Avatar: Fire and Ash

Rated PG-13 • Theaters

Avatar: Fire and Ash is the third installment in James Cameron’s multibillion-­dollar science-fiction film franchise that draws crowds with over-the-top special effects.

In the original Avatar (2009), audiences met the Na’vi, a blue-skinned forest-dwelling alien race devoted to living in harmony with their planet and their pantheistic mother goddess Eywa. The sequel, The Way of Water (2022), introduced a new tribe of peaceable green-skinned Na’vi who live on the reefs. In Fire and Ash, a brutal clan of Na’vi known as the Ash People shows up. They’ve turned their backs on Eywa, only worshipping power.

Jake Sully (Sam Worthington) and his family remain at the center of the conflict. Fire and Ash begins with Jake’s wife Neytiri (Zoe Saldaña) grieving for the son she lost in the second film. The family is still on the run from the human military, but the presence of a human companion complicates their lives. When the humans make an alliance with the Ash People, all of Pandora is at risk.

I’ve never been a big fan of the Avatar movies with their eco-babble, nature worship, and preachy condemnation of the West’s military dominance, but I must admit Fire and Ash is probably the best one so far. The presence of the Ash People gives this installment some much needed nuance, complicating the earlier ­movies’ simplistic moralism that viewed indigenous people as “good” and colonizers as “bad.”

But viewers might get a sense of déjà vu because many of the plot points and action sequences in this 195-minute film recycle moments from The Way of Water. Some fan should produce an unauthorized cut that condenses the two films into one streamlined movie.

Cameron has promised five Avatar movies, so where does he go from here? We now have Na’vi who ride the wind, surf the waves, and play with fire. Will we next meet dirt Na’vi who live in caves?