Three years after James Cameron revisited the world of “Avatar” in Avatar: The Way of Water (2022), he returns to Pandora to ostensibly conclude his trilogy chronicling the saga of the struggles of the Na’vi for control of their home against human invaders with Avatar: Fire and Ash.
While the second film took place more than a decade after the events portrayed in the first film, the third film follows The Way of Water by just a few weeks. As the film opens, Jake Sully (Sam Worthington) and Neytiri (Zoe Saldaña) along with the rest of the Sully clan are still mourning the loss of Neteyam when a new tribe of Na’vi called the Ash People seeks to eliminate both the less warlike Na’vi as well as the human invaders. This escalates the war between all factions to incalculable levels as the very existence of Pandora itself may depend on the outcome of this battle.
Clocking in at three hours and seventeen minutes, Avatar: Fire and Ash surpasses its predecessor as the longest entry in the series (at least so far anyway). However, like most of Cameron’s films, the length rarely takes a toll on the viewer. Although the first hour could be looked at as a bit over expository, it serves the definitive purpose to set up the final two hours of the film which is nothing short of a visual feast as well as a non-stop action right that echoes some of Cameron’s best work in that genre.
The script, like The Way of Water, is co-written by Cameron along with Rick Jaffa and Amanda Silver (Mulan [2020] and both Rise of the Planet of the Apes [2011] and Dawn of the Planet of the Apes [2014]). Once again, the trio of writers infuses a great deal of characterization into the virtual characters depicted onscreen. The stakes this time around are even greater than in the previous film and, there is not one reference to the all-too-obvious mineral Unobtanium that the whole enterprise was based on from the first film. Suffice it to say, the silliness of the story has again been reeled in for the sake of the narrative.
Oona Chaplin in “Avatar: Fire and Ash.” Photo by 20th Century Studios – © 2025 20th Century Studios. All Rights Reserved.
That being said, there is still something to be said for a film that clocks in at nearly three and a half hours and does not seem to waste a single moment on displaying how great it is (as was the case with the first film). Credit for this goes to Cameron’s co-writers as well the extended editing team that included David Brenner, Nicolas De Toth, Jason Gaudio, John Refoua, Stephen E. Rivkin, as well as Cameron. Again, the third film showcases the fantastic production design of Dylan Cole and Ben Procter as well as highlighting the art direction provided by the trio of Luke Freeborn, Aashrita Kamath, and Kim Sinclair. Overall, the film is breathtaking and beautiful from beginning to end.
With Avatar: Fire and Ash, James Cameron has ostensibly brought his epic trilogy to a thrilling and satisfying conclusion that proves to be not only a superlative theatrical experience, but one of the filmmaker’s more satisfying narratives to date.
| Producer: | James Cameron, p.g.a. and Jon Landau, p.g.a. |
| Release Date: | December 19, 2025 |
| Running Time: | 197 minutes |
| Starring: | Sam Worthington, Zoe Saldaña, Sigourney Weaver, Stephen Lang, Oona Chaplin, Kate Winslet, 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., Matt Gerald |
| Writer: | James Cameron & Rick Jaffa & Amanda Silver |
| MPAA Rating: | PG-13 (for intense sequences of violence and action, bloody images, some strong language, thematic elements and suggestive material) |
| Director: | James Cameron |
| Distributor: | 20th Century Studios / Walt Disney Studios Motion Pictures |
| External Info: | Official Website / Facebook / Instagram / TikTok / X (TWITTER) / #Avatar |
