Review by Tim Robins
The conflict on Pandora escalates as Jake and Neytiri’s family encounter a new, aggressive Na’vi tribe…
WARNING: MILD POTENTIAL SPOILERS AHEAD
I am going to be upfront here, I hated Avatar: Fire and Ash right from its opening scenes. The film is told from the perspective of writer-director James Cameron. Frankly, Cameron needs to take off his rose tinted spectacles and see his story for what it is: not a subversion of America’s of Vietnam War, or of the treatment of First Nations’ people, but a ghastly resurrection of traditional “Cowboys and Indians” films complete with whooping, bows and arrows and dancing around camp fires.
Cameron’s response to negative criticism of the films’ higher than usual frame rate (48 frames as opposed to 24 per second) – “I think $2.3 billion says you might be wrong on that” – is far the win it appears to be. Rather, it undercuts whatever redemptive, anti-explotation message his films have. I now have the picture of Cameron as Scrooge McDuck swimming in a vault of money. That said, he hasn’t been afraid to splash the cash when it comes to the movie’s production values.
Avatar: Fire and Ash is undoubtedly spectacular, particularly the final, climactic battle between the “sky people” (us) and variously imagined others who inhabit the world of Pandora. When Cameron says that the film takes a hard left turn, he isn’t talking about the politics and the “advance” is in its characterisation of its cast.
I absolutely accept that I was drawn into the character dynamics of the Na’vi and Reef People and various hangers on. But, equally, I absolutely was appalled by the way their “primitive” culture was represented – including the characters’ stilted delivery of dialogue.I honestly wanted to get up and leave in the first ten minutes.
If you are going to see this film, I recommend boning up on the characters. I honestly couldn’t remember most of them, and the film didn’t help. Jake Sully (Sam Worthington) returns as the human turned Na’Vi avatar, Zoe Saldaña again plays his wife Omatikaya who, the actress says, has become a “full-blown racist”. Really, Saldaña? Not as much as the script.
If you doubt me on that point, watch how quickly characters start communicating with sign language, first with each other, then with the sea life. Still, Cameron manages to distinguish individual characters among a sprawling cast. Ben Travis reprises his role as “Spider” aka “monkey” but surprisingly not “spider monkey”. I enjoy Travis’s performance, despite his ‘trustifarian’ dreadlocks which would get him booted out of gigs around Brighton (for cultural appropriation, of course).
The standout character is Oona Chaplin as Varang, the leader of the fire people. Her facial performance, beneath layers of computer graphics, is compelling and persuasive. A scene in her tent during which she interrogates the villainous Colonel Quaritch (Stephen Lang) is a stand out moment as far as her character and cinematography and mis-en-scene are concerned. Alas, the big bad marine corps of sky people is entirely one dimensional.
I saw the film in 3D and it is certainly the 3Dest of 3D movies that I’ve seen. The scenes of flying on the backs of dragon-things are amazing. I still think the high frame rate turns backgrounds into paintings. On the whole, but not always, the film escapes the look of an elaborate diorama. And 3D can turn characters enjoying down time in the foreground into doll-like figures.
But the undoubted beauty of Avatar: Fire and Ash was blemished by its frankly racist representation of “the primitive other”. Not since Ewoks danced around a campfire or cowered at the levitating god C3PO have I seen such an unapologetic cliched representation of native folk. I just wondered what any First Nation peoples in Australia, Canada, New Zealand or the United States would make of this, especially the sloppy thinking going on by Cameron and, before him, George Lucus.
I just want to sit both directors down and say, “No! You are not re-addressing the representation of anyone, least of all the Viet-cong by serving up a cess pit of negative stereotypes”. Yuck. As it is, the ghosts of Hollywood past have risen like a Dark Phoenix from the ashes.
Avatar: Fire and Ash is wildly enjoyable and will undoubtedly make Cameron billions of dollars more, but only if the audience is prepared to watch in willful ignorance of the real history of our real planet.
Tim Robins
Avatar: Fire and Ash is in cinemas now
Dear reader, a review is an opinion. Other opinions are available, including yours
Head downthetubes for…
Official website: avatar.com
Includes “PANDORAPEDIA”, the official guide to Avatar
Discover the vision, the incredible artistry, and cutting-edge special effects that bring the planet of Pandora unforgettably to life.
The Avatar franchise is renowned for its astounding feats of technical innovation and breakthroughs in 3D filming, digital animation, and performance capture.
Produced in collaboration with James Cameron’s Lightstorm Entertainment, The Making of Avatar: Avatar, Avatar: The Way of Water, Avatar: Fire and Ash is packed with exclusive interviews with the franchise’s chief creators, stunning behind-the-scenes visuals from all three Avatar movies, and revelatory insights by crew and cast members.
Foreword by director James Cameron.
Avatar © 2025 20th Century Studios. All rights reserved.
- About the Author
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A freelance journalist and Doctor Who fanzine editor since 1978, Tim Robins has written on comics, films, books and TV programmes for a wide range of publications including Starburst, Interzone, Primetime and TV Guide.
His brief flirtation with comics includes ghost inking a 2000AD strip and co-writing a Doctor Who strip with Mike Collins. Since 1990 he worked at the University of Glamorgan where he was a Senior Lecturer in Cultural and Media Studies and the social sciences. Academically, he has published on the animation industry in Wales and approaches to social memory. He claims to be a card carrying member of the Politically Correct, a secret cadre bent on ruling the entire world and all human thought.
Categories: Animation, downthetubes News, Features, Film, Other Worlds, Reviews
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