The Good Dinosaur is the latest Pixar production and takes place in a world where the Dinosaurs were not wiped out and a young dinosaur named Arlo must face his fears and find his way back home after he gets lost in a storm, along the way he meets a young native boy named Spot and the two become friends on a great adventure home.
This movie sadly is further proof that Pixar has lost its way, the trend began with Cars 2 in 2011 and continued with 2012's Brave and 2013's Monsters University but while this year's Inside Out saw the group return to its former glory this film sees them go right back down the wrong path and there are two key reasons for this:
- The first of these is that the storytelling, the one ingredient Pixar prides itself on when making their films falls very very far from the mark, so much of this film feels like a series of shorts the type of which they traditionally show before their feature productions strung together as if on a bulletin board during the storyboard phase to try and make this a coherent storyline that you can follow but all I felt was bored throughout and it just also got more and more predictable in terms of what was going to happen as large chunks of it feel ripped off from the Lion King.
- The second key reason is that Arlo himself was very unlikeable and at times very very annoying with his high pitched voice and constant screaming and endless scenes of him being scared and running away all the time and this again is another signature of Pixar: Compelling and Colourful Characters that we come to care about.
Think of the Toys in the Toy Story trilogy, the Rat in Ratatouille, the Emotions in Inside Out, Dory in Finding Nemo, Frozone and the Incredibles and even Lightning McQueen in the first Cars film and Finn McMissile in Cars 2 which was probably the only thing I liked from that film whereas here with the exception of Spot I didn't care all that much about the characters and coming from this studio you have to say that it stings a little bit that they fumbled the ball in this way.
And that was the one thing I just kept thinking about when I walked out of the cinema after it ended, the fact that Pixar who have prided themselves on doing the following:
- Colourful and Compelling Characters
- An Emotional Core that makes People Want to Cry
- Strong Storytelling where Nothing is left to Chance
- Bold Story Concepts that make us Interested in seeing the Movie
And bringing all 4 of those elements together in a way that both the kids and the adults can enjoy and indeed in their golden run of 1999-2011 they did just that, they set the standard for this genre after Disney lost their way and Dreamworks struggled to get off the ground post Shrek and they raised for the bar for their competitors so high none of them came within cooee of reaching it, to see them stumble so badly like this it should make every film fan let Sadness take the controls for a couple of moments.
And so that was the Good Dinosaur to wrap up 2015 at the movies and sadly it ends on a bit of a downer but don't worry 2016 is a coming round the corner and with it APOCALYPSE AHHHHHHHHHH but that aside skip this film as it's not very good, 1 out of 5.
Wednesday, December 30, 2015
Saturday, December 26, 2015
Film Review - Joy (2015)
Joy is directed by David O Russell and stars Jennifer Lawrence as Joy a woman who is in debt with 2 young children and a divorce (Edgar Ramirez) whilst looking after her father (Robert De Niro) at the same time but one day whilst out with her father's partner (Isabella Rossellini) she cuts herself whilst mopping up the mess so she comes on an idea for what would become the Miracle Mop.
Joy is very good and I mean really very good so much so that I wish I had seen it before finalising my favorites of the year as this would easily have knocked Minions from the list (which I also loved despite its straight forward nature) as for the first time in what seems like months I actually got to go to the cinema and feel like an adult movie goer again.
The films story was very well told despite bordering on being serious as well as funny (the film has a very strange and off the wall sense of humour that will be hard for some to connect to) but I liked the melding of the two tones and feel that O Russell did a good job handling the transitions between them, he also has a very good cast in Ramirez who I just refuse to buy as Bodhi in the new Point Break but is pretty good here as is De Niro, Rossellini and Bradley Cooper who makes a very welcome return to form after his poor work in Aloha.
But this movie rests on the shoulders of Lawrence and she makes the most of every scene she shares, so good is she in this film that you don't notice the 2 hours going by, she is confident, she is vulnerable and I thought to myself when this was over "Is there anything she can't do" I'm sure that there is but I don't know if I've seen that happen just yet.
And so that was Joy which has to be one of my favorite films of 2015 and I very highly recommend you go and see it, 4 out of 5.
Joy is very good and I mean really very good so much so that I wish I had seen it before finalising my favorites of the year as this would easily have knocked Minions from the list (which I also loved despite its straight forward nature) as for the first time in what seems like months I actually got to go to the cinema and feel like an adult movie goer again.
The films story was very well told despite bordering on being serious as well as funny (the film has a very strange and off the wall sense of humour that will be hard for some to connect to) but I liked the melding of the two tones and feel that O Russell did a good job handling the transitions between them, he also has a very good cast in Ramirez who I just refuse to buy as Bodhi in the new Point Break but is pretty good here as is De Niro, Rossellini and Bradley Cooper who makes a very welcome return to form after his poor work in Aloha.
But this movie rests on the shoulders of Lawrence and she makes the most of every scene she shares, so good is she in this film that you don't notice the 2 hours going by, she is confident, she is vulnerable and I thought to myself when this was over "Is there anything she can't do" I'm sure that there is but I don't know if I've seen that happen just yet.
And so that was Joy which has to be one of my favorite films of 2015 and I very highly recommend you go and see it, 4 out of 5.
Thursday, December 17, 2015
Film Review - Star Wars the Force Awakens (2015)
Star Wars the Force Awakens is the newest Star Wars film with JJ Abrams taking the helm instead of George Lucas, it has some new characters like Rey (Daisy Ridley), Finn (John Boyega) and Kylo Ren (Adam Driver) as well as bringing back the classic characters like Han Solo (Harrison Ford) and Princess Leia (Carrie Fisher.)
It is fair to say that of all the movies released this year this was the one I was the most nervous about because while I love and adore the original Star Wars movies (I hold them up as not only my personal favorite movies but as 3 of the greatest movies of all time) I hated the most recent prequel trilogy but the previews for this new movie as well as JJ taking over who has not made a genuine stinker of a film gave me hope again.
But despite that hope that one most fundamental question remained in my mind: How do you follow up 3 of the greatest movies of all time which broke so much new ground, something that even their own creator failed to do?
Sadly it seems it just cannot be done as this movie for me was disappointing and I say this with a pretty heavy heart (when I walked out of it yesterday I just couldn't say anything to anyone as I didn't want to tell them how I felt as it would ruin it for them) but before I delve into that in greater detail I want to talk about what I did like and that is Ridley and Boyega, they are great together in terms of their action, their dialogue and their chemistry it makes me want to see more of them in future movies.
Plus I did enjoy some of the visual and story references throughout the film they did make me smile at times.
But like I said the film for me was a disappointment and the main reason I feel this way is due to the storytelling presented here (I will not reveal much I promise you this) quite frankly I thought it was weak and really just nothing more than everything we've seen before in a Star Wars film (there's the lightsabers, the fighters, the bases, the officers) and given everything that we saw for me all of that just got tiresome after a while.
And the reason I feel that way is that it just feels like another one of those and they were done much better in the original 3 films where it felt wonderful and magical and real whereas here I just didn't feel those senses of magic and wonder after a while I began to see that digital feel to a lot of the film and a lot of its sections at times play out like remakes of the original Star Wars and Return of the Jedi.
But maybe all of this isn't the film itself but just me as I turned to the man sitting in the same row as me had tears in his eyes and when I saw that I thought to myself "This movie is not for me and I feel this is for that generation of fans that grew up with Star Wars in the late 70s to early 90s when they would've watched them either in the cinemas and/or on the CBS/Fox Video Collection."
But another feeling I had was that maybe that impact of seeing Star Wars for the first time again (I was 11 when I saw the original 3 films in 1997) is a feeling I've already had with the X-Men movies Bryan Singer has directed, the Hunger Games series and the Cornetto trilogy that Edgar Wright and Simon Pegg created so perhaps as a result I wasn't as susceptible to that feeling in the way others have but at least I can look forward to returning to Xavier's School for Gifted Youngsters next year or indeed enjoy the return of Frieza from Dragon Ball Z so it's not a total loss.
And so that was my full review of Star Wars the Force Awakens, 2 out of 5.
It is fair to say that of all the movies released this year this was the one I was the most nervous about because while I love and adore the original Star Wars movies (I hold them up as not only my personal favorite movies but as 3 of the greatest movies of all time) I hated the most recent prequel trilogy but the previews for this new movie as well as JJ taking over who has not made a genuine stinker of a film gave me hope again.
But despite that hope that one most fundamental question remained in my mind: How do you follow up 3 of the greatest movies of all time which broke so much new ground, something that even their own creator failed to do?
Sadly it seems it just cannot be done as this movie for me was disappointing and I say this with a pretty heavy heart (when I walked out of it yesterday I just couldn't say anything to anyone as I didn't want to tell them how I felt as it would ruin it for them) but before I delve into that in greater detail I want to talk about what I did like and that is Ridley and Boyega, they are great together in terms of their action, their dialogue and their chemistry it makes me want to see more of them in future movies.
Plus I did enjoy some of the visual and story references throughout the film they did make me smile at times.
But like I said the film for me was a disappointment and the main reason I feel this way is due to the storytelling presented here (I will not reveal much I promise you this) quite frankly I thought it was weak and really just nothing more than everything we've seen before in a Star Wars film (there's the lightsabers, the fighters, the bases, the officers) and given everything that we saw for me all of that just got tiresome after a while.
And the reason I feel that way is that it just feels like another one of those and they were done much better in the original 3 films where it felt wonderful and magical and real whereas here I just didn't feel those senses of magic and wonder after a while I began to see that digital feel to a lot of the film and a lot of its sections at times play out like remakes of the original Star Wars and Return of the Jedi.
But maybe all of this isn't the film itself but just me as I turned to the man sitting in the same row as me had tears in his eyes and when I saw that I thought to myself "This movie is not for me and I feel this is for that generation of fans that grew up with Star Wars in the late 70s to early 90s when they would've watched them either in the cinemas and/or on the CBS/Fox Video Collection."
But another feeling I had was that maybe that impact of seeing Star Wars for the first time again (I was 11 when I saw the original 3 films in 1997) is a feeling I've already had with the X-Men movies Bryan Singer has directed, the Hunger Games series and the Cornetto trilogy that Edgar Wright and Simon Pegg created so perhaps as a result I wasn't as susceptible to that feeling in the way others have but at least I can look forward to returning to Xavier's School for Gifted Youngsters next year or indeed enjoy the return of Frieza from Dragon Ball Z so it's not a total loss.
And so that was my full review of Star Wars the Force Awakens, 2 out of 5.
Film Review - Creed (2015)
Creed is the newest Rocky spinoff which focuses on Adonis (Michael B Jordan) who is the son of fighter Apollo Creed and like his dad has a desire to fight in the ring and prove himself but to do that he will need the help of Rocky Balboa (Sylvester Stallone) to be ready for the ring.
Creed is a well made film but I would also say it ranks in the bottom half of my listings in the Rocky series (2, 4 and Balboa would be my favorites) but in no way does that make it a bad movie not at all as director Ryan Coogler does a really nice job with this movie in terms of bringing his own voice to the proceedings as well as capturing the beats and flavour of what you expect from a Rocky film, I particularly liked one scene he did of the characters walking up some stairs as it felt very real to me.
But what really anchors this movie are the 2 strong performances at its centre, Jordan is simply great here as not only do you believe he could be Carl Weathers's son but the tone and demeanour of his performance also made me think "Yeah I would feel this way if I made Fantastic 4" and much like Stallone in the Rocky movies you buy into his character's drive and determination to make it as a fighter, Stallone meanwhile is also great I would really love to see him Oscar nominated as you feel with his performance the weight of his life bearing down on him but like the driven fighter of his young years he still can't quite bring himself to give up just yet.
Unfortunately the film has 2 weaknesses going for it the first is the villain Ricky Conlan he's quite frankly not that interesting he just comes across as a British ripoff of Clubber Lang from Rocky 3 and I didn't like him that much plus the film runs a little bit too long its a bit over 2 hours and it could've lost I think 10-15 minutes off its running time.
And so that was Creed it has some faults but the 2 central performances anchor it effortlessly, 3 out of 5.
Creed is a well made film but I would also say it ranks in the bottom half of my listings in the Rocky series (2, 4 and Balboa would be my favorites) but in no way does that make it a bad movie not at all as director Ryan Coogler does a really nice job with this movie in terms of bringing his own voice to the proceedings as well as capturing the beats and flavour of what you expect from a Rocky film, I particularly liked one scene he did of the characters walking up some stairs as it felt very real to me.
But what really anchors this movie are the 2 strong performances at its centre, Jordan is simply great here as not only do you believe he could be Carl Weathers's son but the tone and demeanour of his performance also made me think "Yeah I would feel this way if I made Fantastic 4" and much like Stallone in the Rocky movies you buy into his character's drive and determination to make it as a fighter, Stallone meanwhile is also great I would really love to see him Oscar nominated as you feel with his performance the weight of his life bearing down on him but like the driven fighter of his young years he still can't quite bring himself to give up just yet.
Unfortunately the film has 2 weaknesses going for it the first is the villain Ricky Conlan he's quite frankly not that interesting he just comes across as a British ripoff of Clubber Lang from Rocky 3 and I didn't like him that much plus the film runs a little bit too long its a bit over 2 hours and it could've lost I think 10-15 minutes off its running time.
And so that was Creed it has some faults but the 2 central performances anchor it effortlessly, 3 out of 5.
Friday, December 11, 2015
Cometh the Apocalypse
At long last it has finally come, the one teaser it feels like I've been waiting weeks for and that is the first teaser trailer for next year's X-Men Apocalypse.
And I have to say it looks really really good, surpassing even my own fairly high hopes for this film for three reasons:
- First off I love the feeling of Apocalypse himself, now that the Viz FX work required for this character to really come to life in a way he never really could from the Comic Con coverage the film got earlier this year is starting to come together, he looks to be a very imposing and memorable villain much like he was in the 1990s Animated Series.
It also helps to have one of the best actors working today in Oscar Isaac playing the role, time and time again I have seen this man give a great performance and another strength of this teaser is that they are wisely hiding him as much as possible in terms of not showing you too much (this movie is still 5 and a half months away and there will be plenty of Viz FX and Post Production work still to be completed in that time I'm sure.)
- The second is that the film really feels like it has the feeling of the early 1980s (the film takes place specifically in 1983) and the horror tone that permeates throughout a lot of this teaser absolutely fits in with the wave of Horror films that came out at that time as does the brief glimpse of the disaster film esque shots as that wave of the genre was coming to its end around that time as well.
The Apocalypse storyline is also a nice fit for this decade because we were genuinely frightened of a real life Age of Apocalypse started by a Nuclear War between the United States and the Soviet Union (in fact in April of 1983 the French were doing Nuclear Testing in the South Pacific) plus this was also the year Nicholas Meyer's film the Day After was released which described a Nuclear Incident so there is a way to do the Apocalypse character I feel in a way that fits with the 1980s.
But I also have to talk about the hair and the costume work for this movie quite frankly it looks beautiful whether it be Charles's big bushy hair or the mullet style that Alex Summers/Havok has or indeed the Cyndi Lauper esque hair Jennifer Lawrence has in the film not to mention the Richard Gere esque look Nicholas Hoult sports as Dr. Hank McCoy/Beast.
But it's not just them there's also the wonderful denim costumes some of the characters wear (some of the set photos that leaked earlier this year also had Nightcrawler wearing a Thriller-esque jacket which looked really cool) or Jubilee really rocking the bright colors she wears, I could go on further but I am just in love with the hair and costuming I've seen for this film so far.
- And lastly it seems like Singer finally has the confidence to do the big action scenes I feel he's wanted to do and showed some early signs of doing in Days of Future Past but maybe felt he either didn't have the advancements in Visual Effects to do it (he stated on the Rogue Cut disc for DOFP that he did not have this level of Visual Effects available to him when he made X-Men 1 and 2) or the Story and Character reasons (Bryan has been very good I feel at balancing the action with the story and character motivations) or indeed the backing of the Studio which he has not always had.
Now it seems it like all 3 have come together for him in his favor and if the disaster film esque shot of New York we see in the teaser as well as the post credits scene in Days of Future Past is any indication this will definitely feel like a film to see on the big screen and even in 3D (Singer is shooting the film in 3D instead of doing a post production conversion as can happen often with 3D film releases) and I cannot wait to see this on a proper big screen and sound next May.
But lastly I feel like with this and Captain America Civil War that these look like great movies with good stories, something at the core to think about as well as ignite my imagination, good action scenes and heroes and villains, I really hope both of these films deliver on this promise unlike what I feel with Batman V Superman: Dawn of Justice which was ruined for me with its latest preview as it made it look like it all culminates in a fight with a big CGI Monster which has very very rarely worked but as in all things movie wise we wait and we see.
And that was my column on the X-Men Apocalypse teaser trailer.
And I have to say it looks really really good, surpassing even my own fairly high hopes for this film for three reasons:
- First off I love the feeling of Apocalypse himself, now that the Viz FX work required for this character to really come to life in a way he never really could from the Comic Con coverage the film got earlier this year is starting to come together, he looks to be a very imposing and memorable villain much like he was in the 1990s Animated Series.
It also helps to have one of the best actors working today in Oscar Isaac playing the role, time and time again I have seen this man give a great performance and another strength of this teaser is that they are wisely hiding him as much as possible in terms of not showing you too much (this movie is still 5 and a half months away and there will be plenty of Viz FX and Post Production work still to be completed in that time I'm sure.)
- The second is that the film really feels like it has the feeling of the early 1980s (the film takes place specifically in 1983) and the horror tone that permeates throughout a lot of this teaser absolutely fits in with the wave of Horror films that came out at that time as does the brief glimpse of the disaster film esque shots as that wave of the genre was coming to its end around that time as well.
The Apocalypse storyline is also a nice fit for this decade because we were genuinely frightened of a real life Age of Apocalypse started by a Nuclear War between the United States and the Soviet Union (in fact in April of 1983 the French were doing Nuclear Testing in the South Pacific) plus this was also the year Nicholas Meyer's film the Day After was released which described a Nuclear Incident so there is a way to do the Apocalypse character I feel in a way that fits with the 1980s.
But I also have to talk about the hair and the costume work for this movie quite frankly it looks beautiful whether it be Charles's big bushy hair or the mullet style that Alex Summers/Havok has or indeed the Cyndi Lauper esque hair Jennifer Lawrence has in the film not to mention the Richard Gere esque look Nicholas Hoult sports as Dr. Hank McCoy/Beast.
But it's not just them there's also the wonderful denim costumes some of the characters wear (some of the set photos that leaked earlier this year also had Nightcrawler wearing a Thriller-esque jacket which looked really cool) or Jubilee really rocking the bright colors she wears, I could go on further but I am just in love with the hair and costuming I've seen for this film so far.
- And lastly it seems like Singer finally has the confidence to do the big action scenes I feel he's wanted to do and showed some early signs of doing in Days of Future Past but maybe felt he either didn't have the advancements in Visual Effects to do it (he stated on the Rogue Cut disc for DOFP that he did not have this level of Visual Effects available to him when he made X-Men 1 and 2) or the Story and Character reasons (Bryan has been very good I feel at balancing the action with the story and character motivations) or indeed the backing of the Studio which he has not always had.
Now it seems it like all 3 have come together for him in his favor and if the disaster film esque shot of New York we see in the teaser as well as the post credits scene in Days of Future Past is any indication this will definitely feel like a film to see on the big screen and even in 3D (Singer is shooting the film in 3D instead of doing a post production conversion as can happen often with 3D film releases) and I cannot wait to see this on a proper big screen and sound next May.
But lastly I feel like with this and Captain America Civil War that these look like great movies with good stories, something at the core to think about as well as ignite my imagination, good action scenes and heroes and villains, I really hope both of these films deliver on this promise unlike what I feel with Batman V Superman: Dawn of Justice which was ruined for me with its latest preview as it made it look like it all culminates in a fight with a big CGI Monster which has very very rarely worked but as in all things movie wise we wait and we see.
And that was my column on the X-Men Apocalypse teaser trailer.
Monday, December 7, 2015
On the Air Season 2 Finale - For Whom the Bells Toll
Well folks here we are again,
The last batch of Radio shows for 2015 and some big films were discussed as well as the best and worst of the year.
The November episode was actually a very special one as it was recorded in the ABC Studio itself which was a very very exciting experience and in that episode I covered:
- The final Hunger Games
- SPECTRE
- The Dressmaker
The Link to that episode is here: http://blogs.abc.net.au/sa/2015/12/friday-flicks-november-2015.html?site=southeastsa&program=south_east_mornings
As for the December episode where I talk about my favorites of the year along with the worst you can listen to that episode here: http://blogs.abc.net.au/sa/2015/12/friday-flicks-december-2015.html?site=southeastsa&program=south_east_mornings
As always you can right click and save to your computer or listen to the streaming option.
The last batch of Radio shows for 2015 and some big films were discussed as well as the best and worst of the year.
The November episode was actually a very special one as it was recorded in the ABC Studio itself which was a very very exciting experience and in that episode I covered:
- The final Hunger Games
- SPECTRE
- The Dressmaker
The Link to that episode is here: http://blogs.abc.net.au/sa/2015/12/friday-flicks-november-2015.html?site=southeastsa&program=south_east_mornings
As for the December episode where I talk about my favorites of the year along with the worst you can listen to that episode here: http://blogs.abc.net.au/sa/2015/12/friday-flicks-december-2015.html?site=southeastsa&program=south_east_mornings
As always you can right click and save to your computer or listen to the streaming option.
Saturday, December 5, 2015
2015 in Film Part 3: The Best and Worst of Ourselves
And so we come to the main lists we all write up each and every year, the best and the worst of 2015.
Though I prefer to say my favorites of the year instead of best but before that list I have to talk about the worst of the year, the ones that took 2 hours out of life and 15-21 dollars of our money neither of which we will ever get back.
5. Aloha: Cameron Crowe made another film this year with Aloha a comedy drama with Bradley Cooper, Emma Stone, Bill Murray and Rachel McAdams now with all of that talent you'd think "hey this could be good" right?
WRONG! This movie was awful to sit through and once again the script is to blame as quite frankly it feels 2 separate movies (one being the space mission the other being the return to Hawaii and meeting your ex again) spliced together into one incoherent mess that was also full of bad stereotypes when it came to the characters who by the way were also boring and unlikeable to watch as well as wasting most of that talent.
And I wanted to like this one I really did but Crowe dropped the ball here and to think he once made Almost Famous which is a great film but this was just garbage and the gall of it to use the 1977 20th Century Fox logo just makes me even angrier frankly as all it makes me want to do is watch the original Star Wars again.
4. Pan: Ah Pan, it was based off the legend of Peter Pan and it starred Hugh Jackman who I will pretty much watch in anything he stars in and Rooney Mara who was fantastic as the Girl with the Dragon Tattoo.
Boy oh boy was this just AWFUL to watch whether it was the dull as all hell visuals, the much too dark action scenes, the drab storyline and the blatant attempt by Warner Brothers to try and turn this into the next Harry Potter series (they even say in the fucking previews for this film "From the Studio that Brought you Harry Potter."
Seriously guys don't say that as your just asking for trouble as well as making film fans feel very uncomfortable and this could've been bright and fun and exciting to watch much like the Walt Disney Peter Pan movie is but here nothing works and I didn't care about any of it and you wasted Hugh who I love, how the fuck could you do this then again it's the same producer as that Green Lantern film even its own star wants to forget about making in 2011 and like that film this one has no idea who its even for so it just tries to throw every dart it has on the table and they all missed.
3. Man Up: This one starred Simon Pegg as a man looking for love and Lake Bell as a single girl not wanting to but meeting Pegg's character by accident.
Of all the entries here this one hurts the most to talk about as I love Mr Pegg from the bottom of my heart (he, Nick Frost and Edgar Wright have earnt a permanent gold pass from me in terms of their films and me seeing them) but instead this just has Pegg and Bell who do have genuine chemistry fight and argue and bicker in every scene they share plus there was not one time (not one) where I felt like genuinely laughing like I do when I watch the Castle or the Dish.
Plus the character Rory Kinnear played just insulted me whenever he was on screen in the way he would treat Bell's character, I mean how the fuck do we even try to change the way men treat women when our pop culture space does this to us, hopefully Mr Pegg can return to form soon as he deeply deeply failed me here.
2. Chappie: Chappie looked promising, a return to the tone of District 9, a more family friendly type of film in the style of Short Circuit and Hugh Jackman and Sigourney Weaver playing the villains.
Boy was I wrong as this was just another example of Neill Blomkamp pissing away what promise he held with District 9 (he also did it with 2013's pathetic Elysium with Matt Damon) as the main leads were hardened drug criminals that I didn't care about, didn't like as characters and just wanted to die a horrible horrible death in the first 10 minutes plus they weren't even proper fucking actors just some bloody hip hop group Blomkamp hired because he liked them, for fucks sake.
And as for Jackman well he just phones it in here and Weaver is only here so Neill can ask her to play Ripley again in his planned Alien sequel which Fox seems to have scrapped (and rightly so I might add) and the story is just a retread of Paul Verhoeven's classic Robocop from 1987.
But in all seriousness how does this happen how do filmmakers who show great promise out of the gate stumble and lose their way like this and not just Blomkamp or Crowe or indeed Michael Mann with his Blackhat movie earlier this year which was also crap but not crap enough to make this list does anyone honestly think or feel that filmgoers like me enjoy saying that cause I sure as hell fucking don't.
But before I get to number 1 all 4 of these have a common flaw that cripples all of them and that is who were these movies for, what story or vision did you have in mind when you decided to make these movies and how could you take people I personally love watching especially 2 of them and just serve them up this utter garbage, we have to do better than this for we deserve so much better than this.
But those are nothing compared to my number 1 worst film of 2015:
1. 50 Shades of Grey: Remember this movie boys and girls, based off of EL James's bestselling novel and starring Dakota Johnson and Jamie Dornan plus it was written and directed by women.
And yet this was the most uncomfortable I've been sitting in a cinema since watching Kick Ass 2 back in 2013 primarily because the sight of Dakota Johnson being tied up naked and beaten by this psychopath in Christian Grey even if she consented to it or not just left me feeling sick and very nearly breaking my 1 rule of cinema going and that is getting up and walking out.
And look all of the traditional negatives about this movie aside (the pathetic dialogue, the zero chemistry and the boring storyline we've seen before back in the 80s and 90s with films like 9 and a half Weeks) the main reason this makes me so angry is because of the global conversation we've been having this year about the treatment of women in both the movies as well as the industry they work in.
Not to mention the discussion about broader Violence Against Women at the hands of the Men (more like Mutts if you ask me) who swore to love and cherish them forever only to become obsessive and paranoid because heaven forfend they might actually have some life of their own outside of their Man/Mutt.
And this is where our pop culture space I feel must take some sort of responsibility when it comes to changing to conversation about the treatment of women by men in our society today as this sort of Smeg where the women fall for the big strong man with the big muscles and the chain around their necks or the handsome charismatic man who looks good in a suit and both probably know how to rock the casbah in the Bedroom and could also have lots of money and turn on the charm and tell them want they want to hear has to stop.
And you only have to look at the success of the Hunger Games series to see that it can be done and done well but given the fanboy age in which we live I fear that it could be a fair while before we see any meaningful change on this front but I hope sincerely that I am wrong and that change positive change does come much sooner.
But those are the worst of the year out of the way let's get onto my favorites of the year.
4. Minions: Only 4 selections here but these were the 4 I genuinely loved watching at the cinema and that I went to see again and that I wanted to own on Blu-Ray and watch over and over and here in 4th place is Minions.
I know this film got sniffy treatment by critics for the most part but I don't care as I had so much fun watching this film and it did give me what I wanted from a Minions movie which is to be bright and fun and full of good laughs plus it has Bob who was just adorable to watch.
But on top of that the film along with another pick tapped into my love of a good villain and Scarlet Overkill was exactly that she wasn't Gru in a dress that I felt she might be from the ads she was a proper villain and the way her and Kevin the main Minion were handled in the story really impressed me plus there are great sight gags and 60s songs and references plus the Minionese which always impresses me when I hear it given its born from our own languages here on Earth.
3. Dragon Ball Z Resurrection F: A very surprising choice here and one I definitely didn't think would be here before I saw it.
Seeing this movie in the cinema was an incredible experience, a proper big screen, packed full of fans and everyone having a good time as Freeza came back from the dead for Revenge against Goku and watching those 2 go at it again like in the TV series was far more entertaining to me than the Superhero offerings served up this year.
As well as the great action the film is also a nice tribute to Freeza himself (Chris Ayres is far superior here to Linda Young who did the role originally in 1999/2000) and it has some really good comedy moments, there are some key character omissions that bother me and the ending is horrible when it could've been strong but still I enjoyed the hell out of this film.
2. Kingsman the Secret Service: Coming in at number 2 is still my favorite action film of the year despite many challengers that came forth and tried their best to run the gauntlet.
The reason I feel this way is that it has one of my favorite filmmakers working today Matthew Vaughn in his stride crafting not only a loving tribute to the Spy genre but also bringing his own hard edged style to the proceedings and I just ate it all up and Colin Firth makes for a very cool action hero, gentlemanly, polite but also deadly with his assortment of Gadgets.
But this movie also had Michael Caine, Sam Jackson (who played a terrific villain), Mark Strong and even MARK. HAMILL. that's right Luke Skywalker himself plus a promising young actor in Taron Egerton who you will see much more of soon.
But now the time has come to reveal my number 1 film of 2015:
A Most Violent Year: Every film fan has that feeling they have, the feeling that they know they are watching what could be their favorite film of that particular year.
And this movie gave me that feeling for me, it was impeccably put together in terms of its look, it had fantastic performances across the board and it really reminded me of the kind of films that came from the early 80s which is an era that I deeply love movie wise.
And so that was my look back at movies in 2015, hard to believe it's come and gone so quickly and yet we are almost at 2016 where we'll do all of this all over again at the end of that year but.
But in 2016 it will be here at long LONG LAST!!!!!!! I am of course referring to Bryan Singer's X-Men Apocalypse which from everything I have seen so far looks amazing and another home run for him in the series, in AFL terms he has certainly pulled off the fabled 3peat that Hawthorn pulled off but whether he can match Collingwood's long standing record of 4 in a row that remains to be seen but one thing's for sure I CANNOT WAIT FOR THIS MOVIE AHHHHH!!!!!!!
Though I prefer to say my favorites of the year instead of best but before that list I have to talk about the worst of the year, the ones that took 2 hours out of life and 15-21 dollars of our money neither of which we will ever get back.
5. Aloha: Cameron Crowe made another film this year with Aloha a comedy drama with Bradley Cooper, Emma Stone, Bill Murray and Rachel McAdams now with all of that talent you'd think "hey this could be good" right?
WRONG! This movie was awful to sit through and once again the script is to blame as quite frankly it feels 2 separate movies (one being the space mission the other being the return to Hawaii and meeting your ex again) spliced together into one incoherent mess that was also full of bad stereotypes when it came to the characters who by the way were also boring and unlikeable to watch as well as wasting most of that talent.
And I wanted to like this one I really did but Crowe dropped the ball here and to think he once made Almost Famous which is a great film but this was just garbage and the gall of it to use the 1977 20th Century Fox logo just makes me even angrier frankly as all it makes me want to do is watch the original Star Wars again.
4. Pan: Ah Pan, it was based off the legend of Peter Pan and it starred Hugh Jackman who I will pretty much watch in anything he stars in and Rooney Mara who was fantastic as the Girl with the Dragon Tattoo.
Boy oh boy was this just AWFUL to watch whether it was the dull as all hell visuals, the much too dark action scenes, the drab storyline and the blatant attempt by Warner Brothers to try and turn this into the next Harry Potter series (they even say in the fucking previews for this film "From the Studio that Brought you Harry Potter."
Seriously guys don't say that as your just asking for trouble as well as making film fans feel very uncomfortable and this could've been bright and fun and exciting to watch much like the Walt Disney Peter Pan movie is but here nothing works and I didn't care about any of it and you wasted Hugh who I love, how the fuck could you do this then again it's the same producer as that Green Lantern film even its own star wants to forget about making in 2011 and like that film this one has no idea who its even for so it just tries to throw every dart it has on the table and they all missed.
3. Man Up: This one starred Simon Pegg as a man looking for love and Lake Bell as a single girl not wanting to but meeting Pegg's character by accident.
Of all the entries here this one hurts the most to talk about as I love Mr Pegg from the bottom of my heart (he, Nick Frost and Edgar Wright have earnt a permanent gold pass from me in terms of their films and me seeing them) but instead this just has Pegg and Bell who do have genuine chemistry fight and argue and bicker in every scene they share plus there was not one time (not one) where I felt like genuinely laughing like I do when I watch the Castle or the Dish.
Plus the character Rory Kinnear played just insulted me whenever he was on screen in the way he would treat Bell's character, I mean how the fuck do we even try to change the way men treat women when our pop culture space does this to us, hopefully Mr Pegg can return to form soon as he deeply deeply failed me here.
2. Chappie: Chappie looked promising, a return to the tone of District 9, a more family friendly type of film in the style of Short Circuit and Hugh Jackman and Sigourney Weaver playing the villains.
Boy was I wrong as this was just another example of Neill Blomkamp pissing away what promise he held with District 9 (he also did it with 2013's pathetic Elysium with Matt Damon) as the main leads were hardened drug criminals that I didn't care about, didn't like as characters and just wanted to die a horrible horrible death in the first 10 minutes plus they weren't even proper fucking actors just some bloody hip hop group Blomkamp hired because he liked them, for fucks sake.
And as for Jackman well he just phones it in here and Weaver is only here so Neill can ask her to play Ripley again in his planned Alien sequel which Fox seems to have scrapped (and rightly so I might add) and the story is just a retread of Paul Verhoeven's classic Robocop from 1987.
But in all seriousness how does this happen how do filmmakers who show great promise out of the gate stumble and lose their way like this and not just Blomkamp or Crowe or indeed Michael Mann with his Blackhat movie earlier this year which was also crap but not crap enough to make this list does anyone honestly think or feel that filmgoers like me enjoy saying that cause I sure as hell fucking don't.
But before I get to number 1 all 4 of these have a common flaw that cripples all of them and that is who were these movies for, what story or vision did you have in mind when you decided to make these movies and how could you take people I personally love watching especially 2 of them and just serve them up this utter garbage, we have to do better than this for we deserve so much better than this.
But those are nothing compared to my number 1 worst film of 2015:
1. 50 Shades of Grey: Remember this movie boys and girls, based off of EL James's bestselling novel and starring Dakota Johnson and Jamie Dornan plus it was written and directed by women.
And yet this was the most uncomfortable I've been sitting in a cinema since watching Kick Ass 2 back in 2013 primarily because the sight of Dakota Johnson being tied up naked and beaten by this psychopath in Christian Grey even if she consented to it or not just left me feeling sick and very nearly breaking my 1 rule of cinema going and that is getting up and walking out.
And look all of the traditional negatives about this movie aside (the pathetic dialogue, the zero chemistry and the boring storyline we've seen before back in the 80s and 90s with films like 9 and a half Weeks) the main reason this makes me so angry is because of the global conversation we've been having this year about the treatment of women in both the movies as well as the industry they work in.
Not to mention the discussion about broader Violence Against Women at the hands of the Men (more like Mutts if you ask me) who swore to love and cherish them forever only to become obsessive and paranoid because heaven forfend they might actually have some life of their own outside of their Man/Mutt.
And this is where our pop culture space I feel must take some sort of responsibility when it comes to changing to conversation about the treatment of women by men in our society today as this sort of Smeg where the women fall for the big strong man with the big muscles and the chain around their necks or the handsome charismatic man who looks good in a suit and both probably know how to rock the casbah in the Bedroom and could also have lots of money and turn on the charm and tell them want they want to hear has to stop.
And you only have to look at the success of the Hunger Games series to see that it can be done and done well but given the fanboy age in which we live I fear that it could be a fair while before we see any meaningful change on this front but I hope sincerely that I am wrong and that change positive change does come much sooner.
But those are the worst of the year out of the way let's get onto my favorites of the year.
4. Minions: Only 4 selections here but these were the 4 I genuinely loved watching at the cinema and that I went to see again and that I wanted to own on Blu-Ray and watch over and over and here in 4th place is Minions.
I know this film got sniffy treatment by critics for the most part but I don't care as I had so much fun watching this film and it did give me what I wanted from a Minions movie which is to be bright and fun and full of good laughs plus it has Bob who was just adorable to watch.
But on top of that the film along with another pick tapped into my love of a good villain and Scarlet Overkill was exactly that she wasn't Gru in a dress that I felt she might be from the ads she was a proper villain and the way her and Kevin the main Minion were handled in the story really impressed me plus there are great sight gags and 60s songs and references plus the Minionese which always impresses me when I hear it given its born from our own languages here on Earth.
3. Dragon Ball Z Resurrection F: A very surprising choice here and one I definitely didn't think would be here before I saw it.
Seeing this movie in the cinema was an incredible experience, a proper big screen, packed full of fans and everyone having a good time as Freeza came back from the dead for Revenge against Goku and watching those 2 go at it again like in the TV series was far more entertaining to me than the Superhero offerings served up this year.
As well as the great action the film is also a nice tribute to Freeza himself (Chris Ayres is far superior here to Linda Young who did the role originally in 1999/2000) and it has some really good comedy moments, there are some key character omissions that bother me and the ending is horrible when it could've been strong but still I enjoyed the hell out of this film.
2. Kingsman the Secret Service: Coming in at number 2 is still my favorite action film of the year despite many challengers that came forth and tried their best to run the gauntlet.
The reason I feel this way is that it has one of my favorite filmmakers working today Matthew Vaughn in his stride crafting not only a loving tribute to the Spy genre but also bringing his own hard edged style to the proceedings and I just ate it all up and Colin Firth makes for a very cool action hero, gentlemanly, polite but also deadly with his assortment of Gadgets.
But this movie also had Michael Caine, Sam Jackson (who played a terrific villain), Mark Strong and even MARK. HAMILL. that's right Luke Skywalker himself plus a promising young actor in Taron Egerton who you will see much more of soon.
But now the time has come to reveal my number 1 film of 2015:
A Most Violent Year: Every film fan has that feeling they have, the feeling that they know they are watching what could be their favorite film of that particular year.
And this movie gave me that feeling for me, it was impeccably put together in terms of its look, it had fantastic performances across the board and it really reminded me of the kind of films that came from the early 80s which is an era that I deeply love movie wise.
And so that was my look back at movies in 2015, hard to believe it's come and gone so quickly and yet we are almost at 2016 where we'll do all of this all over again at the end of that year but.
But in 2016 it will be here at long LONG LAST!!!!!!! I am of course referring to Bryan Singer's X-Men Apocalypse which from everything I have seen so far looks amazing and another home run for him in the series, in AFL terms he has certainly pulled off the fabled 3peat that Hawthorn pulled off but whether he can match Collingwood's long standing record of 4 in a row that remains to be seen but one thing's for sure I CANNOT WAIT FOR THIS MOVIE AHHHHH!!!!!!!
2015 in Film Part 2: I Came, I Saw and Yeah ... That
With the overall year look out of the way its time to delve into what I consider to be the great disappointments of 2015 you know the ones we got all excited about, we counted down the days until they were out in the cinemas or on disc and then we finally got to see them and they just ... hmmmmm (and there were a fair few of those.)
Well just 4 big ones mainly:
4. The Walk: The Walk was Robert Zemeckis's dramatic re-creation of Frenchman Phillipe Petit's 1974 walk across the Twin Towers and it's a great story from life because after all this is the world we're living in, out of the dreams of Ordinary Men.
But sadly this was a big big disappointment for one key reason: The Script, frankly this script was terrible at telling Petit's story to the audience, it is hamstrung by an awful narration that has to explain every single little emotion just in case the people in the back weren't paying attention and when you do get to the famous Walk you just do not feel any tension or suspense and when it ends you just think "Okay so what."
And so what is right as I just didn't care that much and again this is out of the Dreams of Ordinary Men (a great song by the Aussie Rock Band Dragon) and you ought to have an endless fascination for the web it weaves for us but instead I just felt deceived.
3. Fantastic Four: Now I was one of the few looking forward to this movie after all 20th Century Fox has done a good job with X-Men Days of Future Past (purely because Bryan Singer came back), it has a gifted young cast playing Marvel's first family and a promising young director in Josh Trank whose Chronicle was the origin of Darth Vader film we should have gotten instead of those pissy prequels.
And yet this movie was a complete disaster, everything we read about coming up to this movie in terms of fights with Fox or reshoots months before release or just general studio micro managing was all up there on the screen, the first hour is dull as all hell, the characters are boring, the finale is a joke (I firmly believe that Matthew Vaughn directed that climax instead of Trank as his name is on the Producer's roll in the end credits and it bares the tone of X-Men First Class.) and it all just goes off a cliff and to a horrible horrible death.
And all it did was just give Marvel supporters a great big club to whack Fox over the head with as a fair few of them feel that they shouldn't have F4 or the X-Men and it also made me think "Have they done this to Bryan Singer on Apocalypse" but I consoled myself on that point by saying "Bryan has done the 3peat Simon, he knows what he's doing" but whether he can match Collingwood's 4 in a row record well that's up to the Movie Gods.
And when I walked out of this film I just thought to myself "I'm not angry but I am just very very very very disappointed in all of you responsible for this mess" and I still feel that way, no one gets out of this clean and if Fox had any brains they would do a deal with Marvel and let it go back in return for the rights to make X-Men Merchandise.
2. Dark Places: This was one I was very keen as I really loved Gone Girl from 2014 by David Fincher and this was based off of another Gillian Flynn book so could lighting strike twice?
Nope it did not as this was nowhere near as good as Gone Girl as it did not have a coherent script, a compelling mystery, likeable characters or strong performances, on all 4 of these fronts this film dropped the ball completely and when the mystery does play out your not surprised or shocked like you were in Gone Girl but instead just going "see I knew that would happen."
Then again from what I was told by my ever so fabulous Radio Producer Ms Selina the book itself was also much weaker than Gone Girl so maybe this is simply a case of not being able to polish a turd but still I was left very disappointed with this 1.
But all three of those were minor compared to my number 1 disappointment of 2015.
The Avengers - Age of Ultron: Boy was I excited for this movie, the previews were terrific in promising a much darker tone than the first film, a compelling threat for Earth's mightiest heroes and for it all to play in a way that leaves the world numb from Ultron's rule as well as the heroes bitterly divided, sounds great right?
Wrong this was just more of the same from the first film:
- More of the same quips
- More of the same CGI Armies
- More of the same endless references
- More of the same PG-13 child friendly action
And like Captain America the Winter Soldier from 2014 a darker tone that was promised to me was once again snatched away in favor of something light and colorful because kids go to these movies and well we can't have them walking out of this movie all upset now can we.
Seriously I mean for fucks sake kids in 1980 handled the Empire Strikes Back okay didn't they surely they could've handled a darker Avengers sequel couldn't they but no I guess it's just easier to do something more family friendly instead.
And another element I was keen to see which was how Marvel Studios would handle mutant characters in Quicksilver and Scarlet Witch was also disappointing especially when you consider how well Quicksilver was done in Days of Future Past in 2014 and indeed I did think to myself watching this film "This is how Marvel Studios would do the X-Men if they got the rights back."
As a result of this I am now more skeptical about 2016's Captain America Civil War but the recent preview for that film did indeed looked promising but I've been here twice before and Marvel failed me hopefully they won't do it again and that they'll show us the Dark Side this time around.
And so that was the disappointments of 2015, some more personal ones this year than in recent years but these things happen.
Well just 4 big ones mainly:
4. The Walk: The Walk was Robert Zemeckis's dramatic re-creation of Frenchman Phillipe Petit's 1974 walk across the Twin Towers and it's a great story from life because after all this is the world we're living in, out of the dreams of Ordinary Men.
But sadly this was a big big disappointment for one key reason: The Script, frankly this script was terrible at telling Petit's story to the audience, it is hamstrung by an awful narration that has to explain every single little emotion just in case the people in the back weren't paying attention and when you do get to the famous Walk you just do not feel any tension or suspense and when it ends you just think "Okay so what."
And so what is right as I just didn't care that much and again this is out of the Dreams of Ordinary Men (a great song by the Aussie Rock Band Dragon) and you ought to have an endless fascination for the web it weaves for us but instead I just felt deceived.
3. Fantastic Four: Now I was one of the few looking forward to this movie after all 20th Century Fox has done a good job with X-Men Days of Future Past (purely because Bryan Singer came back), it has a gifted young cast playing Marvel's first family and a promising young director in Josh Trank whose Chronicle was the origin of Darth Vader film we should have gotten instead of those pissy prequels.
And yet this movie was a complete disaster, everything we read about coming up to this movie in terms of fights with Fox or reshoots months before release or just general studio micro managing was all up there on the screen, the first hour is dull as all hell, the characters are boring, the finale is a joke (I firmly believe that Matthew Vaughn directed that climax instead of Trank as his name is on the Producer's roll in the end credits and it bares the tone of X-Men First Class.) and it all just goes off a cliff and to a horrible horrible death.
And all it did was just give Marvel supporters a great big club to whack Fox over the head with as a fair few of them feel that they shouldn't have F4 or the X-Men and it also made me think "Have they done this to Bryan Singer on Apocalypse" but I consoled myself on that point by saying "Bryan has done the 3peat Simon, he knows what he's doing" but whether he can match Collingwood's 4 in a row record well that's up to the Movie Gods.
And when I walked out of this film I just thought to myself "I'm not angry but I am just very very very very disappointed in all of you responsible for this mess" and I still feel that way, no one gets out of this clean and if Fox had any brains they would do a deal with Marvel and let it go back in return for the rights to make X-Men Merchandise.
2. Dark Places: This was one I was very keen as I really loved Gone Girl from 2014 by David Fincher and this was based off of another Gillian Flynn book so could lighting strike twice?
Nope it did not as this was nowhere near as good as Gone Girl as it did not have a coherent script, a compelling mystery, likeable characters or strong performances, on all 4 of these fronts this film dropped the ball completely and when the mystery does play out your not surprised or shocked like you were in Gone Girl but instead just going "see I knew that would happen."
Then again from what I was told by my ever so fabulous Radio Producer Ms Selina the book itself was also much weaker than Gone Girl so maybe this is simply a case of not being able to polish a turd but still I was left very disappointed with this 1.
But all three of those were minor compared to my number 1 disappointment of 2015.
The Avengers - Age of Ultron: Boy was I excited for this movie, the previews were terrific in promising a much darker tone than the first film, a compelling threat for Earth's mightiest heroes and for it all to play in a way that leaves the world numb from Ultron's rule as well as the heroes bitterly divided, sounds great right?
Wrong this was just more of the same from the first film:
- More of the same quips
- More of the same CGI Armies
- More of the same endless references
- More of the same PG-13 child friendly action
And like Captain America the Winter Soldier from 2014 a darker tone that was promised to me was once again snatched away in favor of something light and colorful because kids go to these movies and well we can't have them walking out of this movie all upset now can we.
Seriously I mean for fucks sake kids in 1980 handled the Empire Strikes Back okay didn't they surely they could've handled a darker Avengers sequel couldn't they but no I guess it's just easier to do something more family friendly instead.
And another element I was keen to see which was how Marvel Studios would handle mutant characters in Quicksilver and Scarlet Witch was also disappointing especially when you consider how well Quicksilver was done in Days of Future Past in 2014 and indeed I did think to myself watching this film "This is how Marvel Studios would do the X-Men if they got the rights back."
As a result of this I am now more skeptical about 2016's Captain America Civil War but the recent preview for that film did indeed looked promising but I've been here twice before and Marvel failed me hopefully they won't do it again and that they'll show us the Dark Side this time around.
And so that was the disappointments of 2015, some more personal ones this year than in recent years but these things happen.
Friday, December 4, 2015
Film Review - In the Heart of the Sea (2015)
In the Heart of the Sea stars Chris Hemsworth as Owen Chase who becomes the first officer of a whaling ship that becomes a wreck and leaves a survivor (Brendan Gleeson) who agrees to tell his story to a young author named Herman Melville (Ben Wishaw) in the hope that it will inspire his next book.
I was looking forward to this movie mainly because I love the story of Moby Dick which this is said to be the inspiration for plus I recently got the chance to go on a small sailing ship which was a fabulous experience and hopefully it could've delivered the goods.
Well it does and it doesn't I'm afraid, there is a lot that I like about this film, the sequences on the ship are well done as are the ones involving the whales which have a very nice mix of editing, sound and musical score, the white whale looks terrific here and there's a storm sequence that's also very good.
Plus Hemsworth delivers a very charismatic performance here and one that reminded me of the sort of performances Mel Gibson used to give us (hell he did a sailing film himself in the Bounty in 1984), Wishaw is always good value as is Gleeson and Cillian Murphy and Tom Holland also do good work here.
And yet the script at times tends to trip on its own shoelaces by undercutting a lot of its more tension filled moments with the back and forth of Melville and the boat, at times the cross cutting between the 2 muddies the storytelling water and as a result you don't get that feeling of hopelessness that you should have some of and it's also something that Howard's own Apollo 13 film didn't do, even though you knew the outcome you were still on the edge of your seat.
And so that was In the Heart of the Sea, a fine film but lacks the tension and storytelling precision that made Apollo 13 work so well, 2 and a half out of 5.
I was looking forward to this movie mainly because I love the story of Moby Dick which this is said to be the inspiration for plus I recently got the chance to go on a small sailing ship which was a fabulous experience and hopefully it could've delivered the goods.
Well it does and it doesn't I'm afraid, there is a lot that I like about this film, the sequences on the ship are well done as are the ones involving the whales which have a very nice mix of editing, sound and musical score, the white whale looks terrific here and there's a storm sequence that's also very good.
Plus Hemsworth delivers a very charismatic performance here and one that reminded me of the sort of performances Mel Gibson used to give us (hell he did a sailing film himself in the Bounty in 1984), Wishaw is always good value as is Gleeson and Cillian Murphy and Tom Holland also do good work here.
And yet the script at times tends to trip on its own shoelaces by undercutting a lot of its more tension filled moments with the back and forth of Melville and the boat, at times the cross cutting between the 2 muddies the storytelling water and as a result you don't get that feeling of hopelessness that you should have some of and it's also something that Howard's own Apollo 13 film didn't do, even though you knew the outcome you were still on the edge of your seat.
And so that was In the Heart of the Sea, a fine film but lacks the tension and storytelling precision that made Apollo 13 work so well, 2 and a half out of 5.
Wednesday, December 2, 2015
Can the Mockingjay Rise Twice?
And so it was on a slightly muggy day in November (the 19th) I believe that the final Hunger Games film Part 2 of Mockingjay was finally released in cinemas across both Australia and the wider world.
And personally I loved it for its dark and uncompromising tone, its willingness to not let its heroes walk away from the big battle as if it was just a dustup at the local pub and as well as being able to explore the nature of politics and war and how what we think we're doing in the name of a righteous cause can just be a lie.
But whilst I've seen Part 2 3 times in the cinema now I am starting to feel that perhaps we were best served if Mockingjay had been done as 1 big 180 to 210 minute film instead of the 2 separate ones whilst fine literally play as 1 big film that's had a yearlong intermission in between them.
Here are 3 areas I feel where Mockingjay would've been best served as that one big film I describe above:
- First of all it would've been the proper finale we all deserved and expected from this series instead of the slightly limp one that some fans are loving while others are not, of no doubt this feeling is due to the split of Mockingjay the book into the 2 films and the sense that audiences by and large had kind of put this final film on the back burner for the most part cause after all there's a new James Bond and Star Wars movie coming god dammit.
But in all seriousness that 3 to 3 and a half hour length film could've given us all of the themes and ideas in regards to revolution, the making and marketing of that revolution, the nature of propaganda, the trauma of the survivors of the Games and the Capitol, the nature of Warfare etc and combined that into 1 punchy film that also gives you the resolution of the story and the characters.
Not to mention allowing for that proper emotional impact that Part 2 strives for but just cannot pull off because it doesn't have that 90 minutes to 2 hours that Part 1 represents and uses in that time to build up the themes, the ideas, the conflicts and the characters.
- Secondly the shifting of that focus from 2 separate films into that 1 big film would've given Francis Lawrence more time and energy to work on a proper adaptation of Mockingjay that does what a good adaptation should which is honor the spirit and intentions of the book whilst also turning it into a film.
As it stands right now you have 2 separate films that in Part 1 and Part 2 do kind of both, Part 1 has that feeling of doing its own thing whilst honoring the spirit of Suzanne Collins's book and because of that I felt it worked as a film with a beginning, a middle and an end whereas Part 2 takes much more of its story cues from the book and as a result is reflecting a lot of the criticisms in terms of rushing the key story and character beats as well as not quite delivering on the promise of a strong finale much like the final Harry Potter book/films did.
This would've also allowed I feel for the film to take on like Part 2 attempts to do the story structure of the first 2 Hunger Games films which have the characters moments and the story play out in the first two thirds before devoting their entire 3rd act to the Games, Mockingjay Part 2 like I said attempts to go back to that style but once more without that buildup of Part 1 it doesn't quite work in the way that it should have.
Now I don't believe for one moment that the split has anything to do with Francis or his writing team as they have done the very best they can but rather the blame must be shifted onto the producers Nina Jacobson and Jon Kilik who had from their comments on the making of doco for Part 1 which is on that films Blu-Ray decided to split it into 2 films right from the start.
Of no doubt they did this because they saw the fiscal rewards Harry Potter reaped from going down this path as would the Twilight series but as they had to have learned by now that trick could only work for so long before audiences began to feel cheated, after all look at the reception the Hobbit series got from doing 3 films from that 1 small book.
- And lastly it might just might have allowed Phillip Seymour Hoffman to finish his filming for the films before his sad death in February 2014.
According to Francis Lawrence he had completed 80% of his filming before he died and had 8 days left to shoot on the Mockingjay movies. if you watch Part 1 and the scene where Effie (Elizabeth Banks) hands Katniss the black folder with Sinna's sketches for the Mockingjay costume this was one of the key scenes Phil had left to shoot before he died (and indeed he was due to film it the Friday before but bad weather in Atlanta had delayed the filming.)
There is also a key scene in Part 2 that Haymitch (Woody Harrelson) performs that was also meant to be a Plutarch scene and it is clear somewhat watching Part 2 that Phil's very very sad death had hurt this film to a certain degree and I can't help but wonder if the 1 film might just might have allowed for Phil to properly complete his filming on Mockingjay but I can't help but feel that that is something we will simply never know the answer to as things have played out in the way that they have and we have to accept the reality of it.
And so that was my column on Mockingjay and how it might have worked as the 1 big film instead of the 2 pretty good ones that we now have in our cinemas and in on our store shelves and indeed in our own shelves, I hope you all liked reading it as I certainly enjoyed writing it.
And personally I loved it for its dark and uncompromising tone, its willingness to not let its heroes walk away from the big battle as if it was just a dustup at the local pub and as well as being able to explore the nature of politics and war and how what we think we're doing in the name of a righteous cause can just be a lie.
But whilst I've seen Part 2 3 times in the cinema now I am starting to feel that perhaps we were best served if Mockingjay had been done as 1 big 180 to 210 minute film instead of the 2 separate ones whilst fine literally play as 1 big film that's had a yearlong intermission in between them.
Here are 3 areas I feel where Mockingjay would've been best served as that one big film I describe above:
- First of all it would've been the proper finale we all deserved and expected from this series instead of the slightly limp one that some fans are loving while others are not, of no doubt this feeling is due to the split of Mockingjay the book into the 2 films and the sense that audiences by and large had kind of put this final film on the back burner for the most part cause after all there's a new James Bond and Star Wars movie coming god dammit.
But in all seriousness that 3 to 3 and a half hour length film could've given us all of the themes and ideas in regards to revolution, the making and marketing of that revolution, the nature of propaganda, the trauma of the survivors of the Games and the Capitol, the nature of Warfare etc and combined that into 1 punchy film that also gives you the resolution of the story and the characters.
Not to mention allowing for that proper emotional impact that Part 2 strives for but just cannot pull off because it doesn't have that 90 minutes to 2 hours that Part 1 represents and uses in that time to build up the themes, the ideas, the conflicts and the characters.
- Secondly the shifting of that focus from 2 separate films into that 1 big film would've given Francis Lawrence more time and energy to work on a proper adaptation of Mockingjay that does what a good adaptation should which is honor the spirit and intentions of the book whilst also turning it into a film.
As it stands right now you have 2 separate films that in Part 1 and Part 2 do kind of both, Part 1 has that feeling of doing its own thing whilst honoring the spirit of Suzanne Collins's book and because of that I felt it worked as a film with a beginning, a middle and an end whereas Part 2 takes much more of its story cues from the book and as a result is reflecting a lot of the criticisms in terms of rushing the key story and character beats as well as not quite delivering on the promise of a strong finale much like the final Harry Potter book/films did.
This would've also allowed I feel for the film to take on like Part 2 attempts to do the story structure of the first 2 Hunger Games films which have the characters moments and the story play out in the first two thirds before devoting their entire 3rd act to the Games, Mockingjay Part 2 like I said attempts to go back to that style but once more without that buildup of Part 1 it doesn't quite work in the way that it should have.
Now I don't believe for one moment that the split has anything to do with Francis or his writing team as they have done the very best they can but rather the blame must be shifted onto the producers Nina Jacobson and Jon Kilik who had from their comments on the making of doco for Part 1 which is on that films Blu-Ray decided to split it into 2 films right from the start.
Of no doubt they did this because they saw the fiscal rewards Harry Potter reaped from going down this path as would the Twilight series but as they had to have learned by now that trick could only work for so long before audiences began to feel cheated, after all look at the reception the Hobbit series got from doing 3 films from that 1 small book.
- And lastly it might just might have allowed Phillip Seymour Hoffman to finish his filming for the films before his sad death in February 2014.
According to Francis Lawrence he had completed 80% of his filming before he died and had 8 days left to shoot on the Mockingjay movies. if you watch Part 1 and the scene where Effie (Elizabeth Banks) hands Katniss the black folder with Sinna's sketches for the Mockingjay costume this was one of the key scenes Phil had left to shoot before he died (and indeed he was due to film it the Friday before but bad weather in Atlanta had delayed the filming.)
There is also a key scene in Part 2 that Haymitch (Woody Harrelson) performs that was also meant to be a Plutarch scene and it is clear somewhat watching Part 2 that Phil's very very sad death had hurt this film to a certain degree and I can't help but wonder if the 1 film might just might have allowed for Phil to properly complete his filming on Mockingjay but I can't help but feel that that is something we will simply never know the answer to as things have played out in the way that they have and we have to accept the reality of it.
And so that was my column on Mockingjay and how it might have worked as the 1 big film instead of the 2 pretty good ones that we now have in our cinemas and in on our store shelves and indeed in our own shelves, I hope you all liked reading it as I certainly enjoyed writing it.
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