Right here’s a ineffective piece of trivia: Out of the 11 canonical Star Wars films, eight function the Loss of life Star in a technique or one other. There’s the unique planet-exploding weapon in A New Hope and the rebuilt model in Return of the Jedi. We see early plans for its building in Assault of the Clones, and that building itself in Revenge of the Sith, whereas Rogue One is all in regards to the plans for the moon-sized area station. Within the sequels, Drive Awakens introduces a planet-sized new model of the Loss of life Star, whereas The Final Jedi shrinks the tech right down to a cannon-sized system, and The Rise of Skywalker units a key scene within the wreckage of the Loss of life Star. (If you happen to’re conserving monitor at dwelling, The Empire Strikes Again, Solo, and The Phantom Menace are the one exceptions.)
Why does this matter to Avatar: Hearth and Ash? Effectively, it issues so much, as a result of simply three installments into the James Cameron franchise, it’s beginning to appear to be Avatar has already discovered a Loss of life Star of its personal.
[Ed. note: Light spoilers ahead for the ending of Avatar: Fire and Ash.]
Avatar’s Loss of life Star is a sequence of big navy ships that maintain getting destroyed by area whales. In 2022’s Avatar: The Manner of Water, considered one of these large vessels was a key a part of the human-led Assets Growth Administration’s plan to hunt and kill clever alien whales (the tulkun) on the extrasolar moon of Pandora to allow them to harvest their brains to supply an anti-aging reagent that sells for tens of thousands and thousands of {dollars} again on Earth. This absurdly villainous, extraordinarily charming premise culminates in The Manner of Water’s explosive last act set aboard a sinking ship, mixing the very best elements of Cameron’s motion sci-fi filmmaking with the sweeping scale of his ’90s blockbuster Titanic. In different phrases, it guidelines.
However right here’s the factor, Avatar: Hearth and Ash ends in nearly the very same approach. Once more, the people are looking the tulkun (solely there are much more of them now), and once more, the Na’vi should combat again to avoid wasting their aquatic associates. The scope is barely larger, and there’s an enormous magnetic vortex pulling ships into its discipline and crushing them, which by no means will get absolutely defined. However for probably the most half, Hearth and Ash’s last battle feels extra like The Manner of Water on steroids than an unique climax. (For good measure, Cameron and his co-writers additionally throw in a remixed model of the scene the place Pandora’s animals stand up in unison, like in 2009’s Avatar.)
All the expertise feels a bit like watching Return of the Jedi for the primary time (or The Drive Awakens, or most different Star Wars films). What was marketed as a contemporary installment in a beloved franchise as an alternative performs like a remix of an outdated traditional. The beat nonetheless slaps, however at a sure level, it begins to get repetitive.
Avatar isn’t anyplace close to as far gone as Star Wars on this division. The following film (assuming there even is one) may simply transfer on from the entire space-whale-hunting motif to discover another Pandora biome. Cameron has additionally confirmed that the final two movies had been initially one script that grew so giant it needed to be cut up in half, which helps clarify (however not excuse) the sense of cinematic déjà vu that Hearth and Ash evokes.
However from the place we’re at present standing, Avatar has by no means been on shakier foundations. Hearth and Ash suggests the very actual chance that future films could possibly be caught rehashing the identical set piece again and again, discovering new methods to ship tulkun crashing into RDA warships for years to come back, simply as Star Wars appears to be perpetually caught within the Loss of life Star’s gravitational discipline.
Avatar: Hearth and Ash is in theaters now.
