Wednesday, December 17, 2014

Film Review - Paddington (2014)

Based off the beloved Book character, Paddington tells the tale of Paddington Bear (Ben Wishaw) as he journeys from Darkest Peru to London in search of a new home but this search could be a perilous one for our plucky young bear.

I have to say that going into this film I did not expect an awful lot mainly because the films previews did very little for me but I decided to go and see the film in the hope I could be turned around.

And so say it that I was turned around by this film as I did find it to be nicely charming and a lot of that is down to the casting, Wishaw is wonderful as Paddington and he brings so much warmth and humour and good natured charm to the role that its hard to not fall in love with the character the moment you see him, Sally Hawkins equipped herself well as does Peter Capaldi and Jim Broadbent but my other standout is Nicole Kidman as the villain, I really enjoyed her here and part of me wishes she would play Cruella De Ville someday.

However my enthusiasm is tempered somewhat by the unnecessary dark tone this movie displays sometimes, the end of the film reminded me of the Amazing Spider-Man 2 with its muted colours and jeopardy plus at times there is some hints at sexual innuendo and I just thought to myself "Why is this in this movie" as I was enjoying the family friendly tone and it was spoiled by the unnecessary dark tone that I'm certain was to aim the film at an adult audience.

But despite that niggle, Paddington is a nice family film that is worth seeing, 3 out of 5.

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