Sorry, no movie review this week. The box office was kind of starved this weekend; guess everyone’s afraid to release anything in the wake of Batman. So I thought I’d take this opportunity to quickly go over all of this year’s films I’ve seen so far. Hope this gives you an idea of my taste in film.
Chronicle
A fun new take on the found footage genre and a great way of showing the origin of a supervillain. The creators of this film are great young new talent and I can’t wait to see what they’ll cook up next. 8.5/10
The Woman in Black
Haven’t seen the stage play so I can’t compare, but it works as film on its own. It is genuinly creepy at times and is good start for the return of Hammer. I can’t help but feel that Daniel Radcliffe was miscast, but he does fine with the material. 7/10
Ghost Rider: Spirit of Vengeance
Oh, Neveldine and Taylor. You suckered me in once again and crush my hopes in your hands and then spat on them. No amount of brilliant and creative camera work or decent special effects can save this unoriginal, plodding, neutered mess of a movie. Not even Nicolas Cage’s overacting could push this past anything more than mediocrity. 5.5/10
21 Jump Street
Biggest surprise of the year so far. What could have easily been another teen raunchfest is instead a clever, self-referential mash-up of cop and high school movies. It also shows that Channing Tatum has a bright future in comedy if he actively pursues it. 8.5/10
John Carter
While I don’t think it’s the train wreck most make it out to be, it’s far from perfect. The pacing is erratic, it takes far too long to get exciting, and Taylor Kitsch is an uninteresting leading man. However, the visual design and the action scenes push it over the line to make an enjoyable ride if you lower your expectations. 6/10
The Hunger Games
An interesting and enjoyable, if somewhat unoriginal, experience. Jennifer Lawrence continues to prove herself to be an effective leading lady, and the film really creates some large stakes for our main characters to overcome which leads to some genuinely emotional scenes. Now only if they could keep the f***ing camera still! 8/10
The Pirates! In an Adventure With Scientists
While certainly not Aardman’s best work, it is a hilarious movie for both kids and adults. It’s great to see claymation still in use, and who better to do it that the masters of the art. 8/10
Battleship
Where to begin on this one? How about the end? F*** this movie and all its peers. I hope this method of filmmaking dies out before we are subjected to Connect 4: The Movie. 3/10
The Cabin in the Woods
HOLY S***! This movie is awesome! After many delays, this movie finally came out and blew all of my expectations. I can’t say anything without spoiling the experience, but if you love horror-comedies and you haven’t seen this yet, what is wrong with your brain? 10/10
The Avengers
After five years of teasing, the ultimate movie team-up has finally come and it does not disappoint. The film delivers on both the action and the characters, and shows that explosions and massive property destruction doesn’t always mean dumb and obnoxious. Joss Whedon can officially crown himself King of the Nerds for accomplishing what I think no other writer/director could, and I’m anticipating how the guys at Marvel are going to top this. 9.5/10
The Dictator
Sacha Baron Cohen finally moves out of the mockumentary format (or should I say “shockumentary”?) and tries a more traditional approach in this zany comedy. While it lacks the charm of Borat, it still made me laugh consistently and that’s all I was asking for. 8/10
The Raid
Now this is how you do action. One of the most brutal, fast-paced and energetic films I have ever seen. Who cares if the plot here is generic? It’s simply there to set up some of the most interesting and violent hand-to-hand fight scenes ever caught on film. Die Hard, eat your heart out! 9/10
Prometheus
Ridley Scott, you now how to raise our hopes and then make us respond with a confused “ummm…”. Whilst a visual masterpiece and full of interesting ideas and performances (particularly from The Fassbender), the film quickly becomes a somewhat predictable sci-fi horror that seems more interested in raising more questions that answering the ones it initially asked. 8/10
Snow White & The Huntsman
A beautiful visual design and impressive technical display on all fronts is tarnishing by poor pacing and ho-hum performances from the entire cast. It’s very clear Rupert Sanders has no experience in feature films and I think he should stick to what he knows rather than stick his nose in an already crowded business. Could have been so much better in more skilled hands. 7/10
Abraham Lincoln: Vampire Hunter
Get past the silly premise and you’ll find a film that knows exactly what it is but doesn’t shove it in your face. Benjamin Walker shows serious acting promise in a film that doesn’t exactly call for it, but if you throw out all your sense of logic and physics out the window, you just might enjoy yourself. And seriously, if “horse-throwing” doesn’t become a meme up there with “fridge-nuking”, I will shove it down the Internet’s throat until it does. 7.5/10
The Amazing Spider-Man
Was it too soon to reboot Spider-Man? Maybe. Was this movie made more because Sony wanted to keep the rights rather than because of creative integrity? Possibly. But should that stop the movie from being good. Hell no! This movie captures the Spider-Man I know in a much more mature way that any of Raimi’s movies did (and I still like those). Andrew Garfield is the perfect Peter Parker for our time and his chemistry with Emma Stone is through the roof. Marc Webb proves he can handle the weight of a big budget blockbuster and comes out with a film that will thoroughly entertain despite its problems. 9/10
That’s it for now! Have a good weekend.
Next week: TED
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