I've seen Avatar: Fire and Ash and you need to know these three things before watching

I've been lucky enough to see Avatar: Fire and Ash before its release on 19 December and there are three things in particular you need to know before you watch it.

Avatar: Fire and Ash is the third entry in James Cameron's Avatar series and follows on the events of the second film The Way of Water. It takes us back to the world of Pandora and once again primarily follows the Sully family.

Personally, I'd say it's much better than the second one but doesn't quite hit the highs of the original. That being said, there's still plenty of qualities of the original that, as an Avatar fan, truly captured my imagination when I was 14-years-old.

Here are three things you need to know before seeing Avatar: Fire and Ash.

Kiri has a key role to play in Avatar: Fire and Ash / Lightstorm Entertainment, 20th Century Studios

1. Watch the first two before you watch this

The biggest piece of advice I'd give to anyone before watching Avatar: Fire and Ash is to watch the first two movies of the trilogy if you haven't already.

Without giving specific details away, while the opening section of the movie does offer a bit of a recap of what happened and where the characters are at, if you haven't watched the first two movies it'll be really easy to get lost quickly.

If you've already seen them, it's not essential to rewatch the first two immediately before you watch Fire and Ash but if you've not seen them at all, I'd highly recommend getting up-to-speed to get the most enjoyment out of watching this film.

Avatar movies are more about the amazing effects and sound rather than the story but if you want to enjoy the plot as much as you can, watch the first two.

There are some things that feel rather familiar in Avatar: Fire and Ash / Lightstorm Entertainment, 20th Century Studios

2. Having said that, prepare for things you'll have seen before

No spoilers but there were certain points through Fire and Ash where it felt like I was seeing parts of the first two films, just repackaged in a slightly different way in a slightly different context.

I get director James Cameron's comments about one of the main themes of the movie being around the "cyclical nature of anger and war" but that feels more like an excuse for some of the repetition.

Having said that, watching any Avatar movie in a cinema is an absolute must and Fire and Ash can be forgiven to a certain extent by not deviating too much away from what you expect from an Avatar movie.

But some of the key plot points and conflicts do feel like we've been here before. The planned fourth film will need to bring some newer ideas to the table to stop the series from feeling stale but it just about avoids it this time around.

Lightstorm Entertainment, 20th Century Studios

3. Miles Quaritch character arc

In the second film, my eyes rolled when it emerged the original villain from the first film, Colonel Miles Quaritch, was back in some form with his memories and likeness being transferred to a recreated Navi body.

To me, it felt like the original bad guy was being shoehorned back into the sequel to return as Jake's nemesis once more.

But in Avatar: Fire and Ash, his character this time around has quite an interesting development arc.

While there's no mistaking Varang, played by Oona Chaplin, is the undoubted standout, it's interesting to see Miles' development play out through the duration of this movie, especially through the inner conflicts he has at certain points. There is a lot more depth to him this time around.

Elsewhere from indy100:

• Matt Damon once turned down the most money ever offered for a role
• Avatar 2 reviews: What people on Twitter are saying about James Cameron's movie

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