Brightburn (2019)

Dull, predictable, frustratingly slow movie that asks 'what if superhero but bad' and then does nothing with it.

Rating: Bad.

Death to Smoochy (2002)

This film is trying hard to be a Coen-esque dark crime comedy, but it's just so flat. Norton and Williams are great, they're surrounded by a ton of fantastic character actors, and DeVito throws in a bunch of clever set-ups as director, but the script has no structure, it feels like most of the budget went on the (impressive) ice show finale leading to a lot of the rest suffering bland lighting and set-ups with little coverage, and even the score budget jars at times thanks to cheap synth instrumentation.

It reminds me of The Cable Guy - everyone's trying really hard, there are loads of great ideas, but it never coheres into a satisfying whole.

Rating: Frustrating.

Not Okay (2022)

Smart, full-throated satire full of great performances. A sharp insight into modern social media, the balancing act of empathising with people while also telling them to sit down, and knowing when to shut up yourself. The cavalcade of insta-reactions, bad takes and wrong-headed reviews about this movie from people who clearly either hadn't watched the movie or had been too busy typing into their notes app to understand it, only helped reflect and amplify the movie's points.

Rating: Great

Avatar: The Way Of Water (2022)

I went to see the re-release of the first one a few months previous and it's still awesome. Cliched as fuck yes, but it's pulpy fun, the story structure is solid, it looks fantastic, the score is great, there are lots of really strong performances, the world design is so cool, and Cameron's mastery is on full display with not a single shot or edit that is any less than perfect. I had long said that as soon as my 3D telly packed in, I'd never watch this movie again, but I'm starting to think that maybe I would watch it in 2D after all...

So now I've seen The Way Of Water and... I quite liked it. It felt like Rise Of The Planet Of The Apes to Avatar's Dawn: it does a lot of cool world-building and looks even more amazing, but it also feels a lot more franchise-minded, it's not as lean.

I thought the jungle was a great choice for 3D in the first movie, but I hadn't considered how good the ocean would be - loads of opportunity for different layers of focus with all the sea life swimming around, plus you've got characters who can swim in and out of the screen and vertical space to play with as well. I really enjoyed the amount of time it spent just getting to know these new surroundings, meeting the new characters, social structures, stuff like that. Honestly it only really started to sag when it was building up to the final battle, which didn't feel as epic or as tightly structured as the first movie's climax. I think it suffered a little from not really having any human characters, too.

I'd definitely watch another one, and I'll probably watch this one at the cinema again if I happen to be visiting friends in a city with a substantially better cinema set-up (say London for the BFI), but will I pick it up on 3D blu-ray? I'm not sure. Might wait and see if Avatar 3 manages to make this one feel a bit more vital in retrospect.

Rating: Pretty Good.