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Split (2016)
Love it or hate it movie
Ironically enough there seems to be a split in the opinions of this movie.
I hated it. I thought it was crushingly dull and derivative. Good performance from James McAvoy... but these type of high concept, slightly hammy, chameleon-like roles are bread and butter to a trained actor. It's the sort of setup that drama students practice (not always successfully)
Not taking anything away from his performance as it was very good.
The movie as a whole was uninteresting to me though. I'm a fan of Anya Taylor-Joy and hopefully she can find better movies that fit her talent, like The Witch in which she was excellent.
Arrival (2016)
Interesting concept, but a failure in execution
I'm going to focus on one aspect in my review as I feel it's the worst aspect of the movie and really lets it down; the script. It's truly awful.
It also spoils the portrayal of the characters, as statements come out of their mouths that no-one with an IQ above 90 would utter, let alone a scientist.
The military characters are all lazy stereotypes, their stupidity and impatience only there for exposition and to move the plot along. Forrest Whitaker's character at one point can't understand the difference between translating a well known human language with an alien one (also why is he trying to do a bad Bostonian accent?)
My PhD was in a project related to astrophysics and I didn't recognise any qualities in the scientists on screen with real life. Maybe it's too boring to portray scientists as they are, but I think The Martian did an OK job of it (leaving aside other issues with that movie)
There is some antagonism between the social and hard sciences in real life, but some of the exchanges between Amy Adams' and Jeremy Renners' character were excruciating. She says language is the foundation of civilisation, he contradicts and says it's science. That's just wrong and anyone with an inkling of history wouldn't make the claim that it's science as the scientific method was quite a late innovation in humanity's history.
I wanted to like this movie, but I found it truly exasperating.
Star Wars: Episode VIII - The Last Jedi (2017)
Disappointing movie with one or two good set pieces
I had quite high hopes for this movie as I've enjoyed some of Rian Johnson's films in the past. The Last Jedi ultimately fell flat for me however.
The main problem was Rian was extremely cautious in his main themes and tried to be ambitious in the ancillary parts, but this created a disconnect making the side quests and extra characters seem pointless and underwritten.
The whole script was quite weak, but that's never been Star Wars movies' strongest points in fairness. The whole movie did need tightening up though, the whole middle section was baggy and unmemorable.
In contrast a movie like Rogue One was safe at the edges but ambitious in it's main theme. The Force Awakens was safe in most ways but introduced several interesting characters. Both these movies were superior to TLJ in my opinion.
The humour in TLJ grated on me quite a bit. The actual gags in themselves weren't the problem but rather the context in which they were placed as every time they occurred they undercut a dramatic scene, or a plot point.
It made me think am I supposed to take this bit seriously or not, or really care.
Star Wars has always had humour but it's been character driven. A lot of the gags in this were misplaced and unnecessary.
At the end I thought what has actually happened, has this universe become more interesting, do I want to see more of these movies. The answer is I'm not sure.
I worry that we're going to seesaw between Empire Strikes Back and Return of the Jedi rehashes till everyone get sick of them.
Some things I liked were Mark Hamill who added a gravitas to older Luke. The interplay between Kylo Ren and Rey was interesting and Adam Driver has grown into the part well.
Leia was a powerful character with some interesting choices and wasn't just a damsel in distress. (although one scene jumped the shark for me)
The end battle scene was visually stunning.
Passengers (2016)
I really enjoyed this sci-fi romance
After reading some so-so reviews of this movie I was all set to be disappointed.
The movie was a pleasant surprise however and I really liked it.
The psychology of what happens when Chris Pratt's character does what he does and how it affects the relationship was well done. It added a tenseness to the drama. The ending had to happen the way it did as the story is really an inversion of a classic fairy tale.
Michael Sheen stole the movie for me as the bartender robot. He was pretty hilarious.
This is a great movie that has quite a wide appeal in that it's not a sci-fi flick that just caters to nerdy guys (for what it's worth I am a nerdy guy with an astrophysics degree, but I like sci-fi that tries something a bit different. I'm hoping for a sci-fi musical next!)
Life (2017)
Quite a bad movie that makes wastes a good cast
From the opening scene where a spaceship makes a loud whoosh noise as it passes the camera I knew this wasn't going to be the most scientifically rigorous movie. That's OK though and doesn't necessarily detract from the quality of a movie.
What I hadn't anticipated however was one of the worst scripts I've ever heard in a relatively big budget movie. It was as if two college kids had watched Alien and thought hey we can write something like that.
The central premise of finding a life-form on Mars, and then through bad choices or plain ignorance antagonising the creature is quite a good one.
The problem is the 'scientists' on the spacecraft are only really there to get chewed up so nothing in the script would actually indicate these are intelligent people on an important mission.
A central aphorism of movie making is show don't tell. The characters in this movie are constantly describing what's happening on screen, or what motivation they have, the insinuation by the film-makers is that the audience are dumb.
As a viewer we are supposed to feel something for the crew as the horror falls upon them, but there are no characters in the movie. All the crew speak with the same voice, the voice of the scriptwriters. There are certain twee moments like a crew member video chatting with family members, but this is no 1 in the cliché list of humanising a scientist or astronaut. The crew's characters are all largely interchangeable and it would have virtually no difference.
Some things I liked were the creature design, at least at the start of the movie. The spaceship interiors and zero-g effects were well done and quite atmospheric.
I won't spoil the ending, but I thought it was one of the most hilarious endings I've seen for a long time.
Lemon (2017)
Oddball movie that won't be for everyone
It's difficult to rate this movie as for me I'd give an 8 as I was really amused throughout. A score for a wider audience would be much lower as it's quite a divisive film. I think the film is trying to make fun of the pretentiousness and self- absorbed nature of the characters, and one of the ways is by filming in an arch, avante garde manner. The style reminded me a lot of Yorgos Lanthimos in the way characters dispassionately speak past each other and the rather surreal nature of a lot of scenes. Most of the characters aren't particularly likable or relatable but that's good in my opinion. Why should a character in a movie be relatable to my life?, and it's the bad or unlikable characters that are the most interesting in a film. That's not to say the characters are bad, just rather solipsistic.
Howards End (2017)
Excellent adaptation, well acted and presented
I'm writing this review after episode 2, mainly to counter some of the other overly critical reviews of Howard's End.
I loved the movie version with Emma Thompson and Anthony Hopkins, but I feel this miniseries version can explore further some of the issues and topics E.M. Forster touched on in his book; class, gender, nationality etc. Also the mirrored circumstances across the class divide and how characters deal with them
As regards race and some of the casting i.e. the housemaid and Jacky Bast, I think they were interesting choices and one Forster would have approved of. He was a fierce opponent of racism (especially anti-anti-semitism) and, to answer another question a reviewer posed, yes there were black people in Edwardian London, all part of the class struggles of the period.
The cast are all excellent, especially Hayley Atwell and Philippa Coulthard. The costumes and cinematography are great. In the first episode the background music seemed rather loud and obtrusive, but this wasn't a problem for me in episode 2. I'm looking forward to episodes 3 & 4.
To those who say it's slow and nothing happens, I'm not sure what to say. Maybe watch the other channel with 'I'm a celebrity get me out of here' on it, or a Transformers movie.