World War Z

Trailer- http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4EC7P5WdUko

How freaking awesome are zombies? They seem to have infected [I'm sorry] pop-culture in the last few years and usually deliver fantastic results. The Resident Evil games. The Walking Dead. We also had the rather brilliant Warm Bodies earlier this year.

World War Z [or World War Zed if you're British] comes out at the peak of this zombie hype and in my opinion it really delivers. It's high octane and tense as hell in parts with only occasional segments of slow-down.

There's not a lot of pussy-footing around at the start of the film. After a nice little title sequence packed full of symbolism and such not an awful lot of time is wasted until Brad Pitt and his family find themselves right in the middle of zombie-geddon. There's 2 minutes of 'look how nice our family life is, we'll just head outside...' then suddenly 'ZOMBIES! HELICOPTERS! ALL OF THE S'PLOSIONS!' It's what you paid to see and it's what you get- and a lot of it.

I've seen the whole family element criticised by other reviewers saying they're pretty useless but I think they do need to be there. They keep Brad Pitt's character Gerry human and gives him something to fight for. The film follows Gerry as he flies over the world getting attacked by zombies here and there. Having the occasional scene of his emotional wife trying to call him while she tucks in his children is a nice reminder that we really don't want Gerry to die.

The scenes in World War Z where there are masses and masses of zombies- ie what you see on the posters - are by far the film's strong point. It's fast paced and excellently shot. One small flaw is the film uses its massive scale blockbuster zombie chase in the middle of the film rather than saving it for the end. What follows isn't boring in the slightest but it's just a shame that nothing quite reaches the chaos and outright madness that is the scene in Jerusalem. If they'd just done that again in another big city I'd be perfectly happy.

If it were that way though we wouldn't get perhaps the tensest scenes I've ever witnessed in a film since Argo. There's a lot of creeping down corridors in silence that had me on the edge of my seat. It doesn't go for the cheap constant jump scares either, it keeps you waiting and the film is better off for it. I've heard it being compared to the air-duct scenes in Alien and I can see why.

There are moments where the film slows down and you kinda wish the zombies would throw open the door and start another well choreographed action scene but it's all worth the wait. I've maybe played a little too much House of The Dead as well but I think it would have been better if a little more gore was shown. Apparently its a PG13 in America so it explains the sudden panning away as a zombie gets a bullet through it's head and the significant lack of blood. It's a 15 in the UK though so it would have been nice to have a gorier version. Just saying- there was a scene with a fast spinning plane propeller and  a runway full of zombies, there's only one way in which it should have ended.

I'm not sure how closely it sticks to the book [I'm willing to guess not much at all] but World War Z is a great zombie film and worthy of your time. If it were maybe just a little more mindless and paced a little better it would be near perfect.

8/10

Main Blog - http://www.elephantchris.blogspot.co.uk/

Man of Steel

Trailer-
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=T6DJcgm3wNY

I've never been that interested in Superman. To me he's like a really over-powered character in a fighting game like Metaknight in Super Smash Brothers who becomes a little boring due to their lack of flaws. Man of Steel does an alright job to make Clark Kent a little more interesting but still feels a little bit meh when compared to almost any other superhero film in the last few years.

It's an origin story of how Superman came to be Superman and we really do see where it all started with Superman's Mum's birth scene starting the film. The thing that struck me most about Man of Steel was how sci-fi it was. The film spends quite a bit of time in space and the first 20 or so minutes feel like a mash of Avatar and John Carter [for all 4 people that saw that]. For those totally ignorant of Superman it definitely does come as a bit of a surprise.

An area of the film that works is how Clark Kent's story is told through flashbacks. Sure it's a little unbelievable that all this blockbuster action sequence stuff all happened to him in his childhood just by chance [a dramatic bus crash, a tornado] but it shows him at his most human...or not as he's an alien. I just felt that the best bits of the film is where you see Superman as a person with emotions and a bit of angst. It stops him from becoming this soulless inhuman alien who can do anything.

The action in the film is also pretty breathtaking and has 'summer blockbuster' written all over it. It's just scene after scene of explosions and falling buildings and the fight scenes are fast and frantic. They could maybe do with a little more heart behind them, there weren't many moments of tension where you really cared for the characters involved. No matter what happened to Superman he was always going to get up and keep fighting, he's Superman. Lois Lane and his mum are quite outside the main action so it's just the 1000s of faceless people in Metropolis we're supposed to worry about.

I found the scenes of Earth far more interesting than when the film got bogged down in Sci-Fi though. Whenever they were in space or Superman's 'real' Dad reappeared in some life-simulation thing I found myself caring less and less. I felt the same when I watched Thor, the best bits of a super-hero film are when they're saving real-life relatable humans and not when they're going on about some deep futuristic plan 1000s of miles away in space.

General Zod works alright as a villain but there has definitely been many more interesting.

It's not a complete disaster but just fails to really stand out next to some other superhero films recently or even some of this year's action blockbusters. It has a few very nice moments and the action is very much worth the price of admission but there's not much else to get really excited about.

7/10


Main Blog: http://www.elephantchris.blogspot.co.uk/

After Earth

Trailer-

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CZIt20emgLY

It's pretty difficult to make a summer blockbuster 'epic' seem really quite boring yet After Earth seems to have done just that. It's not offensively bad but the whole thing is just really...meh.

The film stars Will Smith in a weirdly robotic 'I'm an emotionless dickhead' role and his son Jayden Smith who also plays his son in the film. Set in the future the two crash-land on Earth which was abandoned a long time ago and is apparently swarming with massive evolved animals and horribleness that Jayden Smith's character will have to come face to face with. Sounds like we've got an action packed adventure ahead of us!

What Earth in 1000 years actually contains is a few monkeys, regular sized lions and a big bird that isn't sure if it actually quite likes humans or not. There was a huge potential to create a load of hideous creatures but as it is they don't seem that exciting. This is a major flaw when the main substance of the film comes from the chase scenes and fight scenes. There's enough of it to last a trailer, maybe two, but the rest of the film is void of much else. 

There is a bigger monster that provides the film with it's finale but the Smiths actually bring this monster with them from their home planet which begs the question why not set the whole film there? I'd rather Jayden Smith fight a few more of those massive beasties rather than some characterless CGI'd lions. 

The biggest problem of the film is quite possibly Jayden Smith himself. He is here because his Dad is in the film and it all feels a bit like a Hollywood version of bring your son to work day. He's not given many chances to show emotion and when he does he just makes the face of an angsty teenage boy who's been dumped by a girl via facebook message. Something like this:

Other than the occasional action scene I wasn't really engrossed in the film at all and was constantly aware it was all just CGI and Hollywood sets. Earth has next to no atmosphere and is just...well Earth. Something I found very strange in the film was the almost complete absence of music. It picks up a bit when there's action but otherwise it's Will and Jayden Smith talking sternly to each other in complete silence. There's the sound of animals in the distance and rustlings in the trees but it's more or less the same sounds you could hear on a walk at Haddo House or Kirkhill Forest. Earth may be 1000 years in the future but it doesn't seem to have changed an awful lot. 

I'l end with the positives. The film does have an adventure feel to it and there is a bit of tension as Jayden Smith wonders through the jungle in near silence. The action scenes while not that great do serve up at least a bit of excitement to get you through to the end of the film. The film doesn't do anything massively wrong but just needs to have some kind of emotional backbone or some frantic edge of your seat moments to make it even half memorable. 

It all just feels a bit bland and it's like the film has only been made so Will and Jayden Smith can be in a film together. If you want to experience the best bits on After Earth just watch the trailers. The actual film barely adds much else. 

4/10

Main Blog- http://www.elephantchris.blogspot.co.uk/

The Great Gatsby

Trailer-
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rARN6agiW7o

The Great Gatsby to me has always just been the book people read in Higher English if they didn't read Catcher In The Rye. After a late cinema trip to see it however I'm a bit gutted my English class didn't read both. I'd write that that Gatsby is 'great' as I'm sure 100 critics have already done but I really don't think that 'great' does it justice.

Dialogue isn't something that usually sticks out as being a truly memorable for me in films but Gatsby has changed that. For someone who hasn't read the book it was obviously all new to me and certain lines I won't write at risk of misquoting genuinely gave me goosebumps. It's powerful, emotional and devastatingly true to life. I understand this is more an opinion of the book than the film but how it's written is still an important factor no matter through what medium you experience Gatsby. It's a masterpiece.

Fortunately as well as having such a great novel to work with the film looks incredible as well. I always think that if a film can go over the top with it's visuals it might as well. If you want to show the most extravagant party in the roaring 20s why tone that down any? The party scenes are vibrant, exciting and really visually loud. You could say it loses a sense of reality but to be honest it fully captures how the characters are experiencing the party.

Remember a really good party you've been to when you've been really going for it on the dance floor having the time of your life full of alcohol. Everything seems far more exciting than it actually is and by shooting scenes so over the top it really helps us get into the characters' heads and feel exactly what they are feeling.

Now comes the unusual soundtrack. For a film set in the 20s you become just a bit aware at the beginning of the modern music playing over the period setting. I'm not sure how but it just seems to work. It blends with the unique visuals and brings a book written 85 years ago right into the 21st century feeling relevant and trendy. The jazz mixed with hip hop mixes the old with the new as cliche as that sounds to make the situations and characters relatable and relevant and not just something that happened in the past at another time.

I can't remember a film I've seen where I've seen as much passion and longing between two characters. The relationship between Gatsby and Daisy almost brings a tear to your eye, initially anyway. She is his everything and Leonardo Di Caprio shows the feelings of Gatsby perfectly. It's great acting performances all round actually. As much as he acts as a narrator almost for the film, Tobey Maguire puts on a great performance as Nick as well as Carey Mulligan as Daisy.

I expected to enjoy this movie and I'm glad it really delivered. I see not everyone is enjoying it as much as I did but I'm struggling to pick out flaws. To get the most of it you really need to think about what's being said and the imagery and such so it's definitely not a background-watch. Give it all your attention- it deserves it. Something beautiful has been created here.

10/10