Review: 'Avatar: Fire and Ash' delivers more of James Cameron's beautiful spectacle — and adds Oona Chaplin's intimidating new villain to the mix.

Director James Cameron guides us deeper into the world of Pandora in “Avatar: Fire and Ash,” the third movie in the franchise — and one where the human beings are becoming more irrelevant, both in the story and the production.

Where the first two movies were centered on the conflict between Pandora’s native Na’vi and the encroaching humans, this chapter introduces a new wrinkle: Natives who aren’t the peace-loving creatures the Na’vi and their waterborne cousins, the Metkayina, would prefer to be. Here, we meet the Ash People, led by the warrior queen Varang (performed, through the motion capture process, by Oona Chaplin). The Ash People are aggressive, and not above making a bargain with the humans if it gets them the territory and slaves they seek.

This puts the franchise’s central family, led by former Marine-turned-Na’vi Jake Sully (performed by Sam Worthington) and fierce Na’vi warrior Neytiri (performed by Zoe Saldaña), in the crosshairs of the Ash People and the “recombinant” artificial Na’Vi Miles Quaritch (performed by Stephen Lang). The Sullys — including son Lo’Ak (performed by Britain Dalton), youngest daughter Tuk (performed by Trinity Jo-Li Bliss), adopted daughter Kiri (performed by Sigourney Weaver) and human tagalong Spider (Jack Champion) — decide to leave the Metkayina, and draw the Quaritch’s and Ash People’s wrath elsewhere. 

These battles among the Na’vi, both real and artificially generated, have relegated the story’s lead humans — corporate jerk Parker Selfridge (Giovanni Ribisi) and Marine Gen. Ardmore (Edie Falco) — to the sidelines, except for a subplot where they want to capture Spider, who has developed the ability to breathe Pandora air unassisted. Meanwhile, the plot thread from “The Way of Water” involving whaling vessels pursuing the gentle giants, the Tulkun, continues uninterrupted. 

Things like plot and narrative have never been the prime mission for Cameron and his regular writing partners, Rick Jaffa and Amanda Silver. Neither has dialogue — I swear there’s a moment where Lo’ak says “everything I touch gets ruined,” which is what Charlie Brown said when he broke the Christmas tree.

No, the reason we go to “Avatar” movies is for the spectacle, and in “Fire and Ash,” Cameron delivers that and more. The computer-generated action, of Na’vi battling each other and defending their jungle and ocean homes, is as rich and detailed as in the previous films, and the action still as exciting and dynamic. 

If there is a human figure worthy of a shoutout in “Avatar: Fire and Ash,” it’s Oona Chaplin, who brings a dancer’s poise and a banshee’s wrath to Varang. It’s a character unlike any of the elongated Smurfs we’ve seen before in this franchise, and demonstrates what Cameron might do in a future installment — if he ever gets around to making one.

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‘Avatar: Fire and Ash’

★★★1/2

Opens Friday, December 19, in theaters everywhere. Rated PG-13 for intense sequences of violence and action, bloody images, some strong language, thematic elements and suggestive material. Running time: 195 minutes.