blockbuster – Rating Frames

Avatar: Fire and Ash Has Pandora Starting to Feel Familiar

December 17, 2025Darcy Read

Returning to Pandora after just three years, James Cameron’s third entry into his one-of-a-kind franchise, Avatar: Fire and Ash (2025), is closely linked to its previous chapter, Avatar: Way of Water (2022), giving the film its first sense of stagnation. But that is not to say Fire and Ash is a regression. The film is overwhelming and unwieldy, and in a normal year would be the best in a lacklustre slate of Hollywood blockbuster filmmaking with its incomparable visual style and boundary-pushing ingenuity that still convinces global audiences to leave the house and wear 3D glasses. But with the releases of Sinners (2025)and One Battle After Another (2025), two of the year’s films, should audiences start asking more from the stories coming out of Pandora?

Taking place one year after Way of Water, the Sully family is still mourning the loss of Neteyam (Jamie Flatters), all in different ways. As a Na’vi, most are still in a mourning period, especially Neytiri (Zoe Saldana), who feels lost in her grief. Jake (Sam Worthington), however, introduces the human concept of never addressing your feelings and pushing through in the hope of progress to the community.

There is little time to settle back into Pandora before the action starts. Spurred by the adults’ desire to remove Spider (Jack Champion, their sort of adoptive son and only human protagonist left in the franchise) from their community, much to the rage of the rest of their young and growing family, the Sully clan are ambushed by the Mangkwan clan, or Ash people, are they are known. A brutal Na’vi group headed by Varang (Oona Chaplin), a war chief who leaps off the screen and gives this long film the jolt it needs to sustain itself, even if we are constantly let down by a lack of development.

Oona Chaplin as Varang in Avatar: Fire and Ash.

While Varang is a viscous and instantly captivating antagonist, entering the canon of Cameron villains, we are constantly seeking more depth behind the violence and destructive tendencies. What does it mean for a leader of a seemingly nomadic group of Na’vi styled like the Comanche to so easily join the colonising oppressive humans, and what does it mean that these questions are not explored? While appreciating that screenwriters Cameron, Rick Jaffa, and Amanda Silver explore different sides of their Native American and colonist sci-fi allegory, the lack of depth or curiosity in its own writing falls flat, underwhelming what should be an explosive final act.

With a script and thematic conceptions decades out of date and technological cinema spectacle decades ahead of its competitors, James Cameron’s Avatar films live outside of time, allowing us extended peaks at this bizarre yet captivating place. What has allowed these films to thrive after all these years is their commitment to elemental storytelling, and not just in its commitment to adding elements like its naming brother, Avatar: The Last Airbender (2005) (definitely adding an earth tribe next). The family dynamics are overwhelmed with melodrama, deeply intertwining friend and foe with children and lost families, all with a growing connection to the land and its creatures, the more time they spend there, to a point where the climax of the film is weighted equally to the Na’vi as the Tulkan (whale creature added in the previous film) Payakan.

Cameron’s franchise expands in surprisingly organic ways, closer to a sweeping fantasy novel series than a film franchise spinning its wheels and playing the hits. Heroes and villains remain as the story is almost solely fascinated by their evolution as characters in a shifting world rather than having an expanding world smash up against rigid, established characters. As a double-edged sword, however, this does mean that at a runtime of 197 minutes we are focusing a lot of time and resources on the story of Spider, a mildly interesting but repetitive character, and his two fathers, Jake and Quarich (Stephan Lang).

Sam Worthington as Jake Sully in Avatar: Fire and Ash

While the script and characterisations continue to lack, we still marvel at the film’s visual palette and stunning sound design. With its use of high frame rates, something that takes time to settle into, water and elemental scenes really soar, while the textured sound design grounds the world in the familiar, a delicate balance that allows each scene to grip you even if the storytelling falls away. Unfortunately the score by Simon Franglen still remains uninspired in these films, with preplanned swells that stir less emotion than is required for a film of this scale and craft.

Where films like The Creator (2023) seem designed to offer its cinematic approach to CGI filmmaking to future films in the genre, Cameron’s Avatar films strives for the visual Pantheon to be worshipped not emulated. We marvel, moment to moment at scenes of lush forests and dense reef ecosystems, fully immersed in a world of human creation, even as we get swept up in an expansive story about our need to protect and connect with nature. Like going to the aquarium and spending all day in the VR room.

But at what stage does it feel greedy to ask for more from a franchise now 551 minutes into its on-screen runtime? As we round the corner to home plate and the James Cameron payoff machine starts working its gears, it’s hard not to be hit by a pang of sadness that this fascinating cultural item at the heart of a medium in a state of panic doesn’t strive for something more human or poetic. Audiences may never stop returning to Pandora once invited, but they may begin to ask for something under the surface to sustain them.

Avatar: Fire and Ash is in theatres now.

Predator: Badlands Breaths New Life Into the Franchise

November 7, 2025November 17, 2025Darcy Read

With a powerful battle sequence between brothers on the Predator home world of Yautja Prime, Predator Badlands (2025) starts with an operatic bang. The two brothers, Dek (Dimitrius Schuster-Koloamatangi), and the older Kwei (Mike Homik), are training relentlessly. Dek, much smaller than the standard warriors we see in these films, is desperate to prove himself to the clan, and his brother is desperate to help him survive their ruthless culture. After a dramatic confrontation between the brothers and their father, Dek escapes with a quest to hunt the Kalisk, a rumoured unkillable monster on the unforgiving planet of Genna.

Like a live-action version of Scavengers Reign (one of the best shows of the decade), Badlands is all about the environment and the evolutionary marvel of a stranger crash landing on a new planet. With its unique plant and animal kinds that Dek must learn to understand to survive, director and now franchise steward Dan Trachtenberg has developed the first Predator film that actually puts the shoe on the other foot of the Yautja. What allows the film to thrive and stand alongside the John McTiernan original is its exploration of the dense planet of Genna, which brings the story’s intimacy into focus.

Quickly into Dek’s journey through Genna, he stumbles onto and is rescued by Thia, a severed Weyland-Yutani synth played by the effortlessly charming Elle Fanning. Through the overly chatty Thia and the attempting brooding of Dek, the familiar trappings of the mismatched adventure duo, laid on top of the familiar story of the runt of the litter in search of validation from the clan, ground the storytelling. This allows the simple charms and filmmaking craft to flourish inside a franchise that never settled on anything outside of its central figures’ iconic imagery.

Elle Fanning, surrounded by cute and fascinating creatures, has the charm and humour to sustain an entire film herself. A longtime actor who has recently become one of the most in-demand actors in the industry, Fanning pulls double shifts here as Thia and Tessa, two synths exploring the planet and also seeking the Kalisk. Her boundless energy, as Thia, is played in stark contrast to her “sister,” Tessa, a cold and driven synth that plays the role of a killing machine, typically reserved for the film’s resident predator.

Elle Fanning as Thia in *Predator: Badlands.*

But this is not just a Fanning showcase. For too long, the Predator franchise has fallen flat in its characterisation of its iconic hunter. Until Dek and Kwei, we had not had a real conversation between Yautja, an outrageous failure of a franchise that never seemed invested in the science fiction genre that has allowed the Alien franchise to expand and evolve. By opening up the role of the predator as Dek finds his place amongst an unfamiliar world, Badlands is allowed a freedom to morph and change at will. Dimitrius Schuster-Koloamatangi does not have much facial real estate to exude personality to an audience, but the deep focus on him allows his fear and uncertainty to ground his journey in a familiarity rarely seen in the franchise.

Never before has the cultural bloodsport that is the heart of the Predator franchise been more sharply critiqued and illuminated as it is here, becoming quickly apparent why Trachtenberg felt there was so much left to say to rapidly pen a trilogy of feature films. A species of hyper-intelligent, hyper-athletic and advanced warriors so uninspired by their own cultural wealth that only the pursuit of a galaxy-spanning hunt can give them purpose. With a simple turn to have a Predator film centre a familiar narrative of the runt of the litter goes out to prove themselves to the pack, we finally see ourselves in the eyes of these once mythical, feeling creatures.

What allows the film to thrive is its cinematic integrity, focusing on a Yautja as a protagonist, staring intently at its face and eyes. Through those eyes, Badlands probes deeper into the worlds and cultures so rarely seen in a franchise a mile long and an inch deep. For too long, filmmakers have focused on the Yautja as an invisible hunter stalking prey, never probing into their real thoughts or struggles, or even giving them a language to communicate.

By striving for incremental IP world-building and narrative exploration over cinematic iconography, Badlands, like Prey (2022) before it, has quiet goals that it easily achieves. With a fully game duo in Fanning and newcomer Schuster-Koloamatangi, Trachtenberg, in a suite of films, takes his place as steward of the once flailing franchise. That he has achieved this not through IP management or navel gazing but by finding a unique balance between narrative exploration and genre entertainment is no small feat, something that should make fans, young and old, stand up and applaud.

Predator Badlands is in theatres now.

One Battle After Another: Paul Thomas Anderson’s Latest is the Year’s Best, an Instant Classic

September 22, 2025September 22, 2025Arnel Duracak

One Battle After Another preview screening provided by Universal Pictures

Even as I found myself slouched into the cinema seat, still having not adjusted to the timezone after a recent overseas vacation, Paul Thomas Anderson’s One Battle After Another (2025) woke me up, slapped me around and reminded me why I spent a year researching his work. There are few working directors who have stayed as true to form as PTA has, and even fewer who have dared to push quirky, unpredictable narratives and irreverent characters at such a scale out to audiences; One Battle After Another might just be the quirkiest, most unpredictable film he’s ever made, and easily one of the rare few that a studio has decided to back, with such a big budget.

While One Battle After Another, at least on paper, has all of the elements of a PTA film —themes of surrogacy, a focus on damaged male characters and dialogue that has you think twice and then twice more— it also feels like his most relevant film to date and not because of smart phones or modern mustangs, but because it isn’t a period piece, it isn’t looking back in ways that There Will be Blood (2007) or Inherent Vice (2014) were. This film plays like it’s very much a forward-looking, foreshadowing of what’s to come if we let forces greater than us hunt us down in the little spaces we’ve carved out for ourselves in a world that feels like it’s already getting smaller around us.

And it’s immediately apparent from the opening sequence that this isn’t going to be your stock standard PTA flick, with a harsher, almost street-like quality to the cinematography. We open with Perfidia (Teyana Taylor), a revolutionary who is scouting an immigration camp before we’re introduced to Bob Ferguson (Leonardo DiCaprio), and other grungy looking revolutionaries who are looking to cause calculated havoc in similar encampments and eventually, across banks and other establishments as well. The political undertones of the film are clear, but the whirlwind that’s to follow is unimaginable.

It doesn’t take long for things to shift to fifth gear as narcissistic leader of said camp/s, Steven J. Lockjaw (a career best Sean Penn and shoo-in for supporting actor), someone who detests African Americans but in being humiliated by Perfidia, falls head over heels for her (hey, everyone’s got a kink), is on a mission to hunt down every revolutionary involved in these acts of defiance. While he does hunt/kill most of them, Bob and his daughter Willa (played in youth age later by Chase Infiniti) are extracted to a safe haven while Perfidia, finding herself in witness protection, escapes to Mexico.

LEONARDO DI CAPRIO as Bob Ferguson in “One Battle After Another.” A Warner Bros. Pictures Release.

A time jump to 16 years later caps off a first act that is as balls-to-the-wall as any PTA has attempted (with 1997’s Boogie Nights coming in at a distant second). It’s telling that like Bob, who goes into hiding with his daughter while others hunt him down in this almost cat and mouse plot at the centre of this film, PTA has (in a way) almost been doing the same, or at the very least, trying to find a version of himself who’d warm up to the idea of being more in touch with the immediate world as it unfolds. While PTA can never be accused of playing things safe —in fact, his framing of thematic interests has only shifted as he’s aged and as he’s had his own children— he’s at his most abrasive, rampant self here.

For starters, PTA doesn’t attempt to play to the good vs evil, right vs wrong binary tendencies that so many weaker political thrillers tend to. Instead, he uses this strange love triangle (if it can be called that), between Bobb, Lockjaw and Perfidia, and a focus on character, to let any surrounding commentary seep in from. Ultimately this is a film about a father/daughter dynamic that’s complicated by an equally complicated lunatic whose motive (without spoiling) in hunting them is far more nuanced than simply getting rid of them.

What ensues is an electrifying, chaotically focused, yet hearty film that never slows down but keeps you on your toes until its classic finale that’s already entered legendary status. To get to that point, Johnny Greenwood’s edgy, almost chimey score keeps the tension flowing and builds on the unnerving aura of not knowing what’s around the corner. This is coupled with the equally unnerving performances of Penn, DiCaprio and Infiniti, with the former having a duality and complex that feels insane to have been pulled off, while Leo has a hipster edginess that’s underpinned by a desire to be didactic yet his paranoia is leaving him out of sorts (this pairing between PTA and Leo is a match made in heaven).

Like the characters in this film, PTA is a revolutionary but of a different cause: the preservation of cinema. In shooting One Battle After Another, he decided to bring back VistaVision (a dying breed of film format). It speaks to his desire to find meaning and breathe life into things often deemed unworthy or better left to fade with time, and this desire is almost felt on the screen with a character like Bob who’s brought back from the brink, from a place where he’s almost lost sight of himself and who he was, and risks fading away into someone that once meant something to so many people but doesn’t anymore. In this way, One Battle After Another inextricably ties PTA so closely to its characters and their plights (both of which always take precedence in his films ahead of commentary) which makes its daring finale and all that Bob finds he really stands for and that his daughter hopes to stand for in her own place in the world, feel so deeply personal.

One Battle After Another opens nationally from September 25

The Fantastic Four: First Steps is a Wholly Satisfying Sci-Fi Adventure

July 23, 2025Darcy Read

It can be daunting being the first. The first people in space. The first superheroes in the world, uncertain of the responsibility their power demands. The first child. Crossing that uneasy bridge from the familiar into the depths of the unknown. This was once a core aspect of superhero storytelling, but after thirty-seven entries in the compounding Marvel enterprise, it feels impossible to return to. Even the recent release of James Gunn’s Superman (2025) — a new frontier on the DC side of larger storytelling building blocks, while successful in its storytelling — had notes of this and still couldn’t help itself surround their central figure with larger but unnecessary chatter.

But this is where The Fantastic Four: First Steps (2025) succeeds and earns its colonised titling and a real throwback to why the MCU has built a legacy on quality films. Set in an alternate Earth from the familiar stomping ground of the MCU, and heavily focused on its famous foursome and not its larger worldbuilding, director Matt Shackman has crafted a brisk and entertaining sci-fi-focused ride that will leave you wholly satisfied; a feeling Marvel films used to give us.

the Fantastic Four, led by Reed Richards and Sue Storm, brought to life better than ever by Pedro Pascal and Venessa Kirby, and flanked by Ben Grimm (Ebon Moss-Bachrach) and Johnny Storm (Joseph Quinn), arrive on screens in an Jetsons-themed alternate reality giving them the freedom of not needing less compelling super friends to give passing screen time too. Portrayed with enthusiasm and sincerity that reflects outwards into the whole film while still avoiding a saccharine mawkishness, making this Fantastic Four entry feel like a delightful throwback.

Four years into their journey, that is just settling in until the unexpected arrives both in-house and extra-terrestrially; the surprising pregnancy of Sue and the arrival of the Herald of Galactus (Ralph Ineson), The Silver Surfer (played with a pride and melancholy by the great Julia Garner), spelling doom for the Earth.

Joseph Quinn and Pedro Pascal in *The Fantastic Four: First Steps*

Building a competent film around these four characters has proved difficult in the past (this is the fourth go around for the crew in cinema, maybe they needed the luck?), but writers Eric Pearson, Josh Friedman, Jeff Kaplan, and Ian Springer have found success by properly centering the four actors, allowing plot and CGI battles to whizz past their family sci-fi soap opera. Told with sincerity and a deep love of the characters strengths and weaknesses, Shackman is allowed to stretch out and tell a full story, showing the potential from his directorial work on WandaVision (2021), perhaps the only successful Marvel TV show post Daredevil, even if it relied on a lazy final battle to conclude its story.

By centring two terrific performers who have shown the ability to operate in an old Hollywood mode, Pedro Pascal (in full Clark Gable mode) and Venessa Kirby jump off the screen with a chemistry and guile built from the characters out. Even as the world around them monumentally shifts with the arrival of a new child and a new Earth-destroying threat, we constantly see them lock eyes and respond to each other with a depth of understanding and empathy that wouldn’t be amiss in an awards season marriage drama. Pascal is at his best as a supportive scene partner, an invisible hand that allows others to shine instead of absorbing the audience’s attention.

Rounding out the team is Ebon Moss-Bachrach and Joseph Quinn who have an easy banter built on warmth and care that adds to scenes. Quinn in particular is given a full story that is surprising and compelling, improving on the reductive framing we often see of the Human Torch.

A refreshing turn in the superhero genre that is potentially in its death throes, The Fantastic Four: First Steps focuses on an older sci-fi genre package with longer dialogue scenes, fewer action moments with a passing amount of care and attention to story, and a visual language that mostly grounds itself in its own reality (several scenes still feel deeply 2020s which the film seemed intent on avoiding in its first hour).

Pedro Pascal in *The Fantastic Four: First Steps*

With special effects that actually looked like the VFX team was given time to fully render and actualise ideas from scratch, The Fantastic Four: First Steps withheld the action at the centre of the story in place for a simple but emotive narrative built on a new, emerging family. Even Galactus, once portrayed as a large cloud in a film too embarrassed by its own sci-fi story, is given a tactile nature and a quality performance by Ineson, perhaps the best voice in the industry. In few words, Ineson displays a menace to his words but a clarity in character motivation one wouldn’t expect from an enormous villain desperate to consume planets. It’s not just that Shackman found space for the key six characters to show dimension and character through considered relationship work within a sci-fi framework; it’s that we could achieve this while wrapping up the film in under two hours.

The Fantastic Four: First Steps is a fast-moving train that has a real destination in mind, an aspect of American genre storytelling we took for granted and allowed to bloat and stagnate, too satisfied with its own navel-gazing to realise they were left as the only people looking. With a recent run of superhero films, Thunderbolts* (2025), Superman, and The Fantastic Four: First Steps, we are potentially rounding the corner into the enjoyment and craft that built this genre into the cinematic tentpole that it strives to hold onto.

By giving these characters a fully rounded narrative that satisfies more than stringing you along with the promise of a larger experience in the future, Shackman and co have achieved what was supposed to be the goal of cinematic genre storytelling; something familiar and something new, contained in an entertaining and sometimes emotional time at the movies. Where James Gunn’s Superman stretched far and wide to populate his emerging franchise venture, making for a fun but frustrating experience, The Fantastic Four: First Steps focuses on a small collection of characters where the biggest spectacle is the arrival of a new family member, the largest event in most audience members’ lives as well.

The Fantastic Four: First Steps is in theatres now.

Superman: James Gunn Marvel-ises Superman, for Better and Worse

July 9, 2025July 10, 2025Arnel Duracak

Superman preview screening provided by Universal Pictures

When Guardians of the Galaxy (2014) hit screens some eleven years ago, there was a shift in the superhero movie paradigm that up until then was often focused on darker stories and more mature themes, most of which went hard on action but stepped away from the jovial playfulness that animated shows often captured so well. That shift is owed in large part to James Gunn who managed to find a nice middle ground between getting you your dose of power ups and battle scenes with the humanity and flaws behind these heroes. He also (unintentionally) set off a chain of events for superhero films that would see them sway too much towards silliness and cheesy one-liners that they eventually became devoid of any uniqueness or balance.

In the time since his original Guardians film, Gunn has gone onto deliver two more for Marvel before being headed up as Co-chairman and Co-CEO of DC Studios in a bid to try and turn the tide DC’s way — after all, their catalogue of heroes is much stronger than that of Marvels. While The Suicide Squad (2021) represented his first real foray into the DC universe, it’s his long awaited reinvention of Superman (2025) that has felt like the true starting point that is supposed to set the tone for what is to come.

To do so, Gunn has opted to throw the whole ‘origin story’ approach out the window and instead, throw viewers right into the thick of things. Superman (a perfectly cast David Corenswet) is three years into his Superman reveal, with all of the crash landing and coming-to-terms-with-his-powers backstory, left implied. It’s a bold choice from Gunn but it makes sense as it gives him the room to cram more into the plot rather than tread old ground.

Whether the cramming tickles your fancy or not, is another question. There’s a lot going on in Gunn’s film, much to the detriment of building out a cohesive plot. Gunn is at once interested in diving into the humanity behind the God figure and hitting him with countless obstacles and side quests, with the result being glimmers of deeper interrogation —one occurring early on as Superman in his Clark Kent guise, chats with his fellow reporter girlfriend Lois Lane (an equally fitting Rachel Brosnahanin) in an impromptu interview— but an overall surface level exercise.

(L to r) NICHOLAS HOULT as Lex Luthor and DAVID CORENSWET as Superman in Warner Bros. Pictures’ “SUPERMAN”

And that’s before we start talking about the wider plot which includes Lex Luthor (Nicholas Hoult) trying to get dirt on Superman so he has justification to kill him, a trio of ‘Justice Gang’ sub-heroes who pop in every now and then to aid Superman and (really) fill-in during his absence, a weird middle-eastern conflict that threatens to boil over but that Superman is embroiled in, and a wonky love-story between Luthor’s side-piece and a a journo helping to get dirt on Luthor. In other words, it’s a stuffy room with little air left to breathe, which at best gets you a little laugh and at worst, an eye roll.

But while Gunn might not be focusing on Superman’s origin story, he’s definitely focusing on his own, taking his learning’s from his time at Marvel and Marvel-ising them here. No one can accuse Gunn of making something that’s boring, after all, the ethos of Superman has always been built around a level of silliness and charm that starts right from his vibrant, cartoonish costume. Gunn understands that in order to make this version of Superman any different from past iterations, he would have to cut the preamble and focus on the wonder that comes from seeing frost breathe, laser eyes and flying while keeping it as lighthearted as possible — keep the message simple and ensure the goofiness is there, even if the stakes never feel like they match up.

I have to admit, while I’m not a Zack Snyder shill, I appreciate the darker tones and comic-book wham’s and pow’s he brought to Man of Steel (2013), Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice (2016) and his version of the Justice League (2021). Gunn’s version has gone a completely different direction and I can respect the decision to do so since the other approach wasn’t putting bums in cinema seats. Whether or not this film sets the tone for this new DC universe though, is hard to tell, especially with Matt Reeves’ The Batman (2022) feeling more akin to what would have existed in the old universe (I’m sure we’ll see Cornswet’s Superman and Robert Pattinson’s Batman cross paths in some way — though I smell tonal whiplash from a mile away). Regardless, Superman is imbued with the same level of goofiness as Gunn’s other films, and while it probably would have felt fresher had it been released eleven years ago, it still packs an entertaining punch.

Superman opens nationally from July 10.

F1: Brad Pitt Plays a Past-His-Prime Prodigy in Joseph Kosinski’s Adrenaline Filled Follow-Up to Top Gun: Maverick

June 25, 2025June 25, 2025Arnel Duracak

F1 preview screening provided by Universal Pictures

Swapping the skies for the circuit, Joseph Kosinski’s F1 (2025) is a speedy, four wheeled follow up to his box office smash, Top Gun: Maverick (2022). While I’m not an F1 fanatic, there’s no doubt that the exhilaration of a race with cars that push past 300km/h is an adrenaline rush for those that love that sport, and especially for the drivers behind the wheel. But what happens when you peel back the veneer that is the glitz and glamour of podium finishes, and begin to look at the gruelling process that pit crews and drivers alike go through in the lead up to a race? Well, Kosiniski understood the assignment and has created a punchy drama that both tackles that question, and is rife with everything from technical language about racing, to the fall and rise of a prodigy.

In many ways, F1 feels like a spiritual successor to Maverick in that it traces the life of someone who was young and reckless, but is now more of a “has been” who is giving it one last crack against the new stars. On paper, Kosiniski’s film feels like it was very much geared towards casting Tom Cruise and continuing to put him in the cockpit of these lightning fast death machines, but with the Mission Impossible films taking up the majority of his focus, another aging yet still youthful star had to step in.

Cue Brad Pitt. Once you’ve seen this film, it’s easy to say that it’s hard to imagine anyone else playing this role other than Pitt, but Pitt makes the character of Sonny Hayes wholly his own that it’s really, truly impossible to imagine even Cruise in his position. There’s a boyish cockiness that Pitt translates so well to the screen, and it’s no different here as he carries himself with the same reckless edge he’s delivered time and time again. And it serves the premise perfectly: a former racing prodigy who is living in his van and sporadically competing in races is given the keys to the kingdom that is F1 by his former racing competitor-friend-turned-F1-owner, as a hail mary to pull them out of the rut they’re in.

You might be thinking: this sounds like every movie that has an ageing star who continues to try and compete at the highest level. While you might be right to a degree, on paper F1 isn’t remarkable as a fresh character study, but where it falters in storytelling it makes up for with fast paced action and a desire to authentically capture the F1 scene. Kosinski and frequent cinematographer Claudio Miranda’s work on getting the claustrophobic, tight spacing of fighter jets right in Maverick has helped them capture the same feeling of being in an F1 car; combine that with Hans Zimmer’s pulsating, punchy score, and the film has a video game simulator feel — keeping you at once on the edge of your seat and as though you’re there with Sonny.

Key to trying to give the film a little more egde beyond the generic script by Ehren Kruger is the addition of a young rookie, Josh Pearce (Damson Idris), who naturally takes the lead for the team, with Sonny serving more to amplify his movements on the track. Their dynamic helps shift the gears and keep the film from just being like every other racing film you may have seen. For one, Sonny doesn’t settle for second best and pushes Josh to be his competitor on the track so as to not have him be complacent and expecting everything will be handed to him. This push and pull between the two is like a passing of a baton but only if that baton was on a rope and it had to be caught first.

That’s all to say that F1, while a stellar showcase of zippy cinematography and snappy editing, derives its most heartfelt moments (even if the rest of the story is rather cookie-cutter) through Sonny’s redemption arc as he takes his track knowledge and turns it into a method for madness. What’s even more impressive is just how close to the real thing Kosinski has kept proceedings, with real-life racers like Max Verstappen and Lewis Hamilton cropping up (the latter being a producer as well who was involved with the project before Brad Pitt!). There’s a level of verisimilitude that the film is striving to capture, sometimes to the detriment of the wider drama that’s captured so well by films like Ferrari (2023) and Ford v Ferrari (2019), but often it nails this approach mainly because of how close each aspect of production is to the real thing, and with this approach Kosinski has clearly found himself a formula for success.

F1 opens nationally from the June 26.

How to Train Your Dragon: A New Look but the Same Heart in this Live-Action Remake

June 9, 2025June 25, 2025Arnel Duracak

How to Train Your Dragon preview screening provided by Universal Pictures

Whenever news breaks out that a studio is developing a live-action version of a beloved animated feature, a collective sigh followed by a “but why?” tends to ring out. After all, we’ve seen Disney try and (often) fail to bring their iconic animations back, with bigger budgets and fancier visual effects, only to see them turn out feeling devoid of the heart and soul that made those animations so great (see Aladdin, The Lion King, The Little Mermaid, Snow White, Dumbo etc.) Occasionally though, there is an anomaly, and fortunately it’s How to Train Your Dragon (2025).

That Dean DeBlois has been trusted to continue directing the How to Train Your Dragon series with this live action, is a testament to the success (both critical and commercial) he has found with the series as a whole. After all, how hard is it to make animated dragons look like real dragons while keeping the warmth that an animation lends? Well, it’s definitely no easy feat (I’m looking at you, expressionless lions in 2019’s The Lion King). But that’s ultimately what this film boils down to: can DeBlois and his team retain the charm of the 2010 classic? The short answer is, definitely. Mason Thames, while not sounding like Jay Baruchel, looks like Hiccup, and Night Fury looks like Night Fury. It’s clear that a lot of care was taken to be faithful to the look and feel of the 2010 film while delivering a version that felt larger-than-life and a world that looks lived-in.

(from left) Night Fury dragon, Toothless, and Hiccup (Mason Thames) in Universal Pictures’ live-action How to Train Your Dragon, written and directed by Dean DeBlois.

If you haven’t seen the animated original (I mean, you’ve only had 15 years), then, first and foremost, go and see that film, but also, you may not be too fazed as to whether this version is faithfully done or not. For what it’s worth, it’s about as close to the first as you can come, right down to the dragon designs and casting choices like Gerard Butler reprising his role as Stoick the Vast and delivering just as profound a performance. It also helps that the humour has translated across as well, something that’s probably helped by there being no musical numbers that come across as cheesy and eye rolling.

Beyond simply comparing the animated film to the live action, it’s hard to note anything else given this feels incredibly one-to-one in script, tone and look. If the dragons had looked lifeless or devoid of expression, then it’d be easy to call that out, but I guess my only grievance can be that instead of a fourth animated film, we’re getting live action cash grabs. There’s nothing inherently wrong with that (if it attracts an audience, that’s a win), but there has long been a reluctance to experiment with big budget films and try something different for fear of having it bomb — so much so that a sequel was green-lit before this film was even released, which is both bold, but also speaks to the faith that the studio has in a return on investment for an already successful intellectual property.

Perhaps more than any other animation in recent years, I’ve loved the How to Train Your Dragon series the most so I still had a ball with this live action and there’s no doubt that others will too. In my particular screening in Melbourne, visual effects artists who worked on the dragons were in attendance (with most of the work done here in Melbourne), and it’s great to see local creative studios continue to represent Australia and lead the way in digital effects for some of the biggest blockbusters in the world.

How to Train Your Dragon opens nationally from June 12.

Mission: Impossible – The Final Reckoning: After 29 Years it’s Mission Complete for Tom Cruise’s Iconic Franchise

May 17, 2025May 18, 2025Arnel Duracak

Mission: Impossible – The Final Reckoning preview screening provided by Paramount Pictures.

Whether it’s hanging suspended inside a secret vault, rock climbing on cliff faces, climbing the Burj Khalifa, HALO jumping, flying helicopters between cliffs, dangling off the side of airplanes or diving to deep depths, for the past 29 years the Mission: Impossible franchise has pushed the boundaries of what the cinematic experience can offer. The latest and last addition to this exercise, The Final Reckoning (2025), manages to impress one last time, leaving no stone unturned and no jaw undropped.

It feels as though Director Christopher McQuarrie and Tom Cruise’s bond since first collaborating on Jack Reacher (2012) has only strengthened the work they’ve done on this franchise, with The Final Reckoning representing the sixth time they’ve worked together. The duo are clearly in sync with one another, and their relationship has seen McQuarrie produce a number of other titles Cruise has starred in — their collab might just be the Robert de Niro/Martin Scorsese of modern action films.

While all of the Mission films are interlinked, they always tend to have a new threat for Ethan Hunt (Cruise) to take on. Of course, these final two are more connected than the others (title aside). Kicking off almost immediately after Dead Reckoning Part One (2023), The Final Reckoning finds Hunt once again in hiding as his narrow escape from the previous film’s derailed-train-finale has left him with the key to the vault of the lost Sevastopol submarine. The dangerous AI known as the ‘Entity’ continues to pose a risk to the survival of the world, and it’s up to Hunt to track down the sub, contain the entity, and prevent the world from becoming an ash wasteland. Just another day for cinema’s most rouge operative, right?

Tom Cruise plays Ethan Hunt in *Mission: Impossible – The Final Reckoning* from Paramount Pictures and Skydance.

The Final Reckoning takes Hunt to new heights as well as depths, with Cruise once again putting his body on the line for the sake of realism. It takes some time to get to the almost playful-like vibe that previous installments have been so good at capturing, though. You feel more of the dialogue this time around, with the first act in particular having a greater weightiness to it. When I think about my favourite film in the franchise, Fallout (2018), no line ever feels wasted and always drives the plot forward, but it’s as though the punchy, in-your-face-ness of dialogue this time around is a bit more… measured (I guess being the final film, there’s some understandable caution of trying to make every moment count).

Once the flood gates open, however, it’s a hold-onto-your-horses kind of ride. The elation of watching a Mission film is in the knowing that what you’re seeing isn’t a gimmick, and to add an extra layer to it, that the film’s star is the one doing it. A tank was purpose built (the largest ever for this kind of production) to have Cruise dive into, and the tension of seeing him clamber under water while the sound design holds him (and by extension, the audience) to ransom, is spine tingling, on-the-edge-of-your-seat stuff. At a later point, Cruise is literally dangling from the thin bars of a biplane in what is perhaps the most death defying stunt ever performed by the star of a movie for the big-screen. The high of seeing Cruise scramble as the plane barrel rolls and twists and turns, is just as exhilarating as you’d imagine, and it’s one of the clearest examples of the symbiotic relationship between Hunt and Cruise, a point where these two personas meet as they both battle to get into the cockpit — a feeling best exacerbated by the G-force struggle on Cruise’s face.

Tom Cruise plays Ethan Hunt, Pom Klementieff plays Paris, Greg Tarzan Davis plays Degas, Simon Pegg plays Benji Dunn and Hayley Atwell plays Grace in *Mission: Impossible – The Final Reckoning* from Paramount Pictures and Skydance.

Ethan’s moral compass has always been the core of what makes this franchise standout. He’s a character of conviction, one who chooses right over right and pays the consequences time and time again. Fallout really brought the fire that burns within him —for those he cares about— out to the max. These final two films have felt more mellow when it comes to character development (we know what makes him tick), but the idea that he’s not facing any one person this time around, but an AI, really brings the focus back on him and his ability to make decisions on the fly, something that really homes in on the idea that his biggest enemy is himself.

At this point, the “Tom Cruise is secretly trying to kill himself” memes are comical, but for every broken bone the actor has endured (and there have been a few), hundreds of thousands of jaws have dropped. If the Mission: Impossible films have taught us anything it’s that Cruise, like Ethan Hunt, has continued to choose the mission and risk his life for the benefit of those he will never truly meet, and cinema is all the better for it.

Mission: Impossible – The Final Reckoning opens nationally from today.

Thunderbolts* is the Best Post-Endgame Marvel Film

May 3, 2025May 4, 2025Darcy Read

Marketed with a keen focus on its crew’s previous work with the production company de jour A24, Marvel’s attempted rebound back into the public consciousness has arrived in the Florence Pugh led Thunderbolts* (2025). The film is emotional and built from the inside out with a commitment to its characters, a collection of misfit Marvel characters played by an incredible cast of emerging talents that shows when the call is made, they will deliver.

Much like an aggressive chiropractic session, the Marvel project desperately needed realignment, no matter the clunkiness to achieve it. By bringing in emerging creatives to develop a more personal character story — what used to be the MCU’s calling card in the early years — Thunderbolts* arrives fashionably late to a series in need of rescue. While modest in its pursuits (for a blockbuster feature), Thunderbolts* is built off the back of two terrific performances in Pugh as Helena and Lewis Pullman as Bob. Their chemistry stems from the characters’ visible mental health struggles that long for meaning and connection in a world devoid of both, a difficult idea to place front and centre in a film with multiple car flips.

After a haphazard and almost impressively uninspired handover film Captain America: A Brave New World (2025), Marvel’s loaded release schedule picks back up with a darker, sharper, and wittier ensemble film that stands on its own feet before the navel-gazing returns with a new Fantastic Four and Avengers films in the next 12 months.

Beef’s (2024) Jake Schreier, alongside many of his collaborators on the acclaimed series, puts character above all in a seemingly obvious pivot away from the plug-and-play style of most post-Endgame MCU films that has put the company on the brink.

Never undercutting its emotional weight with a cheap joke in the same sentence, screenwriters Eric Pearson and Joanna Calo keep their characters, in particular Yelena (a tremendous Florence Pugh), on clearly defined and recognisable tracks. Even as one of the world’s best assassin’s, Yelena’s mental health struggles and ennui is expressed with a profound clarity that underscores the entire film.

By taking their story of literalising mental health struggles to a fulfilling breaking point, Thunderbolts* shows what can be achieved in the best comic book stories by reflecting these superpowered people’s humanity out into the world. Thunderbolts* elicits an unusual feeling: nostalgia for the early entrants in the Marvel cinematic project. Slimmed down to bare essentials with an antagonist that reflects the interior conflicts of our soon-to-be heroes, the film knows the power it holds with its outstanding cast and when to cede ground to their talents.

From the outset, the score out of electronic trio Son Lux stands apart from the swathe of superhero cinema. In many critical scenes, their emotional intelligence shines through, giving the story of depression and reconciliation a clarity of vision that easily could’ve fallen through our hands like sand. The acoustic and electronic work sustains an unexpected grace that should be applauded.

With an eventual villain in The Sentry that embodies the call of the void itself, Thunderbolts* excels in grounding every element of its story within its characters. Much like Tony Stark being forced to reckon with his role in war profiteering to survive, Yelena must contend with her depression and learn to live alongside it.

The film excels in its modesty, even if it sets a pivotal confrontation in the old Avengers tower (baby steps!). Thunderbolts* uses a potent mix of humour and contemporary emotional turmoil to place itself a tier above the durge of action cinema that doesn’t even arrive at the boilerplate. While striving to be remembered as more than a footnote on the way to back-to-back billion-dollar cheques, Schreier’s film places potent themes of loneliness and emptiness at the forefront of a superhero story that separates itself from the studio’s recent shortfalls.

Thunderbolts* is in theatres now.

The Amateur is a Spy Thriller Uncomfortable in its Own Shoes

April 10, 2025Darcy Read

Helmed by British Television veteran James Hawes, The Amateur is a spy thriller unable to capture its own personality or separate itself from the recently booming subgenre. Focusing on a CIA data analyst-slash-hacker (Rami Malek, in his wheelhouse) who forces himself into the field by any means necessary after the death of his wife (Rachel Brosnahan) during a terrorist hostage crisis in London, the film’s fractured cadence and lack of narrative momentum despite this inciting incident means you don’t know where you’ll be taken next, but also uncertain about whether you’ll care.

Based on Robert Litell’s 1981 spy novel of the same name and adapted by Black Hawk Down (2001) screenwriter Ken Nolan and Gary Spinelli, The Amateur plays both sides of the Atlantic with its approach to the spy thriller. This, unfortunately, means the film never finds a singular drive or point of view but is made with a great cast and a refined crew that keeps the train on the tracks.

A surprisingly small-scale espionage thriller even as Malek makes his way through many cities, The Amateur shuffles along from moment to moment, with many cast members rarely appearing in multiple locations, restricting the narrative momentum of every sequence. Even the pivot hostage scene with Brosnahan plays out in short news clipping bursts, forcing Malek to shoulder the weight of every emotional and narrative beat, something very few actors can manage.

Rami Malek combined his experiences in the TV series Mr Robot (2015-2019) and No Time to Die (2021) to lead his own spy thriller in the vein of Jason Bourne if his amnesia expanded to include the trainee manual. With a tremendous cast of faces alongside Malek with Laurence Fishburne, Brosnahan, Jon Bernthal, Michael Stuhlbarg, Caitríona Balfe, Holt McCallany, and Julianne Nicholson, elevate rote scenes with barely a hint of drama or characterisation.

Rami Malek in *The Amateur*. Screening provided by 20th Century Studios.

Malek’s compelling anti-chemistry as a leading man works in fits and starts, primarily when he is acting alongside some of the best working actors in Bernthal, Stuhlbarg, and Fishbourne. Mr Robot thrived in its ability to work to Malek’s strength as a performer by constantly giving him unique counterweights to act against. In a surprisingly thin script, Malek and the other actors are repeatedly left out to dry, forced to fend for themselves while the ship chugs along to a near nonstop score.

The film is not assisted by Oscar-winning composer Volker Bertelmann’s austere score that opts to flatten much of the proceedings. The constant score certainly elevates the uncompelling exposition scenes but never highlights the entertaining and thrilling set pieces that are the film’s shining light.

However, almost in spite of itself, the film comes together in a worthwhile and satisfying way, even as it frays around the edges of time and drama. This is largely due to its creative action set pieces where each element, especially Malek’s performance, clicks into place into pure enjoyment. While the revenge narrative is established with a reckless abandon, it is thrilling to see where Hawes places these pivotal scenes, including a highrise pool and a final confrontation in the Russian-Finnish ocean border.

Due to this narrative style, The Amateur is not dissimilar to Tenet (2020) in how it moves quickly between setting up and executing inventive action set pieces instead of exploring the characters within its espionage world. This is surprising given The Amateur’s stellar cast, even if they are rarely given any meat on the bone.

Ultimately, there were high hopes for The Amateur due to its cast and veteran crew in a subgenre currently in a mini-boom. Still, without a unique style or handle on tone, the film moves shakily between sequences, never arriving sure of foot. Thankfully, the film’s trump card for a final sequence, a charming and compelling Michael Stuhlbarg performance, pretty successfully ties up a desperately fraying narrative yearning for a satisfying end note.

The Amateur is in theatres now.