Publication Date: 12-21-2025

Avatar: Fire and Ash (2025) review

Dir. James Cameron

By: Steve Pulaski

Rating: ★★★

Avatar: Fire and Ash returns us to Pandora as the Sully family has settled in with the Metkayina clan. The group is still reeling over the death of Neteyam. His brother, Lo’ak (Brittain Dalton) blames himself; Jake (Sam Worthington) does too and doesn’t have the emotional intelligence to adequately communicate with his son. Neytiri (Zoe Saldaña) despises humans, who she refers to as the “sky people,” and the couple’s adopted teenage daughter, Kiri (voiced by Sigourney Weaver) finds herself falling for the human teenager Spider (Jack Champion), who still distractingly looks like disgraced rapper Tekashi 6ix9ine.

Introduced in Avatar: The Way of Water — the first sequel to James Cameron’s generational epic — Spider assumes a larger role in Fire and Ash. He still needs a gas mask, for his lungs are not equipped to handle the air of Pandora, but evolution starts to do its thing as the film gets going. Spider is the son of Miles Quaritch (Stephen Lang), the menacing military man who is the enemy of the Na’vi people.

A new enemy is taking shape, however: the Mangkwan clan, led by Varang (Oona Chaplin), who, unlike the Na’vi, want to harness the power of “steel” (automatic weapons) in order to conquer. The Na’vi believe steel poisons the soul, but colonialist powers know no moral compass. Eventually, Spider gets nabbed by Quaritch, now in a Na’vi avatar body, and the military — just like what occurred in The Way of Water. Quaritch decides to run with the Mangkwan clan, especially if it means arresting Sully and stomping out even a portion of the complex Pandora ecosystem.

If a lot of this sounds familiar, it’s because it is. Even if we consider that 13-year gap between the first Avatar and The Way of Water naturally allowed for a reintroduction-of-sorts to the world of Pandora, Fire and Ash not only suffers from middle part syndrome, but it’s abundantly clear merely an hour into this gargantuan three-hour-and-seventeen-minute endeavor that Cameron is content to play the hits. This is a mitigable sequel, predictably filled with incredible visual artistry and a handful of impacting beats, but it’s the first time in the now-trilogy (soon to be pentalogy) of films where the sum isn’t as great as its parts.

The biggest surprise in Fire and Ash is how many plot-threads are illustrated with brushstrokes as opposed to full-fledged textures. Beyond the fact that it’s still something of a challenge to tell the members of the Sully family apart from a distance, Lo’ak should frankly be the primary focus of the film. His maturation was always bound to be accelerated due to the perilous circumstances his family faces, but the death of his brother, with him partially to blame, suggested a new level of depth would be afforded to the character. Instead, he spends most of the film resisting his community’s exile of a species of whale, whose communication is cornily illustrated in subtitles.

I’m aware that these whales do indeed have a name, but I’m on a roll with this review right now and don’t want to pause to source it. Three films into Cameron’s now-billion dollar passion project, I have a suggestion: when the fourth Avatar movie is released, can theaters be provided with a stack of sheets that have all the vocabulary words of Pandora cogently defined for viewers? Think of the glossary that exists in most, if not all, Dune novels, or better yet, the large packets of information given to those brave enough to buy a ticket to those five-hour Metropolitan Opera showings that regularly come to theaters.

By now, the cast of characters is so entrenched in their roles that every Avatar film is getting better from a performance perspective. Stealing the spotlight with a locked-jaw scowl is Stephen Lang, who has perfected the personification of authority and corrupt power in a way that would make Michael Shannon grin. The hurt and anguish Neytiri feels over the loss of her son and the disintegration of community amongst the Na’vi is reflected in Zoë Saldaña’s affecting turn as the Sully matriarch. Some will argue his enhanced role in this sequel is a negative, but I am a fan of Spider, and think Jack Champion graduates from comic relief to laudable presence with the benefit of additional screentime.

Motion capture has come a long way in believability and fluidity. At times, Fire and Ash moves with the grace of an animated movie, but never lost is the presence of human beings behind these avatar characters. The Way of Water introduced us to the aquatic depths of Pandora through brilliant, first-of-its-kind underwater motion capture technology. Fire and Ash doesn’t acquaint us with new locales, but it does muster the debate of whether or not fire has ever looked better on film than it does here.

James Cameron is currently 71-years-old, and as of this writing, it appears as if we are to get two more Avatar sequels in 2029 and 2031, respectively. Assuming the release of the fifth one keeps its date, that would make Cameron 77. With all that in mind, it’s both surprising and bold that Cameron decided not to have Fire and Ash end with something more of a tied bow as opposed to a mostly wrapped gift. The luxury of extended time between Avatar sequels works to make the infrequent visits to Pandora that much more special, but frankly, it’s not something Cameron necessarily has on his side. Here’s hoping Cameron’s vision not only gets carried out but has the ability to dazzle the same way the previous two Avatar films did, for Fire and Ash is too large of a tentpole in its own right to feel so derivative of what came before it.

My review of Avatar (2009)
My review of Avatar: The Way of Water

Starring: Sam Worthington, Zoe Saldaña, Sigourney Weaver, Stephen Lang, Brittain Dalton, Jack Champion, Oona Chaplin, and Kate Winslet. Directed by: James Cameron.