Damn, "Avatar: Fire and Ash" is great cinema again

Luca Fontana

16-12-2025

Translation: machine translated

After two "Avatar" films, everything should really be said. And yet "Fire and Ash" manages to feel new. Not because it is louder or bigger, but because this time James Cameron starts where it hurts: with loss and family.

Don't worry: the following film review contains no spoilers. I won't tell you any more than is already known and can be seen in the trailers. «Avatar: Fire and Ash» is in cinemas from 17 December.

Oh boy. Not again. As soon as the lights come on in the cinema, I have it. That grin. That slightly annoyed, disbelieving grin because I can't write the same thing every time I watch an «Avatar» film. This is getting absurd.

And yet I have no other choice: James Cameron has once again managed to show me with the third «Avatar» film how great cinema can be when someone not only wants it, but follows through without compromise. When running time doesn't scare you, pathos isn't a dirty word and spectacle doesn't mean that everything else goes under.

Well. Now I'm sitting here again. In front of a sober, grey screen. Outside, fog, winter and darkness. And just a few minutes ago I was on Pandora - on this glowing, shining moon that breathes in colours, that pulsates, that lives. Now I'm supposed to put it all into words.

As if it were that simple ...

A new starting point

«Avatar: Fire and Ash» is the first instalment in this series that not only amazes me, but really touches me. Not that it is any quieter than its predecessors. On the contrary. Rather, for the first time Cameron really dares to give his characters space before the spectacle takes over. Grief, family and inner fractures don't get in the way of the images here. They carry them.

Because the film picks up where «Avatar: The Way of Water» left off: The death of Neteyam, son of Jake Sully (Sam Worthington) and Neytiri (Zoe Saldana), lies like a shadow over them and their children. «Fire and Ash» does not turn this into a brief emotional hook, but rather its starting point: a family in mourning - and in danger of breaking apart because of this very pain.

Each character deals with this pain differently. Some withdraw, others react with anger, others cling to duties and responsibilities to avoid the pain. Cameron takes a surprising amount of time to show this inner disintegration without immediately dissolving it into action or new show values.

Parallel to this, the situation on Pandora intensifies once again. The humans are still there, still a threat. But an unexpected new force has arrived: a Na'vi tribe that is connected to fire and believes it has been abandoned by Eywa, the all-encompassing life force and deity of the moon. This is precisely what fuels their drive: to burn everything to the ground.

In fire and ashes.

The calm before the spectacle

It is precisely this restraint that makes «Fire and Ash» so surprisingly courageous. Because Cameron does something here that we haven't thought him capable of for a long time: He gives the characters the lead. At least at the beginning. He doesn't rush from set piece to set piece, but stays with his characters. Lets them grieve. Lets them argue. Lets them make mistakes without immediately drowning them out with visual fireworks.

This is remarkable - especially in the case of a director who has been accused for decades of his films being carried less by their stories than by their images. That emotion often arises from wonder, not from the characterisation.

«Fire and Ash» reverses this relationship, at least temporarily. And this is precisely what gives the film a new, unfamiliar heaviness: For the first time, Jake, Neytiri, their family, and yes, even Stephen Lang's Quaritch, don't feel like components of a world, but like people - or Na'vi - with real inner conflicts.

It is particularly strong that Cameron does not understand grief as something uniform. It is not a dramaturgical switch that is flipped once to generate motivation. It eats into each character to different depths. And it changes decisions. Relationships. Loyalties. «Fire and Ash» shows how quickly a family that holds together on the outside can start to fall apart on the inside - and how dangerous this state of affairs is in a world that is already on the brink of the next conflict.

It is only on this foundation that the spectacle unfolds its full effect. When new worlds, new cultures and new threats clash later on, it is not as an end in itself, but as a consequence of what has been built up beforehand. This makes the amazement feel less hollow. Less like a compulsory programme. That's a good thing.

Pandora in imbalance

The appearance of the fire tribe in «Fire and Ash» therefore doesn't feel like another exotic detour, but rather like a deliberate intensification. This tribe is not simply a new visual gimmick, not another variant of the Na'vi to marvel at and tick off. It stands for a world that has lost its inner cohesion. For a culture that believes it has been abandoned by the spirit of Pandora and has drawn a destructive conclusion from this.

Pandora itself changes its character as a result. The moon is no longer just a projection screen for beauty and harmony, but a system in imbalance. A place where even those who once lived in harmony with it are beginning to question its rules. Fire and ashes are not just an aesthetic leitmotif here, but the logical extension of the emotional ruptures that Cameron has previously established within the Sully family.

It is only at this point that the film is allowed to escalate again. The spectacle returns: bigger, louder and more overwhelming than ever. New worlds open up, new cultures collide, new threats exacerbate the situation. But this time, this escalation doesn't feel like a compulsory programme, because part 3 has to be bigger than part 2 - it feels prepared.

Deserved, even.

And then, of course, there's that other Cameron engine running at full speed again here: the unconditional urge to push the technical boundaries of cinema even further. Yep, «Fire and Ash» is another almost megalomaniacal attempt to redefine what is currently possible.

I mean: This visual language, the depth of detail, the way worlds, bodies, movement and light interact. It all seems not only bigger, but more precise. More controlled. As if Cameron had once again opened a toolbox that no one else has ever used. The now 71-year-old Canadian shows particularly clearly here what has always characterised him: His belief that cinema can do anything - as long as it builds on something.

A strong finale - with a familiar pattern

However, «Fire and Ash» is not entirely free of familiar patterns. In the final act, of all places, Cameron once again resorts to a dramaturgical trick that is all too familiar from the previous «Avatar» films. The escalation follows a structure that seems familiar - not wrong, not ineffective, but clearly recognisable. You can sense that this path has been tried and tested. Perhaps even too much.

This is remarkable in that the film has the courage to take its time for long stretches. To let the characters breathe. Not allowing conflicts to escalate immediately. It is precisely this patience that makes the middle section of «Fire and Ash» so strong and makes the finale seem a little more conventional than it should in direct comparison.

The showdown still works emotionally. The images are powerful, the tension high, the staging grandiose, the running time epic. But the surprise doesn't materialise. Anyone familiar with the franchise will have guessed the direction in which the dynamic will develop long before the film gets there. This doesn't detract from the emotional impact, but it does prevent «Fire and Ash» from taking the decisive step away from the familiar pattern towards something truly new at the last moment.

Luca Fontana

Senior Editor

Luca.Fontana@digitecgalaxus.ch

I write about technology as if it were cinema, and about films as if they were real life. Between bits and blockbusters, I’m after stories that move people, not just generate clicks. And yes – sometimes I listen to film scores louder than I probably should.

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