ANT-MAN AND THE WASP : QUANTUMANIA - Tuesday 21st February 2023.

I saw 'ANT-MAN AND THE WASP : QUANTUMANIA' this week, and this M-Rated American superhero film is based on the Marvel Comics characters of Scott Lang (aka Ant-Man) and Hope van Dyne (aka The Wasp) and is the direct sequel to 2015's 'Ant-Man' and 2018's 'Ant-Man and The Wasp', is the 31st entry into the Marvel Cinematic Universe and the lunching film of Phase Five of the MCU. As with the two previous films, Peyton Reed returns as Director for this third instalment. The film saw its Premier screening in Los Angeles on the 6th February, before its worldwide release last week, having gained mixed Reviews from critics, although it has so far earned US$288M off the back of a production budget of US$200M, making it the third highest grossing film of 2023 so far. 

The film begins with the back story of Janet van Dyne (Michelle Pfeiffer) trapped for some thirty years in the Quantum Realm, where one day she encounters Kang (Jonathan Majors) an exiled traveller who crash lands his craft, and who explains that they can both escape from the Realm if she helps him repair the Multiversal Power Core that is necessary for him to leave and for Janet to return to Earth to be reunited with her daughter. After many attempts to repair it have failed they one day have success but as Janet plugs in the power core she sees a vision of Kang conquering and destroying entire timelines. Kang reveals he was exiled by his own variants out of fear, which leads Janet to turn on him. Outmatched, Janet uses her Pym Particles to enlarge the Power Core and therefore render it useless.

Back in the present day and following the Battle of Earth, Scott Lang (Paul Rudd) has become a successful memoirist having penned a best selling autobiography titled 'Look Out For The Little Guy' which charts his adventures with The Avengers, and has been living happily with his girlfriend, Hope van Dyne (Evangeline Lilly). Scott's now-teenage daughter Cassie (Kathryn Newton) has become a political activist, resulting in her doing jail time before being bailed out by her father. While visiting Hope's parents, Hank Pym (Michael Douglas) and Janet, Cassie reveals that she has been working on a mechanism that can establish a link to the Quantum Realm. 

When demonstrating how the device works, Janet panics and shuts it down, but contact had already been established so opening up a portal which sucks Janet, Hank, Cassie, Hope and Scott down into the Quantum Realm. Scott and Cassie land together and are found by natives who are rebelling against their ruler, while Hope, Janet, and Hank land in close proximity elsewhere and set off to a sprawling city to find Scott and Cassie. 

Hope, Janet, and Hank meet with Lord Krylar (Bill Murray), a former close friend of Janet's, who explains that things have changed since she left, and that he now answers to Kang, who is now the Realm's ruler. The three are forced to flee and steal Krylar's ship. The Langs, meanwhile, are told by rebel leader Jentorra (Katy O'Brian) that Janet's involvement with Kang is indirectly responsible for his rise to power. The rebels soon come under attack by Kang's forces led by M.O.D.O.K. (Mechanised Organism Designed Only for Killing), who is revealed to be Darren Cross (Corey Stoll), having survived his apparent death at Scott's hands when he was unevenly shrunken to subatomic size in the Quantum Realm and became a mutated, cybernetically enhanced individual with an oversized head. 

Scott and Cassie are taken to Kang, who has them detained in cells. He demands that Scott helps get his power core back and restore it to its normal workable size or else he will kill Cassie. Scott is taken to the core's location and shrinks down. Once inside he is overwhelmed by a mass of variants of himself, but Hope arrives and helps him gain the power core and using several Pym Particles reduces it in size. Kang, surprise surprise, reneges on his deal with Scott, and captures Janet and destroys her ship with Hank on it. 

After being rescued by his ants, who were also pulled into the Quantum Realm, they evolved rapidly, and became hyper-intelligent, Hank helps Scott and Hope as they make their way to Kang, aided in vast numbers by an army of ants, and Scott who has grown to an enormous size that he towers over Kang's domain. Cassie rescues Jentorra and they begin an offensive uprising against Kang and his army. During the fight, Cassie convinces Cross to turn sides and fight Kang, though he sacrifices his own life in the process.

Janet is able to fix the power core as she, Hank, Hope, and Cassie jump through a portal home, but Kang appears before Scott is able to make the jump and attacks him nearly beating him into submission. Hope returns and, together with Scott, destroy the power core and knock Kang into it, causing him to be pulled into oblivion. Cassie reopens the portal at her end for Scott and Hope to return home. As Scott happily resumes his life, he begins to rethink what he was told about Kang's death being the start of something terrible happening, but quickly dismisses the notion as he joins the family to celebrate Cassie's unbirthday at a restaurant, making up for all her birthday's that Scott missed. Remember to remain in your seat for the customary mid-credits and end credits sequences. 

'Ant-Man and The Wasp : Quantumania' is everything you have come to expect from a big budget, big spectacle MCU offering, with its heavy handed use of CGI to build a world and all the fantastical creatures and structures contained within it, to its use of A-list acting talent to give the film gravitas, to the introduction of a new cosmic villain that we are likely to see across multiple MCU films into the future in Kang the Conqueror all wrapped up with Scott Lang's quirky and not too serious take on his world and his new found place as an Avenger. All of that said, there is so much seemingly endless spectacle on screen here, that at times it's difficult to keep track of exactly what is going on. The story is also pedestrian and predictable and the plot is thin on the ground and seems to serve no other purpose than to introduce us to a new super villain and establish the next phase of the MCU. However, at a lean 123 minutes running time it doesn't outstay its welcome.

'Ant-Man and The Wasp : Quantumania' merits three claps of the Odeon Online clapperboard from a possible five claps.

-Steve, at Odeon Online-

What's new in Odeon's this week : Thursday 23rd February 2023.

The 76th British Academy Film Awards, also known as the BAFAs (or BAFTAs), were held on 19th February, honouring the best national and foreign films of 2022. The ceremony was held at the Royal Festival Hall within London's Southbank Centre, and was hosted by Richard E. Grant and from back-stage by Alison Hammond. Presented by the British Academy of Film and Television Arts, accolades were handed out for the best feature-length film and documentaries of any nationality that were screened at British cinemas in 2022.

This years list of winner, grinners and the also-rans, are as given below :-

* Best Film : awarded to 'ALL QUIET ON THE WESTERN FRONT', beating out 'The Banshees of Inisherin', 'Elvis', 'Everything Everywhere All at Once', and 'Tar'. 

* Best Director : presented to Edward Berger for 'All Quiet on the Western Front', beating out Park Chan-wook for 'Decision to Leave', Todd Field for 'Tar', Daniel Kwan and Daniel Scheinert for 'Everything Everywhere All at Once', Martin McDonagh for 'The Banshees of Inisherin' and Gina Prince-Bythewood for 'The Woman King'.

* Best Actress in a Leading Role : presented to Cate Blanchett for 'Tar', beating out Viola Davis for 'The Woman King', Ana de Armas for 'Blonde', Danielle Deadwyler for 'Till', Emma Thompson for 'Good Luck to You, Leo Grande' and Michelle Yeoh for 'Everything Everywhere All at Once'.

* Best Actor in a Leading Role : awarded to Austin Butler for 'Elvis', beating out Colin Farrell for 'The Banshees of Inisherin', Brendan Fraser for 'The Whale', Daryl McCormack for 'Good Luck to You, Leo Grande', Paul Mescal for 'Aftersun' and Bill Nighy for 'Living'. 

* Best Actress in a Supporting Role ; awarded to Kerry Condon for 'The Banshees of Inisherin', beating out Angela Bassett for 'Black Panther : Wakanda Forever', Hong Chau for 'The Whale', Jamie Lee Curtis for 'Everything Everywhere All at Once', Dolly de Leon for 'Triangle of Sadness' and Carey Mulligan for 'She Said'.

* Best Actor in a Supporting Role : presented to Barry Keoghan for 'The Banshees of Inisherin', beating out Breandan Gleeson for 'The Banshees of Inisherin', Ke Huy Quan for 'Everything Everywhere All at Once', Eddie Redmayne for 'The Good Nurse', Albrecht Schuch for 'All Quiet on the Western Front' and Micheal Ward for 'Empire of Light'.

* Best Original Screenplay : presented to Martin McDonagh for 'The Banshees of Inisherin', beating out 'Everything Everywhere All at Once', 'The Fabelmans', 'Triangle of Sadness' and 'Tar'.

* Best Adapted Screenplay : awarded to Edward Berger, Lesley Paterson and Ian Stokell for 'All Quiet on the Western Front', beating out 'Living', 'The Quiet Girl', 'She Said' and 'The Whale'.

* Best Animated Film : awarded to 'GUILLERMO DEL TORO'S PINOCCHIO', beating out 'Marcel the Shell with Shoes On', 'Puss in Boots : The Last Wish' and 'Turning Red'.

* Best Documentary : presented to 'NALVANY', beating out 'All That Breathes', 'All the Beauty and the Bloodshed', 'Fire of Love' and 'Moonage Daydream'.

* Best Film Not in the English Language : presented to 'ALL QUIET ON THE WESTERN FRONT', beating out 'Argentina, 1985', 'Corsage', 'Decision to Leave' and 'The Quiet Girl'. 

* Outstanding British Film : awarded to 'THE BANSHEES OF INISHERIN', beating out 'Aftersun', 'Brian and Charles', 'Empire of Light', 'Good Luck to You, Leo Grande', 'Living', 'Roald Dahl's Matilda the Musical', 'See How They Run', 'The Swimmers' and 'The Wonder'. 

* Outstanding Debut by a British Writer, Director or Producer : awarded to Charlotte Wells for 'Aftersun', beating out 'Blue Jean', 'Electric Malady', 'Good Luck to You, Leo Grande' and 'Rebellion'.

* Best Cinematography, Best Sound and Best Original Score : were all presented to 'ALL QUIET ON THE WESTERN FRONT'.

* Best Casting, Best Costume Design and Best Make-Up and Hair : were all awarded to 'ELVIS'.

* Best Editing : presented to 'EVERYTHING EVERYWHERE ALL AT ONCE'.

* Best Production Design : awarded to 'BABYLON'.

* Best Special Visual Effects : presented to 'AVATAR : THE WAY OF WATER'.

* The Rising Star Award : presented to Emma Mackey who portrays Maeve Wiley in the acclaimed TV series 'Sex Education' and was seen in feature films 'Eiffel', 'Death on the Nile' and 'Emily' most recently. 

For further details on this years BAFTA Awards you can go to the official website at : https://www.bafta.org

Turning the attention then back to this weeks new movies coming to a big screen Odeon near you, we kick off with a highly acclaimed film from a first time Feature Director that tells the story of an eleven year old girl as she reflects on the shared joy and private melancholy of a holiday she took with her father twenty years earlier. This is followed by a film inspired by real events as a hulking American black bear consumes a significant amount of cocaine and embarks on a drug-fueled rampage, leaving an eccentric gathering of cops, criminals, tourists, and teenagers to assemble in a Georgia forest to either be mauled alive or outwit that pesky bear. Next up is a drama thriller that after her mother goes missing in Colombia, a young woman tries to find her from home in Los Angeles, using tools available to her online. Then we turn to a sequel that follows on from the success of their first album, but this group of singing fishermen struggle to adjust to their new-found fame and work towards a second album. Next we have a big screen adaptation of a multi-award winning TV series that sees this brilliant but disgraced detective break out of prison to hunt down a sadistic serial killer who is terrorising London. And closing out the week we have a Chinese offering that tells the true story of a disgraced ping pong team and how their head coach must recruit a team capable of winning the world championships in the mid-'90's. 

Whatever your taste in big screen film entertainment is this week - be it any of the six latest release new films as Previewed below, or those doing the rounds currently on general release or as Reviewed and Previewed in previous Blog Posts here at Odeon Online, you are most welcome to share your movie going thoughts, opinions and observations by leaving your relevant, succinct and appropriate views in the Comments section below this or any other Post. We'd love to hear from you, and in the meantime, enjoy your big screen Odeon outing during the coming week. 

'AFTERSUN' (Rated M) - this UK and US Co-Produced drama film is Written and Directed by Charlotte Wells in her feature film making debut. The film saw its World Premier showcasing at last years Cannes Film Festival where it won a Jury Prize, and thereafter did the rounds at numerous American, European and Australian film festivals ultimately winning sixty-five awards and a further 156 nominations from around the awards and festivals circuit. 'Aftersun' was released in the US towards the end of  October last year and in the UK in mid-November, having garnered widespread critical acclaim and earning US$5M at the Box Office so far. 

At a fading Turkish vacation resort in the early 2000's, eleven-year-old Sophie (Frankie Corio) treasures rare time together with her loving and idealistic father, Calum (Paul Mescal) on the eve of his 31st birthday. As a world of adolescence creeps into view, beyond her eye Calum struggles under the weight of life outside of fatherhood. Twenty years later, Sophie's (Celia Rowlson-Hall) tender recollections of their last holiday become a powerful and heartrending portrait of their relationship, as she tries to reconcile the father she knew with the man she didn't.

'COCAINE BEAR' (Rated M) - is an American dark comedy action film that is Co-Produced and Directed by the American Actress, Producer, Writer and Director Elizabeth Banks in her third feature film making effort following 2015's 'Pitch Perfect 2' and 2019's 'Charlie's Angels'. This film is inspired by real events that occurred in December 1985, and tells the story of a 230kg (500lb) American black bear who, after ingesting a duffel back full of cocaine that was dropped off by a light aeroplane because it was carrying too heavy a load, goes on a killing rampage in a small Georgia town where a group of locals and tourists must join forces to survive the attack. Starring Keri Russell, O'Shea Jackson, Alden Ehrenreich, Isiah Whitlock Jnr., and Ray Liotta, the film is released Stateside too this week and cost US$35M to produce. 

'MISSING' (Rated M) - this American screenlife thriller film is Written and Directed by Will Merrick and Nick Johnson in their feature film Directorial debuts, and is a standalone sequel to 2018's 'Searching'. Here then, when her mother disappears while holidaying in Colombia with her new boyfriend, June's (Storm Reid) search for answers is hindered by international red tape. Stuck thousands of miles away in Los Angeles, June creatively uses all the latest technology at her fingertips to try and find her before it's too late. However, as she digs ever deeper, her digital sleuthing soon raises more questions than answers. Also starring Nia Long, Ken Leung, Daniel Henney, and Joaquim de Almeida, the film saw its Premier at the Sundance Film Festival in mid-January, was released in the US shortly thereafter, has so far grossed US$28M off the back of a US$7M production budget and has garnered generally positive reviews. 

'FISHERMAN'S FRIENDS : ONE AND ALL' (Rated PG) - this British musical comedy drama film is Co-Written and Directed by Meg Leonard and Nick Moorcroft and is the sequel to the 2019 film 'Fisherman's Friends'. Following the unexpected success of the band's debut album 'No Hopers, Jokers and Rogues' we re-join them almost a year later, struggling with the pressures, pitfalls and temptations of their newfound fame. We continue the journey with the loveable 'buoy band', as they navigate the choppy waters of fame, second album syndrome, and performing on the pyramid stage at Glastonbury. Starring  James Purefoy, David Hayman, Dave Johns, Sam Swainsbury, Maggie Steed, Jade Anouka and Ramon Tikaram, with Irish singer-songwriter Imelda May making her acting debut. The film was released in the UK in mid-August last year. 

'LUTHER : THE FALLEN SUN' (Rated MA15+) - is a British crime thriller Directed by Jamie Payne and follows on from the hugely popular BBC police procedural TV drama series 'Luther' which has so far aired over five seasons and twenty episodes between 2010 and 2019, with Jamie Payne Directing the last season of four episodes. In this continuation of the multi-award winning and nominated TV saga, a gruesome serial killer, David Robey (Andy Serkis) is terrorising London while brilliant but disgraced detective John Luther (Idris Elba, who also Co-Produces here) sits behind bars. Haunted by his failure to capture the cyber psychopath, who now taunts him, Luther decides to break out of prison to finish the job by any means necessary. Also starring Cynthia Erivo and Dermot Crowley, the film is set for release on limited cinema screens from this week, and on streaming service Netflix from 10th March. 

'PING PONG : THE TRIUMPH' (Rated PG) - this Chinese Mandarin language drama film based on a true story is Directed by Chao Deng and Baimei Yu, and tells the story of how in the early 1990's, when the Chinese men's table tennis team is perhaps at its lowest ebb, head coach Cai Zhenhua (Chao Deng) is tasked with forming a new team to fight its way to the top at the 1995 World Table Tennis Championship in Tianjin, China. And so, he puts together a rag tag team of dynamic personalities, whom he must inspire and rally to rise to their best against the face of incredible competition during the championships.

With six new release movie offerings this week to tempt you out to your local Odeon, remember to share your movie going thoughts with your other like minded cinephile friends afterwards here at Odeon Online. In the meantime, I'll see you sometime somewhere at your local Odeon in the week ahead.

-Steve, at Odeon Online-

WINNIE-THE-POOH : BLOOD AND HONEY - Tuesday 14th February 2023.

I saw the R18+ Rated 'WINNIE-THE-POOH : BLOOD AND HONEY' this week, and this British independent fantasy slasher film is Written, Co-Produced, Edited and Directed by Rhys Frake-Waterfield who has had a busy couple of years Directing his feature length debut in 2022 with 'The Area 51 Incident', then 'The Killing Tree' and 'Firenado' since. He also served as Location Manager and drone pilot on this film too - it seems there's no end to this man's talents! This is a horror retelling based of the beloved children's books by A.A. Milne and E.H. Shepard 'Winnie-the-Pooh'. The film saw its World Premier in Mexico at the end of January and went on release in its native UK and other worldwide territories from this week too. A sequel is already in development for a release scheduled for February 2024, and the film has so far grossed US$1.8M from a production budget of under US$100K. Apparently, the characters' rights had been owned by The Walt Disney Company since 1966 and while Disney retains exclusive rights to the depictions of these characters from their own franchise, the first Winnie-the-Pooh book went into the public domain on 1st January 2022, and following the lapse of the copyright Rhys Frake-Waterfield began production on this film early that same year. It seems the same is true of the Peter Pan books, with Frake-Waterfield set to Direct 'Peter Pan : Neverland Nightmare' allegedly in production now. 

The film opens up with a rough animated sequence of a young Christopher Robin playing in the Hundred Acre Wood with his friends Winnie-the-Pooh, Piglet, Rabbit, Owl and Eeyore with a narration (voiced by Toby Wynn-Davies) of how as Christopher grew older, he left them behind to go to college and was therefore forced to leave them to fend for themselves. Without Christopher to bring them food and guide them, and with the onset of cold and wet winter months Pooh, Piglet, Rabbit, and Owl became starved and resorted to killing and eating Eeyore in order to sustain themselves. This in turn so traumatised them that they developed a hatred for anything human-kind, and of Christopher too for abandoning them. The group then made a pact to reject their humanity and return to their basic animal instincts, while also vowing to never speak again.

We then fast forward five years and a now young adult Christopher (Nikolai Leon) has graduated from college and has returned to Hundred Acre Wood with his fiancee Mary (Paula Coiz), who is very skeptical of Christopher's claims that he grew up with and played everyday with a bunch of animals. Christopher's intentions are to reunite with his old friends and convince Mary that what he says about them is all true. However, when he finds the place where they once played together, he finds it in a very run down ramshackle state. Mary becomes increasingly ill at ease as they investigate the old tree house and fearful for their safety. Christopher comes across Piglet (Chris Cordell) but before you know it Piglet chokes Mary to death with a heavy chain, and Christopher witnessing this breaks down and attempts to run from the scene but is cornered by Pooh (Craig David Dowsett) and Piglet who drag him back into the woods.

Later, a group of university students – Maria (Maria Taylor), Jess (Natasha Rose Mills), Alice (Amber Doig-Thorne), Zoe (Danielle Ronald) and Lara (Natasha Tosini) rent a house for the weekend in the Hundred Acre Wood at the suggestion of Maria's therapist so she can forget about her traumatic experiences with a stalker some six months prior. Tina (May Kelly), another of Maria's friends, gets lost on the way to the house and is chased by Pooh into an abandoned saw mill. Pooh finds Tina and repeatedly smashes her face into the lip of a woodchipper and then switches it on and up ends her head first into the device.

Meanwhile, Christopher has been held prisoner by Pooh and in a semi-conscious state is hanging from the ceiling by his arms on a meat hook. When Pooh returns he brutally whips Christopher's bare back with Eeyore's detached tail in retaliation for leaving his former friends to look after themselves. As the evening wears on, Pooh is alerted to the sound of music playing in the distance. He and Piglet investigate and find the house and snatch Lara who is relaxing in a hot tub and taking selfies of herself for her Instagram followers. 

Piglet hog ties Lara and gags her while Pooh drives a car over her head, crushing her skull. Maria and Jess hear her screams and run outside to find Lara's corpse. The pair rush back to the house to warn Alice and Zoe. The group of four are attacked by Pooh and get separated from each other. Piglet also enters the cabin, knocks Alice unconscious, and kills Zoe with a sledgehammer in the lap pool. Maria and Jess watch as Pooh and Piglet carry Alice away and then follow them into the woods to rescue her.

Back at Pooh and Piglet's camp, Maria and Jess free Alice and Christopher, and overhear the cries for help from somewhere nearby. They discover another hostage named Charlene (Danielle Scott), whose husband had already been murdered by Piglet and free her too from her rope restraints. Seeking revenge, Charlene taunts Piglet to kill him, but Pooh subdues her and lets Piglet maul her face to death. Pooh chases Maria and Jess into the woods while Alice remains, ties up Piglet as Charlene had been tied and bludgeons Piglet to death with his own sledgehammer. Hearing Piglet's screams, Pooh runs back to the camp ground, but finds him already dead. Enraged, Pooh confronts Alice with a machete and proceeds to fatally impale her to a tree through her open mouth, leaving her dangling there as she bleeds out. 

Maria and Jess run to a dirt road, where they stop a car driven by four locals – Logan (Richard D. Myers), Tucker (Simon Ellis), John (Jase Rivers), and Colt (Marcus Massey) and frantically ask for help. Despite the men's valiant attempts to take him down using a crow bar, baseball bat and other implements Pooh easily resists their attempts and kills them one by one until Maria tries to run him over with the car. Pooh climbs into and over the car banging on the windscreen from the roof and Maria ends up crashing into a tree, losing consciousness momentarily. Maria comes around, only to witness Pooh holding aloft Jess' decapitated head, which he then hurls at the car's windscreen. 

Pooh then attempts to kill Maria until Christopher appears driving another car and slamming into him crushes Pooh between the two vehicles seemingly killing him. Christopher tries to help Maria, but Pooh comes around and pushes the car away, catches up to them by the side of the road and grabs Maria, preparing to kill her with his knife. Christopher implores Pooh to spare Maria, and vows to spend the rest of his life staying in the Hundred Acre Wood with him. Pooh breaks his vow to not speak to say 'you left' to Christopher, and slices Maria's throat. After Maria slowly bleeds to death, Christopher, realising all hope is gone, flees the woods while Pooh repeatedly stabs her skull.

'Winnie-the-Pooh : Blood and Honey' doesn't leave much to the imagination as the killings, right from the get-go, are front and centre of everything that Pooh and Piglet are now all about, leaving thirteen corpses in their wake (including Piglet) by the time the end credits roll. After the first murderous spree the killings all become mind-numbing as the Director seeks to devise new and inventive ways to off Pooh and Piglet's quarry, but for the most part we've seen it all done before. As the twelve hapless victims who all befall gruesome deaths, it's hard to root for them because they seem to amble headlong into their own fate like a deer caught in the headlights of an oncoming truck. And as for the dialogue, well this is all a bit too wooden and stilted, and in particular Christopher Robin's who says the same thing in about a dozen different ways, often just repeating himself. I also had to wonder at Pooh's superhuman strength being able to withstand numerous beatings at the hands of the four locals and getting impaled between two cars that surely would have crushed his legs, or pelvis or both - but no, he quickly recovers, pushes the cars away like toys, and goes off to finish off Maria with nary a limp. Credit to Frake-Waterfield for taking a beloved children's story and attempting to create something new and fresh (read gruesome and horrific) with it, but next time around don't leave so many questions unanswered, cover over your plot holes, pay more attention to the dialogue, and give the protagonist's a reason to exist. 

'Winnie-the-Pooh : Blood and Honey' merits two claps of the Odeon Online clapperboard from a possible five claps. 

-Steve, at Odeon Online-

What's new in Odeon's this week : Thursday 16th February 2023.

The Advanced Imaging Society 13th Annual Lumiere Awards took place at the Beverly Hills Hotel on Friday 10th February. The official website reads 'The Advanced Imaging Society was formed in 2009 by our industry’s creative stakeholders including The Walt Disney Studios Motion Pictures, DreamWorks Animation, Sony, Paramount, IMAX, Dolby, Panasonic, MasterImage and others to advance the creative arts and sciences of stereoscopic 3D. As new cutting edge technologies come to the forefront, the Society has been charged with “informing the content pipeline” of professionals on these emerging innovations. The organisation serves thousands of professional participants in over twenty countries active in improving the arts and technologies of advanced imaging'. 

The Lumiere Awards recognise outstanding international achievement in the creation of immersive storytelling using advanced visual technologies including Virtual Reality, Augmented Reality, High Dynamic Range, Stereo 3D, 360 Video, High Frame Rate, Artificial Intelligence, Real-Time Rendering and more. The list of winners in the feature film categories, are as given below :-

* Best Feature Film – Live Action - awarded to 'Avatar: The Way of Water'.
* Best Feature Film – Animated - presented to 'Guillermo del Toro’s Pinocchio'.
* Best Documentary - presented to 'Good Night Oppy'.

* Best Motion Picture – Musical - awarded to 'Elvis'.
* Best Audio – Theatrical - presented to 'The Batman'.
* Best Use of VR - awarded to 'Gorilla Trek'.
* Best Original Song - awarded to 'Top Gun: Maverick' for “Hold My Hand”.
* Best Use of High Dynamic Range – Feature Film - presented to 'Lightyear'.

* Best 2D to 3D Conversion - awarded to 'Doctor Strange in the Multiverse of Madness'.
* Best Musical Scene or Sequence - presented to 'Elvis'.
* Best Scene or Sequence in a Feature Film - presented to 'Top Gun: Maverick'.

In addition, the following other awards were presented :-

* Sir Charles Wheatstone Award for Creative Excellence in Visual Effects - to Weta FX.
* Innovation in Technology Award - to Microsoft.
* Innovation in Post Production Tools - to Adobe.

* Voices For The Earth Award presented to James Cameron and Jon Landau for 'Avatar: The Way of Water'.

* Gene Kelly Visionary Award presented to Damien Chazelle for 'Babylon'.
* Harold Lloyd Award presented to Baz Luhrmann for 'Elvis'.

For the official word on the 13th Lumiere Awards plus the TV episodic winners, you can visit the official website at : https://theadvancedimagingsociety.com/

This week there is plenty of new cinematic content to coax you out to your local big screen Odeon, and we kick start with the 31st film in the MCU and the launch of Phase Five that sees our two protagonists enter the Quantum Realm with other family members where they interact with strange creatures, witness things they never thought possible and face off against a most notable and powerful villain. This is followed by a true story of how the women of an isolated religious community grapple with reconciling a brutal reality with their faith; and next up is a film about an intense friendship between two thirteen year-old boys that suddenly gets disrupted, and the fall out that occurs as a consequence. Then we turn to a horror film based on a beloved children's character and how now feral and bloodthirsty, Winnie-the-Pooh and Piglet terrorise Christopher Robin and a group of young women at a remote house; before turning to a film spanning a thousand years and telling eight stories of grief and resilience as experienced by the indigenous peoples of New Zealand, Australia and the South Pacific Islands. Next is an Australian classical music documentary that reveals two key themes - the long struggle for gender parity in the high art of classical music and the heart breaking struggle for artists to be valued in times of crisis, or sometimes even at all, before closing out the week with an animated feature about a cheeky fairy who gets lost in the human world, and so to find her way back to the fairy world, she teams up with the human girl and discovers her true destiny in the process.

Whatever your taste in big screen film entertainment is this week - be it any of the seven latest release new films as Previewed below, or those doing the rounds currently on general release or as Reviewed and Previewed in previous Blog Posts here at Odeon Online, you are most welcome to share your movie going thoughts, opinions and observations by leaving your relevant, succinct and appropriate views in the Comments section below this or any other Post. We'd love to hear from you, and in the meantime, enjoy your big screen Odeon outing during the week ahead. 

'ANT-MAN AND THE WASP : QUANTUMANIA' (Rated M) - this American superhero film is based on the Marvel Comics characters of Scott Lang (aka Ant-Man) and Hope van Dyne (aka The Wasp) and is the direct sequel to 2015's 'Ant-Man' and 2018's 'Ant-Man and The Wasp' and is the 31st entry into the Marvel Cinematic Universe and the lunching film of Phase Five of the MCU. As with the two previous films, Peyton Reed returns as Director for this third instalment. The film saw its Premier screening in Los Angeles on the 6th February, before its worldwide release this week, having gained positive Reviews from critics. 

Scott Lang, aka Ant-Man (Paul Rudd) and Hope van Dyne, aka The Wasp (Evangeline Lilly), along with Hope's parents, Hank Pym (Michael Douglas) and Janet van Dyne (Michelle Pfeiffer), and Lang's now 18 year-old daughter, Cassie (Kathryn Newton), find themselves exploring the Quantum Realm that pushes the limits of what they thought possible and pits them against Kang the Conqueror (Jonathan Majors). Also starring David Dastmalchian, Bill Murray, Randall Park and Corey Stoll. 

'WOMEN TALKING' (Rated M) - is an American drama film written for the screen and Directed by Sarah Polley, the Canadian Director, Writer, Producer and former Actress, and is based on the 2018 novel of the same name by Miriam Toews. Polley's previous feature film credits take in her debut in 2006 with 'Away from Her', then 'Take This Waltz' in 2011 and the documentary 'Stories We Tell' in 2012. This film had its World Premiere screening at the Telluride Film Festival in early September last year and was released in the US in late January, having generated largely positive Critical Reviews and so far taking US$4.1M at the Box Office. Here then, and inspired by real-life events that occurred at the Manitoba Colony, a remote and isolated Mennonite community in Bolivia, the women of this religious colony reveal a shocking secret about the colony's men. For years between 2005 and 2009, the men have occasionally drugged the women and then raped them at night, as many as one hundred young girls and women. The truth comes out and the women talk about their new situation and to decide on a course of action which centres on three alternatives - stay and do nothing, stay and fight, or leave. The film stars Rooney Mara, Claire Foy, Jessie Buckley, Frances McDormand, Judith Ivey, Sheila McCarthy and Ben Whishaw. 

'CLOSE' (Rated M) - is a Belgium, Netherlands and France Co-Produced coming of age drama film Co-Written and Directed by Lukas Dhont in only his second feature film making outing following 2018's 'Girl' which won the Camera d'Or prize at the Cannes Film Festival. This film saw its World Premiere showcasing in competition for the Palme d'Or at the Cannes Film Festival in late May last year where it was later awarded the Grand Prix. It also played in the Official Competition at the 2022 Sydney Film Festival, where it also won the Sydney Film Prize. Here, a pair of thirteen year olds Leo (Eden Dembrine) and Remi (Gustav De Waele) spend the long summer holidays in innocent intimacy, but come the school year, their seemingly unbreakable bond is thrown into disarray as their relationship is noticed and commented on by their contemporaries. In reaction to their sometimes insulting or intrusive comments, Leo attempts to distance himself from Remi. The film was released in France on 1st November, and in Belgium, the Netherlands and Luxembourg on 2nd November and in the US at the end of January having garnered universal critical acclaim, so far winning thirty awards and another forty-five nominations, and having taken US$3.8M at the Box Office. Also starring Lea Drucker. 

'WINNIE-THE-POOH : BLOOD AND HONEY' (Rated R18+) - this British independent fantasy slasher film is Written, Co-Produced and Directed by Rhys Frake-Waterfield in his film making debut, and is a horror retelling based on the beloved children's books by A.A. Milne and E.H. Shepard 'Winnie-the-Pooh'. The film follows Pooh (Craig David Dowsett) and Piglet (Chris Cordell) who have now become feral and bloodthirsty murderers and embark on a killing spree as they terrorise a group of young university women and a now adult Christopher Robin (Nikolai Leon) when he returns to the Hundred Acre Wood five years later after leaving for college. The film saw its World Premier in Mexico at the end of January and goes on release in its native UK and other worldwide territories from this week too. A sequel is already in development, and the film has so far grossed US$550K.

'WE ARE STILL HERE' (Rated M) - is an Australian-New Zealand anthology film that was created as a response to the 250th anniversary of the second voyage of James Cook to Australia in 1772. The project consists of ten linked short films by each of ten Indigenous Australian and Maori filmmakers about the impact of settler colonialism on the region's indigenous cultures. The films were Written and Directed by Beck Cole, Dena Curtis, Tracey Rigney, Danielle MacLean, Tim Worrall, Renae Maihi, Miki Magasiva, Mario Gaoa, Richard Curtis and Chantelle Burgoyne, and span a range of approaches including historical war drama, futuristic speculative fiction and animation. The film saw its World Premier as the Opening Film of the 2022 Sydney Film Festival, and had its North American Premiere in the Contemporary World Cinema program at the 2022 Toronto International Film Festival in mid-September last year. 

'KNOWING THE SCORE' (Rated PG) - this Australian biographical documentary is Written and Directed by Janine Hosking and is Executive Produced by Cate Blanchett (drawing parallels with her award winning role in 'Tar' recently) and tells the story of Australian symphony conductor Simone Young, an inspiring, brilliant woman who made it to the top in a man’s world wielding her wit, determination, sense of humour and a baton. New York, London, Paris, Vienna, Simone Young has conquered them all in the most male dominated of professions, conducting opera and classical music, and she now is Chief Conductor of the Sydney Symphony Orchestra. The girl from Manly, on Sydney's Northern Beaches, the film captures the career of an extraordinary conductor, its challenges and triumphs, past, present and into the future.

'MY FAIRY TROUBLEMAKER' (Rated G) - is an animated family adventure comedy film from Luxembourg and Germany and is Directed by Carline Origer in her feature film making debut, although she has previously Directed fifty-two episodes of the kids animated TV series 'Polo' in 2014. Violetta (Jella Haase) is in training to become a tooth fairy, but instead of conjuring up fun toys like a real tooth fairy all she manages is...violets. Now the annual exam is coming up, and only the fairies that pass it receive the gem that transports them to and from the human world in order to collect the milk teeth and leave a magic toy. Of course, Violetta fails the exam. However, not be left out she steals another fairy’s mission and gem and smuggles herself into the human world. There she ends up in Maxie‘s (Lisa-Marie Koroll) new room in her new city dwelling that she has just recently moved into from the countryside with her Mum. The film was released in Germany in mid-October last year and has so far grossed US$1.6M. 

With seven new release movie offerings this week to tempt you out to your local Odeon, remember to share your movie going thoughts with your other like minded cinephile friends afterwards here at Odeon Online. In the meantime, I'll see you sometime somewhere at your local Odeon in the coming week.

-Steve, at Odeon Online-