Two For Tuesday - This Is The End / The World's End

The End is Nighy

In a recent review, I commented on how Hollywood sometimes replicates certain film premises, and sometimes even whole plots. Earlier this year we had the post-apocalyptic films After Earth and Oblivion, and in the past few weeks, two films dealing with the actual apocalypse have been released; This Is The End and The World's End.  See the similar names?  That's the give-away. Whilst one comes from America and the other Britain, they are both filled with famous comedy actors, laugh-out-loud moments and the end of civilisation as we know it.  However, their methods of telling these apocalyptic tales differ greatly.

The Rapture of Los Angeles...
not just these three people...

This Is The End was released back in June and centred on how a group of A-list comedy actors such as Seth Rogen, James Franco, Emma Watson and Michael Cera cope with the end of the world. Since the word 'apocalypse' has been thrown around in such a blasé fashion these days, I feel I must differentiate between the types of apocalypse that these two films depict.  This Is The End features a Biblical Rapture-style apocalypse, where the morally-righteous people ascend up to Heaven and the morally-bankrupt are left to suffer demons and hellfire.  The group of Hollywood actors, all attending a party at James Franco's house, are pretty much the only people remaining after the Rapture and that in itself is quite a humorous idea. As Seth Rogen and co-star Jay Baruchel run down the chaotic, yet desolate streets of post-Rapture Los Angeles, they arrive at James Franco's house, where not a single Hollywood A-lister has been deemed worthy to enter Heaven. I don't know what hell-worthy things Emma Watson has done, but Hermione is stuck on Earth with the rest of them.

English girls don't do well in LA...

The trailer for This Is The End seemed to focus purely on how unprepared these actors were for such an event, shirking responsibility when having to venture for supplies, improperly barricading the house and childishly fighting over a solitary Milky Bar chocolate, and that's the film I wanted to see. With the actors playing twisted versions of themselves, Michael Cera especially, I wanted a biting, satirical look into Hollywood actors are incredibly pampered and ultimately clueless. To it's credit, it does start poking fun at the idea of self-centred celebrities, Jonah Hill in particular referring to himself as “Jonah Hill... from Moneyball” when praying, and thinking that celebrities such as himself and George Clooney will be the first to be rescued in an emergency such as theirs, but it never delves too far. It slowly stops being an acerbic look into fame and starts becoming the stoner-comedies for which the main stars are known.

Don't get me wrong, there are quite a lot of funny gags in the film, mainly during the promising opening act, with Michael Cera's hideous caricature getting the main laughs, but the film failed to live up to the beginning set-up, becoming more and more silly and disappointing as the film went on, culminating in such a ludicrous and audience-pleasing finale, I cringed all the way through it.

That disappointment only increased my expectations for the finale to Simon Pegg, Nick Frost and Edgar Wright's Blood and Ice Cream trilogy, The World's End, released this week.

One of my favourite trilogies of all time,
even though it's a technically 'unofficial' trilogy

Simon Pegg plays Gary King, the once-leader of a lovable and aspirational gang of five lads growing up in a sleepy Southern town. He yearns to relive the night from his past that topped all others; when the five lads left high school and failed to conquer the Golden Mile, a pub crawl consisting of all twelve village pubs. Gary reunites the old friends to try and complete the Mile, despite how successful and distant the four friends have become. Along their crawl, they discover not all is what it was in Newton Haven. People seem cold and robotic, as if they've been replaced...

Always dressed for the occasion...

The World's End carries on the tradition set out in Shaun of the Dead and Hot Fuzz, by balancing very ordinary people and very extraordinary circumstances; this time, an alien invasion apocalypse. Pegg and Wright stated that since Shaun had been their horror film and Fuzz was their action film, they wanted to complete the trilogy with TWE being their science-fiction adventure. They delivered. 

As usual, the film is completely filled with visual references to the genre it belongs to, whilst adding a fresh and innovative flair to the standards set by classic science-fiction before it. Wright's direction has impressively matured from the experimental style of Spaced, the TV series where he first worked with Pegg and Frost, and he has now been able to combine subtlety and excitement into incredible fluid camera movements, especially in madcap fight scenes that reminded me of his previous film, Scott Pilgrim vs. The World.

They had to do countless re-takes
for some reason...

The main double-act of Pegg and Frost are fantastic throughout the film, as well as the other three reunited group members (Martin Freeman, Eddie Marsan, Paddy Considine) and the cameo from ever-present Bill Nighy.  But seeing the dynamic shift between the two main leads was very interesting to see from a fan's perspective.  In Shaun and Fuzz, Pegg played the straight-man who coped with his partner Frost, epitomising the loafish idiot.  However Pegg's character Gary King defines wasted youth.  Obviously having drunk and smoked most of his life away, his obsession with reliving his past and capturing the glory days is initially endearing, but ultimately devastating to see how such promise has deteriorated to King's current state. Pegg's ability to make King so annoying and yet so lovable is wonderful to experience. He has the innocence of the Andrex puppy, mainly due to having the same IQ.  Yet the frustration felt by the four returning men can be so easily understood.  The film is all about the friendship between the five of them, not the apocalypse that happens in the background.

That's what defines The World's End and the ultimate difference between the two films; The World's End contains a heartfelt and touching storyline, rather than This Is The End; an interesting premise that is stretched out until it becomes boring. The dynamic between the two leads is an essential element to the film that helps keep you interested throughout, and was much more believable than Seth and Jay's relationship from This Is The End. The A-listers grow apart due to fame becoming a divider, rather than Gary King's self-destruction, a much more relatable problem.

I could go on for a while about how The World's End is intricately designed and obviously filled with care and love by a true auteur director, but it'd be much easier to watch it yourselves. It's a film that can be watched on multiple occasions and you can take away different aspects every single time. This Is The End is a fun laugh for a night where you just want to switch off and have a silly time, but The World's End is, by far, the better option. They manage to combine the topics of alienation, misspent youth, “Starbucking”, freedom, indoctrination, loss of identity and school discos all into one pub crawl.   I'll drink to that.

This Is The End – 5

The World's End – 9

Pacific Rim

More Beneath The Surface

Go, go, Power Rangers!

Film fans will not be unfamiliar with the concept of gigantic monsters rampaging through cities, leaving an incredible amount of destruction in their path.  Even though most of the current youth first encountered this type of overblown action on Saturday morning TV with the Mighty Morphin' Power Rangers, the most famous of all these monsters could be considered to be Godzilla (originally called Gojira), whose début in 1954 led the way for countless sequels and imitations to follow behind him.  Enough time passed for the mutated lizard to go State-side and in 1998, Roland Emmerich brought Godzilla to American shores, where he destroyed New York City instead of Tokyo. This feat was repeated and homaged by Cloverfield ten years later, and this week auteur Mexican director Guillermo del Toro releases Pacific Rim.

Pacific Rim gets to the heart of the matter very quickly and rarely moves from the core idea for the duration of the film; evil monsters are coming to destroy us, so let's build gigantic robots to fight them.  Every ten-year old's dream movie. And every adult with the mind of a ten-year old. *ahem* 

To illustrate the size of both the Jaegers and Kaiju...

The film's antagonists are referred to as 'kaiju', meaning 'strange creature' or 'monster', and they are hell bent on destroying humankind.  To retaliate, humans put aside their differences and create the Jaeger program; 250 foot tall robots, operated by two human drivers who are connected via a 'neural bridge'. Our hero is Raleigh (Charlie Hunnam), a Jaeger pilot who lost his brother to a Kaiju's destruction and vows to seek revenge on the monsters who destroyed his life.  To help him are Idris Elba's Army Marshall and Rinko Kikuchi's Jaeger co-pilot Mako Mori.

As close to The Mountains of Madness
we or del Toro will get for some time...

Now let's get the obvious out of the way; the Kaiju vs Jaeger battles are out of this world.  They are visually breathtaking and awe-inspiring.  Not only because of the beautiful design of both opponents, but the roller-coaster rides that are the battles are joys to behold.  Most people have dismissed the idea of the film because it comes across as Transformers or Real Steel and there is an argument to envoke the memory of these previous robot fighting machine films.  However, neither Transformers or Real Steel had the soul that lives in this film or are handled in the same way as Pacific Rim. 

Transformers: Racism In Disguise

When the Jaeger pilots are outside their mechanical suits, the repetitive strategy meetings and inspirational battle-cries can be described as quite nuts-and-bolts, but when they are inside the machines, the fights are captivating and easy to follow. With Transformers, the director Michael Bay simply wanted as much confusing, visually-complicated carnage on the screen without caring for the background of the characters or their intricate designs, the exact opposite of del Toro's obvious dedication to this project.  Each Kaiju has been carefully worked on and intricately designed, given their own personalities and traits.  It's only a small thing, but as is often the case with Guillermo del Toro's films, the small things make the biggest impact.

However as I previously stated, when the actors try to inject some human elements to the story, the film begins to falter and slow down.  The lead characters rarely inspire any empathy or adulation, as they appear quite two-dimensional and simply a method of del Toro trying to represent all corners of the world coming together in one small military unit. Although, since the film clearly knows it's not trying to be diplomatic and earth-shatteringly brilliant in it's dramatics, it can be forgiven in casting a blockhead jock as the main hero, a honour-bound, strong-willed Asian as it's female heroine and two bumbling cartoonish scientists, hell-bent on figuring out the Kaiju's mysteries. On the other hand, the two inspired casting decisions were the del Toro-regular Ron Perlman as the selfish black-market dealer Hannibal Chau and Idris Elba, finally using his real English accent on the big screen, as the strong, powerful Stacker Pentecost. (How amazing are those names?!)

These two could take on the Kaiju without Jaegers

It's not going to win any awards, but Pacific Rim is simply a rollercoaster of fun. Whether you want to relive childhood memories of the Power Rangers, watch Mr Elba chew the scenery as only he can do or see some of the most imaginative film monsters for quite some time now. It can be seen as both a great creature feature and just a mindless action flick. Feel free to switch off and watch the carnage or pay attention to a film that has had such intricate care and attention.  Michael Bay, take note.

Rating - 8/10

Top Five Friday : Upcoming 2013 Films

Last week on Top Five Friday, I listed the best films that have been released so far this year.  But this week I felt that instead of looking behind, I should look forward to the rest of 2013.  So here are the five films that I believe will be worth your hard-earned money.

Only God Forgives – Released August 2^nd

Ryan Gosling stars as Julian, a drug-smuggler thriving in the criminal underworld of Bangkok. After his brother is murdered, he is compelled by his mother to find out the truth surrounding his death and enact revenge on his killer.

From director Nicolas Winding Refn, Only God Forgives sees him reteaming with Ryan Gosling, who starred in Refn's previous film Drive. Drive was, by far, one of the best films of 2011, with Refn and Gosling giving incredible direction and a powerful performance respectively. Ever since Bronson, I've been awed by Refn's ability to balance character development, storyline and brutal scenes of bloody violence, and I'm hoping for the same from this. The level of violence took me by surprise in Drive, but the trailer for Only God Forgives hardly shirks away from wearing it's violence on it's sleeve.

Even if Only God Forgives fails to live up to the expectation raised due to the surprise critical success of Drive, I'm sure it will make for a captivating and interesting watch.

Alan Partridge – Released August 7^th

AHA! Finally Steve Coogan's most famous character gets taken to the silver screen! Carrying on from his Mid Morning Matters web-based series, Alan is working at a radio station that gets taken over by a disgruntled ex-employee. Alan is sent in to negotiate and gets taken hostage instead. Hilarity will ensue.

I'm such a huge fan of Coogan and there has been rumour of a Partridge circulating for years, so I was overjoyed when a script was confirmed as written and the trailer was finally released! The script was worked on by writers such as Peter Baynham and Armando Iannucci, some of the funniest people currently writing British sitcoms, and from the evidence of the trailer, it's going to contain such as many laughs as the TV series with characters such as Michael The Geordie and the ever put-down Lynn making their return. Even if you haven't seen I'm Alan Partridge, I'm sure you will still appreciate the humour and find it much funnier than films like Scary Movie V, Movie 43 and The Hangover Part III.

Captain Phillips – Released October 18^th

Tom Hanks returns to iconic drama roles as the eponymous Captain Richard Phillips, who was taken hostage by Somali pirates back in 2009.  Helmed by incredibly versatile and gritty director Paul Greengrass, the story will be a realistic portrayal of the true life event with Hanks bearding up and returning to the sea.  There is high potential for Greengrass to repeat the success that he encountered with the similar film United 93, which portrayed the final moments of the passengers who fought off their plane's hijackers on September 11^th, 2001.  Both Greengrass and Hanks know how to balance tension and realistic drama, which could combine into a draining and exhilarating retelling of one man's sacrifice.

Thor: The Dark World - Released October 30th 

The lead up to The Avengers 2 continues.  This time, we return to Asgard to see how everyone's favourite God of Thunder has been since we last saw him.  Loki has been returned, Odin continues to rule, but Thor must return to Earth and his love, Jane, to defend us against oncoming threats; found in Christopher Eccleston's Malekith and his army of Dark Elves from Svartalfheim.

Thor was easily my favourite of the Avenger-Assembling films. It contained wit, action, humour and heart. Chris Hemsworth was a great casting decision as the Demi-God, with his charisma winning me over with his first shining grin, as well as Tom Hiddleston as the mischievous Loki. Kenneth Branagh managed to convince me of the existence of an entirely implausible world such as Asgard through an honest and blunt approach, with characters appearing truly three-dimensional, even if they could control lightning bolts and fly. This film looks like it's carrying on straight where it left off. The action looks explosive, the villains look terrifying and Loki just looks awesome. Bring on more hammer-swinging!

Don Jon - Released November 15th

Originally titled Don Jon's Addiction, Joseph Gordon-Levitt's directorial debut tells the story of Jon (nicknamed Don Jon), a man with an obsession with pornography. This leads him to have unrealistic expectations with love and sex, especially with his new girlfriend Scarlett Johansson. With the help of his family, friends and church, he works on finding happiness and intimacy in real life, rather than that on his laptop.

From his incredible performances in films such as Mysterious Skin, 50/50 and Brick, JGL has easily become one of my favourite actors and I can't wait to see how his life spent in the film industry will influence his directorial style. With supporting roles filled with talents such as Brie Larson, Julianne Moore and Scarlett Johansson, I'm quite excited to see the ensemble performance they will give, especially Ms Johansson.  From the trailer, she looks like she's able to finally show her acting capability rather than just being a pretty face.

And that's the five. I really do hope these live up to the expectations that I have for them. But I do recommend that you keep an eye out for these five films.  Thanks for reading and I'll see you next week for more Top Five Friday!

Two For Tuesday - Mama / Silent Hill

Earlier this year, Andrés Muschietti and Guillermo del Toro released the horror film Mama, a story about two young girls who are raised in the forest by an unseen force. The girls' father takes them into the forest intending to end all of their lives, but is attacked by a mysterious entity before he can complete his plan. Five years later, the girls are discovered and brought back to civilisation where they tell stories of their protector, simply calling it 'Mama'. The girls' uncle, played by Game of Thrones star Nikolaj Coster-Waldau, takes the girls into his home and begins to raise them, along with his punk rocker girlfriend Annabel, played by Oscar-nominated Jessica Chastain.

As the make-shift parents begin to take care of the girls, the strain begins to take its toll on Annabel, who doesn't want to be the girls' new maternal figure, striving for freedom to play in her band. However despite this, the girls begin to bond with Annabel and reluctantly vice versa, causing 'Mama' to become increasingly jealous. 'Mama' begins to act out towards Annabel, culminating with Annabel fighting the supernatural force for the children which she never thought she'd care for.

Mama was a refreshing change within the horror genre, since the characters felt more realistic than those found in a typical ghostly thriller. Unfortunately, as a big Game of Thrones fan, I was hoping to see more of Coster-Waldau, who plays Jaime Lannister in the HBO series, but his role is quite insignificant compared to those of the film's women. Where most films usually would focus on Annabel trying to connect and be a mother to the girls, it was innovative to have a woman striving for freedom, and who did not really care for the adopted kids, heartless as that may sound. Annabel seemed more of a three-dimensional person with selfish aspirations, who's character development could be believable and interesting. Their central relationship and the theme of a mother/daughter bond made me recall another horror film featuring the same motifs; Silent Hill.

Silent Hill is a disturbing and grotesque gem of a horror movie, adapted from a highly-acclaimed video-game. A young American couple, Rose (Radha Mitchell) and Christopher (Sean Bean, another Game of Thrones star, unfortunately sporting an incredibly irritating American accent), adopt Sharon, a young girl who constantly suffers from nightmares of a place called Silent Hill. So like every sensible mother would do, Rose takes her adopted daughter to the ghost town of Silent Hill to try and cure her of these dreams. (There's proper horror-movie-logic for you!) Unforeseen complications leave Rose alone in the ghost town and searching for Sharon who has disappeared. During the search, Silent Hill's history is slowly revealed to Rose, all surrounding an old witch-hunting cult and a victimised young girl who suspiciously bears a resemblance to Sharon.

Now with the exception of the Game of Thrones men, the main cast of both films are women, a relatively rare feat for horror films today, since through the years they have either been gender-neutral (Final Destination/Saw etc.) or male-orientated (The Thing, Death Watch, Outpost).  I find both films unique as both focus on rarely touched subjects, such as the bond between mother and daughter, with Silent Hill containing the more probing aspects of gender persecution and victimisation.  Male characters in both films are seen as ineffective meddlers, brutal destructors or insidious molesters, highlighted by Silent Hill's Janitor-creature and the iconic Pyramid Head.  Too often horror movies stereotype and victimise their starring women and I feel like Mama and Silent Hill fight against those standards. Mama's Annabel and Silent Hill's Rose and police officer Cybil fight for their freedom as well as what they hold dear, showing strength in their emotional and physical sides.

Whilst the films share a common gender theme, the films differ in their treatment of the overall horror aspects. Silent Hill is made only more frightening and detailed by the exposure of it's monsters, whereas I felt that this is where Mama lacked quality. Don't get me wrong; there are sections of Mama that truly frightened me, but just not as often as Silent Hill. During Mama, you are subtly shocked by surprises and intrigued into a scene before being shown the full picture and I appreciated the way Muschietti and del Toro held back on showing 'Mama' for as long as they could.  However, these moments happened so infrequently that I was disappointed when subtlety disappeared and Muschietti decided to reveal 'Mama' in all her cartoon-ish glory.  The previously-discussed Pyramid Head, the Janitor and the terrifying Grey Children of Silent Hill all added to the horrific alternative reality and fleshed out the world that they inhabit, but the evil spirit of 'Mama' disappointed me.  It's full form was revealed too early and looked like a child's drawing than an all-powerful threatening ghoul, ultimately negating all tension in the final scenes where Mama is in full view.

I must reiterate that I enjoyed both films, but I thought Mama could have done more with it's potential. It slipped into standard horror clichés too quickly based on the strength of it's original premise.   However both films are fine examples of alternative horror movies, with women being the kick-ass heroines, rather than the victimised babysitters that were so popular in the '70s and '80s.  

(I should also recommend the British horror film The Descent when discussing effectively threatening, all-female thrillers but the feature is called 'Two For Tuesday' and it had to be sacrificed, but it is an equally terrifying and powerful film!)

Mama - 6/10

Silent Hill - 8/10

Top Five Friday - Best and Worst Of 2013 (So Far...)

So here we are. Six months of films have passed us by, and whilst I haven't been able to see all the films that have been released, I'm quite certain of the best and worst five films that I have seen so far this year. Without any ado, let's get to the fifth worst film of the year.

5. The Incredible Burt Wonderstone

The premise of Steve Carell playing a flamboyant Las Vegas magician had some potential for laughs, and the inclusion of solid comic actors such as Steve Buscemi and Jim Carrey only increased the likelihood of this doing the trick. But somehow, they managed to pull a stinker out of the hat. The film ditches original story-lines and character arcs for the fish-out-of-water awkward comedy, twinned with emotional retribution schlock. Carrey and Buscemi are wasted as two-dimensional bit players, whilst the film focuses on Wonderstone's frankly infeasible relationship with the also underused Olivia Wilde. Film-makers! Never put words like 'Incredible' in your film's title, it only makes it easier for us critics.

4. Olympus Has Fallen

Ahh the film that was pitched to the audiences, and most likely, the studio executives as “Die Hard in The White House”. If only Gerard Butler carried an ounce of John McClane's charm, swagger or personality. North Korea take over The White House and hold the American President hostage. Loud noises. Bullet battles. Lots of innocent casualites. I fell asleep. Just endless action sequences which quickly became stupid and pointless, twinned with bad lip-syncing, editing and special effects. Let's just hope White House Down does a better job since it is the exact same storyline except for the President's ethnicity.

3. 21 And Over

Sigh, this film. Billed as 'a teenage Hangover' (which to me was just the original Dude, Where's My Car?) and written by those that scripted The Hangover, the film follows two idiotic college freshmen who try to get their Asian friend home after he passes out celebrating his 21^st birthday.  But, oops, they don't know where he lives! Cue endless montages of American frat parties, filled with mindless stereotypical jocks, nerds and stoners.  Oh and the minorities! Can't forget them!  The several stereotyped minorities that are strewn throughout this shambolic film make you feel like it's trying to acerbic and satirical, like the Harold and Kumar films, but instead they're just offensive.

2. The Hangover Part III

And from the imitation Hangover film to the sequel that no one expected, wanted, or asked for. Except movie studios, of course, trying to squeeze the last possible dollar out of a franchise. Now I liked the original Hangover film.  The solitary night through Las Vegas did have some unbelievable features, such as Mike Tyson's tiger, but Part III simply becomes ludicrous and insulting. Doing away with the 'lost-memory' format of the previous two instalments, the film fails to even feel like a part of it's own franchise. Both the cast and crew seemed to be coasting through it, even embarrassed by some of the stuff they are putting together and no-one on screen seems to be having a good time, character or actor. I will genuinely weep if The Hangover Part IV is greenlit. Don't break me, Hollywood!

And the Worst Film of 2013 So Far...

1. Scary Movie V

Good God, I honestly sat through this movie. I deserve a medal for that alone. I can't believe I did. It was just horrendously bad. It is a comedy, without jokes. A pastiche of horror/scary movies, where the main films parodied are Black Swan, Inception and Rise of the Planet of the Apes? So that's a trio of dramatic thrillers?  Topical.  Scary Movie V has people getting hit on the head by frying pans, people getting hit by buses, people farting; all the classic comic standards, and I loathed every single thing in this film. I cannot say anything more than this. Avoid this dross like the plague, it'll make you dumber for the experience. Plus it'll give Hollywood the hint that movies such as these earn so little money, that they will stop churning them out like production-line fake vomit.

Sigh. That vent was needed. Yet, a horrible reminder of some of the most boring and tedious times I've had to endure this year.  I need to cheer myself up and remind myself of how fantastic this year has been too. So let's go through my top five films of the year so far.

5. The Place Beyond The Pines

An almost-Greek tragedy drama following the lives of Ryan Gosling's amateur bank-robber, police officer-turned-politician Bradley Cooper and their impact on their families. I was a big fan of the director, Derek Cianfrance's previous film, Blue Valentine, and so was eager to see the next instalment of his and Gosling collaboration. Gosling is fast becoming one of my favourite low-key actors, where he manages to convey a lot of emotion by doing very little. Cooper also flexes his dramatic muscle, continuing to slowly become more than "That Handsome Hangover Guy". I did start to lose interest in the final third, but that shouldn't overshadow the fantastic preceding drama.  A must-see.

4. Hitchcock

I had a small amount of hesitation before watching the Alfred Hitchcock loose biopic, mainly due to films such as The Birds and Rear Window holding a special place in my memory. The initial images of Anthony Hopkins in a fat suit made me feel uneasy as I worried it would stumble into pastiche and mockery. But my fears were unfounded, as the film was a splendid mixture of black comedy and drama, all against the backdrop of Psycho's construction. Hopkins is superb playing Hitchcock, slowly morphing into the man before your eyes. It did stumble sometimes into melodrama, with Hitchcock's relationship with his wife slightly corny at times, but overall it is a must for film fans, as well as being easily enjoyable for normal non-nerds too.

3. Wreck-It Ralph

Disney's 52^nd animated feature saw John C. Reilly voice the video-game villain Wreck-It Ralph, who simply wants to be the good guy for once. An honest, heartfelt comedy, reference-heavy with hundreds of video game jokes to keep the nerds (like me) entertained. Even though I felt that the film could have had a larger variety of video game worlds to explore, the relationships between the characters made up for it. Ralph begins a fatherly friendship with an outcast from a different video game, with that being the core of the film, and it successfully suited Disney's heart-tugging methods. Much more impressive than last year's Pixar film Brave. In my opinion, Pixar would have contributed much more gravitas and humour into the film, but Disney's version is more than enough exciting adventure for the family to enjoy.

2. Star Trek Into Darkness

Now I know I have already reviewed this film earlier this year, but I couldn't have my Top Five films of 2013 without mentioning it.  It is rare with Hollywood's current releases to find a film that not only is fantastic, but an improvement on it's predecessor! The 2009 reboot of the Star Trek franchise was a commercial and, surprisingly, critical hit that Into Darkness helped solidify.  Kirk and his loyal crew return to face a home-grown threat, found in the amazing and terrifying Benedict Cumberbatch.  With J.J. Abrams at the helm, inspired by greats such as Spielberg, my hopes are high for the Star Wars sequel that is next on Abrams' schedule.

And my favourite film of 2013 so far...

1. Stoker

Stoker recently had the reputation of being “one of the best unproduced screenplays going in Hollywood”. Written by Wentworth Miller (Michael Schofield from Prison Break fame), the film centres on the coming-of-age of a girl played by Mia Wasikowska. Her father tragically dies, bringing the sudden appearance of her charismatic Uncle Charlie. His arrival upsets the family balance, creating havoc in their once-peaceful world, as something is suspicious about Uncle Charlie.

This relatively-small independent film almost passed me by if it weren't for the director, Park Chan-wook. Chan-wook is a South Korean director, most famous for his 'Vengeance film trilogy' and is a personal favourite of mine. Stoker is his first English-language film and he certainly brings his stylistic eye to the visuals throughout the film. I was literally speechless at the end of Stoker; convinced I had seen a work of art, one I perhaps didn't fully understand. The film holds your attention throughout the film, with a sense of tension and intrigue that you cannot shake. You are captivated by the way Chan-wook utilises every aspect of the film, with plot-twists, gore, sexuality, humour and underlying dread throughout and I was just entranced from beginning to end. I cannot wait to watch this film again, and highly recommend you search it out. If it is not at the top of my list come December 31^st, I will be impressed.

So there we have it! My favourite five films released this year so far, and those that I hope I never see again. Obviously there are hundreds of films to released in the coming months, so expect a lot to change on both lists before December ends. But do I have it wrong? Is there an awful movie that I missed out, or a classic that should be seen by everyone? Let me know and comment below.

Thanks for reading and I'll have a new list on my next Top Five Friday!

Two For Tuesday: After Earth / Oblivion

Sci-Fi Supermarkets and The Pursuit of Apathy

In true Hollywood fashion, a duo of films have been recently released that share an overall theme.  Where before there was Armageddon and Deep Impact, Dante's Peak and Volcano, Antz and A Bug's Life, we now have After Earth and Oblivion.  Unfortunately for us Earth-dwelling humans, the theme is the collapse of human civilisation and the Earth becoming inhospitable.  Even more unfortunate, Hollywood has chosen Tom Cruise and Jaden (son of Will) Smith to star in these post-apocalyptic futures.

We get it;
Ruined Earth = Big,  One Man = Small

So since they share a common theme, they are bound to share other features and they ultimately do.  Both of these films feature an annoying lead character travel on an annoyingly boring quest, whilst an underutilised and more competent secondary character sits in a control room for most of the film's duration, culminating in a disappointing conclusion stolen from another film entirely.  Let's analyse, shall we?

Oblivion takes place years after an alien invasion of Earth, which humans 'won' by deploying nuclear weapons that leave the planet inhospitable.  One of the only people left is Tom Cruise, a security drone repairman who lives with fellow technician Andrea Riseborough.  The drones they repair keep huge Earth-restoring machines safe from pesky sabotaging aliens that keep Tom on his toes. But he keeps getting distracted of visions of a woman he feels like he once knew. Until he conveniently finds a mysterious pod with the woman inside! Plots slowly unravel and Morgan Freeman appears out of nowhere to tell Tom that not everything is as it seems.

And so the Giant Tom Cruise watched
over his sea vacuums patiently...

Sounds promising, yeah? The film truly begins to slide downhill after the discovery of the mystery woman and the conspiracy surrounding Earth's true history. Despite the film trying to pay homage to the science-fiction films of the 1960s and 70s, such as Logan's Run, it never reaches those dystopian goals, falling down on the weak plot, foreseeable narrative twists and sloppy character development.

I wanted to like Cruise in this, as he seemed to fit the character well, but ultimately the story becomes boring and predictable. There is a sleek, intriguing opening act, but the rest of the film fails to deliver on a promising premise, stealing so many references from other science-fiction films. It's almost like the director Joseph Kinsinski simply sat down, watched classic sci-fi films and went “That. I want all of that.” A proverbial sci-fi supermarket for him to pick and choose without having to come up with anything original.

You can plagarise Moon all you like,

but no-one rips off Wall-E 

Speaking of unoriginal directors, shall we move on to M. Night Shyamalan's newest venture? After Earth also holds a rather intriguing plot, with a half-hearted, disappointing payoff. It's a long explanation so bear with me.

This is the face
of a fearless monster killer

In the future, Earth, again, becomes inhospitable due to our extended interference with the atmosphere.  This is twinned with all of the Earth's animal kingdom beginning to evolve into human killers.  So we humans all scarper off to another habitable planet, only to find it populated by other human-killing monsters. Humans can not catch a break in the future. These monsters are also perfect at hunting us... except that they don't have eyes.  Don't know why but instead they sense our fear.  And excitement.  And happiness.  Like any feeling, they can sense it.  Again in true Shyamalan fashion, it's never explained how they do this; they just do.  So, in order to avoid and kill them, a human must not feel fear, and Will Smith is the most cold-hearted SOB in the fleet.

Will and his son, Jaden, go off on a space flight with one of these monsters, for some silly reason, and the ship crashes onto the dreaded inhospitable Earth! Will breaks both of his legs in the crash but healthy Jaden has to retrieve the emergency beacon from another part of the jungle in which they find themselves. He has to evade evil baboons, oversized condors and a dreaded pack of ligers (that's the offspring of a lion and a tiger) and learn to tame his fear to overcome the escaped alien beasty that inexplicably escapes.

Evil, evil monkey...

Let's start off with the obvious stuff. Will Smith should not do a role that is this serious and boring. Neither should his son. They both are so badly-cast, I felt angry at their obvious vanity in casting themselves when other actors would have been better suited for the roles. Actors such as Josh Brolin, Kiefer Sutherland and Idris Elba have made careers playing serious and stoic roles such as this, and could have provided more gravity and intensity that the character needed. I couldn't help look at the poe-faced father and son, and just see a very moody Fresh Prince of Bel Air and Karate Kid.

Also the film came across as simply a Smith-production, and I had an instant dislike to Jaden Smith and the character he portrays, merely due to the fact I know both he and the character got their jobs because of who his father is. It really put me off his character, failing from the start to create an emotional bond with him.  It seemed that the Smiths hadn't gotten enough audience attention from The Pursuit of Happyness, and so felt like making The Pursuit of Apathy instead.

This is what the Smiths should stick to

Technically-speaking, for a movie with this much budget and filmed on so much green screen, the effects looked pretty poor from today's standards.  The threatening Earth animals and interstellar nasties equally looked fake and unrealistic, leaving you with little concern for little Jaden's well-being. The main peril in the film comes from these animal encounters and since I had little care for Jaden's character from the start, the tense chase sequences and animal attacks didn't react with me at all. I wouldn't have cared if he bit the bullet, giving someone more deserving a chance to go to space. Selfish Jaden Smith.

Whilst I had no high hopes for either film, I was still left with a sense of disappointment after watching them both. Oblivion's opening act lifted my expectations, only to dash them in the end, as did the appointment of M. Night Shyamalan's position as After Earth's director. I always go into a film of Night's, hoping he can rekindle the respect I held for him before the débâcle that was The Happening. But he continues plunging ever further away from ever gaining the respect that was awarded him after the release of The Sixth Sense and Unbreakable.

But should I keep holding on hope for that one next film that Mr M. Night or Mr Cruise could potentially make next?  They could become another Eddie Murphy or Mike Myers, slowly slinking away, occasionally bringing the public some pale imitation of what they once were. Or they could possibly follow in the footsteps of Matthew McConaughey; slowly rebuilding credibility, film by film, until they find themselves working on a Christopher Nolan science-fiction film.  Surely the sky (and beyond) is the limit.

Oblivion : 5/10
After Earth : 3/10