Visual Fireworks with a Thin Story: "Avatar: Fire and Ash"

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In “Avatar: Fire and Ash,“ former Marine Jake Sully (Sam Worthington), now a member of the Na’vi clan, must once again defend himself alongside his wife Neytiri (Zoe Saldaña) and their children against the malevolent Colonel Quaritch (Stephen Lang) in the fantastical world of Pandora.

This is the third film in director James Cameron’s science fiction series, following “Avatar – Journey to Pandora” from 2009 and the sequel “Avatar: The Way of Water” from 2022. The debut film tops the list of the most successful films of all time at number 1. It grossed $4.2 billion adjusted for inflation. The 2022 sequel follows at number 3 with $2.4 billion. Accordingly, the third film is also expected to join the success story.

The plot briefly

At the beginning of “Avatar: Fire and Ash,” the Sully family embarks on a journey with the Windtraders' airships to accompany the human boy Spider (Jack Champion) into exile: he is neither part of the family nor part of the clan. Spider constantly struggles with his breathing mask until, in his desperation, the nature goddess Eywa grants him the ability to breathe on Pandora without a mask. Colonel Quaritch soon captures the boy and has him examined in the mining colony of the mining corporation RDA.

Quaritch teams up with the previously unseen Mangkwan clan, begins an affair with the cunning leader Varang (Oona Chaplin), and supplies the “Ash People” with firearms. Thus equipped, he confronts the Sully family, who are back with the Metkayina clan on the reef. Using his flamethrower, he traps the self-sacrificing Jake Sully. Alongside Spider, he is now also imprisoned in the colony.

Characters are constantly captured and freed, go on journeys and return – it’s hard to keep track. Many elements seem copied from previous films: the strict, caring father Sully, the disobedient but brave son, the youngest child kidnapped by Quaritch, and Eywa as a Deus ex Machina saving them in a hopeless situation.

What Happened So Far

Since presumably few remember the plot of the most successful films of all time, here is a summary of the two Avatar films released so far.

Avatar – Journey to Pandora

In Avatar from 2009, the mining corporation RDA operates mines on an industrial scale to extract Unobtainium, a room-temperature superconductor important for faster-than-light communication – and as the name suggests: very difficult to obtain. Unobtainium is never mentioned again.

Retired Marine Jake Sully takes over an avatar body to explore the planet and enforce the RDA's interests against the indigenous Na’vi – they are considered quite naive. Jake joins them, meets Chief’s daughter Neytiri, and learns to know and appreciate their culture. He increasingly turns against the destructive exploitation by humans.

The RDA, now a military organization, prepares a large-scale attack on the Na’vi’s Hometree under the leadership of Colonel Miles Quaritch. After taming a dragon, Jake is recognized as Toruk Makto and leads the Na’vi in the decisive battle. The Na’vi win the battle, and Jake kills the antagonist Quaritch. The mining company is pushed back, and the humans leave the planet. Jake remains in his avatar and with the Na’vi.

Avatar: The Way of Water

Jake Sully and Neytiri live a peaceful family life with their children on Pandora. But the RDA returns, and with it Colonel Quaritch, who somehow resurrects as a Na’vi replicant. The commander from the other end of the galaxy seeks revenge on the ordinary soldier Sully.

The Sully family flees to the sea dwellers called Metkayina and learns to know and appreciate their culture. The RDA, under the leadership of Colonel Miles Quaritch, prepares a large-scale attack across the sea. A battle ensues, and the Sully family earns the respect of the Metkayina.

A Story Like a Shifting Dune

Uncovering Spider’s medical secret would open the floodgates for the large-scale colonization of Pandora. And that would have been a good common thread for a tightly told story of normal feature film length. Instead, the film, which meanders for over 3 hours and 20 minutes, lurches from one action scene to the next with escapes, kidnappings, rescues, and battles.

Scenes feel strung together as if one were watching missions in a video game. The film has potential for editing: many sequences slow down the film without advancing the story. The preparation for the final battle is handled by the film as a montage with an off-screen narrator. It would have been the same as in Avatar 1 and 2 anyway.

Tension is also absent because the characters seem immortal, at least all of them before the three-hour mark, and especially those with the surname Sully. Since Quaritch’s resurrection, even death itself is reversible.

Spectacular Visual Effects

The visual effects are spectacular. 3132 out of 3382 shots come from the New Zealand studio Wētā FX. Only 11 seconds show pure live-action footage. Unlike the second part, however, the third adds little that is new. A third of the effect scenes feature fire as a key element. When the Mangkwan clan sets the tone, the color palette shifts to reddish, contrasting with an otherwise ash-pale base tone. Their impressive flying dragons were also unseen before.

A subplot largely taken from the second part, meanwhile, revisits the entire whaling story. Two-thirds of the effect scenes take place in the sea with the familiar animals and vehicles above and below water.

It is evident that Wētā FX began working on the third film just weeks after completing the second. The aerial scenes, including the yellow-red flying dragons, are again from the first film. Thus, “Avatar: Fire and Ash” feels at times not like a sequel, but rather like a remake.

Cultural Relevance: Manageable

One would think that a franchise that is so financially successful would dominate pop culture like Star Wars once did: with movie posters and toys in every child's room, parodies, and references in comedy shows, with comics, novels, fan fiction, and wild speculation on Reddit and the schoolyard about the less brightly lit corners of the Avatar universe. But none of that.

Absolutely everyone knows Darth Vader. However, even avid moviegoers probably cannot name the Avatar protagonists offhand, let alone their children, the evil colonel, and his henchmen. The role played by the character portrayed by Sigourney Weaver must be copied again from an earlier film in “Fire And Ash.”

There are reasons for this. The plot of the films merely serves to loosely connect the effect-laden action sequences. The characters are as stereotypical as possible and have no more depth than a puddle. The audience adapts, enjoys the visuals, and occasionally rolls their eyes at the dialogues. Consequently, Avatar has little cultural impact.

Sad Fish: The Soldier Jake Sully

The first Avatar film set standards for future blockbusters with virtual production, combining live-action footage and digital effects on set. More computing power than ever before, and not least the artistic virtuosity of the effects specialists, brought an alien world, Pandora, to the screen in 2009 that overshadowed everything that had come before. In the Star Wars prequels, digital backgrounds and real actors were still strangely separated. Technically, Avatar was a milestone.

The fully digital sequel adds little new to this. The audience has become accustomed to the 3D spectacle. While everyone exclaims “Oh and Ah” as if they had brought home an aquarium screensaver from the bargain bin at the department store, and the family sees pretty fish for the first time instead of “3D pipes.”

What the blue fish is called, what it wants from life, what it worries about, and why it is sad hardly matters. It does not touch the audience and does not stimulate their imagination. The spectacle stands on its own. Thus, it rushes by and is soon forgotten. Only the pretty pictures remain.

(akr)