Avatar: Fire and Ash Review

Only three years after the last instalment in James Cameron’s epic franchise, the third entry in the Avatar series has arrived, promising to bring with it doom and destruction on a level that Pandora has never seen before. I would be lying if I said I was particularly excited about Avatar: Fire and Ash, but ultimately, these movies are always a huge cinematic experience. So, regardless of my personal enjoyment of these movies, they’re always worth a watch in my book, and Fire and Ash is no different. However, this movie’s commitment to upholding what fans have come to expect of the Avatar franchise is also its undoing, as through sticking to roads already travelled, Cameron delivers a film that is both the longest, and the weakest, entry in this trilogy.

Today, it’s time for our Avatar: Fire and Ash review, the latest epic sci-fi entry in one of cinema’s biggest money-making franchises. I’ll be completely avoiding any spoilers in this review, so feel free to read ahead before checking out the movie for yourself. Now, let’s dive into the review and talk about Avatar: Fire and Ash!

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Avatar: Fire and Ash Review

Image by 20th Century Studios

Before we talk about Avatar: Fire and Ash, let’s talk about Avatar as a whole, and the phenomenon it’s become throughout the 2000s. When I first watched the original Avatar movie, I thought little of it, but was admittedly impressed by how captivating the visuals were. It’s almost mind-boggling to think that almost everything you’re seeing in these movies is digitally-fabricated, and it’s no wonder that the franchise has been praised for being so innovative in this regard. To me, Avatar: The Way of Water was a much more enjoyable movie, though not by too large of a margin. Its triumph comes from the story being as fascinating as the visuals, and unfortunately, after watching Avatar: Fire and Ash, it seems like this scenario was a once-off for this franchise, as this newest sequel falters pretty hard when it comes to its narrative and characters.

Avatar: Fire and Ash is an absolute spectacle of a movie, a stunning visual journey through the darkest parts of Pandora. Coming in at a whopping 197-minute runtime, it is the longest entry in the Avatar franchise thus far, a length that pairs well with the film’s epic vibe. However, I think that for all of its splendour, Avatar: Fire and Ash‘s reliance on spectacle and style highlights the biggest issue with this franchise. As these movies continue to be released, it’s becoming more and more evident that there’s not much substance to this story. Pandora is a beautiful world, and the natural environments of Avatar: Fire and Ash are undeniably enthralling. Beyond this though, it’s difficult to praise much of Avatar: Fire and Ash, even if the film does manage to keep its viewer entertained enough to not warrant giving up on the movie completely.

For me, Avatar: Fire and Ash is a less visually-appealing film than The Way of Water, but this step-down is somewhat expected, considering the movie’s focus on the Mangkwan clan, who live in desolation and burned ruins – a far cry from the lush homeland of the Metkayina clan in the last film. However, the visuals are still stunning, and by far the highlight of Avatar: Fire and Ash. The Mangkwan may not deliver the same sort of traditionally beautiful scenery as the Metkayina clan, but they breathe a new, aggressive life into the world of Pandora, and I continue to enjoy how James Cameron uses each sequel in this franchise to explore a new corner of this planet. If the fourth Avatar movie ends up being made, which is not a certainty until we see the box office numbers for Avatar: Fire and Ash, I hope we haven’t seen the last of the Mangkwan, or their leader, Varang.

Image by 20th Century Studios

Avatar: Fire and Ash also delivers when it comes to action sequences, as we’re taken on wild rides through explosive battlefields, usually flying through the air on the backs of ikrans. With the film sporting three major action sequences, it feels like action sequences break this giant spectacle into three acts. There’s one sequence early in the movie that I absolutely loved, while the middle of the film is graced with an excellent, if much more muted, stealth mission. Unfortunately, the film’s climactic battle is also its weakest, which could really demotivate the audience, as the movie begins to slug through its third act. The final battle isn’t bad by any means, but it’s nothing special, and pales in comparison to the movie’s first two forays into the action genre.

Unfortunately though, these battles are populated by characters that have little to them, and just as was the case with this franchise before Avatar: Fire and Ash, the characters are a real weak point. I will say, I loved Neytiri in this movie, as she gets a lot more to do here than ever before, and she poses one of the most interesting moral dilemmas in the entire franchise. Beyond Neytiri though, the Sully family continues to be the most uninteresting part of these movies, with leading man Sam Worthington himself continuing to deliver one of the blandest and least memorable performances as a protagonist that I’ve ever seen in a blockbuster on this scale. Sigourney Weaver, as great of an actress as she is, also continues to be completely unconvincing as Kiri, and her relationship with Jack Champion’s Spider feels borderline uncomfortable. I’m not sure why James Cameron believes Weaver would make for a believable teenager, but hey. The weakness of the Sully family as characters is nothing new for the Avatar films, so fans won’t be surprised to know that they don’t exactly rise to the occasion in Avatar: Fire and Ash.

Speaking of uninteresting characters, I genuinely can’t believe that Quaritch is actually the main villain of this movie yet again. What do the creators of Avatar see in this villain? Not only does his incessant presence continue to take opportunities away for a new antagonist to shine in this franchise, but even in the first Avatar movie, this guy was boring. The central conflict of Avatar: Fire and Ash is also a complete rehash, with the Sky People threatening the Na’vi once again. The antagonistic elements of Avatar: Fire and Ash are saved only by Oona Chaplin’s Varang, a character who’s presence in this movie is greatly overstated by its advertising campaign. Chaplin is absolutely incredible here, delivering the best performance in the Avatar franchise thus far. Her clan, the Mangkwan, are also thrilling each and every time they appear on screen. Why they weren’t used more is beyond me, and it’s frustrating that an exciting new antagonistic force takes a backseat to the same old story of Earth’s attempted colonisation of Pandora, a story we’ve seen play out twice already before Avatar: Fire and Ash even begins.

Image by 20th Century Studios

Speaking of retracing old storylines, the Tulkun storyline makes a return in Avatar: Fire and Ash, which I didn’t even think possible until they showed up an hour in. It was appropriate for Avatar: The Way of Water to highlight the issue of whaling, but I don’t think that this story had a place in Avatar: Fire and Ash. If anything, the inclusion of the Tulkun here feels reductive, as their entire storyline is almost an identical repeat of the events of the last film. Certain Tulkun appearances in Avatar: Fire and Ash also feel unintentionally comedic, as the whales are suddenly given subtitles to communicate.

From the invasion of the Sky People, to the woes of the Tulkun, to the Tarzan-like storyline of Spider, the entirety of Avatar: Fire and Ash feels like its retelling a story that has already been told in two other movies before this one. Not only is the storytelling repetitive, but it’s pretty average, failing to introduce any new elements to really hook the audience. Average storytelling paired with gorgeous visuals and an overall feeling of grandeur would be perfectly fine, if this movie weren’t over 3 hours long, and the third entry in an already gargantuan franchise. Avatar: Fire and Ash was the right time to try something new, and instead of taking the Na’vi to daring new heights, James Cameron opted to play it safe.

Avatar: Fire and Ash is easily the most repetitive story yet in the Avatar franchise, but its narrative also suffers from feeling extremely inconsistent and incredibly fragmented. Transitions between scenes feel jarring, and oftentimes, it’s hard to find the connection between two scenes that you watch back-to-back. There’s a lot going on in Avatar: Fire and Ash, and there would want to be. After all, this movie is over 3 hours long! However, very little of it feels connected, with everything coming together at the end, but not at all gracefully. Avatar: Fire and Ash presents some interesting ideas surrounding prejudice, savagery, and of course, nature-preservation, but does nothing with these ideas, and instead opts to tell the same story that has already been told.

Image by 20th Century Studios

Ultimately, Avatar: Fire and Ash is a perfectly watchable epic, and if you enjoyed the first two Avatar movies, you’re almost certainly going to enjoy this one, mainly because it’s basically the same movie again. There are some exciting new inclusions to this story, namely the Mangkwan clan, and the grief over the death of Neteyam that the Sully family must confront, but little to nothing exciting is done with either of these concepts. Instead, Avatar: Fire and Ash uses these aspects to tell yet another story of how the Sky People invaded Pandora, and its re-use of the whaling storyline, one that was unique to Avatar: The Way of Water, is quite shameless. Varang is an incredible character, and maybe this movie is worth seeing for her alone. Beyond her though, there’s little to enjoy here for anyone who isn’t an established Avatar fan.

Perhaps my most damning criticism of Avatar: Fire and Ash is that this is the first time in the franchise that I’ve really felt the length of one of these movies. These films have always felt pretty long, but Avatar: Fire and Ash feels like 3 hours of my life passed around me. Nothing ever took me out of this film, but nothing particularly hooked me in either. Ultimately, Avatar: Fire and Ash is a smooth ride down a road we know by heart, and while its stunning visuals and high stakes certainly make for an enjoyable enough first-time watch, I can’t see anyone wanting to revisit this movie. Unfortunately, Avatar: Fire and Ash is, by a pretty large margin, the weakest of the trilogy, and a real disappointment for viewers who were hoping Cameron would use the Mangkwan clan to elevate this franchise. But hey, as long as it makes its projected box office, we’ll be seeing Avatar 4 in 2029, likely to tell a similar story once again.

What did you think of Avatar: Fire and Ash? Be sure to let us know, and thanks for reading our review!

See also: Wake Up Dead Man: A Knives Out Mystery Review

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Where to Watch Avatar: Fire and Ash?

Image by 20th Century Studios

Avatar: Fire and Ash his theatres on December 19, 2025, in theatres. If the movie follows the timing of its predecessor, we’re likely to see a streaming release on Disney+ in June 2026.

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