ASHEVILLE, N.C. (828newsNOW) — When “Avatar: The Way of Water” was released in 2022, it had been 13 years since James Cameron’s revolutionary sci-fi epic first hit the scene. “Avatar: Fire and Ash,” meanwhile, comes soaring into cinemas this weekend just three years after its predecessor, and this time, it feels a little less special.

Read our full review below.

“AVATAR: FIRE AND ASH” (2025, 197 min., directed by James Cameron)

(Courtesy: 20th Century Studios) A poster for James Cameron’s “Avatar: Fire and Ash.”

The magic of James Cameron’s previous “Avatar” films was that they felt like an event. There is nothing out there that rivals “Avatar” in visual effects splendor, and as a result, the first two flicks felt like extraordinarily special cinematic experiences.

“Fire and Ash,” meanwhile, suffers from coming out so close to “The Way of Water.” No other movie looks like “Avatar,” except, of course, “Avatar.” Without 13 years of SFX innovation to behold in “Fire and Ash,” the film feels less like it’s breaking ground than treading water.

That sensation is only solidified by the redundant story. It’s not that there aren’t new tricks to admire in “Fire and Ash,” it’s just that there are woefully few.

While “The Way of Water” delivered on its title by introducing an entirely new ecosystem, social structure and gigantic alien whales to the “Avatar” world, “Fire and Ash” lacks the same depth of development. The time spent inside the “fire” ecosystem promised by the title is nominal, but more disappointing, the film climaxes with a beat-for-beat replication of the first two flicks. If you felt sorrow for the hunted whales in “The Way of Water” or cheered when the disparate Na’vi – the blue, cat-like aliens all over the poster – united against the human antagonists during the finale of the first film, get ready for more of the same.

Even Cameron’s use of the Papyrus font, perhaps the most blatantly 2009 thing about the original movie, is going strong in the subtitles of part three.

Cameron will forever be an unrivaled master of spectacle, even if that spectacle is uncannily familiar. The special effects of “Fire and Ash” look great, with the exception of a third act energy tornado – the less said about that the better, mostly because its appearance was inexplicable to me even while watching the film – and at the bare minimum, the movie evokes its title with a number of explosive set pieces. My favorite, an aerial battle between floating pirate ships and dragon-riding attackers, may even be the best of the entire franchise. Even with my gripes about the limitations of the new movie’s scope, when Cameron commits to exploring Pandora, the results are still intoxicating,

(Courtesy: 20th Century Studios) These floating ships are the setting for the best action sequence of “Avatar: Fire and Ash.”

The thing that sets “Fire and Ash” apart at all from earlier entries is Oona Chaplin’s performance as Varang, the murderous leader of the Ash Tribe, the new fire-themed Na’vi antagonists. Chaplin, the granddaughter of famed silent movie star Charlie Chaplin, evokes her family lineage with an incredibly expressive physical performance. Cameron has gone to great lengths to assure audiences that everything captured onscreen was actually performed by actors, even if they have been digitally transformed into seven-foot-tall aliens. Chaplin is the prime example. Varang is terrifying, and in her body, the actor moves smooth and lethal as a viper. She is a terrific villain for the piece, and makes Stephen Lang’s terribly boring Colonel Quaritch, the antagonist of the franchise, more interesting by association.

Not every performance lives up to the high bar set by Chaplin. Jack Champion continues to be pitifully charmless as the perpetually shirtless Spider, a human teen that latches onto the Sully clan, the family of protagonists led by Sam Worthington’s Jake Sully, a former Marine-turned-Na’vi, and Zoe Saldaña’s Neytiri, a Na’vi woman Jake fell in love with during the first film.

(Courtesy: 20th Century Studios) Jake Sully, played by Sam Worthington, in “Avatar: Fire and Ash.”

The dialogue, written by Cameron with Rick Jaffa and Amanda Silver, is terrible, which doesn’t help Champion much. A significant amount of “Fire and Ash” is devoted to Spider’s emotional journey, which would be painful enough even if he wasn’t frequently accompanied by Kiri, a teenage Na’vi played by franchise veteran Sigourney Weaver. Weaver’s casting as a 15-year-old alien immaculately conceived from her adult character’s body is a deeply confusing plot contrivance left over from “The Way of Water.” If it was baffling in number two, it is bad to the third degree in “Fire and Ash.”

Overall, “Fire and Ash” is a disappointment. According to Cameron, two more “Avatar” sequels are in the works, dated for 2029 and 2031, respectively. Time will tell if they can bring the franchise back up from the ashes.

Rating: 2.5/5