Star Trek Into Darkness

Star Trek Into Darkness

Overall rating: 4.5 stars

Intriguing, action-packed, engaging and well cast, J.J Abrams' latest venture into the world one of Hollywood's sci-fi titans is highly entertaining, even stronger than its predecessor.

The Good

This is a rather common opinion, but I definitely felt that Eric Bana's Nero was a rather lacklustre villain in the 2009 film, especially when you look at the digital scope of the film. This time, Benedict Cumberbatch (known famously for his role on BBC One's brilliant Sherlock) takes the position of villain. This time, the villain is dark, sinister, posing a great threat and supremely well acted. The rest of the cast act well enough, but none of them match Cumberbatch's.

The effects and production values are great too. The Enterprise has never looked so modern, with crisp sets and, yes, sufficient lens flare.

The script is solid as you'd expect, with a story far more engrossing and typically more Star Trek than the previous. There are plenty of action movie lines and a bit of humour too, provided mostly by Karl Urban's humourous "Bones, as with the last film. You feel like you're watching a Star Trek for the new age, not just a rehashing of previous stories.

The Bad

It's pretty long and the bombastic finale is exciting, but exhausting. Besides that, I can criticise nothing.

To Conclude

It's funny, exciting, featuring lots of great plot and character development. There's plenty of enjoyable nostalgia, including cameos from Leonard Nimoy as old Spock and plenty of thrilling action sequences. You leave the cinema exhilarated and perhaps even excited for another installment.

Trekkies will love it and newcomers will love it. Abrams' Star Trek is modern, fluid and as far from  as superflous as my mother imagines. It's glorious sci-fi entertainment, absorbing and well crafted.

A treat.

Oz The Great and Powerful

Oz the Great and Powerful

Overall rating: 3.5 stars

It may not have the charm and dazzle of the wonderful original, but Oz the Great and Powerful is funny, visually potent (besides the green screen) and the power of the source material carries it through nicely.

The Good

This is an adaptation of one of L. Frank Baum's glorious Oz novels. They're great to read, particularly if you can stomach fourteen of them. Although this one doesn't translate to the screen as well as the previous 1939 adaptation, it's still a joy to look at and the costumes and world are well designed, both practically and graphically.

There's also a bit of humour and charm too, provided mostly by two key characters: Finlay the monkey (voiced excellently by Zack Braff) and China Girl, a brilliant piece of design. 

Sam Raimi provides decent direction too. I loved the transition from black and white to colour and the change of screen ratios when Oscar enters Oz.

The Bad

I love Rachel Weisz's Evanora and Michelle William's Glinda, but casting Mila Kunis as Theodora was a tragic mistake. Kunis has never been particularly great as an actress and she exhibits that here. As does Franco, who delivers cheesy grin after cheesy grin and delivers his dialogue poorly. 

Then the biggest problem is the green screen. It's pretty bad. There's a clear problem there. Maybe it's the outrageous design of Oz, or a technical fault, but it bugged me throughout the whole movie. It made the characters feel less real and a lot more distance, a big problem for a family movie.

To Conclude

It's great to see Oz on screen again, with lots of visual sparkle and plenty of humour and likeable characters, but a few casting problems and the green screen limit the praise this film can get. It's enjoyable enough, but there's a few issues to sort out for the inevitable sequel.

The Exorcist

The Exorcist

Overall Rating: 5 stars

Terrifying, horrifying, abhorrent, disgusting, vile, scary, chilling, nightmarish, brilliant. Just some of the words I could think of to summarise this film, off the top of my head. Call it what you will, The Exorcist is an absolute masterclass in the art of horror and, in my opinion, it is peerless.

The Good

It manages to be gruesome, garish and scary at the same time. Partly because of the fantastic special effects (strictly no CGI, it was filmed in1973 - making it seem even more realistic) and partly because of its horrifying "true" story. 

I won't spoil the story, but it's bloody horrific. Bloody being immensely apt. There are so many moments when the eerie atmosphere make you want to run away from your screen. NEVER watch this film alone. If you absolutely have to, watch it at midday, with the blinds open and with your entire family. You will be scarred otherwise.

You have been warned.

The Bad

Perhaps it's too scary? 

To Conclude

It's dark. It's scary. It's real. It's absolutely brilliant. Well acted, great effects, scary (I've run out of synonyms) and just generally an amazing example of Hollywood horror at it's finest.

P.S - Good luck...

Monsters Univeristy

Monsters University - Spoiler Free!

Overall rating: 4.5 stars

This year's Pixar flick is a hilarious and colourful romp with a couple of our childhood heroes, enhanced by joyful characters, traditional heart and gleeful nostalgia. It brilliantly captures the verve of the original, making it the best animation of the year so far (and looking at the rest of the main animated films slated for release this year -Turbo, Cloudy 2, Planes, Frozen - it will probably stay that way!)

The Good 

I'd like to start with the amount of grafting that goes on in the creation of a Pixar film. So many people forget how much work goes into animated films, Pixar especially. You've got to think of the story, storyboard it, pitch it, design settings and characters, animate, render, add lighting and shadows, finalise story details and ensure it hits theatres on time. The ignorance of these people irritates me, so whenever I go to watch a Pixar film, I always ensure whoever I go with pays great attention to the details. This is more evident than ever in Pixar's films, this one in particularly. There are hundreds of background characters with scales, fur, shiny skin etc. Monsters University looks as amazing as you'd expect, I even saw tiny dust particles floating in the air during one scene, testimony to how much Pixar's animation has advanced in recent years. Similarly, I love the way Pixar give such great stories to their characters, including minor characters.

  Then there's the story. It's good, if not groundbreaking. Of course we know how it will end, but director Dan Scanlon takes us there in a way which I certainly didn't expect. I enjoyed the surprising depth which came in the third act, as well as the conclusion of the story line. Plenty of humour was injected too. It's not Pixar's funniest (for me that title goes to "Up") but there's plenty of things that will make you chuckle (I still laugh most of the gags, having seen it four times now). These gags suceed mostly thanks to the great characters some of which we already know: Sulley, Mike, Randall etc. and then there are new ones, which I already feel strongly attached to: Terri, Terry, SQUISHY, Art, Don, Mrs Squibbles etc. Squishy and Art are my particular favourites, but for me the funniest gag is Art standing out in the open during Mike's hiding exercise! I still laugh at the mere thought. I cannot forget to mention Helen Mirren's excllent Dean Hardscrabble, chillingly voiced and excellently designed. Finally, Randy Newman's score is excellent as always, the new tune is memorable and creative.

The Bad

The one bad thing I could pick out was that a few of the jokes fell slightly flat. I'm not sure if this was the audience (being British I don't think all of the jokes registered with the younger, foreign audience), or just the script trying too hard. The main examples were the slow slug, funny briefly but it went on too long and Art's extra toe, which was met by blank faces all round.

To Conclude

Monsters University will charm and entertain everyone, with hilarious nods to the first film and lots of fresh new jokes. You'll enjoy the antics of Mike and Sulley, maybe not quite as much as Inc., but it's gloriously Pixar anyway.

Special mention to

Saschka Unseld's The Blue Umbrella, a cute short which debuts before MU. Whilst the story isn't anything especially new, the animation is peerless (you'll believe me when you see it), the scoring is beautiful and it is an enjoyable, touching few minutes to add anyone's day.