War Machine (2026) and Avatar: Fire and Ash

Two movies that feel like other movies you've already seen.

War Machine

Alan Ritchson plays a soldier with a scarred past trying out to be an elite Ranger and as part of their testing they have a simulated exercise to destroy a downed aircraft. With navigation on the fritz they try explode the wrong one, which happens to be a mechanized alien invader(!) and the main chunk of this flick actually plays like the original Predator (I'm showing my age huh), but without hiding the enemy in darkness. The top notch effects and having a more fleshed out protagonist does make it worth the watch though, and its nice that it's a complete story with a myriad of possible continuations. Thumbs up. 

Avatar: Fire and Ash 

The big blue cat family led by Jake (Sam Worthington) is back, and this time they're trying to get rid of their fostered human kid (what with the air being poisonous and all) when they're ambushed by new bandit enemies and previous foes now also in new bodies. Huh? They just can't let death stick can they? Again the action pieces keep it entertaining, but we're three movies in and it feels like the best plot points only had minor advancement while the rest keep spinning the same wheels. Like me, you might wonder if you just watched the same movie a third time...