‘Avatar: Fire And Ash’ review: James Cameron’s third trip to Pandora is thrilling, immersive journey

Dir: James Cameron. US. 2025. 196mins

Where other franchises tend to suffer from diminishing returns, Avatar seems to be getting stronger and more engaging as it rolls along. Third instalment Fire And Ash continues the epic battle between Sam Worthington’s brave Na’vi warrior and Stephen Lang’s villainous Marine while introducing a dynamic new nemesis and a slew of stunning action sequences. It is as visually extraordinary as its predecessors and, while the film contains some of those earlier pictures’ weaknesses, the deficiencies are starting to feel like charming quirks in an otherwise transporting series.

Cameron’s mastery of spectacle reaches exciting new peaks

James Cameron will be competing against himself at the box office when Disney unveils Fire And Ash in theatres globally on December 19, as his previous instalments Avatar (2009) and Avatar: The Way Of Water (2022) remain the biggest and third-biggest box office hits ever worldwide – taking £2.9bn and $2.3bn respectively. (Cameron’s 1997 feature Titanic ranks fourth). No doubt that the industry will be rooting for Fire And Ash to be a comparably mammoth theatrical hit, it would be unwise to bet against that likelihood.

Taking place shortly after The Way Of Water, the new film finds Jake Sully (Worthington) still grieving the death of his beloved eldest son Neteyam, blaming his younger, ineffectual son Lo’ak (Britain Dalton) for Neteyam’s courageous act of self-sacrifice during battle. But the Sully family cannot mourn for long: soon, they are attacked by the vicious Mangkwan Clan, led by Varang (Oona Chaplin), who wants to slaughter Pandora’s other clans. Jake and wife Neytiri (Zoe Saldana) desperately try to protect their children, but they also must face the return of old foe Quaritch (Stephen Lang) as he spearheads Earth’s planned colonisation of the mineral-rich moon.

Shown to critics in 3D and in high frame rate, Fire And Ash proves to be a thoroughly immersive experience. By this point, the novelty of Pandora should have waned, but credit Cameron and production designers Dylan Cole and Ben Procter for finding fresh ways to make this world layered and gorgeous. (The vivid neon colours that spring up across the landscape once the sun goes down remain one of many delightful details.) Unlike the first two installments, this sequel doesn’t feature any new environments, but the computer-generated Pandora remains a sight to behold – whether in the skies, in the forests or underwater.

Cameron’s clunky dialogue — long a problem with his films — continues to be a liability. And similarly, Fire And Ash’s characters are not especially well-drawn. But as played by a forceful cast, they have slowly developed into sturdy archetypal figures representing good and evil who may not be especially deep but are nonetheless compelling. Worthington’s square-jawed heroism and Saldana’s fiery passion are perfect complements, and while the Sully children aren’t particularly riveting, the happy exception is Jake and Neytiri’s adopted teen daughter, the gentle and inquisitive Kiri (Sigourney Weaver), whose growing magical connection to Pandora itself becomes one of Fire And Ash’s crucial plot points. Weaver brings such sweetness to her character, capturing something elemental about the innocence and optimism of youth.

Still, the franchise is powered by Lang’s macho, witty portrayal of the deliciously loathsome Quaritch. Here, the Marine joins forces with Varang, and the two actors exhibit a sexy rapport that gives their characters’ partnership an unexpected but appealingly carnal undercurrent. Chaplin struts and slinks, rendering the warmongering Varang as both scary and seductive. Her arrival adds engaging extra dimensions to the series’ central conflicts, providing Jake and Neytiri with a ferocious new adversary.

Any discussion of Fire And Ash’s performances must acknowledge the remarkable motion-capture technology used to transform the actors into these expressive, completely credible aliens. Despite creating Pandora and its inhabitants entirely digitally, Cameron hasn’t lost the human touch as he delivers emotional fireworks and meaningful dramatic turns.

Noticeably, though, these pivotal moments tend to occur not during the wooden dialogue scenes but through electric action sequences, where life and death hang in the balance, the characters’ primal nature playing out in bold strokes. Indeed, Cameron’s attempts to depict Jake and Lo’ak’s frayed relationship only really resonate when these feuding family members join forces in battle, their abiding love potently articulated. Other blockbuster sequels tend to get duller as they struggle to outdo the size and scope of earlier instalments, but here Cameron’s mastery of spectacle reaches exciting new peaks.