The first movie of the Avatar franchise released 2009, with the second movie taking 13 years to complete. Knowing that it took only three years to create “Avatar: Fire and Ash”, I had thought that there would be a large disconnect between the movie’s pacing, visuals and character development seen in the first two films. All my doubts were erased as soon as the movie began, featuring stunning visuals that are to be expected in the world of Pandora. The film also shows different elements of Pandora that weren’t seen previously, and it only serves to demonstrate how there is much more to the Na’vi world than just visuals.
The movie continues where “Way of the Water” ended, with the Sully family grieving the loss of their eldest son, Neteyam, who died in the war between the Na’vi and humans. It was interesting to see how everyone dealt with this grief: with Jake focusing on using “forbidden” human weapons, Neytiri focusing on calling to the goddess Eywa and their children seeking to distract themselves with fighting and the war. While it was realistic in how grief is different for everyone, there were simply too many storylines to follow, as it revolved around the Sully family, the humans, the Ash clan, the Water clan and the large whale beings in the ocean. The numerous storylines eventually led to weaker characterization and development of relationships than in the previous films.
Not only does “Fire and Ash” observe the storyline of grief during war, but it also introduces a new enemy: the Ash clan. Their leader, a powerful sorceress known as Varang, rejects the ideology of the goddess Eywa, and instead embraces “evil” in the form of fire. While the Ash clan is certainly different with their red face paint and harsh personalities, their introduction wasn’t as dramatic as I had hoped it to be. Instead of the powerful dialogue that was shown in the trailer, the Ash clan’s first appearance was shown as random thieves rather than the main enemy of the Na’vi. I was interested in Varang’s hatred for the goddess Eywa, but it wasn’t as developed as I had hoped it to be, and instead was dumbed down to only five minutes in the whole three-hour film.
Overall, “Avatar: Fire and Ash” stars beautiful visuals, a storyline of grief and action-packed scenes. Even with issues on how certain scenes were shot and the lack of satisfactory character development, I would still recommend this movie for those who want to dive back into the world of Pandora.
