The return of - How to get away with murder

Finally! How to get away with murder, has returned after its mid season winter finale, where spoiler alert we saw delightfully how Annalise was there when Wes returned to check on her husbands body. The tenth episode was a great as ever, great flashback scenes to incorporate new found evidence and knowledge that builds up the Lila Stangard case, it also laid out many character weaknesses, especially in the form of Connor and Michaela who desperately wanted this over with. Laurel was as detached as ever, and I wonder if we will see any true emotion from her as the season progresses, but she's head strong which is nice I suppose. I haven't really connected with Rebecca's character, and I don't think I will to be hones. It was also nice to see Wes provide some emotion as to what is going on, and its still unclear to me whether or not Annalise truly cares for her students or not. Now Annalise is a fantastic character, loads of light and shade, she's hard and strong and can be obviosuly vulnerable at times too. She's amazing and powerful in her work environment and can switch it up outside of it too, Viola Davis is amazing. Frank makes me uneasy, I don't know why he's bitching at Laurel for not spilling the beans, get over yourself, and it surprised me that Annalise told him the information, or did she?

Overall, it was a great return to the series, which I'm sure will bring lots more delicious twists and turns.

Maleficent Review

I finally managed to catch a showing of Maleficent recently, I just wanted to see if this film would live up to the standard of previous Disney films. Firstly, I liked the narrative of Aurora, but I felt like we needed to hear more. I thought they styled Angelina perfectly, she has the perfect physique for this role and the make-up and costume was stunning.

Things I liked:

The writing (at times). I loved how they managed to intertwine comedy and darkness. Jolie's character was not completely stoic as her literary reference could have been. They managed to show Maleficent's heart and how she cared for Aurora even though she did not want to. 

The appearance of Jolie's daughter:

I loved the scene with Jolie and her daughter Vivienne. It was so cute and funny and it made me smile, I could just imagine how all of that was filmed, and how cool it must be for your mother to play a Disney villain. 

The scene in the window:

When Maleficent said "It's so ugly you could almost feel sorry for it", you could tell she was trying to excuse the fact she actually admired the child, and the cuts between her face and the baby smiling was heart-warming. And when she fails at scaring the baby she states, "I hate you... beasty" is just another funny moment .

Diaval

I liked how Diaval the crow looked out for Aurora and reminded Maleficent at times of her humanity.

The exploration of rape in a Disney film

When watching the scene I understood what it symbolised, issues of consent and someone taking something without permission. After it happened we saw Maleficent screech after discovering her wings were taken from her, it was good to see this in a children's film, even if the target audience didn't fully understand the denotation it was offering, the adult audience would, allowing for an effective lesson to be delivered.

http://www.vanityfair.com/vf-hollywood/angelina-jolie-maleficent-rape

Aurora- woken by Maleficent

I LOVED how this film deterred from typical stereotypes of 'Price Charming's kiss'. Aurora did not have a biological mother figure, and the fact that this bond between her 'fairy god mother' as she called her and the same person who cursed her, surpassed everything to ultimately save her was refreshing.

Things I did not like

The King and Queen:

The Queen's character was very weak, especially in the scene where there daughter was being cursed. You would think a mother would cause more of a disruption/ a fuss if her child was being threatened, not much reaction was given. The next thing was the Queen's death, it was not explored at all, 'oh the Queen is dying', wow come on give her more credit than that.

The king annoyed me, you did not get a sense of corruption in the monarchy, enough to turn this little boy who was in love with Maleficent into someone who just decided he wanted to be king. As far as I know he was a farm boy, did the previous King not have an heir? I just think the plot was a bit too rushed. I didn't like the King's overall characterisation, it's like he cared more about killing Maleficent than caring for the daughter that he was trying to protect in the first place.

Fight scenes

The fight scenes were average, the same thing seems to happen in most of them in the fairy tale genre, was not really a spectacle.

Aurora... are you just going to stand there?

When Maleficent was captured by her father, Aurora was just standing around, ok I know it might be over whelming for a 16 year old, but this woman just saved your life, I would have wanted to see a little more fight in her character and not this fairy wary kid.

Typical ending

Joy a fairy tale ending, boy and girl happy ever after, I know its a children's film and yes its from a fairy tale but it would have been cool to see some girl power, with Aurora and Maleficent ruling the moors at the end. But hey, its Disney.

Overall it was a sweet film, bit wish washy but I would give it a 6/10

Transcendence 2014 Review

                                                                                                         

                                                                     Poster- Boring, pixelated technique makes it look tacky along with the text across the actors face. I think they could of been a little more innovative rather than slapping some words across the main characters face. The tag line, just makes you think "And what?" What about it, its left you waiting for something else to let you know what the film is trying to say.

 

Johnny Depp interview-

 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xHM7DZo3s5o

Transcendence Trailer-

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=F9q8yuaJ_88 

 

I found Johnny not as enjoyable to watch in this film compared to his others. You can see a trend that he likes to play a lot of characters who consider themselves outcasts, but in this film his character is seen to be quite popular in his field and only disliked by a small extremist group. I think what i missed especially was the depth and vulnerability he has portrayed previously in his past characters, this character was mostly very clinical and straightforward (as you would be if you were a computer granted), and it just made me feel unconnected to his character. I can’t blame it all on Johnny though, the script only allowed sparse moments of emotion towards his love interest Evelyn played by Rebecca Hall. I would have like to see some torment woven through the script, if conscious thought was meant to feature in this character maybe we should of seen some more struggle, was it right to commit fraud, was it right to create super humans. What bothered me was how easily Evelyn went along with everything. Yes, Will I will take these millions of pounds and build thousands of solar panels in this deserted town, which by the way still looked the same when she promised a resident a makeover. Yes Will, I will not bat an eyelid with all these reformed humans.

 

I think they could of made a bigger deal about the extremist group. In terms of from my point of view I would have liked to of seen some dialogue between Kate Mara’s character Bree and Dr Will Caster. They were fighting for a cause and in the end it was just weak. Another thing I was thinking when watching this film was why aren’t the media making such a big deal out of this, the media is one for sensationalism and what better story to have than a man who can suddenly lift tonnes of metal in the air. Or how no one made a big deal about PINN, the computer getting stolen, or how someone was just allowed to take what they want from a seemingly secure environment. I like how they have tried to explore the power of technology and its ever increasing advances, but I found myself whispering swear words in the cinema at some of the ridiculous notions, although I wont give away what, some of the concepts just made me sit back and say, "What?!".

 

The one thing I appreciated the most in this film was the cinematography. The locations were stunning and the metaphorical symbolism of the conscious mind was great. The fragility of Earth was also captured very well and the typography on screen was clever connecting the ‘human’ Dr Will in its encased computer.

 

Overall, I can see what they’ve tried to do, explore the powers of technology, touch on whether its right or wrong to advance in such a strong way, to question life and death, is it right to keep someone alive after they have died, in my mind no, that's just taking things too far. I thought the plot was following a Romeo and Juliet style romance, girl is trying to be taken away from boy, boy wants to be with her, conflict followed by a subdued ‘dramatic’, death scene at the end. And maybe more conflict needed to be added to the plot, since they stated themselves in the summary for this film, ‘For his wife Evelyn (Rebecca Hall) and best friend Max Waters (Paul Bettany), both fellow researchers, the question is not if they can...but if they should,’ which did not happen as much as it should.

2/5 stars

                                                                               (Why the long face?)

 

'The Machine' a walking talking catalyst in 'The Stag'

THE MACHINE                                     THE STAG 2014

 

One immediate thought after watching 'The Stag', was how much the film was character driven. Some may disagree and point out that the comical writing drove the plot forward to its conclusion, and whilst I agree it was extremely funny and well written, this film was driven, ironically by 'The Machine'.

 

Maintaining plots can be very hard, especially as film making is moving forwards at a very fast pace, a good script is really needed to lift and drive a film to its finishing line, pulling its audience along with it. Peter McDonald who plays 'The Machine' in 'The Stag' really gets into his role as the annoying, absent but reputational brother in law of soon to be groom Fionnan. His characteristics really make the audience feel, as soon as we are introduced to him in the pub, that he is just one of those bugs in your ear you just can't get rid of. This position is maintained through the first half of the film, as Fionnan reveals, "You have no idea what it's like to spend five minutes with this man".

 

Some people who watch this however, may not be aware that the writers have positioned 'The Machine' to be something more than a childish non committed guy going along on a stag. When talking about not inviting 'The Machine' to his stag night, Fionnan continuously tells his best man Davin to "Fix it", when funnily enough 'The Machine' actually is used in the story to indeed fix it.

 

In fact, from my perspective, I continuously picked out moments of the film and was consciously made aware that 'The Machine' was a crucial plot device. Without 'The Machine', we would not have confirmation of Davin's secret love for Ruth, we would not be aware of Simon's bankruptcy, or that Fionnan's dad was having issues with the couple , Little Kevin and Big Kevin attending the wedding together. 'The Machine' disturbs the equilibrium, creating a disequilibrium between the main characters. He metaphorically represents the characters conscience, the fact they have secrets and as soon as your conscience comes knocking it’s not going to be pretty. He asks the questions, he uses his personality to annoy you, he loses your car keys, he throws your compass in the lake, and he makes you come to breaking point until you blurt out what you've wanted to blurt out. And finally, he is your resolution. Every character has changed their viewpoint on 'The Machine', and this resolution is the wedding reception. Speeches are made, friendships are reaffirmed and stronger than ever, wounds are sown and fun is had.  McDonald, who co-wrote The Stag, expressed in an interview that 'The Machine' is a "real game changer in these guys’ lives when they go on a stag", this perfectly encapsulates what 'The Machine' is for me.

This review is featured in film review from ‘YasminesUrl’

http://yasminesurl.blogspot.co.uk/2014/03/the-stag-commentary.html

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