Whatever you do, just never bet against “Titanic” mastermind James Cameron! Just a few days before the release of “Avatar – Departure for Pandora” we were actually just wondering how big the flop would be given the rumored $500 million budget when we saw the strange blue creatures jumping around in the trailer. The result: more than 2.9 billion box office sales – to this day number 1 of the highest-grossing films of all time!
13 years later the same thing: We ask ourselves how many of the ticket buyers (more than 11 million in Germany alone) were really interested in the world of Pandora and how many were only interested in the groundbreaking (3D) spectacle? But then came “Avatar 2: The Way Of Water” and completely reinvented effects cinema for a second time. The result: more than 2.3 billion box office sales and third place among the highest-grossing films of all time.
We won't make that mistake again. Or?
But The Simpsons already taught me: “Insanity is doing the same thing over and over again but expecting different results.” Consequently, I won't doubt James Cameron for a third time… but this time there are only three years between parts 2 and 3, and “Avatar 3: Fire And Ash” was shot at the same time as its predecessor – can there really be a similar technical quantum leap or does the series now have to rely on the appeal of his spiritually-tinged Wild West in space narrative for the first time?
The good news first: Of course the further development is less blatant this time, but technically “Fire And Ash” is actually a completely different house number than “The Way Of Water”. But the bad news immediately afterwards: The visual excess is urgently needed, because there is hardly anything new in terms of narrative – even fire and ashes, although promised in the title, hardly provide any variety, despite the truly epic running time of 3 hours and 17 minutes.
Mangkwan leader Varang (Oona Chaplin) takes no prisoners in her highly aggressive approach…
Jake Sully (Sam Worthington) and his family may have been officially accepted into the Metkayina tribe after the final battle of “The Way Of Water,” but that doesn't mean they approve of the Water Na'vi's pacifist path. While Jake and Neytiri (Zoe Saldaña)'s anger continues to grow over the death of their eldest son, the human teenager Spider (Jack Champion) shows off his assault rifles to the Metkayina offspring as if they were toys – which doesn't go down well with tribal chief Tonowari (Cliff Curtis) and his wife Ronal (Kate Winslet).
At the same time, Spider must decide whether to return to the human settlement to his unscrupulous father, Colonel Miles Quaritch (Stephen Lang), who was reincarnated as a Na'vi. After all, he can only breathe on Pandora with the help of his mask – and if it ever breaks, he would be irreversibly doomed to suffocation. A chance to return seems to have come when the wind trader Peylak (David Thewlis) stops by Awa'atlu. But then his airship caravan is attacked – not by the “sky people”, but by the dominance-hungry Varang (Oona Chaplin) and her Mangkwan tribe, who live in the volcanic desert…
First Hindenburg – and then much more!
Anyone who doesn't see “Avatar 3: Fire And Ash” in 3D and on the largest possible (IMAX) screen belongs in cinema jail! On the cine crime scale, that would ultimately be on the same level as cell phone calls and popcorn rustling too loudly. James Cameron revealed in advance interviews that, after the nightmare experiences with the previous films, he and his team managed to get the film finished on time for its theatrical release in a surprisingly stress-free manner. But that doesn't mean that they would rest on their technical achievements, quite the opposite: although, as I said, filming took place parallel to “Avatar 2: The Way Of Water”…
… the effects work is actually SIGNIFICANTLY stronger: Thanks to noticeably improved HD rendering and flawless 3D implementation, the action spectacle and the Pandora landscapes are not only more immersive, there are also practically no scenes left that seem “off” in any way. Cameron and his co-authors have once again come up with lots of scenarios in order to use their unique possibilities in the most spectacular way: With the air battle reminiscent of World War epics – including a breathtaking Hindenburg moment – a big fat exclamation point is put right at the beginning. But up until the octopus attacks in the finale, “Avatar 3” continues to deliver footage that we have never seen before.
The attack on the airship caravan is just the breathtaking prelude to a whole series of incomparable spectacle sequences…
Technically, there is once again a bigger leap than anyone could seriously expect. But as far as the story is concerned, “The Way Of Water 2” would probably have been the more honest title: We have known that James Cameron is fascinated by water – and even more so by everything under the water's surface – since his sensational deep-sea diving documentaries. But we would have liked to have spent more than ten minutes in the eponymous volcanic home of the Mangkwan – simply because not only the locations but also the developments in “Avatar 3” hardly differ from its predecessor.
(Forced) alliances are forged in ever new combinations, which are then severed again – and Spider, who, after an Eywa ritual, can suddenly breathe the Pandora air without a mask, becomes the new McGuffin that everyone is after. “Fire And Ash” seems a bit as if someone had simply tacked together the plot of four TV episodes – after all, with all the mini-finals and restarted (rescue) missions, there is hardly a consistent tension curve. You need the 197 minutes to accommodate all the spectacle – which is varied right up to the end. But the increasingly fraying story could have been told in half the time.
The tree will take care of it
It's probably just a coincidence that “Na'vi” and “naivety” aren't that far apart. But it is precisely this certain naivety with which James Cameron approaches the nature-based spiritualism of his “Pocahontas in Space” story that makes such a crazy project like the “Avatar” trilogy possible in the first place – no one else could have pulled off something on this scale. In “Fire And Ash”, however, it is at least noticeable that the Mangkwan, a Na'vi tribe, now appears, which comes astonishingly close to the previously cleverly avoided stereotype of (American) natives as aggressive, murderous savages.
“Avatar 3” is also particularly pro-militaristic – even the pacifist whales have to realize at some point that it simply no longer works without assault rifles and rocket-propelled grenades. But what is particularly annoying is how the Vitraya Ramunong soul tree is increasingly being used as a deus ex machina for hopeless situations – and not because the spiritual sometimes turns into kitsch, but above all because it is dramatically disappointing. Just imagine if John McClane had defeated Hans Gruber in “Die Hard” not with cleverness and persistence, but with a prayer and God’s blessing…
Conclusion: Visually even more stunning than ever before. But in terms of narrative, the air is slowly getting thin on Pandora.