Reclusive author Loretta Sage writes about exotic places in her popular adventure novels that feature a handsome cover model named Alan. While on tour promoting her new book with Alan, Loretta gets kidnapped by an eccentric billionaire who hopes she can lead him to the ancient city's lost treasure that featured in her latest story. Alan, determined to prove he can be a hero in real life and not just on the pages of her books, sets off to rescue her.
I feel like my wife biffed her homework when she checked if this was suitable for the kids. It's described on commonsensemedia as "cheeky", well it was a little too cheeky for my 11 y/o and she's hardly a shrinking violet.
Overall, though, I had some good laughs.
★★★
In the wake of the devastating war against the RDA and the loss of their eldest son, Jake Sully and Neytiri face a new threat on Pandora: the Ash People, a violent and power-hungry Na'vi tribe led by the ruthless Varang. Jake's family must fight for their survival and the future of Pandora in a conflict that pushes them to their emotional and physical limits.
I'm certain that low expectations paid dividends on this one.
Yes, it does follow pretty much the same structure as the other two installments, but that's an industry standard — tried and tested. No, it doesn't bring much that's new, but it does build on A2 in a pretty satisfying way. And, although it's very light touch, it does hit some seriously dark notes.
On the downside, there's also a number of jarring time leaps, which are merely implied, rather than stated. I'm not necessarily a big fan of "Six months later…" but there is very little narrative emphasis on the passage of time, which must be considerable. There are indications but they're inconsistent. For example, Ronal pregnancy barely progresses, while Spider grows a 2-foot pony tail.
However, I think we should accept that some issues are a limitation of the medium — I'm sure even minor "reshoots" to clean up the edit are practically impossible.
We must also talk about the run time. I was probably a few years above the target demographic when A1 released and I am now far too old to comfortably sit in a theatre for 3+ hours. If you're going to make a movie that really is best on a huge screen, you really need to consider the runtime…
Ultimately, though, it's an enormous feat of science fiction and movie making, for which I am full of respect.
★★★½