“The water taught them peace. The fire will test their soul.”
I don’t really have to tell you what Avatar is. If you haven’t heard of it by now, I have only one question to ask of you: how was that coma? Ever since he cleaned up at the box office with Titanic, James Cameron has been planning this movie series. The only trouble was that the technology to make it did not exist. Most filmmakers would have either tried anyway, or simply waited until the hardware caught up with their imaginations. Not James Cameron. He decided to invent the equipment himself. The result is a 3D filming process that allows for the most realistic images you likely have ever seen on a movie screen. He combined the new process and equipment with new state-of-the-art computer-generated technology. The result is a movie that was truly the first of its kind. It was a huge risk for Cameron. A lot of money went into not only making the film, but the technology development. In many ways Avatar was really an audition film. The technology continued to improve, and two years ago we got the second film, Avatar: The Way Of Water. The film explored more areas of Pandora, and now another two years later, we have Avatar: Fire And Ash.
At the press screening we also were treated to a bonus feature that started with Cameron scolding us that computers did not make Avatar. You see, it’s digital makeup. Of course, I get that we are seeing actual performances captured by … well … computers. They live in environments completely created in … well … computers. We all know better that that, James, but thanks for playing. And thanks for turning a 3 hour and 15 minute movie into a solid 3 ½ hour film. Let me know where to send the bill for my time.
And time really is the problem here. Once again you will be captivated by some of the best computer graphics you have ever seen. The movie is a technological breakthrough even beyond the first two films. It is stunning, and the world-building he does here is nothing short of amazing. There is no question about that, and these visuals are well worth the price of admission. After all, you will be entertained. But let’s get back to that issue of time, shall we?
The events of The Way Of Water left the core characters from the previous two films devastated. They are mourning the death of Netayam. In fact, that’s how the film begins. You likely know that no one really dies on Pandora. They are all connected by these luminescent fibers that exist everywhere. You connect, and you are spending a day of adventure with your dead brother. The rest of the family is growing. Jake Sully (Worthington) is a human who has been downloaded into a native body, and he lives as a Pandorian now. He is married to Neytiri (Saldana), and they have children, one of which is the reincarnated “soul” of the human character played in the first film (by Sigourney Weaver). She’s growing and looking more and more like that alien fighter with every year. There’s Lo’ak (Dalton) and Tuk (Bliss). They have also adopted the human, Spider (Champion) who wants very much to fit in with the Pandora clan. He knows he’s different, and part of his journey in this film is an evolution closer to the Pandora family. It doesn’t help that the family is being hunted down by the humans who continue to rape the oceans, killing the large whale-like sentient creatures. They are also hunting Sully and Spider and don’t care who gets hurt along the way. Here the film repeats too many beats from the first film, almost playing out scene for scene. Col. Quaritch (Lang) is also a downloaded native, and he’s got a bug up his butt for Sully and wants Spider back, and almost the same story of exchanges and threats take over the climax of this film, with the same kind of carnage and narrow escapes we saw the last time. There is indeed more story here, but much of it is recycled from the last. Edie Falco, our Soprano mob boss wife, is the more interesting big bad here, and she adds the most new bang for the buck here.
What new stuff we do get comes from Quaritch making a new ally in the Ash Tribe. And the true standout performance comes from this new ally, who has a bit of magic and mystery and leads the Ash people with an iron fist of fear. She’s Varang, and she’s played by Oona Chaplin. This is where the new real drama comes from, but it takes us so long to get there. You see? It always comes back to time. It looks great with the exception of his odd shift in frame rate that was jarring the last time and remains so again. Sometimes there is so much going on on the screen you can’t possibly see it all. There’s a lot of vanity here, and maybe if I could do what James Cameron can do, I’d show off, too. I’d like to believe I could pull it back a little. Maybe about 45 minutes worth. Time. I thought it would fly by. “I was wrong.”
