Skyfall Review

Skyfall has had a lot of trouble getting of the ground as a project, funding has been a real issue with this film however,  the film didn't seem to lack anything because of the limited budget. You can see Sony wanted to make a more character based film with more depth in the Bond franchise.

Credit to Stidjn Vogels for the pic!

The person who really stole this film though was Javier Bardem the new villain. Definitely a creepy performance but he was the right amount of crazy to unnerve the audience, something previous bond villains have been missing.

He becomes a big part of the film and he drives it from the moment he comes on screen but then he's missing again for a large part of it and he falls way to easily into Bond's plan, which could leave the audience a little dissapointed.

Besides the villain though, this film hasn't really got anything stand out about it. It's supposed to revolve around Judy Dench's character 'M' yet i don't think anyone can really sympathise with her at all, even if the deirector tried to make you. If anything it could make an audience kind of resent her more as the film goes on, but how her character ended the film gave her some bit of disirability in the film, it seemed fitting for the dame and the writers Puvas and Wade made a brave decision and it paid off.
Although Sam Mendes demonstrated he's more than capable in directing an action film, how they portrayed fan favourite James Bond in this sequel could leave a little to be desired. It starts off well, Alcoholic and drug reliant and basically a bit unfit which suits his troubled character yet halfway through theres nothing wrong with him all of a sudden?! His wit and interaction redeemed his likeability factor, however 'M' plot ruined his character development.

One thing that was impressive was the Bond girls..

Naomie Harris's character 'Eve' is a credit to the club of bond girls, she had real chemistry with Daniel Craig and everyone loves a bit of banter fuelled by sexual tension. But the actress that stole the film Bérénice Marlohe's acting. To say this is her first film on the big screen she has bags full of talent which made up with her lack of chemistry with Craig, so perhaps they could have used her character for longer. It seemed a bit confusing to hype her up so much and create someone with such a rich background to use her for as long as they did, i wish she was in it more.

The story is pretty decent though you don't expect the twists and turns and it definitely is well action packed, especially the part where they took a leaf out of Home Alone's book (you'll get it if you see it).

It's a hundred times better than the last Bond film but it's not as good as Casino Royal. Personally i think it's because they've tried to make 'M' up as a better character than what she is. Sam Mendes did a good job with the directing, expected from a man with a good resume as him.

3.7/5 <<< (.7 because of Bardem's performance)






Dark Knight Rises (spoiler free)

This is THE most anticipated film of 2012 and it seems like it took forever to get to our big screens. Theres been speculation, criticism but mostly excitement.

Firstly, the choice if casting in Anne Hathaway was excellent. She stole the show as Cat-woman despite being so criticised when she was announced for the role, but Hathaway made the character the most believable yet. Although we may not steal as much as she does everyone who isn't rich understands where she's coming from and in this day and age most people agree with her views, but her wit is brilliant and it's a pleasure to watch a female character that is just as good as the males in this film.

The second thing that jumped out at me was the brutality of the film. The battles between Bane and Batman are very physical and resembles the brutality to the extent of bare knuckle boxing. It was nice to see a villain in Nolan's film that could challenge Batman physically but it's a demonstration of Nolan's creativity of great characters by making him a mastermind. The the mask wasa a clever touch giving  him  this anamalistic edge and his accent didn't suffer for it, you could understand him all the way through the film in contrast to earlire complaints. But it was Hardy's acting that bought a very 3 dimensional character to the screen, the way he could act just through his eyes was very impressive and on learning his back story it doesn't make him any less of a monster but just someone you understand as to why he's a monster, he definitely deserved a more fitting end.

Even though this film is a sequel to the dark knight it's more of a stand alone film and Bale and Caine bring the emotion to the screen which was a lovely contrast to the agression in the movie. Do not be comparing it to the dark knight, its a very different film with very different villains but non the less just as good, athough there are a few niggling bits about it. Regardless, Bane is a very scary villain and the Bat Cat banter is more than enough reason to give a watch.

The Amazing Spider-man Review

When Sony announced they were going to reboot the whole spider franchise rather than carry on with Raimi’s Spider-man it was received with alot of criticism, worrying that it was way too soon to be remaking these films, 5 years is way too soon.

Well, it is a far cry from anything people thought it was going to be. It had something that Raimi’s spider-man lacked in the form of Andrew Garfield. Toby Maguire was great as spider-man and they were great films but Garfield IS spider-man, the wise cracking spider-man that was missed in the first trilogy. He seemed perfect physically as well to be Peter Parker and he played the part well, the geeky kid in school and the nervous teenager.

The Re-boot was more to the origin story from the comic books and delved into his back story alot more focusing on his time in high school. The story is driven by Parker’s search into why his parents left him and especially into what his dad was researching before he left. It was good to see how effected he was by the loss of his parents it wasn’t really touched upon in the original but it needed to be explored and they did it well.

However, it did feel like it was lacking something. The villain which in this case would be Kurt Conner’s, Peters dads old research partner aka the lizard. He takes a formula thinking it will regrow his arm and turns into a huge lizard but he’s never really that crazy. He should scare us when he’s human, the whole evil genius should be what pushes him into embracing the lizard but here he’s always conflicted one minute he’s nice then he’s saying its better to be lizard than human?!?!

He’s never a serious threat, although the lizard is well done for example how he was part human not just a senseless animal was a valid factor to add for a decent villain. Another questionable part were when the citizens raised together to help him. It seemed a  tad forced in my opinion, it almost seemed quite patronising and cliche for a film thats trying to achieve the opposite

HOWEVER! the characters a much better in this film, whoever said Mary Jane should be in this film hasn’t seen Emma Stone’s ‘Gwen Stacy. She brings alot to the character, which is shown in an awkward scene with her dad about periods, that you completely forget about the bad attempt at this character in the 3rd installment. And the relationship between her and Peter is so well done. The chemistry is great and the awkward conversations are done so well because of the humour the actors bring to the role.

What this spider-man does really well though is the relationship between the characters. When Uncle Ben died in the first adaptation of spideman audiences wern’t that bothered, it was skipped over really fast but in this one Martin Sheen’s death is very emotive and Sally Field is a lot less annoying as Aunt May.

Overall, it is a great film and the relationships especially the core one with Garfield and Stone is really palpable, the Lizard is a half decent villain and its great to get back to the original story of the comic books, definetly recommend but its just missing something for it to be perfect.

 

Chuck in line for Thor 2???

Okay so it seems that since Josh Dallas can't make it back to play Thor's bessie mate Fandral, rumour mill has it that Chuck's very own Zachary Levi could be taking the role over.

Josh Dallas is unable to reprise his role due to his commitment with succesful series Once Upon A Time being scheduled to film at the same time. Word has it Zachary Levi is very close to signing the deal to take over the role which would be apt as he was the one to origianly play the asgardian hero until commitments to his reinstated show Chuck got in the way giving the part to Dallas.

Levi has a strong following and could definetly do the part justice if he practices his sword waving. He'll be joined with hero Chris Hemsworth, Anthony Hopkins, Idras Elba and Natalie Portman for the sequel. In addition the wonderful Tom Hiddleston will reprise his role as adopted yet crazy brother Loki and will be joined by another unannounced villain.

Snow White and the Huntsman Review

Snow White and the Huntsman was at battle this summer with the other fairy tale reboot Mirror Mirror and its easy to why the Huntsman felt no pressure from another interpretation of the classic story as it's the winner by far.

It seems the trend of rebooting classic fairy tales for a more adult audience is on trend what with Jack and the Giant Killer and Hansel and Gretel out next year but it's this year that Snow White and the huntsman kick off the new genre.

I had my hesitation about Kristen Stewart as snow white or in any acting role beyond twilight to be honest. Whether she can escape her twilight brand is one thing but her acting leaves a little to be desired in them films however i was pleasently surprised how well she did in this film. She had way more acting range in this film and her British accent isn't too bad at all, it was nice to see her act as a strong female lead for once. However with other actors performances it's easy to forget about the main heroine as she doesn't command the audiences attention.

This could be down to an excellent and scary villainous in the form of the beautiful Charlize Theron. She is one of those actresses especially in this film that demands attention on screen and her character Ravenna is equally stunning. It's a very delicate balance, you don't want her to win because you know she's evil but you learn her back story and her vulnerabilities and it definitely makes the character more three dimensional and a worthy villain.

Chris Hemsworth's Scottish accent was impressive i always expect accents to be terrible from Hollywood A-Lister's such as Russel Crowe in Robin Hood. But he brings an element of fun and he's a kind of an anti hero that people like to root for and Hemsworth plays it nicely with a bit of fun drunkenness and yet he has a bit of darkness about him that makes him the most relatable character.

Another thing that stood out was the lovely scenery be it in the mostly CGI forest or the stunning backdrops of the mountains that they cross during the film that has a very Lord of The Rings vibe about it. It's clear the films and director Sanders has taken a bit of inspiration from Burtons Alice in Wonderland but with grit and a bit more realness to it.

Overall the acting was good especially Theron's performance that threatens to overpower Stewart for most of the film which gives you a feeling that maybe Snow Whites not the hero worthy of the Queen. However, the film had a right balance of plot, character, scenery and didn't fall into the pit holes of turning it into a romance. Well worth a watch.

Dark Knight Rises breakdown

One of the most anticipated films of summer 2012 is Batman: Dark Knight Rises. As a huge fan of the Batman comics and of Nolan's series and yes, even of the old films, im one of the many who is one the edge of their seats to see what Christopher Nolan does with the final sequel to his Trilogy.
The standard was set so high with The Dark Knight thanks to excellent script writing and a breath-taking performance by Heath Ledger as the Joker that some people are questioning whether Nolan can out do himself again or whether he's peaked to early.
So here is 5 Pros and 5 cons as to why this sequel could be daddy of all Batman film (btw sensitive topic with Bruce Wayne) or if the 3 installment will a massive anti-climax;
PRO'S

1. Christopher Nolan and his brother are still writing the sequel and directing the film so that can only be a good thing, the last thing this film needed was a new director to take the series in a different direction than Nolan's direction that we fell in love with.
2. New cast members! There was so much speculation over who was going to star in the film and actors were practically chomping at the bit but Nolan made a wise decision when casting great up and coming actors like Joseph Gordon-Levitt, Marion Cotillard and Anne Hathaway.
3. Villains-a-plenty! So far we know Bane will be the main antagonist of the film and Catwoman may swing to the dark side but there's plenty of speculation whether Talia Al Ghul will make an appearance and her dear Daddy Ra's Al Ghul who kicked the trilogy off as the Main villain in Batman Begins.
4. Comic book fans will be very pleased! loyal comic book fans will pay close attention to the film and its been highly speculated that the film could quite possibly be based on one of the best comic book series "Knightfall". This series was particularly famous as Bane broke Batman's back putting him out of his caped crusading for a while
5. Bad Bane! Quite possibly one of Gotham's most famous outlaws 'The Man Who Broke The Bat' isnt just the physical threat that Batman's never had before but he's also a tactical genius oh and he's played by the amazing Tom Hardy so its good news all round

CONS

1. Catwoman, pppuurrrrrrfect for Nolan's World? excuse the pun but its hard to resist when every interpretation there's a cheeky little cat related pun always close by. It's one of the reasons fans are a little skeptical whether Catwoman can be brought into Nolan's real interpretation of Gotham. Then again doesnt Anne Hathaway look great in that cat suit?!
2. Jim Gordon dies?! if you've seen the trailer then you'll have seen commissioner Gordon on his death-bed ;'( he's the only one who really knows that Harvey Dent was the villain not Batman and if there killing big Gordon off then who else will they kill off?
3. Is Bruce's pining for his lost love Rachel gonna grind on us? we all know Bruce was very much in love with Rachel but unfortunately she got blown to bits, but is his moping going to be a little OTT? are we going to want to shake the man shouting "get a grip! there's more bats in the cave of love!" ?
4. Is this Batman 3 or Inception 2? Nolan's other famous film that got a huge fan base was Inception and it's clear it made an impression on him too as a lot of the new characters are played by the same actors. So are we going to be watching the film thinking about Inception and the actors other roles they played in it.
5. Will TDKR be as good as TDK? Nolan did such a good job on The Dark Knight could he really top what he did? As much as Bane is exciting Ledgers villain the Joker was an amazing performance and one that may not be topped and although im sure I wont be comparing the 2 crime lords there will be plenty of fans who do.

What ever side of the fence your on though its clear this is going to be one heck of a film, put it down in you diaries!!
The Dark Knight Rises is out 20th July 2012.