Movie Reviews

Avatar: Fire & Ash Review: James Cameron's Conclusion Struggles Under the Weight of Its Storytelling

There's a lot going on over the next three hours.

Kristen Lopez

16 Dec 2025 — 5 min read

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For the last sixteen years director James Cameron has enmeshed himself in the world of Pandora. What started out as the ableist story of a disabled man looking for a cure, and finding it in the body of an indigenous community known as the Na'vi has transitioned into a potentially political examination of an Indigenous community butting up against rampant colonialist expansion. They're also utterly gorgeous and have given Cameron the opportunity to test the boundaries of filmmaking itself.

The hope was that Cameron would get a solid four features out his ideas, eventually cutting it down to two then splitting the second into two separate films. Thus, 2022's The Way of Water is imperative to watch before Fire and Ash. It also means Fire and Ash feels less like its own feature and really just like a long, three year commercial break. (A similar feeling affected Wicked: For Good.) Plot points twist and fold into the narrative haphazardly, leaving the whole affair less like a smooth ride on a banshee and more a clunky jaunt on a public bus.

Fire and Ash joins practically in medias res, with Jake and Neytiri (Sam Worthington and Zoe Saldana, respectively) mourning the loss of their son and returning to the Water tribe broken people. They believe old adversary Quaritch (Stephen Lang) is dead...again. But, of course, he isn't and is determined to destroy them one and for all. He and Jake encounter the mysterious Ash People, led by the slinky Varang (Oona Chaplin). When Quaritch and Varang team up, it is up to Jake, Neytiri, and their children to stop them, and save Pandora once and for all.

There's no denying what has always dominated the Avatar universe: their beauty and visual spectacle. Watching the actors navigate these different spaces, whether that be water or the air, is utterly breathtaking. (Though the high frame rate is still jarring and prone to headache inducing if you're sensitive.) Unlike in Way of Water, there's a bit less of a visual whizbang to Fire and Ash as the majority of the movie's over three-hour runtime feels more land-based. This is because the characters are engaging in a lot more military-based fighting.

Cameron's work on the script, alongside Rick Jaffa and Amanda Silver is probably Fire and Ash's biggest failing as there's so. much. happening in the narrative that no one is ever focused on enough, with the editing literally feeling like characters are fighting for screen time. One big moment has the movie sharply cut between Neytiri struggling to survive an attack and her children going off on an adventure. It's less linear storytelling and more everyone yelling to be heard. And it didn't appear like Way of Water introduced too many threads but Fire and Ash has to close them will introducing new ones.

The predominant new feature to Fire and Ash is Varang, a venal young Na'vi who believes she's a goddess. Chaplin is amazing to watch in the way she stalks the frame, but there's little depth to her beyond that. In some ways she becomes a cringy, overly sexualized Indigenous big bad, quick to jump into bed with Quaritch because, hey, he's just as evil as she is. The two become a militaristic Mickey and Mallory Knox with the quickness, though once that happens Varang becomes little more than scenery, with her plot line literally leaving the door open for another movie...as in she leaves a scene and that's where things end.

Fire and Ash soon falls into a repetitious pattern of: kidnapping, fight scene. The kids are kidnapped, leaving Jake and Quaritch to fight to get them back. Then the kids get kidnapped again, leading to another fight scene. There's one scene where the fighting leads to someone getting kidnapped. It becomes utterly ridiculous and silly how weak the other characters are, but it showcases more of a lack of interest in where their plots are going. Jake's son, Lo'ak (Britain Dalton) narrates the movie in fits and starts, almost like the film is going to trust him to tell the story, but much like his dead that doesn't happen and the narration pops up a handful of times later, mostly to continue Lo'ak's friendship with the disgraced whale creature Payakan.

Worthington's Jake Sully, long the hero of this franchise, takes a serious backseat to everyone else, though mostly Jack Champion's Spider, the Donnie Thornberry-inspired take on Jake Sully. Spider is struggling to breathe on Pandora while continuing to struggle with his daddy issues around Quaritch. A second-act big of "hey, don't think too much about it" quickly solves Spider's breathing issues before he takes over as the movie's hero. It's obvious in the way the camera frames and follows him that Cameron clearly believes in Champion's star power. But there's little beyond him being brash and cocky.

The bizarre romance between him and Jake's daughter Kiri (Sigourney Weaver) takes a backseat, as does much of Kiri's plot line from the previous film. Her main issue is her inability to tap into Pandora's equivalent of the God phone, being told she could have a fatal seizure if she continues. Weaver continues to make for a jarring teenager but Kiri is little more than a quick way out of sticky situations, like the issue with Spider's breathing. By the end, when Jake and Neytiri are up against the ropes, Kiri's plot line doesn't so much as pay off as it feels like the screenwriters said, "Fuck it, this is how it's gonna go."

There are so many moments watching Fire and Ash where the script is filled with things: guns going off, things blowing up, Tulkun's peacing out of the story, and yet one is hard-pressed to understand the why behind anything. When all else fails, just look at a Banshee sailing across the sky and remember you still have another hour of this movie to watch.

If you've been ride or die for this series since its inception then there's little that will change that. For those looking for a good time at the movies, Avatar: Fire and Ash offers some thrilling visuals but little else. The story is repetitive and unfocused, the characters dull and lacking depth. It's probably a good thing Cameron is ready to take a break from these characters as this movie definitely feels tired.