It’s an undisputed fact that James Cameron is the king of sequels as Aliens and Terminator 2 will attest; however, in all his years the man who rules the box office has never actually delivered a trilogy – which is pretty crazy when you think about it. Well, with Avatar: Fire And Ash, big Jim finally scrubs helming a threequel off his bucket list as his galaxy spanning juggernaut gets its trilogy capper.
However, while you’d think Cameron has this in the bag, there are a few important questions worth mulling over. For example, after metaphorically spending 16 years on Pandora, does this planet of wonders still gave any more surprises to give us? Let’s be fair, with one movie set in the forests and a follow up centred on the seas, how much more of Pandora is their actually left to explore? With a possible two further films and an impressive box office streak hanging in the balance, can Cameron and the Sully clan manage to bring the Avatar franchise home? Or in other words, is it fire, or is it ass?
Not long has passed since the last battle with the Na’vi and the resources grabbing people of earth and while the clan of Jake Sully has fully integrated with the water dwelling Metkayina tribe, the emotional wounds they sustained after the death of their eldest child, Neteyam, still have a long way to go before they heal. While Jake himself bottles up that grief the way a Marine would and tries to get back to the task of trying to protect a family that’s already fractured, wife Neytiri has channeled her despair of losing a child into a pure, seething hatred of all humans. This proves to be especially awkward for Spider, the adopted human child of Jake’s arch enemy, Quaritch, who stirs up uncomfortable memories whenever he’s near – which is always – but while the plucky homosapien does his best to console a guilty Lo’ak who feels responsible for his brother’s death and provide friendship to Kiri, Jake knows that they have to get him away from the Metkayina, lest Quaritch comes for him again.
However, after enlisting the aid of the sky dwelling traders of the wind tribes, they soon come under attack from a warlike Na’vi tribe named the Mangkwan who worship fire and in the chaos, Spider finds himself in deepest Thanator shit when his breathing mask keeps crapping out due to a low battery. But while we’re introduced to the slinky, witch-like, leader of the Mangkwan, Varang, who delights in consuming everything she sees with fire, a more alarming event occurs when Kiri uses her special knack for contacting the great God Eywa to not only save an asphyxiating Spider, but totally rewrite his genetic code to enable him to breathe the poisonous air on Pandora.
If this gets out, the Na’vi will be finished and when Quaritch teams with Varang in order to inflict more hurt of the Sully clan, can everyone one manage to get their shit in focus before yet another assault from the humans spells doom for them all?
The latest (or perhaps last) Avatar installment proves to interestingly be something of a mixed bag. While the first movie dropped us into a brand new world that felt vital and new despite accusations that it was just an amalgamation of Dances With Wolves, Ferngully and The Smurfs; the second came along after a 13 year gap to prove that Cameron still had that Pandora moxy, even if at times it felt like it was just the first film, but wetter. But now, with only 3 years separating the second and third installments, I have to admit that it seems like the Avatar machine is gradually running out of gas as there is a distinct feeling that Cameron is starting to repeat himself despite having an entire moon to play with. For a start, while Way Of Water managed to apply a fresh coat of paint by introducing the Metkayina and taking us on a tour of Pandora’s oceans, the film has no similar trick to pull here despite introducing not one, but two new tribes that round out the elemental theme. If the first movie, with its forests and trees, was earth and the water was… well, water, then we now get an air tribe in the form of David Thewlis’ sky traders who float around with the aid of big flying jellyfish and a savage fire tribe represented by Oona Chaplin’s goth chic-meets-Na’vi chiefess, Varang. However, while the other movies had the luxury of basing large sections of its plot on having its leads literally explore the culture and ecosystem of its new tribes, Fire And Ash now has so much accumulated plot baggage to manage, the sky traders feel more surplus to requirements that another, vital addition to this world.
The Mangkwan, in the other hand, not only prove to be a welcome, villainous addition to Cameron’s expansive world building, but provides some of much needed variety when finally delivering some Na’vi antagonists. In fact, Chaplin’s crazy-eyed, hallucinogenic blowing, fire bug pretty much all but steals the show and when Stephen Lang’s still winningly hissable Quaritch becomes her willing blue boy toy, they become in danger of overshadowing everybody else. Taking even more focus away from the marital strife occurring between a stoic Jake and a fractured, grieving Neytiri is the fact that a lot of movie is dedicated to Jack Champion’s Spider and what his biological change could mean for everyone. But aside from this, the rest of the Sully family seem stuck in the exact, same stories they were wrestling with a movie ago, with Sigourney Weaver’s Kiri still anxious about her relationship with Eywa and Britain Dalton’s rebellious Lo’ak still getting all defiant. However, it results in a lot of Fire And Ash become annoyingly repetitive.
Worse yet, Cameron also seems fresh out of ideas when it comes to that typical, big Avatar finish. With the first film pitting helicopters against flying lizards and the second having boats fight fish, Fire And Ash gives us… helicopters and boats vs flying lizards and fish, which means that a lot of that final, extensive battle is just stuff you’ve already seen before (even Neytiri’s exploding arrows are cribbed from Cameron’s script for the second Rambo movie). It’s big and visually impressive, of that there can be no doubt, and we’ve spent so much time in the company of the Na’vi, that it’s tough not to feel at least some investment, but by this point, we’ve already seen giant whales leap onto boats and flying Ikran attacking military helicopters, so when someone as innovative as Cameon usually is, it’s tough not to be surprised at the lack of new ideas.
Of course, the stunning visuals, eye-popping 3D and emotion content will no doubt have the Avatar faithful dropping to their knees and praising Eywa for yet another installment, but at a hefty 3 hours and 17 minute running time, surely there was some repetitive fat to be trimmed. While there is some truly good stuff here (mostly based around the villains), Cameron might want to think up some new ecosystems if he expects the proposed fourth and fifth installments to cover new ground. It’s big, emotional and endearingly not cynical, but this Avatar is starting to feel like just a straight copy…
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We Have Issues 
Nuke the Navi. And cameron.
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