Richard Crouse: ‘Avatar: Fire and Ash’ delivers a dopamine hit directly through the eyes

Film critic Richard Crouse reviews the week’s new releases, including ‘Avatar: Fire and Ash,’ ‘The Spongebob Movie: The Search for Squarepants,’ and ‘Man vs. Ba

“Avatar: Fire and Ash” does what cinema is meant to do: transport the audience to new worlds, while reflecting and commenting on the reality of our world. An epic for the eyes, the visualization of Pandora is impressive and immersive, but the A-list visuals are let down by a B-movie story.

First, the look.

Rendered in eye popping 3D, James Cameron’s concept for Pandora and her environs is spectacular, and will have your synapses firing on all cylinders. An ode to French impressionism by way of the sci-fi landscapes of Frank Frazetta, whether his camera is gliding through the jungles of Pandora, or swimming under the planet’s oceans, or traipsing around gritty fire and ash biodomes, or soaring though the sky on the back of a winged Great Leonopteryx, Cameron delivers a dopamine hit directly through the eyes.

• IN PICTURES: Celebrities hit the red carpet for ‘Avatar: Fire and Ash’ world premiere

It’s a whole lotta CGI, which is ironic, given that this is a story about the organic connection between nature and all of God’s creatures in which all the dazzling images were created in the least organic way possible. Still, the pictures, no matter how they were created, do come alive on the screen.

Less exciting is the story.

Cameron has spent the better part of two decades world building – creating the belief systems, language and traditions of the Na’vi people – only to hang them on the most generic of fantasy storytelling. His hot-button pet themes of colonization, government overreach, community and environmentalism are very much in place, but the storytelling isn’t as passionate as the visual work.

Essentially picking up a few months after “Avatar: The Way of Water” left off, when “Fire and Ash” begins, Jake (Sam Worthington), Neytiri (Zoe Saldaña), and their children Lo’ak, Tuk, Kiri (Sigourney Weaver), and Spider (Jack Champion) are grieving the death of Neteyam, the family’s eldest son.

Their peaceful life amid the reef-dwelling Metkayina clan is disrupted when Miles Quaritch (Stephen Lang), the ruthless Resources Development Administration colonel reborn as a Na’vi recombinant, teams with the aggressive, volcano-dwelling Mangkwan, or “Ash People,” lead by the vicious Varang (a compelling Oona Chaplin).

As Jake fights for the survival of his family, the fate of all of Pandora hangs in the balance.

Packed with big action set pieces, smaller, more intimate family moments, and one “I am Spartacus” scene, “Fire and Ash” has a new, unsettling villain in the form of Varang, but otherwise recycles old ideas under a slick CGI veneer.

The mix of A-list tech and B-movie dialogue – like Quaritch’s quip, “I guess I don’t die that easy” – feels like watching a Saturday morning serial with boffo, state-of-the-art visuals that distract from the often-cheesy dialogue.

The familiar story beats and the worn-out dialogue quickly take a backseat to Cameron’s unique vison. He is the star of “Avatar: Fire and Ash.” Like the other films in the franchise, the new one invites the viewer to exit the real world and enter his world of imagination for three hours and, despite some déjà vu, story wise, it’s a trip worth taking.

4 stars out of 5