During the climax of Avatar: Fire and Ash, my server brought the check for the food I ordered.  By the way, my theater of choice is one that has at-seat service.  They also always choose the most inopportune time to leave the bill.  At this moment, I was beyond caring.  My apathy came from getting to the climax in hour three of a movie that everyone watching had to know would inevitably come.  I will get to that specific sequence in the synopsis.  Nonetheless, there are a few insights from this slog that this Catholic film reviewer can use.  You have to wade through a whole lot of glowing blue stuff to get to it, but it can be found.  Anyway, let us get started.

To get started with a review of Avatar: Fire and Ash, it is helpful to remember Avatar: The Way of Water (2022).  Do you recall the events of that film?  I hope so because I am, to be generous to myself, a bit hazy on the details.  Anyway, the first character we meet in Avatar: Fire and Ash is Lo’ak (Britain Dalton).  He is the son of former space marine turned Na’vi Jake Sully (Sam Worthington) and his Na’vi wife, Neytiri (Zoe Saldaña).  As is the norm for these films, there was a battle at the end of the last one during which Lo’ak’s older brother, Neteyam (Jamie Flatters), died.  Lo’ak blames himself, and I do not think the vision he has of Neteyam while connected with the Great Mother (the planet spanning spirit of the Na’vi world the humans call Pandora, known as Eywa) helps matters.  Indeed, everyone is pretty sad about what had happened, but they are living life as best they can with the Na’vi sea people along the coast.  There is one problem for the Sully family, and that is Miles “Spider” Socorro (Jack Champion).  He is a human but prefers the company of the Na’vi despite his father being Colonel Miles Quaritch (Stephen Lang), Jake’s archnemesis and also a human in a Na’vi body.  Because Spider is still in human form, he cannot breathe Pandoran air, relying on oxygen masks to survive.  Being so far away from a source of these devices, he is at risk of suffocating.  This is what almost happens, so the decision is made to bring him back to Jake’s mountain hideout where a few friendly humans live with the remnants of Neytiri’s people.  Along the way, the trading caravan with whom they are traveling are attacked by the Metkayina clan, led by Varang (Oona Chaplin).  They live near a volcano and hate the rest of the Na’vi for their perceived slavish devotion to Eywa.  They take out their ire by raiding the other clans.  During the fight, Varang is introduced to the human firearms carried by Jake, and she goes after the Sully family that carries them.  Also, Jake and Neytiri are separated from their children, leaving Lo’ak to lead the younger ones, along with Spider, to safety.  Spider runs out of air, and Kiri (Sigourney Weaver), a member of the Sully family with a special connection to Eywa, places the dying human on the ground.  Using her Na’vi pony tail that connects with all life on the planet, she is able to convince Eywa to save Spider and render him able to breathe Pandora’s atmosphere.  He also develops his own ponytail thingy, so bonus, I guess.  Despite their efforts, Varang eventually catches up with the children and they are captured.  At the same time, Colonel Quaritch, who has been given the mission to bring in the supposed traitor that is Jake, must choose between helping his enemy and saving his son.  They temporarily align, and Jake is able to rescue his family and get to his base.  Though they escape, Colonel Quaritch finds a new ally in Varang.  At Jake’s camp, what they learn about Spider poses a risk to Pandora as it could be seen as a way to open the world to vast human colonization.  Neytiri, who is no fan of the “Sky People” (what the Na’vi call the humans), suggests killing Spider so that he does not fall into their hands.  Jake refuses and they return to the sea people.  Once there, the news does not get better.  The race of sentient whale creatures called the Tulkun, with whom the sea people have an affinity, have decided to banish Lo’ak for leading, in their view, a group of the ocean dwellers to their doom.  Also, with the help of the Metkayina, Colonel Quaritch captures Spider and takes his son back to the artificial island city being set up by the humans.  They are there because it gives them easier access to the Tulkun, whom they are hunting for the resources they provide.  This is better explained in the previous film.  Anyway, this also means that they know where Jake is, so Colonel Quaritch and Varang fly to the village and threaten destruction unless Jake turns himself over to the humans.  He does so, but naturally Neytiri does not let this go without a response.  While she attacks, Dr. Ian Garvin (Jermaine Clement), a marine biologist, furthers Jake’s escape.  In doing so, Dr. Garvin warns of an imminent mass hunt of the Tulkun planned by the humans, one that will result in their extinction.  Thus, with Jake’s return, he realizes it is time for him to re-assume the mantle of Toruk Makto, a legendary warrior riding on a massive Ikran (banshees to humans), to unite the clans against the humans.  Lo’ak also proves himself by convincing the Tulkun that they need to fight as well.  Hence, when the Sky People show up for the hunt, they are ambushed.  Things are going well for the Na’vi until the Metkayina appear, tilting the battle once more in the humans’ favor.  It is at this point that Kiri acts.  With some help from Spider and her little sister, Tuktirey (Trinity Jo-Li Bliss), Kiri manages to briefly speak directly to Eywa.  It is enough to convince the Great Mother to turn Pandora against the humans, and she sends her creatures to battle.  In the chaos, Jake and Colonel Quaritch get separated, at one point grappling hand-to-hand over Spider.  Jake ends up saving Colonel Quaritch in order to keep Spider from plunging a few thousand feet.  However, instead of facing capture, Colonel Quaritch throws himself off a high cliff to his apparent death.  The final scene is of Spider with Kiri in the spirit realm, meeting with the Na’vi ancestors, and being accepted as one.

I hope you will accept this synopsis of the three-hour film that is Avatar: Fire and Ash.  My frustration with the length is because, to this reviewer, not every bit is necessary.  I guess if you care how good computers have gotten at rendering alien worlds, then this is the movie for you.  What is more interesting about the filming from a Catholic perspective is how they handle the concept of Eywa.  Leading up to the scene where Kiri finally comes face-to-enormous face with the Great Mother, there are some spiritually significant things said about the Pandoran spirit.  Because Kiri is having trouble communicating with Eywa despite her desire to do so, it is suggested to her that she stop striving after the Great Mother so earnestly.  Though this is a nonsensical, fictional story, there is some wisdom in this idea when it comes to our faith lives.  Sometimes grasping after God so strenuously can lead to greater pain.  People want the Divine to answer their prayers not just now, but in the exact manner for which they are asking for something.  They forget that, if God is real and all-powerful as He is, that He has His own timing and way of doing things that is often beyond our understanding.  On the other hand, sometimes we have to act.  Prior to the final battle, Kiri had been avoiding Eywa partly because she felt shut out and useless, but also due to it causing her physical ailments.  Yet, at the climactic moment, she knew she had to use her gift for good.  What is interesting about this instant is how they portray Eywa.  Christian history is full of angst about how to represent the Divine, and such cautiousness should not be dismissed.  Proper reverence (not worship) should be taken in making these images.  I am not sure if the same care was given in creating Eywa, but she is just a massive Na’vi floating in some dimension somewhere.  I do not know if I would have done anything different, but it is interesting.

Speaking of interesting, there are a number of tantalizing snippets in Avatar: Fire and Ash spiritually speaking.  To continue with the theme of previous paragraph, when Kiri does finally nose up to the humungous visage of Eywa, she asks the Great Mother to “hear my small voice.”  One can take that simply as a remark on their comparative sizes, but I understood it as a sign of Kiri’s humility.  It is good to remember that we are little and God is everything.  It helps us to be reminded of this fact in situations as described above when we want God to act as we want, not how He wants.  What is good about this philosophy in the film is that the Na’vi, except for the Metkayina, seem to surrender to the will of Eywa.  This should be emulated by those who refer to themselves as Christians.  It is one of Jesus’ most crucial teachings, one He repeats when He is in the Garden of Gethsemane and is about to enter His Passion.  He asks that the responsibility be taken from Him, but then adds that it is not up to Him, but rather the will of His Father.  This attitude is in stark contrast to the Metkayina as symbolized by Varang.  Understandably, she did not want the volcano to erupt and for her people’s forest dwelling to be destroyed.  When she asked for Eywa to help her, Varang believes her supplication to go unanswered.  Then, when she led her people to safety and to rebuild, she thinks it done by her own hand.  A more Christian way of looking at this situation is to thank God for having the ability to help others, and that you are still alive.  Everything else is beyond our control.  It is not easy to learn to accept life in this manner, but God does hear you.

And what Avatar: Fire and Ash wants its audience to know is that Eywa hears the Na’vi.  Actually, the more colloquial phrase is that the Great Mother “sees” the Na’vi.  Well, I have seen the film, and I find it a little boring.  It is pretty to look at, but ultimately you know where this is going.