dlmiley

The first Avatar was amazing with its standout special effects, unique story, and great cast, including Cameron veteran Sigourney Weaver. It was amazing, especially in 3-D. And the obvious parallels to Western colonization of North America, the decimation of bison and other wildlife as well as the near genocide of native Americans was compelling. Then came "The Way of Water", which was more of the same but with a different tribe as well as unique new creatures which made it interesting but in the long run a repeat of the same themes as original - white men bad and natives good. And now to the current feature - really more of the same themes again. This time we have "fire and ash", which essentially the same movie as "way of the water" with a different setting. Oh, but let's add a turncoat native (another parallel to the American West) to help the bad white man. So again, we have good special effects, although 3-D is wasted on this movie - nothing that really makes you jump back or want to grab something off the screen. The story is predictable and overlong over at 3 hours, 15 minutes. So, while the movie is well made (even with some inexplicable continuity errors), I can only recommend the film to dedicated Avatar fans. And as the title of my review indicates: James Cameron, your story has grown tiresome - it is time to move on to something else. I think I will skip Avatar 4 and I look forward to Cameron film that doesn't have Avatar in the title.

I don't know what some critics are talking about. I saw the film at the AFI Film Fest in Hollywood, and audience, including me, loved it. In fact, Neil Diamond himself called Hugh Jackman to tell him that he loved the film. Hugh Jackman, Kate Hudson, Michael Imperioli and the rest of the cast do a masterful job. The period recreations are very good. It is well-directed, choregraphed, and filmed. Of course, there are some "Hollywood" touches, and little bit of artistic license taken, but the film is nevertheless entertaining and interesting - I had never heard of the actual couple before, but I was happy to see their story brought to life. Highly recommended.

This movie was Cinemark's secret movie this month. I was pleasantly surprised to view it since being a "secret movie", you can get a good major movie like "Jurassic Park: Rebirth" or a dud like "The Legend of Ochi". Anyway, this movie was very entertaining and funny. All of the cast are very good, especially the three leads (Miles Teller, Callum Turner, and Elizabeth Olsen). I won't rehash the plot as you can read the synopsis, but I can say the writing is excellent, with many LOL lines. Direction by David Freyne is fine and the cinematography (especially in the mountain scenes) is fantastic. Production values are good as well. So, I would highly recommend you see this when it premieres for general audiences. 8/10.