Review | Avatar: Fire and Ash movie review – stunning visuals carry breathless third instalment
Avatar: Fire and Ash sees the Na’vi again fighting for survival in an action-packed sequel that introduces Pandora’s menacing Mangkwan clan
4/5 stars
How you will react to Avatar: Fire and Ash (also known as Avatar 3) is very much dependent on your feelings towards its predecessors.
In this beautiful bioluminescent land that is a wonder of visual effects, Cameron returns us to the world of the blue-skinned Na’vi creatures, as well as Jake Sully (Sam Worthington), the ex-Marine who crossed over and now lives with his indigenous family.
True to Sully’s promise that “this world goes much deeper than you imagine”, the film moves beyond the Reef people introduced in The Way of Water – including Kate Winslet’s pregnant, free-diving character Ronal – to reveal a more primal group: the volcanic-land-dwelling Mangkwan clan.
Sully’s former employers, the profiteering RDA, are desperate to colonise the planet, regardless of the atmosphere’s toxicity to humans. With Sully labelled “a traitor to the human race”, the unhinged Colonel Miles Quaritch (Stephen Lang) once again leads the charge.