Avatar Aang: The Last Airbender

It goes without saying that Nickelodeon’s Avatar: The Last Airbender (ATLA) proved very popular and successful, so much so that it spawned two follow-up series, The Legend of Korra (Korra) and the upcoming Seven Havens. In the interim, however, it has had two divisive live-action adaptations, M. Night Shyamalan’s infamous The Last Airbender film and the Avatar: The Last Airbender remake from Netflix. Creative differences regarding the latter would inspire the formation of Avatar Studios, with series creators Michael Dante DiMartino and Bryan Konietzko at the helm, to expand the world of ATLA, starting with what would become the film Avatar Aang: The Last Airbender (Avatar Aang). This project would later receive more notoriety not just for a pivot from the original theatrical distribution to streaming directly on Paramount+, but also for someone leaking the entire finished film online months in advance.

Of course, release plans moved forward, with a premiere at San Diego Comic-Con 2026 (I attended the event, but didn’t go to the screening) and a limited run in only two theaters solely to qualify for the Oscars shortlist, despite protest from fans and members of the crew. Although I would have seen the film anyway as an ATLA fan, the increased awareness from the troubles surrounding the film’s production and release further piqued my curiosity. Although I found the film enjoyable, it did unfortunately fall short where it counted the most.

Stubs - The Odyssey (2026)

The Odyssey (2026) starring Matt Damon, Tom Holland, Anne Hathaway, Robert Pattinson, Lupita Nyong'o, Samantha Morton, Zendaya, Charlize Theron Directed by Christopher Nolan. Screenplay by Christoper Nolan. Based on Homer's Odyssey. Produced by Christopher Nolan, Emma Thomas. Run time: 173 minutes. Color. USA/UK Epic, Action, Fantasy, IMAX

As a follow up to his Academy Award winning Oppenheimer, director Christopher Nolan chose a text that dates back to the 8^th century B.C. attributed to Homer, a Greek poet. It is a sort of sequel to The Iliad, which centers on a quarrel between King Agamemnon and the warrior Achilles during the last year of the Trojan War. It’s follow-up, The Odyssey, chronicles the ten-year journey of Odysseus, king of Ithaca, back to his home after the fall of Troy.

It seems a little surprising that such a film based on a 2,800-year-old poem would arrive with such anticipation. Most tickets for its opening weekend sold out months in advance. But that is the pull of Christopher Nolan, the director behind Oppenheimer but also such films as Memento (2000), Insomnia (2002), Batman Begins (2005), The Dark Knight (2008), The Dark Knight Rises (2012), Inception (2010), Interstellar (2014), Dunkirk (2017), and Tenet (2020). He has a following few modern directors have, save, perhaps, Steven Spielberg.

John Wick: Chapter 4

Note: This review contains spoilers for John Wick: Chapter 3.

Before John Wick: Chapter 3 (Chapter 3) had even released, development went underway for two sequels, Chapter 4 and 5, with the original intent to film both back-to-back. As production went on, however, notably without the involvement of series creator Derek Kolstad, the hypothetical fifth film was dropped in favor of just Chapter 4. Although it would miss its original 2021 release date due to the COVID-19 pandemic, it would see the light of day in 2023 to critical acclaim and the highest box office for the series at $447.3 million (against a budget of $100 million). As this film would conclude John Wick’s story, at least at the time, it’s good to know that it ended with a bang. However, Chapter 4’s sheer length, clocking in at about 169 minutes (almost 3 hours), only highlights the issues I had with Chapter 3 even more.

John Wick: Chapter 3 – Parabellum

Note: This review contains spoilers for John Wick and John Wick: Chapter 2.

When a popular film like John Wick: Chapter 2 (Chapter 2) ends on a cliffhanger, a sequel will surely follow. Audiences would wait two years for John Wick: Chapter 3 – Parabellum (Chapter 3), which started production even before Chapter 2 had released and came with high critical praise. At the time, it had also become the highest-grossing film in the franchise, making $327.7 million against a budget of $75 million, in only 10 days. Of course, it’s difficult to maintain a high level of quality throughout a trilogy and while Chapter 3 does do that where it counts, it unfortunately feels lacking in story.

Mission: Impossible III

Note: This review contains spoilers for Mission: Impossible – The Final Reckoning.

Despite the mixed reception to Mission Impossible 2 (M:i-2), its success would lead to a sequel, Mission: Impossible III (M:i:III). Production got off to a rocky start with the search for a director, that is until Tom Cruise suggested J. J. Abrams after binge-watching two seasons of Alias. After some initial production delays, the final release in May 2006 garnered greater critical reception and became the eighth-highest grossing film of 2006. Unfortunately, it still proved a financial failure against its budget of ~$150 million and has the (dis)honor of its place as the lowest-grossing film in the entire franchise and hurting Tom Cruise’s career until Ghost Protocol revived it. Looking at the film now, it’s a shame that it didn’t do well, as it is an improvement on its predecessors, but I wouldn’t consider it my favorite either.

Mission: Impossible 2

It’s not uncommon for a film sequel, created off the back of the original’s success, to try a more action-oriented different direction compared to the original. Such was the case with Mission: Impossible 2 (M:I-2), which even placed John Woo, best known by some for the movie Face/Off, in the director’s chair, which automatically made it a bit different from Brian De Palma’s suspense-driven Mission: Impossible (M:I). Although M:I-2 debuted to mixed reception, it’s hard to argue with the results, as it grossed $546.4 million against a ~$120 million budget, which notably made it the year 2000’s highest-grossing film. While M:I-2 certainly has its fans even now, and it’s honestly hard not to see why, the end result almost comes at the expense of what makes a good Mission: Impossible movie.

Stubs - Mission: Impossible

Mission: Impossible (1996) starring Tom Cruise, Jon Voight, Henry Czerny, Emmanuelle Béart, Jean Reno, Ving Rhames, Kristin Scott Thomas, Vanessa Redgrave Directed by Brian DePalma. Screenplay by David Koepp, Robert Towne. Based on Mission: Impossible by Bruce Geller. Produced by Tom Cruise, Paula Wagner. Run time: 110 minutes. Color. USA Action, Espionage

If you were a fan of the original TV series, Mission: Impossible (1966-1973), you were definitely interested when Paramount announced it was bringing the story to the big screen. You might have been drawn in for its star Tom Cruise, or the script by Robert Towne, or the direction by Briana DePalma, but this was a film designed to put people in seats. But if you were a fan of the original series, you might have qualms with the adaptation.

Stubs - One Battle After Another

One Battle After Another (2025) starring Leonardo DiCaprio, Sean Penn, Benicio del Toro, Regina Hall, Teyana Taylor, Chase Infiniti. Directed by Paul Thomas Anderson. Screenplay by Paul Thomas Anderson. Based on Vineland by Thomas Pynchon. Produced by Adam Somner, Sara Murphy, Paul Thomas Anderson. Run time: 162 minutes. Color. USA Black Comedy, Action, Thriller

What is the highest grossing film of Paul Thomas Anderson’s career, a possible Academy Award contender and still considered a box-office failure? The answer is his 2025 film One Battle After Another, loosely based on the novel Vineland by Thomas Pynchon. A modernized version of the novel, with some of Anderson’s own stories incorporated into the narrative, One Battle After Another deals with revolutionaries of the early 2000’s, the French 75, and how actions 16 plus years ago still have consequences.

To be honest, this wasn’t necessarily a film I would have chosen to see. Some of that has to do with Leonardo DiCaprio, who is the star of the film. While he’s often called a great actor, I haven’t really been a fan of the films he’s starred in. However, because the scuttlebutt seems to indicate the film will be popular during awards season, which is now until the Academy Awards, it seemed like one to watch, which I recently did on HBO Max.

Thus Spoke Kishibe Rohan: At a Confessional

Following the release of Rohan at the Louvre, I continued to keep up with the live-action Thus Spoke Kishibe Rohan (TSKR) drama as it became available in English, and remain a big fan of it for how well it translates the world of JoJo’s Bizarre Adventure to live-action. When another film based on the series, Thus Spoke Kishibe Rohan: At a Confessional (At a Confessional) (JP: Kishibe Rohan wa Ugokanai Zange-shitsu), was announced, this time based on the original At a Confessional manga one-shot that started the spin-off manga, I was instantly hyped for it, both as someone who read the one-shot and watched the OVA adaptation, and based on how well Rohan at the Louvre turned out. This hype was instantly all but completely shattered as soon as I heard about how the music was handled (more on that later), but I still wanted to see it anyway once it became available in the US. Now that I’ve finally seen it through Amazon Prime Video, while I did think it was worth the wait to see it in English, it overall falls just shy of Rohan at the Louvre.

Once Upon a Katamari (PS5)

Following Touch My Katamari on the PS Vita in 2011 (2012 in the US), the Katamari series went dormant for years aside from mobile games, until the release of Katamari Damacy Reroll (Reroll) in 2018, as part of a series of remakes from Bandai Namco, showed a willingness to revisit the series. The success of Reroll led to a follow-up, We Love Katamari Reroll + Royal Reverie in 2023, the success of which created the possibility of further installments. This would come to fruition with the announcement of a proper new game earlier this year, the first in 14 years, titled Once Upon a Katamari. As a fan of the Katamari series who had actually been waiting for such an announcement the whole time, the news and initial trailer was enough to excite me, albeit with cautious optimism. Thankfully, this optimism paid off, as it feels like the spirit of Katamari is alive and well in this installment.

Second Look - Touch My Katamari

As the popularity of the Katamari series continued, the series later ventured back into the handheld space, this time with a launch title for the PS Vita in 2012 (2011 in Japan) called Touch My Katamari. Unfortunately, the game was a failure, resulting in the series going all but dormant for 14 years until the announcement of Once Upon a Katamari, at least partially attributed to the PS Vita itself failing as a system. The formal return of the franchise led me to dig out my copy of Touch My Katamari, which I last played in 2013 according to my save data, to reevaluate my opinions. Looking back on it, although I noticed more flaws in the game this time, I still found it an ultimately entertaining experience, even if not the best.

Katamari Forever

While Beautiful Katamari was the first Katamari game to be absent from a PlayStation console, it would return to the PS3 with Katamari Forever, a tribute to five years of the franchise. I actually remember playing this game when it first came out and liked it enough to consider it my personal favorite of the series, but over time I had forgotten the nuances of the game itself. On booting the game back up again in anticipation of Once Upon A Katamari, this turned out to be because I hadn’t played it since 2011. While I was noticing more flaws this time, I was ultimately reminded why I considered it my favorite, and still is.

Second Look - Beautiful Katamari (+ DLC)

As the Katamari series continued to show success, a new console game was made following the handheld Me & My Katamari. In a departure from previous titles which were on the PlayStation family of systems, this new game, Beautiful Katamari, was released exclusively for the Xbox 360; the intent was to go multiplatform, however only the Xbox 360 version ever got made. After mainly sticking with the PlayStation line for the longest time, since it has most of the games I want to play, Beautiful Katamari was on my radar when I finally branched out to the Xbox systems, and so I played it once I got the chance. At the time, I did not buy the DLC, which I would later check off my shopping list when the Xbox 360 store was shutting down, but I would not revisit the game again until the announcement of the upcoming Once Upon A Katamari.

As of this writing, I have yet to resolve some issues I have been having with my Xbox 360, so it was fortunate that I was able to play this game again, DLC included, on the Xbox Series X as part of the backwards compatibility program, though I will admit to playing with a DualSense through a converter to make it more comfortable for me to play. On my most recent playthrough, I liked it more than I remembered, though my feelings remain mixed.

Me & My Katamari

With the success of We Love Katamari on the PS2, it was natural for Namco to want to capitalize further on the Katamari brand with or without Keita Takahashi’s involvement. In a first for the series, Namco proceeded without him for a new entry made for the PSP, Me & My Katamari, in 2005. Regardless of its issues, the PSP was my handheld of choice for many years and helped get me through high school, with this game being part of my library since I was obsessed with the series at the time. With the announcement of Once Upon A Katamari on modern platforms, I decided to take another look at this game on another save file, though I was surprised to see that I hadn’t played it since 2010. While I would still consider the game to be pretty fun, enough time has passed that its flaws stand out more to me through fresh eyes.

Tron: Ares

Note: This review contains spoilers for Tron: Legacy.

About fifteen years after the release of Tron: Legacy, and coincidentally about fifteen years after the start of this blog, Tron fans finally witnessed the release of a third film, Tron: Ares. Although Legacy director Joseph Kosinski had plans for a sequel, which would have been known as Tron: Ascension, it entered development hell due to a combination of Tomorrowland bombing at the box office and Disney’s buyouts of Lucasfilm and Marvel, though the company never outright cancelled it. Around 2017, plans shifted to the Jared Leto-led sequel that we have now, with a different writer (Jesse Wigutow), director (Joachim Rønning) and composer (Nine Inch Nails) to boot. As a fan of the franchise, I felt hyped going in despite the chosen lead, as I simply felt glad that Disney gave us more Tron at all. However, now that I’ve actually seen Ares, in IMAX 3D no less, I can happily say that although it’s not the best written installment, it was well worth the fifteen-year wait.

Stubs - The Fantastic Four: First Steps

The Fantastic Four: First Steps (2025) starring Pedro Pascal, Vanessa Kirby, Ebon Moss-Bachrach, Joseph Quinn, Julia Garner, Sarah Niles, Mark Gatiss, Natasha Lyonne, Paul Walter Hauser, Ralph Ineson Directed by Matt Shakman. Screenplay by Josh Friedman, Eric Pearson, Jeff Kaplan, Ian Springer. Based on The Fantastic Four comic book created by Stan Lee and Jack Kirby. Produced by Kevin Fiege. Run time: 115 minutes. Color. USA. Action, Sci-Fi, Superheroes, MCU

Every ten years, we get a new Fantastic Four. The first was 2005’s Fantastic Four directed by Tim Story, (which had a sequel in 2007’s Fantastic Four: Rise of the Silver Surfer); was rebooted in 2015 as Fantastic Four aka Fant4stic directed by Josh Trank. Now, in the summer of 2025, we get The Fantastic Four: First Steps, directed by Matt Shakman. The good news is that it is better than its predecessors, but that is a low bar.

Stubs - Mission: Impossible – The Final Reckoning

Mission: Inpossible The Final Reckoning (2025) starring Tom Cruise, Hayley Atwell, Ving Rhames, Simon Pegg, Henry Czerny, Angela Bassett Directed by Christopher McQuarrie. Screenplay by Christopher McQuarrie, Erik Jendresen Based on Mission: Impossible by Bruce Geller. Produced by Tom Cruise and Chistopher McQuarrie. Run time: 170 minutes. Color. USA. Action, Espionage

Ethan Hunt returns for what appears to be the last time in Mission: Inpossible The Final Reckoning, the sequel to Mission: Impossible – Dead Reckoning Part One (2023). And if this is indeed the final installment with Tom Cruise as the star, then this series went out with a bang and is heartfelt.

Black Dynamite

While we’ve reviewed cult films on this blog before, we’ve never reviewed one quite like Black Dynamite. Back in 2009, this parody of, and homage to, 1970s blaxploitation films hit theaters to great reviews, but bombed at the box office, making only $296,557 against a $2.9 million budget, thanks to its rather limited release in a mere 70 theaters over just two weeks. Despite this, however, the Black Dynamite franchise expanded to include a two-season animated series on [adult swim] and a handful of comic book issues. My first exposure to Black Dynamite actually came from the cartoon, which I loved, but never finished watching as other life events got in the way. Once Max started removing even more content, however, with the Black Dynamite cartoon on the chopping block, I started revisiting it and thought that I should finally give the original film its due. Even without having seen any of the blaxploitation films that had inspired it, I’m glad that we can enjoy such an underrated gem.

PIO

 

In the indie game space, some of the most interesting games can come from the work of students or game jams, as they sometimes explore some unique mechanics or spins on existing ones that have a lot of potential for further exploration. One such game is PIO, a recent game I found from browsing the free section of Steam, made by Korean team Star of Star at the ChungKang College of Cultural Industries. The visual style and interesting gameplay ideas caught my attention, enough to download and try it for myself. Although the game is pretty short, and can be beaten in about an hour or so, I still liked it enough to want to see more from its mechanics and setting.

Stubs - Red One

Red One (2024) starring Dwayne Johnson, Chris Evans, Lucy Liu, J. K. Simmons. Directed by Jake Kasdan. Screenplay by Chris Morgan. Produced by Hiram Garcia, Dwayne Johnson, Dany Garcia, Chris Morgan, Jake Kasdan, Melvin Mar. Run time: 123 minutes. Color. USA Christmas, Action, Mystery, Comedy, Adventure

Have you ever watched a movie and wondered who the intended target audience was? That was my reaction while watching Red One, an attempt at making Dwayne Johnson into a holiday tradition, when I watched it recently on Amazon Prime. Good thing it was free to watch.