Many fans of the mythical planet of Pandora were eager to once again purchase their tickets for James Cameron’s latest addition to the Avatar series, Avatar: Fire and Ash. On opening weekend itself, December 19-21, the movie grossed about $347.1 million dollars globally. While the movie explores a new side of Pandora, the plot is not separate enough from the previous movie.
The movie begins with a recap of the tragic ending of Avatar: The Way of the Water and the lives of Jake Sully (Sam Worthington) and his family as new members of the Water tribe. Neytiri (Zoe Saldana), Jake Sully’s wife, is still grieving the loss of her eldest son, Neteyam, played by Jamie Flatters. Furthermore, we see that Miles Quaritch (Stephen Lang) is still adamant on capturing Sully even after he was saved by his own son Spider (Jack Champion) at the end of the last movie. The movie introduces a new Na’vi, led by Varang (Oona Chaplin). Varang joins forces to imprison Sully in exchange for guns, due to her newfound fascination with them.The partnership of Quaritch and Varang can be traced back to the partnership of Neytiri and Jake in the first movie. The Na’vi people believe in Eywa but Varang leads her clan without believing in any god, which develops her story more instead of just simply being a villain.
The movie’s introduction of the Fire and Ash clan is important to the continuation of impressive visuals that have been a defining factor of the franchise. Since the world is Fire and Ash, it focuses on destruction and heat and consists of volcanoes and barren deserts like where Scar and the Hyenas live in The Lion King. This can be contrasted to the elements of water and nature emphasized in the last movie. Additionally, the use of real cast members instead of animation also helps attribute emotions to the Na’vi, which is one of the factors that makes Camerons’ movies so successful.
Although it introduces a new setting, the movie progresses in a similar way as its predecessor, it starts off with laying out the storyline and then introduces the villain that will eventually go to war with the Sullys’ clan. It was interesting to see, however, how Neytiri’s grief made her hate Spider like how the humans supposedly hated them. This movie explored themes of family relationships that were not talked about in the previous movie because everyone experienced personal grief. Neytiri’s resentment for Spider also shows the love a mother has for their child. Lo’ak (Britain Dalton) is constantly compared to his older brother and goes on a journey of self discovery to form his own identity throughout the movie. This route was set up by the previous movie since Lo’ak was constantly in the shadow of his older brother and reprimanded by his father. The movie also portrayed mature elements like self-harm, which makes it more heavy-hitting than the other films in the franchise. It makes sense that the themes of the movie become more mature as the Sully children age.
Wētā FX was the company that created the visual effects for the movie. The team develops CGI and captures the motion of the actors to make the Na’vi look more 3D. A group of visuals that distinguishes Avatar from other movies is the animals. The animals in this movie always help Pandora be established as more of a fantasy place, so when humans come in with machines and robots, you see a clear distinction between nature and machine. The color and vibrancy of Cameron’s visual elements makes the audience want to live in Pandora.
However, a few elements in the story were confusing, like how Spider was suddenly able to breathe without a mask from Kiri (Sigourney Weaver)’s ritualistic chanting. Her own powers were not explained in the movie apart from the assertion that she was a child of Eywa (god). She is not directly the child of Neytiri and Jake but her importance to Pandora should have been emphasized more since her character is unique. Her character being voiced by Sigourney Weaver also makes her more interesting because she sounds more mature than the other Sully kids.
The biggest flaw in the movie was the repetition of storylines and how at the end, nothing is really achieved because you are at the same point as the end of the last movie. This movie was Fire and the last movie was Water, so the next movie will likely deal with another element. The movie’s focus on grief, loyalty, and alliance helped differentiate it from the last movie, but it still needs a plot that diverges from Jake Sully as the main character and focuses more on his kids as a way to continue the storyline without it being repetitive.
Cameron is set to release Avatar 4 in 2029 and 5 in the next decade. Having a sizable time in between each release ensures that people are still interested in the movie and hypes it up to be a big production, which it is. However, it can also make the movie lose it’s meaning if the story does not develop into something meaningful. The uniqueness of Avatar is something that helps the movie outsell the box office globally every release, and even though repetitive elements are thought to draw audiences away, the stunning depictions of Pandora keep the theater seats full every time.
