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-

MORTAL ENGINES : Tuesday 11th December 2018.

I saw 'MORTAL ENGINES' earlier this week, and here the supremely collaborative team of Peter Jackson, Fran Walsh and Phillippa Boyens get their creative minds around this latest post-apocalyptic steampunk adventure offering based on the book of the same name by Philip Reeve. The threesome here Co-Produce and between them penned the Screenplay of this American and New Zealand co-production that cost somewhere north of US$100M to bring to the big screen, is Directed in his debut by fellow New Zealander Christian Rivers, saw its Premier in London at the end of November, was released in New Zealand and Australia last week, and the US on 14th December. The film has so far recouped US$23M and has received mixed Reviews.

Set about one thousand years after civilisation was destroyed by a cataclysmic event known affectionately as the 'Sixty Minute War' what remains of humanity have regrouped and created mobile 'predator' cities that devour smaller mobile settlements across what was once Great Britain and continental Europe. 

The film opens up with a thrilling chase sequence as the mega city on wheels that is London (not as we know it albeit still containing some recognisable landmarks) hunts down a smaller mining community called Salzhaken. Eventually after admirably attempting to evade capture, Salzhaken and her people are captured in the giant jaws of London, under the very specific orders of Lord Mayor Magnus Crome (Patrick Malahide).

With the people of Salzhaken now inside London, they are assembled, processed and greeted by Thaddeus Valentine (Hugo Weaving) - the Head of the Guild of Historians, a popular Londoner and a man with a plan! Amidst the captured is Hester Shaw (Hera Hilmer) who wears a scarf to mask her face. Hester has spent six months hunting down Valentine. 

Meanwhile, Tom Natsworthy (Robert Sheehan) a proud lower class London apprentice historian and collector of 'Old Tech' (toasters, computers, mobile phones as once used by 'the ancients') spies Hester through the crowd advancing menacingly towards Valentine. He sees Hester pull a blade and lunges towards Valentine, stabbing him in the side. Tom intervenes, and thwarts any further attempt by Hester to assassinate Valentine. Evading capture by the authorities, Tom gives chase through a now rapidly dismantling Salzhaken to be salvaged for scrap, anything of value, and fuel. 

Tom's chase of Hester comes to an abrupt halt at a giant rotating waste chute, down which Hester escapes but not before informing Tom that ten years ago Valentine killed her mother, and is responsible for the disfiguring scar on her face. Valentine, arrives to find no sign of Hester, and Tom explains that she escaped, and also what she said to him. Of course he denies the accusation, but then turns and kicks Tom in the chest sending him backwards into the chute to be ejected from the city with the waste. 

Tending to his wounds, Velnetine's daughter Katherine (Leila George) asks why the girl would want to kill him. He denies all knowledge of who she might be, but says that he'll send a scout ship out to search for Tom, as Katherine was clearly quite close to him. Needless to say, he's lying and has absolutely no intention of locating Tom.

Tom and Hester survived the fall from London and come round in the giant caterpillar tracks left by London as it continues its journey. The pair reluctantly team up as they seek to navigate the Great Hunting Ground with scavenger colonies on the look out for easy prey as night falls. Luckily, they narrowly escape on a hiding colony known as Scuttlebutt, but the owners lock the pair up with the intention of selling them as slaves once they reach their destination. While locked up and en route Hester confides in Tom some of her back story, and how Valentine killed her archaeologist mother Pandora Shaw (Caren Pistorius) after she discovered a piece of Old-Tech from a dig in the Dead Continent of America which he steals from her, whilst the young eight-year old Hester (Poppy MacLeod) escaped with an all seeing eye necklace her mother gave her moments before she died. This is why Hester wants revenge for her death.

Meanwhile, Valentine has hatched a plan to rid himself of Hester once and for all. He travels to an off shore floating prison colony which contains a dangerous and deadly cyborg inmate called Shrike (a barely recognisable Stephen Lang) - the last of an undead battalion of soldiers known as 'Stalkers', who were war casualties re-animated with machine parts and devoid of any memory of their past. Valentine's intention is to have Shrike hunt down and kill Hester, because of a broken promise the girl made to the cyborg.

Arriving at the slave market Tom and Hester are rescued by Anna Fang (Jihae) - a pilot and the leader of the Anti-Traction League, a resistance group standing against the mobile cities devouring Earth's resources and carving up the landscape. During the chaos that ensues, Tom and Hester are chased down by a relentless Shrike. Hester explains that Shrike had found and raised her after her mother was killed by Valentine, and Hester promised to allow him to turn her into a Stalker like himself, but she left six months ago upon learning that London was in the Great Hunting Ground. This is the broken promise that fuels Shrike's new found loathing for Hester, and why he wants his revenge for going back on her word . . . . but really, who can blame her?

Back on London, Katherine grows increasingly distant from her father, after learning from the eye witness account by Apprentice Engineer Bevis Pod (Ronan Raftery) that Valentine pushed Tom down the chute, and learns that her fathers energy project, which he has been spearheading for the last fifteen years in the secretly redeveloped St Paul's Cathedral, is a whole lot more than it seems.

Anna takes Hester and Tom on her airship the 'Jenny Haniver' to the sky city of Airhaven, joining up with other members of the Anti-Traction League. Tom, with his knowledge of old tech, figures out that what Pandora discovered is a super weapon called MEDUSA, that can wipe out entire cities almost instantly. This weapon is now in Valentine's hands and he is ready to use it having harnessed the energy source to do so. Shrike, in the meantime catches up with them and Airhaven is destroyed in a resultant fire. Shrike, however, is critically wounded, and coming to terms with the fact that Hester is in love with Tom he makes peace with Hester and frees her of her promise, before his lights go out for the last time.

Hester, Tom, Anna and the surviving Anti-Tractionists then travel to the 'Shield Wall' which protects an alternative civilisation comprising static permanent settlements in Asia. On London which is now rapidly advancing on the Shield Wall too seeking out fertile new territories to take over, Valentine kills Mayor Crome in a coup and drums up support from London's populace by pledging to destroy the Shield Wall using his new energy source. Arriving at the Shield Wall, Anna convinces the leader, Governor Kwan (Kee Chen) to unleash the Anti-Tractionist fleet of heavily armed aircraft to thwart London. But what they didn't count on was the sheer fire power of MEDUSA to destroy the airborne fleet in an instant and burn a gaping hole in the massive defencive structure of the Wall. 

Hester discovers that the all seeing eye pendant given back to her by Shrike at the time of his death, secretly contains a crash drive with a kill switch to disable and disarm MEDUSA permanently. All that the team now need to do is get back on London, infiltrate St. Paul's, get past Valentine and his guards and insert the crash drive before the next attack . . . simple! They head off leading an airborne attack raid on London's heavily fortified defences. 

Hester and Anna successfully land on London and quickly infiltrate St Paul's. Valentine fatally wounds Anna and she falls to her death from a high balcony. But, during this distraction Hester disables MEDUSA with the crash drive crippling the system forever. Still determined to bring down the Shield Wall, Valentine orders to ram the vast mobile city into the Wall. With Katherine's support, Tom steers the Jenny Haniver into the guts of the moving city to destroy London's engine. Valentine attempts to escape but Hester pursues and fights him on the roof of his own airship. Tom rescues Hester and shoots down Valentine's ship, where it is crushed under the weight of London's huge caterpillar tracks as the city grinds to a halt without any power. The surviving Londoners, led by Katherine, make peace with the Anti-Tractionists and are welcomed in by Governor Kwan. Tom and Hester embrace now that their work is done and fly off into the sunset in the Jenny Haniver to experience what the world has to offer.

'Mortal Engines' is a visual feast that delivers on spectacle and eye catching CGI, has some solid performances most notably from Robert Sheehan and Stephen Lang, and the constructed post-apocalyptic dystopian steampunk world that has been created here seems authentic and believable enough. But the story here lacks any real development, it is derivative predictable cookie cutter stuff that we have seen many times over in other franchises that this film seems to draw inspiration from - 'Star Wars', 'Terminator', 'Mad Max' etc. Young teenagers might enjoy this film more so than your self respecting adult might, and it is certainly worth seeing on the big screen for the action spectacle and the towering visuals of London on the move, but don't expect anything new or particularly genre groundbreaking here.

'Mortal Engines' warrants three claps of the Odeon Online clapperboard, out of a potential five.

-Steve, at Odeon Online- 

DON'T BREATHE : Tuesday 6th September 2016.

I saw 'DON'T BREATHE' at my local Multiplex in the week having read much good press about this supposed original horror film. And, I say supposed, because for me this is not a horror film in the traditional sense where we expect shock value, blood and gore, random acts of violence and things that go bump in the night. Directed by Fede Alvarez who brought us 'The Evil Dead' reboot in 2013 here he brings us this suspenseful home invasion psychological thriller film that has received positive reviews since its release and has made US$67M off its US$10M budget outlay. The film is Co-Produced by horror maestro Sam Raimi.

Here the film opens with three Detroit living thieves Rocky (Jane Levy), Alex (Dylan Minnette) and Money (Daniel Zovatto) breaking, entering and stealing from the homes that are supposedly safely secured by Alex's father's security company. Rocky and Alex go about stealing valuables that can be resold, while Money gets his kicks from vandalising and trashing the houses they gain forced entry into, and keeping a watchful eye out. Their fence gives them well below market value for the goods that Money brings to them, but it is enough for Rocky and her little sister to escape their no hope parents for a life in California by the beach. One day in a meeting with the fence, when Rocky is sounding off about how the risk is all theirs for little reward, he is alerted to an Army Veteran living in a largely abandoned neighbourhood that has recently come into some money - about US$300K from a settlement following the death of his daughter in a car accident, and all that money is in the house, in cash! Later that day Money stakes out the house in a derelict and abandoned suburb of Detroit, and further learns that the man in question is in fact blind.

The three agree that with this kind of pay day, and a blind man holed up in a house alone in an abandoned neighbourhood, that this would be easy pickings that could see them all get outta Dodge once and for all. They agree to go in under cover of darkness at 2:00am in the morning when the blind man is asleep. They drug the guard dog - a Rottweiler, and gain entry by breaking through a first floor bathroom window activating a delayed alarm which Alex is able to disarm using a controller stolen from his father. The threesome scour the house searching for the location of the cash, while the blind man sleeps upstairs, but are unable to find it.

They come across a heavily padlocked door, and despite his best efforts with a crow bar, Money is unable to gain entry. He produces a gun to shoot through the reinforced padlock, but Alex is angry that carrying a weapon exposes them to greater criminal charges if arrested, and motions to leave via the rear kitchen door. Money ignores him, shoots the padlock, which awakens the blind man who stumbles down the stairs as if frightened and weak. A tussle breaks out between the two, but not before Money has stated that he is alone in the house and threatens the blind man if he comes close. Underestimating the strength and fortitude of the blind man, Money is overcome and is shot in the head by his own gun. Rocky looks on in silence from a few paces away and by now Alex has returned to see the dead corpse of Money lying on the floor.

The blind man begins to clean up the mess believing he is now alone in the house, whilst Rocky makes a quick retreat in silence into a closet, and Alex darts into the bathroom from where they gained entry. Hiding in a corner, the blind man enters with a sheet of board, hammer and nails and covers up the broken window making the house secure again. He checks all exists and padlocks every door. Rocky and Alex are now locked in. The blind man, walks into the closet where Rocky is in hiding. He removes a secret panel revealing a safe with a digital combination. He opens it revealing a stash of cash that looks a lot more than US$300K. She witnesses the four digit security code as the safe is locked and the blind man disappears to continue his clean up. Alex locates Rocky and then opens the safe, takes the money and stashes it in her back pack.

Meanwhile, with his heightened sense of smell and hearing, the blind man comes across the shoes left in the kitchen by the three burglars so as to make less noise while going about their thieving. He surmises from this that the dead man was not alone, and as such there must be others still in the house. The two evade the blind man by finding a door leading to the cellar under the house. The cellar is a labyrinth of shelves with access corridors between, and anterooms but upon entering the house they notice a storm door which was bolted from the inside. While searching for the storm door they come across a bound and gagged woman in a makeshift padded cell, who they soon realise is the woman who killed the blind mans daughter.

Her name is Cindy and she shows Rocky and Alex a newspaper clipping proclaiming her innocence. She motions to another safe in which are the keys to her restraints. Racing against time, Rocky and Alex set Cindy free. Reaching the storm door Alex opens the lock from the inside only to be greeted by the blind man waiting for them on the outside, looking down and armed. He shoots at Rocky and Alex using the gun retrieved from Money, but accidentally kills Cindy. He is enraged and plunges the cellar into darkness as the three now scrabble around in the dark with the blind man clearly having the upper hand given that he lives in a perpetual state of darkness.

Rocky and Alex manage to escape back upstairs, but find all their exit points blocked and the dog waiting for them. Rocky tries to escape through the house ventilation system, but Alex is pursued by the dog and falls through a window onto the kitchen skylight below. By now the blind man has re-emerged and seeing Alex semi-conscious on the skylight shoots at it missing Alex but shattering the glass so that he falls through. He drags Alex into a utility room where they fight, with the blind man gaining the upper hand and stabbing at Alex with a pair of heavy gardening shears. He impales the dead body of Money believing it to be Alex. The dog in the meantime has turned its attention to Rocky and is in hot pursuit through the house ventilation ducting, but does not escape the clutches of the blind man, who captures her and beats her unconscious.

The girl comes around tied and restrained in the basement where Cindy was held captive previously with the blind man looking on. He tells Rocky that Cindy was carrying his unborn child, and having taken away his daughter it was now up to her to bear him a new one. Now he blames Rocky for Cindy's death, and therefore having taken his unborn child away it was now beholden on Rocky to bear him a child. He tells Rocky that Cindy was a willing participant in her pregnancy on the condition that he let her go upon the birth - a promise he had every intention of keeping, and will do so when Rocky bears him a child. But, as he's not a rapist he intends to artificially inseminate her using a turkey baster and his frozen sperm, which he is defrosting whilst telling her this. Just before the crucial moment, Alex bursts onto the scene and in another scuffle manages to secure the blind man with a pair of handcuffs used to restrain Cindy and Rocky, and free Rocky in the process. They escape back upstairs, but before you know it the blind man has freed himself and emerges at the cellar door with gun, takes aim, shoots and kills Alex.

Rocky makes off and escapes outside pursued by the dog, and finding the parked car a couple of blocks away seeks refuge therein, but no keys. After evading the dog successfully, she gets out of the confines of the now useless car only to be knocked out again by the blind man from behind. She is dragged by the hair down the empty street in broad daylight and dumped on the floor back in the house next to the dead body of Alex. Using the remote intruder alarm controller which she finds close to Alex's body she activates the loud alarm system which disorientates the blind man for long enough for the girl to beat him with a crow bar and send him backwards down into the cellar discharging the gun he is holding into his own stomach. She retrieves her back pack carrying the stash of cash and makes off into the sunlight just as a Police car rounds the corner and up the deserted street.

I enjoyed 'Don't Breathe' and thought that it is up there with that other sleeper hit of the same genre 'The Green Room' from earlier in the year. The story is simple enough, original, well delivered, with a couple of jump scares, a good dose of suspense, an antagonist who just won't back down when his home is invaded by three opportunistic kids and who harbours a dark secret, and, a protagonist who survives against the odds in a deadly game of cat and mouse within the confines of a humble, albeit well secured dwelling. Certainly worth the price of your ticket.

 

-Steve, at Odeon Online-