Six Films

I used to watch films in the cinema and at home quite regularly but life has often taken precedence in the last few years so it was refreshing to have some time to spend in darkened room over the last couple of weeks! I saw five films and here are my brief reviews:

Iron Man ****
I'm a fan of the character and was looking for to the film so it was a relief that it was not a disappoint. It was your usual Marvel comic book adaptation but there was a surprisingly good amount of humour and a great turn by Robert Downey Jr.

The Chronicles of Narnia: Prince Caspian ***
I'm also a huge fan of C.S.Lewis's books and as with the first film this was a disappointment. It is certainly better than the first film but something is clearly missing from the series or perhaps it's nostalgia that's clouding my judgement. For one thing the interpretations of Peter and Susan are different to the way I remember them with the latter being incredibly petulant; perhaps my memory is failing me. On a positive note Georgie Henley and Skandar Keynes, who play Lucy and Edmund, are both fantastic and I'm very much looking forward to seeing more of them in Voyage of the Dawn Treader; a book I really loved and remember vividly having seen a stage production as a young boy.

Kung Fu Panda *****
It's a pretty simple film but perfectly executed in every way; it's clearly the most beautifully designed and animated of any of Dreamworks efforts with great slapstick humour. Perhaps one might say it doesn't have a lot there for the adults but do there always have to be knowing references for an animated film to work?

Wanted **
Another simple film, there really isn't much plot but the action is great and very, very violent.

Hancock ***
This film has an interesting premise and plays with it very well for the first half but once the major twist is revealed it starts to loose steam. It is still fun and I found the ending satisfactory but one is left feeling there should have been something more to it; I would normally expect more of a bombastic finale.

The Forbidden Kingdom ****
Jackie Chan and Jet Li face off for the first time and it's a fabulous confrontation. I really enjoyed it eventhough it was a pretty straightforward coming of age tale with an American teenager lead. There were lots of references to Hong Kong martial arts film including in the soundtrack that conjured up images of those films combined with the more theatrical "Crouching Tiger" tunes.

Spider-Man, Spider-Man, does whatever a spider can...

I've been a fan of Spider-Man for a long time; I started out buying the UK monthly publications in my tweens but they were only compilations of slightly older stories. After finding out about Forbidden Planet in my teens on Tottenham Court Road I started to collect the US publications but in recent times, aside from the films, I've not really followed him. A couple of months ago I stumbled across a clip on YouTube of a Spider-Man cartoon that I'd never before but it turned out that the series was new and had only started in in March. It's called The Spectacular Spider-Man:



In the West, cartoons and comics are seen as childish but in the East both are just another tool for artistic expression. In the East they're better known as anime and manga and they deal with a huge variety of themes for everyone of all ages. I must concede that western perceptions have changed a little over time with the advent of modern comic book movies and the greater exposure of western audiences of Japanese animation and manga.

The series is in a children's TV slot but it is well written and aimed at a very broad audience. The dialogue, ideas and themes can be appreciated by everyone. The series follows Peter Parker's career from soon after becoming Spider-Man and is based on the original comic book stories from Stan Lee and Steve Ditko, the creators of the character. It's fun to watch with a simplified art style but very fluid animation allowing for very dynamic and energetic action sequences.

If you're a fan of Spidey I would highly recommend checking it out! Personally I think it's much better than the series from the 90s:

Movies to look forward to...Part 1

It's been a while since I posted so I thought I would start with something simple. I'm big fan of Pixar and their new film WALL-E looks particularly good. It looks absolutely gorgeous and the characters seem incredibly likeable from the snippets in the trailers and featurettes:



It also looks like a lot of fun and oddly I feel more anticipation for this new one than I have for previous films from these talents guys and gals. It's out on the 18th of July in the UK.