One of 2025’s best sci-fi movies is finally available to watch right now

'At a time when a lot of blockbusters can feel like junk food, this is a five-course meal.'

The movie is the third entry in the legendary writer-director James Cameron's Avatar franchise. The film series is set in the mid-22nd century and revolves around humanity's attempted colonisation of the alien moon Pandora.

Fire and Ash continues the story of Jake Sully (Sam Worthington), a human marine who fell in love with Na'vi woman Neytiri (Oscar-winner Zoe Saldaña) and eventually took her species' side in their conflict with humans.

As part of this, he permanently transferred his mind into his Na'vi avatar body.

This sequel is set weeks after the events of 2022's Avatar: The Way of Water, in which Jake and Neytiri's son, Neteyam (Jamie Flatters), was killed by human soldiers.

As the couple grapple with this loss in different ways, Jake's former colonel in the marines, Miles Quaritch (Stephen Lang), returns to Pandora in a Na'vi body, desperate to capture Jake and his family and put an end to their resistance.

Jake and Quaritch's intense battle is complicated by several factors, including the emergence of a villainous new Na'vi clan (led by Oona Chaplin) that becomes a pawn in their ongoing feud.

There's also the fact that Jake is raising Quaritch's estranged human son, Spider (Jack Champion).

Quaritch and his human bosses become eager to capture Spider, after he is granted mysterious new powers by Eywa, the Na'vi version of god or Mother Earth, who is beginning to communicate through Jake's other adopted child, a teenage girl named Kiri (Sigourney Weaver).

Avatar: Fire and Ash Review

In our opinion, Avatar: Fire and Ash is the best of the Avatar films to date.

Three movies in, writer-director James Cameron continues to push the envelope in terms of thrilling action set-pieces, as well as transportive immersive spectacle (this is the only franchise where we’d highly recommend seeing it in 3D).

It’s truly incredible how real, tactile and textured the many different environments of Pandora feel, particularly given that they were nearly entirely digitally created. Going to see an Avatar film has become almost like going to see a demonstration for just how much can be accomplished cinematically with this special technology, if one is willing to spend the vast amount of money and time. 

Yet, because it’s the third film in the franchise and Cameron has already set up so much narrative runway, he is also able to hit the ground running storywise in Fire and Ash. Whereas the first two movies had to devote a lot of minutes to establishing their many human and Na’vi characters and the fascinating ways they become intertwined, this latest sequel is free to dive right into the nitty-gritty, presenting several fascinating moral dilemmas.

What duty do Jake Sully (a human, now permanently living in a Na’vi body) and his Na’vi-born wife Neytiri have to Spider, the human orphan they raise, particularly when his presence becomes a huge threat to not just their biological children but the entire Na’vi civilisation? Should they abandon him, or even do worse, to ensure their survival? Or should they be better than Spider’s own species and treat him with care and compassion?

Plus, Fire and Ash contains the introduction of possibly the best character in all three movies to date. This is the villainous Varang (played by a phenomenal Oona Chaplin), the leader of a fierce and violent Na’vi clan who has renounced Eywa because she failed to save them from a natural disaster. Already living like pirates, killing and looting members of other clans, we witness how this inter-clan conflict rapidly intensifies once Varang and her people discover and learn how to operate human weapons.

It has become clear that part of what attracts Cameron to the overall Avatar project is using this alien world of Pandora, and the broadly appealing action sci-fi spectacle it provides, as a way to explore and comment on issues affecting Earth today, divisive topics which many similarly four-quadrant blockbusters would rather shy away from. One benevolent Na’vi character says of guns: “Touching them poisons the heart.” There is also plenty in Fire and Ash about the poor ways migrants, indigenous people and nature have historically been treated by humanity.

While there has been much talk of Cameron’s five-film plan for Avatar (something he has recently expressed some doubt about completing), Fire and Ash refreshingly feels like it’s putting everything on the table as opposed to holding back juicy story beats for future entries. There are a handful of points in the movie where it feels like Jake Sully and Neytiri have stumbled into a conflict that could take up an entire film’s worth of plot. Yet, this is then resolved rather quickly, but satisfyingly, as the pair get whisked up in another adventure.

This may create a slight pacing issue; the film is around 200 minutes long and feels it. It’s worth noting, too, that not every subplot compels equally (Kate Winslet's Na'vi character feels quite underused). 

Still, you have to give Cameron credit. At a time when a lot of blockbusters can feel like junk food, Avatar: Fire and Ash is a five-course meal.

Avatar: Fire and Ash Interviews

JOE spoke to five of Avatar's cast members ahead of Fire and Ash's release, including its lead actors Sam Worthington and Stephen Lang.

Asked about the real-world parallels in the sci-fi that he finds particularly striking in terms of his character, Lang responded:

"One thing that maybe would strike me would be the use, or put it this way, the misuse of military power, which certainly is something that I think does happen on Pandora, and I think it's rampant right now throughout the globe."

Worthington, meanwhile, said: "It's always about this family dynamic that happens to be in this intergalactic battle.

"I think war is hard, family's harder."

Lang also spoke about the introduction of Chaplin's character Varang and the unusual relationship Quaritch develops with her:

"Well, Oona herself is a very, very skilled actor. She's beautifully trained, and then has been smart enough, genius enough to sort of forget her training and let that just kick in.

"Being on set with her is always a pleasure. She's 100% involved. She's got a great sense of humour. Her choices are dynamic and interesting, so she's the full package.

"In terms of the Quaritch/Varang relationship, it's a new aspect for Quaritch to play, and it's a great pleasure.

"He rarely meets someone whom he does consider to be his kind of equal in terms of energy. I wouldn't say intelligence, but I would say just in terms of his energy.

"In her, he sees somebody who's every bit as powerful as himself and probably even more powerful than himself, and I think he responds to that a lot."

JOE also spoke to three of the sci-fi's young stars, Bailey Bass, Jack Champion and Trinity Jo-Li Bliss.

Speaking about the movie's pioneering use of performance capture technology, in which actors can give truly emotive and sensitive performances while portraying 10-foot-tall blue aliens, Bass said:

"Jim [Cameron] is very, very passionate about making sure our performances are on the screen. That's what you're seeing.

"All the emotion is ours. Every tear, every heartbreak, every laugh, every smile is ours, down to my dimples on my face - you can see it in [my character] Tsireya.

"So, I just want to emphasise that they are our performances. When you watch the documentary about the making of these movies, you see the side-by-side. It's identical.

"Especially with Zoe [Saldaña], I just want to highlight, she has been [giving] incredible performances - groundbreaking, tearful, passionate performances - for decades.

"I'm so glad that she's gotten her Oscar, but... she started this whole Avatar world, and she really is Pandora.

"I hope people recognise that it is us. It really is our performances."

Bliss also spoke to JOE about "how freeing" performance capture is as an acting process.

"It gives you so much liberty to use your imagination and expand your mind to think about playing within the character, playing within the imaginary world, just reacting off of the other actors," she explained.

"It's constant play. It's a playground, and I enjoy filming every day on this set and doing performance capture.

"Honestly, I forget about it in the performance capture sense, I should say.

"I'm just having fun with all the people, cast and crew, and in my zone for [my character] Tuk and thinking about where she is in that timeline."

Bliss also spoke about seeing Fire and Ash for the first time and being blown away by the level of detail in the alien world, Pandora.

"I love all of the little details," he told JOE. "When Lo'ak and Spider are playing with [the whale-like species] the Tulkun, and you can see the sun rays and the water create a rainbow for just a split second or just [the inclusion of] little bugs above the swamp, all of these details leave you so immersed, like you're in this place."

Avatar: Fire and Ash is in cinemas now.