Little did Duke Ellington and Irving Mills know when they wrote "It Don't Mean a Thing (If It Ain't Got That Swing)" that jazz music would remain the "something sweet" in global culture. Almost a century after that immortal standard hit the airwaves, the quintessentially American art form is celebrated by not one — but two — San Antonio festivals.
Coincidentally, both announced their lineups on the same day. As the San Antonio Parks Foundation trumpeted the details of Jazz'SAlive in Civic Park, Balcones Heights was busy announcing its own free jazz festival on July 28.
That's "free jazz" as in complimentary, not as in squeak, squeal, squawk. The Balcones Heights Jazz Festival focuses on the softer sounds of contemporary jazz, bringing top artists to the Amphitheater at Wonderland of the Americas.
Local 10-piece juggernaut San Antonio Transit will open with an homage to '70s hitmaker Chicago. Thundering through tracks like "Make Me Smile" and "Saturday in the Park," the band showcases the continued appeal of jazz in popular music.
Soprano saxophonist and natty dresser Marion Meadows will then take the stage as the headlining act. A staple of smooth jazz radio, the RCA artist has had a three-decade career as a bandleader and has performed with Brook Benton, Eartha Kitt, Michael Bolton, and The Temptations.
As always, the show will be emceed and coproduced by David Muñoz. The "Jazzman" of San Antonio hosts "Smooth Jazz San Antonio" on KQXT/Q101.9 and the iHeart Radio app.
Parking is free for the one-night-only performance, but hillside seating is on a first-come, first-served basis. Lollygaggers, be warned, fans start claiming seats as early as the Monday before the Friday show.
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.
