As Jake (Sam Worthington), Neytiri (Zoe Saldaña) and their extended family try to deal with the grief of losing eldest son and brother Neteyam a new enemy emerges. An aggressive Na’vi tribe known as The Ash People led by the fearsome Varang (Oona Chaplin) form an alliance with Colonel Quaritch (Stephen Lang) in an effort to claim their own dominion over Pandora. 

The third Avatar movie picks up immediately after the conclusion of Avatar: The Way Of Water and spends another three hours alternating between world building and epic battles. 

For the first time the narration of the film switches from Jake to his son Lo’ak (Britain Dalton) as the film series continues to provide the younger protagonist’s more to do. Various plot-lines include Spider’s (Jack Champion) position as someone torn between two worlds. Raised as a Na’vi by Jake but actually the human son of Quaritch his part is pivotal. Does he want to be part of his adopted world or still seek the acceptance of his biological father? And can Neytiri truly accept a “pink-skin” in her family given how much damage they have done to it? Kiri (Sigourney Weaver) the adopted daughter of Jake’s family begins to tap into her mysterious elemental powers further. And of course Jake and Quaritch face off across multiple battles. 

Those battles are pivotal in the film in terms of the scope of the story but also just for their sheer spectacle. With multiple Na’vi tribes, creatures from land, sea and sky and the various mechanical apparatus deployed by the humans all facing off together. 

At times it can feel like there are too many threads for the film to follow with the result being that some characters feel underserved and you occasionally feeling that hefty runtime. But it also manages to deliver on some big emotional moments and deliver more depth to the world of Pandora. 

It is clear that creator James Cameron has no intention of compromising on his vision of technical wizardry whilst creating an entire alien civilisation and world. The fact that 3D filmmaking appears to have already died out since 2009’s original Avatar movie and motion capture used sparingly seems to suggest that only Cameron is dedicated enough to make it work. In Fire and Ash you are watching close to 200 minutes of technical obsessiveness in an effort to make everything perfect. Watching on an IMAX 3D Screen is something close to filmmaking magic with only the question mark of High Frame Rate switching a concern.  

All the actors are filmed via motion capture technology that captures not just their physical movements but their facial expressions, shot with specialist cameras to ensure perfect stereoscopic 3D images and then so as to remove the possibility of juddering images when lots of movement occurs the Frame Rate switches between 24 frames per second to 48 frames per second. This latter effect can make images so smooth that they can begin to feel unreal. Add in the fact that more than half of the film is CGI and you begin to understand why there have been 3 years between films shot at the same time as each other. 

None of this of course will make you change your mind on Pandora if you are not already a fan. In fact I am sure you might posit the argument that Cameron has made the same film again. 

Personally I think there is enough here to be excited about Avatar 4 and 5 in 2029 and 2031 where I expect the children of Jake and Neytiri to take centre stage even more. The fact that Cameron can both push the technological boundaries of filmmaking whilst making a rip roaring adventure story is something to respect and admire.