CRYSTALIZED WORDS

By presenting these characters as caricatures or simple archetypes—grieving mother, failing writer—instead of actual people for most of its runtime, the movie misses out on the story beats that make the audience feel a connection with the characters and the performers that portray them. These moments are simply acted out–like a play performer mouthing words without emotion–but they don’t hit. There are scenes where they’re more than that though, but those scenes are so infreq

When Will gets to the league, the main talking point was always his inability to play in the interior, which he gets warned that he will be “killed” in. His coach, Dennis Cooper, makes it clear during a film study session that Will is best utilized on-ball as a ball handler and a contested shooter, and he doesn’t actually need to get past his man.

Spending his adolescence among normal crowds on Earth, it’s clear He-Man is not over his stolen childhood and the beauty his younger eyes witnessed. I find this the most relatable part of the trailer, in the way most of our childhood continuously affects us the rest of our lives.

In spite of her words, her actions throughout the story show something different. She expresses pain for Colonel Quaritch’s human son Spider when Jake attempts to kill him, despite initially wanting him out the house. She loves and guides her half-human children in their lives as if they were full Na’vi. She treasures her human husband Jake, and stakes her life to save him, waging a solo war on the human military base. Neytiri’s arc with race...