James Cameron returns with his biggest and longest Avatar adventure to date, a 71-year-old who still has the energy of a 10-year-old on their first visit to Funderland and who, by current estimates, could sign off with his final film in the franchise at the age of 77 in 2031.
Sixteen years on from the game-changing release of the first film, the advances in technology are startling. Compare clips from Avatar with scenes in Fire and Ash and the original almost seems quaint.
Watch: James Cameron discusses the making of Avatar: Fire and Ash with RTÉ Entertainment
The one thing that hasn't changed is Cameron's steely-eyed focus that, morally, this story about ecological destruction and the consequences of conflict is the one he should be telling. We're warned in the earliest stages of Fire and Ash that, "The fire of hate leaves only the ash of grief."
Picking up around 12 months after the events of 2022's The Way of Water, Fire and Ash makes no allowances for newcomers and does not provide a whistlestop recap of the goings-on to date on the planet Pandora.
Quickly, then, ex-soldier-gone-Na'vi-native Jake Sully (Sam Worthington), his Na'vi wife Neytiri (Zoe Saldaña), and their family are grief-stricken following the loss of their eldest son Neteyam at the end of The Way of Water and are trying to stay one step ahead of planet wreckers the Resources Development Administration (RDA) who are now mobbed up with the bloodthirsty Mangkwan clan as they try to track down Sully.
Fire and Ash starts off as a chase movie and becomes a mission movie as Sully faces off against former commander Quaritch (Stephen Lang). It is, as we've come to expect, stunning to look at.
Irish double Oscar winner Richard Baneham is once again a lynchpin in the effects department and is now also an executive producer and Cameron's second unit director. That age-old mantra about seeing on the biggest screen possible is more than justified.
The action is good, and from weaponry to dialogue, the film has some nods to Cameron's never-to-be-bettered 1986 rager Aliens. Is he torturing people of a certain age who think he should go back to making that kind of film, or is it a nod-and-wink way to try to keep them on board? Well, if you go, that's to decide mid-popcorn.
What's not up for debate is that the film is too long for both adults and children alike. Around an hour could have been shaved off the running time, or it could have been split into two films.
Cameron says all his films are love stories, and here, again, he strives to ensure there's a heartbeat amidst all the high-wire stuff. Commendably, you feel it throughout. The casually interested - anseo - may find themselves more invested in Fire and Ash than they expected; Pandora devotees will be all in, and the haters still won't be for turning.
In cinemas from Friday, 19 December.
