story beats, leading to a movie that, whereas undeniably spectacular, depends too closely on its prior installments, versus the brand new Pandoran parts that would make it actually particular.

What’s Avatar: Fireplace and Ash about?

Fireplace and Ash will get off to a promising begin. Jake Sully (Sam Worthington) and Neytiri (Zoe Saldaña) are nonetheless mourning their son Neteyam (Jamie Flatters), who handed away in Avatar: The Method of Water‘s climactic battle. His youthful brother Lo’ak (Britain Dalton) takes the loss particularly exhausting, believing it to be his fault.

Whereas robust characterization is frankly the very last thing I come to Avatar for, this sense of familial grief proves a grounding second to open the movie. Cameron lets the characters sit of their loss, exploring the various levels of rage and anguish that include Neteyam’s demise. Neytiri skews extra in the direction of the previous, whereas Jake and Lo’ak skew in the direction of the latter. The dynamic between them is tense as will be, as they hope to rebuild their life with the ocean-dwelling Metkayina clan with out considered one of their core items.

But it surely’s not lengthy earlier than hazard comes for the Sullys. This time, it isn’t simply within the type of people, together with Colonel Miles Quaritch (Stephen Lang), nonetheless in his resurrected Na’vi physique. As a substitute, it is also within the type of the Mangkwan, or Ash Individuals, a Na’vi clan that has forsaken Pandoran goddess Eywa and conducts hostile raids on different clans.

The Ash Individuals are probably the most thrilling a part of Avatar: Fireplace and Ash.

Oona Chaplin in “Avatar: Fireplace and Ash.”
Credit score: twentieth Century Studios

The Mangkwan clan gives Cameron a technique to additional develop on the peoples of Pandora, in the best way the Metkayina clan did in The Method of Water. However whereas the Metkayina no less than bore some resemblances to Avatar‘s forest-dwelling Omatikaya clan when it comes to how they lived in concord with Pandora, the Mangkwan are a shock to the system.

Following a disastrous volcanic eruption that worn out their house, the Ash Individuals turned their again on Eywa. Now, they solely worship the damaging energy of fireplace. With their ash-gray pores and skin, placing purple physique paint, and warring methods, they are a sharp distinction to the opposite Na’vi we have met.

Main them is Varang (Oona Chaplin), a scene-stealing sorceress who instantly takes Fireplace and Ash to a brand new stage. At occasions slinky and seductive, at others downright terrifying, Chaplin’s efficiency creates a sci-fi villainess for the ages.

She solely will get higher when she and the Mangkwan be part of forces with Quaritch. Lang reliably turns in probably the most enjoyable performances within the Avatar movies (nothing however respect for my Papa Dragon), and the pattern continues right here. He chews the surroundings and spits out Southern-tinged one-liners like no person’s enterprise, and Chaplin greater than matches his vitality. As the 2 develop into extra than simply allies, additionally they morph into an intoxicating — and far more enjoyable — foil to Jake and Neytiri’s personal relationship.

Disappointingly, although, the Mangkwan get far much less improvement than the Omatikaya or Metkayina clans. We do not get to know a single member of the tribe in depth past Varang. Nor will we spend a lot time of their village, an impressively desolate wasteland damaged up by barren bushes and the jagged ruins of their volcano. For a movie known as Avatar: Fireplace and Ash, there’s far much less fireplace and ash than I’d have preferred.

Avatar: Fireplace and Ash recycles one of the best elements of Avatar: The Method of Water.

I feel I’ve seen this movie earlier than…
Credit score: twentieth Century Studios

Because the Ash Individuals fade into the background, Cameron resurfaces storylines from The Method of Water that maybe would have been higher left within the depths. Why do we’d like a replay of Payakan the tulkun’s undersea rescue of a trapped Lo’ak? Or of the RDA’s tulkun brain-harvesting plot? How, for that matter, did cartoonishly evil poacher Mike Scoresby (Brendan Cowell) survive getting mauled by Payakan?

These storylines labored wonders in The Method of Water. New villains within the poachers and new creatures within the tulkun set the stage for a show-stopping naval battle that also will get my coronary heart pounding and lungs aching simply interested by it. Right here, although, Cameron tries to do all that once more, however larger. But all I may take into consideration for everything of the third act was how a lot it felt like The Method of Water‘s stellar conclusion — proper all the way down to the looks of sure units — and the way a lot better The Method of Water pulled it off.

That closing sequence, which additionally bears shades of Avatar‘s climactic showdown, begins to indicate the boundaries of the Avatar collection. There’s solely so many occasions we are able to watch Jake and Quaritch sq. off, or witness Pandora’s wildlife pull off a deus ex machina. Three films in, and the stakes want to alter.

Avatar: Fireplace and Ash continues to be a jaw-dropping spectacle.

Inform me that is not the good factor you have seen.
Credit score: twentieth Century Studios

This is the factor: If I had seen Fireplace and Ash with out having seen The Method of Water, I’d have been in nonstop awe. The complete closing battle is great in a void — it simply pales compared to the unusually related set piece from its predecessor.

Fortunately, Fireplace and Ash items us with some beautiful new developments on Pandora. The Mangkwan stand out, as do the Windtraders, a nomadic individuals who roam round with the assistance of airborne medusae and windrays. When mixed, these opalescent stunners kind natural airships which can be wonderful to behold. I freaked out seeing them within the movie’s first trailer, and I freaked out much more seeing them onscreen. Their pores and skin rippling within the wind, their veins shining simply beneath… Like all the things else on Pandora, they’re astounding technical achievements, and I want we received extra time with them.

On the opposite finish of the wonder scale, now we have the human metropolis on Pandora, a bustling industrial nightmare. Its hulking buildings and factories, in addition to its hordes of colonizing forces, communicate to an more and more darkish dystopia. A daring mission to town provides us a deeper take a look at this dystopia and sparks a grittier motion sequence than the rest we have seen within the Avatar movies. Just like the Ash Individuals’s village, it is a compelling aesthetic break from the lushness of Pandora, and a reminder of the pure magnificence and ecosystems the Na’vi are preventing to protect. It is also a excessive level as a result of it is so completely different, and it is tempting to think about a world the place that is Fireplace and Ash‘s finale versus The Method of Water remix that we get.

As a substitute, Cameron returns to acquainted floor, relegating all of Fireplace and Ash‘s most fun newcomers besides Varang (who, I can not stress sufficient, nonetheless guidelines) to the background.

Ultimately, it feels grasping to ask for extra from the Avatar collection, with its maximalist world-building and take-no-prisoners motion sequences. However after watching Fireplace and Ash, and with the data that fourth and fifth movies could also be on the best way, I do not wish to accept additional derivatives of the previous movies. I would like the greatness I do know that Avatar is able to, so asking for extra is strictly what I will do.

Avatar: Fireplace and Ash hits theaters Dec. 19.