Transcendence is a film with a very interesting concept, What would happen if you could upload a persons Electrical Brain Activity into a computer? Can a computer become self aware, and capable of thinking for itself?
This is a film that makes you think about the digital age, and how far technology could progress, with a super intelligent computer connected to the Internet able to research and put together all of the pieces, how quickly it could find answers to things we have been searching for.
The Film is beautifully shot, but I wouldn't expect anything else, as this is the directorial debut of Wally Phister, who has been Christopher Nolan's Cinematographer for many movies, however my issues with it are with the end of the story. For me it wanders a little into the realm of being unbelievable, there are certain decisions that Characters make, that I do not believe would be made in reality. As it is set in the very near future, it feels very current, so does not have the same liberty with facts and laws of physics as maybe something set in an alternative universe or distopian future.
That said, this film certainly made me think, sit up and take note and deals with some very complex issues, an enjoyable film so long as you don't ask to many questions of its plot 7/10
Friday 25 April 2014
The Amazing Spiderman 2
When I reviewed The Amazing Spiderman in 2012 I found myself asking why we needed this reboot so son after the last series of spiderman movies, having now seen the second part, I still have the same question.
There is no doubt that visually, with advances in technology in the last decade, this is a much better looking series of films than the Toby Maguire version, but in terms of screenplay, storyline and acting, I still prefer the Sam Rami 2004 Spiderman 2.
The film felt overly long, it spent far to much time dealing with the on/off relationship between Peter & Gwen to the point of becoming nauseous, and the whole storyline of Peter find out the truth about his father. The film makers seem to have forgotten that this is supposed to be a superhero movie. Then in order to rectify this, they throw in 2 different elements with Electro and Green Goblin, the whole thing could easily lose half an hour an be improved.
Visually this is very good, the CGI is excellent, but once again I come back to my central question, Why do we need the Amazing Spiderman, when less than a decade ago Toby Maguire did a decent, perhaps better, job. 6/10
There is no doubt that visually, with advances in technology in the last decade, this is a much better looking series of films than the Toby Maguire version, but in terms of screenplay, storyline and acting, I still prefer the Sam Rami 2004 Spiderman 2.
The film felt overly long, it spent far to much time dealing with the on/off relationship between Peter & Gwen to the point of becoming nauseous, and the whole storyline of Peter find out the truth about his father. The film makers seem to have forgotten that this is supposed to be a superhero movie. Then in order to rectify this, they throw in 2 different elements with Electro and Green Goblin, the whole thing could easily lose half an hour an be improved.
Visually this is very good, the CGI is excellent, but once again I come back to my central question, Why do we need the Amazing Spiderman, when less than a decade ago Toby Maguire did a decent, perhaps better, job. 6/10
Thursday 10 April 2014
Noah
Darren Aronofsky directs Russell Crowe as Noah in this adaptation of the biblical Noah story, having heard an interview with the director prior to watching this film, I knew it did not rigidly follow the biblical text, however it is not just a few minor details that are different, the screenplay/plot vary massively from the biblical story.
For the purposes of this review, I will attempt to put aside the fact that it is wildly inaccurate, and attempt to judge this purely as a piece of film making, and in that sense it is not a bad movie. It is perhaps a little to long, with 30 minutes to go I was looking at the time on my watch, which is an indication that I had lost interest at that point, the story plods along at quite a pedestrian pace at times, and I think this would benefit from losing 15 minutes here and there to bring it down to 2 hours or less.
I was also not sure about the use of the Watchers, Aronofsky has clearly seen this as a fantasy film, and as lost the sense of it's setting, and turned it into the bible meets Transformers.
On the plus side, Crowe does a decent job as Noah, and Emma Watson adds to my growing appreciation of her talent. despite the flaws with the plot, the film is very well shot, and the landscapes pre and post flood are beautiful.
As a piece of cinematography, this is a very good film, but it is hard to ignore it faults in terms of screenplay and storyline 6/10
For the purposes of this review, I will attempt to put aside the fact that it is wildly inaccurate, and attempt to judge this purely as a piece of film making, and in that sense it is not a bad movie. It is perhaps a little to long, with 30 minutes to go I was looking at the time on my watch, which is an indication that I had lost interest at that point, the story plods along at quite a pedestrian pace at times, and I think this would benefit from losing 15 minutes here and there to bring it down to 2 hours or less.
I was also not sure about the use of the Watchers, Aronofsky has clearly seen this as a fantasy film, and as lost the sense of it's setting, and turned it into the bible meets Transformers.
On the plus side, Crowe does a decent job as Noah, and Emma Watson adds to my growing appreciation of her talent. despite the flaws with the plot, the film is very well shot, and the landscapes pre and post flood are beautiful.
As a piece of cinematography, this is a very good film, but it is hard to ignore it faults in terms of screenplay and storyline 6/10
Tuesday 8 April 2014
Divergent
Based on a Novel by Veronica Roth, Divergent is the latest Teenage Book sensation to be turned into a film. In the post Twilight universe, it bears striking similarities to The Hunger Games, with a strong female lead as the heroine, fighting against governments and oppressors to discover her own identity.
Despite not necessarily being the target market, I enjoyed Divergent immensely. It is set in a world where society is segregated into groups based upon their abilities, when children come of age they must decide which group to join. Beatrice (later know only as Tris) does not conform to one of these groups, and has character traits from several (this is know as divergent) in order for the society to function Divergents are a threat, and are often killed.
Whilst Shailene Woodley is not Jennifer Lawrence, and Tris is not Katniss Everdeen, I found Tris to be a very interesting character, battling with her own sense of identity and belonging, in a world where the head of the intellectuals (Played by Kate Winslett) tells her that Human Nature is a bad thing, and will ruin society.
I was very pleased that Victoria Roth avoids the Cliche love triangle often seen in other films of this genre. Twilight, The Hunger Games and The Mortal Instruments have done it all before and its getting a bit nauseating, so only having the one love interest for our female lead is a refreshing change, and allows more time for plot development, rather than dealing with complex relationships.
The Plot is great, there is clearly a well written book as source material here, and I am looking forward to watching Insurgent and Allegiant in the years to come. 9.5/10
Despite not necessarily being the target market, I enjoyed Divergent immensely. It is set in a world where society is segregated into groups based upon their abilities, when children come of age they must decide which group to join. Beatrice (later know only as Tris) does not conform to one of these groups, and has character traits from several (this is know as divergent) in order for the society to function Divergents are a threat, and are often killed.
Whilst Shailene Woodley is not Jennifer Lawrence, and Tris is not Katniss Everdeen, I found Tris to be a very interesting character, battling with her own sense of identity and belonging, in a world where the head of the intellectuals (Played by Kate Winslett) tells her that Human Nature is a bad thing, and will ruin society.
I was very pleased that Victoria Roth avoids the Cliche love triangle often seen in other films of this genre. Twilight, The Hunger Games and The Mortal Instruments have done it all before and its getting a bit nauseating, so only having the one love interest for our female lead is a refreshing change, and allows more time for plot development, rather than dealing with complex relationships.
The Plot is great, there is clearly a well written book as source material here, and I am looking forward to watching Insurgent and Allegiant in the years to come. 9.5/10
Tuesday 1 April 2014
The Raid 2
The Raid 2 picks up shortly after the original film, This time Rama goes into prison undercover in order to infiltrate the gangs of Jakata, and expose police corruption.
I guess the first thing to say, is that this is an extremely violent film, it's marshal arts are very brutal in places, if you have seen the original riad film then you will know what to expect. It is also not in English, so following the subtitles can be a little difficult in places, especially in a couple of scenes where they are talking quickly.
My main issues with this film though are not the subtitles or the violence, but for me the cinematography makes this is very difficult film to follow, the whole thing is extremely dark, I felt like I wanted someone to turn up the brightless level so I could actually see what was going on, even in situations where the chracters were outside during the day, the brightness level is to low.
The camera work during the fight scenes was a problem for me, the action is pretty full on, but it is shot with hand held cameras and there is an awful lot of camera movement, which at some points made if very difficult to follow what was going on. Another issue is the choreography of the fight scenes being totally unrealistic, on several occasions one person ends up fighting a large number of opponents, however it felt like the opponents were playing a tag team, where they would come one at a time, and the others would stand back and watch until someone got incapacitated or killed and then the next would attack, taking out 10 people one at a time is much easier than 10 at one, in reality surely all 10 would attack and overwhelm the one.
add all of that with the fact that it was a late night showing and I was tired, and I quickly lost the will to see this trhrough to the end, at nearly 2 and a half hours long, this could also do with being a lot shorter 4/10
I guess the first thing to say, is that this is an extremely violent film, it's marshal arts are very brutal in places, if you have seen the original riad film then you will know what to expect. It is also not in English, so following the subtitles can be a little difficult in places, especially in a couple of scenes where they are talking quickly.
My main issues with this film though are not the subtitles or the violence, but for me the cinematography makes this is very difficult film to follow, the whole thing is extremely dark, I felt like I wanted someone to turn up the brightless level so I could actually see what was going on, even in situations where the chracters were outside during the day, the brightness level is to low.
The camera work during the fight scenes was a problem for me, the action is pretty full on, but it is shot with hand held cameras and there is an awful lot of camera movement, which at some points made if very difficult to follow what was going on. Another issue is the choreography of the fight scenes being totally unrealistic, on several occasions one person ends up fighting a large number of opponents, however it felt like the opponents were playing a tag team, where they would come one at a time, and the others would stand back and watch until someone got incapacitated or killed and then the next would attack, taking out 10 people one at a time is much easier than 10 at one, in reality surely all 10 would attack and overwhelm the one.
add all of that with the fact that it was a late night showing and I was tired, and I quickly lost the will to see this trhrough to the end, at nearly 2 and a half hours long, this could also do with being a lot shorter 4/10
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