‘Avatar: Fire and Ash’ Review: The Story Is Fine, the Action Awesome, as the Third ‘Avatar’ Film Does New Variations on a No-Longer-New Vision

Cameron hasn’t lost his zesty storytelling brio, even if the story he tells is starting to feel like his version of the "Star Wars" prequels. As in: It’s fine, but do we actually care about it? Cameron himself has a sixth sense for when to break up the windy chronicle of Pandora with a squid attack, characters leaping across floating rocks like something out of "The Super Mario Bros. Movie," or the introduction of a sinister new Na’vi clan: the ash-skinned, volcano-dwelling Mangkwan, whose leader, the witchy Varang (Oona Chaplin), suggests one of Andrew Lloyd Webber’s Cats crossed with Marilyn Manson.