Heart of Darkness, a baroque masterpiece by James Cameron

Beyond its undeniable spectacular nature, Avatar: Fire and Ashes –third installment of the film saga created by James Cameron— Its appeal lies in a series of apparent contradictions. The film leverages its status as the central episode of the franchise—which is known to have five installments—to generate, for much of its runtime, that sense of unbridled vertigo and aimless adventure that made The Empire Strikes Back and Both towers the most stimulating chapters of the universes of Star Wars and The Lord of the RingsHowever, Cameron isn't satisfied with just the exciting string of twists, changes of scenery, and new characters, and the new Avatar It ends up dragging on beyond what is reasonable in order to tie together the numerous narrative threads and close some conceptual cycles. For example, after exploring the symbolic power of earth and water in the first two installments, the third episode explores aerial life forms and makes fire an emblem of destruction.

Avatar: Fire and Ashes It prolongs the main paradox of a saga that bases its charm on technological advancement—you have to find the biggest screen possible to enjoy the fascinating 3D effects—but whose narrative is rooted in classical references. In this sense, the new installment of the Na'vi odyssey resumes its romance with Shakespearean themes—beyond the screen of Romeo and JulietIt's time to explore the resentment and thirst for revenge of Hamlet—and Homer's itinerant adventures. But it doesn't stop there, as Cameron decides to bring the saga's exuberant visual baroque style into the narrative realm. Thus, Avatar: Fire and Ashes It becomes a kind of pocket-sized film version ofThe Western CanonHarold Bloom's novel, with nods to the parricidal drama of Abraham in the Bible, to the spirituality of Siddhartha, by Hermann Hesse, and in the study of the macabre obsessions in Herman Melville's classic Moby Dick.

In fact, the best find of the third part ofAvatar It has a literary aspect, since the magnetic character of Varang – a shaman who has generated a nihilistic cult around her – is reminiscent of the figure of Kurtz, the barbaric monster from Joseph Conrad's novel The heart of darkness, that inspired Apocalypse Now (Francis Ford Coppola). It is through this perverse figure that Cameron completes his denunciation, as obvious and naive as it is timely, of the corrosive power of militarism and firearms.

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