Avatar: The Way of Water (2022)

Genre: Fantasy
Directed by: James Cameron
Starring: Sam Worthington, Zoe Saldaña, Sigourney Weaver
Running Time: 192'
Verdict: ⊗⊗⊗⊗⊗

Many years after the events of the first movie, Jake Sully is raising his four Na'vi children, as humans return with another invasion. This drives his family away from their tribe, in search of a new home. So Avatar: The Way of Water moves from forests of Pandora to the oceans and introduces a new race of people, one in harmony with the water and water creatures. The movie is beautiful and visually impeccable. Perfect animation and a great, almost magical worldbuilding are the definite highlights of the film, surpassing the original. The nature is surreal yet familiar and even industrial scenes on human settlements are impressive to look at. However, this comes at expense of the story, as there is nothing original or creative about it, and some characters suffer for it. Interestingly, the villain is (more or less) the same one as in the first movie, but with more compelling character development. Even though the story centers around Jake Sully, his mate and his nemesis, to me the story is about their children and some shitty parenting. It is the children that are trying to find themselves a place in the new surroundings and their parents are ones who are pulling them back. Also, while I might be racist for saying this, for a good part of the movie it is hard to differentiate the blue people, most importantly Jake Sully's children. But after a few hours, you learn to. You don't get much choice, as the movie is over three hours long. I don't usually mind that for epic movies of this scale. The movie is strongest in the second act, when is introducing a lot of new worldbuilding elements and displaying many gorgeous scenes, but doesn't rush through the first and third act which are significantly less entertaining, and maybe it should. In the meantime you can try to watch barely dressed blue bodies for nip slips. I wouldn't say Avatar: The Way of Water feels like 13 years of progress, but it is an improvement, or at least is more entertaining, although still somewhat predictable. For example, it finishes most plot points, but still obviously stays open enough for the sequel(s).

Rokin

Top Gun: Maverick (2022)

Genre: Drama

Directed by: Joseph Kosinski

Starring: Tom Cruise, Miles Teller, Jennifer Connelly

Running Time: 130'

Verdict: ⊗⊗⊗⊗⊗

 

I honestly didn't expect to like this movie as much as I did. Top Gun one was more of a cult classic than a great movie, with some amazing aviation shots, unremarkable story and a weak romance subplot that mostly dragged the movie down. Top Gun: Maverick is an improvement on all counts. Tom Cruise even acts better and smirks less, and it was a pleasure to see Val Kilmer in a film again, as brief as it was. There are a lot of scenes that invoke nostalgia, but are elegant enough to not be obnoxious. The definitive high points of the film are the aerial scenes, which are extremely exciting, and unlike in the original film, you can actually follow what is going on, without it being explained after. The movie introduces a lot of new colorful pilots and their call signs, and quite a few of them get some cool scenes, in air or on the ground. But as the title suggests, this is Maverick's film, and as much as the young pilots are confident and cocky, the most impressive flying comes when Maverick is in the air. Miles Teller plays Rooster, son of Goose, with a grudge against Maverick, and movie movingly explores their relationship without too much drama. There is still a romance subplot, there are still dogfights against an ambiguous enemy and there are still overly macho scenes, and Top Gun: Maverick tastefully blends them all with tense moments, powerful avian displays and a subtle and interesting story.

Rokin

The Northman (2022)

Genre: Adventure

Directed by: Robert Eggers

Starring: Alexander Skarsgård, Nicole Kidman, Claes Bang

Running Time: 137'

Verdict: ⊗⊗⊗⊗⊗

 

Just like it's titular protagonist, The Northman is not especially clever, but is instead very dark, savage and barbarous. It follows Amleth (who was inspiration for Shakespeare's Hamlet), a prince somewhere on medieval North Atlantic, on his quest for vengeance, years after the murder of his father. It's much more of a revenge story, than one about Vikings, even though it's age and land play a big role in the movie. It blends fables, prophecies, myth and legend, and blurries them with harsh realities of the time, being effective even when it's obviously trying too hard. With some archaic, Shakespearean dialogue and well-rounded cast to sweeten the watch, no character is pure or really that likable, with that kind of being the point of the film. It compensates that with some amazing vistas, with large part of the story being set in Iceland, with good music and great sounds, and with ruthless scenes. It doesn't try too much to keep you engaged but is instead constantly maintaining it's fantastical, heavy atmosphere, and ramping it up with occasional brutality. The Northman is a well acted, beautifully directed, brutal epic that separates men from boys. Go watch it to see which one are you.

Rokin

Spider-Man: No Way Home (2021)

Genre: Action

Directed by: Jon Watts

Starring: Tom Holland, Zendaya, Benedict Cumberbatch

Running Time: 148'

Verdict: ⊗⊗⊗⊗⊗

 

Marvel and Sony put on their best lipstick and most glamorous dresses, veiling a lack of underwear, ready to provide the best fan service money could buy. Really, as a film, Spider-Man: No Way Home is probably the best Spider-Man movie. Not because of a good Peter Parker story, but because of the way it treats former movies and how it handles an amazing gallery of Spider-Man villains. It is spectacular, funny and full of surprises. It is also visually great, a lot of it coming from Doctor Strange's meddling with dimensions and the multiverse, but also from a colorful palette of the villains and general mayhem they bring with themselves. To provide all this goodness, movie sacrifices some explanations of how some things happen or work, but it's really hard to mind as it doesn't give you much time to think. It tries to further develop Spider-Man's relationships with his girlfriend MJ and best friend Ned, but they kinda fall to the background because of just a preposterous number of other individual story lines and distractions that happen in the scenes. Spider-Man: No Way Home satisfyingly concludes a lot more than this trilogy, but I still feel it is just a villain away from being the perfect Spider-Man movie.

Rokin