Cast: Sam Worthington, Zoe Saldaña, Sigourney Weaver, Stephen Lang, Kate Winslet, Oona Chaplin, Jack Champion

Crew:

Written by James Cameron, Rick Jaffa, Amanda Silver, Josh Friedman, Shane Salerno
Music by Simon Franglen
Edited by Stephen E. Rivkin, David Brenner, Nicolas de Toth, John Refoua, Jason Gaudio, James Cameron
Cinematography by Russell Carpenter
Directed by James Cameron
Produced by James Cameron, Jon Landau

Avatar The Fire and Ash is one of the most awaited films, globally, from the master craftsman James Cameron. He created a great franchise in Avatar but his second film, Avatar: The Way of Water, felt like a rehash of first one with new setting. Still, the movie became a massive 2.3 Billion USD grosser. After a three-year gap, tthe third installment is here. Let's discuss about the movie in detail.

Plot:

Jake Sully (Sam Worthington) and his wife Neytiri (Zoe Saldana) have been chased by Colonel Miles (Stephen Lang)'s Avatar and he is hell-bent on arresting Jake. But his higher officials lose trust in him but he doesn't stop. Neytiri is unable to forgive herself for losing her son and moving away from home. She starts to indirectly hate Jake and her relationship as well, as it reflects humans or sky people, whom she rightfully hates to the core as the invaders and destroyers of their peaceful home.

Colonel Miles is also on search for his son, Spider (Jack Champion), but Spider never accepts himself as a human but rather he feels like he is indigenous Na'vi. Neytiri starts to hate him as the cause of her son's demise too. At one point, Jake starts to look at him as a threat for their well-being while his son Lo'ak (Britain Dalton), Kiri (Sigourney Weaver) and other daughter Tu'k protest this move. With the help of Wind Traders, Jake decides to drop him at a human settlement. But they are attacked by looters - Fire and Ash people.

Entire family gets disbanded and Kiri through Ey'wa helps Spider to breathe on his own, making him a human-Na'vi hybrid. Now, he becomes even more important for the Humans to reverse engineer and grow such hybrids for humans to breathe freely on Pandora. Will they catch him? What will Jake Sully do to end the animosity of Colonel Miles towards him? Will the looters prove to be even bigger threat? Watch the movie to know more.

Analysis:

James Cameron is currently enjoying the status of being an absolute God as none of his films, in recent memory have collected below US$ 2 Billion in almost three decades. Titanic, Avatar and Avatar 2 have been such huge blockbusters. But the second installment did not better the first one's collections and cross the 3 Billion mark as anticipated, hinting at people wishing for more than that the maker offered for an Universal acceptance that he enjoyed in previous films.

So, many hoped that he would course correct in the third part and change things. Also, second part had a long waiting for upto 12 years for him to bring another Avatar film, which made people to just go and watch it. Here, Fire and Ash, needed even bigger plot points to move the story forward and give new dimensions than playing around the same. Unfortunately, Cameron just released an elaborate second part for his Avatar 2 as Avatar 3.

The story moves around at a snail pace when you can actually predict what is going to happen from miles away. You know that he is not a filmmaker who would take too many risks when such huge commerce is at stake. So, he needed to mix the narrative with enough innovation for audiences to feel compelled or fall in love again with Na'vi. Avatar did work because it showcased very serious message about climate change and global pollution that is leading to "death of earth" as we know it.

He also pointed at the greed that humans tend to overlook as ambition. But in his second and third, which look like one six-hour-film cut into two parts, he could not really nail the point. He again touched on marine life being used as tool for exploitation and brought in occults, pirates into the mix. The narrative of innocent Na'vi and Pandora tribes against Humans has been hinted at being a clash within the Pandora tribes which again propelled by Humans. Which means, he retold the first movie story as two parts in two films, once again.

While the visuals are unbelievable, each department aced themselves to craft mind-blowing environments but nothing really invests audiences into the story. The human hybrid angle feels like a rehash of Jake Sully being accepted from the first one and majority of sequences, also feel like rehashs from his previous films too. On the whole, the movie underwhelms with a lacklustre narrative. Only for the visual brilliance and imagination it seems watchable but that too with limited appeal.

Bottomline:

For those who enjoy visuals as it lacks emotional investment.

Rating: 2.5/5

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