Avatar (2009) Review

SYNOPSIS:

Avatar is the story of an ex-Marine who finds himself thrust into hostilities on an alien planet filled with exotic life forms. As an Avatar, a human mind in an alien body, he finds himself torn between two worlds, in a desperate fight for his own survival and that of the indigenous people. More than ten years in the making, Avatar marks Cameron's return to feature directing since helming 1997's Titanic, the highest grossing film of all time and winner of eleven Oscars® including Best Picture. WETA Digital, renowned for its work in The Lord of the Rings Trilogy and King Kong, will incorporate new intuitive CGI technologies to transform the environments and characters into photorealistic 3D imagery that will transport the audience into the alien world rich with imaginative vistas, creatures and characters.

James Cameron's Avatar comes with high expectations. We've been told we will be transported to another world as technology that didn't exist when Cameron first envisioned this story 15 years ago has now made it possible for the far off planet of Pandora to become a reality. To that end, I can tell you here and now Pandora has become a reality. Avatar is unequivocally the most visually appealing film I have ever seen. That said, the plot is a corny potpourri of politics and tree-hugging disguised as a romantic, action epic. Fortunately, if you forget about trying to decipher Cameron's larger worldview and give in to the world he's created and the romance at Avatar's core, you'll find it's impossible not to have a lot of fun with what is the grandest and all-inclusive blockbuster to hit theaters in a long time.

Set in 2154, Avatar takes place on Pandora, an Earthlike planet light years away from our solar system. The human's reason for being there is Unobtainium, a mineral that will solve Earth's energy crisis, a crisis we are led to believe is destroying Earth's atmosphere, an idea that plays squarely into Avatar's overall environmental theme as the humans prepare to repeat past earthly offenses on Pandora, a lush menagerie or otherworldly creatures and plant life that plays home to the indigenous Na'vi.

While Unobtainium draws comparisons to America's addiction to oil, the Na'vi draw obvious comparisons to Native Americans as we become most familiar with the Omaticaya clan, their religious beliefs and their connection with the planet and all manner of species inhabiting it. As Pandora's atmosphere is toxic to humans, a group of scientists have created the Avatar Program, which links the human mind to that of a genetically engineered biological body of the Na'vi allowing humans to freely roam the environment.

Enter Jake Sully played by Sam Worthington, a paraplegic marine who enters the Avatar Program under unfortunate circumstances. Jake quickly earns the trust of Neytiri (Zoe Saldana), a Na'vi female, and this trust will be put to the test as he learns to respect the Na'vi, but all the while has been feeding vital information to the humans making for the film's clichéd and classic confrontation. However, I'm willing to forgive this aspect as both Worthington and Saldana create a truly believable romance, making the audience forget all about the fact we are watching CGI blue aliens fall in love. There is emotion in their eyes and compassion and conviction in their dialogue allowing for the hybrid of CGI and human performance to become entirely believable.

Saldana embraces the technology and allows her performance to transcend her character's unfamiliar appearance. It is the one piece of acting this film falls back on time and time again and there wasn't a moment I didn't connect with the emotion coming from her character. This comes as a result of both a powerful performance and CG technology that creates a wholly realistic world. In all honesty, I couldn't tell you what was real and what was CGI in this film outside of the fact we are looking at nonexistent flora and fauna.

As for the supporting performances, Sigourney Weaver plays Grace, a scientist in charge of the Avatar Program and she brings an excellent level of love for the alien land and its natives as well as enough bite to her bark, making her a character you stand up and take notice of. Giovanni Ribisi plays the nasty corporate figure who occasionally muddles the proceedings with smarmy and oftentimes overbearing dialogue at a consistent clip. His ignorance is so on the nose and such a flat-out indictment of capitalism I wish Cameron would have dialed it back a notch (or five) alleviating some of the overt commentary he intends to make sure hits home with the audience. We get it, can we please get back to the story?

One character that also weighed on me as the film went on was Stephen Lang as Marine Colonel Miles Quaritch. Miles is a hard ass and you are reminded of it over, and over, and over, and over again. He takes a licking and keeps on ticking. He's got scars on his face to prove he's tough and if you still don't believe it he'll just run outside and play "Who can breathe the toxic air longer?" game to prove it. It's a clichéd and predictable character, but I have a feeling over the course of repeated viewings he's someone you come to love to hate as opposed to being annoyed by. That verdict is still out though.

Overall this is an epic that must be seen in theaters. It never feels as if you have been sitting in the theater for over two-and-a-half hours and the 3-D is some of the best I have seen as it simply exists as part of the experience and not a crutch or gimmick to fall back on. That said, I think this film will play just as well in 2-D, but that's something I will have to wait for home video to decide.

Avatar isn't perfect as its story is certainly rough around the edges, but this is simply a means to appeal to all audiences and that it does. As a blockbuster action epic it has everything, for everyone regardless of age or gender. I can imagine some folks on the right not particularly enjoying the message of this film, but that's not for me to decide. Decide for yourself, it's a film I plan on seeing again and would bet you will too.

AVATAR (2009)

Starring: Wes Studi, Sigourney Weaver, Sam Worthington, Zoe Saldana, Peter Mensah, CCH Pounder, Laz Alonso, Joel David Moore, Joel Moore, Stephen Lang, Michelle Rodriguez, Giovanni Ribisi, Matt Gerald

Director: James Cameron

Studio: 20th Century Fox

Genre: Action / Sci-Fi / Thriller

Rating: PG-13 (For intense epic battle sequences and warfare, sensuality, language and some smoking.)

Release Date: December 18, 2009

Official Site: http://www.avatarmovie.com

Jennifer's Body (2009) Review

SYNOPSIS:

When a gorgeous cheerleader is possessed by a demon and starts feeding off the boys in a small Minnesota farming town, her "plain Jane" best friend must kill her, then escape from a correctional facility to go after the Satan-worshipping rock band responsible for the horrible transformation.

Is this supposed to be funny or played as a straight horror? I ask because as an apparent attempt to combine both, Jennifer's Body completely misses the mark due to a primary lack of characters that extend beyond the cardboard cutout representations the film initially introduces us to. As a result, anyone looking to write-off Megan Fox as a lead actress is going to have to hold your breath a little longer as she is given very little to work with on this D.O.A. thriller.

Written by Diablo Cody, I think we all hoped to find her growing as a screenwriter, but instead the cutesy little dialogue she wrote for Juno carries over into this feature, although this time coming across stilted and dull. Perhaps this comes as a fault of director Karyn Kusama, whose Girlfight I have not seen, but she presented a similarly lifeless effort in 2005's Aeon Flux.

With Jennifer's Body, Fox stars as the title character whom we first meet and realize she is a small town slut and someone you would never accuse of being intelligent. She drags her not-so-ironically nicknamed friend Needy (Amanda Seyfried) to a local dive bar in an effort to score with the lead singer of Low Shoulder played by "The O.C." star Adam Brody. Long story short, the bar burns down, Jennifer heads off with the band in their "'89 rapist" van and not much later we find Jennifer feeding on local boys to survive. How did it all happen? You'll have to pay to get that info as I'm not spoiling the rest.

A few one-liners hit their mark, but many of them are lost as Fox plays Jennifer almost entirely straight-faced, a decision that just doesn't work. Amanda Seyfried and her onscreen boyfriend, played by Johnny Simmons, have a playful relationship, an amusing remark or two come as a result, but it feels like nothing more than a cliched plot device as opposed to characters deserving of our investment, especially since Cody doesn't invest in them.

Perhaps this movie would have worked had an actress other than Megan Fox taken on the lead role. As it stands Fox can't say anything that would surprise anyone paying attention to pop culture. So while it is funny when she makes a joke that results in her character having to sit on a bag of frozen peas for a day, it isn't as shocking as it would have been had the role been played by a more assumed-innocent actress who isn't spouting off insults and sexual innuendo in every interview.


As a result, Jennifer's Body ends up a disappointment. There are plenty of "what ifs" and the major one for me would be What if they gave it to a better director? but unfortunately we are left with what we have here and as it turns out it just isn't that good.

JENNIFER'S BODY (2009)

Starring: Megan Fox, Amanda Seyfried, Adam Brody, J.K. Simmons, Kyle Gallner

Director: Karyn Kusama

Screenwriter: Diablo Cody

Studio: 20th Century Fox

Genre: Comedy / Horror

Rating: R (For sexuality, bloody violence, language and brief drug use.)

Release Date: September 18, 2009

Official Site: http://www.jennifersbody.com

Ninja Assassin (2009) Review

SYNOPSIS:

Raizo is one of the deadliest assassins in the world. Taken from the streets as a child, he was transformed into a trained killer by the Ozunu Clan, a secret society whose very existence is considered a myth. But haunted by the merciless execution of his friend by the Clan, Raizo breaks free from them... and vanishes. Now he waits, preparing to exact his revenge. In Berlin, Europol agent Mika Coretti has stumbled upon a money trail linking several political murders to an underground network of untraceable assassins from the Far East. Defying the orders of her superior, Ryan Maslow, Mika digs into top secret agency files to learn the truth behind the murders. Her investigation makes her a target, and the Ozunu Clan sends a team of killers, led by the lethal Takeshi, to silence her forever. Raizo saves Mika from her attackers, but he knows that the Clan will not rest until they are both eliminated. Now, entangled in a deadly game of cat and mouse through the streets of Europe, Raizo and Mika must trust one another if they hope to survive... and finally bring down the elusive Ozunu Clan.

To imagine James McTeigue could make something so intelligent and entertaining as V for Vendetta and then devolve into the pile of garbage that is Ninja Assassin is staggering. Vendetta is one of my favorite comic book/graphic novel adaptations and yet McTeigue's sophomore effort makes it seem like he learned nothing as he delivers this dark and mindless so-called ninja revenge feature.




The story follows the Ozunu Ninja Clan and how one of their own, Raizo (played by Korean pop star Rain), has gone AWOL and instead of going into hiding he is setting out to exterminate them for killing his ninja girlfriend. Mika (Naomie Harris), a crack Europol agent in Berlin, is along for the ride as the overtly Hollywood portion of the story. She stumbles onto a money trail leading her to suspect underground ninjas have been behind several recent political assassinations. I mean, of course it's ninjas right?



Once word of Mika's investigation gets out she becomes a target, is saved by Raizo and the two get in a series of madcap stupidity from there on out ending in ninja stars that fly through the air like bullets and Europol agents that blow up hidden temples with actual bullets. For what is supposed to be a ninja film this felt more like every other shoot 'em up out there. Except with this one the lights were turned out and the battles were fought in the shadows.



The acting isn't even worth mentioning outside of saying Rain hardly speaks in anything more than one-syllable words and Naomie Harris stumbles through each and every scene with the dexterity of a four-year-old with her shoelaces tied together. It's just as good these two don't bring anything to the film considering McTeigue isn't interested in them in the slightest. What's more interesting is turning out the lights, suggesting stealth movement and raining down dark red droplets of CGI blood. Sound good to you? Good, because that's really all you're getting.



Ninja stars whiz through the darkness tearing apart their enemies as if shot out of a Gatling gun. Oftentimes the ninjas are reduced to smoke and only seen when Raizo is slicing them to bits. When the lights do come up, it's for battle sequences amongst burning flames as CG weaponry makes its way around the room adding very little appeal to a film that really has nothing to say or do with itself.



Ninja Assassin gets caught up in the present while the stories of the past would have been far more entertaining. Once Europol entered the picture and our ninjas were relegated to shadows in the darkness bettling agents with guns the film loses any and all appeal. This one is merely a means to put excessive gore on the screen and while there are a couple of decent fight sequences, the rest is just a blurry mess of noise and darkness hardly worth your time.

NINJA ASSASSIN (2009)

Starring: Rain, Rick Yune, Naomie Harris, Ben Miles

Director: James McTeigue

Studio: Warner Bros.

Genre: Action

Rating: R (For strong bloody stylized violence throughout, and language.)

Release Date: November 25, 2009

Official Site: http://www.ninja-assassin-movie.com

The Twilight Saga: New Moon (2009) Review

SYNOPSIS:

In the second installment of Stephenie Meyer's phenomenally successful Twilight series, the romance between mortal and vampire soars to a new level as Bella Swan (Kristen Stewart) delves deeper into the mysteries of the supernatural world she yearns to become part of-only to find herself in greater peril than ever before.

Following Bella's ill-fated 18th birthday party, Edward Cullen (Robert Pattinson) and his family abandon the town of Forks, Washington, in an effort to protect her from the dangers inherent in their world. As the heartbroken Bella sleepwalks through her senior year of high school, numb and alone, she discovers Edward’s image comes to her whenever she puts herself in jeopardy. Her desire to be with him at any cost leads her to take greater and greater risks.

With the help of her childhood friend Jacob Black (Taylor Lautner), Bella refurbishes an old motorbike to carry her on her adventures. Bella’s frozen heart is gradually thawed by her budding relationship with Jacob, a member of the mysterious Quileute tribe, who has a supernatural secret of his own.

When a chance encounter brings Bella face to face with a former nemesis, only the intervention of a pack of supernaturally large wolves saves her from a grisly fate, and the encounter makes it frighteningly clear that Bella is still in grave danger. In a race against the clock, Bella learns the secret of the Quileutes and Edward's true motivation for leaving her. She also faces the prospect of a potentially deadly reunion with her beloved that is a far cry from the one she’d hoped for. With more of the passion, action and suspense that made Twilight a worldwide phenomenon, The Twilight Saga: New Moon is a spellbinding follow-up to the box office hit.

Assuming the audience has nothing better to do, The Twilight Saga: New Moon struggles to tell its tiny tale over the course of two hours and ten minutes as a world inhabited by vampires, werewolves and who knows what else is pushed to the side in an effort to watch as a girl is prepared to throw her life away following her vampire lover's departure. To think they could get this film this wrong after the halfhearted first installment is something of an achievement.

Kristen Stewart returns as Bella as she pines for her golden-eye, ice cold vampire boyfriend Edward Cullen (Robert Pattinson). Unfortunately the Cullen clan has to leave town as their immortal aging process has become something of an alarm to the small town folk of Forks, Washington and Edward won't be sticking around. You know, for Bella's sake.

The decision results in Bella turning her attention toward Jacob Black (Taylor Lautner), the mysterious Native American boy with the overnight buff physique and habit of stripping down to his jean shorts and running off into the forest with his boys. This, of course, is due to the fact he's a vampire-hating werewolf, but these are just minor details in the life of Bella and passed off as everyday occurrences. She's cool with weird stuff as one of the other werewolves says.

These two previous paragraphs take up approximately the first 90 minutes of New Moon -- along with briefly reintroducing a couple of loose ends from the first film to add to the running time -- before things can shift to Italy, and finally get interesting for 15 minutes or so. No joke.

I'm sorry to say this, but New Moon is a bore. The characters don't seem interested in what's going on and director Chris Weitz seems intent on making sure the audience feels the same way. When Bella isn't screaming in her sleep (over and over again, night after night) we are privileged enough to stare as she sits in a chair and does nothing as the months pass by. Months! And it feels like it.

If looked at as an exercise in patience, New Moon is a gem, but otherwise you are going to be nodding off fairly early. The presumed "love story" gets so bogged down in redundancy and storytelling miscues we never once care for any part of it, especially considering it is all so telegraphed there is hardly a mystery as to how it will all come to an end.

This isn't to say New Moon hasn't improved at all where Twilight failed. The action is a vast improvement. There's an impressive forest chase sequence that brings back Rachelle Lefevre as the vampire Victoria, and the moments in Italy where we are introduced to the vampire coven known as the Volturi are easily the film's stand out sequences. However, if you noticed the likes of Dakota Fanning and Michael Sheen as part of the cast don't expect too much as Fanning gets about five words in and Sheen, while impressive as Volturi leader Aro, isn't given nearly enough time to shine.

The effects are improved, but the same stunted performances by the disinterested Stewart, the waxy bore that is Pattinson and the amateurish turn by Lautner are all still present. Even Billy Burke playing Bella's father, the lone standout from the first film, is turned into a stiff. The life was sucked out of New Moon either by the lack of story or by the inability of Weitz to tap into any kind of real energy. However, to be fair, the story is so weak it didn't stand much of a chance and certainly not for more than two hours.

Fans of Stephenie Meyer's best-selling teen-vampire franchise were tolerant of the first film, and some may have legitimately enjoyed it, but I can't help but wonder how long they can remain interested if the filmed adaptations continue to disappoint.

THE TWILIGHT SAGA: NEW MOON (2009)

Starring: Robert Pattinson, Kristen Stewart, Taylor Lautner, Jackson Rathbone, Dakota Fanning, Chaske Spencer, Bronson Pelletier, Alex Meraz, Kiowa Gordon, Tyson Houseman, Jamie Campbell-Bower, Michael Sheen, Cameron Bright, Graham Greene, Daniel Cudmore, Kellan Lutz, Ashley Greene, Billy Burke

Director: Chris Weitz

Studio: Summit Entertainment

Genre: Drama / Fantasy / Romance

Rating: PG-13 (For some violence and action.)

Release Date: November 20, 2009

Official Site: http://www.newmoonthemovie.com

2012 (2009) Review

SYNOPSIS:

Never before has a date in history been so significant to so many cultures, so many religions, scientists, and governments. 2012 is an epic adventure about a global cataclysm that brings an end to the world and tells of the heroic struggle of the survivors.

Roland Emmerich brought in aliens to destroy the world in 1996 with Independence Day. In 1998 he gave the keys to a giant mutant lizard trying to destroy New York City in Godzilla. Weather was to blame in 2004 when he directed The Day After Tomorrow and now, in 2009, the sun is the culprit as the Earth's core is heating up and 2012 will no longer be known as just another a year as much as it will be the year the Mayans predicted the world will end and Roland Emmerich gladly obliged for no less than two hours and 38 minutes.

2012 is a victim of its own ability to entertain. For 90 minutes of its running time it is a wild and insanely entertaining thrill park where limousines can outrun eroding fault lines and drive straight through crumbling skyscrapers just in time to make it to a twin engine prop-plane that will take off just in the nick of time. Don't worry, it's not a spoiler, the outlandish spectacle is the story here and once it's gone 2012 stops being fully aware of its own silliness, and attempts to make sense of it all. It goes from being a film where we are willing to follow its leaps in logic to one where we are given enough time to begin questioning them. In this sense, Michael Bay's Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen has a leg up when it comes to effects-driven behemoths. Bay heard the fan's cries for robots fighting one another and delivered, while Emmerich still felt it was necessary to get the destruction of the world over with midway through, and rely on technological gimmickry and character-driven mumbo jumbo for the final hour. Buh-oring and unearned is the only way to describe that decision.

In discussing the film with a few fellow film reviewers, one argued the opening 30 minutes (of which I enjoyed) contained just as much exposition as the final 30 minutes so how could I really complain about the ending? I argued, we are willing to endure the opening setup, which is expected in an effort to establish some semblance of a story, but we still expect enough glorious mayhem in return to make up for what we have put in. For what it's worth, I think Emmerich did a decent job setting up the film with the skill of a simpleton, which is fine, but it's when he forgets his characters are nothing more than paper thin devices necessary to set up outlandish A-to-B action pieces that he begins to lose me. Then again, even his action scenes become redundant as the limo scene I referenced earlier is the film's high point, but it's mirrored over and over again as a jumbo jet must outlast a collapsing runway and a Winnebago must dodge and evade volcanic fireballs before the Earth once again attempts to swallow our protagonists' lowly prop-plane attempting to avoid an ash cloud of death.

Emmerich's unwillingness to let the film evolve causes it to fall apart. He is so determined you care about his characters to the point 2012 stops becoming an effects-driven monolith of cornball action and becomes a schmaltzy drama dedicated to characters you don't care a lick for. Sure, I cheered the little dog on as it performed it's highwire act with the dexterity of Philippe Petit, but at the same time I didn't care about the brainless owner calling for it. And why should I? It's not like it will get me anywhere as the final moments become a knock-off of Wolfgang Petersen's 2006 remake Poseidon dispelling any chance of redemption.



No one is to blame for 2012's eventual self-destruction other than Emmerich and his 2012 co-writer/composer Harald Kloser as they created a disaster epic with a story that can't pull itself out from beneath the rubble. John Cusack, Woody Harrelson, Chiwetel Ejiofor, Amanda Peet, Oliver Platt, Thandie Newton and Danny Glover serve no real purpose other than to read lines and not get in the way of Emmerich's not-so-magic wand. 2012 is likely to enjoy a healthy opening weekend at the box-office and perhaps even prove to be a financial success, but overall it's just another Emmerich disaster film that can't pull itself together.



Perhaps one of these times Emmerich will take himself completely out of the writing process and hand off his admittedly fascinating ideas of world destruction to a more capable screenwriter. And hopefully one of these days the perfect storm of destructive directorial and capable screenwriting talent will come together for a film we can all get behind. For now we are stuck with a mildly satisfying film whose appeal wears off long before it's all over.

2012 (2009)

Starring: John Cusack, Chiwetel Ejiofor, Danny Glover, Thandie Newton, Oliver Platt, Amanda Peet, Woody Harrelson

Director: Roland Emmerich

Studio: Columbia PicturesGenre: Action / Adventure / Drama

Rating: PG-13 (For intense disaster sequences and some language.)

Release Date: November 13, 2009

Official Site: http://www.whowillsurvive2012

Pandorum (2009) Review

SYNOPSIS:

Two crewmen awaken from hyper-sleep aboard a spacecraft. None of their equipment is working, and their memories are incomplete. What was their mission? How much time has passed? Where are they? Who are they? As they try to piece things together, they discover they are not alone, and the ship's new inhabitants - tribal warriors carrying crudely made weapons - are moving among them, intent on killing all aboard. As the space travelers unravel the frightening and deadly secrets the ship harbors, they realize the survival of mankind hinges on their actions. They must regain control of the ship before PANDORUM takes over.

Pandorum starts out with a few good ideas. In its brightest moments, it gives us a tiny glimpse into the future, one where mankind is forced to take an extended trip across the stars for its very survival, in a beast of a machine as ominous as it is hopeful. But those glimpses are far and few in between, as the movie spreads its ideas thin over a completely unreasonable runtime. Pandorum wears out its welcome pretty quickly.


The movie takes place on the Elysium, a space faring vehicle carrying thousands of colonists from Earth, hoping to reach the only other habitable planet known to man. Corporal Bower (Ben Foster) awakens from suspended animation to find the ship powered down and missing its crew. An hour later, Lieutenant Payton (Dennis Quaid) emerges from stasis as well. Both are suffering some acute memory loss due to the effects of their extended sleep. The two are resolved to figure out what went wrong, Bower heading deep into the bowels of the ship to reset the damaged reactor. He quickly finds that he and Payton are not quite alone, and the truth behind their predicament is far more sinister than they could have ever imagined.

Pandorum begins pretty strongly, but quickly loses steam as it stretches its simple premise to ridiculous proportions. The movie’s runtime of one hour and fifty minutes is excessive to say the least. The story has a couple of twists to it that aren’t very difficult to figure out, but the movie spends a lot of time dropping little hints anyway, inching towards an answer that most audiences will probably see from a mile away. And when you consider that much of the film’s plot is cribbed wholesale from several other superior science fiction movies, the lengthy runtime is just inexcusable.

One of the things the movie does have going for it is its setting. The ship that the movie takes place in is a marvelous piece of production design, teeming with pipes and tubes and tight spaces that don’t all make sense, but add some visual flair anyway. Unfortunately, we don’t get see a lot of it between the movie’s general darkness, the shaky camerawork, and the seriously attention deficient editing. The movie has some horror aspirations, but most of the film’s scares come from jumpy editing and the ridiculously overbearing sound design rather than creating atmosphere.

Ben Foster and Dennis Quaid are mostly too good for the film’s material. The movie’s main premise allows them to stretch a little bit, but the story keeps their characters frustratingly flat, leaving the two with barely anything to do but snarl. Cam Gigandet provides a few enjoyable moments, but the rest of the supporting cast really falls short. Antje Traue speaks in a pretty annoying accent in what appears to be an attempt to hide her inability to express emotion. Eddie Rouse hams it up to disappointing effect.

Pandorum could really have been something. The movie starts out promisingly enough, and the two strong leads give the film a lot of promise. But that promise is spread out over too much movie, the story and its revelations spread thin over sequence after sequence of dimly-lit, poorly shot chases featuring a mostly uninteresting foe. This kind of all-hell-has-broken-loose-in-a-confined-setting has been done better by other films as well, particularly Neil Marshall’s amazingly taut The Descent, and of course, Ridley Scott’s Alien. In the face of those films, Pandorum is loud, bloated and ugly.

PANDORUM (2009)

Starring: Dennis Quaid, Ben Foster, Cam Gigandet

Director: Christian Alvart

Studio: Overture Films

Genre: Sci-Fi / Action / Adventure

Rating: R (For strong horror violence and language.)

Release Date: September 25, 2009

Official Site: http://www.pandorummovie.com