Avatar: Fire and Ash Parent Guide

The loss of their son in the fight with the humans has hit Neytiri (Zoe Saldana) and Jake (Sam Worthington) differently. Jake keeps himself busy, salvaging guns from the downed ships in the reef, and snapping at his surviving family members. Neytiri finds solace in her faith, although given the need to keep moving, she has little time to pray.

The RDA still wants them dead, and neither Jake nor Neytiri want to endanger the Metkayina clan any more than they already have. But on their way back to the jungle, they’re attacked by the Mangkwan, a clan of fire-obsessed and violent Na’vi. The family are scattered throughout the jungle, desperately trying to find one another while fleeing numerous enemies. Varang (Oona Chaplin) leads the Mangkwan, and she’s run into Colonel Miles Quaritch (Stephen Lang) – or, more accurately, his avatar clone – who still hunts Jake and anybody around him.

As much as the unnecessarily bloated runtime vexes me, I must concede that James Cameron is a master of spectacle. The digital effects are gorgeous, and the scale of everything is impressive. What’s even bigger is the budget – a frightening $400 million or so – needed to create those effects. As with the last Avatar movie, this is almost better suited as a tech demo than a film, which brings me to the storytelling.

The plot continues to be a fairly bland affair, and the messaging has all the subtlety of a clown with a huge inflatable hammer. The dialogue is vague and forgettable, and the plot bears a striking resemblance to a small strainer – lots of little holes, most of which are resolved by simply jumping to a scene further down the road. I still don’t care about any of these characters, which is remarkable since I’ve spent approximately nine hours of my life observing their adventures.

As with the other entries in the franchise, Avatar: Fire and Ash isn’t a great choice for little kids. Nearly everyone is mostly naked for much of the runtime (in a National Geographic kind of way) and there are some sexual references and innuendo. For most parents, the biggest issue is the frequent violence, which may be justified in the sense of resisting colonial genocide and ecocide but is nearly constant. Characters, including kids, are seen killing and being killed in a variety of ways. Add some profanity on top as a garnish, and that’s this is clearly not a kid-friendly film.

I can’t say I’m the biggest fan of the Avatar franchise, and the thin plot combined with a thick runtime is a big part of that issue. These could be fun sci-fi action blockbusters, if they were half their present length. However, as sheer spectacle, the Avatar films are hard to beat. They represent the cutting edge of digital filmmaking, and an extremely advanced collection of effects – you’ve just got to decide if that’s worth three hours of your life. And, despite my reservations, if you want to watch this, see it in a theatre. Your TV can’t give you a good idea of how big these movies are.