Avatar Fire And Ash

While the Sully family grieves the loss of one of their children, the conflict continues to escalate on Pandora, as the greedy and entitled human invaders, and their new allies, the bloody thirsty Na’vi clan known as the Ash People, team up in order to… do something evil, I think. Steal stuff. Probably kill stuff too.

I’m an Avatar Hater.

I waited until Avatar Fire And Ash was streaming for free before I watched it, because I didn’t want to pay to see it. Sure, hate is probably too strong a word for my feelings about a silly little sci-fi movie. I’m actually pretty ambivalent about it, all in all, but whatever, close enough. However you want to phrase it, it all comes down to the same thing...

I just don’t like the Avatar films.

You wouldn’t be blamed for being surprised by this. Knowing me, knowing the things I generally like, on the face of it, Avatar should be my kind of thing. I love James Cameron’s stuff. He’s got a filmmaking style and aesthetic that I really like. The Terminator films and Aliens alone would make him an all-timer for me. And Avatar is his big passion project, so he’s all in on it, which I appreciate. It’s nice to see a creator able to truly indulge their vision, and he definitely does that here. He has total freedom with these movies, which is really cool. I like that for him. I'm just not a fan of the end-product. It’s not that Avatar is a “bad” film either, or that it’s a terribly written story. It’s not. It’s competently done, narrative-wise, if not a bit obvious, but for what it is, sure, it’s well-told. And it definitely looks good too. There's no denying that at all. The Avatar movies look amazing.

But…

It’s just such trite, melodramatic nonsense. The whole thing is the most dull and shallowly profound “naturalist“ message wrapped in an uninteresting re-packaging of the worn-out White Savior/Magical Native trope. Even worse, it’s the exact kind of hippy-dippy bullshit you‘d expect to hear from a smugly self-satisfied, extremely wealthy white guy, most likely while he's standing on his veranda, dressed in loose-fitting white cotton shirt and pants and huarache sandals that were “handwoven by actual indiginous peoples," while sipping on a glass of white wine and pontificating on the importance of being "one with nature" all as automatic sprinklers come on across their expansive verdant grounds. It's annoying and tedious and eye-rollingly bombastic. And even worse, this oh so important message is coming out of some of the absolute dumbest-looking CGI cartoon faces too. The dumbest-looking cartoon faces, set in a Planetarium laser-light show/Prog Rock album cover world, all while they have machine gun fights on flying dragons.

It’s just The Worst.

And sure, from that last bit above, on its own, it sounds like this should be awesome, right? I agree, I consume this kind of sci-fi/fantasy nonsense all the time and something like this would definitely catch my attention, but here, I just don’t like any of the choices these films make.

Because of that, because these films are not my thing, while watching them, they all feel so god damn long. Now, I'm not one of those weirdos who’ll say dumb shit like "All movies should be 90 minutes long!" I mean, I agree that 90 minute films shouldn't be 3 hours long, but if you are saying 3 hour films shouldn't be 3 hours, then I think you're wrong. I think a story should have the time it needs to fully tell its tale. Obviously your tolerance will depend on whether you actually like the film when they’re that long, and clearly, I have zero issue with three hour comicbook movies, especially in the MCU. But when it comes to the Avatar movies, I don't like them, so I feel every minute. Every. Single. Minute.

But most of all… I hate the Na’vi’s stupid faces.

But if we’re being serious here... the racism really is a big problem.

People will dismiss it or ignore it because it's a silly sci-fi story centered on fake aliens, and because it’s not “mean-spirited” or whatever, but that doesn’t make it any less malignant. In fact, some might argue that this makes it more malicious, that the metaphor does more harm by white-washing its racist foundations, by the way that it acts like this is all normal, that its all based on "real life," that it's just "how it is," like it's all common sense. It's the presumption that this is all coming from a place of truth. And sure, I do think that this racism is mostly unintentional, but that's not actually an important consideration. If I smash your car on accident, does that make me any less responsible? No. So it doesn't matter if you're a well-intentioned racist, you're still being racist, and the implicit biases that are part and parcel of this whole franchise are a problem.

It's even worse, honestly, that it's all so smugly self-assured of its righteousness. That it all stems from an incredible amount of privilege, entitlement, and a blissful lack of self-awareness makes it extra annoying on top of being really shitty. When you watch this shit it's clear that James Cameron—due to his extreme wealth and his extreme fame, as well as the racial realities of America—lives in a bubble that exists outside of the real world. It’s a bubble where when he talks, regardless of the subject matter, or his own familiarity or expertise, everyone listens, everyone nods emphatically along, and no one ever pushes back. It is a bubble where his brand of social consciousness is based solely in his own white savior self-belief, a wisdom born of a friction-less life, "simple solutions for simple problems" reguarly handed down like he's this wise sage of the mountaintop, instead of an ignoramous asking in all seriousness, as if it were patently obvious. “Why don’t people who are living in poverty just buy a house in a nicer area?” Shut up, man.

It's a sense of confidence that is filtered through an ever-present cushioning cocoon of Yes Men that someone like Cameron is incapable of seeing. It’s a lifetime of automatic doors whooshing open for him that he believes are vault doors he has cracked through his own astounding merit. It's a common attitude, and the kind of day-to-day reality those of us who live outside of the bubble are familiar with. This reality is what drove the storm of “non-profit board on a retreat” jokes online after Kristen Bell posted that dinner party picture. And to be clear, this doesn't mean that James Cameron is necessarily a bad person, just that this is who he is, that he can be no other way, and that, due to the world he lives in, he unavoidably has his head way up his own ass, so yeah, he's probably pretty tedious to talk to about this kind of stuff. But whatever, that's just how some people are, right, and most of all, it doesn't matter, because the fact remains, good intentions or not…

The depictions of the Na'vi in the Avatar franchise belong in the same category with all of the other racist portrayals of indigenous people and their cultures that were made by Hollywood over the years.

And that sucks.

Don't agree? Ask yourself… why do the Na’vi speak in cliched ”broken English” accents? Why don't they have accents like white people from Boston? Or people from Minnesota? “Oh, jeez, I don’t know about being this whole Toruk Makto, y’know. I mean, gosh, that’s not really the kind of thing we do where I’m from, dontcha know.” Why is it weird to imagine the Na’vi saying things like “Get the fuck outta heah! Fuckin’ Sky People! These fucking guys, comin’ down here, thinkin’ they’re better than us… Fuckin’ skeezahs!” That's weird, right? It's silly, right? And yet, for some reason, it’s not weird to have the Na’vi, this completely made up species, with a completely made up culture, on a completely made up planet, doing the Haka, and talking in a mix of cliche Indigenous accents meets AAVE accents? That's not weird?

It’s even worse, because yes, there are times where the characters are all speaking English, and there are times when the characters are all speaking the dumb made-up Na‘vi language, but there are definitely times where it seems like the characters are supposed to be speaking Na’vi, but to make it easier on the audience, they’re all just speaking English, so the question then becomes, whenever this is happening, when the characters are all speaking Na’vi, but we’re hearing it in english, why do they still have those accents? On top of that, why does Jake even say “sky people” at all? He’s from Earth! Why doesn’t he say human or earthling? Why didn't he teach his children those words?

And speaking of his children...

Worst of all is the question of why Kiri speaks with the clear diction of an English speaking native. In the story, she’s the reincarnation of Sigourney Weaver’s human character, so as a result, I guess, she not only doesn't speak with a "broken english" accent, she doesn't speak in a low-key AAVE accent either, despite her mother and siblings all speaking in those accents. Why?

I'll tell you why.

For all intents and purposes, Kiri is "educated.” She was born as a result of some kind of sci-fi tree-based reincarnation immaculate concept, which means she was born with “superior” genes, so she speaks English like a native english speaker. So, basically, due to her having the benefit of a "civilized" background/education, she doesn’t speak like a savage, she speaks like a human from Earth, a "superior" being. That's it. That's the whole thing. That's her whole character.

And this is the whole problem.

Because the base issue is that all of these details are specific choices that were deliberately made by a white guy fetishizing indigenous cultures, and as a result, the Na'vi all act and speak the way they do, because to the rich white guy “that’s how natives are" and he never hears how dehumanizing that is, because he doesn't think of them as humans, and no one in his circle confronts him with this. So, instead, it’s a fetish. A costume. It’s all the “Magical Native Trope” that acts like it’s “honoring” other cultures, all while the "bad guys" talk about "taking scalps." It's only from the point of view of “look how clean these savages are!” which is meant as a compliment in the same way that complimenting a person “who doesn‘t look American” on how well they speak English is. That's racism. It's no different from when the bigots go on and on about "hard-working, blue collar everyday people" and yet they are only talking about white people, as if white people are the only blue collar workers. It's the knee-jerk assumption that they are the center point, the peak, that they are "normal" and everyone who is different is an aberration, a lesser version of them. It’s the same attitude that created the term “Third World Countries,” and its the reason why wealthy people look to have “real experiences” by going on sightseeing poverty tours.

It's basically this kind of shit.

And I get it. I do. I really do. I totally understand. I live in America. I grew up on these Hollywood movies. I'm a huge Star Wars fan. I grew up in more and more predominantly white areas, in white culture, raised by white people, I understand that it's not always deliberate, that it's learned culture, instinctual, and that it's not only work to recognize these implicit bias that literally saturate every single facet of our culture, but even stain our very language, it's also work to push back against them. Like, I said... I get it. Plus, if there’s one thing we have plenty of here, it’s causally shitty white savior narratives from well-intentioned white guys in all their various and sundry packaging. Another thing that we have no end of is Americans relying on the casual exoticization of other cultures in the name of creating “alien” cultures. Believe me, as a white person that white America does not consider to be white, I’m aware of how casually and inherently racist the sci-fi/fantasy genre can be, as well as the culture that assumes that they are the target audience can be. So Avatar isn’t special for being this way, that's not what I'm saying, I'm saying this mostly likely unintentional and unaware racism is still racism, and that it's the entire unavoidable basis of the story. Impossible to ignore. Bone-deep. Completely inseparable from the concept.

Like fucking Spider…

Spider, the annoying white kid with blonde dreadlocks from the last film, the walking definition of cultural appropriation—although presented in the story like that's a good thing—and even worse, this time, he is even more central to the story, so much so it's fair to say that his role in this story is the main thrust of the movie, not to mention the potential future of the franchise. The idea that Cameron would add a white kid with a Na'vi fetish as a character, and then make him central to the story of the Na-vi's struggle?

God damn, is that ever just par for the fucking course.

And so, that's my problem with the Avatar franchise. The White Centering is too prominent to be ignored, on top of the fact that, the whole time, these films feel too much like you're watching an old cartoon about Native Americans. So yeah, this is a negative review, just in case you weren’t sure.

So…

The death of Jake and Neytiri's eldest son Neteyam has left the Sully family untethered in their grief, and Neytiri with an ever-growing hatred toward the human who have invaded her home.

The mostly means that she fucking hates Spider, who lives with them, making Neytiri my favorite character. Because Spider isn't just an annoying piece of shit, he's also a constant pain in the ass. When his breathing mask runs out of power during his sleep... again... because humans can't breathe the air on Pandora, which is part of the reason they use their Avatars, Neytiri has had enough, and to Jake is like: "Get that little pink-skinned fucker out of here, or you'll be sleeping in the living-room hammock." Jake decides to send Spider back to live with their friends in the rebel human camp, but his kids throw a giant whiny fit, so in a "bad parent" panic, he announces that actually the plan was that the whole family is going to "accompany" Spider to the camp. Family trip! Hooray! Everyone is happy, except Neytiri who gives Jake "the look" and it's then he knows that he will definitely be sleeping in the living room hammock for the foreseeable future.

The Scullys and Spider catch a ride on a Na'vi merchant convoy that looks like a bunch of whales, with whicker ships on their back, who fly by inflating some kind of mucus membrane like big balloons, I think, because Pandora is a gross place. I bet it's super humid too. Gross. Anyway, this whole sky-ship sequence is pointless, nothing but Cameron nerding out over yet another facet of Pandora he dreamed up, probably while doing peyote while "camping" in Joshua Tree, and is mostly a great excample of why sometimes you really should kill your darlings.

Although, to be fair, the convoy does serve the purpose of introducing the bad guys, Mangkwan raiders, an aggressive Na'vi clan called the Ash people. They are led by a slinky little homicidal dom sex-kitten matriarch, Varang, and they swoop out of the sky to ambush the convoy. There's lots of hissing like cats, and "yelling like natives" and running and explosions...

Simultaneously, a gaggle of Private Military Contractor types in the employ of the evil corporation that wants to plunder Pandora of its resources–all of whom have their own Na'vi cat-suits now, but still wear human stuff like vests and sunglasses–led by Miles Quaritch, join the fray. They are looking to capture Jake, who they see as the rebel Na'vi leader, and during the ensuing fight, they do just that. But, Jake manages to convince Quaritch to let him go, as Spider is actually Quaritch's kid, and he and all of Jake's children scattered in the chaos, so he convinces Quaritch to help him find the kids.

Unfortunately, Spider's air-mask runs out of power... again... And it's like, oh no, drama, he's going to die. But instead of letting him, and making the movie better, Jake's adopted daughter Kiri, because she looooooooves Spider so much, uses her obviously super-powerful plant magic–powers that she doesn't realize she has, but the audience has been waiting for her to start using since the beginning of the last movie–to infuse Spider's body with mycelia, giving him the ability to breathe the air on Pandora. This is Spider's dream come true, and also a potential holy grail to the evil corproation, as the basic reason they've had trouble conquering the planet is rooted in the fact that they can't breathe the air without having a ton of support, adding expensive vulnerabilities to their campaign.

So... the film's main plot point is that this kid is slowly turning into a hybrid Na'vi, a new twist on the already iffy avatar body metaphor, this time specifically meant for weirdo overt cultural appropriation fetishists like Cameron, an idea that I don't even want to start to unpack, but suffice to say, if you thought I was being too harsh by implying that Cameron lives in a bubble of Yes Men and wealth and fame with his white savior head firmly up his own ass... This. This is the proof. This moment right here.

I can't believe they're actually doing this. I can't believe nobody said anything about this at any point during this production. Or maybe they did, I don't know. Maybe they did and they were ignored, whatever, doesn't matter, because here it is. They're doing it. god damn... The caucasity. The little motherfucker actually starts growing one of those Na'vi dick-braids out of the back of his head too.

Jay-sus Christ. Good fucking lord. Unbelievable.

Anyway, the Ash People capture everyone, Spider, the kids, Jake, and Quaritch. Quaritch immediately wants to fuck Varang, because admittedly, she's got a pretty sexy vibe going on, so he's like "You wanna see my gun?" and she's "Fuck yeah, I do." And then he shows it to her.

With the Ash People all distracted by the heady miasma of Quaritch and Varang's sexual tension, Kiri uses her plant powers and everyone escapes.

Finally making it to the rebel human scientists, the heroes figure out that Spider's mycelia could be reverse engineered to allow other humans to breathe on Pandora, and they finally state out loud the obvious problem that this will bring, just in case someone in the audience wasn't already aware. Meanwhile, Kiri learns that she was born from the big planet-tree, and she tries to connect with it, but the planet-tree is screening its calls. Meanwhile, Quaritch gives guns and flamethrowers to Varang and the Ash People in exchange for forming an alliance, then he and Varang hump, which I imagine is a lot of knees and elbows and accidentally getting tangled up in each other's penis-braids.

Later, as Kiri and Spider are thinking about making out a bit themselves, now that Spider has a penis-braid of his own, Quaritch shows up in Ash People war-paint, stinking of sex, and captures Spider and Jake.

While they're at the corporate base, Quaritch tries to be all "cool dad" with Spider by giving him a hamburger, but Spider is like "No, dad, I'm a Na'vi now! I only eat plants!" and then pouts in the corner because his dad doesn't get it, man. He just doesn't get it. It's so hard being authentic, y'know? Meanwhile, heaving a big sigh, Neytiri is like "I guess I gotta fucking do everything," and she flies to the corporate base, breaks in, kills a bunch of colonizers, rescues Jake and tells him that he has to kill Spider, so his mycelia can't be used on other humans, because she's the only cool and good character in the whole franchise, but in the end she betrays us all, and decides that Spider can live, and that now they're all a big family.

Booooooo!

Meanwhile, Jake's son Lo'ak reminds us that those pacifist Pandora whales from the last movie still exist, and the movie's plot suddenly becomes all about the evil corporate whalers still looking to kill the Pandora whales for their blubber I think. At that point, it's like, oh shit, the bad guys are coming, so the endings of the last two movies are combined into one climatic battle where all of nature is once again like "fuck you, corporations!" And oh, how the orchestra swells! In the end, Kiri's plant magic finally connects with the planet-tree and all the plants and previously dead characters assure Spider that he's a for real Na'vi just like everyone else, and that it doesn't matter if people say that he's just some creepy little white boy Na'vi-phile or whatever, because he's an official true-blue Na'vi.

Everybody celebrates.

This stupid movie...

At this point, despite the inclusion of the future tech of the humans, the Avatar franchise seems to have turned into more of a classic fantasy story than a big sci-fi film. It's all magic and destinies and prophecized warriors and ancient beings, with all the classically silly fantasy world names, the conflict-causing nuances of all the made-up cultures, and the over-expository dialogue, all with the added bonus of a “podcaster bro” style of voice-over kind of narration. It's a bloated tale of overly-familiar story beats, all delivered exactly as expected, exactly when expected, and in the most heavy-handed illustration of how "the path of hate only destroys." It’s basically all the most tedious aspects of the Star Wars mythos turned up to 11, the worst kind of Jedi nonsense presented like deepest of wisdoms.

But those kind of over-arching complaints aside, I think Avatar Fire And Ash's main problem is that it repeats the same story beats from the last two films, while also suddenly deciding that Spider is actually the most important character. Also, it's weird how they dropped the idea that the humans are searching for valuable minerals. I mean, wasn't the big joke with the first film the fact that people didn't know that Unobtanium was a real term? But with the second film, and then in this film, it's now all about how the humans are hunting the Pandora whales for their awesome ambergris (which isn't quite whale poop, but basically is). I wonder if that was due to Cameron getting tired of dummies making Unobtanium jokes?

Either way, that's the whole issue... Avatar Fire And Ash is not just overly-long, self-indulgent, too obvious, and weirdly racist, it's also dull because it's repeating itself. And it's not just repeating itself from the previous two movies, it's repeating itself within the movie itself. It's the same story beats over and over again. Time for battle! Oh no, they're captured. Then they’re saved. Time for battle! Oh no, they're captured. Then they’re saved. Time for battle! Oh no, they're captured. Then they’re saved. Time for battle! Tree Magic! The end.

Over-indulgence is the watch-word of this franchise.

Also, there's a scene early on where the heroes and the rest of the Na'vi tribe are arguing about the morality of using guns, and Jake and Spider and the others keep pointing loaded weapons all over the place while they're arguing, even directly at the rest of the tribe, but it's not in a threatening way, it’s in an irresponsible, very dangerous way. As a testament to how the performances of actors on green screen stages can be hobbled due to an unavoidable inability to see the environments they are in, none of the other characters eve react as Jake and the others point machine guns directly at them from four feet away, while wildly gesticulating in agitation.

In short, these films are plagued by issues, big and small, that I can't ignore.

And yet, I am obviously in the minority. The first film won the Oscar for Best Cinematography and Production Design. All three have the Oscar for Best Special Effects. All three have had multiple nominations. Avatar Fire And Ash was named as one of the top ten films of 2025 by the American Film Institute and the National Board of Review. So take my response with a grain of salt, I guess. After all, I am an avowed Avatar Hater.

Still, I just don’t understand why these films make so much money.

Like I said, they’re not terrible or anything. They’re definitely well-made films. There’s a lot of craft and skill here, and the effects are definitely impressive, but are they really that good? Why do they make billions? Billions? These three films combined have made nearly 7 billion dollars worldwide. 7 billion! Obviously, these films are not my thing, mostly because I find them to be bland and dull, and I don't connect with any of the characters, and I find the story to be nothing but unearned drama and, at best, they're by a blissfully ignorant wealthy white man incapable of understanding just how fucking racist this shit is... but still, I recognize that they’re generally well-made films. But billions? Billions?

I don’t get it.

I just don’t get it.

That said, Avatar Fire And Ash was only ("only") the third-highest-grossing film of 2025, making just over 400 million domestically, that's just over less than half of what the first film made, and nearly 300 million shy of the second one. Obviously, this is still a ridiculously huge amount of money, but that's a signifigant downward trend, and Cameron has stated that he'll only make 4 and 5 if the people want it, so with this film and the last both reporting nearly half a billion dollar production budgets each, in this modern world where the theatre experience is dying, will the studios want to risk that kind of cash? Even when it's Cameron, the one guy you don't bet against, as proven by his track record? Who knows? But I'm betting no. Either way, I hope not. I'd like to see him ditch this franchise.

I’d rather see him make The Devils.

The Devils is a fantasy novel by Joe Abercrombie.

Set in an alternate-history magical medieval world, where the Christ was born a woman and died upon a wheel, and the East-West Schism centers on the question of whether or not a young girl child, who was recently made Pope, is actually the Second Coming, the Church in Rome has a secret order know as the Chapel of the Holy Expediency, a kind of suicide squad of sinners who’ve been bound in service to the Church. The story follows a monk newly appointed as the Chapel's shepherd, a role with a short life expectancy, who is aided by immortal and unkillable knight and a rogueish Jack-of-all-trades, to ride herd on a Nordic werewolf, an ancient vampire, a gentleman necromancer, and a modern traditional mythical version of an elf, all of whom are tasked to escort a former orphan, a common thief who was found on the streets of Rome, to Troy, where she‘ll assume her long-lost birth-rite as heir to the throne. Along the way, they are set upon by the monstrous forces of her aunt and her cousins, an army of hybrid human/animals warriors twisted by magic and science, who is bent on making sure none of them ever reach Troy.

It’s a good time.

Anyway, Cameron read the novel and he bought the rights. I loved the book. Abercrombie is one of my favorite fantasy writers right now, so this is good news to me. I know I would love to see a giant pig men in armor fighting a viking werewolf, but maybe that's me. Maybe everyone else would rather see more Avatar.

Whatever.

In the end, despite it's many issues, the biggest problem with this franchise is that it's so bland. The Avatar movies are nothing more the cinematic equivalent of what is admittedly a pretty good fireworks show, but that's all it is... a fireworks show. And it goes on for way too long.

If there is a fourth one, I won't bother watching it.