Avatar: Fire and Ash in 3-D

James Cameron: Avatar: Fire and Ash (US 2025). Britain Dalton (Lo'ak). Bioluminescence. Please click on the image to fill the screen.

James Cameron: Avatar: Fire and Ash (US 2025). Bioluminescence. Please click on the image to fill the screen.

James Cameron: Avatar: Fire and Ash (US 2025). Jack Champion (Spider) and Sigourney Weaver (Kiri). Bioluminescence. Please click on the image to fill the screen.

Avatar: Fire and Ash (US 2025) in IMAX 3-D at Finnkino Itis Helsinki multiplex, the IMAX auditorium, Itäkatu 1-7, 00930 Helsinki, Saturday, 3 Jan 2026.

A week ago I saw James Cameron's Avatar: Fire and Ash at Finnkino Tennispalatsi the iSENSE auditorium, and only when the screening started I realized it was in 2-D.

So I make a pilgrimage today to Itäkeskus, the mighty commercial center of East Helsinki, to check the film in 3-D. When the Helsinki Metro, the world's northernmost metro system, was opened in 1982, the last stop was Itäkeskus, and the metro station M Itäkeskus promptly dubbed "Mitäkeskus" [What Center]. I am happy to spend the Sabbath afternoon in the teeming and agreeable atmosphere of Itis, the largest covered-in shopping mall in the Nordic countries. It seems like a safe and inviting place for children and the young.

It is also a busy afternoon at the 9-screen Finnkino Itis multiplex. Its IMAX auditorium has the largest cinema screen in Finland. The 3-D system is IMAX 3-D.

Equipped with disposable 3-D glasses I immerse in the spectacle to check this version for 45 minutes.

Instant remarks:

Immediately it is clear that Avatar: Fire and Ash is made for 3-D. It is inherent in the concept. The vision is in 3-D. The imagery feels slightly odd in 2-D. Not so much in 3-D. Still odd, but intentionally so.

The unreality. The dream world. The story is about a transition zone in which boundaries are blurred. In the multi-layer image we see the simultaneous separation and union more impressively.

Daniel Mendelssohn defined Cameron's vision in terms of bioluminescence, and this unique Avatar aesthetics keeps being refined in Fire and Ash. It takes place in the three worlds of the sky, the ground and the ocean of the moon Pandora. 

Digital cinema originated in a promise of being bright and clear, but this movie has been conceived in terms of fire and ash, the haunting luminescence of the deep ocean and the organic thickets of the rain forest. It is more about being fuzzy and hazy and having reflections upon reflections than about bright and clear. The unclear vision is part of the definition. The art of the blur. The multi-plane interfaces.

I deplore the dearth of psychological commitment and the relentless emphasis on warfare. Adrenaline rush is guaranteed. Immersion, too. The suspension of disbelief is unshaken.

Technology is just a tool. Essentially the Avatar movies are creations of pure magic and an unwavering willpower.