Spoilers!
The Avatar movies are such a good time; don’t let anyone tell you otherwise. Ahead of 2025’s Avatar: Fire and Ash, I rewatched 2009’s Avatar (for the first time since theaters back then!) and watched Avatar: The Way of Water for the first time, which means Fire and Ash was my first Avatar film in theaters in nearly 20 years! After that rewatch of the first film and first-time viewing of the sequel, I was eagerly anticipating the third film. That’s because I think the second film was even better than the first (and again, that’s without the assistance of the theater experience) because it delved deeper into the world of Pandor and the Na’vi clans, while also having far more interesting and grander action sequences and set pieces. Did the third film continue to expand, improve, and wow by comparison? I think so, including continuing to up the stakes by not shying away from deaths, although, of course, sometimes when we think someone is dead they return via their memories. Fire and Ash was the best outing so far because of the introduction of the Ash people, which furthered the odds stacked against Jake Sully (played by Sam Worthington) and his family. And you gotta give a film credit for being more than three hours without at all feeling like its length; this assuredly did not.
Directed by the unstoppable and undeniable James Cameron, with at least two more still to come through 2031, the real anchor of these films, aside from him, is Zoe Saldana as Neytiri, Jake’s wife. She’ll never get the full credit she deserves for her voice work because it’s voice work and Avatar, but she’s spell-binding and brings the emotional weight. I also thought Oona Chaplin, who plays Varang, the leader of the Mangkwan clan, or Ash people, who bring the fire and align themselves with Colonel Miles Quaritch (played by Stephen Lang with that unmistakable military voice) and the other humans, conveyed the proper menace and danger. Honestly, the weakest of the bunch, which makes it difficult since his character is a central point of the last two films, is Jack Champion as Spider, or “monkey boy,” who is the son to Quaritch, but has been raised by the Sully family. I don’t know if I’m just seeing his voice work differently because he’s still in, well, human form, and/or if it’s because a lot of the dialogue they give him is random cursing, but whatever the case, I have to acknowledge that. He was fine in 2023’s Scream VI!
Anyhow, the thrust of the story begins shortly after the prior film, where the oldest son of the Sully family, Neteyam, was killed. See, stakes! The Sully family is reeling, with the Marine-minded Jake not talking about it; Neytiri’s blue skin burning with anger; and Lo’ak (played by Britain Dalton), the second son, feels like his dad holds him responsible for Neteyam’s death, which we come to find out, he does! Oof. Lo’ak also narrates the events of the film. Because of what transpired, though, Jakes knows they can’t keep hiding or running from the humans. They must take the fight to Quaritch and the humans, especially because the humans not only are still seeking him (and Quaritch wants Spider back, too), but they want the pacifist Tulkuns, the whale-like creatures, for their serum that allows humans to live longer.
Spider is just in the way, let’s be honest. He’s an inconvenience to the Sully family, owing to his need to wear a breathable mask with a battery pack. Jake is thinking of giving him to the Wind Traders when they are ambushed by the Ash people in a fiery fire fight. The Ash people attack because they’re an aggressive clan that rejects Eywa and embraces fire. Varang realizes how neat the weapons that make thunder (guns) are, and has Quaritch, who was caught up in the melee trying to get Jake, teach her how to use them. That’s how their team-up occurs. Also during all this melee, Kiri (played by Sigourney Weaver), the daughter of the dead Dr. Grace from the first film, has some sort of connection to Eywa, the Great Mother, or consciousness, of Pandora. She uses that to save Spider’s life after his breathing mask dies. The ecosystem of Pandora allows him to then breathe without the mask going forward. Now, humans have that as an added motive in the hopes of reverse engineering it to bring more humans to Pandora and colonize the planet without the need for masks. Later, Jake even considers killing Spider to eliminate such a possibility, but he can’t do it. Yikes. Two films in a row where the Sully patriarch and matriarch have considered killing Spider! Tough adopted family.
Lo’ak is able to use the outcast Tulkun Payakan, who used violence contrary to the Tulkun ways to save the Sully family in the prior film, to convince the other Tulkuns to fight back against the humans. Jake acknowledges that Lo’ak has “proved himself” to him therein, but I still wasn’t satisfied with that. He’s your son! It was wrong for you to blame him for Netayam’s death, and it’s wrong to condition your love on proving himself worthy of it!
Nonetheless, various battles ensue, with one “intermission,” if you will, during the latter half of the film where Jake actually turns himself into Quaritch to prevent the Metkayina ocean clan, from being destroyed. Spike is captured shortly afterward, too. But the bad-ass Neytiri, along with a regretful marine biologist (played pretty amusingly by Jemaine Clement), break him out of prison on the eve of his execution. Despite the assistance of the Tulkuns, as well as all the other clans of Pandora, the humans and Mangkwan clan prove too much. All seems lost! I love those moments in a film for the protagonist(s) because it makes you start wondering how they’ll overcome such odds. They are able to when Kiri quite literally taps into Eywa to save them, which she does. During the ensuing fight, instead of allowing himself to be rescued by Jake, Quaritch drops to his death (seemingly; who knows!).
What’s great about the two sequels to Avatar is they’ve added more heft to the storytelling, which largely centers around the family dynamics of the Sully family. One of the more jaw-dropping moments was when Neytiri admitted to Jake that she is disdainful toward humans, which is not exactly the jaw-dropping part. This disdain expresses itself not just in a hate for Spider, but she thinks any flaws in her children are the human part from Jake’s DNA. Now that was jaw-dropping. Her children! She never directly comes back around on that viewpoint, but I think her breaking Jake out of prison proves her loyalty to him, human origins or not. To be fair, we sometimes say things in the throes of deep emotions, like grieving, as she was, that we don’t entirely mean. In the aforementioned scene where Jake was prepared to kill Spider, she planned to stop him, although, if he had gone through with it, she would’ve been too late!
Pandora is a fun place to be and experience. The most alluring, impressive scenes are almost always at night when Pandora truly comes alive. And I just love being with the Sully family, even though I have my aggravations with Jake and Spider at times. I think there is even more to explore as it concerns Eywa and the consciousness powers of Pandora. You also have to wonder what the next play for the humans will be. Actually, maybe in the next film it will have nothing to do with the humans since I believe Varang is still alive and as such, the Mangkwan clan remains a formidable threat. However it transpires, I’m looking forward to more Avatar fun!
Milam's Musings 