The visuals are stunning—that you can probably guess. Not all are perfect: too many, intentionally, have the herky-jerky quality of a first-person shooter video game. But others have a tactility that renders the descriptor “photo-realistic” inadequate. Most movies traffic in suspension of disbelief. In Avatar: Fire and Ash, some images damn near feel real.

The story is perfunctory—that you can also probably guess. Three installments and more than nine hours in, Earth’s colonizers, led by Miles Quaritch (Stephen Lang), war against Pandora’s natives, led by Jake Sully (Sam Worthington) and Neytiri (Zoe Saldaña), have become so repetitive it’s baffling to think writer-director James Cameron has two more installments up his sleeve.

Still, the world of Pandora grows little by little. The Na’vi and the Metkayina now face a new enemy, the Mangkwan—led by Varang (Oona Chaplin)—who are willing to align with Quaritch and the settlers in hopes of inflicting punishment on any native still believing in that old-time religion.

Cameron rehashes the conflicts of the previous installments and finds paper-thin reasons for pacifistic creatures to embrace violence—violence they are more than capable of inflicting. The peace-loving Tulkuns get in on the massacre, and Jake once again saddles the blazing red banshee for Cameron’s orgiastic battle of sky and sea and land. Oh, what a slaughter it is for humans and Pandorans alike—one the audience is allowed to enjoy because Jake and his cohorts first resist in dialogue, then engage in action, making Cameron arguably the most American filmmaker of the century.

Avatar: Fire and Ash (2025)
Directed by James Cameron
Screenplay by James Cameron, Rick Jaffa, Amanda Silver
Story by James Cameron, Rick Jaffa, Amanda Silver, Shane Salerno
Produced by James Cameron, Jon Landau
Starring: Sam Worthington, Zoe Saldaña, Stephen Lang, Kate Winslet, Sigourney Weaver, Oona Chaplin, Jack Champion, Edie Falco, Giovanni Ribisi, Jemaine Clement, Britain Dalton
20th Century Studios, Rated PG-13, Running time 197 minutes, Opens Dec. 17, 2025

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