| Worth seeing: | if you're already involved in James Cameron's epic saga of tall blue aliens fighting human pink skins for the resources of their colourful world |
| Director: | James Cameron |
| Featuring: | Sam Worthington, Sigourney Weaver, Zoë Saldaña, Brendan Cowell, Britain Dalton, CCH Pounder, Cliff Curtis, David Thewlis, Edie Falco, Giovanni Ribisi, Jack Champion, Jamie Flatters, Jermaine Clement, Joel David Moore, Kate Winslet, Oona Chaplin, Stephen Lang, Trinity Jo-Li Bliss |
| Length: | 197 minutes |
| Certificate: | 12A |
| Country: | US |
| Released: | 19th December 2025 |
WHAT’S IT ABOUT?
Na’vi leaders Jake (Sam Worthington) and Neytiri (Zoë Saldaña) are grieving their eldest son’s death but every time Neytiri looks at their human – or disparagingly monikered “pink skin” – adopted son Spider (Jack Champion), he’s a constant reminder of the people she blames for their bereavement. She wants to send him away, but Jake insists that he should stay with them.
But when they find a way for Spider to breath their air without an oxygen mask, Jake realises that the humans, still threatening to take over their world for its resources, will want to capture Spider to help them survive on the surface – at which point, Jake wants to send Spider away after all, in the hope that that will protect the rest of his family from the enemy.
Jake and Neytiri agree to accompany Spider to his new home, but on the way, they come under attack from the humans, led by Jake’s arch enemy Quartch (Stephen Lang), and their new allies – an evil clan of Na’vi, led by Varang (Oona Chaplin).
When a major battle for the future of their world ensues, Jake and his allies call on the creatures of the sea to help them maintain control.
WHAT’S IT LIKE?
If you haven’t already devoted 6 hours of your life to James Cameron’s decreasingly hi-tech epic saga, you’ll have no idea what any of that meant – and you’ll similarly have no idea what’s going on if you walk into the third instalment blind. Fire And Ash does not stand alone.
If you’re already involved in James Cameron’s world of Pandora, you’ll want to know what happens next, as a new Na’vi tribe comes out of the woodwork and sides with the human “pink skins” against the Sullies and their allies.
Sit down and get comfortable for another three and a quarter hours of ten foot tall, blue-skinned aliens, working alongside green-skinned aliens to fight the pink-skinned humans and some blue-skinned, red-blotched aliens, in the forests, in the sky – on the backs of four-winged aliens, and under water – with the help of giant, talking whales.
From a narrative point of view, there are a couple of thought-provoking themes, the most interesting being the moments where Jake and Quaritch find themselves having to work together – and following the way Jake and Neytiri switch positions on whether they should protect or exile Spider – the idea that once humans have the capacity to exist on their world without technological aids, it potentially gives them the upper hand they had previously lacked.
Otherwise, this is basically more than three hours of fast and furious running and fighting, with a handful of quieter moments of underwater introspection, as the Na’vi connect with their spirits for a bit of self healing and renewal.
The frenetic action scenes are breath-taking, but at times overwhelming. The knotted narrative, though, is by turns overly complex and disappointingly convenient and – while an ill-disciplined Cameron is trying to get value for money, by stretching the screen time, since he’s filmed it all anyway, it really feels its length – even the thrilling final big battle sequence could have lost about half an hour, if the antagonists had all joined in from the start, rather than – apparently – waiting in line for one side or other to take an advantage before coming forward to swing the balance back the other way.
Visually, it is – of course – stunning, although no more stunning than the first Avatar film was in 2009 – while it was once ground-breaking, it is now somewhat standard fare, and while the rest of the industry has long since given up on 3D, Cameron is indignantly clutching onto the technology to retain consistency in his world. But 3D glasses are not true 3D – in the real world, your eyes automatically refocus on whatever you want to look at, but on screen, if you look anywhere other than the area Cameron wants you to look, you’ll see nothing more than a blurred blob. Taking your eyes off the action to try to immerse yourself in his world, in that sense, just gives you a headache – and no opportunity to choose how you engage with Pandora.
Love it or hate it, there are still two more instalments to go over the next six years and once you’ve devoted 9 hours of your life to it, you’ll have to see it through – even if that means sitting down for another 9 hours to watch it all again before Avatar 4 arrives in 2029, so that you’re up to speed. Some will be lapping it up – others will be cursing through gritted teeth as they struggle towards the conclusion. Either way, Cameron looks set to rake it in from the most lucrative – and critic-proof – franchise in cinema history.