Avatar: Fire And Ash (2025)

The time may have come for me to admit that the shine has gone from the Avatar movies. Or maybe it's just that this particular instalment is the first one I was unable to get along and see on the big screen. Say what you like about these movies, they are most definitely made for the big screen.

The plot is basically the same as it was in the last movie. Jack (Sam Worthington) and Neytiri (Zoe Saldaña) are trying to live a peaceful life with their family, but still find themselves targeted by the vengeful Quaritch (Stephen Lang). There's also another powerful enemy this time around, the fiery Varang (Oona Chaplin), who is very interested in getting her hands on weaponry that will give her people a huge advantage over those they seek to rob and conquer. Meanwhile, Kiri (Sigourney Weaver) is still trying to figure out how to best live in harmony with Pandora, and Spider (Jack Champion) has to ensure that he has a working facemask available if he wants to keep breathing properly while being the one full human living amidst the Na'vi.

It's James Cameron in the director's chair once again (I doubt he would ever hand the reigns over to anyone else), and he's also still one of the main writers (alongside the returning Rick Jaffa and Amanda Silver). Avatar: Fire And Ash may be as derivative as the previous instalments, it may be as uneven in terms of the pacing leading up to an action-packed finale, but it's still one hell of a spectacle. Whether or not you enjoy that spectacle is entirely up to you, especially when a lot of the plotting seems to get sillier and sillier as the series continues. I still appreciate the beauty and detailing of the visuals though, and it's astonishing to see how much smoother and clearer everything is as the tech has evolved in the 17 years since the first movie was released.

Worthington, Saldaña, and Weaver are still very comfortable in their portrayal of the blue-skinned leads, and Lang remains an entertaining villain, although he's given a small amount of extra development this time around to make me consider referring to him in that role with quotation marks. There are some people here who are arguably worse, whether looking to hunt and maim some peaceful marine mammals or looking to rain down fire on their enemies. Chaplin is interested in the latter, and she's a great addition to the series. I'm not going to get into the problematic nature of some of the casting, but the supporting cast has time for many supporting names (Kate Winslet, Cliff Curtis, Joel David Moore, etc) and some welcome newcomers (Edie Falco being a standout). Sadly, the worst performance comes from Champion, the young man who seems to have become notably worse in his acting when he's not simply reacting to greenscreen elements and the wealth of CGI surrounding him.

Simon Franglen provides a very good score, and the soundscape throughout is fantastic (shout out to the oft-neglected foley artists), but this remains all about the visuals ahead of everything else. People may sneer when I say that it does feel like watching someone play a good videogame for a lot of the runtime, but that's not the insult it may once have been. Many modern videogames can look gorgeous, and the best of them have even better storylines than this, so watching someone play one isn't the disconnected and uninvolving experience it used to be.

Like a favourite holiday destination I've visited a few too many times, Pandora remains a beautiful place to visit. I just don't get as enthusiastic about it as I used to. I'll keep going back though, Cameron has maintained high standards that ensure my loyalty to the series, but I will no longer plan my calendar around it. 

7/10

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Freaky Tales (2025)

Written and directed by Anna Boden and Ryan Fleck, Freaky Tales is a film that I decided to watch this week with very low expectations. I hadn't really heard too much about it, and there was certainly nobody telling people to make it a priority. Maybe it was due to those low expectations, or maybe simply due to the movie itself, but I had a blast with it.

Set in Oakland in 1987, this is an anthology film showing four interconnected stories. You get some young punks who end up battling Nazis outside one of their clubs, a pair of young women who get a chance to show off their rap battle skills on a stage opposite a well-known star, a debt collector/killer renting a movie for his pregnant wife, unaware of the fact that they've been targeted by someone he caused pain to in the past, and a super-powered basketball player who goes on a killing spree after a robbery-gone-awry leads to things going really bad really quickly.

Boden and Fleck have been working together for about two decades now, and they have a filmography that refuses to be pigeonholed, but this may be their most enjoyable work yet. It's so fun and satisfying, partly down to the aesthetic and energy of the whole thing and partly down to the timing of it (because this is a perfect time to enjoy any film that features people beating up on Nazi scumbags). Jac Fitzgerald delivers some cool cinematography, straightforward stuff with just a few flourishes here and there, and the score by Raphael Saadiq is an excellent selection of synth work.

Pedro Pascal and Ben Mendelsohn are the biggest names in the cast, when it comes to the main roles anyway. The former plays that debt collector/killer, obviously perfect as the reluctant heavy who becomes quite morose and soulful when his world is irrevocably changed, while the latter is a horrible cop who is unsurprisingly connected to a number of the Nazis. The late Angus Cloud does well as a bad guy named Travis, Jack Champion and Ji-young Yoo are easy to like, playing the two main punks we spend time with, and Dominique Thorne and Normani are great fun as the rapping duo wary of being made a laughing stock while they have a chance to show what they can do in front of a big crowd. Tom Hanks appears for a cameo that lasts just a few minutes, and he's a hell of an addition to the thing, and Jay Ellis dominates the final section of the film, giving us a character who feels like Jim Kelly spliced with Cameron Vale.

Although it would seem to have a layer of grime and unpleasantness wrapped around everything, Freaky Tales works so well because it's a celebration. It celebrates love, it celebrates those who pursue their dreams, it celebrates a time and a place (and we can all think back to our own special venue that may have had a similar peak time many years ago, or maybe just seems that way through our nostalgia goggles), and it celebrates the joy of fighting back against truly despicable humans. The message couldn't be clearer, and there's some violence on display that is as satisfying as it is over the top, but that lack of subtlety feels like a refreshing drink of cool water in a time when so many others are considering compromise or ways to appeal to those who wouldn't appreciate such a message. 

If this was only a selection of tales that said "it's always okay to punch a Nazi" then I would have been fine with it, but it's got a lot more packed into it. I REALLY liked it, and I hope others have as much fun with it as I did.

8/10

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Scream VI (2023)

For as much as I love most of the Scream movies, including the fun Scream 4, I was absolutely not a fan of Scream (2022) aka 5cream. That immediately became my new least favourite in the franchise (not including the first season of the TV show) and I wasn’t looking forward to this next instalment AKA Ghostface Takes Manhattan.

Thankfully, being a completist is sometimes a good thing. I am glad I watched Scream VI, and it’s already one of my favourites (with my provisional ranking just now being 1, 4, 6, 2, 3, and 5). It’s far from perfect, and I still have issues with the core cast, but the set-pieces and the general vibe of the film, which feels a bit more relaxed and less reflexive and defensive than the last outing, works really well.

The premise is simple. A bunch of people who survived the last film are now in New York. Ghostface is also in New York. People are going to start being stabbed. That’s it. Red herrings abound (or do they?) as our leads try to pinpoint who is doing the murdering, and maybe figure out a way to stop them.

Although there’s one notable omission from the cast (no Neve Campbell this time around), everyone returns to their main role behind the camera. Matt Bettinelli-Olpin and Tyler Gillett co-direct, and the script is from both James Vanderbilt and Guy Busick. While that may not seem like a good thing to anyone who disliked the last movie, and I realise I am very much in the minority with my dislike of that film, it’s good to see how much better everyone does while feeling less beholden to everything that came along beforehand. This generally seems more free to properly subvert expectations and play around with the rules viewers think they are so familiar with, as evidenced in an opening sequence that is the best opener since the classic start of the first movie.

It is easier to enjoy the cast a bit more too, having accompanied a number of them through the events of the last movie, but this is the biggest problem that the film has. The supporting players are the most enjoyable (Hayden Pannetiere makes a welcome return, Dermot Mulroney is decent, and Courteney Cox has a confrontation worthy of her character’s status), and both Mason Gooding and Jasmin Savoy Brown are fine, not to mention one or two others caught up in the midst of the killing spree by virtue of being friends with the targeted group, but Jenna Ortega is left with less to do than she deserves, and Melissa Barrera continues to just not be a very appealing nominal lead. Sorry, there’s no way around the fact that she’s dead weight at the heart of this rebooted phase of the franchise.

The other problem with the film is a sad lack of commitment to actually, well, killing off characters. So many people are savagely attacked here that you will be forgiven for rolling your eyes during the third act when you see how many actually make it to the end credits. There are fantastic sequences, but some of them feel ultimately inconsequential. I still hold out hope for the next film through. Considering how big a step up in quality this one was, I can only hope that everyone involved finds the bravery to start gorily whittling down the core cast next time around. And if that is caused by another “legacy” character, all the better, because these film-makers certainly seem to have taken note of fan theories and internet gossip.

There are at least four great sequences that help to make this a memorable Scream film, and the fact that I didn’t feel the rest of the film pale into comparison after such a strong start is about as good a compliment as I can give it. It’s an unexpected return to form, as playful and violent as you could hope, with the extra fun of watching the parallel strands between this new trilogy and the original three movies come into sharp focus in a way that provides one more layer to a film series known for being so self-aware and self-referential.

I cannot wait to rewatch this. And, AND, I may even finally work up some enthusiasm to rewatch the last film. Maybe I will like it a little bit more. Maybe.

8/10

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Avatar: The Way Of Water (2022)

Over a decade has passed since James Cameron asked us to put on 3D glasses and join him on a romp around the planet of Pandora. As much as I loved the cinematic experience of Avatar, and I still think it holds up as a visual wonderland that is well worth watching on a big screen, it's hard to argue against people who point out that the film made no major cultural footprint, despite it spending a bit of time as the highest-grossing blockbuster movie in modern cinema. Yeah, we got some jokes and references, but then it all just . . . faded away. 

Now it's all back, and it's back in a big way. While it's unwise to ever bet against Cameron, many balked at how much this had to make to just break even. The fact that it's now on target to do more than that, and probably give Cameron yet another chance say he is the helmer of the highest-grossing movie of all time, is unbelievable. And yet . . . it's in line with how Cameron works. 

Jake (Sam Worthington) is now living happily with Neytiri (Zoe Saldaña) on Pandora. They have three children of their own, two boys named Neteyam (Jamie Flatters) and Lo'ak (Britain Dalton), and one daughter named Tuk (Trinity Jo-Li Bliss), as well as an adopted daughter, Kiri (Sigourney Weaver), and the constant company of a human boy, Spider (Jack Champion), who was left on Pandora because he was too young to be transported back to Earth when he was a child. Everything is wonderful, which means it's all about to be spoiled. Enter Quaritch (Stephen Lang), the big bad from the first movie who is, with a small team of his fellow soldiers, sent back to Pandora in Na'vi form. Jake opts to take his family away from their forest home, asking permission from another tribe (led by Tonowari, played by Cliff Curtis, and Ronal, played by Kate Winslet) to hide away and make their new home in an idyllic reef environment. But trying to stay out of a fight doesn't stop the fight landing on your doorstep.

It’s hard to think of the best way to review Avatar: The Way Of Water. It isn’t a great movie, especially with a lot of it rehashing what we got in the first film, but it is a great cinematic experience, and that is what Cameron specializes in. In an ideal world, I would list all of the VFX and art department people here, as well as the production designers, stunt crew, and all of those who won’t receive their due credit while Cameron, who is certainly no slouch when it comes to pushing film-making tech above and beyond the limits of our imagination, gets to return to his throne and proclaim himself “king of the world” again.

The cast all do what is asked of them, but part of the fun comes from not recognizing them. Worthington and Saldaña are fine, but it’s more impressive to not realise when Curtis and Winslet appear. And it’s a delight to see Sigourney Weaver magically made youthful in a way that is equally realistic and magical. Lang is a great villain, once again, and the younger cast members, those already mentioned above, plus Bailey Bass and Filip Geljo, all seem good enough under their layers of motion capture. Champion is good as definitely not a feral kid lifted from the Mad Max movies, and there are one or two enjoyable scenes featuring Brendan Cowell and Jemaine Clement, actually allowed to play their characters in standard human guise.

The 3+ hour runtime may be offputting, but this isn’t a film that drags. The majority of the runtime provides plenty of spectacle and beautiful details to pick up on, and the action beats are brilliantly done, with the last 40 minutes or so being one extended battle scene that guarantees most viewers will feel surprisingly energised as the end credits roll.

Not only does Cameron, who co-wrote the screenplay with Rick Jaffa and Amanda Silver, rehash the main conflict for our hero this time around, he also revisits the themes of environmental awareness, living in harmony with a precious planetary ecosystem, and showing the value in traditional ways and community spirit. Is it all also problematic blue-faced cultural appropriation? That charge has been levelled against it, but I think that Cameron and co. put such hard work into creating an entirely fictional world, influenced by the history and many cultures of our own planet, that you have to accept it as it is presented; pure sci-fi.

Maybe it’s a sign of me being won over by the advertising, or maybe I just really enjoyed the whole cinematic experience THAT much (once I told someone to turn their phone off after tolerating the bright light of their screen for half an hour - aaaaaaarrrrgggggh), but this is the kind of escape that shows how far movies can transport us. It isn’t perfect, even the technical side of things can seem a bit rough occasionally (the HFR can take some getting used to, some of the colours clash horribly, and a number of shots are framed horrible due to the difference in size between any human characters and the much taller Na’vi), but I would easily rewatch it today if I had the time. And I will be keen for whenever we next get an opportunity to revisit Pandora. 

James Cameron may not know much about subtlety or self-restraint. Fortunately, he knows how to deliver eye-popping, jaw-dropping, cinema on a huge scale.

8/10

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Prime Time: The Night Sitter (2018)

On the surface, there's really nothing all that wrong with The Night Sitter. The pacing is pretty brisk, the cast do decent work, and it brings to mind a number of other, fun, movies that it seems to be looking to emulate, or pay homage to. Unfortunately, there's also something missing. It's hard for me to pinpoint exactly what that is, but it's almost like once central piece needed to complete a jigsaw puzzle.

Amber (Elyse Dufour) is all set to babysit young Kevin (Jack Champion) and Ronnie (Bailey Campbell) in a house that also contains some powerful paranormal works. Kevin's dad, Ted (Joe Walz), is basically a cross between the Warrens and some manic local salesman with an ad that you see popping up on your TV in the middle of the night. Amber is actually looking to rob the house, along with a number of accomplices, but things become complicated when evil forces are let loose in the house.

Co-written and co-directed by Abiel Bruhn and John Rocco, The Night Sitter blends together some Argento-esque moments of "Three Mothers" and the kind of mix of mostly horny characters found in films such as Night Of The Demons and, well, hundreds of other enjoyable horror comedies. It tries to build some tension, and has one or two impressive gore gags, but ultimately falls down because of a lack of confidence in the writing and direction. The visuals are nice enough, albeit lacking some real stamp of identity on things, and the script never finds the sweet spot in between the horror and humour. There's not enough inventiveness in the blood and death, and the dialogue fails to crackle as it should. Characterisations are thin, and the exchanges between all of the different characters lack a necessary layer of wit and bite.

Dufour is a big plus in her role, and Champion is very good working alongside her. Amber Neukum also stands out, playing an accomplice (sort of) named Lindsey, and you have perfectly acceptable supporting turns from Jermaine Rivers, Manny Sandow, and one or two others.

In summation, The Night Sitter is a hard film to hate. Despite never really moving in to top gear, it moves along well enough and has a constant feeling of wanting to please. But it is also, for me, a hard film to love. Although I know a few people who would strongly disagree with me. 

6/10

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