No one in Hollywood still makes old-school religious epics — that is, no one except James Cameron. Gigantic in scale and thematic scope, Avatar: Fire and Ash is equal parts sequel and conclusion, rounding out one of the great modern movie trilogies while leaving the door ajar for future stories, should Parts 4 and 5 come to fruition. Picking up where the last film, The Way of Water, left off, Cameron’s exuberant coda builds on everything both prior installments had to offer. The result is bigger, longer, more unwieldy, more sentimental, and more problematic with a capital “P.” But in its grandest moments, it’s more emotionally affecting than anything Cameron has made before.
The Way of Water may have hit refresh with its 16-year time jump, but Fire and Ash unfolds in its emotional aftermath, opening with a spiritual communion between teenage hero Lo’ak (Britain Dalton) and his deceased older brother Neteyam (Jamie Flatters) in the ancestral dreamworld the Na’vi connect with via their ponytails. “How did I die?” Neteyam asks, catching up viewers in the process of placing the last film’s climactic tragedy front and center. For those who need a refresher: these are mischievous teen sons of Indigenous Na’vi princess Neytiri (Zoe Saldaña) and former U.S. Marine Jake Sully (Sam Worthington), a human who now lives permanently in his “avatar” body. They also have an impish young biological daughter, Tuk (Trinity Bliss); a moody adopted teen daughter, Kiri (Sigourney Weaver), who was immaculately conceived within the avatar of a human scientist; and a teenage pseudo-son Spider (Jack Champion), a wily human who can’t breathe Pandora’s air and lives behind a series of rickety breathing masks.
