liajames

I don't often leave reviews, but I had to get my thoughts down after just seeing a showing for this sequel. I'm a huge James Cameron fan. I remember hyping up the first film to practically everyone I met weeks and months before it's release. "It's James Cameron!" I would say to them excitedly.

And I loved that film and have watched it many times since its release.

There are serious problems with this sequel though (and I'm starting to suspect that Disney outright owns professional critics at this point.)

The plot is paper thin. The film opens as humans unceremoniously return to Pandora. They just arrive in a fleet of ships, and their plan is no longer to obtain unobtainium - they want to relocate / populate Pandora because Earth is dying. Now, the environmental themes of the first film were well handled; they were subtextual and the plot and characters spoke of them and represented them well. Here, the message is practically shouted straight into the camera. It's very heavy-handed, and it's not good science fiction - it's the same old doomerism that you'll find on any typical angsty subreddit about the future.

Colonel Quaritch (the main villain from the first film,) is just dropped into the film via cloning in the space of about five minutes. How did he get his memories back? Oh, they just downloaded a copy from the original Quaritch. No deep science fiction backstory here, just your basic run-of-the-mill copy, and now he wants revenge. A character that was an interesting foe in the first film (if a little bombastic,) here becomes a silly one-dimensional bad guy. And he survives the ending, which he shouldn't have; this villain is not compelling enough to push these characters through more sequels.

After the first act, Jake and Neytiri are largely pushed aside as the film focuses on the children. For the most part it's a very family-friendly film, and then towards the end there are sequences and fight scenes that are decidedly not family-friendly. The kids are not interesting in the slightest, except for Kiri. She has a connection with Grace and Eywa that isn't fully explained, and she develops supernatural powers which aren't discussed by any of the other characters. They just sort of happen. I get why they happen; she has a connection with Eywa, but the whole arc is just left hanging by the end, and presumably we have to come back for the sequel to find out what happens with her.

The death of one of the siblings felt borderline exploitative. Cameron's insistence (as another reviewer mentioned,) on pushing the nuclear family agenda doesn't really work well in these times. It works for him because he's very wealthy, to be frank, but it doesn't work for a lot of young people these days. I was already wary of that going into the film, and that trepidation was justified. I can't relate to this guy with a gaggle of children, who, frankly, I don't think should be having children at all. I don't see Jake Sully as a father.

The new Mcguffin will have you rolling your eyes for certain. Did you think unobtanium was bad? OK, here we go. I've always defended James Cameron's films, and I defended the choice to use the descriptor "unobtanium" in the first film. Why? I could find several reasons: none of the main characters really care about it for starters. They have other concerns. Grace love's the N'avi and Pandora, Jake is not a scientist, Selfridge is a corporatist etc. The ones who care about the actual chemical name are back on earth waiting for this valuable superconducting material (and, yes, a room temperature superconductor would be that valuable.) Plus, it is a term that physicists have used in the past to describe incredibly powerful substances that they just don't have.

In this film, we're introduced to a substance inside the brains of whales that prolongs human lifespan. Yes, you read that correctly. That's the unobtanium of this film, and it's only mentioned once. But apparently it's worth 80 million $ a bottle. I mean, the year is approximately 2170 at this point. If mankind doesn't have longevity and anti-aging treatments already, and needs to hunt space whales for it... well, I'm sorry but this makes no damn sense.

It's BAD SCIENCE FICTION, and It's bad writing.

The film will remind you repeatedly that you're watching a sequel to Avatar. From repeating lines verbatim from the first film (this must happen about ten times!) to using identical musical cues for similar scenes.

It's basically an hour of great action and two hours of splashing around with whales and various other water animals, while Jake continuously scolds his children for being bold. And James Cameron wants you to know that whales are beautiful animals that are viciously mistreated. Yes, we're aware Mr. Cameron. There's very little the general film-going public can do about it though. I sure wish I had a fridge filled with vegan snacks on the go. If I did, I'd be vegan. But then again, I don't have half a billion dollars in my bank account. Most people barely have time to pay their bills, so your message is largely falling on deaf ears, even though you're shouting now.

4 stars for Sigourney Weaver and the VFX (Weta) people. You worked hard and deserve all the accolades you get. Visually, it's a gorgeous film. But I have no idea what Cameron was going for with this shallow, paint by numbers sequel. I'm done with Avatar.

That's not to say that all the other production staff didn't do an amazing job - they did. I'm ten minutes from the end, and I had to stop to write this review.

In seasons 2 and 3 it felt like you'd lots your way somewhat, but this brings it back full circle. Thanks for a wonderful story, and congratulations to the writers, directors, producers and especially actors for such a phenomenal story.

I hope it continues, but I'll keep that in check for the last ten minutes of season 4.

Well done guys. The writing for season 4 was spectacular. Take a bow.

As the title says; there's no point remaking this film unless you have the budget for the climactic scenes.

That's the problem with handing all of these projects over to Blumhouse Productions - we get cheap as chips films and the studio is hoping to cash in on a low budget release.

But it doesn't work with the likes of Firestarter or, for instance, the recent remake of "The Craft," which featured special effects that looked like they were created by a single person working remotely with an iMac.

If you don't have the budget for the big climactic scene, then there's simply no point making the film.

Minor spoilers follow.

In the book, and in the original film starring Drew Barrymore, Charlie, instructed by her Father, burns the government facility to the ground. Even the 1980's version showcased this with millions of dollars in spending. Entire buildings exploded, Charlie blew up everything, taking down helicopters etc. - and it was all real, expensive, practical effects.

This film however features an ending so anti-climactic and inexpensive that it could easily be mistaken for an independent production. Charlie torches a few people, then walks away with merely the sounds of explosions in the background. That's it. The film actually felt like it was building up to a solid showdown, but it didn't come because the studio is obviously trying to get away with a low budget production and cash in.

4 stars for the script and performances. The writing was actually decent up until the end, though "The Shop" was not developed well enough to provide decent villains. Stellar performances from Zac Efron and the girl who played Charlie.

I must admit I was a bit sceptical after the second half of season one turned into a "what is happening!?" scenario.

However, this episode was phenomenal. I loved Mother's response to the AI governing the compound (though for an advanced techno-organic AI, it's defences are ridiculously limited - unplug a few a devices and you're done?)

Still, lots of characters had great moments, the actress who plays Mother was phenomenal, and the episode pushed the narrative momentum of the series forward a great deal.

I do want en explanation for everything though; why people are hearing voices, why there are archaic relics on the planet etc.

This is a fascinating, intriguing series. Please keep the good writing going.

As per the title, this is the only question I would like an answer to. This film has a very slow pace. I'm halfway through, it's not engaging (although I did like the recreation of Babylon,) and I'm going to (maybe) finish watching it tomorrow. As others have mentioned; Jolie is a beast of an actress. If you're going to cast her in a Marvel film, make her the lead, or pay her fee for a cameo and leave it at that.

I rarely write reviews, but this was just off the charts. Virtually no story. The usually brilliant Woody Harrelson is miscast. Feels like there is no second act. The film has a setup, and an ending, that's it. Just VFX, nothing else. I promise you; you will reap more benefit by going for a walk and listening to a podcast than watching this. Go outside, look at nature, smile at someone. (For reference, I grew up reading comic books in the 90's and early 2000's.)

It's quite difficult for me to fathom the drop in quality from episode one to episode two. The first episode was one of the most magnificent television productions I've EVER seen. Beautiful visuals, huge budget, tremendous performances, a good translation of the source material; everything was absolutely marvellous - as close to perfection as it gets.

Episode 2 however, has reduced the show to (so far - I'm only halfway through) what can only be described as lacklustre young adult fiction. It's uninteresting, boring, the budget is halved. The performances are not in the same key as the the premier episode.

I don't have much else to say.

Apologies to the creators for being critical, but there is drastic drop in quality from episode one to episode 2 - so drastic that it's obvious to basically anyone.

Hope everyone is doing well either way.

What an exquisite ending. Absolutely beautiful. Whoever planned that shot moving around the corner to Wanda's house as it pushes through the window with the Hex surrounding it deserves an award. Everything in that moment was perfect - the performances, the score, the effects, the camera work - for a few moments it all came together like a symphony. Nice going.

I have to say I wasn't fond of this show at the start, but because of this amazing finale I'm glad I watched it.

Marvel, this is a bizarre series - not in the sense of, "oh wow, they did an interesting take and took these characters in a new direction." No: It's more, "what on Earth am I watching??"

This was not a good direction to take this. With characters as rich as Wanda and Vision, you could have literally done anything. These two brief episodes would have been a good idea if they were presented alongside the actual action-packed series, or released on youtube for PR reasons, but not the entire series.

Also, I remember producers (?) complaining about the limitations of the 25 million per episode budget. Ummm, where's the money? I just don't see it.

Shoutout to the supporting cast - they were all phenomenal - and I noticed Emma Caulfield, which was very cool to see.

*Overall rating changed based on the brilliant finale.*

The script is solid, albeit without a particularly strong or enthralling villain. Chris Pine is great, as is Gal Gadot. Kristen Wig gives a great performance, despite claims to the contrary. Some of the CGI is wonderful, some of it looks like it's from 10 years ago for some reason (?) The lasso looks completely different. In a Summer blockbuster, it's blisteringly hard to redeem a villain without a huge bowl of sticky syrup, and this film proves that once more. Still, I think that's the direction they were going in; bright, hopeful and upbeat.

Obviously the film was built around the necessity of getting Chris Pine's character into the film, and it shows. Personally, I would have taken a different approach. The wishing stone was a good idea, but I would have suggested changing 40% of the script.

Still, it's very entertaining - even wonderful in parts, and I would definitely watch this again. Patty Jenkins is heading toward a fantastic career, one I aspire to.

Very minor spoiler follows-

It's a fun film, but it's frustrating to watch Wonder Woman 'lassoed' so to speak, as she gradually loses her powers to the wishing stone. We watch Wonder Woman to see her kick ass, not take bullets - we want to see her dodge them with lightning fast reflexes and flip cars with her bare hands.

Still, you can't really go wrong if you liked the first one, though it doesn't approach the brilliance of the original film.

What happened? That's the first thing that comes to mind.

I'm not bothering with spoiler tags. I don't care. You have been warned, though spoilers will be minimal.

John Connor is killed within the first five minutes, apparently just a couple of years after Sarah and Co. stopped judgement day. Sorry, but to put a mother through all of that and then to have to watch her only child gunned down right in front of her is so excessive and vicious as to be sadistic.

From that point on, this film is basically the exact same plot of Terminator 2. Nothing lands. The set pieces are complex, but completely uninteresting. The characters are uninteresting. It's just chase, followed by a highly choreographed CGI battle, followed by chase, followed by battle etc., and then, well, I just left. Nothing to see.

Oh yeah, and James... Terminator 2 is emblazoned in the mind's of pretty much every single Millennial (yes, I hate that term too, it's stupid to put such a massively diverse group of people under a single generational banner). But we remember the lore of T2. In that film, a key inflection point of the plot was that Sarah and John decided to switch the Terminator's CPU to a different mode, so that he could learn and become something more than Skynet intended. If they hadn't done that, they would have lost the war.

That key point is never mentioned in this film. The T-800 (or whatever, who's counting at this point?) in this film relays his history and never says anything about it, yet somehow acquires something akin to a 'conscience'. How is that possible if there was nobody there to switch the CPU?

Linda Hamilton is the only reason worth watching; she turns in a fantastic, sardonic performance, but watching her as a grieving mother and seeing the story turn in that direction was quite possibly the worst thing this franchise has ever done.

I'm usually reticent to leave negative reviews because I know the enormity of the work that goes into making these expensive projects. But I just cannot hold my tongue on this one.

I say we take off and nuke the franchise from orbit. It's the only way to be sure.