Avatar Fire and Ash: Arid Inexplicability

Star Cast: Sam Worthington, Zoe Saldaña, Sigourney Weaver, Stephen Lang, Oona Chaplin, and Kate Winslet
Music Composed by Simon Franglen
Cinematography by Russell Carpenter
Edited by Stephen E. Rivkin, David Brenner, James Cameron 
Directed by James Cameron

“Jogi Jogi rasukunte Budida Raalindi” – a Telugu idiom that says when two useless souls meet the result is Ash. To cut it short, this is the one-line review of Avatar: Fire and Ash film.

As I am going on a Tulcan Payacan search .. Spoiler Waters are ahead. Follow Discreetly.

Humans are flawed, their greed has corrupted them, and their sense of duty has become so convoluted that they often serve only their selfish purposes.

Just remember Bhishma, the greatest warrior, who served his own word rather than dharma. As a result, he faced a painful death. This line is to give you the context about how convoluted one’s perceived Dharma can be. James Cameron has become that Bhishma of World Cinema, so powerful that only he can cause his own downfall, and he now stands on the verge of it. Read this carefully these lines come out of admiration, not hate. As a filmmaker, he always believed in innovation, even when he worked on sequels. The Terminator [1991] sequel introduced newer challenges and character arcs than the first film. We see a very fresh and innovative take on the same characters, with twisted responsibilities that transform a villain into a hero. He created a continuation of Alien [1979] that propelled the box office appeal of the film to the next level, thereby giving rise to Alien 3 [1992], Alien: Resurrection [1997], and later Prometheus [2012] and Alien: Covenant. The basic idea behind James Cameron’s legacy is his ability to take either a very heavy subject matter or a wafer-thin plot line and deliver a gobsmacking commercial film that draws us into the story through its characters. Terminator/Aliens was never about the gloss, it was always about the characters. The same thing is missing in the Avatar sequels. It feels like he is making these films to serve his definition of grand spectacle filmmaking rather than truly serving the story that needs to be told.

The outcasts are the most honest and innocent, and their words pierce like arrows.

We are introduced to the family of Jake Sully, who became the legendary leader To’ruk Makto, uniting all the tribes. Yet, we see him being referred to as a man who brings war in the second film, Avatar: The Way of Water. We are never given the context for how a leader of all clans, who drove away the “Sky People”, is regarded as someone who brings trouble. Fine, humans started setting up their labs again, but how? When he is such a legendary leader, why did he not predict that humans, who see opportunity in this land with great riches, would never give up? Many scholars say that the repeated invasions of Mohammad Ghazni and Gori in India were due to the local leaders lack of unity. Here, we are shown him as the almighty leader Ta’ruk Makto in the first film itself. Then, how come he is not ready to stop the human invasions on the ground and prevent laboratories from being built? [At least in Avatar comics, they try to negotiate about being left alone before engaging in a space fight] It would have been a very different tale had another edge of Pandora been shown where human establishments were rampant, attacking water resources for Amrita. Why did he not think about this? How come the humans, who thought manipulation was a great idea, did not consider infiltration through Avatars by the second part? How convenient it is to just transfer the memories of a dead human into an Avatar rather than creating a fresh leader to either attack or infiltrate. When there are so many marines ready to take over, why only the same Colonel Miles?

FINE, PLOT ARMOR. What about bringing the outcast dynamics to Jake Sully’s family? Why make him a family man now? The purpose is more about trying to find a connection with audiences, showing that Jake has become a family man and is fighting to protect his family rather than against humans. When you can clearly establish that he is against greedy humans polluting Pandora once again, why go this route? Because it becomes convenient to play with family dynamics and bring in more action that otherwise cannot be inserted. The movie as I see both 2 and 3 as one lengthy film cut into two parts, I am convinced that all this family drama is brought into the mold to explore more of Cameron’s dreams rather than serving the purpose of storytelling. When you have established that Earth is dying, Jake Sully turning his back on his planet feels like cowardice, not heroism. So, to cover that up and still mint more from Avatar, you need certain dynamics that have already been proven to work in storytelling. It is evident with Spider being introduced as a human hybrid of a new kind, created using the powers of Ey’wa. So, the obvious resolution and connection is to say that Ey’wa can revamp Earth as well, so that earthlings can also survive the blessing it can yield, but the human race has to be worthy of it. When this is what your final goal indicates… why make time-pass films trying to expand the world rather than cutting to the chase of humans vs. hybrids and Na’vi, other tribes, with a tighter screenplay? You could bring in water tribes, wind tribes, and even pirate tribes in a better way rather than rehashing ideas.

Repeating the same point might help with memorization, but not with application. 

When you’re studying, teachers ask you not to mug up but to imagine, yet the same people ask you to mug up before exams for high percentages. This applies even to filmmakers. In ancient India, as per recent researchers, it is said that sages believed that mugging up or transporting knowledge through repetition worked like magic rather than writing and asking students to read. Hence, they opined that the Vedas were meant to be repeated and memorized in a very memorable fashion as hymns rather than read as written texts. Later, when these practices started being questioned, divisions between the classes widened, and to make them available to everyone, Veda Vyasa wrote them down. Speculation or truth, this is how some view Ancient Indian culture and civilization as it started advancing. Here Pandora’s tribes are surviving in different environments, but we don’t see advancements in indigenous technologies. More or less, the same old blasts using human weapons and indigenous people developing skills to use them are repeated across two parts. Highly powerful mammals from Pandora start defending when in trouble, but the line “Sea washes your sins” seems to be randomly dropped. Either Cameron can’t think beyond these tropes, or he thinks audiences are too naive to follow this level of narrative complexity. Spider was in trouble throughout the film, as Miles wanted his son to follow in his footsteps. Similarly, even Jake Sully wanted his children to follow his lead.

Trying to serve as a lesson in parenthood, we see Miles being projected as a bad parent and Jake not learning anything from him. Neytiri is consumed only by her hatred, and she comes to understand her sin after washing off the ash or the colors she had started wearing. Initially, she was the innocent person who saw the honesty in Jake Sully and even consummated with him before anyone accepted her choice. Now, she is filled with hatred for herself, having led to the massacre that cost her home, her place, and her son. What is her sin here? Believing in humans, not being able to defend her territory and family, or running away? Cameron tried to state that she was running away from her belief in kindness. She finds it back when Jake tries to execute her idea, in a way. Still, you’re filled with ambiguity about how all giving Ey’wa wanted to turn her back and couldn’t yield until and only when a persistent hybrid or her child came to her along with a human and an indigenous yet a child hybrid? Cameron wants to say that prayer and persistence are the key, as loss of faith will only lead to destruction. But did he state this effectively, with themes explored in depth? THE ANSWER IS NO. Someone has to decode it and say, FINE. The movie is about experience, but at the same time, he made it evident in the first one that he could deliver his message effectively. So, his inability to do so over two films feels crazy. You know the Payacan will be heard, you know the outcast Lo’ak will feel like the next leader, but do they effectively stay with us? The Mahabharata ends for many after the coronation of Yudhishthira, but there are ten more parvas that talk about peace, spirituality, the aftermath of life and much more. In fact, the final scene of this film feels like a direct representation of verses from Shanti Parva. Read them when you are free; this is not the place to expand on it.

When you lose the purpose and still pursue, it becomes indulgence.

Technically, Pandora once again happens to be the most beautiful and imaginative world you can ever dream of. Everything is created on computers rather than shot in real life, which makes immersion difficult after a point, even though the technicians achieved remarkable realism. You can see that the camera angles are used to enhance the realism factor even more and you can also see how frame rate differences matter. It is hard to definitively render such elaborate environments and it is also hard to bring such depth to frames. The frames that I could carry back with me are pure water-flow shots, reflection shots, the effects the makers achieved during the occult scene and the obvious underwater Ey’wa frames. But I hoped there would be a better rendering of water battle scenes this time around, yet they still tend to lack clarity. The sound design is better this time around, with each effect enhanced to heighten the sense of realism. IMAX and top-tier sound design theatres will provide the best theatrical experience for those who wish to enjoy the very best. (I know how it feels to settle for the 100th best or worst screens, with fake advertisements and broken promises). Well, the performances become realistic to a degree, but the actors feel more monotone in this film than in the first one, as everything seems to be motion capture, which still has limitations in capturing expressions with the same complexity as humans, who bring a texture beyond what a limiting computer image can. All said and done, there is more indulgence in the third part than in the previous two.

The purpose of the story is lost in both parts, more or less. From the first film, it is evident that James Cameron wanted humankind to be saved, but as an innocent, pure tribe that evolves beyond the crude limitations of greed, lust, envy, hatred, presumption, and despair. He wanted the clan to be purified by the emotions that the Na’vi can bring to the table. It is, more or less, a kind of time travel for the human race to trace their indigenous roots, where their ancestors congenially transferred love and inclusion rather than hate and division. When you search for a new home, your old sins cannot travel with you. The new home needs a new beginning and a new person. Even if you want to save the old home, you need a better understanding of its limitations to infuse new life. Today, we are left fighting for the Aravallis, Hasdeo and many forests while greed takes over everything. The problem lies in not delivering this message effectively, as arid, inexplicable landscapes lead to deserts and salty oceans, not new homes. Cameron needed to think beyond human invasions to take his message forward, as we had already hated such invasions in the first film, and the next two just make the same point in different molds. In the end, when you prepare a pot in a new mold, it is still judged by its purpose how much matter it can store and how well it preserves the original quality, not by how beautiful or carefully crafted it looks. If it doesn’t serve the purpose, it is just a showpiece, and Avatar 2 and 3 make themselves showpieces, serving as fillers leading to a finale whose point was already made or hinted at in the first film itself. All said and done, strange waters either scare you or provoke scientifical enthusiasm. While the first one makes this clear second and third make the opposite stating that strange waters can only bring destruction. World needs more positive actions than negative consequences being highlighted. Hence, the noble intentions also need a crafty molds that make them memorable not just hanging set-pieces.

Theatrical Trailer: