Avatar 3 aims to be a year-end blockbuster

“Avatar: Fire and Ashes,” directed by James Cameron, 16 years after he first wowed fans with his blue Na’vi people, will be released in major markets on December 17, ahead of the holiday season.

The first incarnation earned a record $2.9 billion at the global box office, according to data from The Hollywood Reporter, while the 2022 sequel “The Way of Water” earned nearly $2.3 billion in theaters despite the post-Covid recession.

Here’s what you need to know about the new film premiering in Hollywood and Paris this week:

– Family and Immigration –

The audience finds protagonist Jake, who has since become Toruk Makto, a renowned warrior, and his wife Neytiri, mourning the death of their eldest son Netaim on their planet Pandora.

They are attempting to rebuild with their three children, including Kiri, an adopted Na’vi teenager played by Sigourney Weaver, and a human, Spider, whom everyone except Neytiri considers part of the family.

“We’re seeing kids coming in and trying to find their place in the world, even though they’re mixed-race kids – the mother is 100 percent Na’vi, traditionalist. The father is from another star system,” Cameron said at a Paris press conference on Friday.

“We’re dealing with a refugee family, who are basically displaced immigrants. People can relate to that,” the 71-year-old Canadian said.

– A new antagonist –

On their journey, the heroes encounter the Mangquan, the Ash People, a Na’vi community whose territory was destroyed by the volcano and who now survive through looting.

The Mangkwan are led by Warang, played by Oona Chaplin, granddaughter of Charlie Chaplin.

She exposes a dark side of the Na’vi, who until now have been portrayed as virtuous and living in perfect harmony with nature, unlike money-obsessed humans who are bent on plundering their resources.

– An ecological story –

Once again, the inhabitants of Pandora must oppose the “sky people”, humans from the Resource Development Administration, who are preparing a new invasion.

The RDA wishes to hunt the Tulkuns, giant and sentient sea creatures, in order to extract nectar from their brains, a substance of immense commercial value.

The original Avatar story was written by Cameron in 1995 and was “very environmental in its message, much more naked than the later stories,” the director said.

Weaver said at the press conference that Cameron had “really lifted the curtain on any mystery about the way this corporation killed the Tulkoons”.

She draws an analogy with our own world, where we “feel a growing emergency in our world because the ocean is really suffering, and we will not be able to live without the ocean,” she adds.

– artificial intelligence –

The second and third Avatar films were filmed over 18 months between 2017 and 2018, well before the rise of generic artificial intelligence.

The other two installments are set to be released later this decade.

“I’m not negative about generative AI. I just wanted to point out that we don’t use it in the Avatar movies. We don’t replace actors,” Cameron told American website ComicBook.com.

The director has defended his “performance capture” technology, which he devised and which captures the actors’ movements and then transfers the Na’vi’s features to the screen.

– Critical response –

Response so far has been limited but broadly positive, with critics unable to publish full reviews until closer to release.

Some American critics have been allowed to publish brief opinions on social media, most of whom agree that Cameron has presented another heartbreaking scene.

The main criticism has been about the script and repeating familiar themes from the first two films.

Cameron joked, “I only have five good ideas in my life. I just keep repackaging them.”

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