Avatar Fire and Ash Review: The Lord's Mycelium

(Photo credit: 20th Century Studios)

By Jake Ramgren

February 7, 2026

I have a confession to make.

I like Avatar.

It feels odd needing to admit it. Considering how much the Avatar movies gross at the box office, it seems like everyone likes them. But in the decade and a half since James Cameron first introduced the colorful 3D world of Pandora, it has become quite popular to call Avatar overrated. We all know why. The plot is a rehash of Dances with Wolves, Pocahontas, and Fern Gully. The ponytails are weird. The franchise is anti-humanity. All of this is true, and absent its other qualities, these facts could justify skipping the third installment of a franchise that may not finish its planned 5-part saga.

But with every bizarre feature of Pandora (and there are many) there is also entertainment glory. The wicked ash people, who attack our heroes surprisingly early in the runtime, are a welcome presence. They are led by the intimidating but enchanting Varang (Oona Chaplin), who captivates. Cameron sets up and delivers each action spectacle with ease, one set piece after another, beginning with the aforementioned showdown with the primitive ash warriors and ending with another epic sea battle. It becomes hard not to enjoy the ride, even when the battlew are interrupted by giant space whales with nose rings. Quaritch (Stephen Lang) continues to be a highlight of the franchise and pairing him with a new villain just gave me more of an excuse to get behind him as a big baddie. We also get a little more time in the human city on Pandora, and a prison escape sequence through the industrial landscape was yet another thrill ride. Some of the side-plots get a little fuzzy and unnecessarily stretch the runtime (I really did not care for those whales), but if I'm going to spend over $20 to see a movie, I do appreciate that the movie was 3 hours long.

But let's take a look at James Cameron's films in a different, deeper way. If you haven't seen it yet (it's been over 2 months, c'mon now), I will talk spoilers.

Despite the anti-humanism and underlying environmental messages, in some ways, all three Avatar movies are far more culturally conservative than they seem at first blush. In a world in which movies glorify individualism and personal autonomy, Avatar is actually about a man doing whatever it takes to protect his family. Jake Sully (Sam Worthington) is a marine, a certified tough guy, and his character is centered around his responsibilities as a father. His wife, Neytiri (Zoe Saldana) honors him and nurtures her children. The franchise that began as a war between species has now centered on a rather traditional family trying to settle down despite the advances of a powerful antagonist.

And then there is the spiritual element. This is where things get really interesting. The deity of Pandora is a female goddess named Eywa, and in the first two Avatar movies she is shown to be a vague spiritual being that unites all living things. Both the wildlife and the Navi routinely plug in to Eywa with their aforementioned ponytails, becoming one with her spirit. It is all very cliche and certainly weird, but hey, I believe Jesus will one day return on a cloud, so let's roll with it. Eywa is given far more nuance in Fire & Ash, along with a laughable and jarring glimpse of her face. All things considered, Eywa's more significant role in this installment made me appreciate the first two movies even more.

One of the key moments concerning Eywa occurred near the beginning of the film. The character Spider (Jack Champion) is a human living among the Navi, which means he must always wear a mask in order to breath. But during an attack from the rival Navi tribe (a tribe that is split off from Eywa), Spider loses his mask. In a very tense sequence I am about to spoil, his Navi siblings race to find his spare oxygen tank, but soon realize they are going to be too late. Sigourney Weaver's religiously devout Kiri decides to improvise. She prays to Eywa, laying Spider on the ground of the jungle. She plugs her ponytail into the undergrowth and moves her body in a very silly-looking ritualistic plea to her goddess. Eywa listens. Strands of something begin to crawl over Spider's body from the ground, going into his nose and mouth and enveloping him in a spider-web-like cocoon. Spider begins to breathe.

At first, I thought this was a cop-out. I thought to myself "well, that was cheap. They're just making up the rules as they go." But later, we get an explanation from the human scientists of what happened. It turns out, the threads covering Spider were mycelium, which bonded to Spider's body in a mutualistic relationship and allowed him to breath the air.

For those who are not familiar, mycelium exist in real life. They are the branching root system of fungi, which perform just about every function except reproduction. They even connect the forests in one vast network that stretches entire continents. What's more, fungal mycelium can unite with algae in a mutualistic relationship. The algae perform photosynthesis, and shares its energy with the fungi, while the fungi allow the algae to live outside of water, where the two organisms are collectively called lichen. Lichen is part algae part fungal mycelium. When together, they both have abilities they do not have when alone.

With this knowledge in mind, the Pandoran mycelium used by Eywa to save Spider's life is actually a lot more interesting than just a cop-out rescuing device. Remember, there is more going on here than mere biology. The film makes it very clear that not just any old human can lie on the jungle floor and get breathing rights. This was a deliberate act of Eywa. She chose Spider, and appointed the mycelium to bond with his body, possibly as an answer to his siblings' desperate prayers.

Clearly, James Cameron and the minds behind Avatar used earth's biology to inspire Pandora's. But is it possible they got some inspiration from earth's religion as well? Does Christianity believe God appoints living creatures to do things?

Ask Jonah.

In Jonah chapter 1, God "appoints" a great fish to swallow Jonah. This was not a random fish that happened to run across a prophet and thought he looked tasty. This was God's deliberate command. Then, in Jonah 4, God "appointed" a plant to grow to give Jonah shade, then He "appointed" a worm to eat the plant before He then "appointed" a scorching wind to torture Jonah in the plant's absence. God is ruler of creation, and even though He allows it to operate on its own, He is also prone to Sovereignly command it for His own ultimate ends. In Jonah, we see biological processes (i.e. fish eating and plant growing) being instigated by the Creator to achieve a divine purpose.

Spider made it out of Avatar Fire & Ash unscathed because Eywa directed a normal biological process to fulfill her mysterious will. She "appointed" the mycelium to bond with Spider in order to preserved him. Seeing this divine action play out in a well-realized, coherent fantasy setting is every bit of a biblical apologetic as the resurrection of Aslan. I'll go so far as to say Eywa's little fungi trick is a depiction of sovereignty, which is itself a biblical concept referring to God's divine control over nature: from the largest of fish to the smallest threads of mycelium. Even secular media, by incorporating these themes in their stories, makes the miraculous seem believable.

Cameron is no Christian apologist, but he is a masterful storyteller. And as we should know by now, every story borrows something from the greatest story ever told. (I didn't even mention the sacrifice of Isaac parallel later in this film, but that one was so blatant and didn't work as well, so it's only worth mentioning in passing).

How fascinating to see that even secular creators, in an attempt to build a believable and immersive world, cannot help but include direct parallels with biblical truths.

I didn't set out to be an Avatar fan, but here I am. 

Bring on part 4.