Movie Review

Lack of freshness in Scream VI shows Ghostface needs to go down for good

The reboot of the Scream franchise in 2022 might have been intended to be dumped in the dead zone of January, but its unexpectedly high $81 million box office put a sequel on the fast track. And it’s a good thing they did, because the new young cast members – notably Melissa Barrera, Jenna Ortega, Jasmine Savoy Brown, and Mason Gooding – are hot properties and getting hotter by the minute.

Scream VI finds the foursome away from the cursed town of Woodsboro, as they have all relocated to the notoriously safe New York City together. Tara (Ortega) and twins Mindy (Savoy Brown) and Chad (Gooding) are students at the fictional Blackmoore University, while Sam (Barrera) does her best to keep Tara safe after reconnecting with her sister in the previous film.

The emergence of a new Ghostface killer not only puts all of them at risk, but also new roommates Quinn (Liana Liberato) and Ethan (Jack Champion), as well as Sam’s new love interest, Danny (Josh Segarra). Helping to track down the killer (or killers) is Det. Bailey (Dermot Mulroney) and Kirby Reed (Hayden Panatierre), now an FBI agent after being terrorized herself in Scream 4.

Still sticking with the credo of “If it ain’t broke, don’t fix it,” the filmmakers – returning co-directors Matt Bettinelli-Olpin and Tyler Ginnett, and returning co-writers James Vanderbilt and Guy Busick – go back to the same formula seen many times before over and over again. The killer attacks, manages to stab a victim or two before getting hit by a blunt object, disappears mysteriously after the protagonists are distracted, rinse and repeat.

At this point it would be surprising if they deviated much at all from what is expected, since fans don’t seem to mind the repetition. That’s not to say that the film is completely devoid of entertainment. The brutal opening scene, another hallmark of the series, manages to bring a degree of cleverness to the film. And even though most of the kills are telegraphed, the level of violence will satisfy any hardcore horror fan.

However, the film too often takes the easy road. It’s set around Halloween, so that hordes of people roaming the streets in masks, many of them Ghostface ones, seems natural. Instead of raising the tension, it somehow takes it away as the filmmakers can’t use the idea properly. Sam being haunted by her parentage once again plays a big part in the story, but just as in the last film, it doesn’t add up to much.

The lack of good material is a crying shame, as the film truly does have a gem of a cast. Ortega is at the top of everyone’s list after the Netflix show Wednesday and other recent roles. Barrera has the charisma and the looks to be the star in many more projects. And Savoy Brown and Gooding have the goods to easily slide back and forth between movies and TV.

In the Scream franchise, Ghostface will never die because there will always be someone new who’s willing – or psychotic enough – to don the mask and do some more slashing. But unless filmmakers are able to inject some new ideas into the mix, it might be best to let the series die, once and for all.

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Scream VI opens in theaters on March 10.

Photo courtesy of Paramount Pictures

Dermot Mulroney in Scream VI.

Hayden Panatierre Jenna Ortega Reboot of Scream film movies

Movie Review

Film sequel Avatar: Fire and Ash is a technical and visual feast

Photo courtesy of 20th Century Studios

Oona Chaplin in Avatar: Fire and Ash.

For a series whose first two films made over $5 billion combined worldwide, Avatar has a curious lack of widespread cultural impact. The films seem to exist in a sort of vacuum, popping up for their run in theaters and then almost as quickly disappearing from the larger movie landscape. The third of five planned movies, Avatar: Fire and Ash, is finally being released three years after its predecessor, Avatar: The Way of Water.

The new film finds the main duo, human-turned-Na’vi Jake Sully (Sam Worthington) and his native Na’vi wife, Neytiri (Zoë Saldaña), still living with the water-loving Metkayina clan led by Ronal (Kate Winslet) and Tonowari (Cliff Curtis). While Jake and Neytiri still play a big part, the focus shifts significantly to their two surviving children, Lo’ak (Britain Dalton) and Tuk (Trinity Jo-Li Bliss), as well as two they’ve essentially adopted, Kiri (Sigourney Weaver) and Spider (Jack Champion).

Miles Quaritch (Stephen Lang), who lives on in a fabricated Na’vi body, is still looking for revenge on Jake, and he finds help in the form of the Mangkwan Clan (aka the Ash People), led by Varang (Oona Chaplin). Quaritch’s access to human weapons and the Mangkwan’s desire for more power on the moon known as Pandora make them a nice match, and they team up to try to dominate the other tribes.

Aside from the story, the main point of making the films for writer/director James Cameron is showing off his considerable technical filmmaking prowess, and that is on full display right from the start. The characters zoom around both the air and sea on various creatures with which they’ve bonded, providing Cameron and his team with plenty of opportunities to put the audience right there with them. Cameron’s preferred viewing method of 3D makes the experience even more immersive, even if the high frame rate he uses makes some scenes look too realistic for their own good.

The story, as it has been in the first two films, is a mixed bag. Cameron and co-writers Rick Jaffa and Amanda Silver start off well, having Jake, Neytiri, and their kids continue mourning the death of Neteyam (Jamie Flatters) in the previous film. The struggle for power provides an interesting setup, but Cameron and his team seem to drag out the conflict for much too long. This is the longest Avatar film yet, and you really start to feel it in the back half as the filmmakers add on a bunch of unnecessary elements.

Worse than the elongated story, though, is the hackneyed dialogue that Cameron, Jaffa, and Silver have come up with. Almost every main character is forced to spout lines that diminish the importance of the events around them. The writers seemingly couldn’t resist trying to throw in jokes despite them clashing with the tone of the scenes in which they’re said. Combined with the somewhat goofy nature of the Na’vi themselves (not to mention talking whales), the eye-rolling words detract from any excitement or emotion the story builds up.

A pre-movie behind-the-scenes short film shows how the actors act out every scene in performance capture suits, lending an authenticity to their performances. Still, some performers are better than others, with Saldaña, Worthington, and Lang standing out. It’s more than a little weird having Weaver play a 14-year-old girl, but it works relatively well. Those who actually get to show their real faces are collectively fine, but none of them elevate the film overall.

There are undoubtedly some Avatar superfans for which Fire and Ash will move the larger story forward in significant ways. For anyone else, though, the film is a demonstration of both the good and bad sides of Cameron. As he’s proven for 40 years, his visuals are (almost) beyond reproach, but the lack of a story that sticks with you long after you’ve left the theater keeps the film from being truly memorable.

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Avatar: Fire and Ash opens in theaters on December 19.

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