Rogue One : A Star Wars Story

So Rogue One is Star Wars with the Saving Private Ryan filter turned up. And it works.

This is a very different feeling Star Wars film and justifies the “A Star Wars Story” tag that sets it apart. Yes, the tone is darker than the other films as expected and don’t be fooled by stories of re-shoots done to lighten things. If anything the lighter material went into the trailers but not the final cut of the film. But it’s other things that set it apart.

The combat sequences are much more intense; dynamic, gritty and in a first for a Star Wars film actually quite harrowing in places. For example in an earlier sequence we witness an Imperial patrol attacked in a city street with innocent civilians very much caught in the cross fire. There are echoes of the likes of Black Hawk Down.

This is maximised in the final third as hopelessly outmatched Rebel forces on a beach sacrifice themselves to create a distraction whilst in orbit above them their colleagues mount a frantic assault to make sure it’s not in vain.

Astonishing is the best word I can think of to describe the climatic space battle, with cinematography that really places you right in the middle of the action as fighters swoop and dive around fleets of ships. It’s the best execution of this kind of action I’ve seen and is peppered with imaginative flourishes.

The strength of the action is backed up by the rest of the writing in deepening the experience. Whilst the basic story is a fairly straightforward men on a mission tale it’s the characterisation of those on the mission that make it work.

Here we get shades of grey as we see Rebels in conflict with each other over the lengths they’re prepared to go to. We’re told Forest Whitaker’s Saw Gerrera is an extremist who’s gone too far but this is after we’ve seen Diego Luna’s Cassian shoot down an unarmed colleague without pause to ensure he won’t talk upon capture.

Meanwhile Mendelsohn’s Krennic brings something different to the table as the villain. He starts with a  naked ambition to rise up the Imperial rank but slowly switches to desperately fighting for his position and survival after an encounter with Darth Vader.

Felicity Jones’ Jyn is also very different to any of the heroes we’ve see in the series before. At one point when asked if she’s ok with seeing Imperial flags flying over every planet she replies “It doesn’t matter if you never look up”. She’s not in it for the cause at the start and whilst later she joins the Rebellion her main motivation is a fight for absolution for her father.

A sequence roughly half way through featuring Jyn brings all that works so well in the film together at once. We watch as Jyn witnesses a final message from her father, Jones wordlessly showing the heartbreak and new resolve in her face as at the same time the Empire demonstrate the terrifying power of their new weapon. (Something which now is probably now more impactful as it’s lower setting resembles something sill devastating but with real world familiarity).

A haunting beautiful sequence and for me the moment the film really comes together after a slightly choppy opening.

It’s true that some of the other characters in our team are sketched with out as much detail but even then it’s a different vibe to what we’ve seen before. Donnie Yen and Wen Jiang are two believers in the Force trying to hold onto their faith and Riz Ahmed’s defecting Imperial pilot is man finding himself suddenly out of his depth.

Many are comparing it to Empire Strikes Back and they are both sombre pieces but I’d argue that Rogue One is the more complex in terms of it’s characters and generally depiction of the central conflict and probably a darker film overall seeing as during a couple of parts it even effectively comes across as a horror film.

Without giving too much away the biggest issue I had with it were some moments of ‘uncanny valley’where CGI has been used to reintroduce some characters into the story. It’s striking but does have that sense of unreality to it.

I also admit I’m not sure how well it would work for people who aren’t a fan of Star Wars to start with. I believe it would still stand by itself if you approached it as a Vietnam or World War II film, I’ll be interest to see if I gauge some people’s thoughts on that.

Star Trek Beyond

So it seems despite the dodgy looking trailers Star Trek Beyond is a solid entry in the franchise and it seems the newly names "Kelvin timeline" films are inverting the old Star Trek film law of the even numbered entries being the good ones. This time round the first and third so far are clearly the better films and the second entry the misstep.

McCoy, Jaylah and Spock prep for action and banter.

Beyond does what Into Darkness should of done by breaking away from the old entries and being it's own thing (aside from a few nods to the original crew). It tells a stroy of it's own rather than re-hashing a previously told one and takes advantage of it's alternate versions of the classic characters.

For example here we have a Kirk (Chris Pine) who is unsure of the point of his chosen career as the films begins, whilst Spock (Zachery Quinto) struggles with his sense of duty to his now endangered people and subsequently his relationship with Uhura (Zoe Saldana).

This gives our two central characters strong story arcs to go through in the midst of the adventure whilst the rest of the crew all get a good amount to do. Unsurprisingly with Simon Pegg on writing duties Scotty gets much more to do and it's refreshing to see him strike up a friendship with newcomer Jaylah (Sofia Boutella) instead of her becoming a romantic interest for Kirk. Although I think Pegg still plays it a bit too comically broad.

Indeed Jaylah is one of the strongest elements of this entry in the series, a more than capable engineer and a spiky, lively presence for the others to bounce off. Not quite effective however is Idris Elba's villain Krall. He is revealed to have interesting background and motivation but the pieces only really fall into place in the third act and feel a little rushed.  The first of the reboots probably retains the strongest of the new villains with Nero.

Worries that director Justin Lin would mean a move towards out and out action can be put aside. Of course there is action, including some imaginative sequences in space and on the ground, but the heart of the film remains the interactions of the main cast. The middle act of the film sees them paired in different combinations (Kirk & Chekov, Uhura & Sulu, Scotty & Jaylah and most enjoyably McCoy & Spock) letting all have their moments to shine.

Karl Urban once again stands out as the grumpy but steadfast McCoy amongst pretty strong performances all round apart for a minor character in Commodore Paris whose portrayl feels stilted which is shame because she's a couple of key scenes for Kirk's story arc.

No doubt some will criticise the method used by the crew to turn the tide of battle against Krall's swarm ships but I admit it was something that brought a smile to my face.

It's not as heartfelt as the series best (Wrath of Khan) but it's up there with the likes of Generations (which i think is under appreciated), Undiscovered Country, First Contact and the opening film from the re imagined crew.

Game Of Thrones: Lord Snow

It's episode three and I'm struggling to really think of an angle to really write about this episode as it's all rather a bit well bitty.

Also despite the fact we meet a few new characters everyone else continues basically doing what they've done so far. Ned is staid and moral, the King is brash, Cersei and Joffery show flashes of humanity before flipping back to hating and scheming, summing up their philosophy neatly with "Anyone who isn't us is our enemy"

We do get the first real straight forward mention of the concept of seasons that last literal years. (It does offer up quite a few questions. If a winter lasts literal years how does any plant life survive?)

It's again unclear how much time is passed when get news of Danerys pregnancy, in particular these sections suffer because there is no sense of how far the tribe has travelled. Of course most notable here is the fact that the power balance between Danerys and her brother is very starting to shift, much to his annoyance.

Of the new characters it's the former Mayor of Baltimore that is the most interesting at this stage. And yes that's how i'll know him until I actually remember his proper name. He's clearly a sneaky tricky type who for some reason feels the need to hold most of his meetings in brothels.

Arya's sword instructor is an entertaining character but is so larger than life he does feel a lit bit out of place, almost as if he's wondered in from The Princess Bride by accident.

So not a lot really comes to mind to speak about here, so it's onwards, though from memory things start to get moving again in the next instalment.

Ghostbusters (2016)

Ok, lets start with getting the main message out first, Ghostbusters (2016) is....terrible because it's got girls in it.

I am of course being facetious. The film is pretty decent, has a lot of good ideas, some good moments and some strong performances but the pacing of it just seems a bit off. It's hard to describe really; some sequences are too long, comic exchanges that feel like they should have snap feel a bit listless, the plot advances in lurches, the filmends suddenly and then what feels like the actual epilogue plays under the closing credits.

It also probably doesn't quite break away from its forbear as much it might. (Not two spoil it two much but there are five old players returning for cameos. Two work really well, one is ok and two feel painfully forced)

The apparently controversial new team for the most part do pretty well. Kristen Wiig brings her well worked smart but goofy shtick to play as Erin Gilbert, a serious scientist now embarrassed by a book about the paranormal she wrote years ago. She's at her funniest when interacting with Chris Hemsworth's dopey secretary Kevin.

Leslie Jones' Patty is much more rounded and capable character than early trailers seemed to suggest. She definitely has more to offer than Ernie Hudson ever did and certainly gets to join in the comedy more than he did.

For me Melissa McCarthy was the weakest link, she's not terrible but I just didn't enjoy how character as much the others, but I'll confess I'm not keen on her as a performer to start with so may be being overcritical. I just didn't quite buy that her friendship with Wiig's character was as close as the plotting told us it was, she can pratfall but she's not as strong at the characterisation as the others.

Now, the missed opportunity I think is Kate McKinnon's Holtzman. An anarchic presence with a real joy in dangerous potentially life threatening engineering (she's sort of like the original's Egon crossed with Wily E Coyote and a sugar rushing small child). She is constantly either producing new crazy devices or pipping up with a series of great throwaway lines and moments. But her performance is the one that suffers the most from the slightly off pacing, her moments are either cut off two soon so the gag doesn't quite land, lingered on a bit too much or she's lost in the background a little bit.

The previously mentioned Kevin portrayed by Hemsworth is also a hit, all comfy charm and bizarre non-sequiters.

Overall the film's humour is lot less cynical the original and is definitely a lot goofier but for the most part it works well with the material, and it is quite refreshing to have somethink like this with humour that does indeed feel different. However the aim to be very much comedy first and fantasy adventure second means the main bad guy and his evil plot is rather flimsy & under developed. In fact by the time we get to the climactic action it's really not clear what he's trying to achieve or how.

Having said that though there a couple of action sequences that are really effectively filmed and the ghosts that need busting offer up a good range of imaginative designs, one particular sequence with Holtzman is as visually striking as anything that's been released amongst this year's summer blockbusters.

So it's pretty entertaining, there is something about it that doesn't quite click into place I feel but I certainly wouldn't mind seeing more of these characters.

The last thing to say on it is I hope performs well, and it's hopeful that it will having picked up decent reviews, manging to raise above the ridiculous 'toys out of the pram throwing' small minded hate it's received.

Because young girls deserve heroes as much as anyone else does...

Game of Thrones: Little Lord A*Hole Episode 2: The Kingsroad

Ok, so this episode is a little bit bitty, so probably this write up of my thoughts on it is also going to be rather bitty.

                                      Sansa wonder's in from the nearest Jane Austen..

One aspect of it is Danerys journey which basically boils down to her being abused in her forced marriage until she learns how to use sex to control her husband from her friendly former prostitute handmaiden. Which isn't really all that positive of a story for any of the women involved.(it worse if you stop to consider details like the handmaiden was 'working' at the age of 12, having been trained for it since she was 9 and Danery's walk I don;t think is supposed to imply more than just time in the saddle)

The interesting bits I picked out were that the Dothraki believe in killer grass and that is early stage Danerys seems to feel some sort of connection to the dragon eggs. Oh, I know now I will keep failing to remember Jorah Mormont's name so at those times he will be called Commander Decent Chap which I feel sums him up.

Meanwhile on the other side of the world, Bran isn't dead much to Cersei's concern and Jon is off to join the nights watch as Ned and the sister's travel to King's Landing with the Lannisters. Now something here which is not so good is the representation of the passing of time.

It all feels like these scenes are taking place within the same couple of days when in fact from Bran's fall to family Stark hitting the road is around a month at least if not two. The only sign is the pet wolves suddenly go from pups to being very big indeed.

Overall it just makes it a bit confusing in understanding how long it takes anyone to travel somewhere or achieve anything. Would Catelyn really find a hair as a clue in the tower a month later?

Whilst we're on the subject of sleuthing would plotters as smart as the Lannister's really give a man hired to kill Bran a big shiny dead give away knife? Seems out of place (though I can't remember if that is part of the plot or not).

Back to the question of time this episode has one of my bug bears about fantasy in it. The total non advance of technology for extended periods of time. We're told the Night's Watch have been guarding the wall for 8.000 years. Eight millennia which apparently has seen no technological advances of note.

Even if magic was real I'm pretty sure technology would advance in that time. In fact probably fairly fast since you'd need to protect yourself from all the mad wizards wandering about. It's just one aspect of fantasy fiction that always pulls me out of it a bit. Ok, you want it to sound like a long time, but could you not at least pitch in maybe hundreds instead of thousands at least?

Anyway poor decent Jon is off to join the Night's Watch in the blue filtered North because his dad's leaving and his stepmother obviously hates him (who's busy doing her best Columbo) and he's really not sure about the whole thing. I'm sure he'll be fine...

We do get a first few hints (and misdirections) about his mother though this week, though not much more beyond the fact she is alive and around somewhere and it's something that Ned would really not get into.

In team Lannister we do get a bit of human side to Cersei this week as she recalls losing her first born son and Tyrion starts to prove himself a man wiser than his debauchery would suggest at one point remarking "A mind needs books like a sword needs a whetstone". (Plus points for him acknowledging the rest of his family are not good people)

Robert continues to be a bit of an oaf but otherwise a decent man who can't help it if the people around are constantly lying to him (although we do see him put Cersei in her place a couple of times), This example the poor fate of Sansa's wolf. (Sansa by the way is the wettest of blankets this week as the Stark girls struggle emerge from their 'girly girl' and 'tom boy' templates)

But balancing out this display of decency from the Lannisters is Jamie being a condescending git to Jon, Cersei's petty twisting of the knife insisting Sansa's wolf is killed and no doubt having the butcher's boy done in. And of course we have Prince Joffery swerving expertly from skin crawling creepy with Sansa to arrogance, random aggression, utter cowardice and massive amounts of face saving lying.

(To the extent it stretches belief than Sansa would still think anything positive about him)

So that's episode two. A bit of a moving of the pieces er piece. Still, we'll get some new faces turning up next...

Game of Thrones - time to start catching up!

Ok, here we go. Game of Thrones time.

I'm clearly behind the zeitgeist on this one having not watched this cultural phenomenon since the first series or indeed read any of the books. So I figure it's time and I catch up and write out my thoughts on a series that creates a lot of talking points as I go. A warning now is I am a bit of fantasy genre sceptic so the show will need to work to really pull me in.

 Now in terms of my approach I have seen the first series before and so I am aware of the general course of events although I certainly do not remember a lot of details so I will reference things I've not see yet. Likewise I'm aware of some of the bigger turning points and moments of controversy in series moving forwards so will reference those but I do not know how most things go from second series on.

So time to start;


Episode 1 : Winter Is Coming

"Winter is coming" count : 3

The opening of the first episodes feels very much in terms of tone and aesthetic like a horror film. Lots of dark colours, a bleached filter on the lens and of course lots of dismembered body parts. It's a section that introduces us to The Wall and the fact there are some scary things on the wrong side of it, though we learn little else.

We get enough to flag that there's a dangerous mysterious danger and then it's time for the opening credits..da da dum, da-da-dum, da-da dum...

My first question on the other side of the credits is, "How did that guy survive?" as the poor soul we saw left standing in the prologue is caught for deserting his post on the other side of the wall. Last we saw him he was hopelessly cornered by murderous White Walker types. For him to be alive, surely they let him go? Why have they let him go?

Then it's time for our intro to the Stark family who are pretty much our grounding into this fictional world. The sons are quickly shown in their pecking order as proud mum and dad look over, Sansa is the traditionally feminine daughter and Arya the tom boy.

Introductions done we get a view of Ned Stark's code as he notes to his youngest son after performing the execution of the deserter that "the man who passes the sentence should swing the sword". A direct comparison of the honour of characters can be drawn looking at this from the first episode from Ned and Joffrey's double dealing cowardly spite that brings about the end of poor Ned.

Next up we get introduction to Cersei and Jamie Lanister, it's made clear they have secrets but at this stage it's not clear what or indeed how many, what is it they fear the Hand of the King knew?

As we move onto the Lannister's and the King come to the Stark's home as the King seeks help from his old friend and we get a few flashes of events to come; Bran's climbing and Catelyn's worry it'll bring him to arm, Arya hiding in the crowds and Sansa's initial smitten behaviour around Joffery.

Interestingly whilst we get a sense of Ned and King Robert's deep friendship (including intriguing mentions of how they won the throne for Robert from the Targaryen family) it's clear from the start there is a tension and unease between Cersei and the Stark family. At this stage Tyrion is basically a comedy character framed by drinking and whoring.

Then it's across the sea to meet Daenerys Targaryen and scheming brother Viserys. Now from the start here it is uncomfortable relationship and I've not read the books not sure if there is anything in them to make it more explicit but to me it seems fairly strongly implied that Daenerys has been sexually abused by her brother and this is the first indication that as a series Game of Thrones is going to deal with some unpleasant things outside of what you typically see in mainstream fantasy themed fare.

For the general sense of Daenerys exploitation is not helped to a small extent by some of the direction in these scenes. It's fair to say the concept of the male gaze is very much in action as there some lingering shots of her naked body which seem a bit unnecessary, likewise the basically see through dress she is seen in later. It may be intended to frame the idea of Daenerys at this stage being controlled and at the mercy of the men around her but it does feel a little like it tips into the titillation for the sake of it.

This part of the episode did have a couple of moments that drew me out of things a bit too, like Drogo's comedy "power" sitting position with legs spread wide and the fact that the tribe of nomadic warriors all seem to have perfectly white teeth! But we do get the introduction of the dragon eggs, which will of course be very important later. (Plus a clue in the fact Daenerys doesn't flinch as she goes into a bath as the servants exclaim it's far too hot)

Now I know there has been some controversy around a couple of rape scenes later in the series and I've not seen those yet so can not fully comment but there is the rape of Daenerys here in the very first episode and I don't remember there being the same level of controversy around this episode. But I'll have to wait until I've seen the later episodes until I can comment fully.

The last few minutes of the episode are given over to setting up the story to follow with accusations of murder, and Bran's witnessing of Cersei and Jamie's sexual relationship leading to his being pushed out a high window. (Although that boy stood there gawping for a long, long time)

So that's episode one and we've got sketches of the characters for the most part, Ned is noble, Catelyn worries, the Lannister's scheme, the King is an oaf, Arya the tom-boy etc. A few bits of mystery, who murdered the Kings' hand? Who or what are White Walkers? And few markers for what would become the series' darker aspects.

Essentially the ground work for what the series becomes is all here but nothing yet really makes the show stand out from the crowd so to speak, particularly from HBO's strong library of programming. So on we go...

Independence Day : Resurgence

Next up on the Summer's blockbuster merry-go-round is Independence Day; Resurgence as the aliens return for round two twenty years later...

The film picks up the story after two decades, humanity has stopped fighting itself, adopted alien technology and spent time preparing defences. As the victory of twenty years ago is celebrated another alien ship arrives above the new moon defence base.

It's destroyed despite the reservations of Jeff Goldblum's returning David Levinson who believes it's a ship from another space faring race. Indeed, shortly afterwards a massive ship arrives that very much isn't freindly and the battle to survive begins again....

We then get the scenes of destruction you'd expect from the film in the initial onslaught but this time most damange is done by the alien ship landing rather than it actvily blowing stuff up seeing as it's bigger than an ocean.

Following that we follow a set of hot shot pilots as they attempt to attack the alien mothership, including the children of Will Smith's Cpt Hiller and the daughter of Bill Pullman's President Whitmore as well as the Goldblum and others on the ground who must devise a plan.

A surprise return in a comedic slot is Brent Spiner as wacky scientist Dr Okun and we also get the now common nod to the Chinese market with Angela Yeung Wing's fighter pilot who you suspect as a bigger role in edits for that market.

Everyone pretty much does well enough with what are broadstroke characters although one comedic relief character does fall flat with the nerdy bureaucrat character that gets caught up with events early on.

There are some nice ideas floating around here, like the militia that has been fighting aliens left behind from the first invasion and the second alien species that holds the key to victory (albeit things end suspiciously close to Stargate SG1's setup) although the build up is much less effective than it was in the first film largely as a result of the film's rush to get to the action.

Overall it's very much a silly B-movie with plenty of money spent on wizzes and bangs, but it know's that's exactly what it is and generally keeps the pace rolling along a decent enough crack to cover over it's simplistic writing. Slight, silly, fun.

X-Men : Apocalypse

And we are with the latest comic book blockbuster of this year's Summer season. X-Men: Apocalypse sees Bryan Singer essentially brings to close the cycle of films that began with First Class.

An in film joke references the fact that the last in the trilogy is often the weakest. Is that the case here? Well, Apocalypse probably isn't as solid as First Class and Days Of Future Past but it's far better than Last Stand was.

It films like a natural continuation of the story from it's two predecessors whilst introducing a new wave of character as the world is threatened by Oscar Issac's Apocalypse. However whilst some of the cast get concluding chapters to their story others like Fassbender's Erik\Magento seem to just go through a repeat of the same arc from the previous entries.

Also Jennifer Lawrence's Mystique spends most of the film in her 'desguised' human form in a move that seems move motivated by the actresses wish to avoid the hours of make-up again rather than the story. You do also have to question the revealing outfit she appears in her first scene. (It's even within the same sequence to something more conservative which actually fits in with the location much better).

New comers Tye Sheridan and Kodi Smit-McPhee don't get a huge amount to do as the new versions of Cyclops and Nightcrawler but acquit themselves well. Unforutnately whilst Sophie Turner's Jean has the most interesting part to play of the newcomers her performance comes across flat, even seeming bored at some stages.

In terms of the action it is true that once again it's sequences based around Quicksilver that steal the show, full of imagination that so far the rest of the year's comic book releases have lacked. Although other sequences aren't helped by Apocalypse's grab bag of abilities never really being clearly defined.

Generally Singer hits the right tone matching to balance the drama, humour and sense of peril. It is fair to suggest that the level of disaster at the end of the film does seem a little like it's pushed too far and with a coda between Magneto and the Professor you do wonder why the latter doesn't seem to be interested in the former being responsible for hundreds if not thousands of deaths.

Eye In The Sky

Eye In The Sky is a tense drama from director Gavin Hood (Tsotsi, Rendition, er X-Men Origins: Wolverine) that focuses on a joint British/American drone mission over Kenya targeting terrorists.

Essentially it's a look at the morals of using such weapons and the debate over if collateral casualties can be accepted. We follow almost a real time as Helen Miren's Colonel leads a mission from a bunker in Surrey with the intent of capturing terrorists leaders whilst an American crew in Nevada control a drone overhead, Kenya forces operate on the ground and Alan Rickman's General and Government ministers watch from a room in Whitehall.

Circumstances change on the ground quickly and the operation is forced to change from capture to kill as the terrorists move to a house secure on the ground and appear to be preparing a suicide bomb attack. However a young girl is spotted selling bread close to the house in the projected blast radius.

What follows is a series of conversations and debates over what action to take, the legality of it and if there is will to fire on the house with the girl so close. It's a fairly neat simplified encapsulation of the issue.

The different points of view are presented evenly with nothing being sensationalised; the military look at things in terms of one life is to save many more later, the ministers debate the potential political and PR repercussions and the crew in charge of the drone agonise over will result of the actions they take.

Suffice to say I glad I'm not in position to have to make such a choice, indeed nearly all of the characters in the film struggle with it and keep passing things up the chain of command. Rickman and Mirren's military veterans whilst seemingly deal with the situation dispassionately are still crucially shown to be rounded people, not just hawks, who know full well the human cost of warfare.

The film benefits for not making up the mind of the audience for them at the end, matters are resolved but we are shown the price.

Director hood does well to avoid things feeling too stagey in a production that basically takes place in a few small rooms whilst avoiding, aside from a one piece of fanciful technology, making things too 'hollywood thriller'. Recommended. 

Captain America : Civil War

Much, much, much better than Batman v Superman.

Well, that's the key point out of the way. The third Captain America film takes it's central plot cue from the Civil War comic storyline, but that's pretty much it as apart from the idea that governments would call for superhero oversight it plays out very differently from the source comics.

This is a good thing. The story presented here is for the large part much more sensible, it does however falter as the core argument effectively takes a back seat fairly quickly and the ongoing conflict between the heroes depends upon Cap'n being a bull headed jerk who is unwilling to trust most of his team mates and see no irony in distrusting other's judgement whilst being convinced that he is literally always right about every decision.

The idea of the requirement supervision is introduced with a sequence discussing the impact of events in the last few Marvel films, much in the same way BvS looks to address the destruction in Man Of Steel, it's a smart move that helps to bring a bit of realism into the MCU. Combined with this a world weary Tony Stark is approached by a grieving mother who lost her son in the events of Age Of Ultron.

So Tony believes the introduction of oversight by the UN is the right thing. As someone points out The Avengers are essentially a PMC operating with unimaginable power across borders with out answering to or consulting with anyone. It's hard point to disagree with.

Anyway Rogers dislikes the idea and give a vague reasoning of feeling that governments have 'agendas', it's a weak point of the film that he never really manages to explain what troubles him or why he believes his judgement is infallible. Instead the conflict is driven by his pursuit and defence of a reappeared Winter Solider. He even concedes that his former friend has indeed killed a lot of innocent people.

So that's Tony and Rogers, everyone else basically just sides with one of them with a quick line or two of dialogue. Basically a setup that had the chance to provide a lot of real character drama is not really treated that way, which is a missed opportunity. Although the plot does hold a couple of nice twists as the Avengers are indeed being manipulated for what I thought was a fascinating reason.

There are lot of positives in the film elsewhere. The action sequences are lively and creative, showing the playfulness and imagination that was so badly lacking from DC's recent big hitter.

All the various heroes have very much their own distinct style, none more so than the newly introduced Black Panther, which help make the central stand off sequence at the airport a great sequence. It's a pacy with a well judged tone that includes humour and acknowledgement that these are friends having a fight in amongst the brawling.

The the two stand outs in the sequence are surprisingly Paul Rudd's Ant-Man, a brilliant mix of star-struck and goofily effective. And the other standout is Tom Holland's Spiderman. Possibly the best screen incarnation to date of the character. Unfortunately the two only really feature in this one stretch.

Strangely to me the film felt much more like an Iron Man film the third Captain America entry because I found Tony's position much more sympathetic (and the two characters have roughly equal screen time) and he actually seems to have the greater emotional journey especially when tragedy strikes his friend Rhodey. In fact Tony even comes over to Roger's side towards the end only for a reveal to again see Rogers be, well a jerk, rather than trying to diffuse a situation.

In general it's not as strong as Winter Soldier was as a film but it's still a solid entertaining couple of hours that just lacks that edge of drama it feels like it could of had. It'll be interesting to see where the storyline goes especially since in the end Rogers comes away as both a criminal and with no real sense of justification for his actions.

Still, better than BvS. But I am wondering if X-Men:Apocalypse might be this blockbuster season's superhero winner.

Midnight Special

I've been a bit slow putting a post up on this one, which is kind of appropiate because the film itself is quite a slow moving one.

Telling the story of a father desperately trying to save his young son who has mysterious powers and the government forces trying to catch up with them, Midight Special feels very much like a seventies piece of science-fiction.

It's a slow burn story, there isn't too much in the way of exposition (the audience is left to fill in many of the blanks and there unquestionably elements that could have done with more explanation and at least one strand of the story that just seems to be abandoned) and it's much more about the performances than the spectacle. The central three adult performances from Micheal Shannon, Joel Edgerton and Kirsten Dunst are all very good, with a number of sequences relying on quiet delievery of emotions.

Jaeden Lieberher does ok as the young Alton but you do wonder at times if the part is written to be as other worldly as it comes across or if it's the performance not really selling some of the more emotional beats.

The film looks fantastic in a low key sort of way, like Starman crossed with Micheal Mann's Collateral. And a late stage sequence cutting between reactions to the final reveal and a car accident is fantastically done.

However overall the film feels like it's building up towards a crescendo that never quite arrives. It is nice though to have something a bit different that doesn't fall into the easy template of final reel explosions.

After Midnight Special and Mud I will certainly keep an eye on director Jeff Nichols who seems to developing as someone delievering interesting (and in some ways old school) films.

Batman v Superman : Dawn of Justice

The first of the year's big blockbusters arrives with Zack Synder's second visit to the world of DC Comics. And whilst it's not as bad some reviews would suggest it does have a lot of problems.

I have to say the film is one of the oddest mainstream films I've seen in terms of it's structure and editing. Roughly the first hour and a half or so (of a two and half hour film) verges on being downright incoherent.

It skips from scene to scene with no apparent connection as it flails around for story and characters, frequently throwing in multiple vision and dream sequences. More than once it cuts straight into such a sequence with no signposting then to a 'real world' scene and then back to another dreamscape sequence. Indeed one such sequence ends to be revealed to still be a dream in a "then he woke up moment".

The effect overall is fairly disorientating and not helped by some very strange editing choices, for example at point we cut from a scene to an establishing shot and the straight into an interior scene taking place somewhere else entirely. It's like Synder and his team have actually forgotten the basic aspects of film language.

Things start to settle down but there are still bizarre choices. In the build up to the central title fight the film takes a pause to basically show us one of the characters watching what amount to trailers for forthcoming feature attractions starring Aquaman, Cyborg and The Flash.

But problems return once we get to the final third as despite the film struggling to pack it as much as possible we really haven't been given enough to invest in any of the characters, pivotally Superman himself is badly underdeveloped.

We are told he's conflicted, but we really don't see it and all Cavill does is stand around with a sort of middle distance stare expression on his face. He's not even really allowed to be heroic apart from in a brief montage.

Nor is there any real explanation behind Lex Luthor's hatred of Superman, there are some nice ideas vaguely expressed but it doesn't really become anything meaningful. Although I don't find Eissenberg's performance as annoying as many seem to and there does seem to be an intended character ark at play for him.

 On the positive side though speaking of performance and characterisation Affleck's Batman is the stand out thing in the film. As long as you get onboard with the idea of a Bruce Wayne who has seen too much and been doing this far too long, has basically snapped and is now more than happy to outright kill lots of bad people.

The film does contain a few hints to suggest why Bruce has gone down this route and it actually feeds into why he feels it so necessary to tackle Superman. (Which does help cover over some of the more dubious bits of his reasoning). His fleeting scenes of interaction with Jeremy Irons' Alfred suggesting a stand alone Batman film with the pair is a promising prospect.

Amy Adam's Lois is just there to get rescued basically. And basically no one else in the cast does anything else of note or show any kind of real characterisation.

But another highlight in the at times dreary slog is Gal Galdot's Wonder Women once she finally appears in full Amazonian warrior mode. She provides by far the most stylish and entertaining parts of the final climatic battle but I do remain unconvinced about her acting range in terms of carrying a film by herself since she's only got around five to six minutes of screen time.

Speaking of the final battle, unfortunately the film reverts back to the end of Man of Steel and the last chunk is a barely followable fight between our heroes and some bad CGI. One which shows very little imagination or craft a few Wonder Woman moments aside.

Also disappointing is the bouts of the title match-up. Bats and Supes have two face-offs, one is very, very short and the second longer sequence (although it's still not very long) is actually rather uninspiring.

Again there is no real imagination in the fight, if you've seen the end of Man of Steel, you basically have seen this fight. They've just moved it to an abandoned building. (Indeed the film is at great pain to repeatedly tell us deserted the environments are after the criticism of the previous films massively high levels of destruction). There is so much potential in a film version of these two characters doing battle but it's just not realised.

Much like his previous films Synder is happiest when putting together montages, he is good at montages, and in an early beginning sequence showing Bruce navigating Metropolis during Man of Steel's climax.

Now I've not gone into spoilers here, I can do later if people are interested, but suffice to say there are quite a lot of logical leaps, characters being stupid and face palm moments.

So overall the film is not Green Lantern level rubbish but it's not very good either. The first two thirds drags on, likes to think it's being all smart and lurches around like it's drunk. The final thirds regains structure and a sense of purpose but it's done without any sense of imagination or creativity. It's just seen it all before action fodder with an ending that reaches for heartstrings but misses (a final montage is quite effectively done though) for the most part as none of the characters have, well much character.

10 Cloverfield Lane

It's hard to go into the plot of 10 Cloverfield Lane too much without getting into spoilers, loosely Mary Elizabeth Winstead's Michelle wakes up after a car accident to find herself locked in an underground survival shelter, John Goodman's Howard tells her that everything outside is dead and they can't go outside.

Michelle doesn't believe him but fellow bunker dweller Emmett (John Gallagher Jr.) agrees something did happen to the world outside. However Howard is hiding some secrets.

Despite the name the film is not directly linked to Cloverfield, there are some small things like adverts for Slusho and mention of a couple of other companies named in Cloverfield. But as the PR has suggested it's more a thematic and overall feel that is shared.

Very much a three hander the film shares some thematic qualities as "Right At Your Door" although it's actually not quite as tense and doesn't share the same gut-punch ending.

The majority of the film sees an fascinating exploration of the dynamic of the three main characters whilst meanwhile feeding in the odd thing to raise questions as to what is really happening.

How long has Michelle been in the bunker? Is Howard telling the truth about what happened to his daughter? Is Emmett meant to be in there? Why is that 'Help' message scratched on the inside of the window?

Mary Elizabeth Winstead's strong central performance as the same and capable Michelle, makes you wonder why she isn't a bigger star than she is. It's a performance that moves from vulnerable to questioning to determined and very much helps sell the gear shift the film undergoes in it's final stretch.

John Gallagher Jr. is also give a good performance as Emmett, bringing a earthy quality to the part which helps balance the dynamic between the central three.

A less even performance comes from John Goodman, he brings a strange off putting sense to his Howard, visibly showing awkwardness whilst speaking to the others. This is a man who struggles to relate to people. However he doesn't always convince with some of his character's more violent swings in demeanour.

Director Dan Trachtenberg brings at lot of energy to film mostly set in about four rooms, the opening scenes/credits are very nicely done for example and he ensures there is a real sense of claustrophobia to the shelter.

Now I don't think it's a surprise to find out there are twists in the tale and that the final stretch of the film offers something of a switch-up. When it comes, it's executed very well from a technical standpoint, it's a rush and stands up very well against similar material.

However it's one that I'm not sure totally worked for me, but possibly because I wasn't expecting something quite as significant a gear shift and I do wonder how much of a rewrite the finale received to bring it closer to Cloverfield to suit the title.

So the film is three quarters a slow burn thriller with a nice number of questions to be resolved and a couple of genuinely surprising moments as well as a couple of great character moments. The last quarter is something quite different as things finally spiral out of control and then the last half of that final phase is something else again entirely.

Oh and the film has the best hazmat in history.

And the trailer is kinda awesome;

Hail, Caesar!

Here's the fist thoughts on a year of cinema. I've signed up for a year long pass at the Odeon which basically lets me go to the cinema as much as I want, so I figure I'll kept notes and thought on what I've seen during the year (will be fun for me to least to look back on)

So up first is the Coen brothers' "Hail, Ceaser!".

The film follows a fictionalised version of Eddie Mannix (Josh Brolin) a notorious 'Head of Production' aka fixer for MGM whose job was to kept the contracted stars in line and out of the papers. Here we have trying to track down a kidnapped star amongst other things.

It's packed with a great cast including George Clooney as the kidnapped Kirk Douglas style star, Scarlett Johannsson a aquatic pictures star who's not as innocent as her reputation, Channing Tatum a musical performer, Johan Hill, Ralph Fiennes, Tilda Swinton and more, The problem is they all feel underused giving the impression that a lot of material must of have been left on the cutting room floor.

Johannsson's story in particular feel's truncated and like it was originally intended to be a bigger part of the film. Indeed one of Mannix's most notable (and nasty) stories concerned having a female star "adopt" her own baby to hide the shame of single motherhood, a story clearly the basis for this part of the film.

It's only really Brolin's Mannix that has much screen time out of the case and I'd say he's not given much interesting to do beyond the centre of swirling almost farce. The one aspect that gives a bit of insight into Mannix is brace of scenes of him considering a new job offer.

Overall the film is something which never quite gets going, for it's whole run time it feels like it's going to start picking up speed but never quite does. If it had the energy of the likes of "Raising Arizona" I think it would have worked much better. There are strange choices like the pause to show a song & dance number being filmed for of the fictional films in full with no clear indication why. It just slows things down.

It illustrates the issues here, some scenes really work. Fiennes' director struggling getting a rodeo star newly assigned to his film to get the lines right. The 'study group' of Communists. (The old school Hollywood studio as analogy for the evils of capitalism appealed to the sociologist and film nerd in me!) A visit to a professional legal stand-in.

But amongst these are scenes that drift like the fore mentioned song and dance, scenes the feel like they've been dropped in from a more manic film (those with Tilda Swinton's duel cameo) or Mannix speaking with Christopher Lambert's director which seems to fill no purpose.

Being the Coens there is meticulous attention paid to details such as the period setting, the difference aspect ratios used for each of the different faux films so they appear as they would have in their day.

Overall it's largely enjoyable but very much a lesser effort from the Coen brothers. The good news is last time they made a farce that didn't quite work with "Burn After Reading" the came back with "A Serious Man" and "True Grit"

Continuing adventures of riker Archer...

Commander William Sterling Archer Riker.

Deadpool

Time for some longer thoughts on Deadpool.  Currently the film is performing very well and has already it's taken four times it's relatively modest $56m-ish budget.

It is being suggested that this shows there is an appetite for comic book adaptations that are aimed at an adult audience instead of the typical 12A/PG-13 bracket. I'm not so sure, I think it more suggests there is a market for filthy, crude and violent comedies that have good marketing.

I wouldn't expect a 'straight-laced' X-Men film pitched at an 'R' to perform as well, although admittedly Blade did well enough to produce a couple of sequels but tellingly it was marketed as a horror-action picture rather than a comic book property at time of it's release.

Anyway as for the film itself, Deadpool starts with energy and a high level of imagination with in particularly amusing credit sequence. Although as soon as this sequence ends there is the first signal that the film might not be able to keep up the level of creativity.

This is because the first major sequence is a retread of the test footage that infamously lead to the film being green lit in the first place. It still a fairly striking sequence but you do wonder about why after a few years it's still being re-used.

From here we get the perfunctory entrance of two other X-Men characters who serve to be butt of a few jokes and the disappear again until the final reel showdown before we flash back to how Wade became Deadpool.

Its a standard approach of a desperate man making a bad choice to trust someone dodgy, the issue for me being though that nature of the constant smirking, smutty script doesn't really allow any kind of drama to breathe and in particular it's hard to sense any sincerity in the central relationship when it's basically a string of sex jokes and not a lot else.

Indeed the female characters are very poorly served. Wade's girlfriend is established into the story as a hooker, is kidnapped working in a strip joint and not given much else to do then offer sex or look a bad sad when required. Apart from that we have a teenage 'goth' girl cliché and strong woman who Colossus doesn't want to fight because she's a woman. Neither of which grows at all beyond those very basic outlines.

So when we get to the inevitable "I'm too ugly to face my love" cliché it feels hollow but then I despite being constantly told otherwise I didn't think Wade's scarred face was all that bad.

Meanwhile as the films on it falls into a standard three pattern building to the final reel showdown with an undeveloped villain with very vaguely sketched powers. In that way the film actually matches Marvel Studios own origin story films by having a forgettable antagonist.

In terms of how he plays it, if you seen Reynolds in Blade : Trinity, you know how he plays it. Which is fun for a bit but does start to wear thin the longer it goes on as sadly whilst in comic form Deadpool's ISP of breaking fourth wall is not taken advantage of fully. There are a few fourth wall breaking moments (including a good gag about breaking the fourth wall side a fourth wall break) but I felt so much more could have been made of it. The chance was there to not only deliver a few pop culture gags but really work in some satire on the nature of super-heroes and movie genres.

But having said that I did laugh a number of times and there is cracking joke about our very own David Beckham. I just fell it could have been funnier if they'd stepped back from the crudity a little and approached things a bit smarter.

Oh, the post credits scene is nicely done as is the post post credit one.