Film Talk: Latest Movie Releases – Looking to make waves with The Way Of Water
I’ll never forget the first time I saw it.
Strapping on my novelty 3D specs I was as excited-yet-sceptical as the next man upon getting comfy for a flick that promised to change both science fiction and animation forever.
Rumoured as a magnum opus project of a rather well-known director, said movie had its credentials. But come on, could one film really pack this much world-breaking power?
Just like the next man, I was forced to concede that ‘yes, yes it could’, and left the cinema that day blown away and thirsty for more.
I was not the only one, and am delighted to proclaim that finally, folks, the wait is over.
Way back in 2009, audiences across the planet were stunned when James Cameron’s Avatar – a thrill-ride sci-fi story about a little guy that lives in a blue world (thank you, Eiffel 65) – was brought to life.
Having been in development for 15 years, Avatar obliterated box office records, blowing another not-so-sinking ship of a Cameron flick out of the water to become the highest grossing film of all time (now he really was the King of the World).
With a cast comprising Sam Worthington, Zoe Saldana, Stephen Lang, Michelle Rodriguez, and Sigourney Weaver, this masterpiece of a flick exploded onto the silver screen, spearheading the 3D revolution, and leading critics across the land to dip their caps and pay homage. Now, after an excruciating 13 year wait, the first of four sequels, Avatar: The Way Of Water, is here to make this Christmas a blue Christmas, and the excitement across the globe is palpable.
With a large chunk of the original cast back for more, expectations for this one have long been high. But now that it is finally here, does Avatar: The Way Of Water stand up to the legacy of its predecessor? Let’s dive in and take a look...
AVATAR: THE WAY OF WATER (12A, 192 mins)
Released: December 16 (UK & Ireland)
At the end of his 1998 Academy Awards acceptance speech as Best Director of Titanic, James Cameron famously screamed: “I’m the king of the world!”
He has fulfilled that boast by reclaiming the title of highest-grossing film of all time from Avengers: Endgame with a recent re-release of the 2009 blockbuster Avatar.
Like Steven Spielberg and Michael Bay, Cameron is passionately dedicated to the adrenaline rush of the big screen experience and films don’t come much bigger – or more expensive – than Avatar: The Way Of Water.
In this opening salvo of four sequels, he expands digitally rendered horizons from Pandora’s bioluminescent forests to the moon’s teeming oceans and resplendent atolls, providing audiences with a compelling reason to immerse fully in eye-popping 3D and IMAX.
It’s a dizzying sensory overload that can’t be replicated at home or on a streaming service; a jaw-dropping, photorealistic spectacle that harnesses new software and technology to enable performance capture underwater for the first time.
Every rock, leaf and minuscule element of background detail feels exquisitely real and when characters venture beneath waves, Cameron and cinematographer Russell Carpenter play beautifully with shimmering light including a bombastic action set piece that revisits the swirling, water-logged terror of Titanic.
Like its predecessor, Avatar: The Way Of Water springs a few leaks in terms of plot and dialogue (one father-son dynamic is noticeably undernourished).
However, the script, co-written by Cameron, Rick Jaffa and Amanda Silver, is more emotionally rich than the initial foray into Pandora.
Marine veteran Jake Sully (Sam Worthington) permanently inhabits his Na’vi body to proudly serve as Toruk Makto, fierce protector of the Omatikaya clan on Pandora.
Peace has been restored after the battle royale with the Resources Development Administration (RDA) for control of the precious mineral unobtainium.
Jake is settled with his wife Neytiri (Zoe Saldana), their three biological children Neteyam (Jamie Flatters), Lo’ak (Britain Dalton) and Tuktirey (Trinity Bliss) and adopted daughter Kiri (Sigourney Weaver).
Orphaned human child Spider (Jack Champion) remained on Pandora in the aftermath of war with scientist Norm Spellman (Joel David Moore) and is a close ally of the Sully brood.
The heavily armed RDA returns under the command of General Francis Ardmore (Edie Falco) to prepare the moon for human colonisation.
Colonel Miles Quaritch (Stephen Lang) is charged with leading an elite team to capture Jake and extinguish the insurgency.
The Sully clan abandon the Hallelujah Mountains where banshees roost and invoke the Na’vi tradition of Uturu, which grants them safe harbour in a reef village of the Metkayina tribe led by Tonowari (Cliff Curtis) and Ronal (Kate Winslet).
In this idyllic island outpost, the refugees learn valuable diving skills from Tonowari and Ronal’s children Tsireya (Bailey Bass) and Aonung (Filip Geljo), forge spiritual bonds to sentient whale-like creatures called the tulkun, and prepare for the next battle with avaricious human invaders.
Avatar: The Way Of Water is an unabashedly splashy and bombastic survival thriller that lives up to the cacophonous hype and surpasses the original, delivering a more satisfying experience for the heart to match bountiful delights for the ears and eyes.
Cameron revisits Aliens and The Abyss alongside Titanic in breathless set-pieces while Worthington, Saldana and Winslet exercise performance-captured dramatic muscles in fraught scenes of intergenerational conflict that remind us every war has casualties. Even the young.
The director’s reputation emerges from this skirmish unscathed.
THE AMAZING MAURICE (PG, 93 mins)
Released: December 16 (UK & Ireland, selected cinemas)
Two of nature’s sworn enemies – the cat and the rat – become willing accomplices in low-level crime in a computer-animated adventure based on Terry Pratchett’s book The Amazing Maurice And His Educated Rodents.
Directed by Toby Genkel and co-directed by Florian Westermann, The Amazing Maurice merrily exploits storytelling convention to spin an entertaining yarn that preaches self-empowerment using a tongue-in-cheek framing device.
“It’s a story that wraps around the main story like a warm blanket around a baby,” handily explains the female narrator.
A potentially upsetting rat-coursing sequence is punctuated with comic book violence and the blood-crazed humans who wager money on a dog mauling vermin are shown on screen to suffer the bruising consequences of a callous disregard for precious life.
Pratchett’s humour is woven into Terry Rossio’s gently paced script like when the title character asserts that deception is hard-wired into the human condition.
“They are so keen on tricking each other they elect governments to do it for them,” he quips.
Hugh Laurie’s vocals as the feline confidence trickster slink appealingly between smug and sympathetic, complementing detailed visuals and energetic supporting performances, notably Emilia Clarke as a loner who believes fantastical tales from her bookshelf can spill into everyday life.
A platoon of rats, who magically developed the ability to talk after foraging the rubbish of wizards from the Unseen University of Ankh-Morpork, join forces with con-cat Maurice (Laurie) and orphaned boy Keith (Himesh Patel) to make money from humankind’s hatred of vermin.
The rodents infest an unsuspecting town then pretend to be enslaved to music played by Keith on his pipe.
Relieved residents happily dip into their pockets, glad to be rid of the threat of plague.
The rats believe they are raising money for boats to transport them to an island paradise described in their literary bible, the children’s picture book Mr Bunnsy Has An Adventure. In truth, the ill-gotten gains are a nest egg for Maurice’s retirement.
The tricksters breach a town in the grip of a devastating famine and join forces with bookworm Malicia (Clarke), daughter of the beleaguered Mayor (Hugh Bonneville), to solve the perplexing mystery of the missing food.
A secret mission to infiltrate The Ratcatchers’ Guild uncovers tantalising clues that lead to a shadowy Boss Man (David Thewlis) and the bona fide Pied Piper (Rob Brydon).
THE NUTCRACKER AND THE MAGIC FLUTE (PG, 88 mins)
Released: December 16 (UK & Ireland, selected cinemas)
Based on ETA Hoffmann’s short story, fairy tale ballet The Nutcracker has become a staple of the festive season set to Tchaikovsky’s evocative score.
Director Viktor Glukhushin’s family-friendly animation retains the storyline and music to embark on a heart-warming adventure in the company of familiar and new characters on two and four legs.
On Christmas Eve, Marie (voiced by Alyson Leigh Rosenfeld) wishes she could be young and carefree again to enjoy Yuletide as a wide-eyed child.
Magically, her dream comes true and her toys come to life.
A nutcracker metamorphoses into dashing prince George (Dan Edwards), who has been cursed by a queen of the rats.
Marie accompanies George to the Land of Flowers to break the enchantment, accompanied by crazy toy friends Ram (Jason Griffith) and Ostrich (HD Quinn).
