The main problem with FIRE AND ASH isn’t the unimpeachable visuals or James Cameron’s earnestness, it’s the repetition. The latest chapter of Jake and Neytiri’s (Sam Worthington and Zoe Saldaña) story on the verdant planet of Pandora sees them confront grief and continue to battle human invaders as well as the marauding ash tribe under the psychotic shaman Varang (Oona Chaplin). Look, the strange stuff is great. I wanted more psychedelic tripping on alien drugs, more subtitled space whale councils, weird things for Na’vi to do with their hair/psychic link things, more trips to Pandora’s mycelial astral plane. But what was the point in watching the previous film WAY OF WATER when its entire final act was going to be recycled wholesale, but bigger here? There’s also entirely too much run-captured-escape-repeat for the Sully clan here and too many instances of characters verbally recapping what’s going on. Just luxuriate in, or get overwhelmed by, the imagery and leave it there. SSP