177. Prometheus

I couldn’t really make my mind up about this film so I thought I’d reblog this extraordinarily accurate list of improvements by dresdencodak.

dresdencodak:

5 Ways to Improve Prometheus (Spoilers)

I recently watched Ridley Scott’s Prometheus, and while I did enjoy some of the movie, overall I felt underwhelmed as there was so much wasted potential.  Somewhere in Prometheus is a really great science fiction film, but sadly what we get instead is a mostly lackluster homage to the Alien franchise.  The technical elements of the movie and the performances were very good, so I’ll mainly be commenting on the plot, as the failings of Prometheus, in my opinion, rest in the screenwriting.

Lots of spoilers, so read on only if you’ve already seen the movie or don’t mind!

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134. Where The Wild Things Are

I watched this film with my good friend Albert. I don’t think either of us have felt so many different emotions simultaneously. I ended up writing my Film Studies assignment on this film, I loved it so much. It’s been in production for ages and the release date was pushed back, but it’s been a long time coming and I’m so glad I got to see one of my favourite children’s books adapted so well into a film. At first, I thought the Wild Things were meant to represent Max’s family, but later in the film I thought that they might represent different parts of Max himself. This is one of those films that you could psychoanalyse to no end, but to do so would probably ruin it. I think it’s better to just leave it be, it is what it is, and I thought it was a truly unique and extraordinarily beautiful piece of film work. I have never felt humour, fear, empathy, and sadness so quickly between each other before!

I just have a lot of feelings.

109. Cowboys & Aliens

Well this film was a novelty, to say the least. Seemed like a pretty good stab at crossing the two most unlikely genres and I did rather enjoy it. Hard for me to see Harrison Ford as anyone other than Indiana Jones these days, his look rarely seems to change (kinda like his acting style).  The not-so-shocking twist of Olivia Wilde’s character being an alien seemed kinda lazy to me, sort of like they couldn’t think of another way to include a different species of alien, despite the amazingly fluid animted transition from fire into form (which was just pure animation witchcraft!). There was no real hard-hitting score, a shame as Harry Gregson Williams was the composer, but maybe next time. As for the aliens, their faces looked like really weird frogs, what with the eyes and stuff. I always get a little fussy pang when it comes to monsters in films, I strongly believe that to get a good effect you should avoid showing your entire monster, as an audience’s imagination is so much more powerful than anything on could design. I realise that you can’t do this with every films, but it may have helped this film by adding some much needed suspense and mild horror. If there was one thing I was concerned about before I watched this film it was how to cowboy era would react to the aliens: They started out doing a really good job, claiming they were “demons” and such, but slipped a little as people questioned it less and just seemed to accept it as something different with little intrigue or curiousity.

Even so, the set design and costume was pretty darn authentic, and I think you should give this film a chance.

152. My Week With Marilyn

I originally went to see this film on a completely biased whim, as I like Eddie Redmayne and Emma Watson. I ended up liking it a lot! To start off with a con probably isn’t giving a good impression, but I can honestly say that I think it’s one of the only flaws in the film: Emma Watson’s character, Lucy, seemed to be a bit of a non-role, as she had little (or rather no) significance. She seemed a random character that in no way influenced the plot of the film.

Aside from that, I think the performance Michelle Williams gave was fantastic (in that I wanted reach through the screen and slap Marilyn several times throughout). The film was a tad slow to begin with but the structure was really good and this was complimented enormously by the mise-en-scene and cinematography. I can’t say I paid a huge amount of attention to the music, but this was probably because I was so enthralled by the plot and by Eddie Redmayne’s adorable Colin! The interaction between Colin and Marilyn was sweetly tender, not angsty and lustful as I had predicted, and I was surprised that they didn’t actually have sex at all. If anything, Colin seemed to fall in love with Marilyn’s raw neediness, which a refreshing romance in film, especially since he was 7 years younger than her. There was a beautiful moment at the end when Lawrence Olivier “Larry” quoted Prospero, followed by a shot of Marilyn saying onscreen “I’m going to fall in love with you. And you know why? Because I always always do.”

Also, I was entirely amused by the casting of Kenneth Branagh as Larry, considering he was hailed as the next Olivier, and I spent most of the film just like

114. Bridesmaids

Never before have I been so simultaneously amused and disgusted by a film. I don’t lie when I say that some parts of the film have left me permanently scarred from their horrificness, but despite that this film is just laugh-out-loud hilarious. At one point the main character’s life gets so unbelievably shit that I genuinely felt bad for her and found myself wondering how I would cope in her situation (my conclusion was not at all well), but this was slightly hindered by the hilarity of watching Kristen Wiig enveloped in a giant heart-shaped cookie. I really think you should give this a watch if you’re looking for a great comedy film - just make sure you haven’t eaten before hand, and if you have a drink sip sporadically to avoid spitting it out all over your shagpile carpet.

143. Another Earth

I saw this at Duke of York’s Picturehouse in Brighton, that famous little cinema. I really liked this film, despite my initial doubts. The setup for the story was absolutely flawless, and there was something noticeable in that opening scene that became really significant in the end. After that, things became a little slow for my taste, but it picked up again and there were some stunning tracking slow-motion shots like the one pictured above that are exemplary of perfect motion tracking. The soundtrack could have been put to use a little better, but there was a beautiful parallel drawn between the composer and the story of The Russian Cosmonaut. The ending was pretty unexpected (for me anyway) and there was a twist that left me wanting to see what happened next. If you’re into your scenery and deeply emotional story lines, then this is the film for you, as long as you don’t get too discouraged by the slow build up.

146. War Horse

What to say about this film? If anyone was gonna take a pop at making it, it had to be Steven Spielberg. The mise-en-scene was beautiful, as we see sweeping landscapes that are naturally burnished by the setting sun. And the performances were truly moving, featuring known actors such as Toby Kebbell (Dead Man’s Shoes), Tom Hiddleston (Thor), and Benedict Cumberbact (Sherlock, Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy). I had no idea Benedict was in it and had a massive fangirl freakout in the middle of the cinema, it was messy. 

Anyway, despite the incredibly authentic countryside and costumes, the exceptional scripting, and the performances that make me proud to be British, there were several outstanding errors in the picture:

Firstly, the music had no real interesting melody and should have been used more to narrate the emotions and reactions of the horse. It seemed to depend mostly on crescendos to provoke a sentimental reaction from the audience, and wasn’t used effectively to signify any feelings the horse (Joey) may have had.

Secondly, the film was more people-orientated, following the characters who fell in possession of Joey instead of Joey’s journey - I thought this was significant as the book is written entirely from Joey’s perspective. 

And lastly (though this is a minor point in comparison), at one point we see David Kross (The Reader) spot Joey in the German army camp after the unsuccessful British attack has left him riderless. I thought this was tremendously poor casting as Gunter (David Kross), at least in this shot, looks very similar to Joey’s owner, Albert (Jeremy Irvine), and I found myself temporarily stumped as I wondered why Albert was working under German army influence.

Apart from that, some of the sequences are extremely impressive and makes it apparent that this is Steven Spielberg’s handy work. The ending scene seemed slightly lazy, though by understating this it gave Joey a chance in the emotional spotlight. However, the potential of the sentiment in this scene left me feeling a bit underwhelmed with the ending. On the whole, I did really like the film and I think if anyone could have pulled it off then it would have had to have been good ole’ Stevey.

102. The Green Lantern

Can’t really say much about this. Decent enough film, but I didn’t find anything particularly impacting about it, and it lacked any impressive sequences that usually manage to salvage other films that fall thin on plot. I’d only suggest watching it if you’re a particular comic book fan, or if you’ve got time to fill. 

135. How To Train Your Dragon: Gift of the Night Fury

Oh my gosh this is beautiful! This has done well to quell my appetite for the 2014 sequel to HTTYD. The films definitely builds on the relationship between Toothless and Hiccup a whole lot more, and offers some extent to how well Toothless understands what Hiccup says (I had my doubts about dragons understanding English) . As for the relationship between Astrid and Hiccup, I think it fell a little short, but that can always be remedied in future. I don’t think I really need to say much about the soundtrack, I pretty sure my feelings are clear. Needless to say, I have been going through the web with a fine-toothed comb trying to find the quiet piano rendition of “Coming Back Around” by John Powell, with little luck unfortunately. I genuinely feel myself welling up whenever I watch the end of this short, and at least half of that is due to the score, so watch it whenever you get the chance!

116. In Time

This film is quite hard-hitting as it seems to put a sci-fi twist on what I think is a very realistic situation and literally illustrates the phrase “time is money”.  The slums in which the story starts are quickly established to be inescapable, as no one has enough time/money to cross the borders into higher class regions. When Will (Justin Timberlake) is unexpectedly given a century, he sets off across the borders to the upper state, where he meets Sylvia (Amanda Seyfried) whom he takes hostage. After the two team up through desperation as their time runs out, they set off to unravel the time system and allow people to live their lives freely by breaking into “banks” and giving people free time/money. There is a secondary antagonist in the form of Alex Pettyfer who acts as a time thief, though he comes across as little more than a playground bully (I personally thought his character lacked a strong element of danger).

I really liked this film, if slightly unconvinced by Sylvia’s ability to escape numerous raids by running away in 8” platform heels, and I would urge you to watch it as it is reminiscent of the Robin hood tale with the welcome addition of scientific appeal and realistic action sequences. GO WATCH!  

109. The Change-Up

I originally thought that this would be a simple run-of-the-mill “discover what you need to change back type film”, and in a way it did have that format. However, I was impressed by the slight thickening of the plot halfway through the film when the character’s start to show signs of reluctance at the prospect of changing back. This is definitely a moment at which I started to doubt what I had in mind for the ending. Not only that, but the moment before the change at the end was a really well done sequence and rather powerful for this genre of film, but not so much that it was out of place. On the whole I would recommend giving it a watch. 

So I babysat on Saturday for 6 hours, from half 7 to half 1 in the morning, and made a tidy £30. Needless to say, the neighbours I babysit for have a plethora of DVDs just waiting to be watched, and I managed to tick two films off my list of films to see -

25. Fantastic Mr Fox

MY GOD WATCH THIS FILM! It’s a stop motion animated film that is just delightfully quirky. The humour throughout is impeccably dry, and there are several running themes about wolves and becoming an athlete that keep the audience involved. Every character has their own unique idiosyncrasy, not to mention I was thoroughly amused at the idea of a badger laywer, and I don’t think I’ve ever been kept in anticipation of the next joke for long before! Seriously, just watch it if you get the chance.

41. Despicable Me

I’d heard a bunch of rave reviews about this film, and I’ll be honest it was really nice to watch. Unfortunately, I just felt I went into watching with the knowledge of exactly what was going to happen only to be proved right. The failing villain gets a final idea that just might work but he needs the children to help him achieve it, he starts getting too attached and someone who is looking out for his beeter nature arranges to have the children taken away. He then proceeds with his plan only to realise he now cares more about the children than his evil plan and ends up ceasing his villianhood. Sweet, but predictable.

52. Bee Movie

Just watched Bee Movie. I’ve been meaning to watch it since it came out in 2007 but I just never got around to it. It’s quite cute actually, and it has a clear message about the necessity of bees to keep the human race alive. However, I do find the prospect of bees suing the human race verging on the ridiculous. Nevertheless, the character were endearing and there were several cameo appearances, such as Sting, that really made me laugh. All in all I would say that it’s the kind of film to watch on a night in with a friend and a tub of Ben & Jerry’s Cookie Dough.