As I retreated from the theater, I couldn’t hold back my awe. James Cameron’s tremendous visuals had struck me once again. I immediately went into my mind, hoping to relive just one percent of the greatness the film brought. “Avatar: Fire and Ash” is the third of the Avatar series, and to me, the best one yet.
Known for its exceptional use of CGI (computer-generated imagery) to display the beautiful planet of Pandora, the setting, Avatar’s visuals were miles ahead of its time in 2009. Director James Cameron’s ideas for the following movies were so extreme that he decided to wait 13 years until the next one, as he wanted to showcase his vast array of ideas with the best technology possible. In 2022, he created “Avatar: The Way of Water,” where we saw unimaginable beauty on a movie screen, as he took his talents underwater to display unreal graphics. However, the 2022 film brought little variety, as the movie remained in the same setting for its duration of three hours. And the main conflict surrounded the same villain as the first movie, the sky people, also known as humans.
The Na’vi are the main species on Pandora. They are blue people who are abnormally tall, and they have a strong connection with animals. In the first movie, we learned about just the forest species, who are a dark blue color. The second movie displayed a turquoise version adapted to move well in water, and in Fire and Ash, we were introduced to the Ash Na’vi, grey people, who also became a new set of villains, which already set this movie apart from the rest.
The Ash people entered with malicious intent, with their vicious face paint and frightening rituals. Unlike the sky people, the Ash could individually give other Na’vi a fair fight without the use of guns and explosives, adding an interesting elementspark to each tiny battle that occurred. Although the Ash people weren’t on our main character’s side, they had the most impressive scenes with their use of fire, and maybe my favorite image from any movie ever was their silhouettes flying into the final battle as the sun was eclipsing behind them. The scene gave me chills, and demonstrated a strong turning point in the movie.
Our main characters are part of the Sully family. Jake, the main character, is the husband of Neytiri, and father to his son Lo’ak and daughter Tuktirey. They also adopted a human boy, Spider, and a Na’vi girl, Kiri. The prior films focused a lot more on Jake and his strength as a father, while this one took a jump forward and shed more light on two of the children, which was a welcome change of pace.
I liked how Lo’ak became a brave and relentless representative of the Na’vi, but also was someone who helped bring the wildlife onto their side, by creating bonds with the native whales. It was also interesting how Kiri, the adopted Na’vi in the family, was found out to be a child of solely Eywa, meaning she has no father. Her spiritual journey is fascinating throughout the film, as she struggles to connect with Eywa early on, but keeps fighting to inch closer to her mother when it matters most. Her strength and importance to the world is like no other character as she is able to connect to this god, who acts as mother nature.
Fire and Ash brought so much growth to all the characters within the film, and also demonstrated growth in the movie crew, who have improved with each release.. James Cameron brought me feelings of sorrow, excitement and fear (of getting abused by giant birds since I watched it in 3D). I strongly recommend watching this film, because you haven’t seen true greatness in filmmaking until you have seen “Fire and Ash”.
