Avatar: The Way of Water

Personally, I enjoy James Cameron’s Avatar films more than I like to admit. I geek out over the technical achievements, the stunning visuals, the unique combination of motion capture acting and CGI. Most of all, the Avatar movies are incredibly immersive. They’re truly an escape that I don’t mind being three hours long. It’s amazing to witness this film’s reach with my oldest child, whose first introduction to the Avatar franchise was walking into a real life Pandora on Earth at Disney’s Animal Kingdom in early 2022. He was blown away and wanted to ride the Na’vi River Journey all day. Since then, I showed him the original film and took him to see the sequel. He enjoyed seeing both, hung the poster in his room, and I love being able to talk about these big, exciting movies with him. 

In Avatar: The Way of Water, James Cameron moves the story of Jake (Sam Worthington) and Neytiri (Zoe Saldana) along about fifteen years. They have children and raise them happily within the Na’vi forest. But danger looms as the Sky People return, once again looking to destroy the beautiful world for profit. This time, Jake’s enemy Quaritch (Stephen Lang) is back, his memories uploaded and reincarnated into a new Na’vi body. He and a band of military buddies, also reincarnated into Na’vi people, make it their mission to hunt down Jake. To protect the Na’vi tribe, Jake and his family flee and seek shelter with a new tribe, the Metkayina, who live off a reef. 

But living with the Metkayina brings new challenges for the whole family and could put everyone in danger. The Na’vi are naturally built to climb in the forest, not swim. Their new Metkayina friends have thicker, fin-like tails and other features that help them in their watery home. While Jake and Neytiri learn and work with the leaders of the tribe, their children learn to breathing techniques, swimming and to ride sea creatures with the leader’s children.

It’s refreshing to see so much of this film focusing on the children within this uniquely blended family. The oldest boy, Neteyam (Jamie Flatters) feels the weight of responsibility over his siblings and is always there to help his parents. The younger boy, Lo’ak (Britain Dalton), feels stuck in his brother’s shadow, and lashes out to prove himself. His chapters with a tulkun, a whale type creature, are especially cool. Kiri (Sigourney Weaver) was actually born from Dr. Grace’s avatar body and was adopted by Jake and Neytiri. She’s about fourteen, full of curiosity, questions and seems uniquely attuned to Eywa, the all-mother deity. Spider (Jack Champion) is human, somehow Quaritch’s son and left by the Sky People as a baby. And while Tuk (Trinity Jo-Li Bliss) is only a young child, you can see all the fierceness of her mother boiling inside her. 

Avatar: The Way of Water is currently nominated for four Academy Awards, including Best Picture. The film is also nominated for best sound, production design and visual effects.I would be surprised if Avatar does not take home the trophy for best visual effects. 

James Cameron made the world wait thirteen years for this sequel, and honestly I did not expect it to be this good. The cynical pessimist in me expected a let down, but I was so happy to be wrong. I genuinely enjoyed the story, the new generation of characters, the gripping action and the aquatic expansion of this beautiful, breathtaking world. For three glorious hours my son and I were transported and immersed back onto Pandora, plunged into the water like never before. Bring on more Avatar sequels, Mr. Cameron. Make your money. Just don’t make us wait so long.

“The way of water has no beginning and no end. Our hearts beat in the womb of the world. The sea is your home, before your birth and after your death. The sea gives and the sea takes. Water connects all things: life to death, darkness to light.”

Gorillas in the Mist

The life of Dian Fossey is unique, beautiful and passionate, just like this film.  Under Michael Apted’s direction, Gorillas in the Mist is an exotic biopic that immerses us in Fossey’s world among the gorillas and celebrates her life’s work.

In 1968 we see Dian (Sigourney Weaver) leave her home, family and fiancé to live alone in the war torn jungles of Rwanda, to count the gorilla population.  Early in her stay, she is forced to leave by soldiers.  Not willing to give up, she sets up another camp outside the border, in the mountains.  As her research grows more impressive, she gains attention from the National Geographic, who sends photographer Bob Campbell (Byran Brown) to work with her.  Fossey and Campbell have a romantic relationship while up in the mountains, he even says he will leave his wife for her.  But this is not a love story, and if it were, Fossey’s true love is the gorillas.  

Sigourney Weaver is known for playing tough, tenacious women, and her role as Dian Fossey is no exception.  Anyone, man or woman, brave enough to live in a foreign jungle, alone and unable to speak the native language is already a force to be reckoned with.  Getting closer to gorillas than anyone ever had and learning to communicate with them is amazing.  And when she is fighting off poachers, who think she is a witch, she embraces their fear and uses it against them.  Her tactic used to frighten a young poacher enough to talk is one of my favorite moments in the film.

What impressed me most about this film is the fact that most of the scenes involving gorillas were filmed with real live gorillas.  A few scenes involve actors in a gorilla suit, but for the most part I don’t think I could tell the difference between the real gorillas and the fake.  They all seem very convincing and authentic.  And even better is how fearless Weaver is among the gorillas, she seems as at home as Fossey would be.  

In 1988 Gorillas in the Mist was nominated for five Academy Awards.  They include best adapted screenplay, best sound, best original score, best film editing and best leading actress, for Sigourney Weaver.  Unfortunately, Oscar night ended with this film coming home empty handed.  

Gorillas in the Mist is an enchanting film that would most appeal to nature lovers and animal activists everywhere.  With the film’s focus on Dian’s work, her battles against poachers and struggling within a war torn region, it is fascinating and thrilling.  However, with some brutal moments towards the innocent gorillas, young animal lovers should wait until their older for this film.  

“If I see or hear or smell you anywhere near my gorillas you’ll be writing with your other hand, and I’ll have an ashtray.”

Aliens

Since I had already seen Alien, I decided to also watch Aliens before seeing Prometheus.  Thing is, once you see Alien, you think you know what to expect.  This time the title suggests there will be more than one alien, out to kill and use the poor humans as part of their nightmarish reproductive process.  But there is so much more than that, and the new surprises will keep anyone on the edge of their seat and some may even scream in pure terror.

Our hero from Alien, Ripley (Sigourney Weaver), has been drifting through space for a surprisingly long time, and is found.  She explains her journey and all that happened to her crew, but no one seems to believe her story, or want to.  Worse, the planet her crew had encountered the alien on is now being colonized.  When all contact with the colonists is suddenly lost, Ripley is reluctantly recruited with a band of rough and tough space marines to investigate, and if necessary, wipe out the aliens.

When the crew lands and begins to investigate, I felt like I was just holding my breath, waiting for the alien attacks to begin.  Director James Cameron does a great job of continuing the story and pulling all the tension for a long enough time that we get very anxious and nervous.  The anticipation is worth the wait.  When the chord finally snaps, the bang is bigger than we could have imagined and more continuous.  There are so many aliens, all over the place!  And the terrifying surprises just keep coming, over and over again until the movie ends.  It’s such a great time!

An interesting new character in this sequel is Newt (Carrie Henn).  She is a girl, maybe eight years old, who has somehow survived while the aliens have killed all the other colonists.  I’ve heard a few complaints about her, she doesn’t deliver the best lines, but I can forgive her.  As the story moves, her knowledge of the ducts and tunnel systems is extremely valuable.  And her screams add the perfect layer of chaotic noise to all the horror happening around her.  Really, who wouldn’t be screaming like a little girl in that situation?

Plus, Newt does help show Ripley as a slightly softer character in this film.  The rest of the space marines are extremely tough, including the women.  I love how they wake up from their prolonged sleep and start doing pull-ups and trash talking.  Ripley can seem like Miss America next to Vasquez (Jenette Goldstein).  And the fact that Ripley creates a strong bond with Newt, brings out a mothering side to Ripley as she tries to protect her.

I would suggest seeing Alien before Aliens, not that the background information is critical, but the build up from one to the next is perfect.  It’s like the chronicles of Ripley’s worst nightmare going from bad to horrifically worse.  Things get darker and scarier quickly.  The guns are bigger and so are the stakes.  Of course, with more aliens come more problems.

“That’s it man, game over man, game over!”

Alien

Hard to believe that I had never seen Alien in its entirety until just the other evening.  This was another movie that as a kid, I would sit on the floor, mesmerized, and would catch certain scenes with my dad in the evening.  I remember him sipping a beer, flipping channels and stopping for the chestburster scene.  I’m pretty sure he knew what was coming, and my reaction was probably worth the wait.  Then there was my mom telling him to turn Alien off, I shouldn’t be watching such “disgusting things.”  But mom, that was the best part!  I think we snuck in a few more scenes before bedtime.  Now, I’ve proudly added The Alien Anthology to my blu-ray collection and I’m the one waiting for a reaction as I sip a beer on the couch.  Funny how time moves but some things never change.

When the crew of the spaceship Nostromo receive an odd message, they are awakened from their suspended sleep to investigate.  What they find is an alien ship, full of eggs.  And when one of the crew investigating, comes in contact with a newly hatched alien, the choice to bring him back onto the ship, puts the whole crew in grave danger.

A space crew should function like clockwork, but there seems to be a few kinks in the crew of Nostromo.  There is a sense of camaraderie as they eat together around their table.  They all have their own tasks, but some are more willing to pull their weight than others.  Then there is the moment when Kane (John Hurt) is brought back on board, with the alien covering his face.  Ripley (Sigourney Weaver) is quick to point out the rules of quarantine prohibit him from coming back within 24 hours of contact with alien life.  Yet, the rest of the crew would rather take the risk of bringing an alien on board in attempts to save Kane.  Ripley holds the right to be royally pissed and hand out a big I-told-you-so, but instead, she is resourceful, quick thinking and one of the most bad-ass female characters to ever grace the screen.

The spaceship Nostromo and everything inside of it looks like a futuristic depiction of the time period the film was made.  At times, walls, buttons and hallways reminded me of old gadgets like VCRs, walkmans, floppy disks and some of the first PCs, only massively beefed up.  Today, it feels like a retro and gritty futuristic outlook.  When things go haywire, the flashing, whirling lights and fog that starts to spray everywhere, it feels like a technological nightmare.

While the Academy was happy to give Alien the  award for visual effects and hold a nomination in art direction, best picture was not in the picture.  A gruesome, science fiction tale with a strong female lead would have certainly shaken the contenders up in 1979, but I guess Apocalypse Now took the startling, gritty spot for the year.  Still, time has only made Alien a more powerful and well loved film.

I’m happy to say that I absolutely love Alien, every minute of it.  The story is as tight and efficient, with plenty of intense action, suspense and scary drama.  I was hanging on every moment.  Best of all, it leaves me very excited to see Ridley Scott’s next instalment to the Alien series, Prometheus.

“I can’t lie to you about your chances, but… you have my sympathies.”

Avatar

Back in December 2009, my husband and I went out to dinner and then strapped into three hours of 3D mayhem with James Cameron’s overrated Avatar.  In no way do I encourage the 3D movie industry that has plagued theaters recently, but I am lucky to be one of those who is not hindered by the 3D experience.  Clearly, I see that in 3D films, everything is dimmed and colors are not nearly as bright, but it does not give me headaches or makes me queasy in the slightest.  The effects, 3D and otherwise, of Avatar were appreciated.  However, the recycled plot really brought me down.

In a way, I have to applaud Cameron’s technique on making a 3D movie not look so dingy.  The use of bright colors and contrast went a long way in the theater.  It was still saturated, but the contrast makes it more difficult to detect.  And with so much action constantly going on, my eyes were glued so well that they vetoed my begging bladder for the last half of the film.  Damn that 32 ounce soda.

Oh yeah, there was a plot to Avatar right?  Somewhere between all the visuals they snuck in some Dances with Wolves meets FernGully: The Last Rainforest story set on the futuristic planet of Pandora.  Don’t open that box, you don’t know the power of unobtanium!

Sorry, let me start at the beginning; seems that military forces from Earth have come to Pandora to learn about its inhabitants, the Navi, and drill its natural resource, unobtanium.  On the Earth base, there is a clash between the military personnel, lead by a scar-headed, G.I. Joe action figure model, Colonel Miles Quaritch (Stephen Lang), and the “egghead” scientists lead by Grace (Sigourney Weaver).  It’s your typical brains vs brawn approach to how to handle this new planet.

Plot structure dictates that the protagonist must be able to have his foot in both courts, so bring in Jake (Sam Worthington), a disabled marine whose recently deceased  identical twin brother was a scientist on the Avatar program.  How convenient.  Rather than toss out the Na’vi body government money has made for his brother, Jake simply replaces him, with no training or scientific knowledge of Pandora or the Na’vi to aid him.  Grace isn’t happy about bringing a jar-head in to do her research, and Quaritch is excited to have a man he can trust on the inside.  Jake quickly gets a sort of double-agent agenda, do the Avatar program, but report to Quaritch about how to overrule the Na’vi.  When Jake gets lost in the jungle and eventually becomes accepted by an entire Na’vi tribe, falling in love with Neytiri (Zoe Saldana), the king’s daughter, and learning that unobtanium is the life force of the planet, his agenda changes.  He has to help the Na’vi defend their planet.

There is no doubt that all the astounding visuals are huge technological achievements for the film industry.  Huge kudos to Mr. Cameron there.  But honestly, after that first viewing it becomes a novelty.  Once I’m over the pretty colors and flying mountains, I yearned to feel like I have for some real movie moments that were naturally beautiful.  There is sense of adventure I always feel watching the helicopter first land in Jurassic Park, with the jungle and waterfall behind it.  The buffalo stampede in Dances with Wolves is a heartpounding experience that leaps off the screen without 3D.  The sprawling deserts in Lawrence of Arabia have this majestic feeling of vastness and being that I just don’t find in Avatar.  Even Peter O’Toole’s camel ranks higher than that neon pterodactyl.

It is not enough for a film to be a wonderful visual overload and leave me hanging for that emotional connection or sense of adventure.  I knew the plot structure too well, therefore the only surprises were for my eyes and not my mind or heart.  In the climatic battle, I had a moment in the theater where I stepped back from the action and asked when the chick with the helicopter would make a surprise attack for the good guys…and there she was.  You’re not supposed to let me be able to step out of the moment and predict that Mr. Cameron.  Big no-no.

“I see you.”

Working Girl

What’s a girl to do when she’s got her degree but can’t climb the corporate to a real job?  Pretend to be the boss while she’s on the mend.

Tess (Melanie Griffith) just turned thirty, is trying to get ahead in New York’s corporate jungle but never taken seriously.  For example, her old boss set her up as a hot date when she thought it would be a business meeting.  Now she’s working as a secretary for Katharine (Sigourney Weaver) who listens to her ideas and wants to help her get ahead.  Or so Tess believes.  When Katharine breaks her leg on a ski trip, Tess discovers that Katharine plans on using her idea without giving her the proper credit.  So Tess takes matters into her own hands and pulls together a business merger on her own.  But how long before she’s revealed as just a secretary?

Oh yeah, along the way she teams up with Jack (Harrison Ford), an investment broker.  It’s with Jack’s connections and Tess’s daring wit that they’re able to take such an unlikely investment so far.  Of course, they start to mix business with pleasure, making the situation even muddier.

My favorite scene is where Tess tells Jack that they have a “meeting” with a client.  By meeting, she means that they’re going to crash his daughter’s wedding to arrange a meeting with him while he’s in a good mood.  After Jack slugs down some drinks for courage they both walk around putting on a show like they’re old friends with everyone there.  Even hit the dance floor, where business is casually discussed while they’re on the verge of being kicked out by the bride.  It’s smart and hysterical without becoming corny.

Now, Working Girl was nominated for six Oscars and won one.  The nominations were for best picture, director, lead actress (Melanie Griffith), and two for supporting actresses (Sigourney Weaver and Joan Cusack).  All those fell short, but they did win for Best Original Song, Let the River Run.  Meh.

There are lots of movies out there about working women trying to get ahead, maybe they pull a charade and have crazy bosses.  Working Girl doesn’t really stand apart, just another pretty flower in the bouquet.

I will suggest this if you are a fan of Melanie Griffith, Sigourney Weaver, Joan Cusack or Harrison Ford.  They’re always fun to watch.  Also, if you miss the days of big hair, scary makeup and shoulder pads, this could be a fun little trip to the ‘80’s.

“Sometimes I sing and dance around the house in my underwear. Doesn’t make me Madonna. Never will.”