“THE SECRET LIFE OF PETS”

The Secret Life of Pets is the latest film from animation house The Illumination Pictures who are famous for creating the Despicable Me movies and the Minions but they seem to want to widen their range considering their next couple of films are this and a film called Sing which, judging from the first two trailers looks like Zootopia does the X Factor, as you can imagine, knowing my taste in music and Television, I am not too thrilled to see that one.

The Secret Life of Pets comes to us from Director Chris Renaud who directed both of the Despicable Me movies and Dr Seuss adaptation The Lorax, which I wasn’t a fan of because I think it really over simplified the original Dr Seuss book and put in a lot of additions which were really unnecessary and really missed the point and a lot of the subtlety of the book. In fact I asked the son of one of my friends what was his opinion and he agreed with me that the original and short animated film was much better. Even the target demographic weren’t buying into that. The Despicable Me movies on the other hand, I am a bit of a fan of. I don’t think they’re great animated films, but you know what, for family viewing, they are really nice, charming films and I never minded being stuck in a cinema with them. I am glad there is a Despicable Me 3 coming out next year, though personally I think this should be the last one as they are pushing it to its absolute limit which was proved by The Minions not getting as much success as they had hoped.

My first exposure to The Secret Life of Pets was actually all the way back to this time last year when I went to see Song Of The Sea and I saw the trailer at that showing, incidentally it was the teaser trailer which I put in my review of Ninja Turtles last week, just to demonstrate my point. The trailer is fantastic, it’s one of the funniest things I had seen all of 2015 and I still think it’s really funny, but the big question was would this film be worth seeing, like I initially thought, or would it reflect my thoughts when I was shown the trailer a few weeks later, where I thought, have they put all of their eggs in one basket and there isn’t much else in the final film? Well that’s what we are here for, to find out, let’s see if Secret Life of Pets will give Illumination Pictures a boost, or delegitimalise it just after they got legitimised.

Taking place in New York, Max (played by Louis C.K.) is the dog of Katie (played by Ellie Kemper) and is loving life, that is until one day she brings home a new dog called Duke (played by Eric Stonestreet) and things are turned completely upside down. After clashing back and forth Duke and Max get mistaken for strays and are taken by Animal Control, but are rescued by Snowball the rabbit (played by Kevin Hart) to work for him. Snowball doesn’t want any animals to be owned by humans after he was abandoned by his owner a magician and vows to take down all humans and after discovering that Max and Duke have lied to him, he vows to take them down as well. Can Max and Duke make their way back to Katie’s apartment in time for her to come home?

Secret Life of Pets aims in concept to do for pets what Toy Story did for toys, and it does succeed with that, however it doesn’t go fully out with the concept, but aside from that, it really is a genuinely funny film. There are a lot of good laughs, a lot of well told jokes, some cool ideas and set pieces, and I would even say I was legitimately entertained by this film, however, it is not amazing, it’s a very middling film in terms of how you would rank it against other animation films. It’s not as much as a corporate sell out as Angry Birds but it doesn’t have the ingenious writing of something like Zootopia. The first trailer gave away a lot of the really great laughs out of the film, but there are other jokes that land bullseye and all the animals get at least one funny line here or there. The one that surprisingly, doesn’t that many jokes is Max, which is very weird considering you have Louis C.K. who is genuinely very funny to play him. He is essentially playing a straight man for most of the film and that feels rather a bizarre casting. I honestly think that judging by the trailer and how the film turned out you could easily have made this a collection of shorts that all tied together, say akin to Little Britain or something like that, because there is a very thin plot going on here. It’s very standard, animals get lost and need to make their way back home, throw in your villain and your co community set pieces and you’re sorted. That’s not to say it’s bad per se it does that plot very well and I was genuinely entertained watching it. The funniest characters being Chloe the Cat and Tiberius the Hawk, who were absolutely gut-bustingly hilarious. There are a couple of decent funny lines, big problem, however, is that most of them are all given away in the adverts and trailers for the film, in fact if you have been keeping abreast with most of the trailers and press material for this film, you have virtually seen the entire movie!! The jokes do still kind of hit bullseye, it’s actually surprising how good some of these jokes are and there were plenty of laughs in my cinema screening.

I think this films will appeal to younger kids and the humour is slightly more focused on them, but that’s not to say that adults won’t get something out of it. It’s not really doing anything wrong, there is very little I can say against the film, however, there is not much I can say in its favour at the same time, apart from the fact that it is legitimately funny. There are very few moment that feel out of place, with the exception of the fantasy sequence at the sausage factory, which can be summed up at this film’s weird ‘out of place’ moment or what critics would call ‘the big lipped alligator moment’. For those of you that don’t know, ‘the big lipped alligator moment’ is reference to the big lipped alligator sequence from All Dogs Go To Heaven. It’s a scene that comes from out of nowhere it’s not foreshadowed in any way shape or form, is really weird, really contrasts with what we have seen up to that point and afterwards, is never mentioned again. Another good example, is the pink elephants sequence in Dumbo.

The direction is what really sells it. The voice actors are clearly directed very well as the punch lines definitely hit the point. I will go into more detail in the acting portion of this review. I feel like this film had a lot of time and effort put into it, it doesn’t feel like a quick cash grab, and that feels a real benefit to me considering how many kids films feel like that nowadays.

The characters are all fun and entertaining. You won’t fall in love with any of them but they are entertaining enough to want to hang around with them. I have already mentioned that my favourites are Chloe and Tiberius. Of course, I love the poodle that listens to heavy metal when its owner is out, for obvious reasons. The real problem is that, because the narrative is rather thin, that whenever it tries to go above and beyond what it was attempting to do before, it doesn’t really succeed. For example, there is meant to be a couple of moments that attempt to be dramatic towards the last third of the film, and they don’t really succeed because they haven’t been built up very well and it feels rather dis-ingenious because the entire film has been a comedy up until that point. There are a few scenes that are like this. I also don’t think Snowball is that effective as a villain, he doesn’t really do much in the actual film and by the end he is kind of cast aside as the villain. He is an entertaining villain and we didn’t need a maniacal villain for this role so a comedic villain makes more sense, however, it doesn’t change the fact that he doesn’t really feel necessary except to break out Max and Duke, he does get some funny lines every so often though.

This film is also really short, it’s barely 1hr 30mins and even then it feels shorter. There is a lot to be said about the film’s plot, however, I just feel it’s serviceable and funny. It’s entertaining and I did enjoy myself watching it, but I wouldn’t rush back to re visit, though the funny moments can be incredibly funny, there were a lot of laughs in my cinema and honestly I laughed a lot more at this than some of the genuine comedies that have come out this year.

Acting wise, it’s a bit more difficult to talk about since many of the actors play multiple roles so finding the information on IMDB was a bit difficult for me to figure out who was playing who. I know that Steve Coogan provided a couple of voices and he was virtually unrecognisable, which means he must have been giving off a good performance. Jenny Slate is very good as Gidget she had a lot of very funny lines to work with and she delivered them very well. Ellie Kemper isn’t in it much as the owner Katie, but she seems nice enough if a bit one dimensional. Lake Bell is hilarious as Chloe the cat being given some of the best material to work with. Also speaking of great performances, Albert Brooks really delivered a brilliant performance as Tiberius the hawk. I kind of liked Eric Stonestreet as Duke, he was pretty fun and I am really a big Louis C.K. fan especially after his amazingly funny speech at the Oscars earlier this year, however I think he should have been given more room to show off his comedic talent, considering most of the time he is playing a straight role in this film. Kevin Hart is the one who sticks out the most in the cast because he has been everywhere in recent memory, so as a result has a very recognisable voice, but in this film he is legitimately funny, I wouldn’t say he is the funniest member of the cast but I will admit it is a bit distracting hearing Kevin Hart’s voice coming out of a small rabbit, but it kind of works. He is certainly funnier here than in some of his live action films, though I do think the process of casting him was essentially saying ‘let’s get Kevin Hart on the microphone, he is bound to entertain someone’. Most of the cast do several voices and some additional voices, in fact there is some genuine talent here, like, Dana Carvey, Tara Strong and Jim Cummings, who I really recommend looking up if you enjoyed the cartoons of the 90s like me, because I guarantee he is in a ton of films and TV shows that you remember, a very talented man. One of the things that make this film work is the solid cast and they all can give some very, very funny lines, it’s not an amazing cast to remember like the Panda films but they are very serviceable.

The animation is pretty standard for Illumination Pictures, in fact it looks like it could easily take place in the same world as Despicable Me films, the animation isn’t much different here. It’s very well done 3D animation and despite the fact I have been praising the hell out of hand drawn animation when I have been reviewing films like, The Tales of Princess Kaguya and When Marnie Was There, I still think there is a place for 3D animation and Illumination Pictures is doing a good job. It’s definitely not Pixar standard, but it’s doing good. The character designs are all pretty good. I liked Chloe’s character design, Gidget is pretty cool and don’t I think Max is as loveable and adorable as the marketing campaigners are making him out to be, but he is an enjoyable character and a cool design and the design animation works pretty well and allows the characters to move fluidly and perform the physical comedy and add towards the well written comedy that has been written for them.

There is a 3D version of the film available, however I saw it in 2D due to time constraints, making it unable for me to see the 3D version on the day I wanted to view the film. It does seem like this film wants you to see the 3D version, there are several effects and shots throughout the film that look like they were made for the 3D version, it seems much more overt here than it did in any other Illumination Pictures previous films like the Despicable Me films or the Minions movie. I did see The Minions in 3D and I thought the 3D was a bit of a gimmick that wasn’t necessary there. But this time I would actually say the 3D is not necessary at the film is perfectly watchable in the 2D, but I think there are a lot of effects for the 3D that might make the glasses worthwhile, though I am aware they are expensive for a large family, so don’t worry, you won’t be disappointed in the 2D version.

The Secret Life of Pets is not a great film, it’s a good film, but it’s very funny, very serviceable, the characters are enjoyable, the writing is pretty good and the animation is nice. It just doesn’t quite do much else. Kids will get a laugh out of it and their parents will enjoy it too, I enjoyed it, I found it very funny, it just didn’t rise to any high levels for me. I probably won’t be repeating it any time soon, but I wouldn’t object to seeing it again at say Christmas Time if it’s on the TV. If you can afford it, go to the 3D screening because I think the animation would suit that. Out of the 2016 releases, I preferred Zootopia and Kung Fu Panda 3 (which I already reviewed) to this film. If you want a good day out with your kids, then take them to see this, it’s fun and they will enjoy it.

I have seen 5 other films this week, and I can honestly say that this is one of the worst professional weeks of my career, and I am not saying that lightly. I saw 4 at the cinema and 1 DVD, which was out in February, but I failed to see then. The DVD being the remake of Point Break. I can simply sum this one up in two words POINTLESS BREAK!! It was an awful film, there is no plot to this film. It is simply get from one extreme sports scene to another extreme sports scene with the thinnest veil of semblance of what is going on around it. It was boring to watch, the stunt work was good, but that doesn’t make a film.

As for the cinema experience, I saw, The Conjuring 2, Mothers Day, The Boss and Gods of Egypt. Starting with The Conjuring 2, I actually thought this was a fairly decent horror film, though it’s not a classic, like The Witch or It Follows. The major reason being that whereas the first film felt like it was using a lot of the horror tropes to it’s advantage, this film feels like it’s using them as a crutch to cover up the cracks in the script, which I was really beginning to notice. The overall performances are pretty good and it’s a decent made horror film, but I really wish the Conjuring films would not market themselves as based on a true story and I hated the treatment of skeptics in the film and I don’t like the fact that these films are perpetuating the idea of exorcisms being true, a lot of people are not seeking medical help because they believe in exorcisms. I’m sorry people, but there are no such things as ghosts and it’s important to remember that with the Enfield case that a lot of people at the time believed it to be a hoax and having listened to a lot of the tape recordings and photos of the time which seem fake I happen to subscribe to the opinion that it is a complete hoax.

Mother’s Day is directed by Pretty Woman director, Gary Marshall, who you might remember creating other films that make you want to gouge your eyes out, like, The Princess Diaries, Valentines Day and the awful New Years Eve. This is a film not to be confused with the Troma film or the horror remake made by Brett Ratner, this is a romantic comedy that pains me to know that it exists. I firmly believe this is going to end up on my worst films of 2016 list, it was that awful. The film has no laughs in it, except for the blooper reel at the end, yes, that’s a good sign, the blooper reel was funnier than the film!!! It was written awfully, conflicts are bought up and then resolved with absolutely no effort whatsoever. The performances are terrible. The cast is completely slumming it and parts that are written so awful, you wouldn’t believe and the plot was agonising. This was an awful film to watch and I think that people will say, you are not the target demographic for it but frankly I think Women should feel insulted that studio executives think this is good enough for them. Women deserve better films marketed for them and I cannot believe this came out on the same day that When Marnie Was There did, and made more money that week. I hated this movie and if I ever see Jack Whitehall in the street, I am going to make him apologise for it!!! Avoid at all costs!

The Boss on the other hand is another comedy starring Melissa McCarthy and is from the same team that brought you Tammy, however, this one is not as bad as that film, but again it really doesn’t raise any laughs whatsoever, except a slightly awkward performance from Peter Dinkcavage who really should know better than to be in this sort of a film. It’s not very funny, it’s basically another Melissa McCarthy comedy, but not one of the good ones like Spy or The Heat or Bridesmaids, and thankfully I just didn’t care about this film, it was just boring, drab, the jokes weren’t funny, in fact I found a couple of them hugely offensive and I just wanted to be done with it. Avoid this one too.

Gods of Egypt, wow, just wow, this was awful on every conceivable level, it gets nothing right. The film cost 140 million dollars and it clearly isn’t showing the effects, which are crap and I am certain for that reason alone it was made with bad money. It was an awful inconsistent plot with a horrible script. The actors give horrid performances and are terribly mis cast and there are a ton of white actors playing Egyptians, aside from that everyone puts on a terrible British accent. The effects are inconsistent from scene to scene, the action is terrible. I hated this film. This is a damming indictment of where Blockbusters are going and the fact that the director of this film, who also directed I Robot, had the nerve to have a go at critics, calling them vultures, for daring to negatively review this film is rich because frankly this film deserves every negative backlash it can get. It is an awful piece of work and Mark Kermode said it best, you have to remember, vultures don’t eat living breathing things, they eat dead rotten things, so yes, for that reason alone, I would be glad to join the vultures on that one. It’s just awful, this is a bomb in every sense of the word and you can tell as people are watching it that people are going to lose their jobs over this and this will probably be joining Mother’s Day on my worst film list.

“So, what are your thoughts on The Secret Life of Pets, or any of the other films I saw?”

Well I think I should probably do a live action film next, especially considering that after the next film I am reviewing another animated film. Join me on 7 July where I will be reviewing Roland Emericks, Independence Day Resurgence, a film 20 years in the making and no one knows why they wanted it.

Thanks for reading my review I hope you enjoyed reading it as much as I enjoyed writing it.

My next review is out earlier is because I will be going on Holiday in July so we will be on a 2 week break after that.

Thank goodness for Secret Life of Pets, because after those other awful films, this was so welcoming,

Calvin – Nerd Consultant

“WHEN MARNIE WAS THERE”

Everyone who reads my reviews regularly already knows that I am a huge Studio Ghibli fan and I consider their collection of films to be my favourite series of films, which meant that this is the film I have really been looking forward to seeing this year, though at the same time I didn’t want to see it as this film has been billed as the one to be the final one for the studio. On one hand, you are hoping they go out on a high and all good things must come to an end, but really, even with a 30 year history, it still feels too soon.

The film is based on a British novel by Joan G Robinson, which I haven’t read so I will be reviewing the film on its own merits, though I did give the book as a present to Dr Buchan and when she sees the film on DVD she will be commenting on whether, like ‘Howl’s Moving Castle’ it’s a loose adaptation or a more faithful adaptation. By the way, how many of you realise that Howl’s Moving Castle was based on a book? There are differences in that film between the book and film, but I am not going to go into that here. The Dom already did that on YouTube and did a much better job than I could have done.

The film itself has been directed by Hiromasa Yonebayashi who studied in the animation department under Hayao Miyazaki and has only previously directed one film The Secret World of Arrietty, which was simply called Arrietty over here and I made sure to re-watch the film which was clearly a big hit considering it is the highest grossing opening weekend for a first time director in Japan. You know what, Arrietty may not be the best Studio Ghibli film, but it’s at least strong and really holds up. The difference between this film and that one is that Yonebayashi had Miyazaki co-write the screenplay, which he doesn’t have for this film. Yonebayashi himself makes his writing debut and co-writes the screenplay with fellow animation department member Masashi Ando along with regular Studio Ghibli collaborator Keiko Niwa who co-wrote the screenplay for this film along with From Up on Poppy Hill, The Secret World of Arrietty and Tales From Earthsea, yet another film that is based on an English novel but again, I haven’t read the books.

When you go into a film like this, you go in with a great amount of expectation which you hope to be kept, but you don’t want it to cloud your judgement on the film because you think all films deserve a fair shot and that was my mind set going into it, but it’s very difficult with something like Studio Ghibli which even at their worst, still come out with something brilliant. But the big question is, ‘was this film a good way for Studio Ghibli to go out and does the source material survive the shift from Norfolk to Hokkaido?’

After suffering an Asthma attack Anna (played by Hailee Steinfeld) is sent by her foster mother to stay with her relatives Kiyomase and Setsu (played by John C Reilly and Grey Griffin) to recover. She still find that she doesn’t fit in this environment any more than her environment at home and while she may be feeling physically better, she is not fairing much better emotionally due to a situation back home and her constant feelings of isolation. It, however, changes when she comes across a mansion in the marshes, which appears inactive much of the time, however a girl from her dreams, Marnie (played by Kiernan Shipka) suddenly appears. The two form a bond with one another out of the necessity that they have for each other and so they try to help each other out in dealing with their problems, however, not everything seems completely right and there is a great mystery here and Anna isn’t quite sure exactly who Marnie is.

Yonebayashi should have a really hard time adapting this source material, however, I wasn’t looking at the film in that sense, in fact for a large portion of the film I completely forgot that this was based on an English novel. I don’t know whether this is a faithful adaptation or if quite a few liberties have been taken (the only major change being the all of the names have been changed to Japanese names to fit the environment with the exception of Anna and Marnie), but I don’t care either way because this film was just fantastic. It does everything that great Studio Ghibli films do in one space. The film has been sold on the image of Anna and Marnie and that is the correct way to sell the film because the film is really about those two and the deep love and bond they share with each other, they seem like complete kindred spirits. Yonebayashi manages to not only do this through amazing dialogue, but through beautiful imagery and he goes into loving detail over giving the perfect facial expressions and allowing the characters to show real emotion most of the time. As usual, for a Studio Ghibli film, we take characters that seem very simple at first, but give them excellent character arcs and by the end we love the characters, and I loved all of these characters so much. You could have possibly have tricked me into thinking I was watching a Miyazaki film, however, unlike Miyazaki, Yonebayashi tends to be a more grounded director as we saw in Arrietty and further in this. That being said, this isn’t exactly a slice of life story, this isn’t Whispers of the Heart, it sort of holds the middle ground between whispers of the heart story and the all out insane imagery of say, Spirited Away. That isn’t to say that this film doesn’t use it’s imagery very well, in fact there is a lot of visual story telling in this film and it has some of the best of flashbacks I have ever seen, they are so good and convey the story so well. As usual, the main characters is where this films lies. Studio Ghibli is very good at this and despite the fact that Marnie is in the title, I think Anna is really the main character. As we see the entire film from her perspective and she has the most important character arc. I have to admit that Anna is one of the best Studio Ghibli heroines. She may be a very depressed young woman initially but she is not a character that is so depressed throughout most of the film that she ends comes off being incredibly selfish and emo to such an extent that we can’t relate to her and find her more annoying than endearing. That definitely is not the case here. Anna has every right to feel the way she feels. Without going into too much detail, because I think the trailers don’t give away too much and I don’t want to reveal beyond what is revealed in the trailer, Anna has great loss in her life and she constantly fears further loss as a result. You just feel for this girl constantly, she doesn’t really have any friends and she feels constantly isolated. It is summed up very well in a line at the beginning of the film which appears in the trailer, ‘in this world there is a magic circle, some are inside, some are outside, and I am outside’. In many other films I would describe this as being a very pretentious line, you know those sorts of films where directors constantly wave their arms saying ‘ask me what it means?’, but in this film it feels very natural and organic and sums up the character perfectly. You really feel like you go through something with her. That’s not to say I didn’t love the other characters. The support cast are really great. While not all of them get as much time as the others, which is good, because I am getting sick of seeing films where the supporting cast take up too much time from the main characters, this one gets the right balance. Everyone does their job and everyone feels like they add to the movie. I can only see this film as having cut out a couple of characters including one character who is really a waste of a Kathy Bates cameo.

The real strength of this movie is the relationship between Anna and Marnie. I loved these two on screen, the best moments of the film are the moments when the two of them share scenes together. The dialogue is natural, the chemistry is fantastic, you really believe these are two young girls who share a deep affection and are discovering their first true friendship despite the fact that both feel as if they don’t belong. It’s really touching at times and you really feel like you go through something with the Characters and by the end you root for them.

There is also a mystery element to the film around what exactly Marnie is and everything that is going on throughout the film, which is where we get one of the side characters that I really enjoyed, however, I won’t go into too much detail about her because I don’t want to give away too much, but here’s to say, she is adorable and infectious and it does feel like she contributes to the plot, mainly because she helps try to solve the mystery. The mystery, however, initially doesn’t feel that important because you feel like it takes away from the relationship and the two of them, but by the end, it all makes sense and it really hammers home what makes this film so good, it’s the loving connections between the main characters.

I must admit, I did kind of see a couple of the twists coming, but unlike many films, when I have seen it coming, this didn’t feel like it detracted, in fact it’s what gave the film the brilliant life firming conclusion that just warmed my heart and just for writing that, I have to hand my testicles in! But I don’t care, it was worth it!!

Not everything was actually explained in the film, but again, for once, it doesn’t really matter because if they had gone too far into more explanation, the film would have been too much exposition and it would have detracted rather than added to the film. There is just enough in here and just enough implied that it gets the point across and does what it needs to do. At the end of the day, it’s not entirely important to know everything, because everything important we do know. I am not going to lie, this is one the most engaging plots of any of the Studio Ghibli films, it really is up there with the best of them in that sense. Initially, it doesn’t start out amazing, but then again, I remember other Studio Ghibli films not starting out amazing, but when it gets into it and finds its stride you will be fixated on the screen and not want to take your eye off it and it made me kind of annoyed that there was only about 15 of us in the screening I saw. There should be more people seeing this film, it’s the type of film we don’t tend to get in Cinemas anymore. A truly life affirming film that never talks down to its audience and never feels the need to cheapen the material to get in the big crowd. It’s just a lovely story of two friends who make each other feel better just by being together and the deep connection that they share. In a sense it’s kind of what Studio Ghibli does the “One Unforgettable Summer” film; however, don’t take that to mean you can substitute it with any of those other films. This one stands head and shoulders above them, because unlike many of those films you really get a sense that this summer has changed Anna for the better and this really will be unforgettable.

The plot is great, I don’t care how faithful an adaptation it is, it’s a great movie. When this film comes out on DVD I may give the Dom a few dosh on his patreon account, just so he will do an episode on it, but as I said earlier, Dr Buchan is going to give her thoughts on the DVD and I will do a post of Facebook when she does so you can see what she thinks. It’s another great plot from Studio Ghibli, and once again it’s down to the loving craft that these animators give and they never forget that you can have great imagery and animation, but it means nothing if your story sucks, and believe me, this story will pull at your heart strings, but will make you feel happy at the end and trust me, that’s the kind of movie I love to watch.

As for the cast, for the purpose of this review, my screening was in the English dub. The film is available in its original Japanese with subtitles and in the English language version that has been licensed by Studio Canal, but I believe it was a combination between Disney and Gkids that licensed it in America. I haven’t seen the film in its original Japanese so I can’t comment on that, however, I am well aware if you have read this review, which is a week after its release, or if you plan to see it after this review, you will more likely have seen it in its original Japanese as many cinemas were only offering the subtitle version of the film. I think it’s unfair for cinemas to insist on showing the film in Japanese with subtitles, I think there are good English dubs out there for anime and Studio Ghibli films really are some of the best and have real love and care put into them and the option should be there for either way. I personally prefer to watch dubbed anime because of my complications with Dyslexia, I don’t find it impossible to watch films in that format, however, if a dub is available I like it because I feel I can just sit back and enjoy the movie and don’t have to worry too much. This is another fantastic dub. The stand out performances, as you would expect are Hailee Steinfeld, who is on a career high, and Kiernan Shipka who gives another fantastic performance and I didn’t even realise it was her. Seriously I have watched all 4 seasons of Legend of Korra, she played Jinora in that series who is one of my favourite characters and I was accustomed to her voice, but I seriously didn’t realise it was her, both girls really nailed the roles and they have fantastic on screen chemistry, both of them should be really proud of themselves. Incidentally Ava Acres also gave an excellent performance and is seriously good in this role. Most Ghibli dubs are very good at taking actors who are very well known and giving them great direction so you don’t even realise it’s them, in fact you often have to have an IMDB page open when you are watching a Ghibli film in the dub, however, there is usually one cast member who you instantly recognise, in this case it’s John C Reilly, but he is playing a minor role, and he’s not on screen too often and even then he is not that distracting. He does seem the weirdest casting though as his voice doesn’t quite match up to his characters design. Grey Griffin is a lot more on screen in this film than Reilly anyway and does an excellent performance as well. A couple of the cameos though feel a bit off, especially Kathy Bates who for such a talented actress, really should have been put to better use and despite the fact that she wasn’t on screen too much, I really did enjoy Vanessa Williams, who, again is really unrecognisable here. As usual the dub cast is fantastic in this film and they all do brilliant jobs, but the stand out performances are Hailee Steinfeld and Kiernan Shipka, if those performances weren’t outstanding, I would be recommending you see the film in the Japanese version, despite not having seen that, however, having said that, if your area is offering the dub, it is worth it. I would also suggest that if you have young children who want to see this movie, you would probably be better off with the dubbed version, however, I discovered when I went to see The Boy and The Beast, young children can keep up with subtitles a lot better than many critics and myself give them credit for. I am man enough to admit when I am wrong on something.

As for the animation? It’s Studio Ghibli, what do you think? Unlike The Tale of The Princess Kaguya, which I previously reviewed where the animation style was radically different, this has gone back to a much more traditional Studio Ghibli style of animation. It’s still hand drawn, of course not totally hand drawn because computers do still play a part in hand drawn films now, but the beauty still stands out. It may not look a polished as some of the Miyazaki films like, The Wind Rises or Howl’s Moving Castle, but you still feel the real love with the imagery and they find incredible ways to tell the story for the visuals alone which so many animated films now forget to do. It kind of looks like one of those more classic Ghibli films at time, however, there is still some real modern charm to it and many of the scenes of the village look like they were lovingly sketched or painted, which fits in the the themes of Anna being a sketch artist and one of the women she meets being a painter.

If there is another great thing to talk about with this film, it’s the character designs. The character designs are just brilliant, especially Marnie’s design which seems to have the most effort put into it, Anna has a good design as well, though, the only thing I have discussed with Dr Buchan after showing her the trailer and the posters for this film, she said that she didn’t believe Anna was described as being as tom boyish in the novel as she appears in the film, although she admits she may have been wrong on that which would mean this would be the only thing I can confirm might have been changed in translation.

Another great part of this film is the film’s music score. They may not have been written by regular Studio Ghibli composer Joe Hisaishi, but the score written by Takatsugu Muramatsu is still fantastic and for the love of god, the theme song, Fine On The Outside by Priscilla Ahn, should have been nominated for best original song at the Oscars, I know it was never going to beat Writings on the Wall by Sam Smith, but for goodness sake it deserved a nomination way more than Earned It by The Weekend from Fifty Shades of Grey.

I know it was obvious, but I loved When Marnie Was There. I loved it so much, this film was so fantastically written, so fantastically animated and it was a joy to experience. I loved the characters, the story line was great and engaging the mood is set perfectly. The characters are designed brilliantly, it’s just an all round excellent film and it doesn’t appear that too much has been lost in translation between Britain and Japan.

If this is to be the final film from Studio Ghibli, they are going out on a high because this film was excellent and really should have won the Oscar for Best Animated Film. I liked Inside Out but for goodness sake, this film was way better. This is just a lovely movie, I cannot recommend it enough if it is playing in your area and it doesn’t matter which format you see it in because the dub cast do an excellent job with their performances and I am certain the Japanese cast do an excellent job too from what I have heard. It’s up there with the best Studio Ghibli movies, like Spirited Away, Howl’s Moving Castle, The Wind Rises and many others. It really deserves to be in with them.

When I left the cinema I was both happy and sad because I knew this was the last time I got to see a new Studio Ghibli film in the cinema and while I am glad to have seen a great movie, I am sad to see this studio go because I know there will probably never be a collective group of creators like them in my lifetime. It was just amazing and it’s fighting out for my Best Film for 2016 with Captain America Civil War and The Witch.

Well now it’s time for me to talk about the other films I have seen this week.

I did see Ninja Turtles 2, but that’s my review for next week so I will discuss that then. Other than that I saw Psychic School Wars, Me Before You and The Nice Guys.

Psychic School Wars is another anime movie that has been released by Anime Limited and I have rather mixed feelings on it. While it does tell an interesting story, it never quite fleshes it out fully and I felt like it was one of those films that had enough going on in it, it was engaging but not enough to completely fall in love with it. It was a pretty good movie and the gorgeous animation alone is worth the price of admission, give this one a try if you like anime.

Me Before You is another film that leaves me with mixed feelings. While it is a cheesy romance story that I am not the target audience for, I at least gave it a good go and I thought it was doing an alright job up until it bought in the euthanasia sub plot that felt incredibly out of place and whilst admirable to try and put in the ‘right to die message’ it didn’t feel like it was handled well and I have to agree with Film Brain’s review of it, like 7 Pounds it does send out an alarming message by the end of the film, which, despite the fact that I believe people should have the right to die when they choose, I wasn’t sure that this film quite got it right.

The Nice Guys, well this is a film I really can recommend. It may lose itself in the 3rd act, but this was a really fun, funny movie and it’s made even better by Ryan Gosling, who I am convinced at to this point can do no wrong, and Russel Crowe who also gives a fantastic performance and their chemistry is fantastic. The film oozes in the 70s and Shane Black who writes and directs the film does an excellent job. It’s everything you would expect of a comedy written by the writer of Lethal Weapon and the director of Iron Man 3.

“What were your thoughts, did you agree with me?”

Thanks for reading my review, I hope you enjoyed reading it as much as I enjoyed writing it and as much as I enjoyed watching this film and I have got two points at the end of this:

• Since I am changing my Oscar pick from Inside Out to When Marnie was there I am now down from 9 awards to 8, go back and read my oscar picks for more details on that one.
• Don’t go Studio Ghibli, please, we love you.

Calvin – Nerd Consultant

“WARCRAFT”

I mentioned a few weeks ago when I reviewed the Angry Birds movie that video game movies don’t tend to do well and are usually reviled by general audiences, critics and gamers alike and I think that’s down to various factors. In the old days when we were having adaptations like the Mario Bros or Streetfighter the video game companies weren’t involved in the project or the directors and writers simply didn’t understand the source material and simply took the idea and put their own story to it. You can write that excuse as long as you want to, but really the problem with half these films were that they had poor scripts and poor direction and I think that’s lately down to the latter, but that excuse won’t stand any more because video games are a lot more prevalent in the popular consciousness and more people play them than ever and that’s nowhere more true than with World of Warcraft, the most massive online role playing game ever invented, with millions of subscribers from all over the world. It’s no surprise then that film studios have been beating down the doors to get film rights to the franchise considering if just all of those people buy 1 ticket, they are quids in. I’m pretty sure one of the proviso’s for this film being created was from Blizzard Entertainment, the company who make the Warcraft games was that they would be involved in the production, which they are, but I’m not sure how much they have been genuinely involved in the film’s production overall.

Warcraft certainly has a long history and a really fantastic lore and back story. Despite it being the first major game to get a large following, it was not the first game in the series, there have been 3 games prior to this that set up this world and several myths and legends which still exist in the World of Warcraft game today. Add on to that expanded Universe novels and comic series, this thing is rife with the idea of an expanded franchise, so much so that in the UK it’s been re-named Warcraft The Beginning, which I personally find to be a bit of an arrogant title just because there is tons to base the story on doesn’t mean you are guaranteed a sequel.

I actually saw the trailers for this last year, including a very impressive trailer before Star Wars which got me hyped to see the movie, because this one looked like they were finally going to get a video game movie right. That, plus the film was being directed by Duncan Jones, who may not have directed a film for a while, but his last film 2011 Source Code was a film that I really liked and I would recommend it along with Moon, his film prior to that one. That, plus he has been heavily involved in the process, so this is his ‘baby’. Duncan Jones has promised us that this will be the first ever ‘great video game movie’, but here’s the thing, can he keep that promise?

OK, let’s get one thing clear, there are not going to be any spoilers in this review, but in order to get a few of my points across, I am going to have to hint at a few spoilers, without actually saying what they are, apologies, I really didn’t think there was any other way of reviewing this film. Right, let’s get on with the plot.

The Orc’s home world is dying, in order to find a new land, warlord Guldan (played by Daniel Wu) opens a portal to the world of Azaroth in order to conquer it for the future of the Orc species, however, Tribal Chief Durotan, (played by Toby Kebbell believes that the Guldan and his magic is causing more problems for the Orc’s than they can afford and insists that an alliance is formed with the humans. This leads to him attempting to corner a line and take down Guldan and have peace between humans and Orcs.

Ok, where do I start with this one because this film really has a lot of issues. First off the major problem is that are way too many characters in this film and adding to that is that the film makers seem to think that about 4 or 5 of these are main characters so as a result the film doesn’t know which character to focus on at any one time and we constantly go back and forth between them. They all feel at least a bit under characterized, some more than others. I suppose they are saving more for sequels, but that leads to another problem, many of these characters aren’t going to be showing up in sequels. I’m not even going to talk about which characters I found the most interesting or who I though got the best character arcs since one of them isn’t even going to be showing up in any of the planned sequels. That being said, however, Warcraft actually does start off rather promising. The opening segments of the film really leads you to believe this is going to be a really good film and it shows a ton of promise, it’s unfortunate then when the whole thing starts to go downhill towards the end and that’s mainly because the plot is all over the place. Duncan Jones has really let his ambition take over his sense of a flowing narrative. He clearly wants this to be a massive epic involved with several films, something akin to Lord of The Rings or Game of Thrones. The problems is those films, or in the case of Game of Thrones a TV series, have a lot more time than this film to build their cast and their characters and build it’s world, but even if they did have this amount of time they would have built a lot stronger foundation for things to come. The Fellowship of The Ring may have a few issues but it laid the groundwork pretty well and got me to care about the characters, so as a result I felt the need to come back for Two Towers and Return of The King. This one, however, I really didn’t care by the end of the film because it was so over the place and it doesn’t feel like there has been much effort made to completely tell the story in its first chapter, which every good epic does.

Star Wars for example told a complete story, ok not a complete story, but it felt by the end of the film something had been accomplished and we wanted to come back to see where these characters were going. The same with Lord of the Rings, which is probably a fairer comparison. The Fellowship of The Ring made you feel like some things had been accomplished, some things were left un-told and it struck a good balance. This one just leaves way too much un-told for its hopeful sequels and it doesn’t seem to understand that every great epic is built on good foundations. Marvel just didn’t go straight to The Avengers, they created films and supporting casts for Iron man, Captain America and so on, so as a result, when we finally got to The Avengers it felt necessarily epic and we had reason to care. This film, I really just didn’t care by the end. Not to mention the film makes a few stumbling blocks as it’s going along. The characters constantly change motivation at various parts in the film, almost sporadically. The most interesting characters get the best character plot arcs, for example I really was investing in the Orcs story arcs than I was with the humans story arcs which felt like they had more weight and ambiguity and used excellent themes of fathers and sons, honour, redemption and the thin line of war and peace. All of these themes are at least somewhat competently done which is why it’s so frustrating that it doesn’t create a satisfying whole, but I’m not going to say more because that would be giving away too much but let’s just say they are either under-utilised or insignificant considering that they won’t be showing up for any sequels. I don’t want to harp on at the fact that they are saving so much for the sequels except for the fact that this film, here in the UK, is called the beginning! It clearly has no intention of being a complete story, just an over long prologue for the eventual story and that’s no way to make a film.

For fans the ending makes it seem like the next film is going to be a lot more of the same!! Why!! There are a ton of stories to base this on. I honestly thought that the whole plot was going to be resolved by the end of this movie and we would be moving on to a different plot lines for the coming sequels, but as I mentioned, the ending of this film suggests the complete opposite, we are going to be stuck with this plot for a while!! So fans that want to see characters like The Lytch King, won’t be getting what they want. Oh, and there’s a plot twist halfway through the movie in which they attempt to make it seem shocking, but there’s absolutely no possibility it can be because they completely bodge it by hinting at it through the entire movie, so it will surprise absolutely no one. Yeah the obviously evil guy is evil THIS ISN’T MUCH OF A TWIST!

The fortunate thing I can say about this film is that it’s never dull, this is not a dull movie. It may make a lot of errors, but a no point was I bored watching it and I didn’t hate this film, I just found it disappointing . There are some rare moments of genius here and it is an enjoyable ride if you don’t think about it too much. Some of the characters get amazing story arcs that could have potentially been great. Some of them get predictable ones, that don’t really work out and are the worst part of the film and end up dragging everything down, but those rare moments of brilliance made me feel like this could have been great and it just isn’t. This plot is not good enough for the fans and it’s not going to draw anyone in otherwise. I’m certain there will be people who think this is a good plot , but I’m just not one of them and I think it was the ending that lost it for me. So to clarify, there are parts of this film that I genuinely enjoy but because of the way I have been conducting this review so far I can’t really bring a lot up because it would be giving away too much and I didn’t want to spoil this film for people who are considering going to see it and despite the fact I’ve complained about the incomplete story I would be willing to give a chance on a sequel.

As for the cast, well I really don’t feel like doing much of a going through them because none of the premise really stand out. They are all just rather satisfactory. Although I will point out that one of the Orc’s is played by Robert Kazinsky who yet again is a former Eastender’s actor appearing in a big American action film although this time the Director actually gives him something to do and he does a decent performance. The best performance, by far, was Toby Kebbell, who I feel so sorry for because he is clearly giving an excellent performance, but it should have been for a much better film and he has now gone 2 for 2 with this and Fantastic 4, films that should have worked and have not worked in his favour. I wasn’t really a fan of Ben Foster’s performance, I did enjoy Travis Fimmel for the most part though. Dominic Cooper doesn’t look particularly bothered by his performance in fact it seems like he is counting down the seconds until he gets to be in Preacher again. By the way, if you have an Amazon Prime account, watch Preacher, I have only just watched the first episode and it’s fantastic. Daniel Wu plays a pretty one dimensional villain and it’s a good performance, but it’s not a difficult performance for him to pull off. The same goes for Clancy Brown playing Blackhand who one again does a decent job, but then again, that’s because he’s Clancy Brown and he’s good and memorable in terrible things. Other than that there’s no really interesting members of the cast, though I will admit I enjoyed Paula Patton’s performance as Garona. Ben Schnetzer is one of the worst as he’s clearly out of his depth with this role though I think there’s room for him to improve.

Aesthetically is where this film shines completely. This doesn’t look like a Game of Thrones or a Lord of the Rings rip off. This looks like a Warcraft movie. In every sense at all times, I felt like I was watching a Warcraft movie. Blizzard really must have had most of the control here because they have made sure that this films looks and feels like their games and they really bring it to life in a brilliant way. This is the best aspect of the film The music score is also pretty good but I don’t think it holds a candle to the fantastic music scores that the games have had. Seriously go and buy the concert ‘Video Games Live 2” it’s a really great concert that involves an Orchestra teaming up with a Rock Band to play songs from video game scores and when you get the the World of Warcraft segment you can really tell how amazing the music that was composed for it was.

The fights scenes are also pretty damm good and a lot of effort has clearly been put into them and there’s not a lot of reliance on tricks to pull it off, plus I think the motion capture for the Orcs is pretty damm good and there are some really good effects all around. So the effects have no fault to them? Wrong! The effects are great and the backgrounds are all great for the most part until the live action actors appear and then some of the backgrounds tend to feel very fakey because this film is very reliant on CGI and green screens. Some look better than others and there’s clearly been some good on location shoots that have gone very well, but the fact of the matter is you can tell half the time this has been entirely green screened, to such an extent, I think they could have gone the whole hog and had all the humans been motion capture and made this a whole motion capture animated film, it probably would have looked better as a result.

I saw the film in 3D and it was actually pretty good in that format, it did have a few hiccups where I thought the 3D didn’t really benefit but for the most part the film makers know how to shoot good 3D. I would say if you enjoy seeing films in 3D then go and see this one in that format, but I suspect the 2D version is perfectly serviceable.

Did I hate Warcraft? No. Did I like it? No. I’m just disappointed in it. This could have been a great film, it had all the potential for that, but it doesn’t work due to its poor pacing, poor characterisation and an ending which had a fight scene that was so laughably boring and it felt like the film ended on a bum note and that the sequel is just going to be rather more of the same rather than expanding the story. The film tries to be an amazing epic but it doesn’t build up its world and characters before it tries to go into that and all the character revelations and twists are really things that the majority of which should have been saved for the 2nd movie of this proposed trilogy. As it stands, however, it’s a bit of a mess. The performances aren’t great with the exception of a couple of the Orc actors, the effects are very good and reflect the video game well but are wasted because they don’t blend well with the live action actors and I just didn’t buy into this story entirely. It’s a real shame because when you take all the Hollywood adaptations of video game movies, this one is still the best, but that’s just because the bar has been set so horribly low. It’s really only there by default. This is the best one and I still don’t think it’s good. I’m certain fans will get something out of this, and just seeing these environments realised on the big screen will probably give them some joy, but I don’t judge a film by its aesthetics. I judge it by the story and the characters it gives me as well and this film wasn’t good enough with the exception of the Orcs who I thought were ok for the most part. It’s so concerned about building up an epic trilogy that it forgets to get its first part down completely. Maybe Assassins Creed will recover things for the video game films when it comes out on Boxing Day, but for now we are still stuck with the bad reputation the Genre has.

As for other films I have seen between this film and X Men Apocolypse, I saw two, Sing Street and Alice Through The Looking Glass.

Sing Street is a fantastic film. While it may not be that original, it’s not that different to most of the Directors previous credits, it’s still a damm good movie. I really liked the characters and the story and the main characters relationships with the other characters really sold the film, along with the very well written music with songs that reflect the 80’s which there film is set in. I really recommend this one, it’s a lovely little film that will warm the heart strings, even if it is a little predictable. But, hey, a bit of predictability is sometimes quite a good thing because it provides a sense of comfort.

Alice Through The Looking Glass, however, is a much worse film than Warcraft, just simply on the fact that it has no substance whatsoever. This is the film equivalent to eating a fast food burger, it’s just empty calories and it doesn’t taste of anything!! This film is so pointless and padded and it has no reason to exist, which is why it’s so poorly written and goes into way too much detail about the characters and back story and tells a plot that no one could get interested in, plus the effects were terrible. There was literally no reason for this film to exist, there have been very few points this year where I felt like I was wasting my time at a cinema screen. Avoid this film at all costs because I don’t want another of these films coming along in 5-6 years, and before you ask, No I didn’t like Tim Burton’s Alice In Wonderland, I already made that clear in my Big Eye’s review.

So what are your thoughts on Warcraft or the other 2 films I have just mentioned? Do you agree or disagree with me? Please leave your comments, I welcome all opinions.

Well this week wasn’t so good but I think next week things will pick up because I review what may be the final film from Studio Ghibli, the Oscar Nominated “When Marnie Was There”. This film has only come out today and has a limited time release, please if it is playing in your area, go and see it because I want to show film makers that this is the kind of film we like. This could be your last chance to see a Studio Ghibli film in a cinema. Do not miss out on it, this studio has given so much joy to people that I think they deserve a great send off

Thanks for reading my review, I hope you enjoyed reading it as much as I enjoyed writing it.

Since the last 2 films I have seen in cinemas feel rather commercial and to a sense soulless, if you don’t have a comment on them, leave a comment on some of your favourite Studio Ghibli memories and I may try to put a couple of them in my next review or in a future review because we need a great send off for this fabulous studio.

Calvin – Nerd Consultant

“GHOST IN THE SHELL: THE NEW MOVIE”

Yes that really is the title, but this is not to be confused with the upcoming live action film that will star Scarlett Johanson and will be coming out next year, which I intend to review upon its release.

Ghost in the Shell is a science fiction film based on a Manga of the same title which is not that well known amongst a Western audience, but for the Japanese and fans of anime it’s a bonafide classic, with very good reason. It’s an excellent science fiction film in fact I would near say it’s my favourite science fiction film and probably one of my favourite movies. The original film depicts a dystopian future where humanity is so broken that pretty much everyone has some sort of cybernetic implants of some sort, with its main character, Major Matoko Kusanagi being what’s known as a full prosthetic, a human with a completely artificial body with the only human part intact being the brain, which even then still has cybernetic implants. I could go into this film all day about the fact the film had themes of feminism, the nature of existence, identity, exploration and even things to do with the spin offs, like the stand alone complex which went into further detail with these themes, and even some scenes in the second season which have scenes which mirror the current refugee crisis, but I don’t feel I would do it a service, I think you should just go out and watch the movie and both seasons of stand alone complex. They are very easy to get hold of, in fact you can get both seasons of Stand Alone Complex on iTunes. If you really want a comprehensive look at the film, check out Bennett The Sage’s review, he does a much better job than I ever could, I will actually leave a link to it HERE don’t worry, his video contains no spoilers so if you are curious about the movie but don’t know whether you want to purchase it, it’s a good video to start on.

This latest incarnation, however, may have received a mainstream release in select cinemas in the USA but it did not make its way over to the UK outside of film festivals, being released at ‘Scotland Loves Anime” which should be re-titled, ‘every anime film you want to watch next year’ as well as a couple of other festivals including the upcoming BFI Anime weekend, this weekend. So, if you are in the London area or fancy a trip to London you can see it there, along with several other films that look fairly decent, though, be warned, there are no screenings of the films in English dub, so you will have to watch all the films in Japanese with sub-titles which I know isn’t for everyone.

I am a huge fan of all things ‘Ghost in the Shell’ and I think the stories are excellent sci-fi but I really feel like this film was being made to just bridge the gap before we get to the live action film, plus it’s a way of Manga Entertainment covering themselves saying, well if the live action film sucks, at least we got something out of it that was good. I assume that most of the people who are reading this review are familiar with Ghost In The Shell and the Stand Alone Complex so I am going to be making a lot of references to terminology and characters in the film and there won’t be any restraint on spoilers, so if you haven’t seen the film or both TV series this is your last chance, there will be spoilers about them, though I won’t be spoiling the plot of this movie.

Ghost In The Shell: The New Movie, takes place in the year 2027 following the end of the non-nuclear World War IV. A bomb has gone off in Newport City, Japan killing the Prime Minister and a major arms dealer. Major Matoko Kusanagi (played by Elizabeth Maxwell) investigates the case with her squad following the death of her friend Koratsu (played by Mary Elizabeth McGuin) however, the case uncovers a conspiracy of mind-hacking murder and Matoko has a body double wandering around committing terrorism in her name. I don’t want to go into too much detail in this film because, despite the fact that this is one of the longest films in the Ghost In The Shell series, running at a total of 1hr 40mins, I think it will be better for people to go in not knowing too much since the major crux of the film is the investigation itself. Despite the fact that one of the co-directors of this film is Kazuchico Kizai who directed the original film he is joined by up and coming director Kaziu Mamora and I feel like his influence was more on the film since this feels a lot more like Stand Alone Complex than the original Ghost In The Shell and it will be interesting to see what people’s opinions will be as I believe Stand Along Complex has mixed reactions since it was much more of an action anime more than the film it was based upon.

The best way I can describe this film is ‘Ghost In The Shell’ was a philosophical film that happened to have action in it, the new movie is an action movie that happens to have some philosophical discussion in it and even then it’s not that much. Stand Alone Complex has a lot more going on under its surface as the season would roll on and granted, I understand that a 1hr 40min film doesn’t have as much time as the 22 episodes season does, but the original got out a lot more than this with a shorter running time. The investigation just isn’t that interesting and I think it’s mainly down to the villains, they are just not that interesting and they don’t feel much of a threat like, say, The Puppet Master or The Laughing Man did, nor do they feel as anonymous, not helped by the fact that there is a plot twist halfway through the film that I saw coming a mile off! There is some philosophy on the nature of humanity and society, for example there is an interesting idea brought up about people placing their consciousness on a programme similar to the Internet that is named ‘The Third World’ which acts as an allegory for the afterlife so that people’s consciousness’ can still exist, there are also ideas about the nature of prosthetics in this modern society and all sorts of other interesting ideas are brought up, but unlike other incarnations, they never fully develop, they just seem to be there, there are some interesting ideas in this movie, but they just feel under-utilised. The resolution is rather under-whelming, it doesn’t feel like we had a slow build up to this, it just feels like a lot of action set pieces that led to a set conclusion. Granted, this is more of a problem in the first half since the second half fixes most of this but it would have been nice for the film to feel more consistent, though it did manage to keep my attention.

The film is also insistent that you are aware of Ghost In The Shell, despite the fact it’s kind of an origin story with something, I’m not sure what, it might be something to do with Ghost In The Shell Arise, I have heard this is an adaptation of that from a different perspective, I haven’t actually seen Ghost In The Shell Arise, though it still insists that you are aware of terminology, such as The Ghost being a terminology for someone’s consciousness and anyone that is not that familiar with the franchise may find themselves lost, though at this point, why you are watching something called Ghost In The Shell: The New Movie without having seen anything previously, does make me wonder! Other incarnations seem to have some sort of running comedy commentary. The first one was about the nature of humanity, the first season of Stand Alone Complex had some interesting ideas about viruses and biological warfare as well as the ethics of experimentation and the second season of Stand Alone Complex was an interesting commentary on various refugee crisis’ s (which could easily be an allegory for the current one) and the war on terror, though it’s not as unsubtle as it sounds, this one doesn’t have anything like that, it just feels like your typical action sci-fi series that is just there and that’s not something you could say about any of the other films or TV series.

Don’t get me wrong, this still feels like a Ghost In The Shell movie, it still keeps the very thought cade, inspired world, the characters whilst re-designed still look and act like you would expect them to and I daresay they got down a lot of the characters relationships very well, especially Matoko and Batou’s close relationship as well as the camaraderie felt within the group that will eventually become section 9. They are not all brilliant however, Togusa for example is really reduced to the butt of jokes, which is a shame because he was rather interesting and useful in Stand Alone Complex. Chief Aramaki is also rather reduced in his role in this film and he feels more of a hinderance than a help to the plot. There is a lot to enjoy in Ghost In The Shell: The New Movie’s plot, but I don’t think it quite stands up to what we have seen previously in the franchise, it also doesn’t quite explain how it fits into continuity, though maybe thats down to the fact that I haven’t seen everything from the franchise or read everything for that matter.

The new movie also comes with a new cast, it’s the same cast as Ghost In The Shell Arise, which I haven’t seen so I am going to judge their performances on this film alone, and they don’t work for me. Maybe it’s because I am so used to the film and Stand Alone Complex, but I am not really into this cast, at least for the most part. The one who comes out the best is Elizabeth Maxwell as Matoko, who doesn’t start out very well and I was initially thinking that her performance wasn’t as good as Mimi Woods or Mary Elizabeth McGlynn’s performance as the character, but I am not going to lie, she grew into the character and I think she did a pretty good job, though it’s a bit weird that Kuratsu is played by Mary Elizabeth McGlynn so it feels very weird thinking that there are 2 Matoko’s on the screen. I’m also not really a fan of most of the other casting. I’m not too keen on John Swayze as Aramaki who didn’t sound nearly as good in the role as William Knight and Batou feels the weirdest, he is played in this film by Christopher Sabat and he is cast well in the role, but Richard Epcar has played this role until now and it’s very weird to not hear the voice cast by him, especially considering that this was one of Richard Epcar’s most iconic characters, it’s also very weird because he uses the same voice as he does for Picolo in Dragon Ball Z and that’s really distracting. I haven’t seen the film with the performance from the Japanese cast, but I imagine they do their roles slightly better and I think if you prefer seeing films in the sub, it might be worth seeing the film in its original Japanese. The dub cast do a pretty good job but I think fans of previous incarnations will not take too well to the new cast.

As for the animation, it’s fantastic. This is the one thing the film excels at, it’s absolutely great. Even the 3D animation, which I am not really a fan of in anime is integrated pretty well. It simply looks great and the action scenes are also fantastic. They are fast paced and choreographed brilliantly. The film really excels in this department and since so much emphasis is put of the action, that is a hell of a plus. I do think, however that this crisper animation means that Ghost In The Shell has lost a lot of the gritty nature that gave the original film its feel and I have a feeling that it has been slowly lost, especially after Stand Along Complex and here it feels almost non-existent, though we do get a sense of it, as I said, this does feel like a Ghost In The Shell movie.

Ghost In The Shell: The New Movie is basically another entry in the the franchise, though this time I think it’s more passable than it is good. There’s a lot to admire here. The plot has some interesting ideas, even if it doesn’t go completely out with them. The action is well done, the animation looks pretty good and I do kind of enjoy Elizabeth Maxwell in the role of Matoko, I just don’t like her as much as other actors who have played the role. I am not a fan of some of the re-designs, although I will admit, at least this outfit looks more practical than Matoko’s first costume in the Stand Alone Complex and I didn’t really think the plot was as interesting as previous incarnations.

This really should only be approached by Ghost In The Shell fans, I think everyone else should go back and see, Ghost In The Shell, Ghost In The Shell Innocence and both seasons of Stand Alone Complex before they approach this one, because those were all much better, it’s good, but it’s not great and you can only take this one as an action anime and not really much else, which is a shame because I think Ghost In The Shell is much better than that. It is available right now on Blu Ray and DVD and as I mentioned, if you are a fan of this and you are at all curious, it is playing in its original Japanese at BFI, South Bank Greenwich as part of the BFI anime weekend. Like I said, I only recommend this to Ghost In The Shell fans, who I am certain a few will disagree with me on a few points. It’s a good movie, but I wanted this to be GREAT and it just isn’t!

“So what were your thoughts? Did you agree with me or not. I welcome all comments.”

Now it’s time to move on and next week I review the latest in a long line of Hollywood’s attempts to make a film based on a video game, when I review Warcraft, please let this film be good.

Thanks for reading my review, I hope you enjoyed reading it as much as I enjoyed writing it and why are half of sci-fi films based on Philip K Dick’s work or Ridley Scott, take your pick.

Calvin – Nerd Consultant

“X-MEN APOCALYPSE”

Yep another comic movie we’re certainly not short of them this year. Good news for comic fans like me, bad for people getting bored of Superhero movies. I love the X-men movies with the exception of X-men Origins Wolverine they really are not only great representations of the comic it’s based on but are movies that really entertain audiences as evident by the fact that this is the 8th movie in the series if you include The Wolverine movies. My personal belief is the best movies are X-men 1 and 2 as well as First Class and I did enjoy 2014’s Days of Future Passed which benefited greatly from the return of director Bryan Singer, director of the first 2 movies who returns to direct this movie. The significance of Days of Future Past is that it acted to reboot the series and would lead to the possibility of several future movies whilst erasing all the movies with the possible exception of the first.

Ever since the first movie the one question I was asking was: “when will we be getting a movie with Apocalypse” (my first exposure to the character being the animated series). This is the biggest badass villain in the X-Men cannon, the guy that was built up to in all the animated series and when it was announced the next movie would have him in it I was hyped. But could this movie live up to its hype that’s what I attempted to find out.

This film takes place in 1983, Charles Xavier (played by James McAvoy) is still running his school for the gifted, recruiting new students like Scott Summers AKA Cyclops (played by Tye Sheridan), Kurt Wagner AKA Nightcrawler (played by Kodi Smit-McPhee) and Jean Grey (played by Sophie Turner). However Raven AKA Mystique has returned to the school to inform Xaiver that an mutant from ancient eygpt named Apocalypse (played by Oscar Isaac) has returned and is planning to purge the world of all humans and weak mutants. And to top it off he’s recruited 4 horsemen to back him up including Erik Lehnsherr AKA Magneto (played by Michael Fassbender) following a personal tragedy. Can these new X-men defeat what is one of their toughest opponents to date?

There are some very enjoyable moments in this movie but unfortunately it’s not a total success. The film has some great set up and the first portion really succeeds however it struggles to get the balancing act completely and as a result several aspects of the film feel underdeveloped. Since the ending of Day’s Of Future Past’s ending caused the series to reboot the film has to juggle a lot of plot lines to re set up the series, several characters have plot lines going on from the previous 2 movies, several characters from the previous continuity have to be reintroduced with all new character arcs most of which feel like retreads from the previous continuity and we have to establish several factors of the plot that happen between movies since there’s been a 10 year time gap since Days Of Future Passed. While this film isn’t as confused and complicated as Batman V Superman but a lot of the sub plots feel a bit underutilized or even unnecessary. Now the other movies did have slight issues with juggling all their plots but I felt like this movie didn’t quiet manage it completely.

It’s not as if the film didn’t have enough time to give a full and tightknit plot, the films 2 and half hours long and in that time it feels like it’s tried too much and hasn’t had as much focus. The biggest example of this is a portion in the middle of the film where a few of the X-men are captured by Cornel Stryker taken to the Weapon X Facility (the massive military base from the second movie) and Cyclops, Jean Grey and Nightcrawler have to bust them out. This sequence goes on for a long time, contributes little to the plot and really only exists to set up the next Wolverine movie. There’s a reason I chose to show the final trailer in my review last week that’s why. This scene would have been much more forgivable if Wolverine had been a genuine surprise but since he had been given away in the last trailer the whole segment feel padding and advertising for a sequel that was already guaranteed. This whole sequence could have been cut, yeah Wolverine is cool like always and I love Hugh Jackman in the role but the time could have been used for actual character development that felt missing or rushed.

I did find it weird as well that there had been a 10 year gap between movies yet it felt like the characters hadn’t aged at all this time. I know it’s nitpick but it is a bit distracting

Also the plot feels very simlar to Avengers Age Of Ultron towards the film’s climax (which was pretty good by the way). It’s not a deal breaker but it was noticeable and slightly distracting.

In fact a lot of characters feel underdeveloped, this includes Havoc (who’s out of the movie really quickly and he was pretty underwhelming while he was on screen), Jubilee, Psylocke and especially fan favorites Storm and Angel the latter of which has been turned into a complete villain which will probably piss off a lot of fans.

I really didn’t like any of the romance sub plots because they really felt tacked on and weren’t interesting. Not helped by the fact that Scott and Jean don’t have much chemistry in this film.

However if there’s a lot this film does get right with its plot. For starters I did like a lot of the devious side of Apocalypse even though his motivations and actions are a bit all over the place and as usual the best part of the film was easily Magneto and his relationships with Charles and Mystique. I won’t go into too much detail with Magneto because I think his part in this film is best experienced for yourself. Plus it helps that McVoy, Lawrence and especially Fassbender are on their A game in these roles and are all fantastic. I also like Cyclops and Jean Grey they are really enjoyable characters. The writing also has some fun and good humour to break things up, not as much as the MCU movies but I appreciated it being there. There was also 2 characters I really liked, newcomer Nightcrawler and returning Quicksilver both of which were really fun

I also get a sense that Bryan Singer has taken full control of the franchise and you can really feel his love and passion for these characters and the stories and I think that shines through and overall I would have to say I was engaged with the plot however I had to acknowledge there was a lot of flaws that I couldn’t ignore.

As for the actors they’re a mixed bunch. I’ve already stated the best performances come from James McAvoy, Michael Fassbender and Jenifer Lawrence but there are some other really good performances. Kodi Smit-McPhee is absolutely brilliant as Nightcrawler and I really loved Even Peters returning as Quicksilver. Nicholas Holt returned well as Beast and despite the fact he doesn’t any dialogue Hugh Jackman is still badass as Wolverine. I’m not too much of a fan of Rose Byrne in this role but her part isn’t written too well so I’m not entirely sure it’s her fault. I also really not getting behind Josh Helman as Stryker but it’s hard to compete with Brian Cox. Now when I heard Oscar Isaac was going to be playing Apocalypse I though it was fantastic casting and I like his performance in this film with most of my issues coming from the writing, he’s not the most developed villain. Newcomers Tye Sheridah, Sophie Turner and Alexandra Shipp all handle their parts well especially Sophie Turner who is very well cast as Jean Grey. Fans of Eastenders will recognise Ben Hardy playing Angel but if this was his way to get into Hollywood I don’t think it will work since he isn’t given much to do and leaves very little to actually do.

The action scenes are all really good and do a great job of implementing the various characters powers and personalities. Nothing quite on the level of the airport scene in Captain America Civil War but it’s still some good stuff especially the fights between Nightcrawler and Angel. Plus it helps that the effects are once again really good especially for the speed scenes with Quicksilver, which once again are the best part of the movie. Not all the effects are great but damn this can stand up to the MCU movies effects. I also liked a lot of the redigns including Apocalypse

I saw the Film in 3D. The 3D adds to some of the effects but for the most part I forgot I was watching a 3D movie and I could easily have seen this in 2D which is the version I’d recommend.

This is another example where writing a review makes my opinion sound harsher than it probably is. I enjoyed X-Men Apocalypse for the most part as an X-Men fan but I had to admit it was a flawed movie. It tries to balance a lot of plots and characters and I don’t think it handled it as well as Captain America Civil War. The performances are mostly good especially Fassbender and I liked the action scenes and I thought the plot was ok. However there are a few underdeveloped charters and plots and as a whole it feels a bit underwhelming at times. It’s ok but I wouldn’t mind if this is the final movie cause this franchise is kinda running dry now and there’s only so much more of the source material to work with. Though I would be willing to return for another sequel which is planned at this time.

Oh and they really push the 12A rating with some coarse languge and really brutal deaths.

As for other movies I saw this week, they were Our Kind of Traitor, Green Room and Mustang.

Our Kind of Traitor has a slow start but by the end it is a really engaging spy thriller aided by an excellent performance from Stellan Skarsgard though in comparing it to other John Le Carre adaptations I think I preferred Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy.

Green Room is a fantastically brutal thriller that harkens back to video nasties and exploitation films like Texas Chainsaw Massacre. It’s aided by really great gore effects, which have a reason to be there and are not a crutch for the film in the way many lesser horror films have used in the last few years and some really great performances especially from Patrick Stewart who expertly plays a devious leader of a Neo Nazi group.

Mustang is a Turkish film that was nominated for Best Film in a Foreign Language at this years Oscars and lost to the Son Of Saul which I reviewed last month. Personally I found this film to be better than Son Of Saul because it had more focused story, good characters, and plot I felt more connected to. Both films tackle a difficult subject but this one I felt handled it subject better. It’s very clear the director knows her subject and has carefully crafted her film to tell a very intense film about 5 girls trapped in there house by a patriarchy but also makes sure the entire film doesn’t feel like a punch to the face.

“What were your thoughts on X-Men Apocalypse or any of the other films I commented on?”

Leave something in the comments section and if you want to review something yourself visit our how to submit section.

Next time I Review the latest release from one of my favourite Sci-Fi franchises with Ghost In The Shell: The New Movie, which has just been released on DVD and Blu Ray and will be published on June 3rd

With all that being said thanks for reading my review I hope you enjoyed reading as I enjoyed writing it and I want Nightcrawlers powers!

Calvin – Nerd Consultant

“THE ANGRY BIRDS MOVIE”

Yes, they have finally done it, they have made a movie out of a very, very plotless video game. This is the 2nd of what will be 4 video game adaptations to come out this year in cinemas, the previous one being Ratchet and Clank which I briefly talked about last week in my Bad Neighbours 2 review and the other 2 will be the upcoming Warcraft which I will be reviewing and will be on our website at the beginning of June and Assassins Creed which we saw the trailer for this week, go look it up on YouTube if you haven’t seen it yet, it looks really good and it will be out on Boxing Day over here so we will attempt to get a review out of that in early 2017, in fact to make sure we get a review of that and Star Wars Rogue 1, we are actually pushing back the best and worst of 2016 list. It’s pretty clear that the video game companies are trying to capitalise on the success that comic films have been having, more specifically Marvel’s success, seeing how comics and video games have a very similar fan base. In theory this could work, however the past has not proved very good for video game franchises. When Prince of Persia could be considered your best bet for an adequate adaptation, you know the bar has been set pretty low. That being said, unlike those films this wasn’t live action, this is an animated film and it highlights one of my biggest problems with this film, ‘how do you make a film out of Angry Birds?’ Ok, you made an animated series, which I have only watched a few episodes of and it was ok, and there were some animated shorts that came with several updates to the game, but a whole one and a half hours feature movie!! There were even parody trailers on YouTube kind of making fun of the idea.

Angry Birds doesn’t really have much of a plot. The game is basically Pigs steal eggs, annoyed Birds that clearly need some Zanex, go and get them back by killing them through a series of elaborate physics based puzzles, not much to extend out to a Movie! The animated shorts were quite fun and interesting, but when we finally got to see the trailers for this film it was very clear they were going to be staying far away from series and the animated short and I will get into that in the actual review itself, but the trailers just made this film look really weird, not to mention that considering I have an Odeon Limitless card now and probably spend my time in those cinemas more than any other I have been so conditioned into seeing the advert for the Odeon Premier Club being advertised by the Angry Birds, and I am getting annoyed with seeing them now. Seriously, every time I go to the cinema I see those Birds. I am not going to let that hold it against me though because this film did at least look like it had been made semi-competently and I didn’t have too many expectations, plus after watching Norm Of The North my bar for animated films is set so low it’s in the mariana trench. So without further ado, here are my thoughts on Angry Birds.

First a quick plot summary, if a plot summary was really needed for an Angry Birds movie. Red (played by Jason Sudeikis) causes an incident at a birthday party and as a result is sentenced to anger management classes where he is joined by Chuck (played by Josh Gad) and Bomb (played by Danny McBride). Their world is rocked however when the island is visited by a group of pigs led by Leonard (played by Bill Hader) who extends an arm of friendship, however they are really out to steal the islands eggs in order to eat them at a banquet back on their own island. Now it is up to Red to lead a team of birds that shunned him to pig island to get them back. The film is the directing debut of Clay Kaytis and Fergal Reilly who have previously worked in animation departments for several of Disney’s 3D films and their inexperience in directing is very evident because this film doesn’t entirely work for me.

I will start with the positives because there are some positives to this film. The first being that the writing is not as bad as I though it was going to be and some of the jokes are kind of funny, especially some of the jokes from Red since Jason Sukeikis really can deliver a good punch line and I think this is largely down to the fact that the screenplay was written by ex Simpson’s writer John Vitti, rather like his writing on the first Alvin and the Chipmunks movie the film as a result becomes harmless rather than downright annoying, However, also like the first Alvin and the Chipmunks movie, his writing can’t cover up a lot of the films problems, the major one being, as I mentioned, my first thoughts on the film were that there wasn’t enough of a plot to make a feature film, has been proven rather apt. There really isn’t much of a plot going on here, it’s really moving from comedy set piece to comedy set piece, with several running gags that miss the mark and none of them feel like they are connected to a real plot, as a result the film feels extremely padded and that is saying a lot considering the film has a 1hr 37min running time.

The characters are rather stock, they don’t have much of a personality and they are really more extensions of the celebrities themselves, with a couple of exceptions. The only time we feel that someone is actually putting on a performance is Peter Dinklage playing the Mighty Eagle, but even then he is basically playing the pompous windbag that everyone thinks is a hero which is another character stereotype that has been overdone, especially to anyone who saw the recent Ratchet and Clank movie. As a result, every character feels really under-characterised and the whole thing feels like a stock family film. It’s basically the shunned out cast that rises to the occasion, everyone admits they were wrong about him and he gets the respect he deserves by the end of the film, this a complete get them in, get them out film. What made the animated short so successful and the animated TV series is that they were dialogue free, which meant we got a lot of interesting slapstick and the animation spoke for itself and you can do that in this kind of film. Last year’s Shaun the Sheep was entirely dialogue free for example and that film worked well enough to earn itself an Oscar nomination and do well with both critics and audiences. Even then, that wouldn’t have worked because then we would be complaining that it felt like an over extended episode of the TV series, but I think I would take that over what we got, which at the end of the day was a film that I didn’t care about. Don’t get me wrong, I didn’t hate it, I just felt apathy for it. I will say though, when the humour does hit it’s quite good, though some of the jokes are more adult jokes are confusing especially a reference later on in the film to ‘The Shining’, of all things, yes because so much of this film’s target audience will have seen ‘The Shining”!!!

If there is one thing to really be said about this film, however, in its favour, is that it doesn’t overstay its welcome. It doesn’t over try or cater to the lowest common denominator, which so many family films do. You get a real sense that there was some genuine effort put into the film and for that I have to have some respect for it. The downside is that a lot of the lines in the film make you think, ‘yes you guys think this is funnier than it is’ and as a result the film feels rather unremarkable and I really don’t have much to say in its favour. It’s just, go from one set piece to the next set piece, get them in, get them out, we are done with it, but I can at least respect that the writing makes an attempt to appeal to a large audience, it just doesn’t completely work.

As your typical standard family film, the film is full of tons of celebrity voices who you will recognise from the start. The best performances by far are Jason Sudeikis and Peter Dinklage who at least get a funny line in now and again. I am not a Josh Gad fan, and once again I didn’t really enjoy his performance. Kate McKinnon playing Stella feels really poor, Danny McBride is ok in his performance, but again, because he is playing a stock role, we don’t get much of the actors charm. I will say that Bill Hader plays a decent villain and is given a couple of funny lines, but he doesn’t really do a brilliant job. I did enjoy Keegan-Michael Key of Key and Peele fame playing Judge Peckinpah who is doing a really fantastic voice in this film. The biggest casualty by far however, is Sean Penn who is completely wasted in this film playing the big red bird Terence, who for the entire film is purely grunting and sighing, there was no reason for Sean Penn to be cast in this role, you could have cast a decent voice actor to similar or better effect, there was literally no reason to hire this man.

As for the animation, I think the animation is rather decent, there is some pretty good 3D animation in here and you can tell the guys who directed this worked on films like Wreck it Ralph and Frozen. However, I really don’t enjoy the designs of the Angry Birds in this film, I know I commented on that in a previous review but it does stand to reason, (they are not as ugly as the new Ninja Turtle designs) for goodness sake I really don’t like the fact that they gave them a lot of human features, you could easily have made them look like the birds in the game and it would have been to a similar or greater effect. The same can be said of the Pigs too, it feels like the designs are to get more concession to the animators so that they can easily match them up with the voice actors.

I saw the film in 3D and if I am actually honest, there is some pretty good 3D. Granted I don’t think it’s essential to see it in that format but if you enjoy watching 3D I would recommend you go with this one as there are some good 3D effects in it. I am aware that seeing a film in 3D is rather expensive and I cannot deny that a lot of people don’t enjoy seeing films in that format, I would still recommend it though.

The most baffling thing about this film though is its Soundtrack. I have no idea how this Soundtrack came about. I was expecting at least one version of the Angry Birds theme song, we get a bit of it early on, but then the film takes a really weird dive. The opening song is Paranoid by Black Sabbath, then we get some other weird songs. One of the montages has Behind Blue Eyes by Limp Bizkit then we got Rock You Like A Hurricane, and covers of I Will Survive as the ending song and there is even Never Gonna Give You Up by Rick Astley, then we get Friends by Blake Shelton for some weird reason, just so we have a cowboy song in there for the Pigs, what!, Really!! It feels like this soundtrack was played by one of the Producers going into a bar, putting £5.00 into the Jukebox and play randomly and whatever came up he wrote down and put in the film! I will admit, some of the songs are really great, particularly Paranoid and Behind Blue Eyes and Rock You Like A Hurricane, but they also feel kind of weird and out of place in an Angry Birds movie, but, hell I will take it frankly.

The Angry Birds movies is a film I would best describe as unremarkable. This is a very bland family film, but I at least respect the effort that was put into it and I think John Vitti did a decent job writing the script because there are a couple of funny lines in there. Other than than, it’s one of the most average films I have seen all year, I don’t feel much for the film at all. It feels like a cash grab to capitalise on the fleeting success of the Angry Birds games and I wouldn’t want to re-visit it. The best performances are easily Peter Dinklage, Jason Sudeikis and Keegan-Michael Key of Key and Peel fame, but really I’m not into this one. The animation may be nice and 3D effects are quite good and I don’t really hate the film overall, but there are better family films that came out earlier in 2016 and there will be better ones later in 2016. Save your money, there are better films round the corner.

So this is normally where I would talk about other films I have seen this week between movies, but this is the first time I have been to the cinema since Bad Neighbours 2 so I haven’t got any to talk about. I did watch Special Correspondence, Ricky Gervais’s new film for NetFlix and you know what it’s actually a decent comedy and him and Eric Banna have good chemistry. If you enjoy Ricky Gervais’s style of comedy I think you will like this film, I actually think this film has better writing in it than some of the later seasons of the Office and Extras, however, I think that the film is not as great as people have made it out to be, I think it’s rather average, but it’s certainly better than some of the things that Ricky Gervais has been writing in recent memory, so for that it gets a pass, but some of the characters feel really awful.

“So what are your thoughts on Angry Birds, or Special Correspondence, please leave some comments for me. I welcome all opinions.”

Join me back on 27 May when I will be giving my thoughts on X Men Apolcalypse.

Thanks for reading my review, I hope you enjoyed reading it as much as I enjoyed writing it and since this film is probably going to be a success in the Box Office from lack of competition, apart from people going back to see Civil War again, expect Fruit Ninja the movie to be round the corner or Bejewelled the movie, take your pick!!

Calvin – Nerd Consultant

“BAD NEIGHBOURS 2”

Bad Neighbours 2, or alternatively, as it’s known in America Neighbours 2: Sorority Rising. The title has changed for International audiences in Europe and Australia to avoid confusion with the Australian soap of the same title, though how you would mix those two up is beyond my understanding. This film is the sequel to the surprise hit of 2014 with most of the team including Seth Rogan’s writing buddies and director Nicholas Stoller who is having a mixed time at best since the first film, having not directed any films, but was a screenplay writer on Zoolander 2, which I thought was a rather boring film and of course the infamously awful Sex Tape. Mind you he also had a writing credit on Muppets Most Wanted so what are you going to do.

Comedy sequels are traditionally quite poorly reviewed as they tend to recycle jokes from the previous one and then don’t tend to be as funny second time round. There are a few exceptions to the rule obviously, for example, I really enjoyed Ted 2 despite the fact that most of the critics bashed it last year, although going into this I was really hoping this wasn’t going to be another case of Hangover 2 where you literally take the first film and change up just one factor, which let’s face it, the trailers for this were not filling me with confidence. Prior to a couple of week ago I hadn’t even seen the first Bad Neighbours movie, I am not really a fan of Seth Rogen’s comedies, they never quite hit me that well and I went into it thinking I was not going to enjoy it that much, but you know what, it’s actually quite funny. There are some genuinely very funny moments and it mixes some good dialogue heavy humour, decent visual comedy and actually some decent slapstick. It would have been easy to make the original film a lowest common denominator comedy and I would be lying if I said there weren’t times when it hits that level, however it’s not that often and for the most part I found it quite funny and in some ways kind of charming. It’s not a great movie, the narrative is all over the place and some of the jokes go on for too long and as a result lose all the humour they could have had, for example, take the rose before hose joke! Nevertheless I asked people to vote between this and Florence Foster Jenkins and people voted for this one so I went to see it, though I did also see a screening of Florence Foster Jenkins and I will be giving my opinion on it later at the end of this review. Also I picked this one because there was nothing else out this week that was easily accessible in my area and the Anime DVD’s I was hoping to review have had their release dates pushed back again because Anime Limited can’t get their DVD’s out on time to save their life. Now, let’s see if Seth Rogen made another decent comedy.

Bad Neighbours 2’s plot is set a couple of years after the events of the first Bad Neighbours movie. Kelly, (played by Rose Byrne) is once again pregnant and as a result her and Mac (played by Seth Rogen) have to move house to the suburbs in order to have the extra space for the new arrival. They are, however, in a bit of a bind because the new buyers have a 30 day cooling off period in which they can call the sale off of the old house and the situation isn’t helped when Shelby (played by Chloe Grace Moretz) bands a group of girls together, tired by the sexist attitude of fraternities and sororities in college life moves into the house next door with a group of other girls in order to form their own sorority and they are aided by Zac Effron’s Teddy Sanders in order to get the sorority together, as revenge against Mac and Kelly and following a fight with his best friend for asking him to move out following his engagement. However the sorority eventually kicks him out so he starts working for Mac and Kelly to get them out of their house so that they can sell the house. From the sounds of the plot line and looking at the trailer, which, if you went to the movies as much as I did, was unavoidable, you would think this film was a complete re-hash of the first one, however, as much as is does borrow a bit from the first film, there are actually a few points which set it apart, and it’s not just because it’s a sorority rather than a fraternity.

There are still a lot of interesting themes in this movie, it does tackle the idea of how sexist fraternities can be and how sororities don’t get as many privileges as fraternities do, for example, in this film that fraternities are allowed to throw parties on college campus but sororities aren’t and this is what sets Shelby’s sorority into motion. I don’t think the film tackles the whole sexism angle brilliantly but it’s better than a lot of other comedies that attempt to talk about the subject and I would even go so far as to say that it does it relatively well at times. However, after the first 40 minutes, it’s kind of thrown out of the window and the film never goes all out with it and it’s a shame because it could have been rather interesting. This also presents a different sort of challenge to Seth Rogen and Rose Byrne’s characters, because they have a Daughter, they are kind of looking into the possibility that this is what their Daughter is going to be like in 10-15 years time and there is a sense of fear that both her and their upcoming Daughter will be exactly the same and will not need them in the future. Again a rather interesting idea, but rather like the themes of growing up and taking responsibility that the first film brought on it never goes all out with this and it feels like a token gesture. This film is a prime example of a film that has been completely screwed by its trailer, which hi lighted several jokes, a couple of which don’t actually turn up in the final film and made it simply look like a clone of the first film, which I can’t say in total it is. The jokes are alright but we don’t really get to any good ones until at least 30 minutes into the film, in fact for the first 20 minutes the cinema was completely silent. I wasn’t in a packed cinema but the audience seemed game for a laugh and there weren’t that many laughs in the theatre, in fact I think I laughed more than most people in the cinema during this film and that’s a rarity, it’s usually the other way round! I’m not going to lie, there are some genuinely funny jokes in here. It takes a while to get to them and like the first film, most of the best jokes come from the dialogue and delivery of the comedians delivering the lines rather than slapstick, or in this case gross out humour which unfortunately this film seems to have slightly more reliance on than the previous film. Fortunately it doesn’t reach anywhere near the same levels of ‘Dirty Grandpa’ or ‘Grimsby’ so it’s slightly forgivable and the film knows it can’t coast on it. The film also knows it can’t rely on recycling jokes from the old film. Anyone who has seen the trailer knows the airbag joke makes a return, however, it’s not the same as it appears in the trailer and it’s not nearly as funny as the first time round, but that’s for two reasons:

1, we can see it coming and
2, it doesn’t feel nearly as spontaneous.

I will, however, give the film credit, there is one variation of the joke in the middle portion of the film which actually is very funny, but I daren’t explain it for spoiling one of the best jokes in the film, it’s quite funny at times and I think there are some good ideas and decent characters in this film. For one thing, I felt myself a lot more endeared to Chloe Grace Moretz and her sorority more than Zac Efron and the fraternity in the first film, and I thought there were some interesting character arcs in the film, they are not all great and I will say the biggest problem with the film is that they haven’t cured a lot of their narrative problems that it had in the first film. It still suffers from the lack of running narrative, it’s basically a lot of cut away gags that are kind of connected by a revolving plot and a couple of them get the sexism message down, especially the bikini part that is shown in the trailer quite a bit. I have to admit this doesn’t sink the film for me. Now, what does kind of sink the film for me is Zac Efron’s character Teddy who has really taken a step backwards since the ending of the first film. The ending of the first film implied that he had learnt his lesson, he was content with Seth Rogen and Rose Byrne’s characters and held down a decent job and was going back to night college to further his education. The beginning of this film almost completely throws it out, he’s got a completely different job, he is struggling to find work because of his criminal record which amazingly they didn’t really mention at the end of the first film. He appears to have lost a lot of the maturity he built up, he does sort of get it back by the end but it does feel like we are playing a bit of repeat with his character especially. Oh, and speaking of the ending, this is where I have a bit of an issue. I actually prefer the ending of this film since it wraps things up nicely, has a strong message and is somewhat satisfying, but I would be lying if I didn’t say it’s a bit of a cop out ending. I welcome being challenged on that one, but I didn’t find this ending as strong, I can’t help thinking everything fell into place a bit too well!! There are some really bizarre jokes that don’t feel like they fit in with the film and for the love of God, I am sick of films having an excuse for Zac Efron to take his shirt off, haven’t we seen enough of that already, we get it, you work out a lot!!! Please stop showing off!! I will admit though, the excuse they give in this film is a lot better than they give in Dirty Grandpa, and the less said about that awful movie, the better.

As for the performances, they are a bit of a mixed bag. Chloe Grace Moretz really should suit comedy considering her time in the Kick-Ass movies, but she doesn’t really get that many punch lines, she is kind of playing a straight woman in this scenario. She is good at the role however, and her performance is much better than it was in the previously reviewed The 5th Wave, but it doesn’t begin to reach the heights of her performances in Kick-Ass and The Tales of the Princess Kaguya which I have also reviewed. Speaking of Kaguya, when I reviewed that last year I bought up that I thought she had a lot more range as an actress than directors and casting agents give her credit for and I get a sense that she doesn’t buy into that herself, honestly I think she should try a couple more roles that push her as I think she has the ability to pull off much tougher roles. I have never been much of a Zac Efron fan, and I would be lying if I said he was much better here, but at least in these two movies he is somewhat tolerable and that is the kindest way of putting it, he is nowhere near as awful as he was in Dirty Grandpa. Rose Byrne is once again very funny, but rather ironically I think she has got less funny lines in this film compared to the previous film where she did get a ton of funny lines. Seth Rogen is on good form, considering the standard of some of his comedies have been rather interesting and I know Ike Barinholtz is trying very hard, but the material he is given this time doesn’t work as well, for example, the clown joke from the trailer isn’t a one off and as a result it gets grating with each successive use of the joke and it’s a shame because the joke is funny the first time round. The rest of the girls in the Sorority are played by very good actresses and deliver some decent performances, the problem is that everyone else is kind of a cameo. There’s a very weird cameo from LL Cool J, Lisa Kudrow playing the dean has been reduced to one scene, and she is given the exact same joke she had in the first film, also all the major players in the Fraternity from last time are reduced down to cameo which is a shame because Christopher Mintz-Plasse is one of them and I would have found it interesting is they did a fourth wall joke about the Kick-Ass films considering both him and Chloe are in this movie.

I’m not going to lie, I think Bad Neighbours 2 is an ok movie.

It’s not nearly as funny as it thinks it is and for every problem it fixes from the first film, it creates another one, but you know, like the first film, I would describe it as ‘harmless’. There are couple of points in the film that they did better than the first film and also a couple of points that they did worse than the first film, so as a result I think the two create a nice middle ground and I think watching them together would make a nice double feature. There are some funny jokes in there, though a couple of them die on arrival, the writing varies, the slapstick is ok for the most part and the performances are all round passable. I wouldn’t rush to see this one at the cinema because I think like the first film, it’s a decent rental with beer and your mates and it’s one of those films to watch on Netflix if you are staying in on a Friday night. If you enjoyed the first one, you will like this one too and I think it’s a good idea to see the first one too if you haven’t already seen it. The major weak points are, it’s slight reliance on jokes from the first film and the fact that it has some interesting ideas but never goes quite all out with them.

As for the other films that I saw between this and Civil War, well we have a few actually. I went to see Ratchet and Clank, a preview screening of Florence Foster Jenkins and I went to Odeon screen unseen for a special preview screening, this is where you don’t actually know what you will be seeing until the screen goes up and in this case it was Everybody Want Some.

Ratchet and Clank is a film I would describe as relatively harmless, but it feels rather pointless especially considering the movie is exactly the same plot as the video game and I couldn’t help thinking that half the time I was watching an advert for PS4. It’s not something that I think is awful, although the animation leaves a lot to be desired but the plot doesn’t really work that well as a film and suited the video game a lot better. Also for a film called Ratchet and Clank, there are not than many scenes with Ratchet and Clank together.

Florence Foster Jenkins, which lost the vote to this week’s review is a really nice, charming film with some excellent performances, especially from Meryl Streep and Hugh Grant. I daresay, I found it rather enjoyable, although I will admit this is probably a film that will slip from my memory in about a weeks time.

Everybody Wants Some is the latest film coming from writer/director Richard Linklater whose previous credits include The School of Rock, A Scanner Darkly and the Oscar nominated Boyhood, which also earned him a Best Director Nomination, which he probably should have won. It’s a rather plotless film about a group of Baseball players who have received College scholarships in the 70s and while it is the most 70s movie I have every watched with a fantastic soundtrack and performances, I wasn’t endeared to the characters as much as I would want to, which is kind of what you need in a film like this where this isn’t too much of a plot and just a sequence of events happening, but it was rather entertaining with some genuinely funny moments, which is what you would expect from Linklater, plus the actors did a decent job. I would recommend it if you are at all curious. It comes out on 18 May, though my only problem with it is there are little to no roles for women in this film and while it is a film set in the 70s it still feels rather sexist at times considering there are hardly any female roles with the exception of one towards the end that basically still just exists to be a love interest.

So what are your thoughts on Bad Neighbours 2 and any of the other three films I have just mentioned. Please leave a comment, we accept all opinions and of course we would be happy for you to submit your own content, it’s easy, just visit our ‘how to submit section’. Plus you can follow me on Twitter.

That’s another film down and let’s keep this going. Come back on 20 May where I will be giving my thoughts on the next video game adaptation to come out in 2016 ‘Angry Birds’.

Thanks for reading my review, I hope you enjoyed reading it as much as I enjoyed writing it. Who is going back to see Captain America Civil War again?

Calvin – Nerd Consultant

“CAPTAIN AMERICA: CIVIL WAR”

It’s finally here, Phase 3 of Marvel kicks off now which is set to be one of the most ambitious film projects of all time, which will culminate in 10 movies in total. It was supposed to be 11 but I am not going to count Inhumans just yet because the film is in development hell right now and I suspect that it is going to be pushed back to a probable phase 4. Announced way back at comic con a year ago, just before the release of Avengers Age of Ultron, it was announced that Captain America Civil War would be the first film of this new phase and would kick off this new era of Marvel with the Russo brothers Anthony and Joe returning from Captain America The Winter Soldier to direct since that film received a lot of critical praise and was really loved by the public and comic fans alike. It was also announced that the screenplay would once again be written by Christopher Markus and Stephen McFeely which added to the hype and would be a massive coming together of many heroes of the Marvel Universe. This is also interesting as this is the team that going to be behind the upcoming Avengers Infinity War which will be split into two parts across two consecutive Summers in 2018 and 2019 so it will be interesting to see how they manage a massive group of characters since The Winter Soldier only really had a few of the main characters and was pretty much a self contained Captain America movie.

I was actually pretty hyped for this film, The Winter Soldier was an excellent movie, probably one of Marvel’s best, I personally would put it third on the list considering I enjoyed the original Avengers and Guardians of the Galaxy more, but it’s still a good movie and is one of the most balanced and interesting looks at drone warfare in modern films up until Eye In The Sky came out. I’m just going to get this out there though, I know these films don’t tend to concern themselves too much with adapting the comic note for note which is a blessing in Avengers Age of Ultron because the comic sucks, but I’m really not a fan of the original civil war comic written by Mark Millar, it’s not too bad an event by any means with the exception of the ending which comes out of nowhere and really contradicts what we had been told up to that point, but it didn’t help the fact that the Tie ins weren’t consistent with what was going on and it led to a lot of character ruination, some of which hasn’t been healed up to this point particularly with Spiderman who still hasn’t recovered completely from the abysmal storyline One More Day which was a direct follow up from Civil War. I am not holding that against this film however, since it was also announced the film would contain a lot of characters appearing for the first time in the Marvel Cinematic Universe, including Black Panther, who will be getting his own movie coming up, directed by Creed director Ryan Coubler and also, as revealed in the second trailer, Spiderman, who will getting his own film Homecoming, out next year. So, can this film adapt a comic that I wasn’t too fond of, but make something great out of it, I have special confidence considering Marvel were lifting their embargo on reviews a month before the film’s release in the US, that shows a lot of confidence. Also, firm warning here, I am not going to be spoiling anything of this movie, it will be spoiler free, however, in order to talk about it I am going to have to talk about things from all the other Marvel movies, so no restraint of spoilers for anything in the Marvel movies or the TV seiries, including the Netflix series.

The plot of Captain America Civil War is that after a botched mission in Nigeria, secretary of State Thaddeus Ross (played by William Hurt) along with the United Nations sets up a registration act for Super Humans in order to control where they go and what their actions will be to avoid liability. Tony Stark aka Iron Man (played by Robert Downey Jr) is leading the charge for pro registration, meanwhile Steve Rogers aka Captain America (played by Chris Evans) is determined not to sign, believing it to be counter active to their work, but he is also having to deal with the re-emergence of Bucky Barnes aka the Winter Soldier (played by Sebastian Stan) who has supposedly caused the terrorist incident at a UN conference that results in the death of many individuals, including the current King of Wakanda (a fictional African nation in the Marvel universe). With Captain America trying to bring in the Winter Soldier alive he has fallen foul of the registered government heroes and it is leading to an all out conflict between Ironman’s side and Captain America’s side. I was actually amazed how much the early portion of the film borrowed from the comic, including a lot of Tony’s motivations to start registering. It is certainly a much more faithful adaptation of its comic counterpart than Age of Ultron, however, the film does have its own identity apart from the comic and that’s where it excels. This film has an excellent plot, there is tons of excellent build up, pay off and the plot really keeps you going throughout the entire film. The Russo brothers have a really hard task to achieve because they are juggling several characters with all of their own different motivations and story arcs, yet the Russos make this look effortless and this is even more outstanding considering they have more characters to deal with than the original Avengers movie. What’s more, none of the characters feel short changed. No hero feels like a cameo. This many characters and sub plots would normally lead to a film being a massive mess with trying to cram too much into a short space of time, but it actually doesn’t feel that way, it feels natural and organic. I would even go so far as to say I think the film manages to do a lot of what Batman V Superman tried to do but does almost every beat of it better. The conflict feels more natural and well bought up, the build up is excellent the other heroes feel much better integrated into the plot, even the villain which this time is Zemo (played by Daniel Bruhl) feels better. He starts off as a rather underwhelming villain but he slowly becomes better and better as the film progresses.

The film also feels a lot less politically charged than its comic counterpart which is much to the benefit of the film because it means the film won’t feel dated in years to come like the comic. It also means that the film’s ‘whose side are you on’ tagline feels a lot more apt that it did in the comic, which basically vilified the pro registration side throughout its entirety, here however, it feels better and more ambiguous. We are still supposed to be rooting for Captain America’s side but that doesn’t change the fact that the other side feels somewhat sympathetic, plus the film does not feel like an excuse to just have the heroes fight each other which is what the comic felt like. The one thing that really excels for me is all the characters. It is overloaded with characters, they all feel excellent, to such an extent if feels more like an Avengers movie than a solo Captain America movie. Don’t get me wrong, Captain America is the main character and we do follow him throughout the film and at a lot of points it feels like a sequel to Winter Soldier, especially the scenes with Falcon and the Winter Soldier and their camaraderie is rather interesting, in fact the camaraderie of both sides is rather interesting to begin with and it also does a good job introducing new characters and does them in a way that really endears you to them really quickly and gets out their motivations and their credence. As I mentioned before, we have Black Panther in this movie who is played by Chadwick Boseman who actually gets a similar story arc to this film in Ben Afleck’s Batman, but it feels like he has a more interesting progression and pay off than Batman and that was one of the positives to Batman V Superman. They do a fantastic job with him and I really enjoyed the character and I am looking forward to his upcoming solo movie, but the best new character of the film and probably the best character overall is Spiderman (played by Tom Holland), he doesn’t get a large amount of screen time but for the time he had they did expertly. This is without a doubt, in my opinion, the best live action Spiderman we have had to date. They get everything right, it doesn’t feel like he has too much of a purpose to be there except to fill up the numbers for Tony Stark’s side, but at the same time he doesn’t feel like he has just been put there to promote the upcoming Spiderman Homecoming movie which will be out next Summer. Marvel knew they had the rights to the character back and were determined to make the most of it and they do it to an excellent degree. I am seriously looking forward to Spiderman Homecoming on the back of this.

Civil War runs at a similar time length to Batman V Superman, it has a total time of 2hrs 27 mins including post credit scenes and actually that running time really works for the film because it has a lot to get out and it gets it out very well and the pacing is well done, so as a result the film never feels like a slog. It actually has some very decent twists, you may see some of them coming but I think they are pretty good, I won’t go into detail for obviously avoiding spoilers, but man, this film felt like it did a lot more in the 2hrs 27mins than Batman V Superman did. The film also feels very personal to the characters, which is again something the Russo brothers seem to direct very well. The ending, as always does wrap things up pretty nicely, but also sets up future movies as is per usual with the Marvel Cinematic Universe, oh and stick around till the end because there are two post credit scenes, one that adds a little extra meat to the end of the film and one that is the set up for the Spiderman Homecoming. What can I say, this plot had me gripped and it’s not too simple, but not too complicated at the same time. The only thing I will say though is that Zemo comes off as a bit weaker to begin with, but he gets stronger as the film goes on and by the end he feels like one of the best villains that the Cinematic Universe has had to date, though I still say the best villains so far have been Wilson Fisk from Daredevil and Killgrave in Jessica Jones as well as Loki of course. While I was a bit annoyed that Zemo did not have his villain costume from the comics it does make a lot more sense by the end, and also just having a villain there makes the plot a lot better than its comic counterpart. What can I say, it’s just really, really good.

As for the performances, there’s a lot to get through so I am just going to go through them and list them. Chris Evans was born to play this role, he is still excellent as Steve Rogers/Captain America, the same goes for Robert Downey Jr as Ironman, he is still fantastic and I am hoping he is going to keep it up for more of phase 3 of the Marvel Cinematic Universe. Scarlett Johansson is still given a nice meaty role for this film and she does it to the best of her ability and she does a good job. Sebastian Stan is still pretty good as the Winter Soldier especially considering he gets a lot more to do in this film and he has a much more interesting character arc than in the last film. Anthony Mackie as Falcon gives his best performance of any MCU films to date, especially considering the last time we saw him he was getting thrown about by Ant-man, speaking of which, Paul Rudd’s back in the film and he is still brilliantly hilarious, likewise I really enjoyed Jeremy Renner as Hawkeye again and I still think Don Cheadle is good as War Machine. Emily Van Camp is an interesting new addition as Sharon Carter, niece of Peggy Carter from the TV series Agent Carter, despite the fact that she is not in the movie that much she does an alright job even if her part is not as well written as the others. Elizabeth Olsen is good as Scarlett Witch but I think she has lost a bit of her accent between movies, slightly distracting considering she had a much more pronounced Eastern European accent in Age of Ultron. Paul Bettany is continuing his expanded role as The Vision, though I think he gets a lot less interesting lines than he did in the previous films. Daniel Bruhl makes a good villain and William Hurt is very good as the Secretary of State. As for more newcomers, I really enjoyed Chadwick Boseman as Black Panther and look forward to him continuing his role in the upcoming Black Panther solo film and my goodness, Tom Holland has blown it out of the water in his short time as Spiderman and has out done Tony Maguire and Andrew Garfield, seriously if anyone is worried about Spiderman Homecoming this has proved we are in good hands, hopefully the director can keep it up. Martin Freeman is in here but he’s basically a cameo and Marissa Tomei makes her debut as the new May Parker who does alright but doesn’t make too much of an impression.

As for the fight scenes, they are fantastic. They are all well choreographed, well thought out, there are a good mix of computers and great stunt work and the majority of them feel like they are well shot. It does feel like the camera is kept in too close a couple of times so we are not allowed to see much of the fight scenes but I still thought it was really good overall and when we get to the actual quote on quote ‘Civil War’ in the Airport in Germany it all feels like it has been carefully thought out, who is fighting who, at what point and makes the best use of their powers and abilities, especially true for Spiderman who gets some very inventive fight scenes. The fights make him a bit dialogue heavy but they even make a joke about it later on down the line, which by the way, if I forgot to mention, the dialogue is excellent in this film, but that is kind of becoming standard in the Marvel Cinematic Universe at the moment (they even make a couple of jokes about it). Seriously the airport scenes alone are probably the best 15 minutes of fight scenes in any superhero movie and I don’t say that lightly. The effects are also fantastic, especially considering they have to juggle several different kinds of effects in one space, but again Marvel seems to be getting really good at that with two Avengers films under their belt and half the other cameos they seem to get in half the Marvel movies now.

I saw the film in 3D but I wouldn’t recommend doing so, there is very little actual really good 3D and it is very obvious that this was a post conversion. Even the Ant-man effects which were really great in 3D in the Ant-man film last year which I reviewed don’t feel brilliant in this one. I would say it’s worth paying extra for the 3D glasses to see the film in IMAX, because I think this film suits an IMAX screen, since the cinematography is fantastic, but for the 3D itself, it’s not great and you really won’t notice the effect throughout most of the movie.

Captain America Civil War is fantastic. The Russo brothers deliver one of the best Marvel movies to date, easily standing up with the Avengers, Guardians of the Galaxy and the Winter Soldier. This has been everything that fans want in one place, the fight scenes are excellent, the plot is great, the dialogue is fantastic and it doesn’t spend too much time sequel baiting at all. There are a ton of characters and they are all used to good extent and feel relevant and the Russo brothers not only do this well, but make it look like it’s easy and that’s a feat that has only been pulled off by Josh Weedon in the past. If this is the team behind the Infinity War Movies, sign me up immediately because this film kicked ass. I think some fans might be taken a bit aback by the fact that there is not as much of the Weedon-esque humour in this film but it’s not entirely absent and feels like it has just the right amount in the movie. If you are a fan of the Marvel films I would say check this one out, if you are not that really in to the Marvel films then prior to this you should at least watch all three of the Iron Man films, both of the Avengers films and all three of the Captain America films. I know that is a lot but there are a lot of back story in the Marvel Cinematic Universe at this point and it is kind of necessary viewing at this point.

The Marvel Cinematic Universe will be returning in November for Americans, we are getting it one week early, with Dr Strange and despite the fact that I am looking forward to it, I don’t think it is going to outdo this film because this has been one of the best films of 2016 so far if not the best.

As for the films I saw between this and Son of Saul, I saw three films, but I am only going to comment on two since I saw The Boy and The Beast at the flat pack film festival and as you know from my best of and worst lists, I don’t count film festivals releases when I measure up the year, plus I intend to give a review to Boy and The Beast when it gets its general release, just don’t go looking at my Twitter account as I forgot people can read that and I do give my thoughts on that page, oops. As for the other two:

I saw Friend Request and Bastille Day, neither of which have an American release date at the time of this review which should say quite a bit about the former considering it has a largely American cast and is set in the States though it is a German production. Yes, Friend Request is terrible, it’s a really awful run of the mill horror film, not just made worse because the last horror film I saw was The Witch, which is a fantastic horror film and probably the best in this genre in this decade, but it is also not helped by the fact that the film had a really interesting premise, but completely screws it up for the easiest lowest common denominator to appease a fickle audience. It has nothing but jump scares and blatantly ripping off other more popular horror films, to such an extent that they don’t even try to be subtle about it. Some of the scenes are so shot for shot you think they have plagiarised the Blair Witch Project and The Ring. As for Bastille Day, it’s ok, it’s not something you should rush out and see, but so far as turn off your brain action films go, it’s not that bad, with the exception of the twist at the end, so as a result the film completely rips off Die Hard.

“So what were your thoughts on Captain America Civil War or even the two films I mentioned above. Did your agree with me or not?”

I welcome all opinions, please leave a comment, and remember if you want to submit your own content please visit our ‘how to submit section’.

Well I ran a straw poll on my Facebook page, asking my friends and my Twitter followers to vote for the next review, since the films I wanted to review all had their release dates or DVD release pushed back, and they voted for “Bad Neighbours 2”, so come back on 13 May were I will be releasing my review of that.

Thanks for reading my review, I hope you enjoyed reading it as much as I enjoyed writing it and as Star Wars has been out on DVD and Blu Ray for a couple of weeks, have you seen it, and did your agree with my review of it?

Calvin – Nerd Consultant

“SON OF SAUL”

If you recall my article from a couple of months back where I made my picks for the Oscars I mentioned that I didn’t take up the category of Best Film In A Foreign Language for 2 reasons,

1. 1) these films tend to be released in very few cinemas and
   2) for a limited time only

All the above summations of Son of Saul being the obvious winner were correct, it did end up taking the Oscar for Best Film In A Foreign Language, the second time a Hungarian film has taken the prize and it’s a real credit, you don’t get nominated for an Oscar unless your film is somewhat competent (unless you’re Nicole Kidman in Moulin Rouge in which case I have no idea what happened).

The film is directed by Laszlo Nemes who also co-writes the film with Clara Royer and this is the first time I have seen one of his films having not seen any of the short films he had made prior to this. but he must be a decent director after receiving an Oscar nomination for his first feature length film. However with the Oscar not being a complete guarantee of success I was going into the film not expecting it to be perfect, but I was also going into it in that instance rather worried because when you are reviewing a film about a very dark and serious subject, in this case the Holocaust, any criticism you give can come off as being rather insensitive and childish or risk trivialising the subject altogether. I want to make it clear that any criticism I give is about the film only, I have no intention of trivialising the savagery and un-mitigating human misery and tragedy that was the Holocaust, I am purely judging this as a film. With that out the way how did Son of Saul turn out?

Son of Saul tells the story of a labour worker in Auschwitz called Saul who attempts to bury the body of a boy who may or may not be his son. That’s really it, there’s not much else to this film’s plot, that’s what we really should focus on. In essence when it actually does that the film is really good. This film runs a very high risk that because Saul is the main character and our only real focus, the film risks labelling this as his tragedy rather than the tragedy of thousands. Luckily I would say the film doesn’t make that mistake thanks to a few really strong scenes, especially a really strong harrowing scene at the beginning of the film, if the rest of the film had been like that I wouldn’t have any complaints about the film. Sadly, however, the rest of the film is not entirely like this, while this film has some really strong scenes it also has some terrible pacing issues. Seriously this film is padded too much with sub plots and other factors going on and while that would be kind of useful to give us a wider scope of what is going on it really distracts from the main plot, which is what I wish the focus was on and it’s very clear that this has come from a director that has only directed short films up to this point though when it does focus on the main plot it’s good. That being said, I think Son of Saul could have worked as a shorter film, in fact this film could have been 30-45 minutes to similar or greater effect. I want to feel the pain and tragedy of the Holocaust but the film feels so jumbled that it only gives us that effect momentarily and I think there have been several films that have done the subject better, but there are several other factors that go in to it outside of the plot that I will get in to. I’ve heard several critics say this film is very personal to Saul’s character and that’s what they like about the film and I will admit that aspect of the film but I think that causes another slight problem that I’ll get into later.

The story feels very lost as a lot of the sub plots and other things going on, the film feels longer than it is. The film comes in at 107 minutes, just over 1hr 40mins including credits, however it feels longer, it feels much more like 2hr long. I’m making it sound like this film is awful but in reality I actually think this is a pretty decent movie overall because what it does well it does very well. The film’s strongest point is its visual story telling, while the first act may be the worst part of the film because this is where the padding issues really are most prominent it’s also the point where the film has some excellent visual story telling which it carries throughout most of the film, even though the second half becomes a bit more dialogue heavy than the first half was. This film understands the first rule of film making very well, show, don’t tell. Saul actually has very little dialogue and doesn’t have much narration, we experience most of the film through his actions and his facial expressions and the actor really gives off a man who has been broken to the point that this is his only reason to keep living and again when it focuses on this the film is pretty damm good, I just wish it had been the entire focus rather than the jumbled film that we got in the end. Oh well, review the film you got rather than the film you want and I would be lying if I said Son of Saul was without merit. Many of the really strong scenes are incredibly harrowing and emotional and I completely see why the film won the Oscar based on those scenes alone and it’s very good at reminding us that the Holocaust is very recent history. On that basis I would say this was a decent film, but I can’t ignore a lot of the technical issues with the film which I will go into later. I don’t want to go into too much detail about the sub plots and a lot of what goes on is this film as I think a lot of my complaints with the film may not the complaints of other people. I think the thing that people most praised about this film when it was shown at film festivals last year is both a strength and a weakness. The entire film is filmed from the back of Saul and through various other camera angles that means that Saul is the entire focus of the movie. This could be interpreted as this film is meant to be an experience as in ‘we are meant to see ourselves in Saul’, but they focus on him too much of a defined character for that to really work, however, it does feel like we are following Saul around this facility and that is a very decent strength of the film. There are other aspects of this film that means that doesn’t quite work and other than that it’s also the fact that so much of this film feels like it could have been cut, but I have harped on enough about that. Honestly, I am not going to go into too much detail about the plot just because I want people to experience the film for themselves and make up their own minds because I believe a lot of peoples won’t have the same complaints that I had, but my personal opinions is that I find the plot to be a bit of a mixed bag. When it’s strong, it’s very strong, but when it’s weak, it’s very weak but that is only my opinion I’ve heard several people say they love this film so more power to them.

As for the acting, it’s superb. I can’t fault the actors in any sense of the word, especially considering that this film had actors speaking in 3 or 4 different languages, most of the film is in Hungarian though there are a lot of lines in German and a couple of lines are in Yiddish as well. Special praise should definitely go to Geza Rohrig who plays Saul fantastically throughout this film and could have easily been deserving of a best actor Oscar nomination. The rest of the cast deliver excellent performances as well and their performances are the strongest part of this movie, however I really wanted to point out him because he also proves he is an excellent physical actor. I also felt the German actors playing the Nazi’s also really did an excellent job and really sold the incredibly dark side of the film perfectly. I won’t go into too much detail as it’s a bit difficult to judge performances in a language that you don’t entirely speak but I really felt the cast gave very strong performances overall.

As for the cinematography, this is where I have one of the most interesting points about the film for two reasons. The first reason is that the version I saw of this film was shot on 35mm film, however that’s not the only option of seeing the film and I wouldn’t recommend seeing it in that, there’s a reason that we all switch to digital projectors and while I do think it gives an interesting experience, and I wouldn’t entirely rule it out if it is available in your area, I really wouldn’t recommend it. The second reason is that half of this film if not the majority is filmed from the back of Saul or to the side of him, we rarely venture off from that and as a result because it’s filmed from his back and we are meant to be experiencing it through him, many of the backgrounds are shot out of focus and that’s as shame because there is a ton of period accuracy and some excellent set designs but I’m not allowed to appreciate them because the shot is out of focus as we are focusing on Saul! Admittedly this does bug me more than it should, but I really did not enjoy the film’s cinematography mostly for that reason. When we break away from Saul to much wider shots the film has excellent cinematography, however, when it tries to be Birdman, while it does kind of put us in Saul’s shoes it means it’s at the sacrifice of the brilliant sets and that’s just not really on in my book.

This review may be short but that’s really because I don’t feel much for this film in all honesty, I like it, but I don’t fully like it, it’s negatives are so glaring that I can’t say it’s a great movie. I should want to experience a harrowing drama that brings home the tragedy of the Holocaust, but I am kind of left with something that when it focuses on what it does well it’s excellent, when it tries to focus on anything else it feels rather padded and overlong. However, my opinion is not shared by many people so there is clearly many people who thought this film was cinematic genius. I really want to share there opinion but I can’t because I’d be lying to you and myself . As it stands I can only recommend it to fans of Art House Cinema as I think they will get a kick out of it on its cinematography alone. Don’t get me wrong, I don’t dislike this film because it’s tackling a difficult subject and it’s a sad film, far from it, I can definitely appreciate films that try to do that type of story telling and for the most part it works, but it has too many technical issues that I cannot overlook. I don’t know, am I getting too picky? The found a quote on a metacritic review that gave the film 5/10 and it said that he/she appreciated the film more than he/she liked it and that matches my opinion pretty well . Son of Saul comes out in most cinemas today so if it is in your area go and check it out and tell me if you agree with me, or wait for it to come out on DVD, I don’t think it will be too long till that happens.

I wanted this film to be an experience, but in reality I kind of just felt like I was going along with it and going through the motions, but I suspect this film will get a lot of good praise and there are a lot of strong things about this film so it does deserve some.

As for films between this and The Jungle Book, well I only saw one film between these and that was ‘Eye In The Sky’. Put simply, this film is fantastic, this is probably the best thriller I have seen in a cinema since ‘Gone Girl’, it’s absolutely fantastic, giving a very interesting balanced look at modern warfare and had some fantastic performances from Helen Mirren, Aaron Paul and Alan Rickman in his final performance. Seriously check this one out it’s one of the best films of 2016 so far. I don’t like to use the term ‘edge of your seat’ because I think it’s a real idiotic term done by marketing executives and half the time it doesn’t really apply to peoples experiences watching a film, but there’s some really tense moments in it. It’s still in cinemas now so check it out if you get the chance.

Well, I think it’s time we get back to a lighter subject now Son of Saul is out of the way, but before we do, if you have any opinions about this film or Eye In The Sky, please leave a comment and don’t forget you can submit your own reviews or content by visiting our ‘how to submit’ section, plus remember you can follow me on Twitter to see what I am getting up to.

Next Friday I am back to my comic book movie fix. Come back on 6 May when I review “Captain America Civil War” just in time for it’s release in the US.

Thanks for reading my review, I hope you enjoyed reading it as much as I enjoyed writing it and remember just because movie is tackling a difficult subject it doesn’t automatically make it good.

Calvin – Nerd Consultant

“THE JUNGLE BOOK (2016)”

49 Years after the film first came out, Disney has remade The Jungle Book again. Yes, be honest, all of you forgot that the 1994 live action remake even existed and if any of you are thinking about tracking it down now to see what it was like, don’t, it’s not very good and it’s really expensive. In preparation for this viewing I was really surprised to find out how many people really like The Jungle Book. Don’t get me wrong, I don’t dislike it, I just think it’s a rather bland film that doesn’t really have that much happening in it. That’s hardly surprising considering that the film was not largely based on the Rudyard Kipling book, in fact Walt Disney famously gave a copy of the book to all of him animators and told them not to read it. So with the idea that they were working with the bare minimum of the book they didn’t really have much to go on. This film doesn’t seem like it’s going to be any closer to the book, though most of my knowledge of the book comes from second hand sources, I haven’t actually read the book myself. I still think The Jungle Book is a good film, I just don’t think it’s a great film and I think more people have taken it into their hearts because it was the last film that Walt Disney worked on before his death. By the way, if you really are wanting a version that is closer to the book Chuck Jones did a 30 minute short that was a lot closer, mainly because from what I have heard the book is a collection of short stores and Mowgli only appears in a third of them.

Even with all that, I was still genuinely interested to go and see this film, mainly by the bizarre pairing of the creative team. The director is Jon Favreau who many will recognise for directing films like the first 2 Iron Man’s, the largely disappointing Cowboys and Aliens and the surpassingly good Indie film chef, which I really would recommend. John Favreau is a really good director, but the screenplay really has been written by Justin Marks whose name won’t sound familiar because the only feature length script he has written before this is Street Fighter, the Legend of Chun Li and my goodness is that film bad! We’re talking ‘should be in every top ten worst video game movies’ bad. I was willing to give him the benefit of the doubt especially considering he must be a least a decently talented screen play writer considering he has got several writing jobs coming up, including writing the Top Gun sequel and the film adaptation of Shadow of Colossus, or at least he did, it seems that he has been replaced later down the line (I’m guessing someone in the production department saw Street Fighter The Legend of Chun Li and figured we don’t need him to mess it up!!) I wasn’t sure what to make of this film. It’s also rather badly timed considering that Andy Serkis will be bringing out another Jungle Book movie similar to this in 2018, though judging by the cast list of that film, I was more confident in the cast of this film because it’s an all star cast of actors I really like, but when all that is said and done, does this Jungle Book live up to people’s expectations of the original or is it a let down.

I think most people reading this will be familiar with the story of The Jungle Book, but just to make sure that everyone is on the same page, I will give a brief plot synopsis.

Mowgli (played by Neel Sethi) has lived in the jungle his whole life, raised by a wolf pack and the panther Bagheera (played by Ben Kingsley). He is now being hunted by the tiger Shere Khan (played by Idris Elba) and must make his way with Bagheera to the man village to be protected and along the way he meets several animals of the jungle such as Baloo the bear (played by Bill Murray), Kaa the snake (played by Scarlett Johansson) and King Louie (played by Christopher Walken). That was the basic plot of the 1967 movie and nothing much has changed here.

The Jungle Book is the second in a series of live action remakes of Disney films, third if you count Tim Burton’s take of Alice In Wonderland, it also has to follow on from Kenneth Brannagh’s Cinderella which came out last year which I rather enjoyed more than I was expecting to and will be followed by Beauty And The Beast which I wouldn’t get your hopes up for because it’s going to be directed by the same guy who directed Twilight and The Little Mermaid, which I am also not going to get my hopes up about because the screenplay is being written by Richard Curtis, who is a mixed writer at the best of times and really can’t resit a happy ending. However, after this film, I think I should actually raise my expectations for these two films because John Favreau does a really good job with this film. He and Justin Marks know exactly what to keep, take out and expand upon. There are quite a few subtle changes to keep you guessing in one form or another. These range from minor changes to really massive ones and I won’t go into detail about all of them for fear of spoilers, but trust me, this is not a straight copy of the 1967 animated movie, but it hasn’t changed so much that it is completely unrecognisable. One of the early differences is the fact that Mowgli is a lot more accepting of having to leave the pack and seek protection and it’s because he realised that it will also protect the people he loves. This makes Mowgli a much more relatable protagonist than the 1967 movie where he was a bit of a whiny brat. The biggest strength, however, is the fact that this film feels much more like it has a running plot whilst the 1967 film felt more like it was darting around between them. Don’t get me wrong, some of these moments feel quite random, the encounter between King Louie for example is still rather out of nowhere and feels like it was just put in because it was in the original film and book and to fill out the running time, but at least this one feels entertaining and at least we feel like we are following a single plot. The characters also seem to be very recognisable as well, some of them feel like they have a slight upgrade, Mowgli especially. Honestly the only real weaknesses of the plot are the things they had to carry over from the first film. The songs, the various set pieces as well as various other factors surrounding the ending which has been slightly changed in this version, however, Favreau knows that some of those moments need to be cut down. For example, the Elephants are largely absent from the film, they don’t take up as much screen time as they did in the 1967 version, seriously, that was the most boring part of the 1967 version and it just went on and on, this one just keeps the Elephants for a bare minimum and they service the plot a lot better in this version. Likewise Kaa doesn’t outstay her welcome in this version and isn’t pointlessly recycled later on in the plot. They also managed to find a way to make the Mowgli and Shere Khan rivalry feel a lot more personal, granted one factor about this feels very cheap but the other factor definitely helps it and really strengthens Shere Khan as a villain who feels a lot more frightening in this version. Speaking of which, I know King Louie was a bit of an antagonist in the animated movie, but in this movie, oh my goodness he is a full on villain and he can be quite threatening and scarey. Seriously, anyone who has actually seen the film will know what I am on about. However, this plot feels a lot more engaging, it feels like this one has been made a lot more for the adults and millenials who grew up with the animated film than it does for today’s younger audience. Don’t get me wrong, there will be some kids that will enjoy this film and the kids in my screening seemed to be happy with it, however, it does feel like this was made to capitalise on people’s nostalgia for the previous film. The expansions of all the parts especially Mowgli’s relationship with the wolf pack will resonate very well with nostalgic audience members that grew up with the previous film and I think there’s a lot there for that crowd. What I also enjoyed about this film is that it felt fun a lot of the time, it didn’t have a dark gloomy look throughout the film or try to do too many twists on the story and whenever it did kind of do a twist it felt like it had modernised it well. The scenes with Mowgli and Baloo still feel very fun, if a bit brief and I really felt more for Mowgli and Bagheera’s relationship in this one, plus we spent more time with the wolves which is especially good for adaptation points considering they were virtually absent in the 1967 version, and from what I have heard they play a prominent part in the book. I think this plot will satisfy the kids watching this film but I think it will satisfy their parents even more and seriously I really think this is a fun movie and I would recommend it for the story alone.

The cast, however, is what really drew me to this film and everyone is really well cast. Ben Kingsley brings his A game with Bagheera and Bill Murray is really perfect as Baloo, falling into Phil Harris’s role almost perfectly. Scarlett Johansson feels a bit of a weird casting choice as Kaa but at least it’s not as creepy as Stirling Holloway doing the role in the previous film. Yes, if you thought Kaa was creepy in 1967 keep in mind the voice of that snake is also the voice of Winnie The Poo, yes, never going to be able to watch that scene the same again are you! The expanded roles of Raksha and Akela, Mowgli’s wolf parents are played by Lupita Myong’o and Giancarlo Esposito respectively and they really suit their roles very well, especially Lupita who really sells her mothering instinct. Christopher Walken is kind of reduced to a cameo, but he really suits the role of Louie well, especially playing the sort of mad mobster of the Jungle, he is also the most recognisable in the motion capture effects and we definitely see through him as the voice actor for this role more that we do for other cast members, with the possible exception of Idris Elba. Speaking of him, Idris Elba, once again has made a really good villain, sure he doesn’t have the thespian acting voice of George Sanders, but he does give it his all and he comes off as a really threatening villain, I would say, when he was cast, he suited the part almost perfectly and he lived up to my expectations, but by far the best actor in the film was Neel Sethi, who has the difficult task of not only acting this iconic part and making it his own, but he also has to act with CGI animals that are going to be added in later, and he makes it look effortless. This kid could easily have been thrown off with this role, but he does an excellent job and considering he has never acted in a feature film prior to this he does it really well. Seriously, look out for this kid, I think he has an excellent future ahead in this business. As I mentioned, the celebrity voices are kind of distracting and you can almost hear them in the recording booth, but it’s not as distracting as in other movies, like Shrek or even worse Shark Tale. The all star cast are also worth the price of admission.

The effects and the cinematography is the area where this film really shines. They are both excellent. The animals actually look like animals and they blend into the backgrounds, which by the way, all look beautiful, but John Favreau also manages to make the Jungle seem very savage at times. The motion capture effects are pretty well done and the animals seem like they fit in the environment, plus they don’t seem to stick out with Neel Sethi who is the only live action actor in the entire film, further proving how well he plays his role. The designs are also really fantastic, especially the new castle for King Louie, I should also mention that this film has a terrific music score which really sells the film and I would suggest if you actually collect film soundtracks, this is another to add to your collection. As for the songs from the original film, most of them have been cut, with the exception of ‘Bare Necessities’ and ‘Want To Be Like You’, which, lets face facts, are the only two songs you will remember. Seriously, name one in the comments section right now that was in the original apart from those two, and no looking it up on Google. These new versions of the songs, however, don’t feel like they intrude too much on the plot and at least are done well though people may be put off by the alternate lyrics that have been written by Richard Sherman due to Louie’s new design and some different terminology for fire that’s used in this film. Christopher Walken who is doing an especially over the top performance as Louie, whilst also selling him as a threatening character, does an excellent job with ‘Wanna Be Like You’. Bill Murray is a bit ropey with ‘Bare Necessities’, but he at least performs it pretty well, though I still think people are going to remember the originals a lot better. If you are expecting some Beatle’s impersonators to be the vultures, I’m sorry to say they are barely in the movie and they don’t talk.

I saw the film in 3D and you know what, for once, I am actually going to recommend you see it in 3D. I would also recommend if you are near an IMAX theatre go and see it in that format because the effects and the cinematography really pop out under that environment. It’s not essential to see 3D but it’s actually a really good 3D and it’s worth the extra money for the glasses. You won’t miss out too much if you see it in 2D because the glasses aren’t cheap, nor is the IMAX, an IMAX screening at Odeon if £16.50 pp!! Odeon seem to feel they can put on £1.50 tax for the big blockbuster film, seriously. If you can only see it in 2D you will not miss out, but if you are able to afford the extra, the 3D is worth it.

The Jungle book does have a couple of negatives if I am honest. The pacing does feel slightly off at times even though it is better than the 1967 version and there are a few moments that don’t add up or make sense, and I know a few critics have found the film rather pointless (mainly doug Walker AKA the Nostalgia Critic) but you won’t care about it because you will be having a really good time. The Jungle Book is an excellent remake, I actually think it’s superior to the 1967 film and while that may seem sacrilegious to some, I actually felt like this one was much more of an interesting film and it had a really good cast, amazing effects, a really good film score, some amazing performances, especially from Neel Sethi and a plot that I could really get in to. I don’t think this film will change anyones opinion on which version is the better, I still think a lot will still view the 1967 animated film as the iconic version, but I think anyone who has nostalgia for the previous one should check this out. It’s a really good one for the whole family. John Favreau makes this film with real heart and passion and while I think some people will be putt off by the changes most likely the different ending and slightly darker tone but I preferred this and can really recommend this film. Oh and stick around for the credits they’re fantastic.

Well, normally this is where I ask you for your comments, but since I now have an Odeon limitless card, that means I am able to see more movies than ever before, and as a result, from now on, at the end of the reviews, I am going to do a quick summary on all the films I have seen outside of my reviews, so for people that don’t have access to Twitter.

Between this and Huntsman I only saw two films, Midnight Special and Hardcore Henry. Midnight special may have been praised by the critics, but I personally found it to be a very confusing mess because it sets off with very good ideas, but never fully develops any of them. I’m certain this will appeal to a lot of people, for example I saw it with Dr Buchan, who enjoyed it. Hardcore Henry is actually a very fun movie at times and it’s very good as simulating what it’s like to play a first person shooter game, but at times, it makes you want to pick up the controls and play the game except you then realise you are watching a movie and it can be very exhausting and I think the first person gimmick is not for everyone, this film wasn’t entirely for me but I know I am kind of in the minority with that one.

“Now I am going to ask for your thoughts not only on The Jungle Book, but any of the films I have mentioned in this one. Did you like them, hate them, or are you somewhere in between?”

Please leave a comment, and remember, if you want to submit your own reviews, visit our ‘how to submit’ section.

OK, next Friday 29 April I will be reviewing the Hungarian film that won Best Film in a Foreign Language at the Oscars, Son of Saul which will be appropriate since it’s getting released on that day, so for the first time I will actually be able to bring out a review on release day. Thank you very much for reading my review, I hope you enjoyed reading it as much as I enjoyed writing it and if you are wondering why Whisky Tango Foxtrot isn’t getting reviewed next week, it’s because its release date has been pushed back, so it’s probably not going to be getting a review from me because it is out the same week as Angry Birds. Sorry about that but I am going to be taking an animated film over a comedy for this site, purely because I feel the need to review almost every video game movie out there, I am kind of a masochist in that way!

Calvin – Nerd Consultant

“THE HUNTSMAN: WINTERS WAR”

Yes, it’s the prequel to 2012’s Snow White and The Huntsman and really, was anyone asking for this! OK the film did very well surprisingly at the Box Office, especially considering that year there were 6 Snow White movies out if you included all the low budget studios, but really that year it was a battle between Snow White and the Huntsman and Mirror Mirror, which at least Snow White won. I actually watched Snow White and the Huntsman before going to see this movie and to be honest it’s not as bad as I remembered it to be. A re-watch has softened my feelings toward it, I didn’t hate it on first watching it but I thought it was rather dull and it had an unnecessary epicness to it, which I still wouldn’t deny is a problem. I also think the film had incredibly bad pacing issues, however it was a much better movie than Mirror Mirror. This film, which has been billed as a prequel to establish more of the Huntsman’s character was rather hyped though I was slightly concerned about how good it could possibly be. The biggest change in the film is that now we have a new director, Cedric Nicholas-Troyan who was a second unit director on the previous film and Disney’s Malificent, however, he has never directed a feature film prior to this. He has directed a short film but that’s about it. Studios seem to be really trusting him right now because he has been given the keys to direct the upcoming Highlander movie and really, if anyone is worried about a Highlander remake, just remember this franchise has been downhill since the first movie, how much more damage could possibly be done. Another reason to be concerned about this movie though, is it was not screened for critics, which meant, they didn’t get to see it before us, so there were no reviews released prior to its release, as I stated in my review of “The Visit”, be very cautious if you can’t read a review of a film prior to its release date. Also, this film is a prequel and I am not really a fan of prequels in general, but I will probably get more into that later in my review. Does the Huntsman shed new light on the character, or is it an unnecessary extra designed to capitalise from the popularity of the first film?

Starting 7 years before the events of Snow White and The Huntsman, Huntsman, Eric, (played by Chris Hemsworth) falls in love with his childhood sweetheart and fellow Huntsman Sara (played by Jessica Chastain), however Ice Queen Freya (played by Emily Blunt), who is the sister of the previous film’s villain Ravina (played by Charlize Theron) has been training Huntsman as her army and the army have decreed that none are to fall in love after her lover killed their child. After finding this out she instructs Huntsman to kill Sara and the Huntsman is thrown in a river to die. The film then cuts to 7 years later, taking place shortly after the events of Snow White and the Huntsman where the magic mirror has gone missing after Snow White failed to destroy it and The Huntsman has been commissioned to get it back along with the help of his two dwarf friends, Nion and Gryff, (played by Nick Frost and Rob Brydon). I will say, it’s half necessary to have seen Snow White and the Huntsman but this is slightly newcomer friendly and this tells a rather different story, for example, Snow White doesn’t actually appear on camera throughout the entire film because Kristen Stewart wasn’t willing to come back to the franchise after what happened with the previous director.

The Huntsman actually starts out rather ok, it has a decent running plot and has a decent cast and is somewhat entertaining, however, it doesn’t stay that way throughout the entire film. The cracks really begin to show early on when Jessica Chastain’s Sara becomes a part of the plot again having been revealed that her death was merely an illusion and I know that’s a minor spoiler, but to be fair, anyone who has seen the trailers will know that she is in the movie because the trailer gives away way too much about this movie. There are absolutely little or no surprises and I really recommend you trying to not see the trailer before going to see the film! When Jessica Chastain first comes back, that is when the cracks in the film really begin to show and this is made more and more evident as time goes on. One of the biggest casualties of this is Emily Blunt who is playing the best character in the film. Freya is actually a really good villain, she has a good back story, she has decent revelations of her plan and is a very relatable villain, which is why it’s such a shame that in the middle portion of the film she is a bit of a misnomer bordering on being almost entirely absent and in the last portion of the film she is unnecessary after she successfully revives Ravina which again would have been more of a spoiler if the footage of her hadn’t been revealed in the trailer!! There are a couple of other plot turns that the film takes in the middle portion of the film that really don’t work and that’s a problem for a lot of reasons. For a start, the twist are not properly foreshadowed so there is literally no way to predict that some of these will happen and they feel really poorly thought out and a couple of them feel like they are designed to keep the plot dragging along a bit more than it already is. This is because the film is a lot shorter and as a result has to cram a lot of ideas in a short space of time and doesn’t know how to do half of them. While this film was passable for the fist 30 minutes, though it did have a few technical errors, the last 30 minutes is where the film completely nose dives and this is really down to the fact that we shift villains and everything feels completely pointless because there is so much that has been tried to be crammed in there nothing feels like it gets a proper resolution and if it does it feels rather forced. There are also a lot of things that we are supposed to just accept, for example if all these children that Eric and Sara have been capturing from the same area, then why is it that they only have Scottish accents? Also, where was Snow White taking the mirror to be destroyed, why couldn’t it have been done in her own city walls? There are a lot of these in here and not all of them receive proper resolutions. There are also a lot of characters that are missing with no explanation. Nick Frost’s character is the only dwarf that comes from the previous film and his brother has been completely written in there plus we now have two female dwarfs who are all designed to be comic relief and while they are good comic relief they do seem to outstay their welcome, because their routines go on a little too long and have a tendency to repeat themselves. Their story arcs aren’t really that interesting and I think are more designed to appeal to the women in the audience more than the men. If it wasn’t for Jessica Chastain being in this film The Huntsman would feel almost entirely unnecessary. There is a lot more going on in this film but I really think you need to experience it but if I had to go back to one thing, it’s the film’s climax, it feels really rushed and it also shows off the worst parts of the film, especially considering that the final plot twists of the film are so obvious that it feels like a train has come at you and hit you with them.

There are a lot of positive points to The Huntsman. It is actually an engaging plot at times and while the comic relief does outstay its welcome, it is very funny, that’s to be expected when you have actors like Nick Frost, Rob Brydon and Sheridan Smith. This film does need to be longer though and I think there will be an extended cut when the DVD is released like there was with Snow White and The Huntsman. It is necessary because these plot points need a lot more elaboration. I at least like the fact that they haven’t tried to turn this into an epic, that was one of my big problems with Snow White and The Huntsman, there is no reason for it to be an epic, it fits in with the story that it was, but I don’t understand then why it needs to be a Snow White story, just tell your own story. The film’s greatest strengths is that it does ignore this for a large part and I think this will resonate well with some audiences. The last film’s plot felt like it was aiming at both the guys and the girls this time feels a lot more drawn to the female demographic and particularly the young pre-teens. This film has a 12A rating, but I would not recommend taking anyone below that age or of that age to see the film because it’s amazing how much they get away with in a short space of time including some very explicit swearing and some PG13 sex!!

The big problem with The Huntsman’s plot is they try to cram in way too much plot in a short space of time, the film being 10 minutes shorter than the previous entry, however, this would have been less of an issue if it had been entertaining, which was my strength for Batman v Superman. This one, however, is not that entertaining, especially the last 30 minutes which completely sink whatever goodwill I had for the film.

As for the performances, well, Chris Hemsworth and Jessica Chastain are good but they have very little chemistry actually on screen and this doesn’t help the love story out too well, also if you thought Chris Hemsworth’s Scottish accent in the first film was ropey you should hear Jessica Chastain’s, goodness me she is bad. Charlize Theron has toned down her performance significantly in the film, which means we can take her more seriously as a villain, however, because she is less over the top she is not as entertaining or as memorable as she was in the first film. Hemsworth himself is actually giving off a pretty decent performance when he is by himself and when he is interacting with the dwarfs and he even gets some funny lines in there but it also feels at times like he really is phoning in his performance. Chastain is a really decent actress and I really praised her in a couple of my reviews especially in Crimson Peak where I said she should be up for best supporting actress. The comic relief, once again is done by Nick Frost, who, apart from Chris Hemsworth, is the only returning cast member of the previous film to have an extended amount of camera time and he is joined by Rob Brydon in place of Ian McShane, Toby Jones, Ray Winston and all the other actors who played the 7 dwarfs in the previous film and he does have some funny lines in there and some good interaction with his fellow actors, however, I have already stated my thoughts on the comic relief in this film so I will leave it at that and say I thought their performances were pretty good if at times a bit over exposed. There were some other returning cast members like Sam Claflin as William, however, most of them are cameos, even Charlize Theron feels like a cameo considering she is not in the movie that long which feels even more like false advertising considering that she was very heavily advertised as being in the film! Also for some weird reason Liam Neeson is the Narrator which he’s good at but it’s a bit out of nowhere considering he wasn’t in the last film and he doesn’t physically appear in this one. Overall it’s a decent cast but they can’t really work much with the material.

If there is one thing that this film does very well, it looks very aesthetically pleasing. The environments suit the fairy tale atmosphere and I even like a lot of the ice structures that were formed through the CGI. There are a couple of special effects that really fail, especially towards the end of the film, but I think the effects are actually pretty decent. The costume designs are also fantastic, especially Emily Blunt’s costume though I do think the people made it way too heavy for her so as a result she looks like she is being weighed down with it. Now granted the friend who I went to see this film with pointed out that it’s her armour that she is blocking out the world with and it’s symbolic, so it at least has a point, though I do think that they needed to make the costume slightly lighter so that they could get the point across and it didn’t look like Emily Blunt was fighting against it. The fight scenes are actually rather decent with a couple of exceptions where it was almost impossible to tell what was going on. Chris Hemsworth really suits these kind of scenes and works well with them and it actually gives me hope for the directors upcoming Highlander reboot.

I saw the film in 2D. judging by the final product, I don’t think seeing this film in 3D would have improved it all that much and I didn’t feel like I was missing out anything, in fact, there’s lots of times you will see films in 2D and you will notice an effect that was clearly meant for the 3D and there are barely any of those moments in this film. I almost forgot there was a 3D option available. Obviously having not seen the 3D version it is hard for me to comment, but take my advice and see it in 2D.

Are there positives to this film? Yes there are. I went to see this with my female friend and she absolutely loved this film and in fact thought this film was better than the first film and enjoyed it a lot more, so there is clearly a market for this film, I completely understand why she liked it and I have coincided that there are some positives, there were portions I liked and I wouldn’t dare try to take her’s or anyone else’s enjoyment of it. though she did also have a problem with the severity of the swearing in the film. Between us we came to the conclusion that this is much more aimed at women more than men this time round and I think the love conquers all messages definitely supports that and while this message did suit the film, I just think it was hammered in a bit too much. I think between our opinions you can make up your mind over whether this film is for you.

Is the Huntsman an awful film? No I don’t think it’s awful. Do I think it’s a good film? No. It’s a bad film in every sense of the word, but there is a market for this film and there are some positive points to it. It has a decent cast, the plot is good for the first hour, but you are noticing the cracks as you are watching it and the last 30 minutes kills it entirely. This could have been an excellent movie, but as it stands, it’s not even passable. I know some people are going to like this movie and I think it will be very decisive at the end of the year but as it stands it’s not for me. I would say that this has a lot of cinematic quality to it and it’s worth seeing on the big screen for that sense but I would wait for it to come out on DVD because I suspect the expected extended edition will possibly improve on the film. The best positive I can say about this film is that the action scenes are actually quite good and Emily Blunt’s performance is really good to such an extent it deserved a better film, other than that, this is really an unnecessary film that feels like it’s been padded with way too many sub plots and way too much going on. I really wanted to like this movie, I really did, but it just doesn’t do it for me.

“So, that was The Huntsman: Winter’s War. Did you see it and did you like it?”

Well, this week has been rather disappointing so let’s hope we have a pick up next week. On 22nd April I will be giving my review of Disney’s latest live action remake of “The Jungle Book”, directed by Iron man director John Favreau.

Thanks for reading my review, I hope you enjoyed reading it as much as I enjoyed writing it and remember if you live in Liverpool, Liverpool Anime and Gaming Con is on 4th and 5th June. I went to the Manchester and London version and it’s a really good con run by some very interesting people and it’s a good place to have a good time discussing your favourite anime and playing some brilliant games. Check it out.

Calvin – Nerd Consultant

“EDDIE THE EAGLE”

Eddie The Eagle is actually a story I didn’t know that much about, I was obviously not alive when he took part in the Olympics and all I have to go on is archive footage, that being said though, I was really excited to see this film, purely on its cast which sounded fantastic and the fact that the film is Directed by Dexter Fletcher who became famous after being in Lock Stock and Two Smoking Barrells and is now pretty much famous for being Jamie Oliver’s mate, plus you have Kick Ass and Kingsman The Secret Service Director Mathew Vaughan as a Producer, which definitely makes up for the fact that the two writers Sean Macaulay and Simon Kelton were making their screenwriting debut with this film. Don’t get me wrong, I’ve got nothing wrong with watching someone’s first go at writing or directing, it’s just normally your first go isn’t necessarily your best work, though of course there is an obvious exception to the rule, the BAFTA’s have a whole category for Outstanding Debut by a writer, director or a producer as a category. There must be enough good ones coming out for that category to be in place, one of the best films I have seen this year so far was The Witch and that is both the writing and directing debut of Robert Eggers and by the way, if you like good horror films and you haven’t seen The Witch, I would highly recommend going to the cinema and seeing it or getting it on DVD when it is released, because at the minute this is already an early contender for my Best Film of the Year. Can this film bring the feel good British Drama that we want to have or is it going to be like Love Actually, where everyone around me likes it and I absolutely don’t!

Eddie Edwards (played by Taron Egerton) vows to go to the 1988 Winter Olympics in Calgary, however, he is not considered good enough in his downhill ski event, so he decides to take up the role of ski jumper since there is no British ski jumping team, so ergo, as long as he at least becomes semi professional he can at least represent his country. He therefore goes to Germany to train to be a ski jumper with help from a new coach, the disgraced American jumper Bronson Peary (played by Hugh Jackman).

Eddie The Eagle has been billed as the feel good British story of the year and I honestly didn’t quite know what to expect going into it since the critical response has been rather varied. For example it has a 77% score on rotten tomatoes, however Metacritic has a score of 54 out of a 100. My personal opinion, however, is rather varied when it comes to this film. I think this film will appeal mostly to people who were around in the 80’s that will gain some nostalgia from it, which is why it doesn’t appeal to me fully seeing as I wasn’t even alive then, but I really did enjoy the film on quite a few levels.

It has a good script, the cast is pretty good and I would even say it has some good central performances and a decent running plot, but the plot doesn’t fully work, by which I mean, it’s rather generic. This is a very generic sports movie, in fact it almost, at times it feels like it is written by an American writer because it very much resembles a lot of movies of that sort, in fact many people might see a similarity with the film ‘Cool Runnings’ not helped by the fact that the film actually does make a reference to that film. That’s not to say the film doesn’t have a British feel to it, it does at times feel like a British comedy, but it’s hard to get round the fact that the majority (and I do mean the majority) feels like we’re are going through typical sports films cliches. You have the underdog rising to the top, the coach who he thinks he is not going to get along with initially but then then find the connection to one another and better one another, the professional sportsmen are all jerks and so on and so forth, you get me, if you have seen one sports film you seen them all, and I like sports films, there are some very good ones out there, especially if you kind of like this formula, but I kind of expected more with this film and that may be my problem, maybe my expectations were too high. The one thing the film does get right is, it gets the Olympic message right, this film feels very well timed considering we have the Rio Olympics coming up in August and because of current rules now, Eddie would not be able to enter the Olympics again and it feels against the Olympic movement. I get a sense that the writers were trying to harken back to the original Olympic spirit when the modern games were first started and Eddie’s story really does help that, and I’m glad that got the primary focus. But, this is where my other point lies, some of the characters change their minds at the drop of a hat and while it probably did play out like that on some level in real life, this does feel a bit over the top and again I’m the first person to say bio pics aren’t meant to be documentaries, they are meant to be entertaining. This film is rather entertaining at some points, there are some excellent scenes, particularly towards the end when Eddie is talking with the Finnish champion which I won’t spoil because I think it’s worth seeing for yourself and I would even go so far as to say I really liked some of the gags. The training montages aren’t too long, but get the point across pretty well and I would even say there is some really well shot scenes of the ski jumps.

I think my problem is that I wanted to love the movie, and the film’s plot didn’t really give me a reason to do that. At times this film feels like it wants to be ‘Billy Elliott’ or ‘The Full Monty’, the film even kind of makes references to Billy Elliott at points but then it kind of changes its mind and wants to be Cool Runnings again and I don’t feel the two styles mesh too well.. So, as it stands, I can only say it was OK and rather passable and not the exceptional British comedy I wanted it to be and it’s so disappointing because I feel that this movie had a ton of potential. The writing is there and there are some genuine funny jokes that made me laugh, plus I felt like it told a very good story and kept me invested, but I wouldn’t want to re-visit it any time soon and in the end I just thought it was kind of there and I’m not sure this plot did much for me overall, but I will admit the last third of the movie is where it really excels and gets to the level I wanted it to get to. Though, I would admit this is also where you start noticing some of the cracks from earlier and a lot of the generic sports movie tropes.

As for the cast, well, they are pretty good for the most part. Taron Egerton is excellent as Eddie Edwards, this guy is becoming one of my favourite actors working today because he can take several versatile roles and excel at them and hold his own with top A listers as he has proven. He has now gone 4 for 4 with the brilliant First World War drama ‘Testament Of Youth’, the previously reviewed ‘Kingsman: The Secret Service’ which I loved and even added it to my Top Ten films of 2015 and the Kray brothers biopic ‘Legend’ and once again he proves himself in this role being excellent as Eddie Edwards. Now I recognised him in the role but thats probably because I’m used to seeing the actor and a lot of people who I pointed it out to after seeing the trailer can’t believe it’s him, so obviously he is the spitting image of the guy which is very noticeable with the photos they show during the credits. Hugh Jackman is really good at times in his role as Bronson Peary, even though he does kind of underplay his parts at times but him and Taron Egerton have very good chemistry and you really believe the coach/student relationship that they have. I would even go so far as to say that I would like to see them team up again for another movie because it really does work. I would also say that once again Hugh Jackman gives a good American accent, but that’s hardly surprising considering he has been playing Wolverine for several years. Jo Hartley and Keith Allen give decent performances as Eddie’s parents, but other than that there really weren’t any other performances that really stood out because everyone else is kind of reduced to cameos in this film. Tim McInnerny gets a part in the movie as the head of the Olympic Committee, but he is basically playing the same stuck up posh guy that he plays in all of his films, so this really isn’t a stretch for him, when he first appeared I thought he was reprising his role as Captain Darling in Black Adder, while he does gain a few lines his role is basically an extended cameo. Jim Broadbent does a decent job playing a British commentator and sounds natural in the part and everyone else is kind of people you will recognise from British television shows. I do have to applaud the film for getting actual Scandinavian actors to play the Scandinavian parts which add an extra sense of authenticity. The weirdest casting however is Christopher Walken in his cameo as Bronson’s trainer. His part feels like the biggest concession to American audiences which feels rather surprising in a sense because I don’t believe this film will find much of an American audience anyways and he mostly contributes voice overs and does very few actions in person and he doesn’t really have much of the over the top nature that makes the actor so enjoyable to watch, something I hope he is going to bring to his up-coming role as King Louis in the up-coming Jungle Book adaptation, but as it stands, his role could have been played by anyone which is a shame because I am a Christopher Walken fan. Overall the cast is really a mixed bag, with some great performances, particularly Taron Egerton and some slightly weaker performances.

As for the aesthetics of the film, it’s actually very good. The period accuracy is done very well and the recreations of the Winter Olympics from that year are done very well. I would also say that the film has done a good job on not relying too much on stock footage, using it very liberally and the footage that they did use is used to good effect, though there is no actual stock footage of Eddie himself and all of his moments have been created specifically for the film, with the exception of one scene towards the end, of the closing ceremony.

The soundtrack is also some excellent music from the late 80’s, that I think will further get the nostalgic feel for people that will see this film, particularly songs from artists like ‘Frankie Goes To Hollywood’ and the use of Van Halen’s jump felt perfect , but it doesn’t really save the film overall.

I really want to love Eddie The Eagle, I really do, but at this point I can just say it’s an OK movie. It’s biggest strength is the central performance from Taron Egerton which excels the film,I just don’t think this is the film for me. I’m getting a bit bored of sports film cliches and I think this film has cemented that for me. It had some good humour in it, there is some decent acting and the period accuracy is pretty well done, but I know this film could have been so much better. This film could have been the ‘feel good British comedy of the year’, but as it stands, it’s just one to play at Christmas when there is not much else on. I think this film will appeal much more to people that experienced this event in the 80’s and want a bit more of an in depth analysis of what actually happened. I can only really recommend this film to those people, anyone born from 1990 onwards, probably should skip it. Don’t get me wrong, I don’t hate this movie, it’s just OK and I was highly entertained watching it, just not as much as I would have liked to have been.

“So what are your thoughts on Eddie The Eagle?”

Do you agree with me, or do you have a different opinion, please leave a comment, I welcome all opinions. Don’t forget you can follow me on my Twitter account to check out what extra films I am seeing outside of my reviews and get my thoughts on them as well as some of the extra bits and bobs I am doing. If you want to submit your own content or reviews, visit our how to submit section, we are very happy for others thoughts and ideas on our website.

Well that’s another week out of the way, so let’s move on. Next week I am reviewing Snow White and the Huntsmen prequel ‘Huntsmen A Winters War’, which will be posted on the website 15 April.

Thanks for reading my review, I hope you enjoyed reading it as much as I enjoyed writing it. My recommendations right now for films to see are The Witch, Deadpool and Zootopia, go and see them.

Calvin – Nerd Consultant

“BATMAN V SUPERMAN: DAWN OF JUSTICE”

Just a warning ahead. There are going to be a ton of spoilers for Man Of Steel, so if you haven’t seen that movie yet, you have been warned!!  This does not mean I will be giving away spoilers for this film though.

Batman V Superman is one of the biggest releases of the year, if not the biggest. However, unlike last year, where several of the big hype movies came with no competition in sight and several films actually changed dates to avoid competition, this film does have quite a bit of competition over the Easter weekend, including family film Zootopia or Zootropilis if you live in the UK and romantic comedy sequel My Big Fat Greek Wedding 2, both of which I have seen, the former for which I got a preview screening the week before, that was probably for the wise, considering that these films need all the help they can get to outdo this one at the Box Office. Unlike the really hyped films from last year, this film almost didn’t feel like it was getting much of a fan reaction, like Star Wars or Avengers Age of Ultron where we all were going into it thinking it was going to be excellent, it’s more of everyone looking at the posters and hoping for a good film. I think that’s down to Man Of Steele which despite having a mixed reaction from fans on the internet upon its initial release, now seems to have the attitude from both fans and critics of “it’s not a very good movie”.

I actually re-watched Man of Steel before seeing this and my best description of it is, it’s a disappointing movie. It’s not as bad as some people have made it out to be, aside from the terrible product placement, the awful line from Jonathan Kent early on in the film and of course the infamous Superman breaking Zod’s neck at the end of the movie, which made me hate the movie on my first viewing, but I at least acknowledged that there was at least some attempt to tell the Superman story and it could have easily been great. When it does tell the Superman story, it does a decent job, although I think the biggest mistake of that movie was the clash of style between director Zack Snyder and producer Christopher Nolan. Christopher Nolan is not on this film though Zack Snyder has stayed on to direct and he is joined again by regular Nolan collaborator David S Goya who also wrote the screenplays for all the Dark Knight trilogy. So on the Batman side of things, he at least knows how to write a good Batman movie. The problem is, I have never seen a Zack Snyder film that I have enjoyed 100% or even one I could say is a really great movie. The only movie I would recommend out of all the movies he has directed is 300, which I only recommend because it is a really great over the top action and is very cheesy, but granted I have never seen a Zack Snyder film that I absolutely couldn’t stand, with the exception of Soccer Punch which was just awful.

The film though, has a major task at hand, it has to set up DC’s Cinematic Universe which will now be competing with Marvel’s Cinematic Universe which is moving into its third phase with the upcoming Captain America: Civil War which will be introducing a ton of characters and a whole new direction to the Marvel cinematic universe, similar to what this film was promising. But it also feels like DC is really rushing things, we have a Justice League movie out next year, which is rather surprising considering we didn’t get an Avengers movie until all of the characters were introduced, it also seems rather perplexing because DC feels like they are gambling with their brand this year, not only will this film set up their cinema, they are also gambling on their re-birth event which is coming out which will re-launch their entire comic line which I may be talking about on Axia’s site when it happens however nothing is confirmed, if this doesn’t go well DC could be in real financial trouble. With all that being said though, how does it turn out?

Batman V Superman’s plot takes place shortly after the events of Man of Steel. Bruce Wayne, aka Batman (played by Ben Affleck) becomes concerned over Superman’s presence after the destruction of Metropolis during the fight with Zod and starts creating contingency plans. Meanwhile, Superman (played by Henry Cavill) is also dealing with pressures from US government after a rescue in Africa resulted in the deaths of several terrorist suspects and both are beginning to clash with each other, believing each others styles to be incomparable to justice. Meanwhile Lex Luther (played by Jesse Eisenberg) is doing research of his own on the remains of Zod and the Kryptonian technology and has a scheme of his own in mind. The film’s I would compare Batman V Superman to would be the two animated movies, Superman/Batman Public Enemies and Superman/Batman Apocalypse and while I do think both of those movies are better than this one, this one is actually pretty OK. This film at the time of writing my review had a 29% on rotten tomatoes, that is criminal. This film is nowhere near that bad. The film has to do a balancing act between Batman and Superman and it does this pretty well for the most part, though as a result from playing the balancing act it does mean a bit is missing on either side and I think some comic fans won’t be entirely satisfied because neither one gets the full focus they deserve, but in the time frame given it does a good job. Batman V Superman has a really long running time. The film comes in at 2 and a half hours, but I think that is necessary. The major reason being that this film has to set up a lot. They have to set up Batman and his supporting cast, following on from Man of Steel and this is also supposed to be the benchmark to set up the DC Cinematic Universe. I can’t talk too much about because I promised this review would be spoiler free, but I can at least talk briefly about it. One of my big concerns with Avengers Age of Ultron was that I felt it was spending a lot of time trying to set up future movies in the Marvel Cinematic Universe. This film does a similar tactic, however, it’s better because it’s short, to the point and it will leave fans wanting more, most of which will be coming between 2017 and 2018. Though I wil admit it’s not very subtle and does kind of spell it out in way that I could flash on the screen “THIS IS SET UP FOR THE JUSTICE LEAGUE MOVIE”. The only character aside from Batman and Superman who gets a large amount of screen time is Wonder Woman (played by Gal Gadot) who is actually done well. She doesn’t get as much screen time and we don’t find out much about her, but I think that is being saved for the Wonder Woman movie coming out in 2017. This film does an excellent job of making Batman seem serious.

The film alludes to there being tons of back story with this Batman from the various sets, to the technology used, to even one of the Bat Suits in the Bat Cave clearly being defaced by the Joker who we will be seeing in the up-coming Suicide Squad movie. They never go into too much detail about this and I think some fans will be annoyed that this is rather vague about what has happened with Batman’s back story in these films, but to be fair, we have had a trilogy of films that have gone into Batman in quite an extensive manner and we have a set up that will allow future movies to fill in the blanks. It’s better that the film will show you this rather than have it tell you everything, this Universe it pretty young, we have to give it time. This film also doesn’t spend too long on the Batman origin story, it keeps it quick and to the point which is good because we have seen the origin a lot now and are familiar with it.

I think a lot of the characters that have been pulled across from Man of Steel are also improved. This is especially evident with Perry White and Lois Lane who were both saddled with way too heavy pretentious dialogue that was clearly contributed by Christopher Nolan and are allowed to be the characters that are closer to their comic counterparts. This also means we can much more appreciate the casting of Amy Adams and Laurence Fishburne in both of those roles. Finally for another good positive point, the film builds pretty well. It has a quite slow start but it does build well, especially to the inevitable confrontation between Batman and Superman and by the end it does feel like we have been on a journey of how we got to this point. I’m not going to go into too much detail about it, because I think it’s best to experience this as you are watching the movie, especially considering the trailer didn’t give away as much as we thought. I think some fans will find a reason to be nit picky about it, but I think the build up to the fight is pretty good and the inevitable confrontation is done excellently and it has a really good climax. Speaking of the climax, the film has a brilliant one. It’s already been ruined in the trailer that the final fight is with Doomsday but it’s still a really good fight. Doomsday in the comics is the one villain to really push Superman to the test and he can really match him strength to strength, so this may be jumping the shark slightly quickly with bringing this character in at this stage, it does make for an excellent climax and it’s great to see the trinity on screen together for the first time, the trinity being Superman, Batman and Wonder Woman. I’m probably making it sound like this is an excellent plot and I can’t say that unfortunately, I do have a few legitimate complaints with this movie. For starters, I think the film has a bit of an issue with Batman on a couple of points. Don’t get me wrong, Batman is written pretty damm well and it feels at the end like we are going to get more out of this version of the character that I would really like to see, however, I think Zack Snyder might have borrowed a bit too much from Frank Miller. I think in a sense, Batman comes off as being like a paranoid nutcase at times and can be really violent with less of a moral code, but at least the film pulls it back and he never reaches the psychotic tendencies he had in All star Batman and Robin, oh and if you ever see that on a comic shelf, do yourself a favour and put it back, it’s genuinely one of the worst Batman comics you will ever read and Frank Miller keeps threatening us that he is going to try and continue the story, just don’t Frankie, we do not want it!! Frank Miller also has this really weird obsession that he believes that Batman and Superman shouldn’t be friends, an opinion that I definitely do not share, there is something to be said about their camaraderie when it is written well. This film portrays them as two sides of a coin coming together to clash one another and it does that pretty well, I just can’t believe that Batman wouldn’t ask too many questions, there is a bit of manipulation going on in the background, but still, it does at times feel a bit off kilter, and I would be lying if I said I though it was a brilliant portrayal. There are also a couple of problems with Lex Luthor. Now Lex Luthor is pretty good for the most part, he is done very well, but they do go a bit too over the top at times and forget to rein him in. At times if feels like Jesse Eisenberg is auditioning to play the Joker more than he is Lex Luthor, that being said however, they do get down Lex Luthor’s superiority complex and I think they get down a lot of his ego.

This film also has a real issue with it’s sub plots. There are a lot of sub plots that don’t go anywhere and I think they are purely going to be fulfilled in the up-coming Justice League movie which will be out next year. Now this does build up some hype, but at the same time, it almost feels un-needed. There are a couple of sub plots that feel especially so and one that doesn’t even go anywhere by the middle of the film and is even abandoned rather quickly. Also this plot has a ton of moments that feel really unnecessary and as a result at times the plot is all over the place and struggles for a focus. Getting back to positives now. I do like Superman more in this movie and I think one of the thing they bought over that I think they do well in Man of Steel and is done even better here, the conflict of, ‘if a man has so much power, how much of it should he use’ is here. Lois Lane is also given an expanded role that is pretty good and I really enjoyed a lot of back and forth between the various characters. It doesn’t quite reach the witty repartee that the Marvel films reach, but I certainly liked it better than in Man of Steel. The other aspect in Ben Affleck’s portrayal of Batman is the fact that he doesn’t get much time to be Bruce Wayne, there’s not as much of it as I would have liked and I don’t think we got as much of his relationship with Alfred as I would have liked, but at least they are both there and they are done to a decent degree. This is pretty much how I would sum up the plot of this movie. Everything is basically there, it just doesn’t quite reach the heights it could have reached, but I think to reach that it would have had to have been another half hour longer and I think this film is already long enough as it is. Fortunately, unlike Man of Steel, it doesn’t outstay it’s welcome and thankfully it is not as obsessed with apocalyptic destruction as that film was. At least this time, when Superman saves the day, there’s not as many human casualties in the matter. Also far less product placements with the painful exception of Turkish Airlines. I think this will appease many DC comic fans, although I suspect there will be quite a few that will find areas to poke holes in it, personally though, as a long time reader of DC comics, I pretty much liked it.

Now, as for the cast, the ones brought over from Man of Steel, because this film is better written, we are allowed to appreciate their casting a lot better. Henry Cavill makes a very good Superman, Amy Adam, who I thought was one of the best parts of Man of Steel is given room to be an excellent Lois Lane and I really finally started to enjoy Laurence Fishburne’s Perry White, who is given the time to really leave us a presence on screen. Diane Lane also does a good job returning as Martha Kent. As for the new cast members, Jesse Eisenberg as Lex Luthor is ok, but as I mentioned before, he does have a tendency to go over the top and his part is threatened to be ruined by some later revelations about Lex Luthor that I really didn’t care that much for. Now let’s talk about the big one. Ben Affleck as Bruce Wayne and Batman. Now his casting caused a lot of controversy as people thought he would be a poor choice to play Batman especially in light of the fact he did a bad job playing Daredevil. Personally when I heard his casting I actually thought it was a good idea, especially considering his last movie up to that point was Argo which was fantastic and he further proved his acting ability by giving an excellent performance in Gone Girl, I can say, I was at least, mostly right. Ben Affleck is really good at playing Batman and is easily the best part of the movie, I don’t think he is as good at playing Bruce Wayne, but I think that’s because the film doesn’t really give time to have the psychology of Bruce Wayne/Batman which I think future films will do a better job of, but for playing Batman, he is pretty good. He’s no Kevin Conroy, but I like him in the role. Gal Gadot doesn’t get as much time as Wonder Woman so I won’t go into too much detail, but she is pretty passable, which is a lot considering she is an actress I don’t really care that much for most of the time. I liked Jeremy Irons as Alfred, though I would again like to make more of a judgement on him when I see the solo Batman movie that is coming up. Holly Hunter gets a decent role as Senator Finch who is trying to put regulations on Superman and I would say she was very well cast in the role. There are a few wasted potentials however, for example, we have Michael Cassidy in the role as Jimmy Olsen, but he is really wasted, as people who have seen the movie will attest to. The Waynes are also a pretty weird cameo, especially Martha Wayne being played by Lauren Cohan from The Walking Dead and Thomas Wayne being played by Jeffrey Dean Morgan, they are both really good actors, it does seem rather a waste to give them a role in which they basically have no lines. There are other ones I can go into, like Nancy Grace and Anderson Cooper in throw away cameos, playing newsreaders which feels really bizarre, I also can’t go into other cast members, because it would give away spoilers, so let’s just leave it at that and say that I think the cast is pretty good and they do a better job because this film is much better written that Man of Steel.

The special effects and the fight scenes now. The fight scenes are very good and the cinematography is much better this time round, mainly because the cameraman learnt to take his hand off the freaking zoom button!!! Not all the scenes are shot perfectly, there’s a few weird cuts that don’t really work and I would be lying if I said I didn’t think this film was very heavily reliant on computer effects, but at least they are decent computer effects. There is also the matter of product placements, which this time are thankfully not as apparent as they were in Man of Steel. Seriously there were so many ads in that film, it felt like they were clashing with one another. What’s great about the fight scene between Batman and Superman is that it is very intelligent as to how to make the fight seem very even and it doesn’t play favourites, for the most part. I also liked the designs of all the characters costumes, especially the Batman costume which I think is probably is the best one to date! The only thing I would change is I would make the ears at the top slightly longer. Also the robotic suit used during the fight with superman is an excellent recreation of the robotic suit from The Dark Knight Returns. I also think the Superman costume is still too much of a darker tint of blue, which I would prefer brighter, but for what we have got, it’s alright. I am not a particular fan of the Wonder Woman costume, but I prefer to comment more on that when I review Wonder Woman next year. I also think that the sets are pretty good at re-creating Gotham and Metropolis and they make both of the locations seem very different to one another, however the one complaint I have about them is they both seem a bit too close. Don’t get me wrong, the comics did suggest that Metropolis and Gotham are rather close to one another and had a good transit network between them, however, not this close. Gotham has always been depicted as being a sort of city similar to Chicago that was most likely in New York state and Metropolis was more of a business mecca possibly in the mid west, again the comics never specified where on a map these two cities were meant to be, but they never suggest they were next to each other like the film does, and it really bothers me. I saw the film in 3D and my advice would be to not see it in that format. It’s good at times but doesn’t add too much to the film and at times I forgot I was watching it in 3D plus because many of the scenes are shot at night, the darkening effect the glasses have make those scenes harder to see.

Is Batman V Superman perfect? No, far from it, there are a few plot holes, there’s a couple of plots that don’t go anywhere and the plot feels rather confused at times, but for basic story telling, it’s actually pretty good. It tells a decent cohesive story and doesn’t get bogged down in pretentious dialogue like its predecessor did and it has some good central performances. Honestly, I would say it’s probably Zack Snyder’s best film to date, though considering his back catalogue, that’s not saying much. I’m not going to say it’s perfect, because I would be lying to you and to myself, but for what it delivers, it’s pretty good. The action scenes are well shot, the story is cohesive for the most part and I liked the characters and I think the film has some merits to it. It is certainly better than Man of Steel and that film has a higher rotten tomato’s score than this film. I am going to make a prediction that I think comic fans will be divided on this on in the future, however I say it’s good, but not great. It nearly hits the mark and it’s an admirable attempt. Man of Steel may have been a rickety foundation to build the DC Cinematic Universe on, but Batman V Superman reinforces it slightly, but it will need a really strong movie to keep it going. Hopefully the up-coming Suicide Squad movie that comes out in the summer will keep up the momentum. Oh and don’t stick around to the end credits there’s no post credit scene.

“What are your thoughts on Batman V Superman?”

Do you agree with me or do you have a different opinion. I would love to hear all of your comments because I think this will be a very derisive movie. Do you also agree with me that the critics were way too harsh on this film? You can also follow me on Twitter to see what other movies I am seeing. Remember, if you want to add your own content then please do.

Well that it for this week, so let’s kick off April with a bang. On 8 April I will be reviewing British Drama “Eddie The Eagle” starring Tara Eggerton and Hugh Jackman.

Thanks for reading my review, I hope you enjoyed reading it as much as I enjoyed writing it.

P.S. Do not go and see Norm of the North if it is playing at your cinema, do not watch it on DVD, do not endorse it in any way shape or form, you will regret it!!!

Calvin – Nerd Consultant

“FUSE: MEMOIRS OF THE HUNTER GIRL”

Fuse: Memoirs Of The Hunter Girl (or Fuse: Memoirs Of The Huntress as it’s known in America) is the first release of 2016 to come from license company. All The Anime who are largely responsible for many of the films I saw at MCM Loves Anime last year, including the recently released, for a limited time only, Miss Hokusai which will receive a review for the site upon its DVD release in April as well as the film Empire of Corpses which at this point in time has no sort of general release planned for the UK and considering how long it takes for some Anime to make its way over here I wouldn’t count on seeing it any time soon. When I saw it, it had only been in Japanese cinemas for 2 weeks. The company has also been largely responsible for many of the Anime that I have enjoyed in the past including “Patema Inverted” and “Giovanni’s Island” as well as the re-release of many series that would have gone out of circulation otherwise, such as Outlaw Star and The Gundum series which is still being released in various Box Sets and I would highly recommend picking them up if you have any sort of fleeting interest in Gundum or if you are curious about the Mech or Giant Robot anime, though be warned they are very expensive. One half of the series just costing £45.00!

Fuse is a film that didn’t really attract my attention until I saw it was coming up on several animation release sites. It was released in October 2012 in Japan and is a film based on a novel by Kazuki Sakubara whose work has been adapted to other Japanese films though this is the first to be animated and the screenplay has been written by relative newcomer Ichirô Ohkôchi who’s briefly done work writing a couple of the new Beserk movies which I won’t claim to have seen. The director is Masayuki Miyaji whose previous credits included the series Xamd and has directed a couple of episodes of my favourite Anime series Eureka Seven and this is his feature debut. So I had high hopes for this film it’s a good license company and a talented director but I still went into it with minimal expectations mainly because I didn’t see a trailer and I wasn’t even that aware of its release up to the moment it was coming out but I deiced it was worth a watch and even a review. Mainly because I was unaware that Zootopia (or Zootropolis as it’s known in the UK) had previews coming out which both Dr Buchan and myself can highly recommend. I also can recommend “The Witch” for all you Horror fans.

The plot of Fuse starts with a Hunter girl called Hamaji (played by Minako Kotobuki) receiving a letter from her brother Douetsu (played by Katsuyuki Konish)i asking her to leave the countryside and live with him in Edo. Once she arrives she discovers that a Shogun has placed a hit out on The Fuse, a group of half human/half dog people who are supposedly killing indiscriminately throughout the town and a hefty price has been put on their heads as a result. After being caught in a difficult situation Hamaji befriends a fuse named Shino (played by Mamoru Miyano) and she quickly forms a close friendship, however with the fuse being slowly hunted down, how long can it last and will Shino give in to his demons that have been building inside him? Fuse is a rather interesting piece as it feels like it tries to tread quite a few types of stories; fortunately it does many of them very well. The film does a lot of Anime traits very quickly, what Anime is very good at doing is introducing the characters and their personalities very quickly and easily and I think this is something that a lot of Western writers could take note from. This film is no exception to that and there is a really cool cast of loveable characters in this film. The main character, Himaji particularly, who when first seen is portrayed as a very creditable huntress. I loved a lot of parts of this film, there are some excellent aspects to it and Himaji is part of that. She is an excellent character. We see most of the film from her perspective. If you are expecting some narration from this, to read out as a diary, as suggested by the title of the film, then I am afraid you will be disappointed. The title actually refers to a novel being written by Himaji’s friend, Meido who she meets early on in the film and while we do get some narration from her in the beginning and at the end. it doesn’t stay through the entire film, we only get a short part of it in the middle.

There is a lot of interesting back story to this film, but I do think there are a lot of sub plots that may have been cut from the novel. I haven’t actually read the novel this is based on, I’m not even aware if there is an English translation available, but judging by the films structure, I suspect this is a rather faithful adaptation, since there are a lot of sub plots and minor characters and the film doesn’t know entirely what to do with all of them, yet none of them feel superfluous, this is often the case in faithful adaptations of novel to film adaptations but this can also have a poor effect if the characters are not enjoyable. Take for example, the Jason Statham film Blitz, where the sheer amount of characters and sub plots felt more like they belonged in the novel and much of it could have been cut for time. The thing that really translates through is there are some genuinely brilliant heartfelt moments in the film. The film kind of starts out with Himaji and her brother trying to hunt down the Fuse so that they can get paid in order to survive, but then quickly turns into various other stories, such as Meido trying to find her literary muse after spending time working on a printing press, the sub plot about a kabuki troop, (for those of you who don’t know, kabuki is a type of Japanese theatre, but if you are reading a review about an anime film, I suspect you already know this!) and there are several sub plots around characters relationships to one another, mainly Himaji. Her connection with Shino is very well done. They only meet a handful of times throughout the entire film, but you do feel the connection between them and the film takes time to build this up. The whole film in general feels like it is building to a massive event. The best sub plot by far is Himaji’s own sub plot about not feeling comfortable dressing as a woman and feels more comfortable dressed in more masculine clothing. It mainly serves to show that she can appear strong and feminine at the same time and is beautifully demonstrated in a scene where Shino buys her a kimono. The only sub plot that stay along for a long period of time though is one early one, after Himaji and her brother kill a Fuse, she gives them a letter to deliver to her son who lives in the mountains, I won’t spoil how this sub plot ends, but it does lead to some very beautiful moments throughout the film. Overall the story is downright interesting, there is a lot of nice weaves and turns and I felt invested in everything that was going on. I don’t think it quite reaches the levels that Studio Ghibli does and that will probably be especially evident when I review “When Marnie Was There” when it comes out in June, but there is a real level of depth delivered to this. I am very surprised that the screenwriter only had one film to his name prior to this and I think he will do a decent job further down the line. However, I get a real sense that director Masayuki Miyaji really had a vision for this film. While I may not completely have enjoyed Xamd, and I did believe at the time that he showed potential to be a good director, I really enjoyed his work on this film. He has realised that potential with this film. Its major weakness however is that it is a bit basic in its storytelling but I enjoyed it. In my research I did hear of people comparing this film to Beauty and the Beast and there are definitely some similarities, but more in the same way that there are similarities to Alice In Wonderland and Spirited Away, and I don’t think this should, in any way, be interpreted as a Japanese version of Beauty and the Beast, in the same way that I would say Spirited Away is the Japanese version of Alice In Wonderland! They are simply too different.

If there is one thing that the film kind of hiccups on, it’s the climax. While the climax is really good and genuinely suspenseful I don’t quite fully understand it. While everything has been built up well, I didn’t fully understand everyone’s motivations. I will say there are some really good moment, like the final showdown as well as various other plot points which I won’t give away because I really want people to go out and find this film. I would also say there are a lot of character moments that don’t fully make sense to me, although everything is wrapped up nicely towards the end of the film. I would be lying if I didn’t say the climax had one or two issues. Anyone fearing that this is going to be another case of a ‘Twilight type film’ that will castrate werewolves, I would say don’t worry, the film is much better than that, for one thing, it’s not actually a werewolf story, the Fuse are slightly different beasts, but they we are getting into semantics about Japanese myths compared to western myths and we will be going completely off topic. The point is, the film has a very believable romance, very good characters and will keep you invested though out the running time, it’s honestly rather surprising that it is as good as it is.

As for the actors, this is going to be shorter than usual. Normally in these reviews I tend to review the English dub, however, despite being licensed by All The Anime, Fuse does not have an English dub, so if you don’t like watching foreign language films with sub titles, you are out of luck. I do watch films in their original language, but when it comes to anime, I prefer the English dub, with that being said though, Fuse has a cast that deliver excellent performances. In particular are Minako Kotobuki as Himaji and Kanako Miyamoto as Meido who probably give the best performances in the entire film. Mamoru Miyano is also excellent as Shino though I do think at times he seems slightly too old to be playing the part. If you are an anime purist and insist on watching all anime in its original Japanese with sub titles, I believe this cast will definitely suit your needs. I also urge people who don’t normally watch anime outside the English dub, to give this one a go.

The animation is a mixed bag. There is a lot of hand drawn animation in here which is lovingly done and it looks excellent. Anime these days does have a lot of titles that seems to be trying to replicating Japanese Art and this is one that is trying that. A lot of anime these days is trying to mix it in 3D digital animation and while there are a lot of clever moments that use it to good effect in this film there are also moments that follow the same trap that others anime does, it doesn’t blend in with the hand drawn animation very well and as a result can be rather clashing. I’m actually kind of amazed that Fuse went to straight to DVD though because I think this could easily have been screened for a limited time or to an individual chain of cinemas because there are a lot of moments in this film that feel cinematic and actually could easily be played on a cinema screen and look well. When the animation is great is looks downright gorgeous. I wouldn’t go so far as to say it’s Studio Ghibli gorgeous, but it is still very good. The character designs are also excellent, my comparison to Samurai Champloo earlier is not that far off especially considering both films were set in Feudal period of Japan and the way that the characters are designed in both their look and their outfits is also similar, again it’s designed to give authenticity to the time period and it’s another anime that really illuminates that time period very well purely from a visual standpoint. There are some absolutely lovingly crafted moments in the film and the animation really delivers for them. The climax is a good example but there is also the scenes of the kabuki theatre as well the various hunting scenes and even just some minor moments feel like they were at least lovingly crafted by the animators. In other words, visually, it’s great. Audio wise, while the soundtrack is actually pretty good, the score is really good, I think this is a particularly great soundtrack and I could possibly get this one on CD at some point, or at least look up to score on YouTube. There are a couple of Jay Pop songs thrown in the mix and while a couple of them are half decent they do occasionally feel quite jarring and out of place. Really though, that is a minor complaint. Fuse Memoirs of a Hunter Girl is actually a genuinely good movie. I am really going to recommend it, and I would also recommend getting the special edition which contains the Blu Ray and the DVD disc and it’s great on Blu Ray where the animation really pops out in High Definition, plus you get a really neat little art book that shows off the designs of the world and the characters well. There are more reasons to recommend it than just that, the film has a lovingly crafted story about romance and identity, there are a ton of great characters, a ton of great animation and some really interesting ideas and a well told story with good dialogue. It’s not going to be for everyone and I will wonder how this film will stand up with other anime releases this year such as Ghost In The Shell The New Movie and particularly When Marnie Was There, but I think this is one we should consider. If this is just a footnote, it’s been an excellent year for anime and I suspect this may become one of the under rated classics, though I would say it’s worth a watch, particularly if you enjoy Studio Ghibli films.

“So what are your thoughts on Fuse: Memoirs of the Hunger Girl? Did you agree with me or do you have a different opinion to me?”

Please leave something in the comments section and of course don’t forget you can follow me on Twitter and Facebook. You can also submit your own content on our site by visiting the How To Submit section.

Well that covers my week off from the cinema and it’s now back to business. Come back on 1 April where I will be reviewing what could be the biggest release of 2016 Batman V Superman Dawn Of Justice. Let’s really hope it doesn’t suck!!

Thanks for reading my review, I hope you have enjoyed reading it as much as I enjoyed writing it.

p.s. I am definitely reviewing Batman V Superman next, honestly, it’s not an April Fools joke!!!

Calvin – Nerd Consultant