Avatar: Fire And Ash ★★★★

Released: 19th December 2025

Director: James Cameron

Starring: 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, Britain Dalton & Jack Champion.

It has been three years since audiences last visited the world of Pandora. Three years since people on the internet decried that Avatar’s 2022 sequel The Way of Water was going to flop in cinemas. Well, $2.32 billion later and becoming the third highest-grossing movie of all time, James Cameron can certainly prove a point about the movie’s appeal. The latest instalment in the epic franchise – Avatar: Fire and Ash – aims to continue that trend as a cinematic event, against a different set of challenges.

Ahead of its anticipated record-breaking box office (continue to underestimate James Cameron at your peril), the landscape to which Fire and Ash returns is worth acknowledging. Avatar’s distributor – Disney – have announced a $1 billion investment into OpenAI for the licensed use of its characters whilst streaming overloads Netflix are going ‘all-in’ in their merger of Warner Bros. Discovery (subject to final approval or any last-minute aggressive bids from Paramount). The industry is changing at such a rapid pace that it places question marks for consumers (in terms of competition and variety), filmmaker-led projects and the shrunken opportunity pool they swim in. Obviously, some will buck the trend of course – your Nolans, Cooglers, Andersons, Villeneuves, Gerwigs, DaCostas, and Zhaos will always have plenty to say. Cameron is no exception when his body of work includes The Abyss, Terminator 2: Judgment Day and True Lies. And in this climate, it’s easy to question Avatar’s cultural relevancy when 3D technology might not be on everyone’s lips these days. But for the comforting immersion it creates, knowing artists behind those scenes are putting thought, care and detail into every visual frame, is a feeling that never gets old.

That feeling typifies what Fire and Ash continues to bring to the table. Cameron delivers an epic ‘meat feast’ of a spectacle, an indulgent microcosm of stories and narratives converging into one where it continues its themes of colonialism and imperial dominance. It is everything you’ve come to expect from an Avatar movie, boosted by those stunning visuals. But if anything, its overfamiliarity in its return to Pandora means this time around, repetitiveness is the enemy.

Cameron’s film gets off to a strong start. Picking up a few weeks later from The Way of Water, the Sully family (led by Sam Worthington’s Jake and Zoe Saldaña’s Neytiri) is dealing with the aftermath of Neteyam’s death (played by Jamie Flatters). Looking to protect the family once again, the Sullys find themselves aligning with the Tlalim clan (The Wind Traders led by David Thewlis’ Peylak) to seek refuge and protect the human-born Spider (Jack Champion) from the sky people. Disaster strikes, setting the course that could change Pandora’s history forever.

It’s a more streamlined, personal story that Cameron and his writing team of Rick Jaffa, Amanda Silver, Josh Friedman and Shane Salerno tell, albeit still carrying the clunky narratives that hampered Way of Water. At 3 hours and 15 minutes, there’s a lot to digest, with some parts not always hitting their mark emotionally or flow as smoothly as expected. But for the parts that do work, they at least tease potential new avenues for the franchise.

A hubris that takes centre stage, with the story zeroing in on grief and the generational divide where not only are viewpoints split between the adults and their children, but how characters reconcile with the truth and consequences of their actions. Lo’ak (Britain Dalton) continues his coming-of-age journey in finding his voice and purpose amidst his fractured relationship with his protective father (which Worthington captures brilliantly) while Neytiri struggles to see Spider as anything other than an outsider (cue: Na’vi racism and double standards). Being ‘stuck’ in their bubbles is what drives Cameron’s latest chapter, which throws a mirror up to society for the duelling parallel of events it creates. This ranges from the Sully family dynamic and the kids growing up as children of war, to Stephen Lang’s Quaritch, who still follows “orders” as commanded while experiencing what Pandora has to offer as an avatar when he has no loyalty to his past life.

It makes for a far more interesting film than what Way of Water posed, a logic heightened by the introduction of Verang (Oona Chaplin), the villainess leader of the Mangkwan clan aka the Ash People. Feeling betrayed by the all-knowing spiritual mother Eywa when her home was burned by a volcano, proceeds to chart a war-mongering path where her fellow Na’vi are the enemy. Her subsequent team-up with Quaritch (in a brilliant Na’vi acid trip scene in which Lang expertly delivers one of the best lines in the movie) only advances her cause, now armed with a bounty of ammunition and weapons that make “thunder” from RDA and the sky people.

Hatred is “one hell of a drug” and it’s an impressive performance by Chaplin who delves into those dark territories with confidence and menacing ease. It throws a different dynamic into the story. We’re so used to seeing the goodness of the Na’vi in the battlelines between good and evil that Verang comes across as an added complication, the necessary shade of grey for a culture that feels abandoned by their God, thus giving the film a fresh dynamic for an overfamilarised story.

It naturally pits her against Netiryi as a worthy adversary, whose own rage-filled grief and broken faith threaten to boil over. Saldaña (thankfully) gets more screentime than previously to convey these emotions, a great relief when she is one of the stronger characters in this universe, and Cameron teases their future battles that may invoke wrestling for the soul of Pandora.

Yet, frustratingly, its failure to live up to its namesake brings down the newfound adventurism behind Fire and Ash. No sooner do we delve into these new politics and clans (which is reminiscent of every war throughout history of arming groups to topple their enemies), the film shifts towards familiar comforts of the Jake and Quaritch beef, which might as well be its own WWE PPV at this point. Verang is sidelined for a third act that is more of the same beats from Way of Water, leaving very little “fire” and “ash” for audiences to grab onto. It’s an understandable criticism when both sequels were filmed back-to-back, and therefore, it cannot escape that connecting tissue. But if you were expecting new environments and material to be explored on Pandora’s vast land, it’s absent for now. 

Still, when the action kicks into gear, it’s still a glorious spectacle with Cameron’s speciality on full display. Combining documentary aesthetics with swooping visuals, it’s the simple things that the filmmaker does so entertainingly well, and that increased momentum ensures you don’t always feel the weighty runtime.

With parts 4 and 5 inevitable, Avatar: Fire and Ash just about clears its latest hurdle. Time will tell what the franchise’s ultimate legacy will be when it is said and done. But for now, it takes some enjoyable yet uneven steps forward.