Avatar: Fire and Ash – Movie Review (3/5) Posted by Karina "ScreamQueen" Adelgaard | Dec 16, 2025 | 5 min AVATAR: FIRE AND ASH is the third movie in the franchise from filmmaker James Cameron. For Avatar 3, the runtime is more than three hours, which makes it close to its prequel, but with a weaker story. Overall, it’s still an amazing sci-fi adventure that looks gorgeous. Read our full Avatar: Fire and Ash movie review here! AVATAR: FIRE AND ASH is finally coming to a theater near you, which means yet another three-hour-plus theater experience in 3D glasses. I’ve enjoyed this franchise from James Cameron from the beginning, but I also feel like the movies tend to be too long. Plus, they take way too long to be released. Prior to watching Avatar 3, I rewatched the second movie, Avatar: The Way of Water, which I recommend. Mostly because this third movie does pick up the story in the aftermath of its prequel, so it’s a good idea to brush up on it before watching this latest release. And if you want to watch this movie, it definitely deserves to be watched in a theater! Continue reading our Avatar: Fire and Ash movie review below. Find it in US theaters from December 19, 2025. From forests and water to fire and ash The story in Avatar: Fire and Ash picks up just a few weeks after the events of the previous movie. For this reason, the Sully family is still living with the water tribe, the Metkayina Clan, enjoying life in the picturesque reefs of Pandora. Well, as much as they can when also grieving the loss of their eldest son, Neteyam. While Mother Neytiri ( Zoe Saldaña ) is in mourning and honors her son’s life by remembering what he lived, his dad, Jake ( Sam Worthington ), has thrown himself into work. For Jake, that means getting ready for the next battle by gathering weapons. The younger brother Lo’ak (Britain Dalton), baby sister Tuk (Trinity Jo-Li Bliss), human bonus brother Spider ( Jack Champion ), and adopted oldest sister Kiri (Sigourney Weaver) are each doing their best to stick together while dealing with the passing of Neteyam. Spider is happy to be back with his chosen family, the Sullys, and enjoys life with the reef people. However, he still cannot breathe without an oxygen mask, and the Sully family is worried about his safety in the long term, so they want him to get back with other humans. The good ones, obviously, who reside in the “High Camp”. Save Spider and Jake Sully… several times A plan is put into action, but an attack by the Mangkwan Clan, also known as the Ash People, means it never works out as intended. The Mangkwan Clan is led by Varang (Oona Chaplin). Now, the Sully family and everyone they are affiliated with are battling not only the RDA (the human getting ready to colonize Pandora), but also the Ash People. And yes, for Miles Quaritch ( Stephen Lang ), it’s still all about getting Jake Sully… but also getting his own biological son, Spider. If you get to the core of the Avatar: Fire and Ash plot, it does become the story of saving Spider and/or Jake Sully. And then saving them again. And maybe just one more time. In that sense, it does get quite repetitive and results in several battles. There’s always someone to save or avenge… over and over again. For this reason alone, I preferred Avatar: The Way of Water. Also, I feel they compromise the whole “respect nature and all animals” a tad too much for this third movie. Some of the creatures that help with transportation are certainly not given much love, respect, or acknowledgement of their suffering, which was very strange to me. Darker than ever With Avatar: Fire and Ash, the franchise gets darker than ever. Until now, we’ve mostly seen Pandora as a planet full of natural splendor and vibrant colors. Even the native people, the Na’vi, have either blue or green skin tone. Of course, the sky people (which are human beings from planet Earth) are doing what we do best: Ruin everything! This means ever more of Pandora is turning into the industrial black and grey while we cut down trees, burn land, and kill wildlife. Especially the latter was a big part of the plot in Avatar: The Way of Water, as whale-like creatures were hunted for one small part of their body. With Avatar: Fire and Ash, we meet a rogue tribe of Na’vi. They’ve seen the destruction of humans and despise them, but also feel abandoned by Eywa, their Mother Nature Goddess, and have turned away from life and nature. Instead, they worship fire and the destruction it can create. A classic case of radicalization, but told in a very different way. This makes for a much darker Pandora story, as this tribe lives on barren and burned land. They don’t strictly have to, but it suits their style and worldview, so they stay. It’s much more like something out of Mad Max than Avatar, so the contrast is huge. Watch Avatar: Fire and Ash in theaters James Cameron is, of course, still the director of Avatar 3: Fire and Ash, and it continues to be his big dream. It is, admittedly, a visually stunning world, and while I don’t watch much in 3D these days, it was a good theater experience for me. And yet, I also feel like watching this third Avatar movie felt like a sci-fi mix-and-match experience, borrowing from many other iconic genre movies. Early on, they’re going to a market of sorts, and it felt like something out of a Star Wars movie (or series, even). Of course, Avatar is also a sci-fi adventure, so it makes sense that a deja vu moment could arise. However, there’s also an even heavier cultural appropriation vibe than ever before. Many of these Na’vi tribes are heavily (grotesquely almost) inspired by First Nation peoples or tribes from especially Africa and North America. As an LGBTQ+ person, I have no problem speaking about queer representation done right or wrong. Nothing to report there. A woman is even leading the Ash People to avoid a possible gay vibe. However, as a white Scandinavian, I can’t say if borrowing from these native tribes is done right. It did irk me on several occasions, though. Bottom line: I do enjoy the amazing movie theater experience of watching these Avatar movies. The story isn’t brilliant for Avatar: Fire and Ash, but it does still entertain. My only regret is that James Cameron is spending decades on this one franchise, when he could’ve made so many other movies in that same time. Avatar: Fire and Ash is out in US theaters from December 19, 2025. Details Director: James CameronScreenplay: James Cameron & Rick Jaffa & Amanda SilverStory: James Cameron & Rick Jaffa & Amanda Silver & Josh Friedman & ShaneCast: Sam Worthington, Zoe Saldaña, Sigourney Weaver, Stephen Lang, Oona Chaplin, Cliff Curtis, Joel David Moore, CCH Pounder, Edie Falco, David Thewlis, Jemaine Clement, Giovanni Ribisi, Britain Dalton, Jamie Flatters,Trinity Jo-Li Bliss, Jack Champion, Brendan Cowell, Bailey Bass, Filip Geljo, Duane Evans, Jr., Kate Winslet Plot “Avatar: Fire and Ash,” the third film in the phenomenally successful “Avatar” franchise, opens exclusively in theaters worldwide December 19, 2025. James Cameron takes audiences back to Pandora in an immersive new adventure with Marine turned Na’vi leader Jake Sully (Sam Worthington), Na’vi warrior Neytiri (Zoe Saldaña), and the Sully family. 📺 Watch trailer Source: https://www.heavenofhorror.com/reviews/avatar-fire-and-ash-2025/