The original 2009 Avatar sits on top of the box office heap having made $2.9 billion, nominated for 10 Oscars including Best Picture and winning three. It took 13 years to get the second edition, 2022’s Avatar: The Way of Water, but that gap was barely felt, the sequel taking in $2.3 billion and also nominated for Best Picture while again winning for its spectacular visual effects. Avatar is the highest-grossing movie of all time, The Way of Water is the third-highest grosser. Cameron’s Titanic is up there too, now in fourth place. Of course, it would be hard to do a sequel to that movie which won a record-tying 11 Oscars — the ship sank. But with the endlessly fertile and fascinating world of Pandora, the landscape and scope seems right for follow-ups and so now we have the third Avatar entry, Avatar: Fire And Ash, and it turns out to be nothing less than an intense 3-hour and 17-minute kickass epic that may be the bluest war film ever made.
This edition ratchets up the action to new heights picking up the story just a few beats after Way of Water’s aquatic battle ended with the defeat of Colonel Quaritch (Stephen Lang) and the human-led Resources Development Administration which are now regrouping for its eventual goal of making Pandora habitable for the people of Earth, who have destroyed through sheer neglect their own planet and seek to take over this one if they can capture the right elements for human survival. The storyline sees the Na’vi tribe known as Omatikaya but now turned Metkayina, where the Sully family are temporarily hanging with that mellow reef clan. They are also grieving the loss of brave son Neteyam (Jamie Flatters), who died in that final battle.
Our main principal warrior Jake Sully (Sam Worthington), who was once a human Marine but now firmly with the Na’vi, is basically readying to go to war. It is what he knows. Neytiri (Zoe Saldaña) is at an emotional breaking point, the loss of their son tugging at her heart, and her hatred for all humans making life difficult for their adopted human boy Spider (Jack Champion), freely living with them and at one with them, but still conflicted over his previous life which happens to be as the son of Quaritch. He of course is Pandora Enemy No. 1 and about to have a second act after being eliminated in his human version and now is a Recom or Recombinarts, which makes him a blend of Na’vi and human in order to regenerate and fight another day in the anti-human environment. That time is now and it becomes complex for Spider.
Jake is leading the clan to High Camp where the RDA is in order to turn Spider in, the arrangement no longer working for them, especially Neytiri, but he is tight with the younger members, notably Kiri (Sigourney Weaver), who you might recall is the 14-year-old Na’vi version of the avatar of Grace Augustine, who ran the Avatar division of RDA. Also key to the gut-wrenching events taking place in this edition is Lo’ak (Britain Dalton), who is feeling tremendous guilt over the death of Neteyam. Back from the Metkayina clan is leader Tonowari (Cliff Curtis), plus his wife Ronal (Kate Winslet) still in personality conflicts and jealousies with Neytiri. New to the storyline, and perhaps the best scene stealer of all, is Varang, the self-made “queen” of the Ash People, a clan that formerly was peaceful but turned angry and vengeful after a volcano wiped out their homeland, now strewn with ash, as are all its inhabitants. Spanish actress Oona Chaplin plays her to the hilt, with grace of movement and purpose as she and her tribe become major threats to the Na’vi which sees Jake fighting on multiple fronts with the Ash and the RDA, and ultimate villain Quaritch.
Cameron knows how to do spectacle better than anyone, and this Avatar builds out its worlds to such a high degree I would dare to say you could put the first two films together and it still wouldn’t add up to the fierce levels and magnitude of the fight in this one. Compared to The Way of Water, this version has far more land action although rest assured, the fan-favorite Tolkuns seafaring whales are back in action when you need them most.
This is what they used to call in Hollywood a true epic, taking place in the sky, water and land in a visual knockout like you rarely see on this level these days. Its secret sauce however is our emotional connection through the Sully family. They are again the hook, and Cameron and co-writers Rick Jaffa and Amanda Silver know you have to deliver a compelling family story to keep this all from drowning in too much fire and water. It is a credit to the actors, most having to do performance capture and somehow making us feel for them throughout. Led by exceptional turns again from Worthington and Saldaña, along with standouts Dalton and Champion, plus of course Weaver (convincing even as a 14 year old), there is also room for greater character development than before from Lang, who masters the villainry of Colonel Quaritch in his new guise, but also manages a three-dimensional relationship with Spider that feels authentic. Edie Falco, Jemaine Clement and Giovanni Ribisi also get their moments on the human side of things.
With truly dazzling production elements all around this is a movie hard to resist, even if you think you have already seen what wonders Cameron has in store for this franchise. He isn’t committing firmly to the hoped for and scripted fourth and fifth films in the Avatar universe until he sees how this one performs, but my guess is people are gonna go more than once.
Producers are Cameron and the late Jon Landau, to whom the film is rightly dedicated.
Title: Avatar: Fire and Ash
Distributor: 20th Century/Disney
Release date: December 19, 2025
Director: James Cameron
Screenwriters:James Cameron & Rick Jaffa & Amanda Silver
Cast: Sam Worthington, Zoe Saldaña, Sigourney Weaver, Stephen Lang, Oona Chaplin, Cliff Curtis, Joel David Moore, CCH Pounder, Edie Falco, David Thewlis, Jemaine Clement, Jack Champion, Trinity Bliss, Giovanni Ribisi, Jamie Flatters, Kate Winslet, Britain Dalton, Brendan Cowell
Rating: PG-13
Running time: 3 hrs 17 mins
