Avatar: The Way of Water

 

Gillipedia Official Rating: Because when the first one makes 2b, you don’t not make a sequel

Score: 6/10

          If you’ve heard middling to great reviews for the Avatar sequel, that’s exactly what you’ll see here too. I saw this movie in 3D in a packed theater, and everyone’s opinion ranged from it was okay to it was great. I am seriously shocked that this film is nominated for the Golden Globe for Best Picture – Drama because I fall into the crowd that it was fine. Let me explain.

          We can talk about the long gap between movies, how scenes were shot 4 years ago, how utterly expensive this film was to make, etc., but let’s focus on the product at hand. Despite my score and initial reaction from above, I want to first say that this film is beautiful. If you plan to see it in theaters, 3D is honestly the way to go—and this is coming from a guy who doesn’t even know what the last 3D film I saw was because I don’t like chalking up the extra bucks (I think it was like an adorable panda movie at a museum). Where the first film was ground-breaking in its innovative motion-capture, this film truly takes things to the next level. My understanding is they even filmed some motion-capture underwater for some scenes, and even with that knowledge, I still have no idea how they pulled off what they did.

          From the very start of the film, when you’re looking at the Na’vi and Avatars, even the texture on their blue skin is the most realistic visual effects I’ve ever seen. And it doesn’t stop there. Even the motion capture they’re using is crisp and the movements look and feel natural. One big complaint I’ve had with Marvel visual effects is characters occasionally looking rubbery in their movements. And there’s a section in the film about 45 minutes long where the whole The Way of Water subtitle comes into play with a new setting in their world of Pandora, and the audience is treated to tons of water sequences, new Avatars, and many new creatures. And it’s gorgeous. It truly reminded me of the ride at Disney World, and in this movie you really get to sit back in 3D and marvel at this incredible world around you. You'll see sunsets with this fake but so realistic water glistening, and you will wish you were on Pandora at that point.

          And the above paragraph is the high marks I can’t ignore about this film. I feel bad about any other film that gets nominated for Best Visual Effects because it truly isn’t a competition. Surrounding that roughly 45 minutes of pure wonder, however, is a subpar plot with uncompelling characters.

          It takes about an hour of the film to quickly remind us that Jake, Sam Worthington’s character, married Neytiri (Zoe Saldana), and they now have some children of their own. The bad guys of the film, humans, retreat after their unsuccessful attempt at that unobtainium and return to Earth. We go through a few years as the kids get a little older, but there’s also one character with a baffling background…

          I remember Sigourney Weaver playing a good doctor in the first film. She got injured or something, tried to fully connect with her Avatar, it didn’t work, and she died. But through some weird cloning/pregnancy/I don’t remember because it was like two lines of dialogue, we have another kid Avatar that is basically raised by the Jake household. Her name is Kiri, and I hope you’re ready for a big subplot involving her connection to Pandora and not knowing who her dad is, and I hope you’re also prepared for it to be setting up more plot points in the sequels because it doesn’t get resolved here.

          Along with the strange Kiri, the kids hit very familiar marks. The eldest son obeys Jake’s orders willingly and wants to prove he can grow up to be a strong leader while the younger son is more rebellious but has a good heart that Jake fails to recognize at time. There’s also a human boy that sticks with the Avatars, and while I wished his character was given less screen time just because he wasn’t interesting, it becomes apparent later on that he’s one of the bigger characters in the story due to his background. And boy is that background a doozy.

          You remember Stephen Lang’s one-faced villainous marine from the first movie? First, the human boy in this film is his son. Second, are you wondering who the villain is in this film? Well, the humans took DNA from some main players and technology has reached far enough to successfully implant a person’s DNA into a new Avatar. So Lang’s memory’s are put into a new Avatar that is both that boy’s father but also technically not since he himself is a clone. And it’s easily the thing I hate the most about this movie. Oh yeah, you remember the one-dimensional villain we had the first time? Let’s literally clone him. So once again, this clone named Quaritch played by Stephen Lang is the villain, and humans are the overarching villains having returned to Pandora about 15 years later because Earth is dying and they now need to colonize Pandora to start anew.

          One more thing really quickly. Sigourney Weaver’s cloned daughter Avatar thing is like a 14-year-old girl—still played by Weaver. It’s kinda stupid, but Weaver actually kills it in her mannerisms, and I didn’t even know it wasn’t a child actor until I learned it after the movie was over.

          To avoid spoiling the plot, basically what you might care about is the humans are specifically hunting Jake and his family, and this forces a tough decision on their part to leave their home. They come across aquatically adapted Na’vi with more webbed limbs and greenish tint to the standard blue creatures. Again, the world building is incredible, the water effects and creatures are breath-taking, and I fully embraced the new setting.

          But it doesn’t last as the Jake clan attempt to fit in while the humans continue their search. Throughout the film are multiple action scenes, and by and large, all of them are too long. There was one single moment of action that truly stood out—a guy’s arm gets ripped off—and that’s it. Everything in the motion-capture looks fluid and great, but there’s just so much excess. And this is highlighted by the climax of the film. The last hour of the film is a huge sequence with multiple characters fighting their own battles. I didn’t emotionally connect much with the characters, so I didn’t care much about the tension, and by the end, I really just wanted it to be over. Because to make that sequence (and the other action scenes) as long as it was, you have to manufacture tension and force characters into tight situations that they have to think on their feet to come out of. And every big character has their own situation going on. Which is really where the deviation in how people feel about this film come into play. If you really connected with the film throughout, you’ll feel very invested in the outcome of the final battle; but if you’re like me, then you’ll start getting agitated that this already long movie keeps going on pointlessly. This is not The Godfather where more scenes about the family makes me care more about what goes on around because the actual character drama doesn’t feel novel.

          I don’t remember the last time I saw the original Avatar, and I do want to factor in how ground-breaking the technology for that film was for the industry in the decade following; however, I actually still think this film expands on the world of Pandora in a way that is better than the first film. James Cameron also honestly deserves a Best Director nomination. Forget about the plot; how he's able to pull performances from his cast and imagine the world around is truly remarkable, and I still honestly have no idea how he even was able to make this film. And when I have no idea how you do what you do, that will always earn high marks from me. And for the animation, I have regarded Blade Runner 2049 as my favorite visual effects of all-time, but from a pure technical perspective, The Way of Water has no rival and it’s not even close. This film is beautiful beyond measure, and the few extra bucks for 3D is worth it. I’m beyond frustrated by the stupid villain, some of the subplots are completely unnecessary and more than content with being resolved in the sequels, and the plot is disappointingly underwhelming. Which is why this movie is just fine. You don’t have to watch it, but if you do, seeing it in theaters in 3D is easily the route to go for that experience. Also, I can’t tell you how often I mistakenly called this movie The Shape of Water. It was in development so long that was actually probably its original title before Guillermo del Toro won Best Picture.

Amsterdam is really bad + a bonus review

Gillipedia Official Rating: It’s rumored Christian Bale simultaneously gained and lost 300 pounds for this role

Score: 4/10

          Amsterdam is packed tight with big names. Christian Bale, Margot Robbie, and John David Washington are the stars, but there’s also Michael Shannon, Robert de Niro, Taylor Swift, Anya Taylor Joy, Zoe Saldana, Chris Rock, Rami Malek, Timothy Olyphant, and Mike Myers. Throw in writer/director David O. Russell, and this movie has to be good, right? Well, I’m not sure if you read the full title, but the sting of all the names attached to this project still hasn’t worn off.

          Living in a post-WW1 world, Bale is an eccentric veteran doctor taking more morphine than he should, and Washington is a stoic lawyer that served with Bale and continues to work with him. A frantic Taylor Swift asks them to look into the death of her father—their old commander. They suspect foul play, then get framed for a murder, and now they’re on the run trying to figure out what in the world is happening. And to understand what is happening, we also watch what happened to our leads while they served and the nurse (Robbie) that takes care of their injuries, and how the inseparable pair becomes the musketeers instead.

          At over 2 hours long, it takes too long for the movie to find its groove. There’s also a pretty rapid switch about halfway through from trying to be a charming murder mystery to unfolding to a much larger plot involving the war as a whole. Yes, it does tie into some real events, but it is still jarring. The style of this film and Russell films in general is yes, the paragraph above is the main plot. But while characters walk between settings, they talk about what else is going on and the side plots reveal themselves—like Bale’s hapless marriage into an elitist family. We do end up wanting things to work out for the characters, but when the climax fizzles instead of bangs, trying to have the story culminate into one scene with all the characters coherently just doesn’t land.

          The biggest shortcoming for this film, however, is its tone. The genre listed first for this film is comedy. And let me tell you that the way this film is shot is some of the worst directing I’ve seen in a long time because there’s absolutely no comedic timing. There’s never enough setup, and the delivery is far too stiff for any joke to ever land. If I had to listen to Bale tell one more character that he is a veteran, I’d probably shoot myself. I think it’s a running gag, and it’s extremely annoying. And to be very clear, it does feel like this movie is trying to honor veterans which I really do appreciate, but Bale has to tell everyone he’s a veteran no less than 15 times during this movie. But I digress. Let me try to explain this comedy as simplistically as possible.  The most basic setup for a scene would be two characters talking to each other. Any film that gets widely distributed will have a setup something like a camera behind each character’s shoulder (over the shoulder) and a third wide shot showing both actors. To keep the flow of dialogue, sometimes the character speaking isn’t the face we see on screen because maybe the reaction to the dialogue elicits the emotional response we’re looking for. What happens with this film is a character says their line. Pause. Switch to other character. Character two now speaks and says their line. Nobody in the world has ever spoken in a conversation like this, it looks fake, it feels awkward, and no, it isn’t funny to watch. It blows my mind how this happened, but this is the stiffest dialogue I’ve seen since possibly the atrocious Mortdecai.

          If you have an underwhelming story and a comedy without much humor, maybe it can be saved by the acting? Bale is a frequent collaborator with the director (as is de Niro), and he is fully committed to his role; because of the film surrounding him, it doesn’t stand out, but he is dedicated. I’m most disappointed by Washington whom I loved in Tenet and BlackKklansman where I think he’s supposed to be the grounded character, but there’s just hardly any emotion in any of his lines. Robbie does the best of the three in my opinion, and Chris Rock delivers what humor there is. Shannon and Myers try to keep a running gag about bird watching, but it’s not funny from jokes one through five. Malek is pretty good, and Taylor-Joy leans in hard to her pompous character, but it feels like too much even though the exaggeration is added for “comedic” effect. And don’t come at me Swifties, but Taylor tries too hard, it feels like she’s in a play and not a movie. For what it’s worth, I squarely put the blame of my acting criticisms squarely on director Russell’s shoulders. I truly felt like I was watching the rehearsals for this film because it felt like they were still figuring everything out. I seriously can’t tell if some of the dialogue was just that bad, or was it an actor’s first efforts at improvising? These actors were not set up for success, and the final product suffers for it.

          I actually give high marks to the music. It has a very ethereal, dreamlike quality to it, and could’ve added depth to a better film. I would honestly nominate and very possibly win the score for an Oscar I think it’s that good, but this movie does not deserve to be called Oscar winner or nominated. It also breaks my heart to see that the director of photography is the goat Emmanuel Lubezki. Everything is shot with a very soft white backlight—also adding to that ethereal quality. Which is not inherently a bad thing, it just doesn’t really fit with this film. Or why we kept following characters from behind as they walked around. It was also slightly uncomfortable how much the film is shot from like waist height looking up at our characters.

          Amsterdam is really bad. I was enticed by all of the actors and actresses that I recognized and have adored in previous films. David O. Russell has also directed some great movies, including one of the best romantic movies of all time in Silver Linings Playbook. Apparently, this was enough confidence for the producers because this wasn’t a cheap film and appears to have bombed hard. As it truly should have too. You won’t feel bad or anything for watching this, but there’s just way better ways to spend two hours of your time. I do feel less bad about this movie flopping though because I guess Drake was an executive producer. Probably also why this movie sucks.

 

Spencer

Gillipedia Official Rating: Twilight star gets British. No, not actual British actor Robert Pattinson

Score: 4/10

          The only thing I knew going in was the film was supposed to be okay and elevated by star Kristen Stewart’s Oscar-nominated performance as Princess Diana. Knowing the slightly anxious quality of Stewart and the fact that this film’s entire aim is to focus on the mental strain Diana was going through at the time, this could be an interesting movie. It’s not.

          There’s not much that happens. The film does center around Diana and how there’s this mix of outside forces trying to control her life and herself trying to desperately control her own life despite what the royal family’s plans for her may be. And this concept isn’t a bad one. I think the execution is simply rudimentary. The issue is how flat the film is. It doesn’t feel like the anxiety, stress, and other mental illnesses ramp up enough, so we move from scene to scene without riding much of an emotional wave. Yes, later on we get some slight hallucinations, but we’re never punched in the face with stress, and this movie desperately needed some sort of jolt of emotions.

          Stewart isn’t the only other big name. He’s most recognizable to me from his days as Wormtail in Harry Potter, but famed British actor Timothy Spall is here, as is Sally Hawkins and her effortless smile and exuberant joy. The biggest side character, however, is the head chef played by Sean Harris. The film takes place over roughly a week, and during that time we hear Harris yell out the menu for the day every day. Sure, the food looks and sounds pretty good. And there’s a couple lines of dialogue during the film about the efforts of everyone involved with the making of the food, but beyond that, I didn’t get the point. Yes, I also get that the real life chef got to know Diana… but in a film already struggling to find that “it” factor, we’re slowed down even further by watching the kitchen. I don’t see a bigger meaning behind it except to make this feel more like a “legitimate” film by bringing it just under the two-hour mark.

          Despite Stewart’s efforts, I’ll be honest—I did feel like the whole time I was watching her try to do a British accent and never felt like I saw her get lost and absorbed into the character of Princess Diana. I also like the intentions of this film and its stress on mental health, especially on such a public figure. But from an actual storytelling perspective, the themes are far too light, and the scenes don’t have enough flavor. Whereas at least with Amsterdam you could see where the story was building up towards, there is never a far-reaching goal for our protagonist to aim for. Nothing to look forward to, no callbacks or foreshadowing with payoffs at the end. Spencer simply moves from scene to scene, relying on the laurels of Stewart, and it’s not nearly enough to carry this film.

Black Panther: Wakanda Forever

 

Gillipedia Official Rating: Nothing but love to the Boseman family

Score: 8/10

          With the tragic passing of Chadwick Boseman, one of the most successful Marvel franchises had to pivot with its superhero Black Panther. From what I understand, Namor was always set to be the villain, and writer/director Ryan Coogler switched thematic elements and story points from there. The film does a solid job of paying tribute to Boseman, but it also wants to be a Black Panther movie, tie in elements of the TV shows, and set up future films as well. Everything is handled well, and this is ultimately a great movie that is the best Marvel movie of 2022—but that’s not the largest statement to make with Doctor Strange 2 and Thor 4 being the others.

          The best way to describe the mood of the film most of the way through is somber. And appropriately so. We start off with standout Letitia Wright’s Shuri unsuccessfully able to heal her brother from his sickness, so the film immediately addresses his death. Shuri acts as our new lead for the film, and she is a great actress, but this is really more of an ensemble film. Again, you have the other returning Black Panther characters like Winston Duke’s M’Baku, Angela Bassett as the queen, and Martin Freeman still playing an American. All of them get their time, then we get Namor’s backstory too, oh, and Shuri as the protagonist needs to have some form of an arc as well. And in terms of hero arcs, this is one of the weakest; the payoff at the end doesn’t feel naturally resolved or as thought-provoking or emotionally charged as it tries to be. As a common theme of this review, all scenes are well-made, but with how much needs to happen in the 2 hr 40 min runtime, there’s never enough time to let the emotions soak in. I think one of the biggest symptoms is I came in fully prepared to cry over Boseman and get goosebumps, and instead, everything was more muted.

          Where Multiverse of Madness only had moments of cool action but relied too heavily on CGI and Love and Thunder leaned in too far to the goofiness and only had the standout scene in that shadow realm, Wakanda Forever does still rise above these films thanks to the actors and director Coogler. This is some of the strongest acting I’ve seen in a Marvel film as you can tell everyone is giving it their all as their own personal farewell to Boseman, and Coogler is simply one of the more talented directors working today. The way scenes are shot doesn’t make you feel like you’re looking at visual effects, and the focus stays with the powerful faces of the actors. Also, the editing in the fight scenes are quick; however—and this is huge—you’re still able to see everything that happens and can tell thought went into the choreography.

          While Wakanda mourns its king, a new threat arises in the underwater nation of Talokan. Led by mutant Namor, they shock Wakandans by also having vibranium. Having suffered at the hands of slavers centuries ago, Talokans are willing to kill those from the outside world to keep themselves and their vibranium hidden. One early action scene blends horror elements where a nation uses a ship and some rigging to try drilling for vibranium out in the ocean, and some female Talokans mimic being sirens by singing and luring the workers out to the sea and to their death.

          While I am critical of the Marvel movies this year, one thing all of them, including this film, excel at is the villains. DC has always had the better villains, but Namor is another strong entry for Marvel. Since he is a mutant, he has the ability to swim underwater and breathe on land, and he even has wings on his feet. So this makes Black Panther 2 for 2 on awesome villains. The Wakandas can relate to the isolationist mentality of Talokans, but the heroes have more morality in not wanting to create an all-out war with the world. This creates a lot of the thematic elements, particularly with Shuri, on how far you will go for vengeance and if it’s even worth it in the end. And perhaps under normal circumstances, cutting away centuries ago to spend 10 minutes on Namor’s background would’ve been fine, but I think for this film it just dragged the film a bit too much. The middle of this film goes through all its story beats without pausing long enough for the audience to feel the weight of its implications. This is probably most evident when one of our characters dies over halfway through, and while shocking and sad, again, the tone felt more muted.

          With mostly solid visuals, strong music, obviously great costumes, and the focused efforts of the entire cast and director Coogler, Black Panther: Wakanda Forever is the best Marvel movie of the year. But with so much to accomplish with its own story as well as the MCU as a whole, the emotional impact is lost ever so slightly. This is a solid Marvel movie and is well made overall, but it doesn’t hit quite hard enough to be one of the elites.

Marcel the Shell with Shoes On

 

Gillipedia Official Rating: So wholesome I can’t even make a joke in this tagline

Score: 10/10

          I recently had the opportunity to do a bit of traveling for work, and part of that ritual is watching movies on flights. While I’m debating reviewing some of the others I watched, there was one clear standout, Marcel the Shell with Shoes On. This movie oozes wholesome content through a brisk runtime. For 90 minutes straight, I was grinning from ear to ear, even possibly with a tear in my eye from time to time.

          The best way to describe the first dozen minutes or so in terms of tone is honestly a bit like the opening of Up. There’s this montage-like quality as we’re introduced to our here, Marcel, who is… a shell… with shoes on. He’s only one-inch tall and lives in a suburban two-story house. His dialogue feels very stream of conscious as we’re guided through the house and watch how Marcel gets by on a daily basis— traveling inside a tennis ball or using a stand mixer attached to string to shake a tree to get fruit to drop. And where does this supply of string come from? Marcel’s answers and solutions to everything is always innocent, creative, and even a bit clever.

          There’s a couple other players to know. Marcel isn’t the only living inanimate object. There’s an older shell that Marcel calls Nana Connie, and a young man named Dean. It’s also worth mentioning at this point how the film actually looks. The house is live-action as is our human Dean, but Marcel and Nana are a mix of stop-motion and animation. Dean rents out the house as an AirBnB until he finds a new apartment, and upon discovery of Marcel, decides that he would make the great subject of a documentary. And that’s the style of how the film is shot. And it’s gorgeous. Playing with depth perception and those sun rays gleaming off a slightly dusty service, and then incorporating our adorable stop-motion protagonist is so thoughtfully crafted. This is an A24 film and comes fully with the expectations of how that studio’s films should look.

          Not only is the film endlessly wholesome, it’s surprisingly funny. Marcel has some great lines, but there’s many small moments too. My favorite example is Dean helping Marcel make a phone call. Marcel leaps from number to number on Dean’s smart phone until it starts ringing. We listen to the call while just to the side Nana is watching the scene unfold. And she’s casually standing on a laptop that’s open to a word doc, and since she’s on the “z” key, the doc slowly fills with “zzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz”. It’s not the focus of the shot, they never call it out or bring attention to it, but it’s a fun, clever idea executed and timed so well.

          If I had to stoop low enough to find any critiques, it’s that the way the small conflict in the middle of the film plays out is a bit pedestrian and easy to predict where the movie is headed. Part of this involves Dean uploading a segment to YouTube and Marcel gaining popularity. Stupidly, Dean includes the outside of the house and this brings unwanted attention once the public figures out where the house is. Marcel feels responsible for something that happens a bit later, but Dean never remarks about this.

          But that’s not nearly enough for me to not recommend this film. The ending made me so happy that I genuinely was starting to tear up. I honestly haven’t kept up too much with animated films recently, but this is easily the best animated film of the year, and I’d also say it’s the most wholesome film I’ve seen in the last decade. It’s an incredible feat of filmmaking that the entire family will enjoy. I am a huge fan of many genres including films like Hereditary that fill you with dread, but you have to balance that out with good-feeling movies, and there’s no better choice than this film. Tis the season to put a smile on your face, and you’ll do just that by watching this movie. Cheers, everyone.