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A fun fact about me is that I have never been on a roller coaster. I’m prone to motion sickness, wary of long lines in amusement parks, and well, maybe just a bit of a chicken. I prefer to get my thrills (and I’ll admit, slightly stomach-turning jolts) from other sources. Recently, this included a 3D screening of a nearly three-and-a-half-hour, action-packed movie about blue people. “Avatar: Fire and Ash” (2025) provided all the adrenaline I could want, from the comfort of my reclining seat and with a bucket of popcorn in hand.
The third installment of James Cameron’s gargantuan franchise, “Avatar: Fire and Ash,” follows Jake Sully (Sam Worthington), his wife Neytiri (Zoe Saldaña), and their family as they deal with loss and displacement after the events of “The Way of Water” (2022). Each member of the Sully family takes on massive moral questions about identity, faith, loyalty, and purpose. The movie also introduces a new Na’vi clan on the planet of Pandora: the Ash People, a volatile group shaped by fire, scarcity, and conquest. With internal family conflict, battles between clans, and the ongoing war against the Sky People (invading humans), the third “Avatar” movie is the most ambitious yet. But don’t worry, the fan-favorite whale-like Tulkun creatures return in a big way in this film.
Promotional trailer for “Avatar: Fire and Ash” (2025). (Credit: 20th Century Studios via YouTube).
“Fire and Ash” also introduces a standout new villain. Varang, the violent and seductive leader of the Ash People, commands through ferocity, violence, and sheer magnetism. Played by Oona Chaplin (granddaughter of Charlie Chaplin), Varang is both mesmerizing and terrifying, injecting a dark, captivating energy into the “Avatar” universe. Varang’s ruthless cruelty, paired with the franchise’s chief antagonist, Colonel Miles Quaritch (Stephen Lang), pushes the conflict on Pandora to new heights, challenging Jake and his family in fresh and menacing ways.
Even with the introduction of a new evil clan, “Avatar: Fire and Ash” ultimately revolves around core themes that have defined the franchise from the beginning — themes that feel especially resonant in rural conversations about land, Indigenous sovereignty, and environmental protection. In our podcast Crop Circle Cinema, we’ve talked about an unsettling idea at the heart of so much alien media: humanity seeking other planets out of environmental desperation. In stories like “Interstellar” (2014), “Red Planet” (2000), and “Wall-E” (2008), overpopulation, ecological collapse, extinction, and resource depletion push humans to exploit outer space and alien planets for their own gain. Pandora is the extraction site in the “Avatar” universe, and humans are willing to do whatever it takes to take over the planet and its resources.
The human-built industrial Bridgehead City offers a visual contrast to the rural natural world where the Na’vi clans thrive. The physical environment of Pandora is vital to the daily life, cultural memory, and intergenerational faith of the Na’vi. By representing the Na’vi as protectors of Pandora and the Sky People (humans) as violent colonizing forces, “Fire and Ash” emphasizes a point familiar to many rural and Indigenous communities: land isn’t just property, it’s livelihood and identity.
Oona Chaplin plays Pandora’s newest villain, Varang, in “Avatar: Fire and Ash” (2025). (Credit: 20th Century Studios via IMDb)
It’s worth noting that from the beginning, the Avatar franchise has faced a myriad of critiques over its representation of the Na’vi and portrayal of anti-colonial struggles. Critics are especially dubious of the central role of Jake Sully – the human who becomes the leader of the Na’vi resistance – which falls squarely into the “white savior” trope. While the film does have important commentary on extraction, displacement, and resistance, the positioning of Sully, an outsider, as a leader and the most powerful figure on Pandora, warrants scrutiny. As a result, the film’s critique of environmental colonization is powerful, but tempered by contradictions in whose story is ultimately centered.
And certainly, at nearly three and a half hours, the film can be indulgent. Some of the dialogue falters, and the sheer volume of world-building minutiae may test your patience. But to sit in the theater and don those 3D glasses (I do recommend this, if you can stomach it) is to immerse yourself in a visually stunning world with something urgent to say about land, power, and survival.
“Avatar: Fire and Ash” is currently playing in theaters.
This article first appeared in The Good, the Bad, and the Elegy, an email newsletter from the Daily Yonder focused on the best, and worst, in rural media, entertainment, and culture. Every other Thursday, it features reviews, recommendations, retrospectives, and more. Join the mailing list today to have future editions delivered straight to your inbox.
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