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Reviews
Tomorrowland (2015)
In five years we'll all be hailing it as a classic
(Minor spoilers). This smart and optimistic movie was made for clever girls age 9-16, and for over-50 males who fondly remember growing up during the Space Race and the optimism of the 1960s and early 70s. That's it. It was made for no-one else, as far as I can tell from several viewings. Which is great. I find that perfectly fine - and it makes Tomorrowland an even more unique and beautiful movie, on top of the glorious ensemble acting, perfect framing, glorious music, and all the sheer fun of it. But even if you are in the intended audience demographic then, to fully 'get' some of Tomorrowland's deep themes and emotional resonances, it helps to know some of the deliciously deep back-story. Because Tomorrowland is a deep trans-media work of story-telling, as well as being a simple character-led summer popcorn movie. To quickly drill down to the back-story I'd suggest that you: visit the official interactive back-story website 'Take Me To Tomorrowland'; read the gripping prequel novel 'Before Tomorrowland'; read the 'Secret History' comic-book; see the second 'Paris' half of the deleted Pixar back-story scene on YouTube (which will at least clue you in on why our heroes pop up in Paris). After the movie, maybe even read the official novel version, which expands on the movie's story and also has a fuller and different ending. Knowing some real-world history can also aid enjoyment (for instance, if you know the date Kennedy was assassinated, and the name of the first U.S. missile command super-computer from 1957, then there are a few very sweet moments in this movie for you). So, yes, this movie requires some work to fully come alive on its many deeper levels. It's worth the effort. Finally, I'd like to say to all the haters that it's just amazing that this deep and optimistic movie has made it to the big screen at all - with $200m and Disney behind it, with not one but two smart girl leads, with no moms or annoying cute-boys in sight, with no real villain, and with a sensitively-handled and very different 'love interest'. I'm pretty sure that everyone except the obsessive Clooney-haters will be calling Tomorrowland a classic in five years' time or less - and we'll be proud to say that we saw it at the cinema when it was first released.
FrackNation (2013)
An enjoyable and informative documentary.
I found this to be an enjoyable and informative documentary. Anyone who has endured the lies and distortions of _Gasland_ should watch this as a corrective follow-up. I had feared that _FrackNation_ would be a dumb American TV-style film, but was pleased to find it kept the intelligence level pretty high and the pace was even.
The film is very well photographed and edited, and the sound was clearly conveyed throughout (subtitles are used on some sections). Some documentaries are better heard without the visuals, as if they're radio documentaries - but in this one the visual are really integral.
Personally I would have cut the short and weak speculative section (Delingpole through to Putin) on possible Russian money finding its way to anti- shale gas campaigners. Similarly the fleeting aside about the Chinese and their attempts to corner the market in rare-earth magnets for wind turbines. Maybe true, maybe not - but it sounds too conspiratorial, since no evidence is presented. I would have also cut the camerawoman being slightly wounded (by an art gallery guard who had wrenched her camera out of her hand) near the end of the film. I also found a little cheesy the slightly over-manipulative footage of happy kids near the end. These visual elements add little or nothing to the film's argument. But generally this is a fine debunking of the deeply misleading _Gasland_.
Labyrinth (2012)
A dreadful first part, but a quite watchable second part.
This is a mini-series adaptation of a publisher-driven/designed 'bestseller' by Kate Mosse. The very plodding first part of this two-part TV movie adaptation certainly doesn't improve on the poorly-reviewed book. The movie does improve significantly in the second part, but anyone expecting a new Da Vinci Code or even a National Treasure is going to be in for a deeply disappointed slog. Actress Jessica Brown Findlay, and the movie's technicians and the location-scouts, obviously did their best to hold it afloat. But everything else drags the first part down. The first part's glacial pace and slapdash dialogue might not matter, if the characters and plot were at least mildly interesting. Generally they're just the movie equivalent of cartoons. The modern-era heroine (Vanessa Kirby) is especially annoying - she starts off doing utterly silly things and then spends the rest of the time wafting around looking glamorously confused. Only the medieval-era heroine (Jessica Brown Findlay) brings any sustained acting verve to the first part. The great John Hurt, aided by lashings of artful landscape cinematography, lifts the movie significantly during the second part. Findlay also performs very ably in terms of the acting range that's required from her in the final hour. The film's history/religious elements are very superficially explored, although they are quite historically and even theologically correct. But you can't help thinking that the ideas are largely there to provide a televisual licence for many bloody and gruesome scenes of torture, throat-slitting and other killings, suicides, and medieval massacres. There is some basic voice-over exposition of the more user-friendly Cathar ideas at the end - ideas remarkably similar to those permeating the movie Cloud Atlas - but these ideas lack any deep integration into the rest of the story. In the end, certain key physical items lack any explanation, and so the audience is left feeling rather duped. Overall, not a very satisfactory movie.