“Avatar: The Way of Water” (Action/Adventure/Fantasy: 3 hours, 12 minutes)

Starring: Sam Worthington, Zoe Saldana, Sigourney Weaver, Stephen Lang and Kate Winslet

Director: James Cameron

Rated: PG-13 (Sequences of strong violence and intense action, partial nudity and strong language)

Movie Review: James Cameron revolutionized moviemaking when he debuted the epic science-fiction fantasy “Avatar” in 2009 as its director and writer.

The movie remains popular with audiences, which is why its sequel is now in cinemas. “Avatar: The Way of Water” is as stunning visually as its prequel and its story is just as riveting. However, the story appears recycled concepts.

The Na’vi repelled the star people from their extrasolar moon Pandora more than a decade ago. Now having ruined Earth, humans have returned to do the same to Pandora.

Jake Sully (Worthington) is chief of the Omaticaya clan where he and Neytiri (Saldana) live with their sons, Neteyam (Jamie Flatters) and Lo’ak (Dalton), daughter Tuk (Trinity Jo-Li Bliss) and adopted daughter Kiri (Weaver), who was born from Grace Augustine’s inert avatar.

The return of humans forces Sully and his family to leave their tribe as they become the target of Earth forces led by the Na’vi avatar of Col. Quaritch (Lang). To hide, the family seeks refuge with the Metkayina of Pandora, a coastal water-faring clan.

The visuals alone make this movie an immersive experience. It is as entertaining as 2009’s “Avatar.”

The scenic visuals make Pandora the perfect place to vacation. One can see why humans want to move to the planet. The place is pristine and free of industrial pollution and the wars that devastate Earth’s ecosystem, so an environmental message exists here.

Those things aside. This adventure does feel familiar. One gets the feeling this story is a rehash of its prequel and an apparent merger of some of Cameron’s other movies. This is even more evident by the fact that characters supposedly dead in the last movie have been resurrected in some form. Perhaps, he loves these characters too much to let them die.

Even more, Cameron noted three more sequels are coming for the “Avatar” franchise. He should be careful he does not let his movies become like other movie series such as “Star Wars,” where characters keep returning in similar plots.

Otherwise, “Avatar: The Way of Water” is sufficiently good. The visuals are mesmerizing in form, especially in 3-D. The eye candy is attention-getting cinematography, both the live-action and animated captures.

Additionally, the characters and action keep you there on Pandora.

Grade: B (The way of entertainment.)

Playing at Valdosta Stadium Cinemas

“Violent Night” (Action/Comedy: 1 hour, 52 minutes)

Starring: David Harbour, John Leguizamo and Beverly D’Angelo

Director: Tommy Wirkola

Rated: R (Strong bloody violence, language throughout and some sexual references)

Movie Review: “Violent Night” is a dark comedy with noir film attributes. It is an unexpected treat this holiday season. It delivers laughs, action and, of course, a tough, combative Santa Claus.

A group of mercenaries with Christmas-themed codenames, led by Mr. Scrooge (Leguizamo), attack the estate of the wealthy Lightstone Family in Greenwich, Connecticut. Scrooge and his team hold seven members of the family captive after slaughtering the mansion’s staff and security detail.

Serendipitously, Santa Claus (Harbour), inebriated and depressed by the materialism and burdens of modern Christmas, just happens to be there at the same time as the mercenaries. Claus must save the Lightstones and Christmas. Think of “Violent Night” as a mirror universe of “Die Hard” (Director John McTiernan, 1998) and “Home Alone” (Director Chris Columbus, 1990). “Violent Night” spoofs both during some scenes. However, this dark comedy is meant for adults who want action and laughs. Such material works for holiday fun.

The scenes contain comical lines that may make this the new holiday movie tradition.

In one of the beginning scenes, the matriarch Gertrude, played in a stern but invigorating manner by Beverly D’Angelo, has assembled her family for a Christmas Eve dinner at her manor. Her grandson, Bert (Alexander Elliot), exclaims via cursing that the wi-fi is terrible. Gertrude tells her daughter with a deadpan expression, “When he was small, I begged you to beat him.”

“Violent Night” is an action flick and a comedy. It is entertaining to its last moments. It is the perfect holiday movie if you want to laugh, forget about the cold weather and the long return lines at businesses.

Grade: B (Ho ho holiday fun!)

Playing at Valdosta Stadium Cinemas

“Puss in Boots: The Last Wish” (Animation/Comedy/Family: 1 hour, 42 minutes)

Starring: Antonio Banderas, Salma Hayek and Harvey Guillén

Director: Joel Crawford

Rated: PG (Action/violence, rude humor/language, and some scary moments)

Movie Review: Rivaling its prequel “Puss in Boots” (Director Chris Miller, 2011), “Puss and Boots: The Last Wish” is a creative movie. It entertains with action and plenty of endearing characters and inviting animation.

Puss in Boots (Banderas) discovers the swashbuckling lifestyle of adventure has cost him eight of nine lives. The feline hero realizes sitting on the sidelines in retirement is not for him, so he ventures to find the mythical Last Wish and restore his nine lives. Traveling with his new friend, Perrito (Guillén), a genuinely friendly dog and longtime love interest Kitty Softpaws (Hayek), Puss and his entourage encounter many dangers, including bounty hunters, corporate executives and hostile environments.

“The Last Wish” seems like a title for a final movie for Puss in Boots but this cat proves he has many lives left.

Antonio Banderas remains the perfect voice for this character. He is charmingly funny in this role. He and Salma Hayek are a good duo in this movie. Harvey Guillén joins them voicing the adorable dog Perrito.

These characters and others from nursery rhymes and fairy tales create a grand venture. They present good comedic lines and deliver plenty of action with a background of vivid colors.

However, many of these concepts also present what is an overload at times simultaneously. An array of characters continually enters the story and the animation is a surplus of bright and quickly moving colors that delight as much as they tax the eyes.

Still, “Puss and Boots” makes the perfect outing for audiences of various ages.

Grade: B (Puss in Boots lives again.)

Playing at Valdosta Stadium Cinemas

“Whitney Houston: I Wanna Dance with Somebody” (Biography/Drama/Music: 2 hours, 26 minutes)

Starring: Naomi Ackie, Stanley Tucci, Tamara Tunie and Nafessa Williams

Director: Kasi Lemmons

Rated: PG (Strong drug content, strong language, smoking, suggestive language and suggestive references)

Movie Review: This movie deserves some props for its daring to put everything in this biopic, the good and bad, although it focuses more on the latter and Whitney Houston’s music.

The problem is the script appears like highlights of the singer’s life picked from tabloids.

After years of people close to Whitney Elizabeth Houston (Ackie) denying she Robyn Crawford (Williams) had a romantic relationship, the movie quickly moves from Whitney singing in church with her mother, Cissy Houston (Tunie), to moving in with her lover, Robyn. From there, the movie has Cissy introducing Whitney to record executive Clive Davis (Tucci). Whitney’s life skyrockets to major fame after that introduction.

Audiences know Whitney Houston’s story and its tragic ending. This movie offers nothing gossip shows and entertainment weeklies have not covered.

Surely, a biopic of someone of Houston’s stature could have taken the time to show her personal life more than just its dramatic moments.

Otherwise, the movie just catalogs Houston’s greatest hits. Audiences hear the actual singer’s voice in most scenes.

Kasi Lemmons has made some memorable movies. The superior “Eve’s Bayou” (1997) and “Harriet” (2019) are the notables. Other movies, even when average or less, are still interesting. This feature is one of her average movies.

Lemmons and writer Anthony McCarten should have concentrated on part of the chanteuse’s life or centered her life around a theme. Instead, the movie just gives audiences events of mostly already known facts.

In one of the last scenes, Ackie as Houston sits in a hotel lounge contemplating life. Then, the bartender, who is a self-disclosed super fan of the megastar, compliments her. The admiration gives her renewed energy. This is one of the greater moments of this movie. Too bad, it needed to start and continue in this manner.

Grade: C (I wanna see a better biopic.)

Playing at Valdosta Stadium Cinemas

“Babylon” (Comedy/Drama/History: 3 hours, 9 minutes)

Starring: Brad Pitt, Margot Robbie, Diego Calva and Jean Smart

Director: Damien Chazelle

Rated: R (Strong and crude sexual content, graphic nudity, bloody violence, drug use and pervasive language)

Movie Review: Much exists to like and hate in the long and bloated “Babylon.” It is a razzle-dazzle energetic movie by director-writer Damien Chazelle.

He has a fascination with old Hollywood. His appreciation of that era shows. He creates several interesting characters trying to survive Hollywood with a background containing all of humanity’s vices.

Their lives become one of survival as they contend with fame, identity and ambition.

Several people, actors, musicians, movie assistants and executives all live in Hollywood in 1926. As movies transition from silent films to talkies, these people rise and fall with the changing advances in filmmaking.

Leading man Jack Conrad (Pitt) is at the apex of his career but sees his style of acting fading. “It girl” Nellie LeRoy (Robbie) is new to acting and is the first bombshell of the film industry. Manny Torres (Calva) just wants to be part of any film production. Cultural columnist Elinor St. John (Smart) observes all and writes about it with a candid wit.

They and others work their way through Tinseltown extravagance.

Several characters seen in this movie are composites of actual stars from the 1920s and 1930s. Pitt’s Jack Conrad has a life similar to several early leading actors, particularly John Gilbert. Nellie Le Roy is a cluster of actresses, mainly Clara Bow, who was looked down upon by Hollywood elites.

The woman directing Nellie LeRoy in this movie is Ruth Adler (Olivia Hamilton), one of numerous women directors such as Dorothy Arzner merged. Columnist Elinor St. John is a mix of British novelist Elinor Glyn and gossip columnist Louella Parsons.

Other characters such as Lady Fay Zhu (Li Hun Li), appear a mixture of the first Chinese-American star Anna May Wong and Marlene Dietrich. Sidney Palmer (Jovan Adepo) is a composite of Black musical entertainers like Louis Armstrong and Duke Ellington.

Some of the characters in this movie are actual people from the period.

With “Babylon,” the question is whether Chazelle is fictionalizing historical figures’ lives to create an artistic feature. If such is the case, he is acting more like a verbose historian editing history by making it tantalizing. His historical revisionism may be rousing but it is less creative when gauged from that perspective.

The composites of historical figures in this film give “Babylon” a sense of realness. It pays homage to some of these people while seemingly taking a jab at some of them, too.

Chazelle is a talented filmmaker. Two credits to his resume are “Whiplash” (2014) and “La La Land” (2016) which earned him an Oscar in directing.

One can appreciate his eye for detail and his studies of moviedom during the 1920s and 1930s, “Babylon” is an excessive movie. It has a surplus of everything. Its vice is bloviation and it is enjoyable to a point.

Grade: B- (Fun for film lovers; otherwise, this is a verbose talkie.)

Playing at Valdosta Stadium Cinemas

Adann-Kennn Alexxandar has reviewed movies for The Valdosta Daily Times for more than 20 years.