Victor Mac-Adonai

James Cameron's turn-of-the-decade sequel, based on the 2009 box office record-setting blue world of Pandora is technically tantamount to an absolute masterstroke — and nothing less. Inspired by the perceptive experiences of the visionary filmmaker, “Avatar: The Way of Water” serves up extraordinary 3D features unlike any before, and just like in the original, Cameron deeply utilizes advanced technology to create some stunning high frame rate pictures, that puts out a new feat of visual stimulation. The long-awaited sequel realizes it's roots in the family that ensue after Jake Sully and Ney'tiri bond over a romantic relationship, and unlike the original, “Avatar 2” turns up the tone on a more distinctive exploration of Pandora. With every pulse and vibration from the active non-stop pictures onscreen, to every thump of heartbeat and every resurfacing bubble-of-air, and from every fall of raindrops and rumbles of thunder to the crashes of waves and splashes of wings and tails, “The Way of Water” reveals a genial return to Pandora, but this time Pandora is way more blue and beautiful. If this is what a theatrical version has been intended to look and feel like, then one can only expect the imaginations to be completely awed if, or when an Extended Cut would make it's way out of Cameron's vault, as this odyssey running at over 3 hours of runtime (just to meet ends with theatrical cut standards) doesn't even add-on a lengthy weight to the film's narrative. And speaking of narratives, evidently, a thoroughgoing storytelling touch has never been a strong point in Cameron's filmmaking career, or in either “Avatar” films too. This time the plot encapsulates it's villain — an avatar Na'vi version of the previously deceased Colonel Miles Quaritch (Stephen Lang), to apparently be on a ridiculous revenge spree, and sometimes it all becomes too familiar — especially when Cameron blatantly pulls off some signature Titanic moves that viewers would find utterly relatable. “The Way of Water” nearly falls into the trap of mediocre sequels, but it evades such a plummet with the display of fascinating new (Pandora) cultures and dazzling elements that literally only James Cameron could brew up unerringly. The thematic gestures of ‘sentiments’ and the ‘bonds of family’ never gets hackneyed or slack, and it definitely was a flat out privilege to tap into the “private streaming service” of James Cameron's new blue world of Pandora. After 13 years of being in-the-making, indubitably it was worth the wait and this time it ends up pointing the way to an exciting future for “Avatar” and the planet of Pandora. Both loyal fans and regular viewers shouldn't hesitate a titch on seeing such a magnificent spectacle on the big screen because personally, I'm certain James Cameron has unlocked the full measure of his limitless and unbridled potential with this blockbuster. And that's right [Cameron], Oel ngati kameie.

Is the DC back on the mights & wits of it's long-established glory days, or are we still coping on the agents of averageness that wrought the facsimilized DCEU? Virtually, with Black Adam being signaled as the dawn of a new era for the DC Extended Universe it becomes more loudly obtrusive that we're right back where we left it all — dabbling in an appealing mess with the struggles of either giving up or giving in to the charisma. Directed by Jaume Collet-Serra (‘Jungle Cruise’) with a clogged-up script construction by Adam Sztykiel (‘Alvin and the Chipmunks’) alongside Rory Haines (‘Informer’) and Sohrab Noshirvani (‘The Mauritanian’) this latest addition in the DCEU extols itself as a huge win for ostentatious action sequences and crowd-pleasing combos of relatively jocular punchlines and an insane origin story. It hints the debut of rip-roaring feats coming ahead, but at the same time it nods to notes of curbing satisfying expectations, as Black Adam tends to preclude all agents of it's clever comic gesture with an uninspired screenplay. The outward unfolding of ineptness in story development by most installments is plainly appalling and by the looks of it, things are not going to be changing anytime soon, as ill-conceived — if not ill-advised scripts — have seem to become like a thread sewn into the fabric of the DCEU. Though Black Adam precludes all agents of it's clever comic gesture with an uninspired screenplay, it sure is entertaining at it's best with ostentatious action sequences and an insane origin story. So far, the film pays splendid homage to certain features of the seventh art like the 1966 magnum opus ‘The Good, the Bad and the Ugly,’ and occasionally there are relays of some jocose elements which is likely to succeed on some moviegoers — judging from the experienced reactions at patrol screenings, even though the humor is seemly languid and the jokes are not quite as mature to intrigue certain sense of humors. But as far as superhero movies goes, Black Adam isn't the worst thing to crawl out yet especially in a country that shows little-to-no appreciation for cinephiles or the cineplex, and even though it doesn't satisfy to the fullest, it still does captivate, and that is either a warning or a recommendation.