Posts Tagged ‘Jack Champion’

AVATAR: FIRE AND ASH: 4 STARS. “a dopamine hit directly through the eyes.”

SYNOPSIS: In the third installment of the “Avatar” film series, “Avatar: Fire and Ash,” ex-Marine Corporal Jake Sully (Sam Worthington) and his Na’vi family’s peaceful way of life on their home planet of Pandora is threatened by the violent Ash People and returning baddie Colonel Miles Quaritch (Stephen Lang).

CAST: Sam Worthington, Zoe Saldaña, Stephen Lang, Sigourney Weaver, Joel David Moore, CCH Pounder, Giovanni Ribisi, Dileep Rao, Matt Gerald, Kate Winslet, Cliff Curtis, Edie Falco, Brendan Cowell, Jemaine Clement, Britain Dalton, Trinity Jo-Li Bliss, Jack Champion, Bailey Bass, Filip Geljo and Duane Evans, Jr. Directed by James Cameron.

REVIEW: “Avatar: Fire and Ash” does what cinema is meant to do; transport the audience to new worlds while reflecting and commenting on the reality of our world. An epic for the eyes, the visualization of Pandora is impressive and immersive, but the a-list visuals are let down by a b-movie story.

First, the look.

Rendered in eye popping 3D, Cameron’s concept for Pandora and her environs is spectacular will have your synapses firing on all cylinders. An ode to French impressionism by way of the sci fi landscapes of Frank Frazetta, whether his camera is gliding through the jungles of Pandora or swimming under the planet’s oceans or traipsing around gritty fire and ash biodomes or soaring though the sky on the back of a winged Great Leonopteryx, Cameron delivers a dopamine hit directly through the eyes.

It’s a whole lotta CGI, which is ironic, given that this is a story about the organic connection between nature and all of God’s creatures in which all the dazzling images were created in the least organic way possible. Still, the pictures, no matter how they were created, do come alive on the screen.

Less exciting is the story.

Cameron has spent the better part of two decades world building, creating the belief systems, language and traditions of the Na’vi people, only to hang them on the most generic of fantasy storytelling. His hot button pet themes of colonization, government overreach, community and environmentalism are very much in place, but the storytelling isn’t as passionate as the visual work.

Essentially picking up a few months after “Avatar: The Way of Water” left off, when “Fire and Ash” begins Jake (Sam Worthington), Neytiri (Zoe Saldaña), and their children Lo’ak, Tuk, Kiri (Sigourney Weaver), and Spider (Jack Champion) are grieving the death of Neteyam, the family’s eldest son.

Their peaceful life amid the reef-dwelling Metkayina clan is disrupted when Colonel Miles Quaritch (Stephen Lang), the ruthless RDA colonel reborn as a Na’vi recombinant, teams with the aggressive, volcano dwelling Mangkwan, or “Ash People,” lead by the vicious Varang (a compelling Oona Chaplin).

As Jake fights for the survival of his family, the fate of all of Pandora hangs in the balance.

Packed with big action set pieces, smaller, more intimate family moments, and one, “I am Spartacus” scene, “Fire and Ash” has a new, unsettling villain in the form of Varang but otherwise recycles old ideas under a slick CGI veneer.

The mix of A-list tech and B-movie dialogue like Quaritch’s quip, “I guess I don’t die that easy,” feels like watching a Saturday morning serial with boffo, stare-of-the-art visuals that distract from the often-cheesy dialogue.

The familiar story beats and the worn-out dialogue quickly take a backseat to Cameron’s unique vison. He is the star of “Avatar: Fire and Ash.” Like the other films in the franchise the new one invites the viewer to exit the real world and enter his world of imagination of three hours, and, despite some déjà vu story wise, it’s a trip worth taking.

SCREAM VI: 3 ½ STARS. “amped up with gorier-than-usual killings.”

Ghostface is back, kicking and screaming—and stabbing, punching and shot-gunning—in another bloody adventure where real life imitates the reel life of slasher movies. Like the other entries in the franchise “Scream VI,” now playing in theatres, sets out to deconstruct slasher movies, but actually delivers the gory slasher goods.

Set following the events of the 2022’s “Scream,” the new film moves the action out of Woodsboro, California, site of the previous Ghostface killings, to New York City at Halloween. The “core four,” the survivors of Ghostface’s latest rampage—sisters Samantha and Tara Carpenter (Melissa Barrera and Jenna Ortega) and twins Chad and Mindy Meeks (Mason Gooding and Jasmin Savoy Brown)—hightailed it across country to attend school and put the past behind them, but trauma has a way of following a person.

Sam, who killed her boyfriend Richie Kirsch (Jack Quaid) when she discovered he was a Ghostface killer, in love with her simply because she is the daughter of the original killer in the screaming mask, is now seeking treatment, but admits, stabbing him 22 times, slitting his throat, and shooting him in the head, “felt right.”

No spoilers here, but suffice to say, the movie follows the “rules” laid out by film student Mindy: Rule one: As the franchise ages, the movies will get bigger. Rule two: Expect the opposite of last time. Rule three: Legacy characters and main characters are cannon fodder. No one is safe.

“Scream VI” feels fresher than you would expect from an almost thirty-year-old movie franchise. A rotating cast of new and old faces helps with that, providing new stories wrapped in nostalgia, but it also has something to do with the franchise’s desire to entertain at almost any cost.

This one is a tightly knit, if familiar-ish, story, amped up with gorier-than-usual killings—I’m sure I saw intestines!—and what Alfred Hitchcock would have called a “refrigerator climax.” That means it seems to make sense while you are watching it, but later, when you’re standing in front of the fridge looking for something to eat, and your mind drifts back to the film, you realize just how preposterous it was. The Grand-Guignol ending is over the top, but hey, remember rule number one?

“Scream VI” doesn’t exactly slash a new path for the franchise, but the expected mix of humor, gore and self-reverence and its willingness to be silly and kinda tense at the same earns it a recommend.