Passengers (2016) Film Review

A ship taking 5000 people to a distant human colony across the universe is damaged in a meteor storm and Jim (Chris Pratt) is woken from hibernation 90 years too early. After over a year of entertaining himself, including having conversations with the robot barman, Arthur (Michael Sheen), Jim is joined by Aurora (Jennifer Lawrence) and they try to figure out how to live in this world.

I quite enjoyed watching this film, but it is more in contemplating it afterwards that I find myself really appreciating it. It’s a strong concept (though I’m certainly making no comment on the actual science within the world), and I do like the idea of putting people in a bizarre situation and just seeing what happens. It is an absolutely stunning film – I loved watching the way the spaceship made its way through the universe.

Passengers was nominated for Oscars for Best Achievement in Music Written for Motion Pictures (Original Score) and Best Achievement in Production Design.

X-Men: Apocalypse (2016) Film Review

We’re back in the early days of X-Men. The really early days – there is a dude back in ancient Egypt who is a mutant, who rules as a god on earth and takes powers from other mutants. Luckily, there are some good guys who manage to trap him in the Earth for thousands of years. Unfortunately, he gets free and tries to take over. He’s always had four sidekicks, and this time is no different: he takes Angel (Ben Hardy ), Storm (Alexandra Shipp), Psylocke (Olivia Munn) and our old favourite, Magneto (Michael Fassbender). So it is up to Professor Charles Xavier (James McAvoy) and his guys to save the world.

For me, as someone who came to the X-Men films with no prior comic knowledge, this is all starting to get a bit confusing. Don’t get me wrong, I still love it. I love all the explosions and the craziness, and especially the powers, but I get a bit lost. Who is what? What powers do they have? Who is good and who is bad? And what’s the story with Magneto – after constantly being in these battle where he seems to (spoiler – I think?) change from the bad side to help the good, why does he keep being bad? What? I know I’ll keep watching these films and getting more and more confused, and I don’t really mind as long as they keep the special effects fancy and the costumes cool.

 

Joy (2015) Film Review

Joy (Jennifer Lawrence) is an adult who is divorced but whose ex-husband lives in the basement of the house she shares with her child (children? I think there was a son, but he was very insignificant in the film), mother and grandmother. Her father, Rudy (Robert De Niro) has moved back in after breaking up with his girlfriend, and then there is her sister who is a bitter a twisted woman. Joy was told as a child that she was super special, and now she feels let down. But she has an idea – could this turn her life around?

I wanted to like this so much. I’m a fan of many of the actors and, while I didn’t love Silver Linings Playbook, I have enjoyed many of David O. Russell’s previous films. But it was just flat and everyone was annoying, and they were annoying all of the time and there was even a scene where *slight spoiler* Joy cuts her own her with a pair of scissors and then it looks amazing the next day, and that’s clearly crap. In fact, I’d go so far to say that the amazing looking haircut done at a moment of emotional desperation/breakdown that looks amazing the next day is as tedious in a film as ‘I woke up and it was all a dream’. Even if this is a totally true story and that is really what happened.

Joy was nominated for an Oscar for Actress in a Leading Role (Jennifer Lawrence). It won a Golden Globe for Best Performance by an Actress in a Motion Picture – Musical or Comedy (Jennifer Lawrence) and was nominated for Best Motion Picture – Musical or Comedy.

 

The Hunger Games: Mockingjay – Part 2 (2015) Film Review

Having not posted my review for the first part of Mockingjay until after watching this one, I was pretty surprised at how excited I’d been. Given how much I was bored during the second part.

While the books kept my attention right through to the end, this film bored me deeply. I couldn’t care about how it all ended – despite going it at the start loving it. Yes, it follows the same mood and world created, but *yawn* I just got sick of it.

So Katniss (Jennifer Lawrence) is sick of being the ‘face’ of the rebellion, so she sneaks off to do her own thing. Only then she ends up with a crew around her. And stuff happens. For me, not enough action, and these last two films should have been just the one.

The Hunger Games: Mockingjay – Part 1 (2014) Film Review

I’d been bit concerned that I’d lost my Hunger Games mojo… I couldn’t really recall the second film, and while I was very interested in seeing how they deal with the intense darkness of the third book, if the second film hadn’t stuck in my mind, would it be worth it? Me and a couple of mates watched the first two films in the lead up to Mockingjay and it still wasn’t sticking – though I was feeling a lot of love for the character and the overall story.

If you haven’t seen the first two and want to, here’s a big spoiler alert.

At the end of Catching Fire, Katniss (Jennifer Lawrence) had been rescued from the arena and Peeta (Josh Hutcherson) had been left behind. Katniss is now with the resistance of District Thirteen, under the rule of President Alma Coin (Julianne Moore) and guidance of Plutarch (Philip Seymour Hoffman). But, she is not willing to just be their face, they need to let her find her leadership, and she does. In the meantime, a whole heap of people die and are injured, and rebellion is happening all over the place.

It’s quite a slow film in that there is a lot of ground to cover. It seems to be the thing to break single books into multiple films and it sometimes works well (Harry Potter) and sometime less so (The Hobbit), but this seems to be a case of needing to split it. The really dark stuff is yet to come, although the end of this film saw the first hints of it. I just wish they didn’t make us wait a whole year for it – I know, I know, it’s all about the money, but I want it NOW!!!

The Hunger Games: Mockingjay Part 1 was nominated for a Golden Globe for Best Original Song – Motion Picture.

X-Men : Days of Future Past (2014) Film Review

Do time travel storylines do your head in? Then this may not be the best film for you. Because I love time travel stuff, but I drifted off for a moment in this and suddenly was totally lost.

Essentially, it starts in a future where everything is a bit crap, with bad guys coming from everywhere and the X-Men can’t cope. So, somehow (mutant skills. Don’t question it), Wolverine (Hugh Jackman) is sent back into the past to change history. And things get awesome.

There are all of the usual fighting and explosions and all of that stuff. Plus the older X-Men folks and the younger ones – we got them all. Really, if you are a fan of the X-Men films, I think you’ll like this. Be hard not to.

X-Men : Days of Future Past was nominated for an Oscar for Best Achievement in Visual Effects

 

House at the End of the Street (2012) Film Review

Unfortunately, Jennifer Lawrence cannot save a bad film. She can make a mediocre film better and can make a good film amazing. But if a film is bad, no matter how good she is in it, it just doesn’t happen.

So, Elissa (Jennifer Lawrence) and her mother Sarah (Elisabeth Shue) move to a new town, into a house that looks through a patch of forest to The House at the End of the Street – a house where the parents were found dead, but the son STILL LIVES THERE – what a creep! Well, that’s what the townsfolk think, and they are happy to ostracise him and let their children beat him up, because he deserves it. Elissa knows better and befriends him, but should she pay attention to the small-minded small-town folks rather than thinking she is better than everyone? Oooh, who actually cares?

Lawrence does a great job of fear and running scared and battling and stuff, and even gets to wear a Die Hard-style filthy white singlet, but essentially I couldn’t care less. Don’t watch it. It is really terribly awful.

 

X-Men : First Class (2011) Film Review

It’s the early sixties, and Charles Xavier (James McAvoy) is starting to get quite vocal about his discoveries about mutants. Meanwhile, Erik Lensherr (Michael Fassbender as the character who becomes Magneto) is seeking revenge on the Nazis, in particular Sebastian Shaw (Kevin Bacon), who killed his mother. Then there is Raven/Mystique (Jennifer Lawrence) who is trying to find her place in the world. Oh, but the world doesn’t really know about them. As they are revealed, people are scared.

Fun and exciting with cool characters who (mostly) I am really enjoying. I really love the depictions of the sixties, the styles and fashion and getting these parts of the characters’ backstories.

 

The Hunger Games : Catching Fire (2013) Film Review

Katniss (Jennifer Lawrence) and Peeta (Josh Hutcherson) have to put on a show, touring the districts as the first ever joint winners of the Hunger Games. But it is not good enough, and Commander Snow (Donald Sutherland) needs to come up with another way to bring her down and quelch the uprisings that are happening across all districts. Gamemaker Plutarch (Philip Seymour Hoffman) comes up with the idea of a special Hunger Games bringing together old winners. With the assistance of Haymitch (Woody Harrelson) and Cinna (Lenny Kravitz), they enter the arena again. And what of her mother and sister, or her handsome friend Gale (Liam Helmsworth)? Well.

I was a bit worried about this film, having read and loved the book. Though I am more concerned about the next couple of films, because the books get extremely violent. I guess I just get so caught up in Katniss’s life that I bought everything; every moment, every emotion, every betrayal. Plus, because I have such a terrible memory for the books that I read a few years ago, I couldn’t remember exactly who did what. I kind of knew what was coming, but not properly. That was nice. One of the problems with these series that happen over a matter of years is that you are just left hanging. I want the next two movies NOW. I can only hope they have more equally ridiculous jumpsuits.

The Hunger Games (2012) Film Review

The twelve districts of Panem are ruled by the Capital. As a punishment/reminder of a past war, the Hunger Games are held each year. Two teenagers, one male and one female, are drawn from each district and put into a massive arena (as big as a whole separate world) two fight to the death. When Katniss (Jennifer Lawrence) volunteers for her sister Primrose (Willow Shields), she and Peeta (Josh Hutcherson) need to work together to survive.

Films based on books can be tricky, making the right choices about what goes and what stays in; what works best for the story of the film and what will work to tell the rest of the story. I felt that this representation was pretty darned good. The casting was fantastic; Jennifer Lawrence, Woody Harrelson, Stanley Tucci, Liam Hemsworth, Lenny Kravitz, Donald Sutherland. I thoroughly enjoyed it.