Once or twice a year a movie comes out aimed at children
that have enough depth to where an adult can easily enjoy it. Zootropolis, is
one of those films.
Its always a tad awkward sitting in the cinema screening
where the majority of the audience are young but I had to give this film a
chance, at least to be able to give my two cents. To my surprise this movie had
a very adult theme. What I find particularly fascinating is that Disney has
began making the quality of films that Pixar were making a few years ago. This
films was visually beautiful, funny and full of heart.
Would kids get all the jokes? Of course not. Would adults
find all the jokes funny? Probably not. However, a well-written film like this
is able to entertain both groups of people.
If you have any doubts regarding this movie, I would urge
every one of you to give this movie a change. Especially if you have a young
person in the family.
This year is going to be a big year for
comic book movies with DC Comics Batman vs Superman and Marvels Captain America
Civil War and X-Men: Days of Future Past. All big high budget movies that are
required and will make big money for the studios. Deadpool, a considerably low
budget superhero film has set the ground running for 2016 superhero films.
The Deadpool comics came out during the
time when Spiderman and Wolverine were the top selling superhero’s of the time
so technically Deadpool is a combination of Wolverines healing and fighting
style (only with samurais words instead of claws) and Spidermans comedic one
liners. This film actually shows how miscast and defectively written Spiderman
has been in its movies.
Deadpool played by Ryan Reynolds is very
much an anti-hero; perhaps they over played that fact. That being said, it is
definitely one of the funniest comic book movies I’ve seen. I love the fact
that Deadpool broke the fourth wall a multiple of times and his one-liners were
just spectacular.
Watching the movie, it is clear to see that
the studio had very little faith in this movie doing well clearly shown due to
its measly $58 million budget. For
comparison Man of Steel, had a whopping $225 million. The budgeting issues are
apparent in the movie but it doesn’t take away from movie at all. Clearly the
lack faith that the studios had for this film boils down a couple of factors.
The first being that last years Fantastic Four remake was such a disaster at
the box office. Secondly this was the first R-rated superhero movie, which
meant that half the superhero film fans being kids could not watch the movie in
the cinema. Thirdly, Wolverine Origins had a Deadpool that fans did not like
and that film too did badly. Fourthly Ryan Reynolds last attempt at a superhero
film Green Lantern was too a very unsuccessful film. This being said, Deadpool
has been one of the most successful superhero movies to ever come out, breaking
many records.
To circle back to the actual movie, it is
an exceptional movie. Very funny with pretty decent action and perfectly fine
performances. If you haven’t watched it, I would urge you to go and watch it
immediately.
To be frankly honest, I had no real
intention to watch this movie. Simply because it seemed like a standard,
brainless, Hollywood remake of a movie that not many people even remember. What
tipped the barrel for me was everyone absolutely raving about this movie. Even
my favourite podcasters “/film” all put it as their top film of the year. I must
say I was very disappointed.
I went in with somewhat high hopes. I knew
the story wouldn’t be great but the action sequences were meant to the very
well done. Particularly the combination of visual and special effects used in
the movie.
The film was well shot and the acting was
faultless, although Tom Hardy who played Max Rockatasky could have had more of
a personality. Perhaps that was more of a script issue than an acting issue.
Talking about script issues, I felt like it lacked one. It seemed that the
movie was completely created using storyboards and then dialogue was just put
in while filming.There simply wasn’t
much of a story, which alone made it very difficult to watch for me.
I know I’m being very harsh on this film
and I know I am in the minority that feels this way but this is just a personal
opinion of mines. I think if the movie wasn’t so highly praised by people then I
wouldn’t maybe this critical.
To highlight some of the positives, the
visuals of this movie were very nice. Possibly a little too much orange but
then again it were designed to show a post-apocalyptic world. The special and
visual effects were done very well; they were blended seamlessly apart from
scenes that were mostly CGI, those scenes stood out like a sore thumb. 1.5/5
“her” is marketed as a romantic science fiction comedy drama
“Theodore is a lonely
man in the final stages of his divorce. When he's not working as a letter
writer, his down time is spent playing video games and occasionally hanging out
with friends. He decides to purchase the new OS1, which is advertised as the
world's first artificially intelligent operating system, "It's not just an
operating system, it's a consciousness," the ad states. Theodore quickly
finds himself drawn in with Samantha, the voice behind his OS1. As they start
spending time together they grow closer and closer and eventually find
themselves in love. Having fallen in love with his OS, Theodore finds himself
dealing with feelings of both great joy and doubt. As an OS, Samantha has powerful
intelligence that she uses to help Theodore in ways others hadn't, but how does
she help him deal with his inner conflict of being in love with an OS?”
- IMDB
The film is written, directed and produced by Spike Jonze,
most well known for directing the 2009 Where the Wild Things Are adaptation.
The film primarily stars Joaquin Phoenix as the lead and Scarlett Johansson as
the voice of Samantha, the artificial intelligent OS. The film seems to be set
in a not so distant future with technologies that we currently already have or
very close to having. I appreciated that they didn’t choose to use tech that
seemed too far-fetched because it seems like this is a trend that is getting
worse.
Everything from the set design to the character clothing
appeared to be very well thought out. The film had a very notable colour scheme
of pastel colours that contrasted with the different shades of orange that was
used throughout the film. The location used for filming amalgamation of Los
Angelo’s and Shanghai, again gave a very real attempt to transport the viewer
into the directors’ vision of the future.
Joaquin Phoenix portrayed the character perfectly well. The
audience was able to feel both sympathetic while acknowledging his
self-destructive ways. Personally the stand out performance in the film to my
surprise was from Scarlett Johansson who played the voice of Samantha. Her
performance completely sold this idea of artificial intelligence and how one
can fall in love with something that doesn’t exactly exist.
There’s a list of films that I have been recommended ad
nauseam but haven’t had the chance to watch. Christian Bales’ American Psycho
was one of those films, until tonight. While browsing on the film side of
YouTube, I stumbled onto a well-known scene from the movie where the characters
are presenting their business card to each other.
This immediately caught my
attention, particularly Christian Bales’ inner monologue in that scene. This
scene alone sold me.
“Patrick Bateman is
handsome, well educated and intelligent. He is twenty-seven and living his own
American dream. He works by day on Wall Street, earning a fortune to complement
the one he was born with. At night he descends into madness, as he experiments
with fear and violence.” – IMDB
The synopsis doesn’t do the film justice. This definitely is
one of those films that require a little more time to digest than most
commercial movies.Patrick Bateman
played by Christian Bale high profile businessman that works at Wall Street.
The film follows this man as his ever-growing hunger for murder increases. The subtle
behavioural choices made by every actor are fascinating to see and the writing
as well as the directing seems flawless.
Surprisingly this film is marketed as a dark comedy; though
I would say this film is definitely more dark than comedic. Narration in the
movie is done so well that it never comes off as unneeded.
This is one of those films you can completely break down and
write a complete essay on. I can’t push this film enough, if you haven’t seen
this film then please give it a try. You most definitely will not be
disappointed.
