AVATAR: FIRE AND ASH

AVATAR: FIRE AND ASH, the third AVATAR movie, after losing their eldest son, Jake Sully and Neytiri face a new threat on Pandora, the Ash People, a violent, power-hungry tribe, led by a ruthless female warrior, that decides to side with the evil humans, while Jake still faces his old nemesis, Miles Quaritch, who wants to reconcile with his estranged son, Spider. AVATAR: FIRE AND ASH is sometimes impressive, but the movie’s much too long, with too many repetitious battles in the second half, which become tiring, and with lots of mumbo-jumbo about the impersonal, unseen nature goddess that the indigenous people and their dead ancestors worship.

The movie opens with Jake Scully, his wife, Neytiri, and their family mourning the recent death of their eldest son during the climactic battle with the “Sky People” from Earth in the second AVATAR movie. Their newly adopted human son, Spider, who’s the biological son of Jake’s dead nemesis, Colonel Miles Quaritch, is trying to find his way among his siblings. His siblings include another adopted orphan, a teenager named Kiri who’s the result of an alleged virgin birth with the late female scientist from the first movie, Grace Augustine. Kiri seems to have a special bond with the All-Mother, Eywa, the impersonal goddess who exists in Pandora’s plant life on the land and in the sea.

Since he’s human and not a blue Na’vi, Spider has to wear a breathing mask. Jake and his wife are worried that Spider’s not safe among the reef clan on the ocean where they’ve settled. So, a clan of “Wind Traders” agree to transport Spider and the family to the jungle habitat of another Na’vi clan, which harbors a group of rebel human scientists.

However, on their trip to the jungle habitat, they’re attacked by a clan called the Ash People, whose habitat was destroyed by a volcano. As a result, they and their leader, a female warrior named Verang, feel abandoned by the All-Mother, and no longer worship her.

Meanwhile, the Sky People from the decaying Earth and their military leader have regrouped after their defeat in the second movie. They are planning a second large attack, where they intend to subdue the indigenous population, including a group of intelligent whales, whose brains carry a substance that can stop human aging. The Earth people want to find a way for humans to breathe on Pandora without the use of oxygen masks so they can colonize Pandora.

At the same time, an alien/human hybrid clone with Colonel Quaritch’s memories has also regrouped after the battle in the second movie and intends to exact revenge against Jake. He hopes that, once Jake is dead, Quaritch’s son, Spider, will leave the Na’vi and join him.

Multiple plot twists occur, leading to another climactic battle between the Sky People and the people and creatures of Pandora.

As an epic science fiction adventure, AVATAR: FIRE AND ASH is sometimes impressive. However, it goes on much too long, there are too many characters, too many indigenous tribes, and the climactic battle in the movie’s last hour or so becomes repetitive and boring. Finally, although the movie focuses on Jake, his wife and their family, there are four surviving children, including Spider, plus the family’s alien friends and grandparents. Except for Spider and Kiri, there’s little character development among this cast of characters, and all the alien blue faces and weird alien names are off-putting. The movie’s middle section is more exciting, when Jake and Spider are captured and held in the large Sky People compound, and the family and the clans must rescue them, with some unexpected assistance by two or more sympathetic humans living in the compound.

Finally, AVATAR: FIRE AND ASH has a slightly mixed pagan worldview. The movie promotes family, but there’s a lot of false, mystical pagan religion about worshiping an impersonal distant nature goddess. In one scene after the big battle, the survivors gather around a sacred tree and commune with people who have died, including Scully’s dead son.

In Christianity, of course, believers have a close fellowship with God the Father through His son, Jesus Christ. In Genesis 3:8, Adam and Eve heard God walking through the Garden of Eden in the cool of the day. Gid was clearly expecting Adam and Eve to greet him. However, they are hiding from God, because they’ve disobeyed Him ad have eaten the forbidden fruit of the Tree of Knowledge. In contrast to Jesus, who’s the only visible, personal image of God (Colossians 1:15), the goddess in AVATAR: FIRE AND ASH is unseen and impersonal. However, the movie does mix this false paganism with some Christological allusions.