#82: AVATAR: FIRE AND ASH

STARRING: Sam Worthington, Zoe Saldana, Sigourney Weaver, Stephen Lang, Kate Winslet, Jack Champion, Oona Chaplin, Jermaine Clement, Giovanni Ribisi, David Thewlis and Britain Dalton, plus loads more, too many to mention. Screenplay by James Cameron, Rick Jaffa and Amanda Silver, produced by James Cameron and Jon Landau, directed by James Cameron. Budget $400 million. Running time 197 minutes long. 

it's been three years since the last one of these, but Cameron's not giving us a recap, no siree it's straight into action with this one, no messing about. And so begins the third installment of James P.'Sully' Sullivan's adventures on Pandora, a big planet full of giant blue humanoids called the Na'vi in a galaxy far far away, but very much in the future. James used to be human, well he was in the first film. In that he was the twin brother of bloke who died and James was hired to 'drive' his giant blue avatar for a mining corporation run by Giovanni Ribisi who were mining for Unobtainium. In the second film it was the spinal fluid of giant whales and so it is in this one. In the first film Sully lead a revoltion that saw the humans kicked off planet. In the second one the humans came back, bigger, badder and more weaponed up. And in this one they're even more bigger, badder and weaponed up. This time, they ain't taking prisoners or shit off anyone, least of all Sully, his extended family and all the peace and environment loving sea-side people of Panty Doreen. And once again it's Sully mother-fucking useless family of idiotic children who are running the show, mainly by keep getting abducted by Stephen Lang's big blue baddy. So Sully goes off with a bunch of the Na'vi who fly enslaved gas filled sentient balloon, that is until a branch of Na'vis called the MonkeyWang Tribe, lead by a very angry red faced Na'vi played by Oona Chaplin, who kill everybody. Then there's a series of big action set pieces interspersed by Sully's children not doing what they're told so as to endanger themselves and the vast tribe of people, so then Sully has to get himself captured to elicit their rescue before the dastardly humans mount an enormous attack on the big whale things and Sully, and his deeply annoying family rally everyone round for one mother-fucking battle to end all battles. Into that massive plot boiling pot add the relationship between Spider - the human kid living with the Na' vi and his dad played Stephen Lang, then there's Sigourney Weaver's clone Na' vi to deal with, oh and the slow deterioration of Sully and his wife's marriage, her almost uncontrollable racism aimed at Spider and humans. Look there's lots of secondary guff to deal with ontop of all the action, and shit. There's also a fantastic rescue mission that ranks right up there with Return of the Jedi in its staggering stupid complexity, when three completely separate parties all simultaneously attempt to rescue Sully on the eve of his public execution. And Cameron, so enamoured with this idea does the exact same thing later on when three completely separate parties all simultaneously attempt to rescue another character in a rapidly sinking battleship (something the keen eyed among you might remember from the last Avatar outing). Actually there's quite a lot of call backs to the last film in terms of plot points and motivations.

Anyway, the story is pretty dreary to be honest, it's stupid and only works because it requires stupid people to do stupid things to make the whole stupid plot work. And yet at its core there are some very interesting dynamics taking place, mostly involving Stephen Lang and his estranged son, which sadly never get completely or satisfactorily explored. Oona Chaplins villainess character is the MVP in this whole bloated affair, giving us a truly red-blooded villain to root for, and boy did I root for her. I might be alone but I really wanted her to win. I'm frankly sick to death with Sully and his whole sodding family, a bunch of whiney bitches to a T, that is when they're not moping around endangering everyone with their stupid decisions. 

I was also struck by just how callous the Na'vi are to their enslaved animal livestock, several times those glorious winged creatures are just left to die, you know those creatures the Na'vi mindmeld with through their hideous rat-tails. it seems that once their of no more use the Na'vi are quite content to leave them to die pierced by multiple arrows. There's also a bewildering sequence where a poor floating creature, which is harnessed to a rapidly burning sentient balloon is left to die horribly, rather than be rescued by one of the Sully's children.

Anyway, as with the previous films the plot and story is lamentable, too much reliance of co-incidence and idiotic behaviour, but the visuals are another matter all together. Frankly the sheer visual excellence of this cannot be over stressed, it is truly breathtaking that this whole world(s) exist only in a computer and built with pixels. But the trouble is, third time round and the wonder and awe are such a given that you forget. Also, give the 3D a miss, fucking waste of time. Just watch it in 2D on the biggest screen you can. 

Can't say I hated this, can't say I loved it. Once again I was awed by the sheer spectacle and somewhat bored by the story. The final battle is incredible but the lack of a satisfying conclusion was deeply annoying. Three characters disappear completely and the question of the humans remains utterly unanswered. I was kinda hoping this would be the end of the three film saga and that the rumoured 4th and 5th parts might be something new, but no, I'm guessing we're going to have to conclude this one properly. 

Visually a masterpiece worthy of a 10/10, but plot and story warrant only a paltry 5 giving this an aggregate score of 7/10