DIRECTOR: James Cameron

CAST: Sam Worthington, Zoe Saldana, Stephen Lang, Sigourney Weaver, Cliff Curtis, Kate Winslet, Edie Falco, Joel David Moore, Dileep Rao, CCH Pounder, Brendan Cowell, Jemaine Clement, James Flatters, Britain Dalton, Trinity Jo-Li Bliss, Jack Champion, Bailey Bass

REVIEW:

James Cameron’s 2009 sci-fi epic Avatar surpassed his own Titanic to seize the “king of the world” title of highest-grossing film of all time, but at the time and possibly even more so in the decade plus since has become—-in spite of, or because of its runaway box office success—-a polarizing film with slavish adherents and others denigrating its narrative as Dances With Wolves In Space with dashes of Pocahontas and Ferngully thrown in for good measure. That it has taken Cameron over a decade to bring a follow up to the screen—-missing the old adage of striking while the iron is hot—-and his lofty stated ambitions to make a total five film series (!), led to some room for doubts even for those wary of betting against Cameron (who has never had a flop on his filmography). Unfortunately, the long-awaited Avatar: The Way of Water is an overlong, overly self-indulgent, narratively unwieldy sequel that despite some admirable qualities and strong moments is too often a slog to get through its bloated runtime.

DIRECTOR: Matt Reeves

CAST: Robert Pattinson, Zoe Kravitz, Paul Dano, Jeffrey Wright, Andy Serkis, Colin Farrell, John Turturro, Peter Sarsgaard

REVIEW:

With the simply-titled The Batman, Matt Reeves (Dawn of the Planet of the Apes) has become only the second filmmaker—following Christopher Nolan’s acclaimed Dark Knight trilogy and the more recent misfires of Zack Snyder’s Batman v Superman and Justice League—to get a live-action Batman movie right. In fact, this might be the most “Batman” of any live-action Batman movie thus far, and like Nolan’s trilogy, it’s a stand-alone reboot doing its own thing unconnected to the DC Expanded Universe. It’s also the darkest, most adult-oriented Batman movie yet—surpassing the seriousness of Nolan’s vision—and an unconventional comic book movie. Essentially a serial killer/murder mystery/detective story with superhero and comic book elements that often resembles David Fincher’s Se7en more than a typical comic book flick, The Batman shows no lightening of the darkness in which onscreen incarnations of its title character are steeped.

DIRECTOR: Chloe Zhao

CAST: Gemma Chan, Richard Madden, Angelina Jolie, Salma Hayek, Kumail Nanjiani, Barry Keoghan, Brian Tyree Henry, Lia McHugh, Lauren Ridloff, Don Lee, Kit Harrington, Harish Patel

REVIEW:

In its ongoing quest to further expand its cinematic universe and prove there’s still fresh places to go and life left in the franchise post-Infinity War/Endgame, Eternals represents another risky departure by Marvel Studios, but while this worked for, say, Guardians of the Galaxy, this might represent a rare significant misstep by the studio which has seemed a virtual box office King Midas for the last decade plus. While not a complete failure—in fact, it has admirable qualities, though it ends up feeling somewhat less than the sum of its parts—Eternals is plagued with issues, some of which come from trying to fit it, like a square peg in a round hole, into the greater MCU, while others are its own self-contained pacing and narrative problems.