AVATAR : FIRE AND ASH : Tuesday 23rd December 2025

I saw the M Rated 'AVATAR : FIRE AND ASH' earlier this week, and this American epic Sci-Fi film is Co-Written, Co-Produced, Directed and Co-Edited by James Cameron, and is the sequel to 2022's 'Avatar: The Way of Water'. This is the third instalment in the Avatar film series, which began with 'Avatar' in 2009, with those first two films grossing a total US$5.267B off the back of a combined production budget of US$587M. James Cameron made his feature film debut with 'Piranha II : The Spawning' in in 1982 which he would follow up with 'Terminator' in 1984, 'Aliens' in 1986, 'The Abyss' in 1989, 'Terminator 2 : Judgement Day' in 1992, 'True Lies' in 1994, and 'Titanic' 1997 before embarking on this monolithic film franchise. The film was released worldwide last week, with two additional sequels, 'Avatar 4' and 'Avatar 5', in various stages of production and scheduled to be released in 2029 and 2031, respectively. With a production budget of US$400M+ the film has so far recouped US$545M at the global Box Office, has garnered generally favourable critical reviews and has so far won thirteen awards and been nominated a further thirty-three times from around the awards and festival circuit.

A year after settling in with the Metkayina clan, Jake Sully (Sam Worthington) and Neytiri's (Zoe Saldana) family grapples with grief after their first son and oldest child Neteyam's (Jamie Flatters) death in battle in the previous film. Neytiri has developed a strong disliking and a mistrust toward humans. When a fleet of flying merchant ships arrive, the Wind Traders led by Peylak (David Thewlis), Jake and Neytiri decide Spider (Jack Champion) the teenage human son of Colonel Miles Quaritch who was formerly rescued from Quaritch by Jake and Neytiri, and who have been raising him like one of their own, must leave the Metkayina, but that the family will accompany him on the trip to return him to the humans. 

After departing the Metkayina clan, the Wind Traders convoy is ambushed by the Mangkwan, an aggressive Na'vi tribe who reject Eywa (the divine, globally connected consciousness of Pandora, a vast biological network linking all life, worshipped by the Na'vi as the Great Mother). Led by their spiritual leader Varang (Oona Chaplin), the Mangkwan set fire to the ships, looting them and killing survivors. The family becomes separated and are chased down by the Mangkwan. 

Colonel Miles Quaritch (Stephen Lang) and Corporal Lyle Wainfleet (Matt Gerald) find Jake, and they reluctantly work together to find the children. Spider's oxygen mask runs out of power, and he collapses from asphyxiation. Kiri (Sigourney Weaver) connects her queue to the ground and goes into a trance. After his body is infused with mycelia, Spider later wakens with the ability to breathe Pandora's atmosphere unaided.

Eventually, the children are trapped by the Mangkwan. Quaritch and Jake arrive, and Quaritch ventures to the Mangkwan encampment and teaches Varang how to use guns and flamethrowers. Kiri commands the flora to kill their guards, enabling her family's escape. Kiri learns that she was born of Eywa, but is blocked from connecting with her. Quaritch travels to the Mangkwan's village, bringing them plentiful supplies of firearms and flamethrowers. He convinces them to form an alliance, and begins a relationship with Varang.

Kiri helps Spider bond with the wildlife, but the two are ambushed and Spider is taken by Quaritch. Quaritch invades the Metkayina village with the Mangkwan, demanding Jake. Jake surrenders himself to avoid war, and he and Spider are taken to the RDA (Resources Development Administration) base, Bridgehead City, where the Mangkwan now reside. In captivity, Spider is subjected to many tests, and after examining Spider, Dr. Norm Spellman (Joel David Moore) and Dr. Max Patel (Dileep Rao) discover the mycelia organism inside his body, which they realise could be reverse engineered to allow every human to breathe on Pandora. Spider is also growing a neural queue on his head, allowing him to connect to Pandoran fauna just like the Na'vi do. Meanwhile, Jake is chained, locked up and called out as a traitor by the people of Bridgehead City. 

Looking for Payakan (a young bull Tulkun [large highly intelligent marine whale-like species native to the oceans of Pandora] that has been labeled as an outcast by not only the Metkayina clan, but the larger Tulkun community also). Lo'ak (Britain Dalton) the second son of Jake and Neytiri, is attacked by a group of giant squid, but he is rescued by Tulkun whales. Hundreds of Tulkun begin to congregate for an annual mating event, which could bring substantial profit when hunted for their amrita (a naturally occurring substance in the creature's brains which has the medical power to stop human ageing). RDA biologist Dr. Ian Garvin (Jemaine Clement) opposes the plans, but his advice is ignored.

With Jake scheduled to be executed at 6:00am the next morning by firing squad, Neytiri infiltrates the base, and Ian steals a giant bulldozer to free Jake. Spider escapes the RDA laboratories, and knowing they cannot afford to kill him, acts as a human shield to protect the pair as they make their escape. After fleeing to safety, Jake and Neytiri argue over Spider's liability to the potential human conquest of Pandora. Jake takes Spider into the forest and readies to kill Spider by slitting his throat, but stops at the last second. Neytiri who initially wanted to abandon Spider is now remorseful, and she finally accepts Spider into her family.

Back at the Metkayina village, the Tulkun council hear Jake's warning of an incoming massacre, but decide not to change their pacifist ways. Lo'ak brings Payakan and Tan'ok, the disfigured sole survivor of a human attack on Payakan's pod, and the Tulkun elders reconsider their stance. Jake re-bonds with the apex aerial predator Toruk and rallies the Na'vi clans to battle. 

The next day, as the RDA fleet arrives for the hunt, the Tulkun and Na'vi ambush them. The Mangkwan and Quaritch suddenly attack, inflicting heavy casualties, including Rotxo (Duane Evans Jnr.). Metkayina spiritual leader Ronal (Kate Winslet) is mortally wounded and dies in childbirth, with Neytiri taking her baby, Pril and vowing to take care of the newborn infant, but she is captured and taken to the RDA flagship. 

Kiri unlocks her ability to communicate with Eywa and asks for help. The Pandoran wildlife attacks the rest of the RDA forces. Varang tries to kill Neytiri, but she is rescued by Kiri, leading her to flee. Jake's Toruk destroys the RDA flagship as it is sucked up into a magnetic flux. Jake and Quaritch are thrown into the flux and fight each other, with Spider following. Spider shoots Quaritch with an arrow into his arm, but he falls off a floating rock, only for Quaritch to catch him. Jake reluctantly pulls them both up, and Neytiri and her children arrive. Outnumbered, clearly at a disadvantage and knackered from his intense fight with Jake, Quaritch leaps off the rock, presumably to his death.

After the battle, Spider and the Metkayina clan members connect to the underwater spirit trees, where he meets all the deceased Na'vi. Kiri introduces Spider to her mother, Grace (Sigourney Weaver), and they initiate him into the Na'vi people. 

James Cameron with 'Avatar : Fire and Ash' has once again solidified his place as a master storyteller with his Pandoran world building, the character arcs, and the sheer spectacle of Pandora's flora and fauna. This is a film that has to be seen on the biggest screen possible, and in glorious 3D to really appreciate the quality of the technical workmanship that went into rendering the amazing imagery presented on screen, and for that Cameron can't be faulted. That said, the plot is really more of the same as seen in the first two instalments, and the dialogue is at times clunky and repetitive (I lost count of the number of times 'you got this' and 'we can do this' popped out of a characters mouth!). As for the performances, Oona Chaplin's Varang adds a new dimension to Pandora's darker side, ably aided and abetted by Stephen Lang's Quaritch, with many of the returning Actor's anchored more convincingly by the advances in motion capture technology in the sixteen years since the first film hit our movie theatres. At the longest runtime of the series so far at three hours and seventeen minutes, the immersion in the films spectacle did not leave me wanting, and the battle sequences and fight scenes are expertly staged and rendered to maintain interest and propel the story along. Also starring Cliff Curtis, Joel David Moore, CCH Pounder, Giovanni Ribisi, Edie Falco and Brendan Cowell. As an extra bonus see if you can spot the nods to Brian De Palma's 1987 film 'The Untouchables' and Mel Gibson's 1995 film 'Braveheart'. 

'Avatar : Fire and Ash' warrants four claps of the Odeon Online clapperboard from a possible five claps. 

-Steve, at Odeon Online-

AVATAR : THE WAY OF WATER - Tuesday 20th December 2022.

I saw the M Rated 'AVATAR : THE WAY OF WATER' earlier this week, and in case you've been hiding under a rock for the last decade or so, this American epic Sci-Fi film is the eagerly anticipated, long awaited, much hyped sequel to that groundbreaking record busting highest grossing film of all time, 'Avatar' from 2009. This film, as with the first instalment, is Directed, Co-Written, Co-Produced and Co-Edited by James Cameron. That first film in what is slated to be a five film series, grossed US$2,923B at the global Box Office off a production budget of US$237M and collected eighty-nine award wins and another 131 nominations from around the awards and festival circuit including three Academy Award wins, two BAFTA wins, ten Saturn Award wins, two Golden Globe wins and six Visual Effects Society Awards, amongst its total haul. 'The Way of Water' was originally muted for a 2014 release, however, the addition of three more sequels (to this one) and the necessity to develop new technology in order to film performance capture scenes underwater, a feat never before achieved, led to significant delays to allow the crew more time to work on the writing, preproduction, and visual effects. The film was released worldwide last week, with the following three sequels to be released, respectively, in the Decembers of 2024, 2026 and 2028, though the latter two would depend on the commercial reception of 'The Way of Water' as 'Avatar 3' has already wrapped filming and was shot simultaneously in Wellington, New Zealand. With a production budget somewhere in the vicinity of US$350-400M it is one of the most expensive films of all time, and needs to recoup in the region of US$2B just to break even, having grossed at the time of writing this US$610M. Cameron's back catalogue of feature films include 'The Terminator', 'Aliens', 'The Abyss', 'Terminator 2 : Judgement Day', 'True Lies' and 'Titanic' so if major box office success is anything to go by, then this film should be a shoe-in. Time will tell.

Here then, set ten years after the events of the first film and in the mid-22nd Century, Jake Sully (Sam Worthington) lives with his newfound Na'vi family on the planet of Pandora, a lush habitable moon of a gas giant in the Alpha Centauri star system. Sully is now the chief of the Omaticaya clan of forest dwellers and he raises a family with Neytiri (Zoe Saldana), which includes his sons, Neteyam (James Flatters) and Lo'ak (Britain Dalton), his biological daughter, Tuk (Trinity Jo-Li Bliss), his adopted daughter, Kiri (born from Grace Augustine's inert Na'vi avatar, both played here by Sigourney Weaver), and a human boy named Spider (Jake Champion), the son of Colonel Miles Quaritch who was born on Pandora and was unable to be transported back to Earth in cryostasis due to him being an infant at the time of Quaritch death in the first film. The opening scenes see Sully and his family living a near prefect existence in the lush rainforests of Pandora. We then fast forward a year and Sully and Neytiri are enjoying a peaceful moment gazing up at the stars one night, when Sully sees a number of bright lights in the sky approaching Pandora, which he surmises can only mean one thing - the return of humans to rape and pillage their planet. And sure enough, the humans return and set about building a new operating base named Bridgehead City to prepare Pandora for human colonisation, as Earth is slowly dying. Among the new arrivals are recombinants, Na'vi avatars with the minds and memories of deceased RDA (Resource Development Administration) marines, with Quaritch's (Stephen Lang) recombinant as their commander.

Their arrival spurs Sully into instigating various guerilla attacks against the RDA supply routes. Quaritch and his recombinants conduct a counterinsurgency mission against Sully, capturing his children. Sully and Neytiri arrive and are able to free most of them, but Spider is taken by Quaritch, who recognises him as his son. After an unsuccessful interrogation attempt by General Frances Ardmore (Edie Falco) Quartich decides to spend time with him in order to gain Spider's trust and confidence and in turn, Spider teaches Quaritch about Na'vi culture and language. 

Aware of the danger Spider's knowledge of his whereabouts poses to their safety, Sully and his family seek exile for themselves from the Omaticaya and retreat to the Metkayina reef people clan located on hundreds of small islands on Pandora's eastern seaboard, where they are given safe haven, even though some tribesmen consider them to have 'demon blood' from their genetic human heritage, and ill equipped physically for a life in the ocean. The family learns the ways of the reef people and 'the way of water'. Kiri develops a spiritual bond with the sea and its creatures, and Lo'ak befriends Tsireya (Bailey Bass), the daughter of clan chief Tonowari (Cliff Curtis) and his wife Ronal (Kate Winslet).

Despite telling his children not to cause any upset amongst the Metkayina people, Lo'ak gets into a fight with Tsireya's brother Aonung (Filip Geljo). When Lo'ak returns to apologise at Sully's insistence, Aonung and his friends entice him to a trip beyond the reef and out into the open ocean to a place called the three brothers - a territory of a dangerous sea predator, and then promptly leave him stranded there with no idea on how to get back to the village. Lo'ak is saved by and befriends Payakan, a tulkun, a highly intelligent whale like species whom the Metkayina consider their spiritual family. Payakan takes Lo'ak back to his village and upon his return, Lo'ak takes the blame on himself, winning Aonung's friendship, but is told that Payakan is an outcast among his species, which Lo'ak vehemently denies. 

On a trip to the Metkayina's Spirit Tree, Kiri links with it to meet her mother Grace Augustine, but then suffers a violent seizure. She is healed by Ronal, but when Sully calls on Norm Spellman (Joel David Moore) and Max Patel (Dileep Rao) for help, Quaritch is able to track them to the cluster of islands where the reef people live. Bringing Spider with him, he commandeers a whaling vessel which is hunting tulkuns to harvest their brain enzymes for creating an age halting remedy named amrita, that is worth US$80M for a flask sized vile back on Earth. 

Quaritch begins to brutally question the indigenous tribes about Sully's location, and when his line of questioning fails he torches the villages and orders the whaling crew to wantonly kill the tulkuns in order to draw Sully out from hiding. Lo'ak mentally links with Payakan and learns that he was cast out because he went against the ways of his species and attacked the whalers who killed his mother. 

The Metkayina are alerted of the tulkun killings, and Lo'ak takes off to warn Payakan, followed by his siblings, Tsireya, Aonung, and Rotxo (Duane Evans Jnr.). They find Payakan being chased by the whalers, and Lo'ak, Tsireya, and Tuk are captured by Quaritch and cuffed to a railing of the whaling ship. With their children in danger, Sully, Neytiri, and the Metkayina set out to confront the humans. Quaritch forces Sully to surrender, but seeing his soul brother in danger, Payakan attacks the whalers and their ship, triggering a fight that kills most of the crew and critically damages the vessel, ultimately resulting in it listing and then sinking. Neteyam rescues Lo'ak, Tsireya and Spider, but is fatally shot when diving overboard to make his retreat. Sully confronts Quaritch, who uses Kiri as a hostage holding her with a knife to the neck. When Neytiri does the same with Spider, Quaritch at first denies his relationship with him but relents when Neytiri cuts Spider across the chest. 

Sully, Quaritch, Neytiri, and Tuk end up trapped inside the capsizing vessel with the water levels raising all around them. Sully strangles Quaritch into unconsciousness in an underwater fight and is rescued by Lo'ak and Payakan, and Kiri summons sea creatures to help her save Neytiri and Tuk. Spider finds and rescues Quaritch, but quickly turns against him for his cruelty, and rejoins Sully's family, unaware that Quartich is still alive. After Neteyam's funeral, sully informs Tonowari and Ronal of his decision to leave the Metkayina. Tonowari, however, respectfully identifies him as part of their clan and invites his family to stay. Sully and his family accept and forge a new life at sea, with Sully vowing to continue his fight against the human invaders.

'Avatar : The Way of Water' is truly a visual feast - from the magnificent 3D spectacle that Cameron has created both above and below the waterline, the flora and fauna of the forest and the ocean, the action set pieces, the emotion on both a family and a friendship bonding level and the expansion of Pandora from land to sea. This is a film that must be seen on the biggest screen possible and in 3D to really appreciate what Cameron has achieved and his painstaking attention to the minutest of details that make this an enthralling cinematic experience that is among the years best. My only gripe is not at the three hours and twelve minute run time, which seemed to pass by in half the time, but by some of the drawn out sequences and in particular the scenes with the Sully's upon first arriving at the Metkayina people learn the ways of water and experience their new underwater world for the first time. But then again, I guess this is the Director showcasing all his technical wizardry and based on the budgeted cost of this movie, who can blame him for wanting to get the most bang for his buck! The cast are all on point, although I was a little disappointed to not see more of Giovanni Ribisi (who appears only fleetingly as Parker Selfridge from the first film) and Edie Falco in particular. 

'Avatar : The Way of Water' merits four claps of the Odeon Online clapperboard from a possible five claps.

-Steve, at Odeon Online-

What's new in Odeon's this week : Thursday 27th July 2017.

'Planet of the Apes' which sees another film released under this banner this week (see Preview below) started out life way back in 1963 as a novel by French Author Pierre Boulle titled 'La Planete des Singes' (translated as 'Planet of the Apes' or 'Monkey Planet') and since then has gone on to spawn it's original 1968 film adaptation with Charlton Heston in the iconic role as Astronaut George Taylor who crash lands on a seemingly alien planet inhabited by intelligent apes who rule over humans, only to discover in the closing scene that he is in fact on Earth sometime in the distant future (if ever there was a twist at the end of a movie this ranks up there amongst the best of them!). In turn 'Planet of the Apes' in 1968 saw four sequels - 'Beneath the Planet of the Apes' in 1970; 'Escape from the Planet of the Apes' in 1971; 'Conquest of the Planet of the Apes' in 1972; and 'Battle for the Planet of the Apes' in 1973. These first five films cost a combined US$16M to bring to the big screen, and collectively they grossed a total worldwide Box Office stash of US$160M.

Then of course came Tim Burton's reimagining with 2001 'Planet of the Apes' which cost US$100M to make and raked in US$362M, but which met with a luke warm critical response. In the meantime, there had been a fourteen episode televisions series in 1974 that was based on the earlier film franchise that saw Roddy McDowall return as chimpanzee Galen, whereas McDowall played the ape Cornelius in two of the original films and Caesar, the son of Cornelius in the latter two. The series was canned after its first season due to lacklustre ratings, and in 1975 an animated series hit the TV screens for thirteen episodes, but once again due to average ratings only at best, a second season was never commissioned. However, the storyline continued in various novels by noted Sci-Fi authors of the day, as did comic books, toys and merchandise, video games and apparently a theme park ride is under construction in Malaysia too. Which brings us up to the present day, and a successful reboot of the franchise that is so far three films in, going strong and has seen solid Box Office returns and largely critical acclaim.

This week then there are just two new release films coming to your local independent theatre or multiplex. First up we have the second sequel in a successful rebooted Sci-Fi franchise that sees mankind face of head to head, hand to hand and toe to toe against simian kind to determine the rulers of our planet, and then we have a children's tale of a young lad learning a few life lessons from a giant walking, talking tree.

Whatever your taste in big screen film entertainment is this week - be it any of the two new releases as Previewed below, or those doing the rounds currently on general release and as Reviewed and Previewed in previous Blog Posts here at Odeon Online, you are cordially invited 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 meanwhile, enjoy your cinematic experience in the coming week.

'WAR FOR THE PLANET OF THE APES' (Rated M) - the 'Planet of the Apes' saga has a long history on both the big and small screen, but this last reboot of which this marks the third and supposedly final instalment has received widespread critical acclaim and commercial success. The original reintroduction to the franchise came in 2011 with 'Rise of the Planet of the Apes' and was Directed by Rupert Wyatt for US$93M and grossed US$482M and starred James Franco, John Lithgow, Brian Cox, David Oyelowo and Andy Serkis as Caesar, the first intelligent ape. In 2014 its sequel 'Dawn of the Planet of the Apes' was Directed by Matt Reeves for US$209M and grossed US$711M worldwide and starred Jason Clarke, Gary Oldman, Kodi Smit-McPhee, Keri Russell, and Andy Serkis as Caesar again and Toby Kebbell as Koba, a lieutenant to Caesar. Now in 2017 we have 'War for the Planet of the Apes' Directed once again by Matt Reeves for US$150M and so far since its US release on 14th July has taken US$178M and stars Woody Harrelson as the main human protagonist and Andy Serkis again as Caesar. There are several likenesses with the fifth film in the original franchise series 'Battle for the Planet of the Apes' but this is not intended as a remake of that earlier 1973 film. 'War for the Planet of the Apes' has met with widespread critical acclaim with strong praise for the acting (Andy Serkis for his Mo-Cap performance especially), the storyline, the action scenes, the music score and the overall Direction.

And so to this gripping instalment. We join Caesar (Andy Serkis) and his apes who are forced into a deadly conflict with a military faction of humans known as Alpha-Omega led by the ruthless paramilitary Colonel McCullough (Woody Harrelson) who is obsessed with wiping out Caesar's tribe and any humans infected with the Simian Flu to preserve mankind's place as the dominant species. After the apes suffer huge losses at the hands of the Colonel's army, Caesar needs to come to terms with his own inner darker instincts and so embarks on his own journey to avenge his kind. As that journey counts down to the final face to face conflict, Caesar and the Colonel are pitched against one another in an epic battle that will determine the fate of both of them as individuals, their species and the planet. Talk of a fourth film in this rebooted franchise has already been mooted.

'A MONSTER CALLS' (Rated PG) - Directed by Spaniard Juan Antonio Garcia Boyega whose previous credits include 2012's 'The Impossible', 'A Monster Calls' is based on the low fantasy children's book by Patrick Ness published in 2011 of the same name. The film Premiered back last September at TIFF, was released in Spain in early October, then the US last Christmas and in the UK on New Years Day, and only now does its reach Australian cinemas having recovered US$46M from its US$43M budget outlay. Telling the story of young lad Conor O'Malley (Lewis McDougall) who is having to deal with far more challenges in his young life than other boys of his age. His beloved and devoted mother Elizabeth 'Lizzie' Clayton (Felicity Jones) is terminally ill. He has little in common and wants little to do with his strict and ruling grandmother Mrs. Clayton (Sigourney Weaver), and his father, Mr. O'Malley (Toby Kebbell) who has divorced his mother Lizzie has resettled thousands of miles away in the US. But Conor finds a most unlikely friend when one night at 12:07am a tree-like Monster (Liam Neeson) appears at his bedroom window, and proceeds to tell Conor that he has come to tell him three true stories, after which Conor must tell the Monster his own story - that of the truth behind his own nightmare. Ancient, wild, and relentless, the Monster takes Conor on a journey of courage, faith, and truth that powerfully fuses imagination and reality.

With just two new releases this week to tempt you out on a cold mid-Winter evening, remember to share your movie going thoughts with your other like minded cinephiles afterwards here at Odeon Online. In the meantime, I'll see you sometime somewhere in the week ahead at your local Odeon.

-Steve, at Odeon Online-

GHOSTBUSTERS : Thursday 21st July 2016.

For nostalgic reasons I saw 'GHOSTBUSTERS' last week having been undecided about viewing this all female reboot given the mixed publicity it has so far received. The original 'Ghostbusters' film was released in 1984 and was Directed and Produced by Ivan Reitman, Written by Dan Aykroyd who also starred as Ray Stanz, and starred Harold Ramis as Egon Spengler and Bill Murray as Peter Venkman - making up the threesome of parapsychologists, ghost hunters and spectre busters. That film was made for US$30M and returned US$295M and was also a critical success having been nominated for two Academy Awards for Best Visual Effects and Ray Parker Jnr's. signature tune as Best Original Song. Based on this success 'Ghostbusters II' was released in 1989 with the same cast reprising their roles for US$37M and returning US$215M. During its time there were also two animated television series, a number of video game releases, a comic book adaptation, merchandise, and the film has seen several cinematic re-releases in more recent years. And now, in 2016, we have a reboot for a whole new audience, but this time with a budget of US$144M, and Paul Feig in the Directors chair and Co-Scripting, with Ivan Reitman Co-Producing, with both Bill Murray and Dan Aykroyd appearing in cameo roles. So far the film has made US$123M.

Here we have an all female cast of ghost hunters and catchers continuing the work laid out by Stanz, Venkman and Spengler 30 years ago, although you wouldn't know it, and still in Noo Yawk City. This time, paranormal researcher Abby Yates (Melissa McCarthy) and physicist Erin Gilbert (Kristen Wiig) are largely unsuccessful and uncared about authors who believe that ghosts are real and are among us in everyday society having written a book about it years earlier. Fast track a few years and Gilbert lands her dream job at Columbia University, and Yates continues here work at a Technical College ably assisted by whacky & other worldly engineer Dr. Jillian Holtzmann (Kate McKinnon). When her book resurfaces unexpectedly Gilbert tries to deny all knowledge and distances herself from that earlier now frowned upon publication. She searches out her estranged friend and co-author Yates to halt further sales and publicity of the book for fear that it might cost her the hard earned job at Columbia, and her reputation.

When their meeting doesn't quite go according to plan the three girls are called out unexpectedly to a sighting of a ghost at New York's longest standing still intact inside and outside historical homestead that is believed to be haunted but never confirmed . . . until now that is! When the presence of a real life nether worldly spectre is confirmed and it's none to friendly, the video footage evidence is posted to social media but is quickly debunked as a fake. Gilbert's belief in the paranormal is however, reignited, but it costs her the position at Columbia that she had fought and studied so hard for. When Yates and Holtzmann seek additional funding for their research now that they have concrete evidence, the rug is also pulled from under them, and they find themselves out on the street too. With their new found proof and belief in life hereafter, the three team up and open 'The Department of Metaphysical Examination' above a Chinese Restaurant.

They newly formed team settle in and Holtzmann sets about quickly upgrading their ghost hunting equipment. At the same time they advertise for an office administrator and receptionist. The only applicant is Kevin Beckman (Chris Hemsworth) - a dim-witted, clueless but handsome and well meaning type that immediately catches the eye of Gilbert, and within a heartbeat he is hired. Shorty afterwards the office receives a call of a ghostly presence in the subway. Going to investigate they meet up with New York 's finest long standing and long suffering MTA (Metropolitan Transportation Authority) Attendant Patty Tolan (Leslie Jones) who takes them into the subway at the location of the sighting, and sure enough - there they encounter, but fail to capture, another ghost. However, they have captured more photographic evidence and tested out Holtzmann's latest proton containment laser device, but again their evidence is dismissed as fake by one world authority on such matters Martin Heiss (Bill Murray).

The team carry on unabated and none too worried about their lack of concrete evidence or the naysayers who dismiss their findings. Holtzmann continues to develop more sophisticated ghost hunting and containment gizmo's, and the team, now joined by Tolan because of her historic and geographical knowledge of NYC, is able to borrow a hearse from an Uncle, which the team have customised to suit their needs and call it 'Ecto-1'. By now the media are referring to the team as the 'Ghostbusters' as their presence on the streets becomes more frequent and there are increasing reports of other worldly spectres and poltergeists running amok.

What the team don't know yet is that one lowly hotel janitor, Rowan North (Neil Casey) has been dabbling in the occult for sometime and using Gilbert & Yates book as a source of reference to bring about a cataclysmic apocalypse that will see the dead rise up and bring an end to the world as we know it. He plants a devise at a heavy metal rock concert (watch out for the Ozzy Osbourne cameo) to summons an evil ghost to show the world what he is capable of, and set the scene for the start of his apocalypse. As the concert gets underway the evil spirit is released, the Ghostbusters are called in and using their latest developed ghost containment technology, they capture their first ghost - in front of hundreds of concert goers.

The Ghostbusters are then quickly escorted off to see Mayor Bradley (Andy Garcia) who thanks them for their support & assistance and advises that Homeland Security were well aware of New York's ghost problem, but must debunk their work and brand them as fraudsters to avoid panic in the streets, whilst in private supporting their efforts. The team come to realise that North is has been planting various ghost release devises along New York's ley lines which come to intersect at The Mercado Hotel in Times Square which has historical significance as a place riddled with paranormal activity. It is here that North works as a janitor, and in the basement he has built a portal to the other side, and at the flick of a switch the ghosts and evil spirits will cross over into our dimension. Cornered in the basement by the Ghostbusters North electrocutes himself to avoid capture, but this is part of his cunning plan to return as an all powerful ghost to rule over those he has released. Before doing so though his spirit first possesses Yates then Beckman who flicks the switch in the basement so releasing those ghosts and ghoulish entities upon an unsuspecting New York City.

With the Ghostbusters mobilised once again and armed to the teeth with more hurriedly assembled technologically advanced ghost busting weaponry, the team of four gals go head to head with all manner of evil spirits intent on trashing the city, as they seek to get to the portal and close it. Meanwhile, North has manifested himself into a giant evil form of the Ghostbusters logo, and begins trampling all over the city and tearing at its tower blocks and skyscrapers whilst commanding a legion to thwart the ghost busting girls. Needless to say four tooled up girls is enough to overcome hundreds of evil malevolent larger than life ghosts, ghouls and spectres on any day, and of course they do, so allowing them to reach the portal and drive Ecto-1 with its roof mounted nuclear reactor into the portal so creating a total protonic reversal and returning everything back to normality and the ghosts, ghouls, phantoms and spectres back to their own nether worldly dimension.

Having saved the city from near certain doom, Mayor Bradley secretly agrees to fund without question and without limitation their continued research, whilst publicly denouncing them as fraudsters. The Ghostbusters relocate to a much larger premises in a disused fire station, and in a closing scene the team congregate on the roof top of their new premises to see the city light up with messages of thanks and gratitude from the people of the New York. Wait for the closing credits sequences to see the set up for a possible sequel and another cameo, from Sigourney Weaver joining Dan Aykroyd who appears as a cab driver and proclaims "I ain't 'fraid of no ghost!"

Judging by the mixed reviews this film has received I went in with fairly low expectations but was pleasantly surprised. That said, the film presents exactly what you would expect from this reboot for an audience probably unfamiliar with the original films. There is little new here, except the advances in movie making technology and FX that allow for bigger, bolder, better ghost busting and ghost capturing effects than we saw thirty years ago. There are a few laugh out loud moments in the film, but these are few and far between, and the banter between Yates and Gilbert began to grate on me after several of their one on one interchanges that just weren't funny. Hemsworth's Beckman does well enough with some dim-witted gags at his own expense, but seems to be just added eye-candy to balance out the four female leads. The focus is very much on Yates and Gilbert with Tolan and Beckman left wandering around the periphery with brief moments of action and dialogue, and Holtzmann basically quickly whipping up weapons of ghost mass destruction with little other purpose to serve - wasted talent here I think too! Worth a look on the big screen, but equally you can see it on your big screen at home and wait for the DVD/BluRay release.

 

-Steve, at Odeon Online-

CHAPPIE : Sunday 15th March 2015

It seems that critics and audiences are divided by Writer/Director Neill Blomkamp's latest Sci-Fi offering - 'CHAPPIE' which I saw over the weekend. Unlike Bloomkamp's second feature film 'Elysium' with Matt Damon and his now regular actor stablemate Sharlto Copley which was set in a mid-22nd Century dystopian Los Angeles, this film takes us back to a very near future Johannesburg which is where too his first feature 'District 9' was set. As the opening scenes unfold I was reminded of the 'Robocop' franchise, but Bloomkamp set up the premise very well with a raw grittiness of the South African city gripped by gangland violence, armed robbery, killings and societal decay. The droid police force are already established, albeit only recently in 2016 and very successful at what they do, but there is nothing shiny, bright and gleaming about these automated law enforcers - they are battered, dented, battle worn machines that are relentless in their task but occasionally break when overcome by RPG's, or renegade truck drivers. For me, the 'Robocop' connection ended there, and it was on with the story!

We are quickly introduced to weapons company 'Tetravaal' and it's MD Michelle Bradley (Sigourney Weaver) who have about 100 titanium plated police droids out on the streets of Johannesburg on active duty and bringing down the crime rate by the day. After a successful bust on a gangland hideaway in the opening scenes in which we are introduced to Ninja and Yolandi Visser (playing themselves of South African rap-rave outfit 'Die Antwoord') and gangster king-pin Hippo (Brandon Auret), 'Tetravaal' receive an order for another 100 police droids which draws attention from the worlds media and causes the company's stock value to skyrocket. All is good for the company and the inventor of the droids - engineer Deon Wilson (Dev Patel), who is also working on an artificial intelligence upgrade of the droids that could potentially give them thought, emotions, feelings and understanding.

Working within the same company but on another droid project is Vincent Moore (Hugh Jackman) who has developed a bigger badder bolder one droid army killing machine that is capable of much more wide spread death & destruction all in the name of national security and peace on the streets! Moore's machine though is controlled by a human and dependant on a human unlike Wilson's, and because of this the latter has taken all the funding while the former has to contend with budget cuts and sitting in the shadow of his successful colleague. Moore is an ex-soldier slab of beef cake who shoots first and asks questions later and just wants to blow shit up and get rich in teh process, and so there is an intense rivalry between the two, which will overflow into dire circumstances for them both ultimately.

When Wilson succeeds in developing his A.I. upgrade he implants this in Droid 22 which has been badly injured in the line of law enforcement and is due to be decommissioned beyond the state of repair. Before this can happen though Wilson is kidnapped by Ninja and Yolandi who have seven days in which to pay Hippo 20M Rand for a drug bust gone horribly wrong. When he awakes in some city fringe derelict warehouse building he is threatened with his life by Ninja and Yolandi if he doesn't 'switch off' the army of droids patrolling the streets, so that they can engineer a heist with a 600M Rand pay day, pay off Hippo and ride off into the sunset . . . if only it were that easy!

With the broken Droid 22 in the back of his company van, Wilson agrees to reassemble the droid and reprogramme it with his A.I. system that he has developed, so that the droid can assist with the heist. The droids incidentally, cannot be switched off - they have a rechargeable battery and can live forever almost, but this droids battery was fused to its body casing when an RPG was fired into its chest causing it too fuse together and therefore not be removable or rechargeable. This droid has a rapidly diminishing shelf-life!

In rebooting the droid and reassembling it, the droid is reborn and so has to learn to adapt to its surroundings, communicate and assimilate with those around it . . . like a baby does. Yolandi calls it a 'happy chappy' when they are first introduced because it is naive, cautious and unknowing, and so 'Chappie' (Sharlto Copley) comes into being. Chappie learns very quickly however, and learns too the ways of its gangster captives, and when Wilson is allowed to go but returns later on to teach Chappie the way of the world - for better purposes he hopes!

As the story unfolds we follow Chappie as his world expands and he learns very quickly with his new found intelligence. This is taken full advantage of by his captors who set him up as Gangster #1 and want to use him to pull of their daring heist. He calls Yolandi 'Mommy' and Ninja 'Daddy' because that's what he's been taught and Wilson is 'Maker', and he has loyalties to all three for very differing reasons and motivations. Yes, Chappie can now think for itself.

As we move along there are struggles at 'Tetravaal' between Wilson and Moore, the heist looms closer, Chappie is torn between Maker and Mommy & Daddy, and Moore engineers events to get his moment in the sun which hardly ends well for anyone. The closing however, presents an interesting premise about consciousness and the ultimate power of artificial intelligence. Whilst there are nods to 'Robocop', 'Terminator 2' and even 'Bicentennial Man' I enjoyed this film for its hard edged grittiness, the moral heart at the core of this story, and a new & different take on the subject matter which we have seen done before. Ninja & Yolandi are colourful low life gangster crims, and at times there are nods aplenty to their band 'Die Antwoord' including Ninja's heavily tattooed body and the logos they spray on Chappie.

This is certainly better that 'Elysium' and up there with 'District 9' and worth a look - not essential viewing on the big screen, but why wouldn't you for $20 to see Sharlto Copley doing his mo-cap robotic stuff to great effect, Jackman sporting a wicked mullet and Patel as the scientist engineer just wanting to make the world a better place. Good fun!

-Steve, at Odeon Online-