‘Avatar: Fire and Ash’ Review: Is It Cinema’s Epic Salvation?

There is a paradox surrounding the world of Avatar. Even as it stands as yet another sequel, an expansion of an established universe, a continuation of a franchise, something that could easily be dismissed as “more of the same”, its very existence reminds us that cinema can still bet on colossal, revolutionary ideas created from scratch. At a time when the industry leans heavily toward remakes, reboots, recycled concepts and safe territory, James Cameron’s unwavering commitment to a project so deeply personal feels worthy of celebration.

How many cinematic universes today are as ambitious and as successful, at least so far, as Pandora and its breathtaking landscapes filled with new colors, shapes and lifeforms? Cameron has built an inexhaustible imaginary world of creatures, lands, philosophies, traditions and myths that place Avatar alongside what George Lucas achieved in the 1970s with Star Wars. From the avatar bodies to the tulkun, from the floating mountains to the aquatic lands of the Metkayina, passing through the Great Mother Eywa, Toruk Makto, the plesiosaurs, the ikran, the list goes on and on.

With Avatar: Fire and Ashes, however, the balance seems to shift. While the story hits with brutal emotional force, the audiovisual plane does not offer the same level of novelty. Yes, we are introduced to the Ash People and the Wind Traders, and the color red dominates the film just as blue did in the first entry and green in the second. But this time, Cameron chooses to deepen what has already been built rather than overexplaining the new tribes he presents. So much so that, after their powerful initial appearance, the Ash People fade into the background, once again giving center stage to the villain Quaritch and the so called Sky People.

Does this make Avatar: Fire and Ashes a misstep within the saga? Not at all. In fact, this third installment feels like the most epic entry yet. Cameron avoids lengthy introductions of new characters and worlds and instead delivers three hours and seventeen minutes of pure conflict, battles and drama. The parent child tensions planted in The Way of Water finally reach their climax. So do the dilemmas surrounding the human or alien nature of Jake and his children, contrasted with the perceived purity of Neytiri and the Na’vi, all while the ultimate battle for the control of Pandora unfolds.

In Avatar: Fire and Ashes, Cameron brings out the best in his characters. They are shown as contradictory, conflicted and lost, far removed from the flat, action driven roles they often occupied in The Way of Water.

Some issues remain, largely a matter of personal taste. The way the dialogues between the tulkun and Lo’ak are portrayed occasionally distances me from the story, as do the psychedelic subjective sequences involving Quaritch and the villain Varang, along with certain tones in the more spiritual passages. I also feel that the three hour and seventeen minute runtime becomes dense in a few stretches. Still, in a cinematic proposal that fully embraces scale, blockbuster ambition and emotional and audiovisual spectacle, and that openly bets on theatrical cinema in the age of Netflix, these excesses feel like a reasonable and forgivable risk.

Time will tell whether this epic chapter marks the end of a trilogy or if the fourth and fifth installments that James Cameron envisions for the saga will eventually come to life. I am not sure how much more there is to tell about these characters, but I do know that when it comes to a filmmaker who continues to pull rabbits out of his hat with every new entry, something extraordinary still seems very much possible.

Our rating for Avatar: Fire and Ashes

Good

Technical details

Avatar: Fire and Ashes (2025)
Director: James Cameron
Screenplay: James Cameron, Rick Jaffa, Amanda Silver
Cast: Sam Worthington, Zoe Saldaña, Sigourney Weaver, Stephen Lang, Oona Chaplin, Kate Winslet, Cliff Curtis, Joel David Moore, CCH Pounder, Edie Falco, Brendan Cowell, Jemaine Clement, Giovanni Ribisi, David Thewlis
Cinematography: Russell Carpenter
Editing: David Brenner, James Cameron, Nicolas De Toth, Jason Gaudio, John Refoua, Stephen E. Rivkin
Running time: 197 minutes

Avatar: Fire and Ashes is now playing in theaters.