“AVENGERS: AGE OF ULTRON”

I don’t think there is a film I have been more looking forward to seeing this year. I love the original Avengers film, in fact it’s probably by favourite Superhero Movie and in my Top Ten Favourite Films of all time. I would almost say it was a perfect film and was exactly what the fans were asking for. Joss Whedon has been teasing at this sequel since pretty much the end of the first film, building it up big time and we have been on tenterhooks watching each Marvel film before this to fill the gap while we have been waiting. Fans have been really looking forward to this one, especially considering that one of the biggest villains in the Universe, Ultron was going to be a part of this film and we get an introduction to several other characters yet to make their way into the Marvel Cinematic Universe. But this film has a lot to live up to. The first one was critically praised, is called by a lot of people “the greatest superhero movie” ever made and is the highest grossing superhero film based on a comic ever. That’s a lot to live up to, but if anyone can do it, it’s Joss Whedon. So now that I have actually seen this sequel, you are all looking forward to hearing how good it is and my advice would already be to go to the cinema to see this film and I will give you the reasons why right now!! But don’t worry, this review as usual, will be spoiler free and considering how quickly people talk about films on the internet, my advise right now is do not read too much about this film prior to seeing it.

The plot picks up pretty much just after the conclusion of Captain America The Winter Soldier with the Avengers taking down the last of Hydra’s Factions. Following this, Tony Stark aka Iron Man (played once again by Robert Downing Jr) together with Bruce Banner aka The Hulk, (played by Mark Ruffalo) develop an artificial intelligence called Ultron, (played by James Spader) based on the technology retrieved from Loki’s Staff from the first film that was recovered during a raid. Ultron, however, developing his own conclusion on Tony Stark’s idea for peace in their lifetime has interpreted this as the Avengers are causing chaos in the world and must be destroyed. Before I go any further there is an Avengers Age of Ultron prelude comic available but I wouldn’t buy it on the basis of that it doesn’t have peticulary necessary information that you need to know about before seeing the film. The comic purely explains how Hydra got their hands on Loki Staff at the end of the last couple of films and briefly sets up the characters of Pietro Maximoff aka Quicksilver and Wanda Maximoff aka Scarlet Witch and even then not very well. There are a few back up stories from the 60’s and later on that explore Ultrons’s character and The Vision and if you want a good background on those characters prior to the film I would definitely recommend picking it up.

Marvel once again has been building this film up brilliantly. Like the first film, it feels like all the films of Phase 2 have been building up to this point with the Avengers coming back together and the film wastes no time in getting the characters back together as a team. In fact there is not real scene establishing them getting back together and I am actually not annoyed by this as with a run time of 150 minutes this allows everything to be put in place and we know the Avengers are going to get back together so honestly it would be a waste of time. This film, however does bank on the fact that you’ve seen Captain America The Winter Soldier and the previous Avengers Assemble film and if you haven’t seen either of those I would recommend that you see both of them prior to seeing this one though it’s not entirely essential. It also has a slight reference to the conclusion to Guardians of the Galaxy but I don’t think you necessarily have to see that one to understand this one. If you are a comic fan, take out of your head the title, this really is not like The Age of Ultron Event Comic, its a pretty much “in name” movie only but this will not detract from the enjoyment of the film. It is a really well paced, well told story. Joss Whedon hits another one out of the park. What Joss Whedon does well is, get a lot of characters on screen, and gives them all something to do, make them all likeable and have a role to play. I think he does this on a lot of levels even better than the first film especially considering that Hawkeye (played once again by Jeremy Renner) is given a lot larger role this time which is great considering he pretty much was given the least to do in the first film. What’s great about this film is also the fact that Whedon has managed to find a way to get a lot more characters than we were expecting in the film. Yes we all knew that this film was going to have Quicksilver, Scarlet Witch and The Vision, but how many people were expecting War Machine to turn up and play a large role or have a quick cameo from Falcon. These characters appearing works well because it further adds to the idea that this is a living breathing Universe with tons of inter-connected plots. What’s also great about this film is each character seems to almost have an individual plot, but it all ties together to form a coherent narrative. The film also builds pretty well and as a result, by the time we reach the climax of the film, it feels pretty rewarding and believe me there is, once again, never a dull moment on screen. If you liked the first film’s pacing and direction, this follows pretty much the same direction so it should be up your street. This film, however does go into some darker turns, but once again this is to the films’s benefit, let’s face it you wouldn’t want an exact replica of the first one!!

The major thing to talk about is the major editions to the Marvel Cinematic Universe, mainly Ultron. Ultron in this film is great!! He is one bad ass villain and does feel big enough to warrant the Avengers coming together to take him down. I’m not sure how he is going to work in the long run, because he is following Tom Hiddleston’s Loki and while James Spader plays this role very well he will still be compared too much to Loki. It’s a similar situation as Tom Hardy playing Bane from Heath Ledgers Joker in the Dark Knight Trilogy. This will, however be an unfair comparison on both parts because for one thing Tom Hardy’s Bane had more Flawed Material to work with compared to Heath Ledger’s Joker Whereas Tom Hiddleston and James Spader have more consistent material and second the two villains are completely different and should therefore be played in completely different ways and Spader does play this role completely differently to Hiddleston’s Loki but I will get into that more in the acting section. This film also did Quicksilver and the Scarlet Witch really well. They are written to be like their comic counterparts and they appropriately are given enough to do, they are not just the ‘spare wheel’ or an excuse to add more characters to the Marvel Cinematic Universe and that is excellent considering they have played such a large role in various incarnation of the Avengers in the comics. Once again Captain America is portrayed as the perfect leader for the Avengers, Iron Man and Bruce Banner are once again the brains. The Hulk is in this film even more than the first film but he is not too over-exposed fortunately and in fact he gets one of the best fight scenes in the middle of the film Thor is given a rather interesting sub-plot even though I’m not sure is quite fully resolved by the end of the film and hopefully we will get more detail on that in Thor: Ragnarok. Black Widow got surprisingly more interesting than she has been in the last two films especially when we get more of an insight into her back story. I did have a couple of problems with this plot. Mainly that I am not really buying into the Bruce Banned/Black Widow relationship that much, it really comes out of nowhere and just feels like artificial ways to extend their roles in the film.

A lot of this film is really building up to Phase 3 of Marvel and as a result it might make the film seem like the weakest of the Avenger films when the Infinity War comes out because this film was spending a portion of its time building up that film and by Extension Phase 3 and that can be slightly annoying because I think the first film did a better job of balancing a conclusion to that phase of Marvel and hyping us up for future movies. With that being said we are all excited for Infinity War so it’s not that much of a negative! Is there anything more I need to say about the writing? It’s Joss Whedon’s writing and direction!! The guy does excellent characters and excellent snarky dialogue which did have the audience I was with ’laughing in droves’ and he also has written one of the best Stan Lee cameos in any of these films. If you like these characters, you are going to like this plot. No one is left out, everyone is taken advantage of and it did an especially good job in quickly introducing and getting us behind new characters like Quicksilver, the Scarlet Witch and especially Vision who while he isn’t in the film long, he is portrayed excellently. Whedon has done an excellent job here in the writing department.

Acting wise, there really isn’t much more to say about this one, especially considering that most of the actors in these films are playing these characters for the fourth or fifth time. My thoughts are they were good actors in all their previous films and they are still good here. Robert Downey Jr was born to play Ironman, Chis Evans is once again excellent as Captain America, Chris Hemsworth is perfectly cast as Thor, Mark Ruffalo is once again perfect as Bruce Banner and the Hulk, Scarlet Johansson really hits it out of the park as Black Widow and Jeremy Renner is starting to prove himself really worthy of being Hawkeye. Once again theses actors also have excellent chemistry and play off each other very well which aids the dynamic very well. The major thing to talk about in this film is the new actors. Mainly James Spader as Ultron, I thought this guy was perfect to play Ultron and I was absolutely right, he is absolutely brilliant in this role. He manages to deliver the in-human almost Hal 9000 like quality to his performance but he also manages to keep up Ultron’s superiority complex brilliantly, especially considering he seems to have inherited Tony Stark’s personality on a lot of levels which is a slight differentiation to the comic, considering in that continuity he was created by Hank Pymm, but that character hasn’t been established in this Universe yet. Incidentally that was my other complaint about the plot, I wish Hank Pymm had been established for this film. He is a really good character and Ultron played a big part in his development! Well we’re just going to have to wait for Ant Man to come out. Aaron Taylor-Johnson is brilliant as Quicksilver. Yes Kick Ass is playing Quicksilver!! I think he is becoming one of my favourite actors. Between playing John Lennon in Nowhere Boy as well as his roles in Kick Ass and Godzilla he is really showing himself as a versatile actor and I am really looking forward to any role he is planning in the future, especially considering he does an excellent eastern european accent for this film, much like his Kick Ass voice, sounds almost natural even though his actual accent is so different. Elisabeth Olsen is a perfect choice to play the Scarlet Witch and she really shows off her acting talent in this film. Her and Aaron also have excellent chemistry once again, having previously played husband and wife in Godzilla, though try not to think about that too much whilst you are watching this film, considering that they are twins in this! Paul Bettany has made an excellent Jarvis for the last few Marvel films and he makes a brilliant vision, he embodies the character almost perfectly and I look forward to him expanding on this role in future Marvel Movies. Even the cameos are brilliant. Stellen Skarsgard as usual is brilliant in his role, Idris Elba is finally given something interesting to do in one of these films and let’s face it, he is going to be brilliant in almost anything he is in! He is Idris Elba!! Even Don Cheadle is allowed to flex his muscles at last as War Machine. In fact I can’t even think of a weak member of the cast, everyone is brilliant and there are too many of them to highlight everyone, trust me though there is not a bad performance in this film. Though the throwaway lines during the party at Avengers Tower do make you wish that Natalie Portman and Gwyneth Paltrow had reprised their roles, though Portman should be back for her role in Thor Ragnarok.

This now leads us on to the aesthetics of the film. The first film had amazing cinematography and that’s no different here! Joss Whedon knows how to direct these action sequences and he does them brilliantly. All these fight scenes are excellent, there may be a few too many and as a result there is not enough down time which the first film did a good job of balancing but this isn’t like Battleship where you don’t care about any of the characters, so as a result the action means nothing. You do care in this film so these action sequences will keep you invested and there’s a lot that also have a lot of characters in them and yet it all flows perfectly. I don’t care that half of this is CGI, it’s still directed well and it’s well integrated into the environment. My favourite sequence is probably the first scene during the raid on the Eastern European Castle, because it reminded me so much of the scenes from the battle for New York in the first film. The cuts are done brilliantly and some of the shots even look like they are done in one take. Also extra prizes for the fight between Iron Man and Hulk in South Africa.

I saw the film in 3D. I will say the 3D in this film is not as good as the 3D in the first film, despite the fact that I’m pretty sure this film was actually shot in 3D and was not a post conversion, however, when it succeeds the 3D excellent. If your local cinema is offering that format or if you are buying this on Blu Ray after it comes out and you happen to be lucky enough to have a 3D television you might want to pay that little bit extra to see it in that format, when it shines the 3D is really good, although there are large portions of the film where you forget it’s a 3D production. The highlight really would be a lot of the Scarlett Witch’s powers which really suit the 3D format almost perfectly. The 3D works in the fight scenes very well because the camera is not too close to any of the characters so you can actually tell what is going on and as a result objects appear perfectly well in the background and the characters appear in the foreground.

Do I even need to say anything more. Avengers Age of Ultron is excellent. Would you expect anything less from Marvel Studios and Joss Whedon? They are perfectly matched together and this film is no different. I am slightly concerned that this one may pale into comparison in the long run especially after Infinity War comes out and I’m not even certain I would say that it is better than the first film, but it is a very good film and it was well worth the wait!!! It’s not a perfect film by any means but it’s a good enough film that you really will ignore most of the flaws though I suspect some long time fans might be slightly disappointed by this film. The characters are great, the acting is great, the action sequences are once again excellent and it sets up Phase 3 pretty well especially in the post credit scene which I would recommend you stick around to see. The film does kind of bank on the fact that you have seen most of the Marvel Movies prior to seeing this, but I would say that’s not entirely essential, although I would recommend at a minimum you have seen the previous Avengers Assemble and if you have time, see Captain America the Winter Soldier.

I really liked it, I wouldn’t say for certain that it outdoes the first film, but I wasn’t expecting it to outdo it and I’m not sure it needs to do that. It just needed to be really good and be an excellent conclusion to Phase 2 of Marvel, even though, technically the conclusion of Phase 2 is going to be Ant Man, but spiritually this is the end of Phase2. Bring on Phase 3 I say, I’m ready to go.

So what are your thoughts on Avengers: Age of Ultron, did it capture the Marvel Universe brilliantly as you hoped or were you disappointed by it. Please leave your comments in the comments section and if you want you can leave your answers to my question for this week.

“Which of Marvels Phase 3 Movies are you most looking forward to?”

If you want to submit your own content, like your own Movie Review, Book Reviews, or anything that suits your fancy, make sure you visit our “how to submit content” section that we have just set up. We love to receive content, because so far what we have got is excellent and we are more than happy to publish more.

Plus check out user Rob Woods film review of Mozart and The Whale it’s a good read

I think it’s time I took a break from comic films, mind you there aren’t that many more coming out this year, but that beside the point. Since this week I was reviewing a film I was really looking forward to, next week I will review a film I am actually dreading, but there is really nothing else coming out this weekend that this review is being published except an animated Noahs Ark. Next time I’m checking out Skype based horror “Unfriended” and it will be on the site May 8th

Thank you for reading this review, I hoped you enjoyed reading it as much as I enjoyed writing it.

Calvin – Nerd Consultant

“BATMAN VS ROBIN”

Well this is a first for me! I always knew I was going to review all 3 of DC’s animated movies that come out this year but I never expected to be doing this! I am virtually reviewing an iTunes exclusive! I am saying that because at the time of writing this review I couldn’t find any other way of seeing this movie if you live in the UK. It is possible to import this film from the States where it was released 10 days ago as of the publication of this review, but if you are want to do that you need then you will need a multi region DVD or Blu Ray player because it is not a region free. I was kind of looking forward to Batman Versus Robin it’s designed to be a direct sequel to last year’s Son of Batman and tie into the new DC animated universe. (I have already given my thoughts on what I think of this new universe based on the New 52 comic line in my Justice League Throne of Atlantis review, so if you want to get my full thoughts on that one you are better off checking out that review). However, I was more excited about this one as I did actually like Son of Batman which came out last year. It wasn’t a perfect movie and on a lot of levels it was at best a pretty good movie, though it was just slightly off being great like some of the other DC animated films have been. I was hoping they could really work around this and take what was good with Son of Batman and really emphasise that for this film and hope that this would give hope for the DC animated movies to continue into next year.

The plot is that Bruce’s son Damian Wayne, voiced by Stuart Allan is still living and training with his father Bruce Wayne aka Batman, voiced by Jason O’Mara after the events of Son of Batman in which he assumed the role of Robin. It all comes to a head, however, when during a fight against a villain called the Doll Maker, voiced by “Weird Al” Yankovic. The Doll Maker is killed by a mysterious man in an owl mask ,voiced by Jeremy Sisto, and Damian is placed under close surveillance. Damian is feeling constantly frustrated by this, not helped by the fact that he is not allowed to be known by the public as Bruce Wayne’s son at this point for fear of the press. The trouble is brewing even further now that Batman has become aware of a secret organisation called “The Court of Owls”, made up of high ranking members of Gotham Society secretly running the show and they have Batman in their sights. The plot line itself is mainly based on the Scott Snyder story “The Court of Owls” which was one of the first Batman stories to be featured in the New 52 and one of the criticisms with the new DC Animated Universe being based on the New 52 was that these stories weren’t iconic so they don’t have a large fan base that wanted to see film versions of these compared to the other movies which are based on classic comics. This storyline on the other hand is already being hailed as a new classic and I would actually recommend reading the comic version prior to seeing the film as it does help in recognising some of the references, however, it is not essential. While it is mainly based on the “Court of Owls” it does actually throw in a lot of elements of other Batman story lines that were going on at the time. There is definitely a few elements of the Batman and Robin storyline “Born to Kill” which in my opinion would potentially have made a better adaptation for the second film featuring Damian Wayne, and it also features some elements of what was going on in Nightwing’s Comic series at the time, but in a slightly different way which I will get into!

This films biggest strength is its characters which I thought was definitely lacking in the two most recent Justice League movies. This Batman movie definitely seems to get that done and at times it is stronger than Son of Batman but at times it is slightly weaker, possibly down to the fact that the cast has shrunk since that movie. It also means that there are not too main characters to worry about. Damian is definitely improving as a character and since he has kind of become the main character of these last two films that is definitely a good thing! He gets slightly more development in this film than he did in Son of Batman and that’s a good thing because I think he develops a lot more than most of the Robin’s have in a shorter space of time, at least in the comics continuity. So it was good to see some of that development go into the film screening as I felt there was a slight lack of development in his character in Son of Batman. I also think Batman is done pretty good in this film especially considering he is allowed to have a lot more focus and the great thing about this films is it is actually a Batman and Robin movie, unlike the last film which I felt focussed too much on Robin and didn’t allow it to be a Batman story. This film has this issue, but it is not over-bearing. When the plot does focus on Batman it is pretty good especially when we are seeing some of Bruce Wayne’s grief after losing his parents in the flash back sequences, emphasising the personal element that the Court of Owls play on Bruce Wayne’s life. Now the comic went slightly more into detail with this, but obviously this movie is only 80 minutes long and doesn’t have the time to do so like a comic story line with 12 issues did.

This film’s biggest strength and weakness is its villains. The Court of Owls are really good modern Batman villains, they are essentially Gotham’s version of The Illuminati, if you believe in that stuff. In fact the whole reason that Scott Snyder chose Owls was down to the whole illuminati mythology reference. We don’t get that much information into them, granted the comic kept them mysterious and we didn’t learn all that much about them, but we were given a lot more detail than this and it leaves them feeling slightly under-developed. That can not be said for the Head Assassin for the Court of Owls, Talon, who is played by Jeremy Sisto of Law and Order fame. He is really well cast in this role, which I will expand on later, but despite the fact that he is written excellently, is given great characterisation and is well played, his role is really confusing. I mentioned before, there are elements of Nightwings Comic series in this film, which makes sense, Nightwings comic series was tying into the Court of Owls storyline going on in the Batman comics. But Talon, has now essentially has been turned into a combination of Calvin Rose from the Talon comic and Nightwings first villain in his series. This won’t bother people who haven’t read the comics but if you have, it will become quite confusing and it will also be kind of annoying to comic fans because Nightwings role has been greatly decreased for this film, which is a shame because he played a large part in the original story line and it’s rather disappointing! There is even a throw away line toward the end of the film that implies that Nightwing has a connection to the Court of Owls, which, yes you will understand if you have read the comic, but there is nothing in the film to suggest that Nightwing knows anything about it. Also the villain’s plan really doesn’t make much sense, we don’t learn all that much about what exactly the Court of Owls want and whatever they were planning is abandoned in the end for a whole army of Talons having a fight with Batman in Wayne Manor, which leads to the most awesome line of the entire movie by the way. Talon and Damian Wayne’s connection is pretty good and we know that Talon’s intention is to recruit Damian because he sees a lot of himself in him (which basically makes him a clone of the villain from the Born To Kill Storyline), but other than that we have absolutely no idea what he wants. It’s so confusing and it’s a shame because these were strong villains and I was expecting them to have an excellent villain plot, which would lead to a really great climax. The comics managed it and I don’t understand why this film couldn’t! There is also the fact that this film is called Batman Vs Robin, despite the fact it borrows very little from the Grant Morrison story line from when he was writing Batman. But I think that people who saw the trailers for this film weren’t exactly expecting it, so it hardly feels like too much of a let down. I will say though, I did enjoy this film’s ending, the climax, despite its confusion, was very good and the ending actually, while bittersweet, was on a lot of levels satisfying and I think will allow the DC Animated staff to go into interesting directions with future Batman films, if they actually decide to continue doing this Animated Universe. The only reason I wouldn’t recommend this to a non-comic reader, despite the fact that they may not get a few of the references, is that this is not a typically child friendly version of Batman. Granted it’s not as inappropriate for kids as Assault on Arkham, but this is actually quite a mature story on a lot of levels, so this is not for your kids. Overall my thoughts on the plot was, it was pretty damm good, but once again needed a bit more polish. It was better than Son of Batman but it still doesn’t reach the levels of greatness that some of the previous DC Animated films reached. The villains are pretty good but they needed to be much more fleshed out and it did have some slight pacing issues, but other than that I would actually say that the plot for this is probably better than this years Justice League Throne of Atlantis and last years Son of Batman. It understands where its focus should be and in terms of a character piece, it is pretty good, it just needed something slightly more there and it would have been great,.

In terms of acting it’s actually got some excellent performances. Stuart Allan, once again, is perfectly cast as Damian Wayne and if DC Animated want to keep making these films I’m hoping he will reprise his role. Jason O’Mara is really coming into his own as Batman. I’m not sure that the writers know exactly what to do with him in the Justice League films because he is doing a lot better performances in the Batman movies and this time we get to see a lot more or his range because he also has to play Bruce Wayne a lot more in this film as well as Batman and he does work in this role. I am definitely warming to him more and more as the new voice of Batman though he still hasn’t beaten Kevin Conroy for best Batman. Jeremy Sisto is perfectly cast as Talon and honestly I didn’t initially recognise his voice in that role, while his character may not have been written close to the comics and is slightly confused in what the writers were intending to do with him, he does play this role very well and has excellent chemistry with Stuart Allan, much like Jason O’Mara does. Another actor who does and excellent role although you won’t recognise his voice is “Weird Al” Yankovic as the Dollmaker. Seriously he plays this role really creepily and delivers it brilliantly and I really couldn’t tell it was him until I saw his name in the closing credits. David McCallum is pretty good as Alfred Pennyworth and I enjoyed Sean Maher’s role as Nightwing, although I wish he would have had more to do in this film, especially considering that Nightwing plays a pretty pivotal role in the comic!!! Ok, Ok, I’ll stop comparing this to the comic for a bit!! The only other roles to talk about are Grey Griffin doing a pretty good portrayal of new character Samantha and I did like Griffin Gluck as a young Bruce Wayne, though he also apparently played the young version of Talon in flashback and that’s slightly weird because they don’t really sound alike which is normally a good thing, but it makes me wonder if the writers are trying to make a statement that the heroes are similar to the villain, why would you try and make them sound like two different people, yet have the same voice actor! I am thinking too much into this!!! Some of the voice actors are even slightly interesting for DC fans, like having long time voice director of these films Andreano Romana, played the bat computers voice, but the best one and also the most frustrating one is Kevin Conroy as Bruce’s father. I don’t get it! If DC still has Kevin Conroy on call, why can’t they have him back permanently as Batman! I liked Jason O’Mara in this film, but he is no substitute for Kevin. He simply is the best actor to play this role and I am glad he is reprising his role for Batman Arkham Knight. But having him in a role in a Batman film where he is not Batman is just so frustrating. Once again he is excellent in the role and if DC plans to do an Earth 2 movie I could see Kevin Conroy being cast in that film as their version of Batman, and seriously DC that comic series is excellent! Make that happen!! What’s great about this film is there is no duds in the casting this time, compared to the two Justice League movies that have come out in the last couple of years and that is definitely a good thing. This was one really strong cast and probably one of the reasons I enjoyed this movie more than most of the DC Animated movies that have come out in recent memory, despite the fact that this probably had quite few of the flaws that more recent DC Animated movies have had. It’s one strong cast and I am hoping that if DC plans to continue with these movies that many of them will be reprising their roles.

As for the animation, there is not really much more I can discuss on this one because it’s the exact same animators and animation style that was in the previously reviewed Justice League Throne of Atlantis, which means, once again, it’s based on Jim Lee’s art, which is where the idea of keep focusing on his art style for these films is really falling down. While the animation art style are really good and really works he wasn’t making the art for any other Batman comics at the time and while they do integrate Greg Capullo’s design for the Talon and the Court of Owls brilliantly they kind of feel a bit out of place when mixed in with the way Jim Lee draws. I have nothing against this animation and I know its meant to tie in all these films into a shared universe, but I”m not sure it’s really working. Apart from Jason O’Mara being cast in the role of Batman I really don’t feel like this film takes place in the same universe as Justice League War and Justice League Throne of Atlantis. Maybe it will get better in the future films, but I’m just not seeing it at this point. There is absolutely nothing inheritently wrong with the animation and it’s still pretty damm good by DC standards.

As for the action sequences and the fight scenes they are excellent. Once again DC Animated does excellent fight scenes and I think these animators are very good at doing the fight scenes with Batman’s cast of characters better than the Justice League ones. I don’t know, I’m not sure they know how to do action sequences with super powers as well as they do with Batman’s pure hand to hand combat. The fight scenes between Batman and the Talons are brilliant, there is an excellent car chase in the middle of the film and props to the guy who re-created the Maze that the Court of Owls set up in the Batman comic that drove the character mad because it’s re-created brilliantly in this film. Though I wish they’d actually turned the screen upside down or sideways like the comic does to visually give the evidence of madness. The great thing about using animation for your action sequences is that the camera can be panned back and follow the fight perfectly without endangering any actors and DC animation department takes full advantage of this. The action sequences also have tons of awesome set pieces especially with Batman in a Mech suit, which everyone who has read the comic would have seen coming, but it is awesome and it is proof enough that this is where a lot of the DC films strengths are, especially now that we are starting to notice some plot issues.

The big question now is, ‘is this a good adaptation of the comic?’  Yes!! On quite a few levels this is a pretty decent adaptation of the comic even though DC’s animated films can only go on for about an hour and ten minutes so they didn’t have time to get out half the details with this comic. Would I recommend this to non comic readers? Yes I would, but I would recommend them other DC animated films first before this one and if they wanted to see this one I would also recommend that they see last years Son of Batman first because this film assumes you have seen that film. Comic fans I would definitely recommend they see this one especially if they like the Court of Owls and Born to Kill. I would also recommend if you want to see this film try possibly read the comics beforehand to give you full grasp of the source material for comparison, though that is not essential. My advice would be to pick up

Batman Volume 1: The Court of Owls,
Nightwing Volume 1: Traps and Trapezes,
Batman Volume 2: The City of Owls and
Nightwing Volume 2: Night of Owls

and read them in that order. You can pick up a graphic novel trade of all of the stories from the Night of Owls crossover event, but I wouldn’t recommend it because half the stories are really not relevant to the whole plot and if you read all of those you will get the basic gist. However, I will say that compared to the previous 4 DC animated films this one is the best of them. I even think the writers and directors have sat down and tried to listen to a lot of the criticism they have received and make a better film as a result, which means, if they do plan to continue to move on with these films they probably will be even better next year, though at the time of this reviews publication no future films have been announced.

The characters are really great, the story line is good though it does have a few holes and hiccups especially in regard to the villains plan and the ending leaves it open to a few Batman story lines to be adapted in the future. Most of my criticisms boil down to the fact that its just not a perfect adaptation of the comic, but even I knew that wasn’t really possible and for what its worth it’s actually a pretty good film. I would check it out if you can, but as I mentioned the way of really seeing it legally is by purchasing it on ITunes. At the time of writing this review there are no plans for DVD or Blu Ray release in this country, though I would expect to see one in the near future. Though I will say if you do purchase the Itunes version it contains some extra interviews with the staff behind the next DC animated movie Justice League: Gods and Monsters which are worth checking out cause it will get you hyped for the next film which I will hopefully review as soon as it’s released.

Well guys, what are your thoughts on Batman Versus Robin or any of the DC Animated movies. Please leave us a comment, and if you want to have your own reviews or content put up send me an email to calvin@axia-asd.co.uk and if you want more details about writing your own review, go to new how to submit content section.

Also if you would like to leave a comment on todays question please feel free to do so. This time I am asking:

“Which Batman villain would you like to see in future films, both animated and live action?” Also, “who would you cast as that villain?”

So that was DC’s film for this month that I have reviewed. Not it’s time to move on to Marvel! On 1st May I am reviewing one of the biggest releases of the year and one of my most anticipated movies to see this year, that’s right, The Age of Ultron is upon us.

Calvin – Nerd Consultant

“JOHN WICK”

Yes, I’m surprised that this film has taken this long to come out too. John Wick was a film that was heavily promoted in the States and on the Internet in October 2014 for it’s US release and to be honest when I first saw the trailers and the posters and the story notes for this film, I thought “Oh Jesus, this film is going to blow, people are definitely going to want their money back for this one!” But it surprisingly got a ton of critical success, which made it even more annoying that it’s taken this long for the film to come out over here. There was one factor that really made me want to see this film. Many of the people who read this blog are aware that I am a fan of internet critic Bennet of the Sage. At the end of the year when he listed his 10 ten best and worst list of 2014 he put John Wick at number one best, OK now I had to see this movie. It also helped that this film turned up on a few other top ten lists of 2014, so I was actually going into this with the complete opposite view that I initially expected to be going into this film with. That rarely happens with me. Now that I have actually been out and seen the film I can give you my thoughts on how I think John Wick turned out in the end. 

This story is pretty simple. John Wick, played by Keanu Reeves is a former hit man for the Mob who retires after getting married. His wife later dies of an un-named illness and then after she dies, leaves him a dog in order to help the grieving process. His world is rocked, however, when two days after getting the dog, Russian gangster Iosef Tarasov played by Alfie Allen breaks into his home, steals his prized Classic Ford Mustang and kills his dog. Now John is out for blood of both him and his father Viggo Tarasov, played by Michael Nyqvist. Yes this a very basic action plot, but I had actually got into the attitude of this that I had paid to see an action plot so I am not too looking for too much and I am not disappointed with it. This plot is actually very interesting and I was never bored watching this film, which is more than can be said about the last two weeks I have been doing this blog!! The film’s plot is aided by the fact that John Wick is built up for the first 20 minutes of the film as being a complete Bad Ass and we are completely hyped up to see this so when he actually does unleash his skills, it’s really satisfying. The plot is also aided by the fact the villains aren’t stupid. They are genuinely competent and do have strategies that would normally succeed in this scenario, however they are dealing with the hit man equivalent of the ‘Hulk’ and you more believe it’s down to John Wick’s skill than the villain’s incompetence. The villain’s aren’t exactly three dimensional, but as I said, basic action film plot so you are going to get very basic villains. The film’s characters are genuinely quite likeable despite the fact they are, by definition, extremely horrible people. You are not really siding with most of them, except John Wick, you are more tolerating them. That is not necessarily a bad thing, I think they are written well enough that you can distance yourself from the reality of what is being depicted. There are a lot of characters with a lot of small roles, but I am glad that these roles weren’t expanded too much otherwise the film would have had too many characters being bogged down, although it’s interesting how much you can play the game ‘spot the cameo’, which I will go in to more detail later on. The film really focuses on John and the gangsters, that’s one of the films big strengths and luckily it knows this and chooses to focus on this for most of the film. The big point about this plot is don’t expect it to be anything new, you have probably seen this story a few times, the only real difference is it’s the dog that’s been killed rather than someones partner, wife or kid this time. Believe me, the way they make this dog out, you will want these villain’s blood. I will say that the plot does feel slightly under-developed in certain parts and this world doesn’t actually feel too real! It feels very hyper-stylised, which does actually benefit the film in certain scenes, though I was struggling to get around the whole ‘hit men trade favours with each other through gold coin exchanges’ rather than just exchange of money. They could have put a bit more explanation to that. While I am into this, I was expecting this film to feel like an classic 80’s action film bought into the 21st Century, rather like Die Hard or a Reb Brown movie, but actually it surprisingly feels more like a first person shooter video game, though a very good first person shooter video game! This is definitely aided by the huge amount of enemies that seem to pop up out of nowhere and never stop coming and certain scenes feel like quick time events that I have seen in a lot of video games like Heavy Rain and God of War. I know that video games are trying to replicate action films, but this film more than any other is making me think that video games are now starting to influence films and that is definitely not a bad thing in my book. The video game comparison also didn’t help by that the fact that a few characters later on down the line were playing “Halo”, just before a shoot-out was about to start. Though I will say a couple of the charaters had dialogue that would have more suited a video game to the films detrament. My overall advice is, it’s a plot that you can get behind, but just expect this to be the story that you have seen before. It’s competently told, but you have seen it before! But you won’t remember that when you are begging for the people that killed that dog to get their just desserts. The basic moral of the story is “never mess with a man’s dog”. 

Let’s now move to the cast, who for this film are really good, even though a lot of these roles are very small and don’t take advantage of the cast, however, as I mentioned, if the roles had been expanded it might have actually made the film an over done mess. Keanu Reeves, in this film, gives his best performance since A Scanner Darkly. My big problem with a lot of his films is I think, he is horribly mis-cast by people who don’t know how to take advantage of his style of acting and this was very evident in films like Henry’s Crime. Now he may not be as perfectly cast for this film as he was in A Scanner Darkly but he still brings his ‘A’ game and as I said, this is probably one of the best roles I have seen in him for in a long time. He really brings that intensity to the role and gives you the impression that he is a cold blooded killer who has seen many things that would give us the same expression if we had experienced it. Keanu also does a lot of brilliant non-verbal acting in this film which again has been one of his strong points. Michael Nyqvist also makes an excellent villain. He really makes you believe in this honour system that these gangsters have set up for themselves and he also feels like a big enough threat to John Wick without feeling too overpowering that John Wick can’t beat him unless he gets some random maguffin that can beat him, or as I call it Anime Villain Syndrome (see Dragon Ball Z for many examples of this). Alfie Allen is a pretty good one dimensional villain although I wouldn’t say his performance is amazing, but he is right for this role in this film. William Defoe has been bigged up in the advertising for this film, especially considering his name is third from the top on Odeon’s page on the film, however, he isn’t that effective or allowed to shine until towards the end of the film, which is a shame because actually he is pretty good here. Adrianne Palicki is alright as Miss Perkins but I didn’t think she gave one of the standout performances of the film, those go to Keanu and Michael. Other than that, everyone else in this film kind of feels like its a case of  ‘spot the cameo’. They all have small roles that sort of enter the film, then exit the film and there is almost something for everyone. John Leguizamo is in this, although I wish his role had been a bit bigger considering he figured in most of the trailers and is really bad ass when he is on screen. If you are a fan of Deadwood you will be able to see Ian McShane in another fantastic role, fans of The Wire will be happy to see Clark Peters as briefly as he is in this film. WWE Professional wrestling fans will be happy to see Kevin Nash for the 20 seconds he is on screen. If you are a Kung Fu Panda fan, Randal Duk Kim is back. By far though, the best of the minor supporting cast is Lance Reddick as the hotel manager, he is absolutely hilarious in this role, I loved it. I can’t help but feel though, with a cast this good they do feel kind of wasted considering they are in such small roles. But I have already made my thoughts pretty clear on that altogether. The film is directed by Chad Stahelski and David Leitch who is normally a stunt co-ordinator, however I am wondering how happy he was with the final product, considering that he is un-credited. I think they do a pretty good job with directing these actors especially considering the premise for the film, they really get these actors to believe in this and they seem to be working together very well, but that is very evident in the action sequences which I will get into in a minute. Overall, pretty good cast though I do feel that a couple of them feel slightly wasted.

Action sequences! This is where the film really shines, they are really good, well shot and well paced. The camera is kept at a distance enough that we are allowed to see every move and every gun shot and be able to tell what is going on in a coherent manner and Keanu Reeves really gets into these brilliantly. The choreography is excellent, probably down to David Leitch’s direction. A lot of the shots are continuously held for decent periods of time, almost making them look as if they are done in one take and even when cuts are made, they are coherent to the sequence. Credit definitely goes to the brilliant editing in this. Now granted, none of these shoot outs or fights scenes are any where near as good as the previously reviewed ‘Kingsman Secret Service’, especially considering that film’s brilliant pub fight and church scene, but I would say that the night club sequence in John Wick is probably one of my top contenders for best action sequence of the year already, especially considering that the escalation really works. The only action sequences which didn’t fully work for me was the fight at the end of the Movie. I think people might understand what I mean when they see the film. The cinematography is also pretty damm good, though expect to see a lot of blue and grey whilst watching this film. I’m pretty sure that is down to a lot of the filters but there is not a large colour palette for this film. The camera shots are excellent and the sound track works well with the scenes but I can see people getting ‘dulled’ out by a lot of the imagery in the film, mainly down to a lack of a bit of a colour palette. Another weird aspect to this film’s editing is the fact that there is a lot of the scenes are spoken in Russian and there are obviously sub-titles to translate that, however, there is a weird emphasis on certain words in each of the sentences and I am not sure why it’s really there, it’s just feel like a weird stylistic choice, and that is probably my biggest negative with this film. 

Overall John Wick is a very good action film. I can only recommend it to action film fans , however, because I don’t think it is going to largely appeal to people outside that demographic. Is there anything that is new or innovative here or has large deeper meaning? Not really, but it doesn’t need to do any of that, it’s just fine as it is. The pacing is pretty good, the action is excellent and it never over stays its welcome coming in a 101 minutes. The actors deliver pretty decent performances. It’s the exact film I needed to see after the last two reviews I had done!! However, I am in no mad rush to return to this film and I think I possibly might have enjoyed it more if the hype hadn’t built it up and if I had seen this before Kingsman. I would still recommend seeing this in the Cinema or getting it out of DVD if you like action films. A sequel has already been announced, but I came out of the Cinema thinking that I think this film would work better as a solo film and I am slightly concerned that it will become like the ‘Taken’ movies where they would have been better staying as ‘one film’!!

What are your thoughts on John Wick? Have I got it right or did I miss some key points that made this film bad for you. Please leave some comments section if you feel the need to, we welcome all comments. If you want to do some guest contributions to our site, email me at calvin@axia-asd.co.uk. If you haven’t seen the film but still want to leave a comment you can answer the question at the end of this review. 

“Since I wouldn’t like to convert someone to action films with John Wick what would be a better film to try and convert people to Action Films?”

We now need to move on to my next reviews. For the next two weeks and I am going to be pitting DC against Marvel in a review showdown, starting on 24 April where I will be reviewing DC’s next animated film for 2015 “Batman Vs Robin”.

If you get a chance this weekend check out our contributor Neve’s second animation short for our site ‘Doguefight’, it’s a very impressive animation and I would like people to see it for themselves. 

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

Calvin – Nerd Consultant

“FAST AND FURIOUS 7”

Yeah I’m not really a fan of these movies. Even the first one which is probably the best I would argue is a bit over-rated but the least I would say is a lot of the Fast and Furious films had an identity in the early days. I think this has definitely got lost as these films have gone on and these films definitely shouldn’t have got as far as a seventh movie but the studio kept pushing these out so I had to keep seeing them much to my detriment and in all honesty I am amazed Fast and Furious 7 has even been released. It was delayed a couple of times due to the tragic death of Paul Walker in 2013. I will go more into detail about how the film goes round this later on in the review. I went back and forth whether I wanted to review this film considering because I was worried I would be overly kind to the film in regards to the circumstances around the filming. However, I decided in the end that there really wasn’t anything else coming out Easter weekend and it wouldn’t be fair to the actor or any of the people who worked on the film that this one wouldn’t get a fair grilling so with some hope that this film franchise might have slightly improved on some level I went in to see the film.

Fast and Furious 7’s plot takes place directly after the end of Fast and Furious 6. Dom (played by Vin Diesel) is still living comfortably, Brian (played by Paul Walker) has got his family life back together and Agent Hobbs (played by Dwayne Johnson AKA The Rock) is still kicking all kinds of arse and taking down big names in the crime world.

The plot really kicks off right from the start with Deckard Shaw(played in this film by Jason Statham), brother of the previous film’s villain Owen Shaw (played by an unconscious Luke Evans for 5 seconds) who vows revenge on the group that took down his brother in the Sixth film and uses Hobbs’ computer files of the gang in order to take them down. Basically, your basic revenge plot. However, things come to a head when Mr Nobody (played by Kurt Russell) recruits Dom and his group to rescue a hacker named Ramsey (played by Nathanie Emmanuel) in order to get back a surveillance programme called God’s Eye and if he does so he will put all his resources into taking down Shaw.

If you were coming into this film expecting anything different from the previous films don’t be this is basically a very similar film to the previous films, particularly Fast and Furious 5 and 6. Instead of the street race based L.A. thriller the first couple of films focused on, we are back to the later films globe hopping with a heist film mixed in that 5 and 6 delivered. The main location this time being Abu Dhabi. However, unlike 5 and 6 we don’t stay in Abu Dhabi for most of the film. In fact there is quite a few more locations this time around including a brief sequence in Azerbaijan and don’t expect this film in any way to go back to it street racing identity. There is only one street race throughout the entire film and it is right at the beginning and holds absolutely no consequence to anything. That is less than the previous two films and is one of the things I would like to see when I watch a Fast and Furious movie. The characters aren’t much different and I didn’t really like these characters to begin with. They are basically stereotypes of stereotypes. In fact you won’t really remember these characters by their character names you will remember them by the actors who play them.

Most of the new additions are not really that welcome and really lacking in much better personality. Ramsey isn’t much fun and she barely has any character to begin with which makes me upset that Han from the previous film is killed off in the first 30 minutes. Jason Statham is also not really a very good villain. He is well cast in this role but he is never allowed to be the villain. He feels very inconsequential to the plot and his character suffers through some of the bigger plot holes of the movie. Stathem just seems to pop out of nowhere whenever the gang is doing anything to cause havoc how the hell does he know where they are and how does he get there so fast it’s hardly a trip across town to Abu Dahbi from the middle of Azerbijan. I thought this would be explained by a plot twist but the actual plot twist raised further questions and nothing was explained. It is also a shame that Agent Hobbs really isn’t in this movie. The Rock’s role in the previous two films really was the stand out performance and he practically stole the show from Vin Diesel and in this film he is barely used. He gets into a fight with Jason Statham at the beginning, disappears for the entire middle act and then turns up for the climax at the end. This feels like a really big rip off especially considering he was on most of the posters for the film and in all of the trailers. The trailers implied he was going to have a bigger role in these films. That is not changing the fact that all of these characters apart from Hobbs are really just dull. Even newcomer Mr Nobody who potentially could have been a really good character is wasted in this film because the writers just write him as a caricature and I’m just not sure what he is a caricature of. All I know is I have seen that character in plenty of films and I’ve seen it done better. The plot also meanders like nobody’s business. There is no reason for any of these films to be 130 minutes long. They have been doing this since 5 and that film, 6 and 7 could easily have come in at 100 or even 90 minutes.

I also really didn’t care about a lot of the characters’ motivations in this film and Michelle Rodriguez’s memory loss is finally brought to its conclusion in this film and it is not very satisfying. I also felt this film was beyond objective with the female characters and women in general. Where feminists complain that media and films are overly objectifying women, this film is a prime example of that and the way some of the camera shots were taken you really had to roll back your eyes and say come on! In other words everything that was wrong with the previous two or three movies is here again. It is almost the exact same plot. The difference is now I have seen it about six times. I don’t need to see it again. If you want to make this many movies warrant there to be a reason for this many movies. The Fast and Furious franchise hasn’t managed that.

I will say the plot this time feels a lot more personal to the characters compared to 5 and 6 but that is the only real positive point and we actually spend more time in L.A. . Everything about the plot just feels really half arsed and just there because they wanted to get a sequel out. The villains are not that memorable and this is a plot that is basically very forgettable and it has done in the previous two films. For the love of God you could easily have written a much different film to the previous two.

Acting wise, these actors are suited to their roles. They are just not that well written. Actors like Vin Diesel and Paul Walker do suit these roles, they have been playing them for most of this franchise now and they kind of suit the caricatures they are written to so you can’t fault their performances they are just not brilliantly written. Once again The Rock hits it out of the park with one of the best characters he has played so far. It is just a shame the film has absolutely no idea what to do with him anymore. Michelle Rodriguez and Jordana Brewster are not much better in these films and I think Jordana Brewster is really getting sick of the direction of these films because she is barely in the film this time either and I think it has finally caught on to her that she has basically been used as a sex object for the last couple of films.

If you looked on the IMDB page and saw Gal Gadot’s credit for this film don’t expect to see her. She is not actually in the movie, just a picture of her and still be afraid people she is still being cast as Wonder Woman! Let’s hope for the love of God that the Director can get a really good performance out of her. As for the newcomers they are well cast but they don’t give amazing performances. Jason Statham has been a lot better in previous films that he has been in which is a shame because he has basically become a British action star. Kurt Russell and Nathanie Emmanuel both feel like they are half arsing it. For the absolute worst performance for the film again are Ludacris and Lucas Black who both deliver incredibly awful performances. Seriously stop.

Overall these aren’t mostly terrible performances they are just terribly written characters. I actually think new Director James Wan has done a better job than previous film Director Justin Lin. However, even he can’t get around this script that feels asinine. I commend the actors for at least keeping their performances consistent throughout most of the films and I think Paul Walker’s final performance is a decent one that his family should be happy he went out on.

All that leaves now is the action, stunts and cinematography. Once again like the previous films the action and the set pieces are decent for the most part. This time they are definitely a mixed bag. The fight between The Rock and Jason Statham at the beginning of the film is really good and is definitely the best scene of the film but even this falls into the trap that a lot of these scenes have. For crying out loud don’t insult my intelligence. If you try to do half of this stuff in real life you will die! Period!

The best example of this was the scene that has been played over and over again in all the trailers with the cars trying to catch up with the prison bus by having the cars jump out of a plane and having a parachute open up so that the cars land safely. Yeah I don’t care what planet you live on, what cables you use and whatever way the Directors justified this, you try putting a parachute on something that heavy it will fail! Why do they expect me to buy this!

There is also a sequence in Abu Dhabi where a super car is crashing through the glass and jumping between towers and various storeys. Again I don’t care how fast you drive that car it will not go far enough to go that distance this is physics I would expect in team fotress 2. It is not as bad as the tank chase from 6 or the scene in 5 with the cars pulling the safe whilst engaging in a high speed chase with the police – seriously that is one of the stupidest things I have seen on screen. But I am still really struggling to suspend my disbelief.

The fight scenes are relatively well shot and I would say most of them work out though I do think a lot of this film suffers a real problem with shaky cam and having the camera in too close to the action so it is very difficult to tell what is going on. I will say a lot of these sequences do require the characters to commit a lot of casual murder which considering that some of this is being committed by the main characters is not going to help me endear to them.

I will say I was glad that these scenes relied a lot more on actual cars than they did with CGI but when the CGI is used it is done relatively well and is integrated fairly decently.

The stunt work is also impressive on the most part and the actors do pretty well in it despite the fact that some of the shots are obvious reshoots to work in Paul Walker’s brothers to fill out his position in some of the stunt work.

There is nothing inherently wrong with the cinematography though I did think at times it was slightly grading and it did fall into quite a few things I don’t like about in films like unnecessary speed up and the panning shot of the characters walking towards the camera done in slow motion. Seriously that was a cliché when I was a kid. But I will say it did take a lot of advantage of its location shots and these were done fairly well. Also, if anyone who has actually seen the movie can let me know if they thought that some of the scenes shot in Azerbaijan were of the famous road in Romania that the Top Gear team visited I would be happy to know if that is a fact or not because I was fairly certain that they went to do a few shot there although it also looks like they used another location for later parts of the shot.

Overall my thoughts on Fast and Furious 7 is it is basically the same movie. There is not much different here and I didn’t really like it the first time. Fans of the previous 6 films will probably lap this one up and I would really say I can only recommend it to them. Everyone else steer clear of this one. There is not much to it and I will say it’s not as bad as Need for Speed or last week’s Seventh Son but I didn’t really have a good time seeing this one. The acting isn’t great, the plot has a million plot holes and does’t really work overall and the stunts really felt like they were insulting my intelligence. If you only have enough money to see one film this month save your money – “Avengers Age of Ultron” is coming out in a couple of weeks.

Oh and stick around til the end because there is a very touching tribute to Paul Walker just before the credits

Well what are your thoughts on Fast and Furious 7? Did you enjoy it more than I did or wasn’t it really for you? Please leave a comment if you like and we would be happy to reply to as many as possible.

Also thanks to some of our eagle-eyed visitors we have noticed that people weren’t being notified when we have replied to their comments. We have now set up a brand new plug in that will mean when you leave a comment you can subscribe to the review and whenever someone leave a reply to one of your comments you will receive an email notifying you. The option is also there to receive an email whenever a comment is left. Period and to not subscribe after leaving a comment if you wish.

With that being said, since this is probably the final Fast and Furious movie (and please let’s hope it is going to be the final film), my question is:
“Which is your best and worst Fast and Furious movies?”

Well I have had two weeks in a row of films that don’t really do much for me so next week I think I need to review a film that I reckon will have a better of chance of doing more for me.

On 17 April 2015 I am going to post online my review of “John Wick” as it FINALLY gets its UK release.

With that being said, thanks for reading my review. If you would like to post your own reviews or user content please send an email to calvin@axia-asd.co.uk .

We are happy to put any sort of content you can deliver on our site, including your own movie reviews of any film you like.

Calvin – Nerd Consultant

“SEVENTH SON”

Yes, I was never going to win this week. Everything that was coming out, I just didn’t want to see, so I just bit the bullet and went to see Seventh Son, which seemed the best option of the bunch, considering the cast of people who I really like, including the recent Oscar winner Julianne Moore. I wasn’t fully convinced about going to see this one and even at one time considered going to see The Sponge Bob Movie!, so I could vent my rage as to how this has somehow become a franchise that is one of Nickleodeon’s most successful!! But I decided to review Seventh Son as it was highly recommended by my good friend Simon Howard who previously joined me to review Big Hero 6. He said he really enjoyed this and I thought, hey ho, lets give it a go. I was slightly dubious about this film as I remember at the time it was coming out, people were worried that Julianne Moore had managed to norbit herself out of an Oscar with this film (norbitting is where an actor does a really bad film around the time they are nominated for an Oscar and it ends up costing them the award, as reference to the fact that Eddie Murphy looked likely to get an Oscar for Dream Girls, then made the film Norbit and pretty much kissed that one goodbye!). Obviously that didn’t come to pass as Julianne Moore did get the Oscar for Still Alice, but with all that said and done I booked the theatre tickets and I went to see it. Seventh Son has been kicked around the release schedule 5 times since its initial estimate of January 2014 and it really shows in the final product

The film’s plot is that Master Gregory, played by Jeff Bridges has been forced to take on a new apprentice in the art of being a spook, a night who deals with creatures of darkness, aka, witches, dragons, demons and all that fantasy stuff, after the return of the dark witch queen Mother Malkin played by Julianne Moore. He recruits Tom Ward, played by Ben Barnes as he is the Seventh Son of a Seventh Son, and don’t ask me to explain that the film never does so I have no more of a idea than you. From what I can gather it’s something to do with an Order of Knights. However, Tom does not take to this very easily and Mother Malkin is planning a mass invasion with her army at the turn of the full blood moon where she will be at her most powerful. If you think this plot sounds familiar, you are absolutely right! This was generic and I was constantly thinking, been there, done that, got the T Shirt and it was better the last time! Nothing feels very original about this plot at all, it’s every single reluctant hero, with a bland love interest whose only quality is that they fancy the main character and he is trained by a wise old master who has a mysterious past and that would be fine if they added something new which would give the movie an identity of its own! But it never does, it just feels like every other fantasy series ever, in fact it feels like almost like every other movie ever, you get a slight Rocky vibe in some instances.

Last week I said that The Tale of the Princess Kaguya was one of the most engaging plots of any film I had reviewed for the site. This is the complete opposite! I was bored out of my skull watching this, mainly because of its unoriginal nature but I was predicting half the turns of the film as it was going and I didn’t care about a single one of these characters. They are truly that bland! They are not written to have any personality whatsoever, they just feel like cardboard cut-outs, especially Tom Ward whose only defining feature is that he is the main character! I didn’t care at all about him by the end of the film!! The comic relief character Tusk is not entertaining enough to be of any enjoyment and Alice, as the love interest is almost at points even more derived of personality than Tom is! Julianne Moore’s character Mother Malkin is also a completely one dimensional villain and a really non threatening villain and at times she almost feels insignificant to plot since we have several moments where she seems to disappear. It’s not even like she has a presence like Sauron did in Lord of the Rings films. In that instance they could get away with him not being on camera because there were plenty of other villains to attach ourselves to and as I mentioned you constantly felt his presence! Julianne Moore is trying but she does not have that effect because the writers clearly don’t know how to write threatening villains! The time they try to make her threatening they do it in the classic way possible in making a hero of Mam by doing the whole “now it’s personal thing”. By the way you will see it coming at the point it happens in the film. It was that obvious! The only character who has even a mild amount of personality is Master Gregory, but I think more of that is by Jeff Bridges being cast in the role since his humour doesn’t come off very well, especially in the third act. He clearly, has not been written very well, especially considering that he doesn’t come across like he is very interested in teaching Tom anything and at times it almost feels like he could do the whole thing himself, why does he need an apprentice?

The screenplay is based on a novel called the spooks Apprentice , which admittedly I haven’t read and in case your are wondering it actually says in the credits that it’s “inspired by the novel” so, yes, take that for what it’s worth. The screenplay itself is written by Charles Leavitt along with Steven Knight whose only really well known credit is a writing credit on Dirty Pretty Things and Steven Knight is also writing the upcoming World War Z 2, Huzar, we’re all looking forward to that. They clearly are in-experienced and clearly binged themselves on fantasy fiction without putting any original ideas of their own in there. Even the monsters just feel like someone’s lazy custom dungeons and dragons map. Basically my point is the plot is boring and unoriginal and has absolutely no identity. I know I am repeating myself, but there are only so many ways you can say that and it really shows. This film runs in at 101 minutes and I was counting the clock on my phone because I just wanted to get out of the Cinema and do something else.

Acting wise, they are all just as bland as the script! No one gives a decent performance with the exception of Jeff Bridges who looks like he is trying his best but it’s just not all there and it just seems like even he knows the writing is rubbish. Poor Jeff Bridges, it seems like everything he has done since True Grit has just been disaster after disaster and I would really like it if one of his next film’s would actually be decent because I really like the actor, there is a reason he has multiple Oscar nomination. He was excellent in films like True Grit, Iron man and of course The Big Lebowski. Julianne Moore may have got the Oscar for Still Alice, but she is not really good in this role at all. The writers, either could go with making her a complete bad ass maniacal villain or they could have made her an over the top hammy villain and they don’t do either! So as a result, Julianne Moore has absolutely nowhere to go with this role, she is trying her best, but it’s not a brilliant performance. Ben Barnes, playing Tom Ward, however, was really not one of his better decisions, he’s not great in this role and I am doubtful anyone is going to let him near a big leading role after this film. Honestly, they are the only cast members that leave much of an impression on you. Alicia Vikander really doesn’t do much better as Alice, Olivia Williams is basically an extended cameo and John DeSantis does an okay job in his physical acting, but it’s not exactly all there. The only other actor who really built much of an impression on me was Djimon Hounsou, he’s arguably one of the better actors in the villain roles but he is not given enough to do to really show it off and even when he is, I don’t think the Director really knew how to work with him because he was made a much better villain in Guardians of the Galaxy, which by the way has also been reviewed on the site. So while this film doesn’t have some performances which are really that good, and I can blame a lot of it on the writing, I do also think that is down to some bad direction by Sergey Bodrov whose previous work is rather a mixed bag, but I don’t think this will be one he will be mentioning a lot the next time he is pitching film to a production company.

The only thing left is the action scenes and films aesthetics. Now I went to see the film in 3D, but in doing my research in going to see this film I actually discovered that several areas were not screening the film in 3D. In fact I know a lot of people who work and attend the charity Autism Inclusive meetings who read this blog are based out of Crewe and if they are reading this they can ignore this advice as Crewe Odeon are only playing the film in 2D. Even in other areas there are no 3D screenings either, but even if your area is screening a 3D version of this I would say skip it and go see the 2D version. You are being ripped off by the bucket load for the 3D glasses for this film. The 3D really doesn’t work because the background has basically been blurred beyond belief to make the actors seem like they are in the foreground and even then it doesn’t really work. I actually discovered that if I was tipping my head to the side in the slightest, I actually caused the 3D to flip out and go even more blurry, so I had to make sure I kept my head really still and as I said, even when I did only a few of the shots were actually very good in 3D. One of the action sequences about an hour into the film used the 3D very wisely and a lot of the landscape shots also did the 3D pretty well. Other than that there really is no reason to see this film in 3D. If you still want to see the film, see it in the 2D version, and if you’re lucky enough to own a 3D TV and a 3D Blu Ray player, this is not one to pay the extra amount of dosh for and this stinks of a rushed post convergence 3D. With that being said, this film’s special effects are okay, at best. It’s not as bad as say, Ninja Turtles and the CGI does blend with the actors pretty well, but it is very apparent that they were counting on the 3D being at least half decent for some of these and they don’t always work out so well and it’s pretty evident that they are not really there! Again, if you are going to have this much CGI in a film you have to try and integrate it well, this film does a decent job but it’s not well enough. I heard that the production company producing this film went broke part way through post-production and I think they made the best with what they had but it wasn’t enough.

I did enjoy the set designs, however much it seemed like they were copying other more successful fantasy franchises. The cinematography is not bad, except a couple of the scenes felt like they were cut quite badly and it seemed like a couple of the actors had sort of teleported in a split second! The action sequences on the other hand are varied. The sequence involving the massive blind monster that is basically a rip off of The Balrog from Lord of the Rings and was the only sequence that actually used the 3D very well and was actually a decent sequence. I also did enjoy some of the fight between Jeff Bridges and Djimon Hounsou, other that that, I really didn’t care much for these sequences, some of them were pretty good but some of them had the tendency to do typical quick cuts and zooming in the camera to make sure that you don’t notice a lot of the specific choreographies done that have been prepared for the sequence. Some of the special effects that had clearly been added in afterwards didn’t blend in as brilliantly as I would have liked. Seriously, there is, at one point, a fight between two dragons and I was still bored by it. How do you manage that? But at least there was no shaky cam. We can at least say that!

Overall I really disliked Seventh Son, it was so boring. It had a script of a film that I had seen a hundred times and it’s been done better before and it wasted a brilliant ensemble cast. How you have a film with Julianne Moore and Jeff Bridges in and you don’t get a decent performance, I will never understand, and it is a sign of poor directing. The 3D was laughable and I think actually impeded the film I was watching and the action sequences were really varied in quality. It’s a very bland, very forgettable film and if I haven’t forgotten about most of it in a week, I will be amazed!! I won’t be surprised if this film turns up in my worst films of 2015 list, although it is way too early to speculate on that. The ending of the film eludes to this becoming a franchise PLEASE NO!

My advice: Skip this film in the cinema and DVD, especially the 3D version!

Well what are your thoughts on Seventh Son? Leave something in the comments section if you would like to express your opinion on this film, and remember, if you would like to write your own reviews or put your own contents on the site, send an email to calvin@axia-asd.co.uk.

My question for this week is:
With Seventh Son not getting that many 3D screenings, despite the fact that it is advertised as so, are we all wanting to say goodbye to 3D as a whole, or is there still some hope for 3D?
Please leave your honest thoughts, we would love to hear them.

Easter week-end is coming up and I am going to the cinema to see the next installment in the long, long, running franchise “Fast and Furious 7” and my review will be on our site on 10 April.

Thanks for reading my review and I hope you enjoy reading them as much as I enjoy making them.

Calvin – Nerd Consultant

“THE TALE OF THE PRINCESS KAGUYA”

I love Studio Ghibli they developed some of my favourite films of all time and it is by far my favourite film series of all time, even though the films don’t technically connect with one another. Spirited Away and Howl’s Moving Castle are definitely two of my top ten favourite films and I really don’t think there is a bad one in the bunch. I even like Tales from Earthsea and I am fairly certain I am in a minority on that one. Every time they bring out a film it is excellent and American and British distributors get the best voice talent and translators to work the film to an international audience. It’s why it’s such a shame that the studio has now gone into hiatus and if the next two films that they are releasing are, at this point in time, to be their final ones it will definitely be a sad moment for films. However, we now have the Tale of the Princess Kaguya to enjoy. This is much like last years The Wind Rises (which, if you look on my top ten movies of 2014, was my number one), is to serve as the final directorial feature for one of Studio Ghibli’s founders, in this case Grave of the Fireflies and Pom Poko director Isao Takahata. The film gained a lot of notoriety upon its release in America in October, but there wasn’t any news of a release for us in the UK up until the beginning of this year where it was announced it would be a March release which has absolutely nothing to do with the fact that they thought at that point that the film was going to be nominated for a few Oscars. Incidentally the film was nominated for best animated feature film at the Oscars, however it lost to the previously reviewed Big Hero 6. With all the build up and the hype surrounding it and the fact that it had to live up to the studio’s reputation and took 8 years to make how did this film fare up?

Let’s discuss the plot. The film centres around a bamboo cutter, voiced by James Caan who one day discovers in the bamboo growth a small princess doll who eventually grows into an actual human baby, voiced by Chloe Grace Moretz. He takes the child home and raises it with his wife voiced by Mary Steenburgen and they slowly notice that the child is growing fast, like bamboo, earning her the nickname among her friends of ‘Little Bamboo’. After the bamboo cutter discovers gold and fine garments in the bamboo growth as well he believes it’s his duty to take the Princess Kaguya to the capital and to make her an actual princess, believing that this will make her happy. So they pack up and leave the countryside behind to make her the genuine article. The problem is, this now leaves Kaguya feeling trapped and she has to balance what her father wants with what she wants. That may sound like I have given away most of the plot but I really haven’t, there is a lot going on in this film, especially around identity and what makes oneself. Kaguya constantly feels trapped and that she is wearing a mask and constantly questions the people around her and her position in life, particularly her etiquette teacher Lady Sagami, voiced by Lucy Liu. This film, unlike most Studio Ghibli movies as it can get really dark at times, but it’s not to the extent that I believe it will be un-watchable for kids, and while this film is on a lot of levels kind of like a child’s story book, it does however, feel like it has been made for a more mature audience as most of the Studio Ghibli films kind of are. Let’s face it these may seem like basic family films, but they’re really Family films that are more aimed at a Japanese audience, where you can get away with a lot more in your material likely viewed by kid’s. I absolutely loved this film’s story and its characters made it. This is very much a character piece. You want to see most of these characters, particularly Kaguya, get what they want and have their happy ending, even though you know from the tone of the film suggests that that’s not going to be possible. But you hold out hope for them that that can be achieved. You really sympathise with Kaguya and her mother who simply want to return to simpler things. That’s not to say that James Caan’s bamboo cutter character is a bad person, far from it, he is trying to make his daughter happy but is going about it in the wrong way. This gives the film a nice balance especially considering once again, like most Ghibli films, there is no real villain, there is just characters and that’s what really sells these films and makes them more true to life. The film also gives that usual balance that Ghibli has of its dark turns but makes for a general whimsy and incredible imagination, although I will say, I think in this film we get a lot more of the darker elements which is what you would expect from the Director of Grave of the Fireflies! I haven’t been more engaged by a plot all year, I was practically glued to the screen and this film never felt too long for me, despite the fact that this film runs in at 2 hours and 10 minutes, arguably one of the longest Studio Ghibli movies to date, and they’re not exactly short films, which all leads up to it’s ending which is both brilliant and heartbreaking, but it doesn’t feel awful because it was un-avoidable with the film brilliantly dealing with the themes of what one needs to feel happy in life. The only problem I had with the plot was the fact that there is a plot twist towards the end, it does come slightly out of nowhere, but at the same time this probably couldn’t have been avoided and is ok after the fact. The film itself is based on a 10th Century folk tale from Japan and as a result a couple of things do feel slightly unoriginal and recycled, but at the same time it’s from a time when these plots were starting to be created so its somewhat expected, plus this film does the princess who doesn’t want to be a princess plotline better than any other film I have seen to date because it shows her life and potential before becoming a princess making that seem less natural and giving you a longing for her to return to her previous life. The source material feels very distinctly Japanese this time and has a lot of Japanese sensibilities and culture in it which may go over a few peoples heads if your not familiar with Japanese Culture and Tradition.

This, out of all the Ghibli films feels much more Japanese but I will get more into that when I discuss the animation. Once again it’s not the easiest film to sit through but there are enough light hearted and imaginative moments that you will really want to get through to see how it turns out and believe me, this film is completely satisfying for me personally. I’m not certain this will appeal to a larger general audience like Spirited Away, Howls Moving Castle or Ponyo did, that being said though, for me personally it was almost perfect. I say almost because I normally come out of a Studio Ghibli movie feeling great, with this one I was feeling more sombre, but at the same time I think Takahata achieved this a lot better than he did with Grave of the Fireflies and I think every so often it is good to come out of a film feeling very sombre. But like all the Ghibli films by the time I saw the end of it I felt like I had accomplished something by seeing it and thats’ a great feeling to have coming out of a film. Overall I’d say this plot is excellent, it has amazing characters and stories you want to see come out of it. There are a few darker turns especially with some of the Princes and Noblemen who want to marry Kaguya and it may alienate a couple of audiences with it’s style of the story telling, some of the content and some of the aforementioned darker turns, but I would seriously encourage people to see it, it feels like a really great fairy tale that has been bought to life and it definitely had a plot that I would like to return to and I also thought that it had one of the best lead characters in a Ghibli film for quite a while, and that’s one good achievement considering the lead characters they have had in the past.

As for the acting I saw this film in the English dub though I would say based on the style of the film and the story you could easily see this film in the original Japanese with sub titles, in fact I think you may potentially get some extra authenticity by seeing in that format, however I still would recommend the dub because once again this is an excellent dub cast. Lucy Liu is frankly brilliant in her role and Studio Ghibli have found the perfect role for her and I actually think this is probably one of her best performances. James Caan as well, gives one brilliant performance as the bamboo cutter, I genuinely thought he might play the role where we wouldn’t get around the fact that it was him as he is such a recognisable actor but that was definitely not the case. Once again, the voice directors make these celebrities really un-noticeable and Caan is definitely a prime example of that, and what a performance he gave. The same goes for Mary Steenburgen who gives a subtle yet brilliant performance and I was surprisingly impressed by the end of her performance. Beau Bridges, James Marsden and Oliver Platt are all excellent in their roles as suitors for the Princess Kaguya, even though they’re not in the film that long and they were seriously un-recognisable. It’s further proof, you need to have a cast list available when you are watching a Studio Ghibli movie as the voice directors can take well known actors and make you forget it’s them. Darren Criss does an excellent job as Sutemaru and it’s another credit to the voice directors considering that he managed to get me to like a performance from someone who has been in Glee!! Seriously!! But the standout performance from this is Chloe Grace Moretz who delivers her best role to date since playing Hit Girl in the Kick-ass movies. She seriously does this role well and makes this character her own, playing someone feeling trapped in a role thrust upon her but yet with overwhelming moments of joy. I absolutely loved her performance and at the minute I’d definitely say she was the stand out performance that I have seen this year. I am serious. Her performance alone is worth the price of admission. The rest of the cast including Dean Cain, George Segal, John Chow and Hynden Walch all do their roles excellently as well. Once again a Studio Ghibli movie gives us an outstanding ensemble cast and they are all a credit to the brilliant voice direction that has clearly been put into it.

This just leaves us with the presentation and my goodness WOW. This film is a marvel to behold, the animation is gorgeous, it goes from moments of feeling like it’s a children’s story book bought to life to feeling like an oriental painting full of movement. What is amazing about the film is as well as its characters and plot the aesthetics and the animation and art design really sell the fact that this film is Japanese, it feels more Japanese than any other anime that I have watched. It gives you the rich culture and the fantastic architecture. I really feel I should watch the documentary of this film’s creation to see where Takahata got his art design from and the film is full of a ton of symbolism that will warrant repeat viewings. A lot of people complain that anime is too static in its shots, well they can’t say that with this film, the movement in these scenes flow beautifully. The stand out sequences include such things as the scene running from the palace cherry blossom scene and a flying scene that takes place towards the end of the film. The character designs are beautiful, these are well designed characters. I may have commented earlier this year that Giovanni’s Island was the best and most unique animation that I have seen in anime in a long time, but this film has actually managed to out do it!! I also think it’s especially worthy in how good its animation is considering that Studio Ghibli have always settled on a very distinctive art style, it’s just that sort of thing that when you see it, you know it’s a Studio Ghibli movie. So to deviate from that must have been a big risk, luckily that risk has paid off for Takahata. I must be honest, when I first saw the posters and the clips for this film, I wasn’t sure, but I am definitely convinced having fully seen it. Some people may take issue with some of the more blank backgrounds but I think this aids the art style. While we are on the subject, Joe Hisaishi is one of my favourite film composers of all time having developed some amazing film scores in the past, but this time he has out done himself, this is his best to date. It is extraordinary how good it is. This feels like the sound track he has wanted to create his entire life, he makes brilliant use of Japanese Instruments as well as traditional Orchestral Instruments. It’s just brilliant and he really should have received an Oscar nomination for it. I don’t really have a complaint with the films presentation, it’s just one amazing film to look and behold at, my only concern with it is there a quite a few silent moments which are excellent in letting us build up the tension and emotions in certain scenes, however I was in a cinema where the screens were very close to one another and some of the scenes were so quiet I could actually hear the other movie playing in the next room, and that got really annoying. My advice on that basis would be, if you are planning to see it at the Cinema maybe try and aim for a Cinema that has very few screens that aren’t close to one another.

Overall, my thoughts are that this film is excellent. It’s genuinely a brilliant animated film that keeps up Studio Ghibli’s reputation and if this is to be Isao Takahata’s final film, he is going out on a brilliant film, and this is by far his best work to date. My only major complaint with the film is that a few of the darker moments feel the film should have warranted a PG rating rather than the U rating that it did get and I think a few parents might be a bit shocked by some of the things that are allowed in Japanese kids films. I was aware that there were plans to censor certain scenes of this film, but I am happy to say that the film is completely uncut in its British release and it’s all the better for it. The film gives us excellent characters, a brilliant but hard hitting storyline that offers us no easy answers and I really think that everyone will be emotionally affected by the end. It’s a brilliant, but sombre piece. I’m not sure that it will appeal to as large an audience as past Ghibli films have, mainly on its Japanese sensibility and culture. However, for me personally it was damm near brilliant. Particular praise goes to Chloe Grace Moretz for her excellent performance as well as the rest of the brilliant ensemble cast and the amazing animation and film score. I am firmly in the belief that as much as I liked Big Hero 6 this film should have won the Oscar.

Please go and see this at the Cinema if you get the chance I would love this film to be successful at the Box Office and I think it’s something you should really check out. If you don’t feel the need to go the Cinema to see this, but you can’t wait for it to come out on DVD and Blu Ray there is no need to wait in this country because it has been released on Blu Ray in America and I believe that it is region free. It is available on Amazon on a US import and I believe it may work on European Blu Ray players, but please investigate before buying as I may be wrong on that point and DVD’s from America will more than likely not work unless you have a multi region dvd player. I also recommend that you should pick up the DVD Isao Takahata and his Tale of the Princess Kaguya that came out last weekend which is an 86 minute documentary that talks about the films creation. The only other piece of advice that I will give is if you are planning to see this in the Cinema, whether you prefer watching anime in the original Japanese language with subtiles or a english dub version you are probably going to have a hard time because a few of the chain Cinemas haven’t specified which of their screenings is dub or sub and in fact in order to see the english dub I accidentally ended up having to buy two tickets because I ended up buying the sub first. My advice is, do what I did, after buying the sub, and actually ring the Cinema ahead of time and ask which screening is which version and then you can get the exact one that you want.

With all that out of the way what are your thoughts on The Tale of the Princess Kaguya? If you have an opinion and wish to share it please leave us a comment. We are happy to receive anything that you have to say and if you want to write your own reviews of films or subimit any of your own personal creative content send an email to calvin@axia-asd.co.uk with your name and the attached document or content. Also leave something in the comments section about our question today, which is

What are your favourite Studion Ghibli Movies and are you looking forward to the final Studio Ghibli movie “While Marnie Was There”?

Well this week I am very chuffed. I have seen one of the best movies I have seen all year. Let’s hope that next week I can continue that trend when I review “Seventh Son” in 3D. which will be on our site on April 3^rd

Calvin – Nerd Consultant

“X + Y”

Thanks goodness Dr Buchan found this film for me because there was literally nothing else I wanted to see this week. I wasn’t really meant to be seeing this film, I was supposed to be seeing the new Ron Howard movie “In the Heart of the Sea”, but then I get told at the last minute that the film has been pushed back to a Christmas Day release!, and in case you are wondering, I can’t guarantee that “In the Heart of the Sea” will receive a review from us for the site! That’s because for the last few weeks of December I will be concentrating on reviewing the new Star Wars film. I will, however, try and get a review out of the film if I can!! I am so glad that Dr Buchan found this film because out of all the new film releases for this week, this one was by far the one that looked the best. I didn’t really want to review “Run All Night” because I am done with Liam Neeson action films after the misery of sitting through Taken 3, and Sweet Francais looks like another pretentious period piece which I just wouldn’t enjoy. This is another film I feel hasn’t been given enough advertising, there have been barely any adverts for it, granted It’s been way more advertised than say the previously reviewed Big Eyes or Kill the Messenger, but it still wasn’t showing at a lot of cinemas. Once again I had to go all the way to Manchester to see it because they were the only 4 Odeons showing it! The last time I went to see a couple of films that weren’t being advertised, they turned out to be really good so I was hoping to see a really good film.

X+ Y is the semi-biographical story of Nathan Ellis, played by Asa Butterfield of Enders game fame who takes a keen interest in Maths after being diagnosed with Asperger Syndrome, however, he has suffered from tragedy after his father dies in a car accident and his mother Julie, played by Sally Hawkins, struggles to take care of him, not knowing exactly how to communicate with him, which leads to him learning maths from his private tutor Mr Humphries, played by Rafe Spall who is also going through his own trials and tribulations, suffering from Multiple Sclerosis, which eventually leads to Nathan entering the Math Olympics, representing the United Kingdom. The plot sounds very basic and even sounds like it is aiming for awards when you spell it out, however, the film doesn’t feel like that in execution! It actually feels like time was taken out to try and tell a really good story and I will admit, it has a very enjoyable plot. However, it’s not a plot without flaws. I know this film is a semi-biographic picture and I don’t know exactly how much of it was true to life that they couldn’t get around, but some of it does seem slightly contrived and I did think there were some pacing issues in the first half of the film.

I must be honest, I really enjoyed the characters in this film, however, I did think a couple of them seemed a bit too unsympathetic and messed with a lot of the tones of the film, and I did think that a couple of the characters which were meant to come across as a bit more sympathetic didn’t work as well as the film wanted them to. I’m mainly referring to Eddie Marsan’s character Richard. Now Eddie Marsan plays this role really well, there is no question on that front, I just don’t think he is written too well, and I also felt the character of Isaac played by Alex Lawther also came across as way too mean spirited and didn’t feel too true to life. Honestly at times, it felt like he had just stepped out of a Karate Kid Movie, and the same kind of went for Eddie Marsan, although I would say his part was less exacerbated with this. With that being said, those are the only real major negatives with this plot, it is actually done relatively well It’s kind of reminiscent of a few sports movies of the 80’s, like Rocky and The Karate Kid, although in this case for mathematics but unlike those movies it does avoid quite a few cliches and it doesn’t offer any real easy answers. While Rafe Spall’s Humphries is not exactly the most sympathetic character in the world he is at least likeable and enjoyable and he has a decent progression mainly down to Rafe Spall’s really good performance, I just think the film went for a half and half focus with him and Nathan for the first half of the film and then he kind of paled into insignificance in the latter half which I would have preferred the film would have avoided. The best aspect of this film is Nathan. This is a very well written character and I think he is very realistic and gives a very interesting portrayal of Asperger Syndrome and I think he will get across to large amounts of people who don’t necessarily understand the condition fully. What’s great about this is, the film understands that film is a visual medium, they don’t just talk about the subject, they show it and this is done very well and I will go more into that when I talk about the film’s cinematography. Nathan feels very real and he is also very likeable and the relationships he develops with people are also the big holding point of the movie, particularly his relationship with his mother Julie which has amazing progression throughout the film and will keep a lot of people hooked for the longest time. I also really liked the way his relationship with love interest Zhang Mei played by Jo Yang was written. This is written brilliantly and I really enjoyed them as a couple.

The film also has a later depiction of Asperger Syndrome which I think potentially is even better than the depiction of Nathan, however, it’s not given a lot of time but it really hits home and I think he could have done a whole spin off film with the character, but I’m not going to give it away for people who have not seen the film, but be assured it’s done very well and I will probably give it away anyway when I do my section on the Actors. The film also does an excellent job of contrasting the differences between the British and the Chinese sensibilities on Education and attitudes towards Education which was not something I was expecting to get out of the film, but it is done well and it has a decent pay off. The film is directed by Morgan Matthews, who up until now has only done Documentaries, however, I do believe he could do some good work in fiction because this movie obviously has really payed off for him. According to his IMDB page though, he is still planning to do more documentaries in the future. So, my overall thoughts on the film’s plot, were, it’s pretty damn good, but it was slightly flawed at times. I think the film suffers a bit too much from having too many things dip in and out and there are a couple of things that aren’t quite fully resolved or fully explored by the end of the Movie. however the film does know what to keep the focus on at the right time and it does it very well. I also think this is one of the best depictions of Autism and more specifically Asperger Syndrome in almost any film I have seen. But I know that could be a potentially very subjective opinion and I fully respect other peoples opinions if they disagree with me on that, especially if they have been diagnosed with it themselves.

Now I have got that out of the way I can talk about the Actors of the film. This is an ensemble cast, but it’s not a large cast, so there aren’t too many Actors to talk about in this one. Rafe Spall plays his role pretty well and I do enjoy him as an Actor, I wouldn’t say this has been his best role, but I do think he took on the challenge of playing a character who has Multiple Sclerosis pretty seriously and I think he did it really well. Eddie Marsan’s role may not be written brilliantly but I do think he played it pretty well. Martin McCann playing Nathan’s father however, came across as a bit too perfect, but I think that is more a writing issue rather than an acting issue. I also felt that a few of the characters kind of paled into insignificance and felt like the only reason we focused on them were for plot points later, this was particularly in the case of Alexa Davies playing Rebecca who barely gets any time whatsoever. Jo Yang is really good in her role and her and Asa Butterfield have excellent chemistry on screen. Alex Lawther is trying really hard although I do think he hams up his roles a bit too much and I do think the writer has trapped him in a bit of a corner where he is forced to be in a position where he has to act like someone who we don’t want to spend a lot of time around and was forced in to a position where he would end up overdoing it. The stand out performances from the film are Asa Butterfield who does a brilliant job playing Nathan and I would love to know what research he did before taking up this role, if not already being diagnosed with Asperger Syndrome himself (though I am not suggesting that I got the sense that he had aspergers outside of acting). Sally Hawkins does a brilliant job as Nathan’s mother she is seriously going from strength to strength right now and I think she is one role away from her best performance and potentially picking up an Oscar. But the real standout for me is the up and coming Actor Jack Davies who hasn’t done much work, but after this and Cyberbully I’d really like to see him in more stuff. He initially starts off as a character who you think you are going to dislike, but then you slowly grow to really love him. His performance is excellent throughout the film. He also gets the best scene of the film with his interaction with Asa Butterfield in the middle portion of the film. So, once again an excellent ensemble cast, however, there are a few blips in the performances and I think that is more down to the scripts than the actual actors.

Let’s now discuss the films presentation. I wanted to go and see this film with an Autism Friendly screening so that I could actually test out what I’m recommending, however I couldn’t get an Autism Friendly screening in time to get this review written up, so I’m afraid I will have to just go on the description I have heard of one in recommending they are worth checking out. This film has excellent cinematography and really good editing. The film uses excellent camera work and sound editing to really show off Nathan’s Sensory Sensitivity and it works like a treat particularly in ways that Nathans internal monologue of thoughts will suddenly stop when someone opens a can of coke. The Director and Editors understood perfectly this film was a visual medium and you should show rather than tell!! I think this film shows that aspect of Autism better than a lot of films have, particularly in the scenes in Taiwan and when Nathan is sitting down to various Exams. I think this film is also shot beautifully for its static and moving shots, with the occasional hiccup here and there.

Overall my thoughts on X + Y are that it is a very good film, if slightly flawed. I do think a few characters do pale a bit into insignificance and there is some slight acting hiccups from a few members of the cast. However I don’t think you will find a better depiction of Asperger Syndrome in many other films, although I am welcome to be challenged on that. I don’t think this film will have too much of an audience in the cinema’s, especially considering I was the only person at my screening once again, but I do think this film will earn a bit of a life on DVD. It’s well acted, it’s well shot, but I’m not entirely convinced it’s well written, but I do think it’s as well written as it could have been. I do think, however, there will be a lot of people who while enjoy this film a lot more than I did. I actually said to Dr Buchan after reviewing the film that I thought that she would enjoy it more than I did, but I’ll have to wait for it to come out on DVD to let you know whether that is the case! I would give this film a go. I think it will be another underrated gem, although I do suspect it may gain a few BAFTA nominations for 2016. If you have any form of autism and weren’t considering to go and see it at the cinema, Vue Cinema’s are offering Autism Friendly screenings across most of their chain from 2nd April. I highly recommend checking it out. It’s not an incredibly uplifting movie but I do think it’s a movie you will enjoy by the end, go and see it even if you don’t feel you need the Autism Friendly screening. check it out as soon as possible, I think it will work for a lot of people.

What are your thoughts on X + Y? I’m certain this film can generate a lot of conversation. Please if you want to, leave a comment in our comments section we welcome all opinions. Remember, if you would like to write your own reviews, send me an email to calvin@axia-asd.co.uk. Also if you get some time this week, check out Assistant Psychologist, Anna’s book review, on Nerdy, Shy and Socially inappropriate by Cynthia Kim, it’s an excellent read.

As I said, I did promise I would look into Autism Friendly screenings and I would give some recommendations. I do think these are potentially excellent ideas and I think it will help a lot of people who wouldn’t necessarily go to a cinema potentially be able to have the full experience. Vue and Cineworld are offering several screenings and Odeon are also beginning to catch on to the idea. They basically entail that lighting will be kept on during the screening, volume levels will be reduced and there are no advertising or trailers, seating is not allocated and customers are allowed to bring their own food. Cineworld will be offering the screenings at 11.00 on the first Sunday of every month and next month there are a few films on offer. However, I will stress that the majority of these are aimed at a younger audience which is a shame because I think these screenings should cater to the adults as well and the only one I could find was an autism friendly screening of the upcoming Seventh Son in IMAX 3D which I will be reviewing in a couple of week. I haven’t actually been to a screening, but I will recommend that if you wouldn’t normally go to a cinema and you have Asperger Syndrome or any form of Autism you might want try this out. In terms of which films to go to in the films I can find at this point in time in April, Vue will be offering X + Y as previously mentioned and Cineworld is offering several screenings, however they are not all the films I would recommend. With that being said my recommendations are Frozen, which despite my misgivings I will admit on a lot of technical levels is pretty good, Monsters Inc which I think is worth seeing on the big screen again and possibly The Croods, although the latter one is at a stretch.

My Question this week is:
With Autism Friendly screenings mainly favouring kids films, what more adult films should these cinemas be showing and which films should we demand be given these sort of screenings?

Who knows, we may end up sending a letter to Cineworld saying we would like to see this next month please?

Lets’ move on to next week. Now if I had done my Ten Most Anticipated Films of 2015 next weeks film would have been joint first with 2 other films. Join me next Friday on 27 March when I will be reviewing Studio Ghilbi’s latest film, the Oscar Nominated “The Tale of The Princess Kaguya”. As much as I go into films with an open mind, I am really looking forward to this one!

Thanks for reading this review and I hope you enjoyed reading it as much as I enjoyed making it.

Calvin – Nerd Consultant

“KILL THE MESSENGER”

You know, I wouldn’t have picked this movie. Honestly this wasn’t the one I would have picked for this weeks review, I would have reviewed Chappie, not that I didn’t think Kill The Messenger had some merit to it, I saw the trailers and it looked promising. But I wouldn’t have picked it considering it had a very limited viewing and I thought I wouldn’t be able to find a screening close to my area. However, my good friend and IT guy Dream really wanted this to be reviewed and if it wasn’t for him none of this would have been possible, so I felt I owed him for all his brilliant hard work so it was put on the schedule and I made sure, by any means possible I was going to review this film (I was even at one point considering traveling to London to see the film). I’ll put his mind at rest at this point and say, “yes this is a good film”. Now we have got that out of the way, let’s get into a bit about this film.

The film was released, in October in the States with a very limited release, hence why, if you go on YouTube to search for reviews for this film you’re are going to come up short changed. Most of the critics I follow didn’t see this film. Brad Jones, who pretty much goes to every film imaginable, even some of the really weird Christian Exploitation films, didn’t see this film. Bennet the Sage didn’t see this film, Chris Stuckmann another critic who seems to go see every film didn’t see this film, which seems strange considering that this film was billed to be big at The Oscars. It was considered there was a possibility it would be nominated for Best Picture, yet when the time came around there were Zero Oscar Nominations. So let’s dive into why this film may have not have received an Oscar Nomination and what makes this film good with some slight problems.

Now when Dream asked me to review this, he said it was because he wanted to see it based on the fact that it is based on a story that he really remembers and a time period he’s familiar with, similar to why he enjoyed the previously reviewed Pride so much, and believed that lightning could strike twice. The story centers around the true life story of journalist Gary Webb, played in this film by Jeremy Renner during his investigation in the mid 1990’s around investigating the CIA’s role in arming the contra rebels in Nicaragua through importing cocaine into California. It’s a story that people are largely unaware of nowadays which I think is unfortunate and a lot of people don’t know much about Gary Webb due to the circumstances of how his investigation ended. However I don’t want to give away the plot so I’ll just leave it there on that one. Gary Webb’s work was very important and should be more well known. A lot of times during this film I was getting flashbacks to the previously reviewed The Imitation Game. I will say the ending of this film is slightly more depressing than the end of Imitation Game. As for the plot itself it really juggles between the early portion of an optimistic Gary, full of his enthusiasm and a sense of justice in order to uncover the story and see that the public knows the truth to the later portion of the film having his editors, friends and family back him, which brilliantly gives the audience a sense of triumph to a juxta position of a later portion of the film which delivers a massive comedown in the aftermath of the story getting out. The lengths to which the man is put down is unbelievable and Jeremy Renner delivers this character’s blight really well, but it helps that the plot is very well paced and very engaging. The screenplay is written by Peter Landesman, who previously wrote Parkland and you can definitely see a lot of that film’s influence in this film, however he is not on directing duty this time and I believe that has allowed him to get to the meat of the story without having to worry about things which are more of a Director’s duty and it also helps that he is confined to the articles that Gary Webb wrote and the book by Nick Schou to adapt into the screenplay. The Director is Michael Cuesta who previously, mostly worked on video shorts and TV movies, this is his first feature length film in the Directors Chair and it really does show, because at times this film does feel like a made for TV film, not helped by the fact that the film had a limited release. However I do feel that Michael Cuesta could have a future in feature length films as he does do a pretty good job with this film. With that being said his IMDB page doesn’t currently list any future plans for releases of feature films. I also think this film not only demonstrates how powerful governments can be in shutting a man down, it also shows that governments are terrible at keeping things quiet and a sense of corruption is felt constantly throughout the film. Most of the characters who work in Washington feel both powerful, yet also kind of clueless as well, it also helps the fact that we don’t see them too often, which adds to their sense of menace.

The supporting cast does a brilliant job of just acting as a support, they don’t take up too much on the screen, so that way we can really concentrate on Gary and the fact that this is his story. The script definitely conveys a man that is passionate about his job to the extent that he will risk everything for it and in a sense he does risk everything for it. The only downside I can really say to this film, is the fact that this is not a film like Pride, Frank and The Imitation Game where you get some sense of achievement and a sense of the whole “weren’t they just extraordinary people by the end”, you do have at least some admiration for Gary by the end of the film, but you also feel some anger by the end of the film, and it’s not because the ending is bad, it’s because of the aftermath of the events after the film, which, as I say, I will not give away. The other downside I would say is, I think this film is slightly too long, I think a couple of scenes could have been cut which wouldn’t have made too much difference, this film is about 2 hours long and I think it could easily have been 1hr 40mins. This film’s strength, is once again, like last weeks Second Best Exotic Marigold Hotel, is in its cast and its characters which really prop up the film, especially considering they act and sound like genuine people which really helps in the context of the fact that this is a true story. The film also conveys brilliantly how the good guys and bad guys aren’t necessarily mutually exclusive, yet the world around us can potentially be blind to that fact, definitely demonstrated in a few of the scenes that are set in Nicaragua. Whilst I think this film was slightly too long, the plot was incredibly engaging and I definitely think it will please a lot of the people, just don’t expect this film to have an uplifting ending!

Now let’s move on to the cast, and as I said, this film’s cast really makes the film. The standout performance from the film is Jeremy Renner, who does an amazing job as Gary Webb. He does a brilliant job getting across a man who has a strong sense of justice and truth. He also gives across the idea that this is how all journalist should be, yet unfortunately that is not the case. He also gets really lost in the role, seriously, I recognise this guy from playing Hawkeye in the Avengers Films and he is un-recognisable in this movie and he really looks like the real man (who I have seen pictures of and there is a video of him at the end), it’s very much another case of Benedict Cumberbatch playing Alan Turing and David Oyelowo playing Dr Martin Luther King. Honestly, I think this is Renner’s top performance and it’s the one he should be remembered for. Most of the rest of the cast do a pretty decent supporting role, especially actors like Robert Patrick who delivers an excellent performance, Mary Elizabeth Winstead does a really good supporting role. Ray Liotta is also incredibly good in his role no matter however brief he is actually in the film and I think most of the young actors that make up Gary Webb’s family do a pretty decent job for the younger performers. There is a brilliant scene in the middle of the movie with Jeremy Renner and Lucas Hedges who plays Gary’s teenage son Ian, which really conveys their relationship and their thoughts on one another brilliantly, this really has to be seen to be believed. Though I think the stand out performance from the supporting cast, and it’s a very good supporting cast, has to go to Rosemary DeWitt, playing Gary’s wife Anna who doesn’t show off her brilliance in the first half of the film, but in the second half, really comes into her own. Honestly her’s and Jeremy’s performance are well worth the price of admission alone. The only performance that wasn’t really a stand out for me was Barry Pepper as Russell Dodson, who doesn’t seem completely into his performance, but I still felt he gave a decent performance nonetheless. Overall an excellent supporting cast, but I think the standout is Jeremy Renner. He may not be on the same level as a lot of the actors who were nominated for Best Actor at the Oscars, but he definitely carries this film and his performance is another factor that is worth the price of admission alone.

The only thing left to talk about is the film’s presentation. I think this film’s presentation is excellent in conveying the early to mid 1990’s in the way the film is shot and edited. Half the time the film does feel like it’s shot like 90’s news reports, which I grew up watching with my parents in the living room, because we were waiting for the football match or the Simpsons to come on! This film has some excellent use of stock footage also to convey the time period. I don’t think it does as good a job as say film’s like The Imitation Game or Pride did at conveying their time period, some of the times the film feels like it is out of 21st century America, but I have still seen film’s that do a worse job at conveying their time periods. The shots in LA are pretty damn good, especially a shot towards the beginning of the film, where Gary Webb is going through an LA drug neighbourhood. I also thought Washington was shot brilliantly as well as the shots in Nicaragua, seriously it really gave a sense of authenticity and I almost felt like I could have travelled through that area myself on one of my long excursions. My only issue with the cinematography is at times, it feels like the director is shooting an action film without there being any action! It didn’t help that pretty much all the trailers that I saw before this movie were for action movie but It adds to my major negative of my film which I will go over in the next section of the review. However, that doesn’t majorly detract from the fact that this film had excellent cinematography and I loved the locations and environments they shot it in.

So I have mentioned that I do have a major negative and I would say the word major is wrong, but it the negative that stands out the most for me. The film at times can feel at times slightly thematically confused. At times it feels like it’s doing a story similar to Argo or The Fifth Estate and another time it feels like it’s doing a story similar to The Imitation Game. There is even a court room scene earlier on that feels just like it’s taken from a Law and Order episode. All of those films and TV series, I absolutely loved with the exception of The Fifth Estate, so to have all of them in one place should probably not be a major negative to me but I thought, on a technical level it might affect other people wanting to see the film. Overall I may not have wanted to pick this film to see, but I am very glad I did see this film! This is one really good film!! It’s one of the biggest surprises of any film I have reviewed on the site. I thought this was going to be a filler review to get me to some of the films I really wanted to see this month, and it would just be ok, but it actually turned out to be a really frank and interesting look at journalism and government in the 90’s. It’s a shame the film only got a limited release in the States because I think it should have gone to a wider audience, I think it’s largely down to Universal not wanting to upset the hierarchy in government.

At times the film does feel thematically confused, but eventually it gets everything in order and it may not be a wholly uplifting film, but it doesn’t detract from the fact that the film has excellent performances, especially from Jeremy Renner and it has a story that more people should widely know. Gary Webb’s work deserves to be known across a wide audience. Unfortunately this film is not getting out to a wider audience as it’s not being shown in too many cinemas, in fact when I went to the Manchester Odeon to see my version, there was only one other person in the theatre with me!! Please do all you can to track down a cinema playing this film, or catch this on DVD when it comes out. Thanks Dream, I probably never would never have seen this one if you hadn’t requested it. It’s a really underrated gem, however, I don’t think it deserved an Oscar Nomination because I don’t think it rises to the level of film of some of the Best Film nominations, like Whiplash and The Imitation Game.

Please see this film, Garry Webb has been ignored for far too long and his story deserves to be told.

Thanks Dream this was great and I don’t think I would have seen this film without your request and my film viewing experience would have been worse for it

Well, if you’ve seen Kill The Messenger and you would like to comment on the film or any other film you have seen this week leave something in our comments section. Remember you do not need an account or be from a specific area to leave a comment and we accept any opinions. If you would like to start your own reviews send an email to calvin@axia-asd.co.uk and for more details on that go to my Big Eyes review. Also if you get some time this weekend check out our guest contributors section which has a brilliant animation from one of our contributors, Neve. I know your time is precious and busy but please spare some time to see it.

Well, as usual I am also going to leave a question for people to answer in the comments section. This week I want to know “which true life story would you like to see be made into a film next?” since we have now had successful films about Martin Luther King, Alan Turing and Gary Webb.

If you have been following Axia’s Facebook posts you may have seen last week that the next review is going to be on 20 March and it’s going to be “X + Y”, since the film I originally wanted to review in that section has been pushed back to Christmas and Dr Buchan requested that that be the next review. As I also mentioned in that review, I am going to be giving some recommendations as to which Autism Friendly screenings in April are worth checking out.

This has been one brilliant film review to write and I hope everyone enjoyed reading it.

Calvin – Nerd Consultant

“SECOND BEST EXOTIC MARIGOLD HOTEL”

Did you ever see a film that you like is getting a sequel, and at first you are really happy that it is getting a sequel and then you stop and think ‘why is this film getting a sequel’. That’s the Best Exotic Marigold Hotel for me this year. I really enjoyed The Best Exotic Marigold Hotel when it came out, it was genuinely a surprise to me on how good it was, especially as at first I didn’t even intend on going to see that film, in case you’re wondering, I saw it as an in flight movie. I loved the plot and the ensemble cast, with brilliant writing and some excellent characters. Did it have its flaws, yes, but they weren’t too distracting and I think the general surprise on how good it was, allowed the film to achieve a critical and financial success, thus warranting the sequel. But that’s about the only thing that warrants Best Exotic Marigold Hotel getting a sequel. It really didn’t have an open-ended story, if anything it ended with all the characters having some sort of a personal victory. If the first film was really good the sequel could probably do a decent job and you never know, lightning does often strike twice in the cinema world!

Now, the film’s plot is fairly similar to the first film, acting as another adult ensemble piece surrounding several retired and elderly British people starting their new life in India, only this time, obviously it extends their life as it’s about the extended period after they have started their new life. There are several sub-plots competing for attention like the first film had, this film tends to add another focus around Sonny’s character played by Dev Patel, not only preparing for his up-coming wedding but also trying to gain an American Investor who will help him open a second hotel and potentially eventually, a whole chain of hotels. The plot really kicks off after Sonny believes that a new resident Guy, played by Richard Gere is a hotel inspector sent by his investor to see if the hotel is viable and potentially be a decent investment for a future expansion. But, as I mentioned, this is only one of about five or six sub-plots that are all competing for attention. The first film was very good at bouncing out the various sub-plots and I would say that is definitely the case with this film, however, the balance is slightly lacking are we are mainly concentrating on Dev Patel and Richard Gere in this version. I will say, I do enjoy the majority of these sub-plots, but I don’t think any of them really reach the levels of enjoyment of the comedic hilarity that the original film managed to achieve. In fact I think the humour was kind of lacking for the most part, but I did find myself laughing at quite a few jokes. I also think another problem is that the writers at times definitely forgets that a few of the characters are still going through the sub-plots. Judy Dench’s character, for example is missing for about two thirds of the movie, only popping up briefly and her relationship with Bill Nighy goes round in circles and isn’t really that interesting! I am glad that the film has a bit of a focus, but it is probably to the film’s detriment as Richard Gere and Dev Patel’s plots are probably the least interesting of all the plots of the film, particularly Richard Gere’s! Dev Patel, once again does a pretty decent job, but I think the writers have not done a brilliant job with his character, he has definitely gone back from the progression he achieved in the first film. Not that he is back to the point he was at the beginning of the first film, but he has definitely gone back a few levels. Once again we are seeing the same sort of plot points from the first film. The weakest point of the first film for me was Celia Imrie’s sub-plot and whilst not much better in this film, considering she has literally zero chemistry with her love interests, it’s still a lot better than the first film. The worst sub-plot, however has to be Ronald Pickup and Diana Hardcastle’s! It just doesn’t start out well and only gets worse! Ronald Pickup’s plot starts with him believing that, in his drunken state, he has ordered a taxi driver to put a ‘hit’ on his girlfriend, (trust me, it makes some sense in the film), and it really leads to an eventual plot surrounding whether both the people in the relationship can exist in a monogamous relationship! I definitely think this one could have worked better if it had had a bit of a re-write and if the not that funny jokes that surround this plot didn’t constantly repeat themselves. There should have been more time devoted to giving us more of an insight into this couples relationship. Even some of the less enjoyable sub-plots were still not awful! I definitely enjoyed a lot of the plot in this film, I just think it has slightly too many characters and slightly too much plot this time around and they are all competing with each other way too much. I also think that none of the plot lines in the film come close to how well written and profound Tom Wilkinson’s plot was from the first film surrounding his character’s homosexuality. There is, however, still a really likeable charm to this film that I think has been missing from a lot of the films that are out currently in cinemas. I think the charm definitely comes from the film’s cast, but I will go more into detail when I get into the acting portion of my review. And I’m just gonna say it I still love these characters they are all still very enjoyable and I think they make the movie and they are what kept most of my interest. The plot isn’t bad, I just don’t think it is as good as the first one. Mainly because a lot of the surprise of the first one has gone and we have higher expectations going into this one. I really, really love Maggie Smith’s character, who gets a large majority of the time in this film and it’s definitely worth it! I also like the fact that her character hasn’t gone backwards since the end of the first film. There is a reason she is one of Britain’s top actresses!! If you enjoyed the first film, you are more than likely going to enjoy this film’s plot. I am aware that I am not in the target demographic for this film, in fact I was actually the youngest person at my particular screening of the film, but I think, like the first film, it’s going to have some charm outside of its target demograph. I just think the film is kind of lacking in a few areas from the first film, which maybe could have been ironed out.

The one strength that this film had which has carried on from its predecessor in quality was definitely it’s cast, this is an excellent cast. Every actor from the first film returns to reprise their roles, with the exception of Tom Wilkinson which is obvious for anyone who has seen the first film. The stand out performance for me is definitely still Maggie Smith who once again delivers a brilliant role in this film. Bill Nighy I actually think has improved in the role since the first film in which I think he was a bit too under-stated, which has now been rectified so that he can deliver an excellent performance. Dev Patel is once again as good as usual and I am really glad because I think he needs some really good roles. He is a really good actor and deserves decent direction which I think has been a lot of the problems in his films of late. I think Penelope Wilton is good in her role as well and Celia Imrie is another actor who I think has improved since the first film despite the fact that her apprence in the film feels really forced, it’s as if the writers realized that she was contractually obligated to be in the film and they had to do a ton of plot gymnastics to get her back in despite her story arc being over in the first film (though both Dr Buchan and her colleague disagreed with me on this one). The supporting cast also does a pretty decent job as well. Tina Desai is pretty good as Sunaina and again is another actor who I think has slightly improved since the first film, but she hasn’t been given enough to do to show it off. I enjoyed Ronald Pickup’s acting performance as well as Diana Hardcastle, but it was kind of put to waste considering that their sub-plot was probably the worst of the film!

That’s all the returning cast, but this time we’ve also got Richard Gere appearing in the film as well as Tamsin Greig who most people will know from Episodes (the Matt LeBlanc sitcom). They both deliver pretty decent roles although I don’t think Tamsin Greig isn’t allowed to do enough of her comedic side in this film, which is a shame because she is a very good comedy actress. If you watch Episodes, she is hilarious in that series! Also Richard Gere is delivering a pretty decent if under-stated performance, but he is not given enough to do to really take advantage of it. I am also starting to believe, from his recent roles, the man is going a bit past his prime. He has pulled it back a bit with this film, but his most recent roles haven’t been much to look at and if it wasn’t for the fact that the actor is appearing in Franny later this year I’d say the man was planning a quiet retirement! It’s a complete upgrade from the last time we saw him on a cinema screen in Movie 43 and the least said about that complete waste of time, that somehow got called a movie the better!! I also think Judie Dench, despite the fact that she is doing a brilliant performance, is not given enough to do. Especially considering the fact that her blog, which was the main narrative of the first film, is completely absent from this film, so we lose her narration, which was one of the key charms that the first film had. Overall the cast is once again really good, they are definitely what makes this film not a disaster of a film making. I think that John Madden did a pretty decent job directing the actors. You don’t get good performances like this out, without a good director.

I now need to talk about the film’s cinematography. This is a very interesting one for me. As I mentioned last year, when I first started writing this blog, I took a break to go on holiday to India, so I have been to a lot of the major locations where this film was shot. The film mainly takes place in Jaipur and Mumbai and I think the cinematography once again is pretty good in capturing these environments. You definitely feel the hustle and bustle and madness that makes up India as well as the excellent bright colours and the cinematography towards the end of the film surrounding the actual wedding and subsequent dance sequences were probably some of the best cinematography of the film. I will say, however, there is one problem I have with the film now after being in India is I think the film has whitewashed a lot of the problems of India out of the production. We are never allowed to see much of the poverty and awful living conditions that a part of India has. For example, Bill Nighy was on the famous wide walkway in Mumbai, by the ocean, at night time, yet we didn’t see anyone sleeping on the streets! I guarantee at that time of night, you are going to see people asleep on the streets in India!! This still does feel a bit too much, like it has been directed by the Indian tourist board and I wish the film had gone into a bit more detail this time surrounding some of these issues, but it never quite does. Other than that, I absolutely love the way the film was shot, although I will say, on the presentation front you will be a bit surprised when the title cards of the film pop up because it took about 15 minutes into the film before we actually saw the title of the film and the majority of the cast members names on the screen. Yes, you thought Arrow took a long time to bring up its title card, this one takes the cake!!

Overall the Second Best Exotic Marigold Hotel is a film that can best be described as OK. Let’s face the fact that it was never going to outdo its first film, but it definitely gives it a valiant attempt and I think as Film Brain mentioned doing his review of the first film it’s great that films are actually being made for a more mature audience considering a large majority of films at the moment are aimed at the 18-30 year old market. Would I describe this film as good? Probably Yes, I would say it was good, it just wasn’t as good as I wanted it to be!! What propels the film up is it’s cast and decent performances, I just think it could have been slightly better written.

I went to see the film with Dr Buchan and her colleague Elspeth Bromiley and I think they both enjoyed the film a lot more than I did, but even they did accept some of my points about the writing and the plot. I think, given a bit more time, this film could have been great. I will say, however, if you enjoyed the first film maybe you should go and see it at the cinema. I would personally recommend you wait for it to come out on DVD though, especially considering that I would rather this film not be a box office success and encourage the idea of making a third film. Seriously, stop here!! You’re already pushing it a bit with this film, don’t go over the edge!! And both Dr Buchan and Else agreed with me that The Third Best Exotic Marigold hotel isn’t a good idea.

So, what were your thoughts on Second Best Exotic Marigold Hotel guys. Leave something in the comments section if you have an opinion. Remember you do not need an account or be from a specific area to do so. I also would really welcome some comments on the first film as well.

Time to now ask one of my usual Axia Film Society questions:

Since this film was a sequel I figured I would ask which film sequel disappointed you the most? If you don’t like that question: Which film sequel did you think was better than the original?

It’s time to move on to my next film. I would like to give you a definite answer to this, but at the time of writing this, I can’t give a definite answer!! I was hoping I was going to review “To Kill The Messenger” as it comes out on the day of this reviews publication and I am assured of this fact by several cinema chains, but at the time of writing this review I haven’t been able to find a single cinema showing of this film!!! However, I do intend to review this film if at all possible. If I can’t get to see it I may review another film like “Chappie” or “Still Alice”, but I seriously intend to review “To Kill The Messenger” if possible as a thanks to our good friend and brilliant IT guy “Dream”, who really wants to know if this film is any good.

Come back on 13 March where I will definitely have a review and fingers crossed, it’s “To Kill The Messenger”.

Thanks for reading my review and I hope you enjoyed it.

Calvin – Nerd Consultant

“JUSTICE LEAGUE: THRONE OF ATLANTIS”

Yes I promised I was going to review all the DC animated movies this year and that is definitely a promise that I am going to try my best to keep, but expect this to be the only one of these films that I am going to review in the week of its release! As I mentioned in my top ten best films of 2014 list, last year was a pretty mediocre year for DC animated, which is a shame as these really are some of the films that I look forward to in the year. Pretty much all the DC animated films prior to 2014 I really enjoyed. Batman under the Red Hood is still my favourite Batman movie! DC feels the need to insist that its old continuity has gone and wants everyone to read the new 52, so as a result last year they decided that two of the three movies released each year would connect with one another, similar to the Marvel Cinematic Universe and they would be based on story lines from the new 52 Universe. I don’t have too much of a problem with the new 52 as some of its story lines have been really good, but it seems weird to have a continuity that not that many people are on board with as a basis for a group of Movies. The previous films were based on Classic Comics. These comics haven’t been around long enough to become classics yet. Also this film is also serving as a sequel to Justice League War, which wasn’t that brilliant to begin with. Fortunately a large majority of changes have been made for this film. Were these changes enough to save the franchise and keep the DC animated movies going? This is especially an interesting and necessary question, as after Marvel got their cinematic universe going, they dropped their animated films and with DC about to start their cinematic universe in full force next year with Batman V Superman Dawn of Justice and Suicide Squad, will they be about to get rid of these movies?

The plot itself is based on the Justice League/Aquaman crossover event Throne of Atlantis written by Geoff Johns , which I did read prior to the film, as I am largely following the Aquaman new 52 comic series. For a large portion, the film does follow the comic story line, however, it does make a few changes to the story and it borrows a lot of the elements from earlier comics that detail Aquaman’s origin, since Aquaman was not introduced in Justice League War in the way he was introduced in the Justice League Origins comic. I can’t go into too much detail on the plot considering DC animated films are just over an hour long and I don’t want to give too much away. The plot details Arthur Curry aka Aquaman discovering his Atlantean heritage and trying to prevent a war between Atlantis and the surface world lead by his brother Orm aka Oceanmaster, whilst also trying to create a peaceful co-existence between Atlantis and the surface world. Now as I mentioned the plot does follow the comic very similarly, except quite a few characters from the comic who were very important were really under-used, especially Dr Shim who plays a large role in the Aquaman new 52 series. As I mentioned this movie has to introduce Aquaman, his world and his origins story to this film series, which it has to do very quickly and does do it efficiently, it just doesn’t do it as well compared to the comic, but at the point that Throne of Atlantis came out there had been 14 issues of Aquaman solo series to introduce us to the characters and to Aquaman’s world and origins. As a result it does feel slightly forced to try and get all this out in a short space of time! It probably could have benefited from DC doing a straight Aquaman Movie and then do the Throne of Atlantis story line. However, the one thing the film does get right from the comic is that this is a major turning point in the Aquaman Mythos, as least in the new continuity.

 Now this is a Justice League Movie and the Justice League were involved in the comic, though, not with this line up of superheroes. So obviously the film has to balance those characters with the Aquaman set of characters. The characters do relatively well, though the Justice League kind of took a back seat to Aquaman and this film does go through a similar thing however the Justice League characters just aren’t as interesting. They ‘re better than they were in Justice League War but this sequel doesn’t exactly improve on them too much. That being said Green Lantern, Hal Jordan, is drastically better than he was in Justice League War. Batman’s definitely been written better for this film though I do think he was written better in his solo Batman movie last year and probably will be written better in the upcoming solo Batman movie coming out later this year. Cyborg is also a lot more interesting than he was in the previous film, he’s a lot less dull and a lot more interesting and the film does a lot more with the whole being half man half machine aspect of his character. The Flash is still pretty good and I will say the rest of the supporting cast is done pretty well. I especially enjoyed Lois Lane as briefly as she appeared in this film, but some of these characters still aren’t being characterised too well particularly Superman and Wonder Woman and especially Shazam. I know the new 52 went for a new take on the character, which I actually really enjoyed and I recommend going out and picking up Shazam Volume 1 to see how this new version of the character should be done right, however, this incarnation is just terrible and annoying. He’s a bit better than he was in Justice League War, and gets some decedent moments, but “Please” give Shazam a solo movie where we can actually enjoy him! Hopefully things will improve before the live action film that DC has planned. Also, like most people, I’m not too crazy on the fact that Superman has now been partnered up with Wonder Woman. I’m starting to get more into the idea of it with the series the new 52’s released, but this film doesn’t do it too well and they really don’t have good chemistry at all.

This film decided to focus more on Aquaman and his characters and they are portrayed pretty well. I did like their portrayal of Aquaman, but I thought there were a couple of better voice actors that they could have got for the character. Mera is completely in character and takes no nonsense and kicks ass wherever she goes and I did enjoy the interpretation of Black Manta even though he is not on screen that long. Orm aka Oceanmaster is done OK in this film even though he does come across as a bit of a petulant child sometimes, but he still feels threatening enough and does get some good villain lines. Though you do question if the people of Atlantis are complete idiots for not seeing that he is a lying creep!! I would also like to say that this film is not for kids. There are some pretty gruesome scenes in this film, which I must be honest, does not detract from my enjoyment of the film, but I think it might impact on other peoples enjoyment. I also think this was written by people who confuse something being more violent equalling something being more mature, it doesn’t quite work like that but I wont go into that as this review will go on too long!!

My only real problem with this film is the fact that Orm came across as a much more sympathetic villain in the comic and in this one he is just a straight up villain. It’s not too bad and I much preferred him as a villain in this film than Dark Side in Justice League War and I will say that overall the plot was passable, it just could have been a bit better, and I am definitely warming more to this Justice League. Hopefully the next film will get me more into it and make me like this incarnation of the league. This film also definitely made me believe that there is a wider universe for the DC characters especially as we are seeing more side characters, like Lois Lane and Jimmy Olson. Overall, decent plot, just could have been a bit better.

Now that we are moving on to the cast, we can get into the fact that a large majority of Justice League War’s cast has been replaced for this film and I will say for the most part these replacements are better. As much of a fan as I am of Alan Tudyk I didn’t think he was that good as Superman in Justice League War so seeing him replaced by Jerry O’Connell who previously played Shazam in the Justice League animated series is a welcome improvement. I don’t think Sean Astin is as good as Shazam but I would like to see him have a better written movie to see if he could do a decent job with the character. Rosario Dawson is probably a better Wonder Woman for this film, but she is no Susan Eisenberg or Kerry Russell who I still think are the best actresses to play this role. Thank goodness we have Nathan Fillion back as Green Lantern Hal Jordan he practically was made to play this part! If DC is planning to have Hal Jordan as the Green Lantern of their cinematic universe, please call Nathan Fillion and give him this role!! Christopher Gorham and Shemar Moore are fairly decent as Flash and the Cyborg respectively and I will say that Jason O’Mara I think, is starting to come into his own as Batman, but I will probably comment more on that when I review Batman vs Robin later this year. I do think he is better in a film where Batman is the focus rather than the Justice League. Matt Lanter is ok as Aquaman, however, I think if it were up to me I would have cast Crispin Freeman in the role. His anime voice acting has been really good and he has played a lot of characters that seem similar to Aquaman in their characteristics. I also thought that Sumalee Montano really captures Mera’s attitude from the comics. Sam Witwer, who previously played Aidan in Being Human is taking on the role of Orm for this film and he does a decent enough job when the writing is at it’s good points, but he can ham up this role a bit too much and as I mentioned it does make Orm come across as a bit childish. However, he is fine enough for the most part and I think he could work in future roles as Orm and the ending of the film does indicate that he could be used in future movies. The only other cast members to talk about really are Harry Lennix playing Black Manta and George Newbern playing Steve Trevor. I must be honest, as good as George Newbern is as a voice actor it is very weird seeing a guy who has played Superman so many times in the role of Steve Trevor and it was so difficult to separate out the voice from the character, it just felt like Cyborg was talking to Superman. I’d suggest a re-cast for future movies, and as good as Harry Lennix is a Black Manta he’s not given enough to do and the ending of the film doesn’t indicate he is going to turn up again in the role. Also in the post creditit scene there is an appearance of an iconic DC villain played by one of my favourite anime voice actors but obviously I can’t discuss it too much for fear of spoiling the movie but I will say I think the casting will pay off in future movies. Overall better cast than Justice League War but some recasts might be necessary.

Now onto presentation. For this review I watched the blu-ray version and it is the version I recommend though if you don’t have access to a blu-ray player then I’m afraid you’re going to have to go with the digital version on iTunes or Netflix’s as no DVD release for the film is available in the UK. I can safely say one of the things the DC animated films keep consistent with all their films is Action and animation and it is no different here the action sequences and fight scenes are well choreographed to take advantage of the characters individual powers and look amazing whilst keeping in the typical comic superhero style. It’s films like these that make me think more action films should be animated

As for the animation. The art style of DC animated films always tends to reflect the artist that was drawing the comic. That being said, however, with these movies connecting with one another the animation had to be the same each time, so it always has to reflect Jim Lee’s art style when he first worked on the Justice League New 52 comics. That’s not too much of an issue here considering that every artist who has now worked on Justice League has really being trying to imitate Jim Lee’s art style, in fact most of New 52 has really been replicating Jim Lee’s art style, so shots from the film look enough like the comic. One bit of the art design that I am not too much of a fan of is some of the costume designs. None of these costumes are perfect replicas of the New 52 costumes which didn’t change too much, but some of them just seem a bit weird and perplexing to me. Particularly, Superman’s costume feels like it could have been a bit brighter than it was and Wonder Woman’s just seems a bit strange in its colours. It is strange, but Wonder Woman having her hair in a ponytail slightly bothers me, considering the characters iconic design has her hair down. It’s just a small nit pick, but it just doesn’t always sit completely right with me. Other than that I did enjoy Aquaman’s design and the rest of the Justice League does seem pretty good though I will say I think Mera’s has received the worst translation from comic to film in her costume design. I don’t get it, her costume design in New 52 is really good, what went wrong here! I will say that Orm’s costume is a lot better than his New 52 version, and if they plan to have Orm finally return in the comics (like they suggested he would be at the end of Aquaman volume 4 which was ages ago) )then I definitely welcome them going with the design similar to the film.

Overall my thoughts on this film were that it was okay. It wasn’t great but it’s a vast improvement over Justice League War, although I wouldn’t jump on the band wagon and see this film unless you’ve seen Justice League War and Son of Batman prior to this. I’d also recommend if you really want to get into these characters, get Aquaman Volume 1,2 and 3 first. The comics are really good reads and they do a pretty good job of introduction Aquaman to newcomers very well and the story-line has gotten pretty good even after Geoff Johns stopped writing the book after Volume 4. I would also say that I’m not sure that this film will be for everyone and it’s definitely not a film that you can buy for kids. If you want to get a DC film for kids you will probably be better off with JLA Trapped in Time. I’m hoping the DC animated films will continue as there is still something enjoyable about these films, but with them not reaching the heights that they did before, and the DC Cinematic Universe about to begin, I’m not sure how long we are going to have these movies. Hopefully the up-coming Batman vs Robin will do a better job and convince DC that these films should continue. Though I reckon we will have a better chance with the upcoming Justice League Gods of Monsters being written by Bruce Tim.

Well what are your thoughts guys? If you have seen the film or read any of the comics I have mentioned, please feel free to comment in the comments section. We will take any opinions and you do don’t have to be from a particular part of the country or have an account to do so.

My question is pretty easy for this week. With DC Cinematic Universe coming up next year, and with Marvel also about to do their Cinematic Phase 3 I would love to know, are there any Super Hero’s from any comic company you think need a film made???

On March 6th I am back in the Cinemas. If you checked my review of Selma last week you will know its going to be “The Second Best Exotic Marigold Hotel” and I am also going to be getting comments on the film from Dr. Buchan and some of her colleagues. It only leaves me now to say thank you for reading this review and if you want to write your own reviews send an email to calvin@axia.co.uk (all in lower case) along with an attachment and the name of the film you are reviewing. If you want remain anonymous we will be happy to oblige, though we do ask that you state your name in the email itself.

If you get some time this week check out the first of our user reviews from our good friend Dream, who has reviewed one of his favourite films “The Blues Brothers”. I’ve read it and it’s a fantastic read. It’s available on our Film Society User Review sections of the site.

Calvin – Nerd Consultant

“SELMA”

Well the BAFTA’s have been and gone and my highlight was Stephen Beresford and David Livingstone winning the award for outstanding debut by a British writer, director or Producer for their work on one my favourite films of last year, Pride. Though as usual most of my picks for each award failed to succeed

The BAFTA’s gained a bit of controversy this year, considering the fact that Selma had not been nominated for a single award, despite the fact that the film has been nominated for two Oscars, one of which being Best Film. The BAFTA people did give a decent reason for why the film had been snubbed and I am inclined to believe them, though I will admit they probably should have been a bit more on the ball with it. Selma had been hyped up since late last year and the critics were even hyping it to sweep the Oscars, admittedly it really hasn’t completely done that only receiving a nomination for Best Picture and for Best Original Song, which made me curious, yet slightly worried. Why had this film, despite being predicted to do very well at the Oscars received so few nominations? To me, from what I had heard of it, it sounded like it would be a really great film. With that being said, I went along to a cinema to see it and was expecting it to be a really great movie.

Now the plot centres around Martin Luther King, so obviously it’s going to be very intriguing and powerful because of what the man stood for and his amazing civil rights work that he achieved in his 39 years plus this is the first film to centre on Martin Luther King since his death. Now the film doesn’t focus on Martin Luther King’s life as a whole, it more centres around his campaign to secure the ability for black people in the south to have equal voting rights by staging a march from Selma to Montgomery in Alabama during the mid 1960’s. The film does this brilliantly, getting in quick and fast with the situation of racial discrimination that was going on at that time in very well told and effective ways. When the first five minutes of the film involve an explosion at a Church, it will get your attention, but in no way does it feel cheap or manipulative. As you would expect, this does give the film an un-comfortability when you are watching so much human suffering for a long amount of time, this film going on for just over two hours and it’s probably especially amplified for white audiences, especially considering that this is our dark recent history and we have a lot to answer for in regards to this, but I don’t believe that any sort of audience should shy away from this movie because of it especially with a message of racial equality in the film.

While this film does document a major victory for civil rights in America, it comes in the wake of a film that I saw last year, The Butler, which granted was released in 2013, but I didn’t get round to seeing it until last year (which I felt did a really good job of documenting almost the entirety of the civil rights movement taking place from the Eisenhower era to the election of Barack Obama) and I was thinking part way through the film that I thought I felt more of a connection to the civil rights movement in that film that I did in this one. But I felt by the end, the film definitely got across how important this particular victory was to the overall civil rights movement and honestly I actually thought by the end that both these movies played back to back would make and excellent double feature, though it would be slightly confusing considering that Oprah Winfrey is in both films! With it’s powerful politics and themes of racial discrimination you will probably think that there is little negative to be had on this film and I would agree! There is very little negative to say about this film, it was really powerful to sit through, but that doesn’t mean that I didn’t have some problems with the film overall. It mainly comes down to the film’s focus. The film does have a focus, it focuses mainly on Dr King, however I feel that has possibly pushed some very interesting figures to the side as a result. I didn’t need too much on these people, but with some of the cast members, I barely knew their characters names and was discovering them for the first time when I was watching the “what happened afterwards” section at the end of film. I would also like to say that I believe that the sections with Dr King’s family feel like a bit of an after-thought. They are very sporadic and sort of come in and out of a film and I felt that possibly having a film that focuses on both of them in equal measure might have helped slightly more as those scenes tend to make Dr King seem more human, whereas a lot of the scenes around his march and his civil rights work make him seem more like the re-incarnation of Jesus. Don’t get me wrong. Dr King was a hell 0f important figure, possibly the most important person of the 20th century, but he was still just human and I don’t feel enough of these scenes really get the human element of the man down. I think the best scenes of the film are the interactions between Martin Luther King and President Johnson because they come across as two men who want to work together, but for various reasons can’t work together, or at least, can’t be seen to work together. The film does make sure that these two don’t overdo these scenes. They only interact together 4 times throughout the whole film and they are kept short and sweet. They simply analyse the point and move on. I also felt the film was slightly too long and that a few scenes could have been shortened or cut altogether. If I sound like I am too negative about the film don’t think for a minute that I didn’t really enjoy watching this one. Though I will say, like Giovanni’s Island it is quite difficult to sit through at times because of the subject matter.

While I can’t comment on whether I think it deserved a BAFTA nomination for Best Film considering that while I may have seen 4 of the 5 films that were nominated for best picture, I still haven’t seen The Theory of Everything at the time of this review’s publication and I’m not sure whether I’d rather see that in this position over Selma but I still believe that BAFTA are missing out by not acknowledging how good this film is and, like I said in the intro, I do believe they are telling the truth on why the film has not been nominated, but it still feels like a miss-fire on their part. Maybe this film will do alright in 2 days time, at the Oscar’s, but I’m not sure I can count on that. I think it’s more than likely that the Oscar will go to Boyhood. But that is not to say that this plot is not Oscar worthy. It did a very difficult task of telling the story of one of the great victories of one of the greatest figures of the 20th century and it did it very well. With that being said, my personal pick for best picture at the Oscars is still The Imitation Game. But it’s at no discredit to this film.

Lets move on to the acting, and I have to say, this is probably one of the harder categories to do because I genuinely felt that most of the cast don’t play a large role in the film overall. Honestly, apart from David Oyelowo, as Martin Luther King and Tom Wilkinson as President Lyndon B Johnson, the majority of the cast sort of feel like glorified cameo’s. Oprah Winfrey really astounded me in the Butler, which earned her a BAFTA nomination and I was really hoping to see her shine again in this film, but she barely has any lines in this film. She has a lot of scenes that she appears in and does brilliant physical acting, but I would have liked to see her have a larger role. I was also looking forward to seeing Cuba Gooding Jr and Martin Sheen do very well in this film, but they really are glorified cameo’s in every sense of the word in this film They barely appear in this film, they are good when they are on screen, particularly Martin Sheen, but I was never given enough time to appreciate it. Honestly, I think you could have filled their roles with up and coming actors. While Coretta King doesn’t gain too much of a focus in this film she is played very well by Carmen Ejogo and I really think she should have received a best supporting actress nomination. The same goes for Tom Wilkinson as Lyndon B Johnson, he definitely deserved a best supporting actor nomination at the Oscar’s, he was really good in this role. Initially I felt he came across as too much of a villain for the film, not that the film requires an actual face to be the villain, the villain in the film is racism! But he really pulls it back towards the end and Wilkinson delivers one of his best performances I have seen in a while. Dylan Baker was alright as Edgar J Hoover, but I think he could have been better and Nigel Thatch feels really wasted as Malcolm X. With that being said we have to discuss David Oyelowo as Martin Luther King, as he is the main character in the film and he basically brushes aside half of the cast for his role to be the focus. In short, he’s great in this role. He really dives into the character and you believe he is actually Martin Luther King a pretty big accomplishment for a British actor to pull off. I don’t think he goes to the same extent as, say, Daniel Day Lewis in Lincoln, who really threw himself into the role, but I still think he should have possibly received a Best Actor nomination along with Jake Gylenhall for Night Crawler (seriously, why is Robert Duval up for this award when hardly anyone gave a good review to the Judge). While David Oyelowo’s performance is amazing in this film I do think it comes at a price, that the rest of his cast, while giving very good performances, do feel like they are brushed to the side. I have already given most of my thoughts on them on the ones that particularly disappointed me, but I refrain from using the word “disappointment” because I really did enjoy all the cast, I just wish there was more time devoted to them. But that being said, it may have taken away from the film’s focus. I really liked these guys. I would love to see them turn up in more films in the future. To be honest, I didn’t even really know about David Oyelowo or Carmen Ejogo before going in to this film, but I am going to look up their filmography’s after writing this review so I can look up some more of their films.

The only thing left to talk about now is the film’s presentation. For me, I felt like this was a really great period piece, reflecting the 1960’s, especially in the costume design and the stock footage of the actual march that plays towards the end. This film also had amazing cinematography, really showing the size of the marches and demonstrations. You’re really feel like half of America has come on to the set to make the film. That being said, there is a CGI shot toward the end of the film that I felt looked really fake and took away from the effect, but luckily it’s not on there too long for you to actually notice. I also think David Oyelowo’s make up department did and excellent job of making him look exactly like Martin Luther King. He really is selling his identity as the eponymous man. I also think that the film’s cinematography aids in showing the harshness of some of the racially motivated violence that was going on at the time. Your really feel every punch, kick and swipe from a baton in this film. Half the time you are watching you are just thinking how painful it must have been.

The only thing really left to talk about is the actual song which is the other Oscar nomination that the film received. The song is called “Glory” by John Lennon featuring Common, and while I don’t believe it will defeat “Everything is Awesome” from the Lego Movie for the Oscar, I do think it is a very good song. It plays during the closing credits and it sums up the film pretty damm well. I noticed that a lot of people stuck around extra long to hear the end of the song and the only reason I didn’t stay much longer was I really needed to catch a train home.

To summarise, Selma is a good film that could have been slightly better. Does it deserve and Oscar nomination, yes I think so. I preferred it to Boyhood and Birdman which I felt were really over-rated films, but like those two films, I feel like that this film is really aiming for an Oscar and often that can be a film’s downfall. Where as I felt films like The Imitation Game were just trying to be a good film. Does that detract from the film, not too much though it also detracts from the fact that the cast and characters do feel slightly under-used. I really enjoyed this film for all the right reasons. It did some excellent commentary on some recent dark history, it gave some outstanding performances from various cast members and I wouldn’t mind seeing it again at some point and is a great credit to director Ava DuVernay. The one thing I was thinking when I was leaving the theatre was, “am I going to remember this film by the end of the year”. I’m still not sure!! I’m not sure I am going to remember it to the extent of Giovanni’s Island or Kingsman: Secret Service which have been two of the best films I have seen this year so far, but I think when I look back on the films that I have reviewed in the year I will think “Yes, that was a good film”. I think sometimes, that is just enough. I will say “Good Luck” at the Oscar’s on Sunday guys, even though I am rooting for Benedict Cumberbatch and The Imitation Game.

What are your thoughts on Selma. Was I right or was I wrong in any of my thoughts. I would love to hear your opinions. Please feel free to leave a comment if you wish to do so. I would love to see other opinions on this film and remember you do not need an account or be from a specific area to leave a comment.

If you would like to leave your own reviews of books, tv or movies for our user content section please send an email with a word document attachment and you’re name to calvin@axia-asd.co.uk (all in lower case) please indicate in the email if you wish to remain anonymous

I was struggling to decide what today’s question should be! I was thinking what would be your pick for Best Picture at the Oscars, but most of the films that are up for The Best Picture weren’t widely circulated and haven’t been seen by a lot of people tending to have more of a life on DVD. So it got me thinking. I mentioned earlier that I thought this film would make a good double feature with The Butler, but then I realised that Double Features are becoming a bit of a dying art and I think cinemas could benefit from doing more of these.

My question this week, therefore is:
“What two films back to back do you think will make a very good double feature?”

For my next review I am going to fulfil a promise I made last year and review the first of the three DC animated movies to come out this year “Jusctice League: Throne of Atlantis” I am aiming to get the review up Friday 27 February, but I could be delayed with this one due to the fact I am relying on a pre-order from Amazon to get the movie and that has gone badly in the past. So don’t be surprised if I am late with this one!! Though I am quietly confident that I will get the review out on time. Rest assured, I will get out the review, one way or the other. If there is no review up next Friday be assured it will come as soon as possible and the next one, you can be assured of will be The Second Best Exotic Marigold Hotel which I aim to have review up on March 6.

Thank you for taking the time out to read this review. It is a joy to make them.

Calvin – Nerd Consultant

“BIG HERO 6”

When I started the Axia Film Society at an Autism Inclusive meeting back in August 2014, one of the request I got was to do a couple of Disney Films when I got the chance. The downside to that was, that there wasn’t that many Disney Films coming out at that time. I expected I would get to be Big Hero 6, but then I discovered that the film wasn’t coming out over here until January, so I decided to make sure that when it came out, this would definitely be on the review schedule. I put it on not knowing exactly what to expect as the trailers hadn’t fully convinced me to the idea of the film. However the praise it was getting in America was starting to convince me. Plus, because of my profession, I am doomed to review every single comic film that comes out, every year, no matter how good or bad they turn out to be! With that being said, I went into the film with trepidation that it could be really good, but it also could potentially be another dumb kids film that no adult should have to sit through when they take their kids to the cinema.

Let’s move on to the plot. Now last week I reviewed another comic film and drew a lot of parallels to the comic in my review, however, this week I haven’t really got that option because I am very limited on my knowledge of Big Hero 6 outside of watching Variant comics video on its history on youtube which is a channel I would highly recommend. All I know is it was a Marvel superhero team that we’e based out of Japan in the original and had some connection to the X Men books and a brief crossover with Spiderman. So in this case I am purely going to talk about the film on the basis of its film adaptation and not draw parallels to the comic, since Marvel hasn’t released any of the story lines in graphic novel form. Before I get fully into the plot of Big Hero 6 I should mention that each screening of the film also comes with a short called “feast” (which is nominated for an oscar for best Animated short). I will briefly say that the short is really well animated and an excellent use of silent film and it uses the 3D format really well, so you won’t be too bored by this film, and the design of the dog was really good, plus the animation is impeccable.

Now Big Hero 6 itself’s plot centres around the hero Hiro Hamada and his attempts to stop a villain with his new friend Baymax after his technology was stolen in a fire at University that results in the death of his brother Tadashi. Now the plot may sound very basic, but it deals with a lot of subjects such as the loss of a loved one and coping strategies, very well. These are some of the strongest points of the plot and the plot for the most part overall is very strong despite the fact it is a very much, by the numbers superhero story when you think about it. I think this is mainly down to it’s very likeable cast. Each of the characters are pretty interesting, with a few exceptions to the rule, though I do believe that most of these characters feel kind of stock at times and like you could have seen them in a lot of other kid’s films.

With that being said, I really enjoy the relationship between Hiro and Baymax, they become very close in a really believable way and it’s really great to watch and follow. The subject of the loss of a loved one is also handled a lot better in this film than in most average family films, which I think can often trivialise the subject a bit too much and offer too much of a simple solution. This film makes the characters loss feel very believable, especially considering that a good chunk of the beginning of the film is used to develop Hiro and Tadashi’s relationship, and how close they are together. As for the rest of the characters, they are nice enough but as I said before, they do feel kind of stock and could have been in other films. None of them really annoyed me on a large level, with the exception of Fred, who really should have learned to shut his mouth every so often and not constantly talk all the time. I must admit that the plot’s biggest weakness is its villain. He’s not too bad of a villain, but he could have been a lot better. I must be honest, I love the the design and stolen technology that he uses because it looks great. I will get further into that when I discuss the film’s presentation. Also, despite the mask, it’s fairly obvious who the villain is, they try to give you a red herring early on, but it really doesn’t work out and you can see the plot’s twists coming. The last aspect that didn’t fully work for me was the humour, which is very hit and miss, particularly with Fred’s lines but when the humour hits it’s good. It doesn’t sound like I really enjoyed this film’s plot, but I must be honest, I actually really did. By the end of the film I was really satisfied with having gone through the story, I just think it could have used a couple of extra touches to make it perfect. The film’s ending hints at a sequel, and if there is going to be one I definitely think I would come back to see it again. I think what sums up the plot’s biggest strength is it doesn’t treat it’s audience like idiots. It may, from what I’ve heard, simplify the Marvel comic it is based on a bit, but it does feel like a movie that’s made for both a mature audience and for kids and I think it will please on both levels. I loved Hiro and Baymax, and let’s face it, I think there are going to be a lot of people who agree with me, they are characters that I really grew to enjoy by the end of the film.

Now let’s move on the actors. Now there are no real celebrity voices in this film, it’s mainly well known voice actors but I think that aides the film because it allows us to actually see these people as characters, rather than celebrities in a recording booth like some films have done in the past. The strongest performances in the film for me were, Ryan Porter as Hiro and Scott Adsit as Baymax, particularly Scott who does an excellent job of playing the role in a very inhuman voice to sell the artificial intelligence personality, and how they managed to get that out of him is a credit to the voice directors. Ryan Potter also makes an excellent HIro, he really sells the likeability and believability of his character and what he is going through and the voice matches the character almost perfectly. Daniel Henney is really good as Tadashi although he isn’t really in the film long enough to let his performance stand out, but I really thought he was very good in the role and that he and Ryan have excellent chemistry. TJ Miller is ok as Fred, but I think he plays too much of the stoner nerd stereotype a bit too far and it does come across as a bit annoying at times. Damon Wayans Jr is pretty decent as Wasabi. The rest of the group were pretty good as well. Jamie Chung as Go Go and Genesis Rodriguez as Honey Lemon were both relatively enjoyable. The only performances that were a bit off at times for me were James Cromwell as Robert Callaghan and Alan Tudyk as Alistair Krei. I don’t know, I don’t think they sold their performances as well, and it’s a shame because Alan Tudyk was really good in Wreck-it Ralph, so we know he can do brilliant voice acting, maybe he should have been given a slightly bigger role and he could have shown him off. Other than that the cast was great and I really enjoyed them.

Let’s get on to the Presentation. Now I will warn you, if you want to see this film in 3D like I did, Odeon Cinemas are only at the time of me writing this review, showing it in 3D at weekends and they only give 2 screenings a day, so it is a lot more difficult that I realised to see this film in 3D. I went one further and went to see the film in IMAX 3D and I will say this is one of the films which I think really benefits from 3D conversion. I’ve always believed that animation is better for 3D than live action as you can really set the shots to work with it, particularly 3D animation and this is the prime example of it. The shots really pop out and feel lively and vibrant. It’s a credit to the animator’s and director’s that they manage to get the 3D to work so well. Although the shots look like they were really made to work with the 3D, however, I don’t believe those shots will be detracted in any way if you insist on seeing a 2D screening or if your cinema isn’t showing a 3D at the time you want to go, as I said, it was every difficult for me to find a way to see this film in 3D, which I think is a shame as I think it’s probably the best way to see this film. The animation in this film is excellent. The art style is brilliant, it’s probably the best example I can think of a western studio doing an anime. Which isn’t surprising, considering a lot of the art direction and animation of the film was designed by Ben 10 creator Man of Action. You can definitely see a lot of the art style has been bought over from Ben 10, but I think this one goes a lot further with the anime-esque element. The animation also flows beautifully, I love these locations. I practically wanted to live in the fictional city of San Fransokyo because it is one of the best designs of a location I have ever seen blendeding Japanese and American culture almost perfectly. The fantasy realm at the end of the film was excellent and I loved it and I am not giving away too much of a spoiler by mentioning that. Baymax’s design is also brilliant and I really enjoyed the way the characters look, especially in their superhero outfits. These were really cleverly designed. That being said, the design and 3D aren’t going to be worth it unless the action is great and believe me the action is one of the best portions of the film! It’s well choreographed, well shot and it plays to the strength of the animation. It really feels like a mega blockbuster superhero film that Marvel would normally produce. Nothing has been dumbed down for the Disney market and they really take advantage of the abilities of the characters, especially Baymax to make the scenes work and I really loved the micro bot technology that the villain uses to create Constructs it feels very similar to Fullmetal Alchemist in a lot of ways. Honestly I think the films visuals and action are actually one of the biggest strengths of the film. It is a beautiful film to look at. Thank goodness its also got the plot to back it up because otherwise it would have all meant nothing.

Now I wanted to make sure I had a second opinion on this film from another adult, so since my friend Simon was visiting me at the time (you may remember his comments in the Taken 3 review) I decided to take him along to it, especially considering this is a film that he wouldn’t normally go and see, this would really test if the film was any good. Now normally we really disagree on a lot of films, however, this time we came out with a similar reaction. We both really liked the film, but we did feel that the villain was the biggest weakness to the film and if he had been tweaked a bit more it would probably have been a film that we both would have absolutely adored. Simon’s thoughts were, that the 3D wasn’t necessary worth it, he would have been very happy with a 2D screening. So you can definitely take something from the fact that despite the fact that I believe you should see this film in 3D format, others may not enjoy the 3D as much. Also when we discussed the BAFTA’S and Oscars we both agreed that we would like to see it win best-animated film at the BAFTA’S because we both preferred it to The Lego Movie though when it came to the Oscars we both had slightly different opions. Simon said he would prefer How To Train Your Dragon 2 should take it because he enjoyed that movie more, I preferred Big Hero 6 to How To Train Your Dragon 2 but I think I would prefer the Oscar to go to Tales Of Princess Kaguya or Song Of The Sea neither of which I’ve seen because they come out here in March and July respectively (and may receive reviews upon release) but judging on the trailers and talent behind them I think those 2 are going be some of my favourite movies this year

Do I have any other negatives to say on this film. Yes, I don’t believe the film is blown up as well in the IMAX screen as it could have been and I’m not sure whether the IMAX screen was an initial thought of the film makers. Not everyone who reads this blog, lives in an area where seeing it in IMAX is a possibility, so you can take or leave that negative.

To summarise, Big Hero 6 is probably one of the better animated films aimed at a younger audience that I have seen in a long time. It really was a joy to watch and once again it’s a film that where it may have a few hiccups, they don’t bother my enjoyment of the overall film. Its been nominated for best animated picture at both the BAFTA’s and the Oscars and as I said while I would definitely like to see it get a BAFTA as I preferred it to the Box Trolls and The Lego Movie which it is up against (I am writing this at a time before I have actually seen the BAFTA’s). I’m not sure I would like it to win an Oscar simply on the basis that it is up against some excellent films in that category including How To Train Your Dragon 2 and the upcoming Song of the Sea and Tales of Princess Kaguya, once again both of which may receive reviews on this page. That being said, I would not object to this doing well at the awards. It was a really well told story with excellent animation and action and it had characters I would definitely like to see again in future films. If you have kids or you love animation this is definitely a film to see because judging from the trailers that I saw in the theatre this is the best we are going to get for a while. In short, I really liked it. Thank you to the people at Autism Inclusive who requested that I review a Disney film because I’m not sure I would have seen it otherwise.

So what were your thoughts on Big Hero 6. Was it a great translation of a Marvel comic without actually translating a Marvel comic like I thought, or were there more negatives than positives in this film. Please leave a comment if you have an opinion on this film. We accept all comments and opinions and you don’t need an account or be from a particular area. Once again if you would like to leave your own review on our site, please send a word document in a email to calvin@axia-asd.co.uk all in lower case leaving your name in the email, though if you wish, we can let you remain anonymous on the actual site. For more details check my big eyes review

Now lets move on to this week’s question:
Since I have reviewed my first directly produced Disney Animated Film. I would like to know what your favourite Disney Animated films are?

Next Friday it is going to be 2 days away from the Oscars and I am going to review the last film to be nominated for best picture to be released in this country. On 20 February I will be releasing my review of “Selma”

Calvin – Nerd Consultant

“KINGSMAN: THE SECRET SERVICE”

I never made a top ten anticipated movie 2015 list, but if I did I can tell you that Kingsman The Secret Service would have definitely made it. For a start it’s based on a comic by Mark Miller the creator of Kick Ass. (In fact it’s revealed in the Kick Ass 3 graphic novel that this comic takes place in the same universe as Kick Ass). What’s more, the writing team of Jane Goldwin and Matthew Vaughn were back together, they have written the films like, X Men First Class. X Men Days of Future Past and the first Kick Ass film and they were back on board to write this film and Matthew Vaughn was back in directing duty as well, so essentially this was a return of the team behind Kick Ass, which is one of my favourite super hero movies and probably in my top 25 favourite movies list. It to me seemed like a winning formula, however, I did feel when I heard of the casting of the film when compared with the characters I had read in the comic that there was every possibility that this film could have become a mis-cast mess. But I also felt that if any one could work it, it would be Matthew Vaughan, after all he has managed to resurrect the X Men franchise. So I was pretty damn hyped to see this movie.

Now, for discussing the plot, I am going to draw parallels with the comic, because I did read that prior to going to see the film. To give my honest thoughts on the comic, I did enjoy it, but I felt, like a lot of Mark Millar’s work, it kind of lacked focus and the climax was a bit too rushed. The original comic was six issues long and I definitely felt it could have used two more issues to flesh out the story and give more focus towards the characters. Also Mark Millar has a real propensity for graphic violence, which obviously doesn’t translate that well to cinema screens, and as a result a lot of the scenes from Kick Ass were tamed slightly before going to the screen (Yes, the movies were the TAME version of those scenes). That being said, this plot definitely delivers the improvements I wanted to the comic and that is probably down to the fact that this is nearly a 2 hour long film. As a result the film had the extra time that the comic didn’t have to give it the focus that I wanted and it also helps that a couple of scenes from the comic that were pretty useless to the overall plot have been completely cut and it’s for the better.

The plot mainly centres around a young man from Peckham named Eggsy being recruited to an extra secretive service, working outside of MI5 that is not governed by politics, by a man named Harry Hart, played in this film by Colin Firth, believing that the service has become too snobbish and must be more inclusive and the film mainly covers the time that Eggsy is being trained to be a James Bond style spy whilst also investigating an internet millionaire named Valentine, played by Samuel L Jackson. That was the basic plot of the comic, but the film expands on this a lot better than the comic did and it makes for a much more satisfying experience. It draws a lot more into the idea of the class divide existing in England today than the original comic did, and it also gives a much more believable relationship between Harry and Eggsy, which was slightly missing from the comic, despite the fact that in the comic they were meant to be Uncle and Nephew. In this version Harry originally tried to recruit Eggsy’s father who was subsequently killed on a mission, saving Harry’s life and now he feels he owes it to him to give his son the oppotunity. This was one of the changes that I thought was going to backfire on the story, but it actually ends up working out very well so I am fairly happy with this change. I would say that about a lot of the changes from the comic, they really do improve on a lot of the aspects of the story. This film also gives us a great chance to get to know the characters a lot better as we are allowed a lot more of the time to be devoted to them. They are very likeable characters, especially Eggsy in this version who I think was definitely improved from the previous format of the comic. He is a lot more likeable protagonist. Also because of this films focus it also allows for the climax of the film to be a lot better, and it’s a lot flashier and has a lot more finality to it. Though there were other aspects that could have aided the climax, but I won’t go into spoilers!

The film definitely tackles James Bond style movies with a bit of tongue in cheek humour and it’s fairly evident from scenes towards the end of the movie as well as a few other scenes towards the beginning, but what is great about the humour regarding the James Bond formula and tropes is that the film definitely plays it with a bit of love rather than a bit of contempt towards the genre, again in a similar way to how Kick Ass had a bit of humour around the super hero genre, without displaying hatred towards it. I will say the humour really works in this film. There were some really good moments that made me laugh and I was still able to take the film seriously afterwards. The only downside to the changes that were made from the comic to the film is, I wasn’t quite sure why Valentine is a lot older in this version. I really think it was designed purely to get a more recognisable actor in the villain roles, but I still think there are a lot of young british actors, like many former Skins cast members and former cast members of Misfits as well as young American actors that could easily have fit the role of Valentine to be the young internet playboy like the original did. As a result it kind of makes Samuel L Jackson feel a bit miscast, but I will get more into that later. With that being said, if that’s the worst thing that can be said about a plot, then you definitely know you are on to a winner. This plot was really enjoyably well written and it is what Film Brain would call great popcorn fodder. It actually manages to do what not a lot of adaptations actually do, iron out the kinks from the original source material and improve upon it. The characters are very likeable and the plot is very engaging, even if, like me you have read the comic and seen most of them coming. There were a few minor hiccups here and there, but they weren’t enough to disdain my enjoyment of the film. It feels like a brilliant moulding of a James Bond movie with Kick Ass’s sensibility and a lot of characters from Attack the Block and is credit to Mathew Vaun’s directing.

The Acting. as I said, one of my biggest worries with this was its casting as I didn’t envisage these cast members in these particular roles from reading the comic, particularly I would say Colin Firth in the role of Harry Hart. I’ve never seen him do an action film before, but then again, Liam Neesom did manage to re-invent himself from doing a lot serious drama’s to a lot of action films by doing Taken. But Colin Firth is excellent in this role. He really brings his usual charm and likeability to it and he can adapt to the action very well. Some of the best scenes in the film revolve around him and he takes to action sequences really well and I wouldn’t mind seeing him in more roles like this in the future. Taron Egerton is excellent as Eggsy. he is a really great up and coming actor who I really think I’ll be following in the future after his brilliant performance and him and Colin Firth have excellent chemistry on screen. The cast seems to get better as the film goes on, even actors who you start out thinking, won’t do as good a job as you would like them to, will eventually come into their own. Mark Strong is excellent as usual, playing the role of the Drill Sergeant Merlin and Michael Caine does a brilliant role as the snobby head of Kingsman. Sophie Cookson is also brilliant in this role and I would definitely like to see her in more work after this. I also really enjoyed Sophia Bouttella in the role of Gizelle, she makes an excellent second in command style villain in the similar vein of Oddjob from Goldfinger. Even minor cast members, like Samantha Womack, known for her role in Eastenders, does well in this film. As I mentioned before, Samuel L Jackson does feel slightly mis-cast, but he does bring his usual charm and likeability to the role, he does have to do a constant lisp throughout half the film that just feels really weird, I have nothing against a character having a lisp but considering that Samuel L Jackson does have a pretty distinctive speaking style that is very recogniseable it seems a rather bizarre choice . Though I would say that I think Samuel L Jackson is much better at playing good guys than bad guys. I don’t know, he’s kind of a reverse Leonardo Di Caprio. There were no real bad performances throughout this one. It’s another excellent ensemble cast from the British Film Industry.

Presentation. Once again I went to see this film in IMAX because it was available in that format, to see if it was worth it. The short answer is, it’s not really necessary, but for certain scenes, it does have a slight improvement on it. I would recommend it, if you have a bit extra, to go and see it in IMAX for some of those scene, but if you don’t live in area that has an IMAX theatre or you don’t want to spend to spend the extra money, it’s not necessary to enjoy the film. These have got to be some of the best action sequences I have seen in a long time and the special effects to back them up are excellent and really immerse you in the experience and give you a rush. The fight scenes are excellently choreographed and shot allowing us to feel every movement on screen, particularly the scenes like the bar fight at the beginning, a stand off in the church and other scenes in the climax which I won’t go into too much detail around as I don’t want the spoil the end of the plot, but let’s just say, there is one fight scene at the end of the film that really sums up what I love about these sort of action films. The skydiving sequence is also brilliant and I was wondering how long it must have taken them to film it for it to turn out the way it did. The car chases are also well shot, although there is only really one of them in the entire film towards the beginning and it’s over a bit too quickly. What’s great about these scenes though is they really avoid shaky cam, which is something that I am really annoyed about in most action films. I’m looking at you Michael Bay!! What’s more, the slow down actually works in most of the scenes because it highlights the necessary movement that is meant to be highlighted to show off the sequence. It’s not just there because they are worried about the audience stopping paying attention, as used in Ninja Turtles! After watching Taken 3 it was great to see a film that can actually get its action sequences right, and that it’s definitely a breath of fresh air compared to a lot of action movies I have seen in recent memory.

There aren’t that many negatives I can bring up about this film. The only major gripe I had was the fact that the whole plot of Kidnapped Celebrities is brought up a lot, but we never actually see that many celebrities and I would have thought that this would have been a great time for cameo’s, but I get a sense that they couldn’t get a lot of these people to cameo in the film. They at least got Mark Hamill to play a role in the film, which was a nice reference to the comic, but the comic had a David Beckham cameo that I was hoping to see either him or their version of the cameo and that moment never came and I must admit it was slightly disappointing to not have the cameos of the Kidnapped Celebrities. That being said, this film is brilliant. I would highly recommend it to people. It’s an excellent popcorn blockbuster film that you don’t have to wait till the summer for, however it does have some interesting things to say on class structure without taking away from the escapeism. While this film is humouring and in some cases parodying spy films I think it’s going to give the up-coming James Bond and Mission Impossible films a run for their money. I was really looking forward to it and it did not disappoint. I would highly recommend this film for its great plot and characters. It’s just a good simple action film , it’s great fun and I loved it.

So what were your thoughts on Kingsman? I would really like to know your thoughts when you get round to seeing it. Leave a comment. We accept anything that anyone puts down and will not discriminate on peoples opinion base. You do not need an account or be from a specific area to do so. They can be as brief or as long as you want. It’s good to get a conversation going and if you want to write your own reviews for our site of any film you like past or present send you’re name and a word document to calvin@axia-asd.co.uk (all in lower case) if you wish to remain anonymous on the site we will honour you’re wishes, however we will require your name in the actual email – for more detail check the end of my Big Eyes review, I explain everything.

I am now starting a new idea for my reiew by asking a question in each future review to potentially get some people who haven’t seen the film a chance to put something in comments section

This weeks question is simple:

Which spy film are you more looking forward to. The up-coming Bond Film “Spectre” or “Mission Impossible 5”???

Now my next film. You know what. I don’t want to move away from comics! Next Friday at the request of the lovely people at Autism Inclusive I am going to be reviewing Disney’s first animated film of 2015. The Bafta and Oscar nominated “Big Hero 6”. Yes, I know this film has been out for a week, but if I review it now, then I don’t have to review “Fifty Shades of Grey”!!!

Calvin – Nerd Consultant

“GIOVANNI’S ISLAND”

Yes, I know it’s very close to my last anime review but there’s not that many times this year that I will get to review an anime film so I am taking this one, since it’s available. Giovanni’s Island has been catching people’s attention for most of 2014 since its premiere in Japan in Feb 2014. Although it did take a while for people to take notice of it but there was a real buzz when you saw how people were talking about it at after it’s debut at several film festivals. It played at the New York International Children’s Film Festival, The Fantasia Film Festival, The London Film Festival, The Cairo International Film Festival and The Leeds International Film Festival where it was placed alongside films like Dragon Ball Z, Battle of the Gods and the anime classics like Ghost in the Shell. So it was clear from being placed amongst films like that, that this film definitely had to have something to it. I was kind of excited to see it around Christmas, however I was then informed through Amazon that the film had been delayed back to a January release, but when life gives you lemons, make lemonade, so with that later release, why not give it a full review.

Now Giovanni’s Island joins several anime, based around the second world war from the Japanese perspective, however this one sets itself apart by taking place after the events of the second world war. The film mainly consists of the events after 15th August 1945, being the date of Japan’s surrender. The story centres around Junpei and Kanta, two small children living on a small island and the effects that the aftermath of the second world war has had on their island, especially in the face of a Russian occupation. The main plot is around their lives and tragedies that follow. The film largely plays a similar role to how Studio Ghibli play their films in the whole ‘it’s just life itself’ that’s the plot (made famous to general western audience last year through Boyhood), at least for the first half of the movie. The second half gains a much more defined plot and both work pretty well to their advantage and I did appreciate the tonal shift that this had. With that being said there are tons of great moments in both its first and second half that just stood out brilliantly. This is a well told story, it’s supposedly based on true events but my research on how close to life it was and if this was based on the actual people or just a general setting has turned up fruitless, there isn’t a lot of information about this film from my main sources.

Now the obvious film to compare this to is another Studio Ghibli film Grave of the Fireflies considering they are both centred around the effects of the second world war on Japan through the perspective of siblings that are very close but ultimately are affected through various tragedies. The only major difference being that Grave of the Fireflies takes place in the closing days of the Second World War and Giovanni’s Island takes place in the aftermath of the Second World War and that the siblings have a much larger age gap in firflies. In my honest opinion (and get ready to fire hate towards me in the comments) I don’t like Grave of the Fireflies. I know a lot of people say this is one of the saddest movies they have ever seen, but I genuinely don’t like it. I can’t go into too much detail on why I don’t like it. If you want more of a reason why I don’t like it go and see Bennett the Sage’s episode of anime Abandon on the subject. He shares my view and sums it up better than I could!! The point is Seita and Setsuko from Grave of the Flies aren’t really characters, they are more cut outs, Junpei and Kanta are much more defined characters, as a result, when their lives are turned upside down for various reasons, we feel much more sympathy towards them, which is what Grave of the Fireflies was lacking, but then again Grave of the Fireflies was trying to deliver a very political message towards the youth of Japan in the 80’s, a climate which affected that plot of the film though the filmmakers never overtly admitted that was their intention. This film doesn’t have to reach that same audience, so as a result it doesn’t have to send a message and it allows the characters to be characters.

The plot itself is also paced a lot better. This film has a decent running time, but much like my previously reviewed Patema Inverted, it feels a little bit longer than it actually is. While it technically runs in at 102 minutes, it feels like a 120 minutes movie and I can’t exactly explain how it feels longer than it really is. But it’s longer in a good sense, you definitely don’t want to leave this movie too soon, and that is probably down to it’s brilliant pacing. I think this film’s first half is slightly better than it’s second, but they come together to make an excellent whole. Its amazing characters also aid the film. They are all just terrific and react how you would expect people to react in these situations. Junpei and Kanta are just general average kids, and they come across as really likeable. The same goes for many of the other cast, including the various leaders on both the Japanese and Russian side of things. Probably one of my favourite characters in the whole film was the boys friend and daughter of the Russian chief Tanya, she is very supportive of the boys, but she also gives across a vibe that even though these people are your enemies not everyone in that group is necessarily bad. Tanya was also a very sympathetic character as you almost believe through her and her friends from the Russian side that after they make friends with the Japanese children that they are also being negatively affected by this conflict. They don’t want to be enemies with the kids, they just want to be friends. That was an excellent message sent across. Also the chemistry between Tanya and Junpei is excellent and very well written. The film also makes some stylistic choices that aid the plot brilliantly as well. For example all the Russians actually speak ‘Russian’ and I think this aids the film’s plot brilliantly as this allows us to believe that these are two different groups of people. It would have been a lot worse if the Russian characters had spoken english all the time as it wouldn’t have created that divide. With all that being said, I can’t stress enough how much this plot is unbelievably good and incredibly moving! It’s very tragic in parts and should not be approached by people if you don’t want to see an emotionally charged film, but if you can handle that, it is definitely worth it like The Wind Rises it gives us an interesting perspective of 2nd world war from the perspective of people who were our enemies.

Now acting wise it’s very difficult to comment as I’ve been barely able to find an english speaking cast information anywhere online. Even IMDB is having trouble getting these names across so I can’t highlight names and how well the acting was done to a specific person only to the actor who played each character. That being said, the acting in this film is fantastic the voice actors are all brilliant. I would like to say that I probably thought the best actors in the film were the voice actors who voiced Junpei and Kanta as well as the actress who voiced Tanya. They genuinely all have very believable chemistry and they all are individually great actors. You genuinely believe that these two boys are brothers and these two young people are in love. Some of the more lighter comic relief characters, although there is only really one, also can occasionally get a decent laugh and I would say that the actor who plays Junpei and Kanta’s father is very good although at times he does seem quite stilted in his lines, though that potentially could be down to having to match up with the lip syncing of the character. Some lines don’t translate very well from Japanese to english. It’s very difficult to find too much fault with this cast. I haven’t seen the full movie in Japanese, but I have seen clips and if you’re the sort of anime fan who insists on watching it in Japanese with English subtitles you should get decent performances all round as well, however, I can’t fully comment as I haven’t seen the film in it’s original Japanese. I would also like to praise all the Russian actors who supply their voices to these films particularly Tanya’s actress. I’m not sure whether the Russian cast was re-cast again in the film’s english dub especially considering there was a Russian cast for the Japanese version, but either way they are really good. As I said information of this film is pretty lackluster and I only managed to find much information on the Japanese cast. Overall everyone delivers a brilliant performance, I just wish I could actually put some names to those performances. Please if you get more information on the Engish cast, let me know in the comments section. It would definitely be a great help to me.

This is now the point where I have to talk about the animation of this film. I’ve brought the ultimate edition which I would recommend if you have £40.00 to spare because it contains both the Blu-Ray and the DVD version of the film as well as a scrap book that contains information about the making of the film and the design choices though be warned it’s in limited supply. I watched the Blu-Ray version for this review which is also the version I would recommend if you have the ability (though I suspect seeing on DVD will be just fine) because this film’s animation is once again stunning! I really, really love the animation style in this film It’s not like a lot of anime that I have seen in the past, if anything it feels like a painting that has come to life at times aided by the films excellent cinematography and imagery, and where other animation that has resembled paintings has often looked almost jagged and un-human to suit the style, with this one, everyone feels like they walk and have movement like genuine human beings, which I think benefits the film in a large sense. The animation has to shift to several locations as well and they are all done brilliantly. The scenes in the Island look great. The scenes in Korea are really good and make the place feel very cold in winter. The scenes set in the boy’s imagination, which is based on their favourite book, are absolutely the best portions of the film. The animation staff go to town with this and it looks amazing. You really feel like you are in space in these scenes and the running theme of trains and locomotives is done brilliantly throughout the film. Again another one of the stylistic choices that helps the film. I was a bit worried about the designs when I initially saw this film, I thought they looked a bit too abstract and not human enough to allow us to bond with the characters, but you definitely get used to it very quickly and it makes them look more defined than most other anime characters. This doesn’t look like any other anime that has been made. I’m certain people could point me to an example, but I can’t think of one off the top of my head. While it doesn’t have any sort of ground breaking imagery like Patema Inverted did, it doesn’t have to do that and is just great by doing its own thing and having its own stylistic choice. It’s for that reason I would really recommend watching the Blu-Ray version of this, once again, at night, lights off, with the curtains drawn. This is genuinely a film that would have been great to see in cinemas, but as I mentioned it was only every playing at film festivals, so that is pretty much impossible without knowing in advance.

Does this film have a negative. Well if I had to nit pick, I thought the character of the boys uncle Hideo felt a bit out of place. I don’t know, I know anime typically has a comic relief character even in these sort of films, but he really doesn’t at times feel like he is in tone with the rest of the film. He definitely improves in the second half and I was definitely more happy that he was a character in the second half, but as I said that is really nit picking. I could make a ton of examples that the Russians can come across as rather un-sympathetic in the second half compared to the first half, but I think that would have potentially affected the film overall if they had gone with one style over the entirety of the film. Plus doing that makes us feel a lot closer to the boys plight.

To summarise, I cannot recommend Giovanni’s Island enough. Yes, it’s a very difficult film at times to sit through but it’s very heart warming at times and it’s also very brilliant in its style and its substance. This is a story you won’t forget for a long time for both the good and the bad of these characters stories. I’d recommend this to people who don’t necessarily watch anime as I think potentially this could convert them to what this sub- genre of films is doing and how there are so many great films to come out of Japan and why this isn’t up for a BAFTA and Oscar I will never know!

In short. I loved it! I would highly recommend it, I don’t think it’s a film you will forget for a long time. It’s both brilliant and tragic!

Track it down on DVD, it wasn’t available at my local HMV but it is still available on Amazon and as I said if you can, get the Blu-Ray version, it’s only £2.00 more expensive!

Well now I would like to know what you think about this film and what you think about my disdain for Grave of the Fireflies, which i suspect I am going to be getting a lot of. Please leave a comment if you have an opinion. We accept all opinions and remember you do not need an account or be from a specific area. It’s just as simple as typing it down.

Now that I have reviewed this anime I think I will now go on to my other specialty for the next film. Join me on 6 Feb where I will be reviewing the first comic film of the year “Kingsman: the Secret Service’

If you would like to leave your own reviews on the site send a word document with your name and the film you are reviewing and email me in all lower case at calvin@axia-asd.co.uk. If you want to know more about this go to my Big Eyes review where I give more details.

We would love to see user reviews going up on the site.

Calvin – Nerd Consultant

“TAKEN 3”

You know I really think 2015 is going to be one helluva year for films, especially when we are going to look back on it at the end of year. But I’m not sure January is what we are going to remember. I wanted to start off the year in style so I actually have been to see 4 films including this one. Three in the cinema and one which has had its initial DVD release. I’ve seen Birdman, The Woman in Black 2: Angel of Death and Time of Eve the Movie. If you are hoping for all 4 reviews then I’m afraid I am going to have to disappoint you, because I decided I can only review 1 film at the beginning of the year and Taken 3 had the most to prove out of any of these films, but I will give my brief thoughts on them.

Birdman despite being predicted to win an Oscar and has been nominated for best picture at the BAFTA’S, I only felt was OK, I liked it but I failed to love it and I think it’s down to the fact that whilst acted brilliantly it’s style overcomes it and as a result you feel like you’re watching more of an exercise in Movie making rather than an actual story with characters.

The Woman in Black 2 adds to the list of ‘awful’ horror movies which come out in the opening weekend of January. Granted it’s not as bad as previous years like The Devil Inside and Texas Chainsaw 3D, but all the creepy atmosphere of the first film was building to is largely gone in favour of a ton of ‘jump scares’ and often they would spoil the mood of the scene. I would give that one an avoid.

Finally, Time of Eve the Movie, directed by Yasuhiro Yoshiura ,the same man who directed Patema Inverted, got a release a week later than expected, so it’s now a 2015 movie. This film was actually surprisingly good in a lot ways that I wasn’t expecting, yes it never quite reaches the ground breaking Sci Fi plot that Patema Inverted was giving us, but it still takes a relatively overdone plot around artificial intelligence and actually adds some new ideas to it and the ending indicates that there will be more films in this series. The only negative I have for it is the fact that it’s clearly a condensing of a series, but at least this one actually works as a Movie. My advice though if you are going to pick one up, go for the ultimate edition Blu Ray copy because the films also contains the directors two extra short films which have not been released in the UK. Though be warned there is no English dub for one of the shorts and if you are planning to see this film you need to select the English dub in the opening menu, it’s not automatic. With that being said, enough dawdling, lets move on to the main feature.

I picked Taken 3 for various reasons. For starters I haven’t actually reviewed a sequel since my first review, which was Sin City 2. This film also interests me a bit more than most of the films coming out around this time, because this is a film that could easily go either way, due to the fact that a lot of critics were suggesting the Taken franchise had run out of steam on its previous movie. Now in preparation for this review, I did watch both Taken and Taken 2 in the days leading up to seeing the film, and my thought haven’t really changed on either film. I thought Taken was a surprisingly decent action film that felt like it blended the sort of Schwarzenegger style movies from the eighties were more grittier real world tone. The second film unfortunately is a serious down grade that trades that gritty real world tone for idiotic villains and a plot that doesn’t really make that much sense. My hope was though, that, Taken 3 was going to bring the franchise back to its roots, the trailer seems to indicate so. However I also was going in with some some real potential pessimism, I always thought this film should have been a stand alone and never should have become a franchise, but there is every chance this series can end on a high.

Taken 3’s plot takes place, I’m guessing, a year after Taken 2, we are never given an exact time frame. I will give the film’s plot credit that it doesn’t exactly do a re-tread of the first Taken movie, like the second film did, centering around Liam Neeson’s character Bryan Mills being on the run from the law after supposedly murdering his ex-wife, once again briefly played by Famke Janssen. The difference this time round is mainly the fact that with Bryan being the hunted means we also are given some of the story perspective from the main detective in charge played by Forrest Whittaker. I will say, his parts are the best portion of the film, as you do believe, unlike most of the characters in this franchise, Forrest Whittaker’s detective Dotzler is potentially a match for Bryan Mills. He is a very methodical man who will get to the bottom of a case and he is not easily fooled by tactics that fooled the villains in previous Taken films. However this plot, I actually think, on a lot of levels, is slightly worse than Taken 2. While a large amount of the plot is different, a lot of the differences aren’t for the better. The leaps in logic they expect you to take in this film are astounding. I obviously won’t ruin them for you, but you will see the twists coming and you will be wondering by the end of the film how Bryan Mills hasn’t been arrested several times over. Also, for the end of a film franchise, and this is supposed to be the last Movie, there is no real sense of finality to this film, it doesn’t feel like this is the end of the story by the end of the film. If anything you could easily see them going further with a Taken 4 (not that I actually want there to be a Taken 4).

It’s also amazing how much this film feels like a rip off of The Fugitive even down to the casting of Forrest Whittaker and it can be really distracting

 A lot of the problems of this film come from the start of the film. A lot of the characters feel like they have gone back a step since the end of the second movie particularly Bryan and Lenore. All that reconciliation which happened in Taken 2 is brushed aside, they are not much closer in the beginning of this film than they were at the beginning of the second film. Also, Stuart St John, Lenore’s current husband has been re-cast for this film. Xander Berkely is still not willing to appear in this franchise but the writers clearly wanted to do something with his character so Dougray Scott has been bought in to replace him. I will get into their performances later, but lets just say with this character the writers do go down a few routes that were hinted at during the first film but I think the expansions of the character in this film go a little too far.

This film, once again was written by Luc Besson who last year flopped with one of my least favourite films of the year being Lucy. By now if you have read my top ten worst films of 2014 and my review of Lucy, you all know my opinion of that Movie. I think this film whilst it could have bough back his career, it has failed to do so. I think the guy should really take a break from writing. I think he is a talented writer and could have a good script in him, but he is not bringing it to full effect and it is very evident in the way this plot just expects you to go along with some of the logic that allows this film to be both an action film and yet feel like it is based in the real world and unfortunately it doesn’t quite work in this case.

Overall the plot is ok when you are watching it, but when you stop and think about it, it doesn’t make a whole lot of sense (it’s what I like to call Dark Knight Rises Syndrome). The stuff with Forrest Whittaker is good, but it’s not enough to save this film and in fact its actually undone by the late middle of the film, he disappears for a long time, also while the villains may be an up-grade from the second film, they are still not much better although I will say, on a lot of levels, I enjoyed Sam Spruell’s ‘Oleg’. Now let’s move on to the acting!

I will give credit to the actors in this film, as they all give decent performances, with not the best material and you even get a sense from watching them that they know that this not the best material. Liam Neeson obviously is still great as Bryan Mills and I do think this is going to be one of the definitive characters we think of with this actor, whether that is for the better or the worse. Famke Jannsen once again is pretty good as Lenore, but she is not in it that long so you can’t take that much from her performance. Maggie Grace still does alright as Kim, although I do think her role has been expanded a bit too much. Sam Spruell plays the villain Malankov, but his performance seems a bit over the top at times, especially considering he is supposed to be a very realistic Russian gangster. As I mentioned before Forrest Whittaker is the best actor in the film and steals half of the limelight off Liam Neeson and I would like to see him and Liam team up again in another film as they do interact with each other very well. The biggest point in the acting to talk about though is the re-casting of Dougray Scott as Lenore’s current husband Stuart, and he is probably the weakest actor in the film, he is not that convincing on a lot of levels and you will guess the plot twists coming up ahead based on his performance, and yes there are a few plot twists in this film, but they are not that good and you will probably will see them coming. I certainly know that I did! Other roles have been expanded such as Liam Neeson’s friends from the first film and whilst the actors again do a pretty good job, they are not given enough time to do much, so as a result I am not going to go into too much details about their performances, only to say, they are pretty decent. Overall a decently acted movie but I wouldn’t say any of these performances were great, pur se and you really get a sense that the actors were delivering essentially a good performance, but were holding back on giving a great one!

The only major thing now to talk about is the film’s presentation. I went to see this film in IMAX to see if it was worth the full effect. I’m telling you right now, ‘it isn’t’!! I don’t know why Luc Besson insists on that his films are in IMAX when clearly they are not suited for that format, you really are not getting much out of the IMAX experience out of this film and you are better off going for a regular screening, the only thing which is really improved is probably the sound effects. That being said, this is an action film, so this film should do those sequences pretty well. This film does not!! The action is a lot worse than it was in Taken 2. Some of the fight sequences towards the end are decently shot but the beginning and middle are so terribly done. We are never on shot for more than two seconds before it sporadically cuts to another camera and the camera is too close and shakey that can’t tell what’s going on. It all just looks horrible, and like it’s trying to cover up the shortcomings of the lowered budget for this film. This is especially noted in the car chases, which were the worst part of the film, it has all the problem of the fight scenes but it’s exacerbated here even further. In fact there is even one shot where one of the cars is supposed to go off a cliff and explode but it is clear there is no one in the car based on the way it is shot when it goes off the cliff! That’s just not bad editing, it’s lazy editing! The one thing they had to get right and it’s done poorly here. At least Taken 2, for all it’s faults did have some decent action sequences (not many). This film does not! It really pains me to say that as I really enjoy the action sequences in the first film.

I am not going to go into a lot of other details like the soundtrack and the cinematography because they are both done terribly and in truth I don’t remember that much about them.

So, my major gripes with this film have been made clear, but I do have at least, some positives on this film. It’s decently acted and the story has some bright ideas when it’s not ripping off the fugitive, it just never fully executes them. I think this film could have been a lot worse than it was, but with the product that we have now, it’s not one that I would really recommend, except to huge Taken fans. The tag line of Taken 3 is “it ends here”, well thank god it ends here because it is very clear from Taken 2 and Taken 3, that this film should never have been a franchise. This whole thing kind of feels like a studio mandate, because the studio were insisting that this had to be a trilogy. I wouldn’t be surprised if I found that out. But as it stands Taken 3 is a pretty disappointing start to 2015 for me. It may have more of an identity than it predecessor, but it’s worse than its predecessor purely on the fact its action sequences are a lot worse and it’s plot has a lot more contrivances that it is very difficult to get past. I really wanted Taken 3 to bring the franchise back, but as it stands, it doesn’t work. This is once again a film I would recommend only renting when it comes out on DVD. If you must see it in cinemas, don’t bother with IMAX, it’s a waste of £4.00.

So what do you think? Was this film worth the price of admission and I got it wrong, or do you agree that this was a poor way to end a film franchise that never should have been one. If you would like to discuss this or any of the other films I have mentioned, please leave something in the comments section. We accept any opinions on the site and you do not need an account or to be from any particular area. We just need your opinions. If you want to send your own reviews just attach your name in a word document and send it in an email to calvin@axia-asd.co.uk and remember, make sure it is all in lower case or I won’t receive the email.

For more details on the criteria once again go to my Big Eyes Review.

We are going to be taking a short break before the next review. I know I promised more frequent reviews but I do have a few scheduled jobs for my work and will have to take a week off every so often. I will do one as soon as I get back. I promise that all future reviews will be coming out a lot more frequently.

Come back on 30th January where I will be reviewing Giovanni’s Island which is at long last getting its release to a general audience with it’s DVD and Blu Ray release on 12th January

And if you get a bit of time this week check out one of our user’s book reviews of “I’ll tell you why I can’t wear those clothes” in the news section of our site. The review is a very good read.

Calvin – Nerd Consultant

TOP TEN BEST FILMS 2014

I always find that my best list never really matches up with a lot of other critics best lists, but now I have a platform to publish mine I am just going to say, whatever, these are the ones that I enjoyed the most. Once again these are in no way the opinions of Axia ASD Ltd as a company or the opinions of what I believe are the opinions of all the people who follow this blog actually think. These are just my personal best films. I didn’t see every film that came out this year, I have missed out on several films like Congress and Night Crawler.

If you want to check out my rules again, go back to my worst films list, I explain everything in full there, however with my ruling system it also means I had to let a lot of films go from this list that will never get another chance due to the way they have been released. Like for example Snow Piercer, which only got a screening in the UK at the Edinburgh Film Festival and was never released on Blue-Ray or DVD in the UK. You can get a european version on import from either Italy or Spain which will work on your DVD player, but it wasn’t technically released in the UK so I can’t count it.

With that being said, here’s another list of honourable mentions. These films were really good they could have easily made my list any other year.

Son of Batman, Edge of Tomorrow, X Men Days Future Past, Boyhood, Her, The Lego Movie, Dallas Buyers Club, Captain America The Winter Soldier and I was pained to leave off my list both Big Eyes and Dragon Ball Z Battle of the Gods, both of which were really entertaining experiences, especially Dagon Ball Z. You can bet that all future Dragon Ball movies are going to receive a view for this site (great, I just made myself another promise that is going to affect how my schedule works). That being said, here are the actual Top Ten Best Films I saw in 2014:

10: Angry Video Game Nerd: The Movie

I am kind of cheating with this one because it technically didn’t receive a cinema or DVD release in the UK during 2014, however if you are like me and are a british fan of the AVGN you could have easily have picked up this film which got it’s digital worldwide release on Vimeo.com and boy was this film worth the 3 year wait. James Rolfe has excelled himself with this film. It’s paced well, acted well and done very professionally for an independent film that was funded through kick starter and has some of the best comedy I have seen all year. This film goes into great territory with the angry video game nerd character, dealing with the responsibilities of being a celebrity as well as how a growing internet culture is affecting us for better or worse and whether telling the truth is always the best solution for the better good and whether a celebrity should stick to their guns, or give in for the fan base. It really is an entertaining film, however I would recommend that if you haven’t seen that much of the angry video game nerd then check out a quite few episodes of his online series first. Honestly this more than any other film on this list is really personal to me

9: Gone Girl

You know when you see a film and people say ‘this film will keep you guessing’ but it doesn’t quite turn out that way because you guess what the plot twist is really early, this film genuinely lives up to that. You will not know what is going on for half the movie, but it will be in a really good way. This film has tons and tons of twist and turns that I really can’t go into for fear or spoiling it and I am really glad I didn’t have to review it purely because it would have been one of the most difficult reviews I would have had done. Ben Affleck is on top form, making me confident that he can play a decent Batman in the up-coming DC Universe movies. David Fincher’s directing one again excels and Rosamund Pike must be up for Best Actress at the Oscars. She plays one phenomenal role that I can’t go into detail about because it would completely spoil this movie. It comes out on DVD later in 2015, pick it up. The only reason it isn’t higher on this list is, because there are a couple of stupid moments at the end that are genuinely perplexing, but other than that, it’s worth a watch.

8: Batman: Assault on Arkham

This year we didn’t get that many really good DC animated original movies with the mediocre Justice league war as well as Son of Batman and JLA trapped in time which were both really good but failed to be great, but Batman Assault on Arkham really can stand up with the best of them. It’s a sort of 18 rated version of the Batman Animated series that I have wanted to see for the longest time. Kevin Conroy once again excels himself as Batman and the rest of the supporting cast are on top form including Hynden Walch as an excellent Harley Quinn and Neal McDonough who is the best actor I’ve seen to play Deadshot. The plot is great, even though it doesn’t largely focus on Batman. The suicide squad is portrayed brilliantly in this movie and I am hoping this is a direction that Warner Brothers is planning to go with the up-coming Suicide Squad Movie. Troy Baker may not be Mark Hamill but he is a really good Joker and can really stand up with the best of them including Heath Ledger. It’s animated beautifully, the action sequences are amazing and I really just loved almost every second of it. This is a Batman film that will somehow make you root for the ‘bad guys’, but in a good way.

7: Guardians of the Galaxy

This was some of the most fun I had in the cinema all year, and while I wish I’d gone to see the 3D version it didn’t detract from how great it was to see this. If you want more detail check out my review of it, it’s one of my earlier ones but it’s still pretty good even though I got a few details from the comic wrong. Everyone delivers a pretty decent performance on all levels of significance in their roles. Some are giving some performances of their career especially in Bradley Coopers case. There is never a dull moment and as I said in my review it does what no other super hero or comic movie is really doing too much. It’s a simple fun movie without insulting the audiences intelligence, not having to go into too dark a territory for the most part. Marvel studios are really bringing me some of my favourite movies of the year almost consistently and with Guardians of the Galaxy 2 already confirmed for a 2017 release I am dead excited to see more from this team hopefully adding more characters from the comic. This one was great and considering I am much more of a DC fan than Marvel it is really killing me that Marvel outdid DC in 2014 and probably will for a few years to come.

6: Frank

I won’t be surprised if you haven’t seen Frank because much like Big Eyes it wasn’t very well advertised, it was just put out there, though it got some good critical reviews. That being said, this film is really good. The plot line is loosely based on the life of Frank Sidebottom, who was a truly interesting character created by the late Chris Sievey and you can really tell that the people who wrote this film were really great in creating a script that reflected his nature. There are so many good performances. This film depicted brilliantly what it’s like to see people surround themselves with coping strategies that work, only to have those coping strategies taken away from them by the outside world, in this case a group of people banding themselves around a project of producing an album for their band only to have be exposed to wider world for all the wrong reasons through the new keybord players blog. The performances and set pieces are all great. Michael Fassbender is my personal pick for best actor because he gets to deliver an amazing and emotive performance, whilst throughout the entire film wearing a styrofoam mask. We seriously never see any facial expressions from him but he delivers the performance of a man who is confident one minute and depressed the next. It is a great movie to watch whether you’re a Michael Fassbender or Maggie Gyllenhaal fan or not and the music in it is astoundingly good. If it wasn’t for Guardians of the Galaxy I would say this was the best soundtrack I’d heard all year. It’s available on DVD, go and get it in the New Year sales.

5: The Imitation Game

Yes it’s another film that I have previously reviewed, but if you read my review you would know that I was loving this movie when I watched it and I’m still loving it now. It’s not been released on DVD yet so I haven’t had time to re-watch it but I am really looking forward to that, because it was one hell of a performance from its entire cast. It deals with the life of an extraordinary human being who is only now just starting to get the respect that he deserves. It got a lot of the followers on the blog talking and I was really glad to see that because I think this film gives off some great emotion which I don’t think is there with a lot of the potential Oscar nominees that I have seen so far. I may have said that I preferred Michael Fassbender, but Benedict Cumberbatch is still a top choice of mine for Best Actor at the Oscars. He is astounding in this movie and I will be posting on the Axia facebook page when this film goes on DVD sale. If you haven’t seen this film yet, make it a late new years resolution to see it, it was really great.

4: Street Fighter: Assasins Fist

A kind of unusual choice, but this film was great to watch and it’s the sort of film I would never get to put on this list. It’s a fan film that was made for the internet that just happened to get the blessing of Capcom to be licensed to be sold as a DVD and Blu Ray by Manga entertainment and it is gloriously good. We finally have a great standard by which to judge live action video game adaptations, which considering the previous two street fighter movies is saying a lot. The acting is great. The action sequences are the best that I have see all year by a long distance. The story was incredibly heartfelt and emotional, choosing to focus on the characters and their relationships over the fight scenes. Not that both weren’t great and worked incredibly well together. This is also a film where I can safely say, if you’ve never played a street fighter video game or seen anything street figher related you can enjoy this movie. It takes you by the hand and engrosses you in its world. I can really highly recommend this film. I know a lot of people say it’s pretty much a cheesy martial arts movie, but I like martial arts movies and this one is one of the best I have seen all year and possibly one of my favorite martial art films. The equivalent of the Oscars for independent films needs to recognise this film and these actors, especially Akira Koieyama, who gave one of the best performances I saw all year, he plays a man who is wise, yet conflicted with regret, brilliantly and I wouldn’t have this film any other way.

3: Pride

Yes, no surprise that this made the list if you judge my review and the myriad of comments I have had from other people praising the movie, but it’s really well earned. This was an incredibly surprising, yet brilliant film that I saw in 2014. Its ensemble cast doing an amazing job conveying a story that seems unlikely and cliched yet is 100 per cent true and has been respected by its film makers. Richard Curtis wishes he could write a British Film this good. Its set pieces are great and if you don’t come out of this film loving it and feeling better about life then I will personally give you the money you spent on this back (disclaimer, no, I won’t actually do that). The film comes out on DVD in March so I would highly recommend picking it up. It’s a great hour and a half and you’ll never want to leave these characters after seeing it. Probably the best advert for Wales I have ever seen.

2: Patema Inverted

Yes, if you read my previous review list you won’t be surprised and I gushed long enough in that review about how much I like it so I will try and keep this to a minimum. This was genuinely the most outstanding movie on both a visual and technical level I have seen all year. Interstellar wishes it could have done this level of imaginative Sci-Fi. It gave us one of the strongest romantic couples I have seen in a long time and I loved this world, I never wanted to leave it. It has an amazing cast with a great director whose work I am looking forward to seeing more of in the future. The animation is stunning and I would love to see this film be re-released in IMAX in cinemas and it probably would have topped my list if it weren’t for the film that comes in at number one. I know I really recommended people to pick it up on Blue-Ray in my review but I can’t stress enough how much I enjoyed it. It’s an incredible experience. Please check it out for yourself.

1: The Wind Rises

My favourite director of all time Hayao Miyazaki has bowed out of the film making world this year by announcing his semi-retirement and that the Wind Rises will be his final movie, and you know what, he is going out with a bang. This film was just astounding and anyone who has talked to me knows I have gone on non stop about it since I saw it in the cinema in may. This was the toughest year to pick a number one film, it really came down to this and Patema Inverted and I was really going back and forth between them constantly, honestly this year was the hardest year to pick a number 1 film and I even considered having a joint first place at one point. What made this film go slightly above was the fact that with Patema Inverted when I looked at the criticism for it, I could in a lot of ways see the points of the people who were giving it negative feedback but not fully agree with. With The Wind Rises I can’t see that, for me it is a brilliant film that stands up there with Miyazaki’s other brilliant movies like Spirited Away, Howl’s Moving Castle, Ponyo and Kiki’s Delivery Service and I don’t understand any negatives thoughts that some, very few, people have towards it. Like many films on this list it tells the life of an extraordinary human being along with his lifes work and what it means for a man to see his dreams through , gives us a perspective of World War 2 from the other side, a very belivable romance and is delivered with some brilliant animation. A great ensemble cast including Joseph Gordon Levitt ,Emily Blunt, William H Macey, John Krasinski, Werner Herzog, Mae Whitman, Mand Patinkin, Stanley Tucci, Martin Short and Elijah Wood and it was just amazing to see Miyazaki’s brilliant animation one last brilliant time in a cinema. It was my best cinema going experience of the year and definitely the best film I saw all year hands down. It’s been released on DVD, please check it out. Why this film lost best animated pictures at the Oscars to Frozen I will never understand(and that doesn’t mean I hate Frozen I’m just dissillusioned by its success and think Wind Rises is a much better film).

While none of them topped my favourite film of last year Wolf Children which I also would highly recommend as it’s currently in my top 10 favourite films of all time, I think these are ten movies that are really worth a good look at and when I look back on 2014 these are the ten movies that I am going to remember the most for being the films that defined that year.

Now its time to look forward to 2015. If you disagree with any of the films on the list and want to do your own top ten then leave something in the comments section. You don’t have to be from a particular area or have an account to do so. We will accept any opinions. I freely admitted that these were all my picks. I would love to see what you pick.

On January 16 we are starting up again with my next review which is going to be Taken 3.

If you want to leave your own reviews please sent a word document with your name and your film review to calvin@axia-asd.co.uk. For further details on doing this, check out my Big Eyes review.

Thanks for joining me again, I hope I have convinced you to look into some films you may not have seen yet.

Calvin – Nerd Consultant