Avatar: The Way of Water

Official Australian release date: 15/12/22.
Viewed: 20/12/22.
Director: James Cameron
Actors: Sam Worthington, Zoe Saldana, Stephen Lang, Sigourney Weaver
Genre: Action / Sci-Fi
Rating: M

 

‘Avatar: The Way of Water’ (or Avatar 2) comes almost exactly 13 years after the original broke all box-office records. The film does well to simultaneously make it feel like you’ve never left Pandora, but also to remind you of the characters and catch you up on the new ones, including Jake Sully (Worthington) and Neytiri (Saldana)’s four kids – eldest son Neteyam (Flatters), Loak (Dalton), Kiri (Weaver) & little Tuk (Bliss). The explanation for Kiri being Grace (Weaver’s original character)’s daughter is not clear at all, but Colonel Quaritch (Lang) is back, with a far simpler explanation – he and his marine team were cloned on Earth and sent back in Navi Avatars.

Once we re-establish that humans are the worst and still trying to colonise Pandora and exploit it’s resources, Sully & Neytiri take their family away from the fighting to the coral atolls/islands of the Metkayina tribe, led by Tonowari (Curtis) & Ronal (Winslet). This creates some interesting dynamics, but also introduces a whole new underwater ecosystem for the camera to explore. Probably the most impressive thing about these films is how Cameron makes everything seem so real and all the creatures plausible – all seeming like slightly different evolutionary branches of Earth’s creatures. The ‘whales’ are particularly remarkable.

It's good to see a little comedy thrown in (& Aussies/Kiwis), with Jermaine Clement & Brendan Cowell. However, just when the film seems like it might be a repeat of the first, the second act turns it on it’s head and focus on the inter- and intra-family dynamics and has a narrower focus on how the ocean-dwelling Navi interact with their environment. This serves the film well, as rather than try to fight every human colonist and machine, it is more intimate and you get to care for the main characters by the end. Bring on the next 3!

Overall: Still visually stunning, with a good story

Gav’s Rating: 4 stars.

The Menu

Official Australian release date: 24/11/22.
Viewed: 4/12/22.
Director: Mark Mylod
Actors: Ralph Fiennes, Anya Taylor-Joy, Nicholas Hoult, Hong Chau
Genre: Thriller / Comedy
Rating: MA

 

 

‘The Menu’ is a biting satire on the modern infatuation with food fetishisation. The premise is simple – Tyler (Hoult), Margot (Taylor-Joy) and an exclusive group – including food critics Lillian (McTeer) & Ted (Adelstein) + actor Leguizamo & partner Felicity (Carrero) + millionaire Richard (Birney) & Anne (Light) + 3 frat-boys – pay an exorbitant fee to get a boat to a secluded island (off the coast of Georgia) where a famous chef (Fiennes), maître de Elsa (Chau) and their team cook them a degustation dinner.

After 30min of getting to know the characters and wondering how similar this was going to be to ‘The Trip’, it takes a left-turn and almost does a ‘Get Out’. It’s funny to see how each character reacts to the events, and while they’re often absurd, you wonder what you would do in the same situation…

It’s definitely not a full-on horror film, or an outright comedy, but strikes a nice black-comedy balance, carried primarily by Fiennes & Taylor-Joy, with all the others adding something to the mix. Each twist is not quite what you expect and the ending is great fun. Lots of “why?”s, but also – why not? The less you know going in, the better!

Overall: Fun, sly and engaging

Gav’s Rating: 3.5 stars.

Black Panther: Wakanda Forever

Black Panther: Wakanda Forever

Official Australian release date: 10/11/22.
Viewed: 10/11/22.
Director: Ryan Coogler
Actors: Letitia Wright, Angela Bassett, Tenoch Huerta, Danai Gurira
Genre: Action / Drama
Rating: M

 

‘Wakanda Forever’ was always going to have a tough job, needing to replace star Chadwick Boseman who passed away from cancer in 2020. Rather than try to do a ‘Rise of Skywalker’ and use some archive footage/CGI, Coogler chooses to have T’Challa killed off immediately. This sets the scene for a sombre outing, with Wakanda dealing with new challenges now they’ve shown the world their vibranium resources.

It's good that T’Challa’s mum, Ramonda (Bassett), gets more screentime, but sister Shuri (Wright) is the star here. Okoye (Gurira), Ayo (Kasumba), Aneka (Coel), M’Baku (Duke), Ross (Freeman) and Nakia (Nyong’o) are all back again, but it feels like a lot has happened in the four years since the first film – mostly because of ‘Infinity War’ and ‘Endgame’. Namor (Huerta) is the villain in this film, and while he’s similar to the comics character, here he’s of Mayan descent, with the under-water kingdom seemingly in the Gulf of Mexico – called “Talokan”, not Atlantis.

Some of the decisions made by the characters and by the director don’t make a lot of sense, with it sometime feeling like a lot has tied to be shoehorned in to make a film, rather than a linear storyline. Riri (Thorne)’s character seems pointless; Nakia is wasted until the end; and I’m not sure it needed to go for 2 hours 40min. It’s by no means bad, with a solid ending, but doesn’t really feel like a Marvel epic and probably has too much death and not enough fun. FYI, there’s no end credits scene, just the one after the titles.

Overall: Different style of Marvel film.

Gav’s Rating: 3 stars.

Barbarian

Official Australian release date: 20/10/22.
Viewed: 30/10/22.
Director: Zach Cregger
Actors: Georgina Campbell, Bill Skarsgard, Justin Long, Richard Brake        
Genre: Horror / Thriller
Rating: MA

‘Barbarian’ is both a straightforward thriller/horror, but also a bit unique and unconventional. The set-up is simple – Tess (Campbell) is staying at an AirBnB in Detroit, which happens to be double-booked by Keith (Skarsgard). Seems straightforward what might happen next… AJ (Long) comes along as the landlord and there’s a few flashbacks of Frank (Drake). Other than that, a very light on cast, carried by each of the stars.

Even though it’s a horror film, the tone is often light, but allows for tension to be built, mostly thanks to the good score. I did like the turn it took after the first act. Always good to see Justin Long in a horror film – this is up there with one of my favourites, ‘Drag Me To Hell’, and is better than ‘Jeepers Creepers’ and ‘Tusk’.

It’s fun and fast – only 100min – and Campbell does a convincing job of being empathetic and not the stereotypical victim. See it to find out what happens! Great directorial debut from Cregger.

Overall: Fun, different horror tale.
 
Gav’s Rating: 4 stars.

Moonage Daydream

Official Australian release date: 15/9/22.
Viewed: 17/9/22.
Director: Brett Morgen
Actors: David Bowie        
Genre: Biopic / Documentary
Rating: M

 

‘Moonage Daydream’ is a not-really-documentary about David Bowie, as it doesn’t follow the traditional talking heads of friends, family and colleagues. It’s also not a concert film, although it does have some live concert footage, apparently much of it previously unseen. Directed by Brett Morgen (who did ‘Montage of Heck’ about Kurt Cobain and ‘Crossfire Hurricane’ about The Rolling Stones), it’s also not wall-to-wall songs – I’d say there were only ~10 songs played in full, with lots of others used as transitions.

The film does well to show his impact on his fans, with bits and pieces from outside shows and plenty of crowd closeups during the live bits. There’s plenty of archival Bowie interviews, much of it overlaid with other visuals of him or with the psychedelic “screensaver”-type CGI. It’s edited well, so it feels like he’s talking directly to you, rather than an interviewer. Lots of his other art – paintings, video-snippets, dance – edited in too.

It’s sort-of chronological, starting in ~’72 and the Ziggy Stardust era, covering up to the early ‘90s, but some of the interviews jump to an older Bowie, so he can juxtapose himself and some of the comments/views from his younger self. He was certainly a bit of a mystery and for a lot of the film comes across as someone just trying to find his place in the world. Good to see some of his reasoning around certain things and his genius definitely shines through. Hard to believe he’s already been gone almost 7 years.

Overall: Different, but fitting, overview of one of the greats.
 
Gav’s Rating: 3.5 stars.

 

Nope

Official Australian release date: 11/8/22.
Viewed: 11/8/22.
Director: Jordan Peele
Actors: Daniel Kaluuya, Keke Palmer, Brandon Perea, Michael Wincott           
Genre: Sci-Fi / Horror
Rating: M

 

‘Nope’ is Jordan Peele’s 3^rd film and another unique take on the thriller film. It follows OJ (Kaluuya), his sister, Em (Palmer) & father Otis (David) as they try to run their Californian horse-training ranch. When some strange happenings occur, they bring in Angel (Perea) & Holst (Wincott) for help. Ricky (Yeun) is the neighbour trying to run a theme park. The mystery is revealed after ~45min and then the stakes are raised.

No spoilers here, other than to say it’s probably both what you might expect and also completely unexpected in parts. The film has a pretty good score and soundtrack, with a great use of light. There’s a few good laughs and jumps, but nothing overly horrific.

The three main actors are all good, but not exceptional – the character development wasn’t really there. It could’ve been called ‘Don’t Look Up’, but Adam McKay beat Peele to it! It’s hard to put a finger on it, but there’s just something missing which would’ve elevated this to another level. It’s a good concept, but not flawlessly executed.

Overall: Different take on the sci-fi/thriller concept.
 
Gav’s Rating: 3.5 stars.

Thor: Love and Thunder

Official Australian release date: 6/7/22.
Viewed: 6/7/22.
Director: Taika Waititi
Actors: Chris Hemsworth, Natalie Portman, Tessa Thompson, Christian Bale           
Genre: Sci-Fi / Action
Rating: M

 

‘Thor: Love and Thunder’ (or Thor 4) is a bridge between ‘Avengers: Endgame’ and ‘Guardians of the Galaxy Vol 3’ and is not really linked to any of the other recent MCU films/TV shows, but it does a really good job of building on ‘Thor: Ragnarok’ and the spirit of that film, including making Valkyrie (Thompson) and Korg (Waititi) the two main sidekicks of Thor (Hemsworth), who both ground him and add humour.

The plot is based around Gorr (Bale) having a sword that can kill gods, set-up well in the first 10min, and at the same time, Jane (Portman) being back as “The Mighty Thor” and being able to wield Mjolnir. A lot of this is explained in nice quirky montages, courtesy of Korg. There’s plenty of great cameos – from a lot of Aussies too, since it was filmed here – but the biggest (not a spoiler) is Russell Crowe as Zeus, who has a semi-important role, and is great.

Love & Thunder is very fast-paced, using the soundtrack excellently – especially four Guns N Roses songs – and it’s amazing the difference of “the vibe” during/after ‘Thor: The Dark World’ and 9 years later compared to this film. The black and white scene is excellent, there’s plenty of battles and whenever it starts to get too serious, there’s some well-placed jokes. The ending seems fitting and leaves you happy to see where Thor’s journey takes him.

Overall: Another enjoyable MCU action/comedy.
 
Gav’s Rating: 4 stars.