Film review: Clash of The Titans

Tags

3D, Action, Sam Worthington

Clash of The Titans

I really liked the look of this film. The trailer was ace. Liam Neeson looked good and shouty. Big monsters.

Hrm.

The film is a remake, a remake of a Ray Harryhausen classic. It tells the story of Perseus, son of Zeus who must stop the Kraken from destroying all kinds of stuff.

Sounds like an awesome swords and sorcery epic. Sounds like.

There are problems. Main one is that Peresus is such a blank character that he drags the whole film down. Sam Worthington is usually a great action presence but here he’s got nothing to work with. He scowls and stabs things but his character doesn’t have the weight that it should.

Next problem is 3D. This film wasn’t made in 3D, as Avatar was, it was put through a post-production process to make it 3D and it shows. Most of the time you can’t tell it’s in 3D and when it is it doesn’t have the depth or subtlety that Avatar has.

If more films are going to be like this then we have a problem. James Cameron himself has gone on record saying that this way of doing 3D just doesn’t work and even Michael Bay agrees with him. If you’re going to do 3D then do it properly, here it is just a distraction that gets in the way of the film.

It’s not all bad. The set pieces are fun and Kraken definitely gets released at the end. It should be an over the top guilty pleasure. But it doesn’t quite click and ends up being average.

In a word? Shame.

Film review: Kick-Ass

Tags

Action, Comic Films, Mark Millar, Nic Cage, Swearing

Kick-Ass @ IMDB

What has been really good about the recent explosion in comic book movies is that the comics are being treated with respect. Too often in the past what made the comic interesting was thrown away in the pursuit of a mainstream audience.

Not anymore. Well, with the exception of Wanted. The comic that was based on was about Supervillains who had conquered the world. The film, however, was about a group of assassins and the Loom of Fate.

Well the writer of Wanted, Mark Millar, has had another bite of the cherry. Does this comic adaption suffer the same fate?

No. Well, ish.

Both films tell the tale of a high school comic nerd who can’t help but think “What don’t people put on a costume and be superheroes?” and then actually does it. And gets his ass kicked. And gets involved in a whole bunch of organised crime.

What the film really captures is the tone of the comic, the anarchic balls to the wall style. It is violent, it is sweary and it is over the top. It’s all these things but in the best way possible. Everyone gets the joke, from Kick-Ass bumbling naivety to Hit Girl’s wanton violence, it’s all transferred from the page to the screen seamlessly. It’s a massive amount of fun, despite what some people think.

The only thing I would take issue with the is that sometimes it drifts a little too much into the superhero world. The story is supposed to be about what would happen to a superhero in the real world. The film does this for the most part but towards the end it’s pushing your (or at least my) suspension of disbelief right to the edge and just over. It doesn’t ruin the film, it fits in perfectly with the excesses of the film, but as a fan of the comic it is noticeable.

This really is a great film and the best of the year so far. Even Nic Cage shines doing a great Adam West. Very highly recommended, just make sure you buy the comic as well.

In a word? Hoot.

Film review: Green Zone

Tags

Action, Matt Damon, Politics

Green Zone @ IMDB

Matt Damon. Paul Greengrass. Guns. It can only mean one thing.

Motion sickness for me.

No, this isn’t a new Jason Bourne film, this is a story ripped straight from the headlines. This is a film about Iraq, WMDs and the lies that led us to war.

Getting it out of the way, it is a shame that it isn’t a Bourne film. No one gets killed with pens or magazines or a towel.

The film treads a strange path. One the one hand it wants to be a truthful expose of the how we were led, by both politicians and the press, into a violent war. Also, it wants to be a wham bamn action film.

These sit uneasily together. The action sequences jar with the ‘based on a true story’ segments. This isn’t to say his is a bad film, far from it. As a thinking mans action film it holds up. It just isn’t as smooth as it should be, the gear changes are so clear it bumps you out of the film. Also, the way people refer to “WMD” constantly is a little off putting. It start to sound like Team America in a weird way.

It is well worth seeing. All the performances are great. The story is one that should be told and wrapping up a compex political story as an action film for the masses makes sense. Something however doesn’t quite gel. It could have been a very good politcal thriller in the mould of a Syriana or it could have been another top notch Bourne film.

It falls between both of these and ends up being a well made and enjoyable action thriller. It is, however, worth seeing for Jason Isaacs moustache alone.

Seriously.

In a word? Alright.

Film review: The Crazies

Tags

George A Romero, Horror, Timothy Olyphant

The Crazies @ IMDB

Whilst he is best known for the zombies, George A Romero didn’t just make films about the undead. Oh no, 30 years before Danny Boyle he made a film about people being infected with a virus that brings on the crazy.

Suffice to say, as no zombies no one has really heard of it outside of the hardcore Romero fans. This should change following this modern remake.

Now, hand on heart, never seen the original. But there can’t be that much different plot wise: small town sherrif notices people starting to act a little, well, crazy, before the US army descends trying to contain the mayhem.

What I suspect is missing is a lot of the socio-political sub text you normally get with your Romero films. What we have is a fairly workman like people trying to get safety whilst shit goes down all around them.

My problem is that I would have liked to have seen a bit more of he shit going down. You get snippets of the army bases, large groups of crazies rioting and that kind of thing. However it very quickly restricts itself to a few people walking down empty roads with the odd scary person jumping out of the shadows.

It’s not a bad film by any stretch of the imagination. The main cast get the job done, there’s a couple of good set pieces. It just doesn’t quite push the envelope and treds a well trodden path.

In a word? Daft.

Film review: Where The Wild Things Are

Tags

Kids Films, Spike Jonze

Where The Wild Things Are @ IMDB

2009 was an interesting year for kids films, mainly because you had two big releases that weren’t 3D CG affairs.

The first was Mr Fox, this is the second.

Based on the classic kids book, we have Max who runs away one night following an arguement with his mother and finds a boat. He then sails to another land, a land where the Wild Things are.

First of all, the film looks stunning. It’s a combination of CG faces and old fashioned men in suits. It looks like nothing else, all muted colours and dark tones. Comparing this to the usual Dreamworks output is, well, it’s not even worth trying frankly.

Story wise, it’s a bit tricky. The original book it’s based on has like 10 sentences and very little happens. Here, details of the relationships have been expanded by the director Spike Jones and the original author. The Wild Things get names and distinct characters.

There is an opinion that this is a kids film for grown ups. To a point, they’re right. There is a lot of subtlety that might be missed by kids. But what it’s really about is capturing a mood, a feeling. Its about the wild freedom of childhood. It’s about that time in your life when you were beginning to see the adult world, the point where you start to leave your childhood behind.

It also never talks down to kids. Whilst they may not be able to fully articulate it, kids understand emotions a lot more than we give them credit for. I’d rather my son watch a film like this rather than Over The Hedge.

Max, who by rights should be really annoying, holds the screen well, the voice cast for the Wild Things are all top notch. You can really feel that it was a real labour of love, a real attempt to make a film that would mean something rather than a way to sell merhcandise.

In that respect, despite it’s faults, it’s a success.

In a word? Respectful.

Film review: Astro Boy

Tags

Anime, Astro Boy, Kids Films, Nic Cage

Astro Boy @ IMDB

Okay, it’s about a boy who gets killed so his Dad remakes him in an awesome new robot body. We’re talking Pinocchio, so now we’re all on the same page.

Or are we?

See, Astro Boy isn’t very well known in the West. More so in America as the character was one of the first anime cartoons to air on television. But in Japan, he’s as important to popular culture as Mickey Mouse is to America, or The Beano is to the British. Firmly, deeply, entrenched*.

So a US CG remake was always going to be a tough sell. To it’s credit, the film gets a lot right. The characters look great, the set pieces are very good and it tears along like a kids film should.

Some parts don’t quite click, it’s hard to put a finger why. Maybe it’s the themes of human/robot discrimination don’t quite get the on screen time that they should. There’s quite an intelligent film in there that gets trapped under a little too much smaltz.

In the end, it’s a noble failure. It gets the idea of the character across but doesn’t quite get to the heights that it should do. Frankly, if you’re looking for a definitive western Astro Boy experience I’d track down the Game Boy Advance game that came out a few years ago.

In a word? Close.

* Just to put it in perspective the impact Astro Boy had, his creator Osamu Tezuka (or The God of Manga) died at the same time as the Japanese Emperor Hirohito. His funeral was bigger that the Emperors. Sometimes Japan gets it so right it’s painful.

Film review: Daybreakers

Tags

Horror, Vampires, Willem Defoe

Daybreakers @ IMDB

So, vampires. Vampires.

This years zombies, vampires are all over pop culture. Now, I’m not going to mention Twilight as I don’t want to go down that dark alley way.

What we have here is an interesting twist on the vampire myth, unlike Twilight. What we have here is a world in which the vampires have won. Any humans left are hunted and farmed for their blood.

See? Interesting?

The only problem is, blood is running out. Ethan Hawke is a scientist working on developing a substitute blood so the vampire population won’t go crazy with the thirst and devolve into crazy bat men.

It’s good. The world is interesting enough to carry the film. It reminded me of Equilibrium in a way. There was a film with a few problems but was good fun.

The acting is good, Sam Neil chews whatever scenery if left over after Willem Defoe has finished with it. Seriously, the man is a machine. A crazy machine.

It’s interesting, it’s bloody and it has good vampires. Yeah, it’s not the best film ever but it has a man exploding in a shower of blood and organs. What’s not to like?

In a word? Fang-tastic.

Yeah, sorry about that.

Film review: Avatar

Tags

3D, James Cameron, Sci Fi

Avatar @ IMDB

James Cameron is a colossus in my childhood. Terminator. Aliens. True Lies. We’re going to ignore the boat because, as we all know, that never really happened.

It did though. And thanks to that he vanished into the sea and documentaries and new fangled 3D cameras.

From the first whispers of news about this film I was excited. I planned a trip to see it how Cameron wanted me to see it. On an Imax screen in 3D which involved several trains and bus journeys.

This is the ultimate question, if we’re honest. In the middle of the worst winter period for decades I left my house and made a 4 hour journey to see this film.

Was it worth it?

Yes.  Yes it was.

It was worth it for the sheer spectacle. 3D has been nibbling at the edges of the mainstream for a while but
this it what puts it over the top. It looks like nothing else. You can see all the years of research and toil on the screen. Every bit of it. From the blades of glass to the giant spaceships, it all looks amazing.

The film itself? It’s okay. To be honest, we’ve seen it all before. Several times. When I see it on DVD all the flaws will come out.

But in that cinema, on that screen, I was blown away.

Blown away.

In a word? Stunning.

Film review: Sherlock Holmes

Tags

Guy Ritchie, Robert Downey Jr, Thriller

Sherlock Holmes @ IMDB

Guy Ritchie does Sherlock Holmes.

That sounds ominous. Let’s be honest, Ritchie doesn’t have the best track record. His Mockney style is well past it’s sell by date. Holmes is a treasured character, do we really want Holmes, Watson and Two Smoking Deer Stalkers?

Someone out here realised this as well and they came up with the ideal solution: they got someone else to write it. Yes, this is the first Guy Ritchie film based on someone elses script. And it just might be his best film.

Alright, it’s not up against the sturdiest competition but this is a really good film. It’s not without it’s faults. The plot is somewhat lazy. It doesn’t really build to anything and is pretty much there to setup the sequel.

But I didn’t care. I enjoyed the whole film, thanks to a very strong cast. Robert Downey Jr is Holmes and Jude Law is Watson. They make an amazing team. Their chemistry is what drags this film from mediocre to the sublime. It papers over all the cracks and just sings.

The film looks great and the music is superb. Actually superb.

More of this please, Guy Ritchie. Lots more of this please.

In a word? Fun.

Film review: 2012

Tags

Action, John Cusack

2012 @ IMDB

This is what we’re talking about. This is why I go to the cinema. Big, dumb stupid films that have a lot of things exploding for no good reason.

Roland Emerich gives this to you in spades. He deals in films that have the entire world under threat like in ID4 and The Day After Tomorrow.

And now he’s taken on the actual end of the world, 2012. Well, at least its the end of the world according to some people.

The film itself is pretty much as per his previous work; big disaster, lots of characters, a family being threatened, par for the course. There are no surprises here.

The issue is that theres no surprises anywhere else either. As soon as you’re introduced to all the characters you know how it’s going to end. You just know.

This problem is actually summarised on the poster and the trailers. It sits near the BBFC certificate and it says this;

CONTAINS MODERATE THREAT.

This film is about the end of the world and the best they can do is moderate threat? Rubbish. The director even repeats the same sequence three times totally dilluting any impact or tension.

It’s too long, too obvious and proves what a good film Know1ng actually is. At least that had the balls to follow through with it’s story to the logical conclusion. Nope, not here. Must do better.

In a word? Boooooooring.