The Hunger Games: Mockingjay Part One (2014) - Film review by www.screenfantastique.com

The Hunger Games: Mockingjay Part One is a compelling and sometimes thought-provoking film with director Francis Lawrence delivering the strongest entry into the series to date. Mockingjay Part One moves away from the ‘game’ format of the first two films in the franchise, allowing a broader story that confronts much larger themes such as genocide, media manipulation and corrupt political systems. It’s unexpected, but not unwelcome, as the story doesn’t linger for too long on any one point. The focal point remains Jennifer Lawrence’s Katniss Everdeen, the reluctant heroine whose motivating desire is to protect her family and loved ones at her own expense.

For viewers not familiar with the previous two films, the main character – Lawrence’s Katniss – volunteered to save her sister from competing in The Hunger Games, a death-match that pits young adults from their country’s twelve provinces against one another. Victorious in her efforts, Katniss is then drafted into a champion-of-champions version of the Games in the second film. The conclusion of The Hunger Games: Catching Fire sees Katniss fire the first demonstrative shot in the rebellion against Donald Sutherland’s sadistic President Snow. Mocking Jay: Part One opens with Katniss in a bad state, psychologically broken by the belief that she’s lost her beloved Peeta (Josh Hutcherson) at the end of the second film, having been taken in by the rebels of District 13. Plutarch Heavensbee (Phillip Seymour Hoffman), who has also defected to the rebels, tries to convince Katniss to help District 13’s President Alma Coin (Julianne Moore) in her efforts to overthrow the Capitol. Katniss is reluctant at first but, upon seeing first-hand the destruction of her District 12 hometown and President Snow’s genocide, she agrees to embrace her symbolic status of revolution: the Mockingjay.

Mockingjay Part One has the unenviable task of framing the action that will unfold in the final film in late 2015. Fortunately, the film’s production team don’t over-reach, covering about two-fifths of Suzanne Collins’ novel in this segment. Unlike the previous two Hunger Games movies, Mockingjay Part One de-emphasises Katniss as events spiral beyond everyone’s control. Donald Sutherland’s President Snow has become pathologically determined to destroy everything Katniss stands for and wages war with no regard to casualties regardless of their innocence. Mere association with the Mockingjay symbol results in deadly retribution and, at one point, Snow orders the bombing of a hospital in one for the Districts that is full of injured women and children. This only serves to strengthen the resolve of the District 13 rebels and Katniss.

Supporting characters are given more to do this time around, as Katniss, at times, is protected for the sake of preserving the ever-increasing symbolism she represents to the rebellion. Liam Hemsworth as the always-pining Cale has some great scenes with Lawrence as the story dances around their sometimes-romantic interest with each other. The casting of Josh Hutcherson as Peeta and Hemsworth as Cale still stretches credibility as the believability in terms of the affection Katniss has for both. It’s hard to ignore Hemsworth’s looks and presence as Cale, while Hutcherson’s Peeta is short, a bit whiny and comes across as a bit pathetic. In this case, love is truly blind.

Woody Harrelson, Elizabeth Banks, Jeffrey Wright and Phillip Seymour Hoffman all return in expanded roles as they take up the fight against the Capitol. Sadly, this will be the second last film audiences get to see Phillip Seymour Hoffman in and the producers dedicate Mockingjay Part One to the actor. Francis Lawrence has been faithful to Hoffman’s memory and has not used any digital trickery to cover scenes that had yet-to-be filmed when the actor died in early 2014. Stanley Tucci also returns as Caesar Flickerman, but is only seen as part of televised propaganda broadcasts designed to discredit Katniss and the District 13 rebels. Donald Sutherland delivers the film’s best supporting performance and, even at 79 years of age, portrays Snow as a quietly spoken monster prepared to use any means at his disposal to maintain order in Panem. Julianne Moore brings a different dimension as rebel President Alma Coin, who is just as quietly spoken as Snow and becomes determined to use Katniss in her efforts to bring down the Capitol.

The credit for the success of Mockingjay Part One must go to the collaboration between Suzanne Collins, screenplay writers Danny Strong & Peter Craig, as well as Francis Lawrence. Collins worked with the film’s writers to adapt the most important elements from the first part of her novel and has maintained the integrity of her novel. The point at which Part One finishes is well chosen, as it’s not a stop-dead cliff-hanger but leaves several important plot points hanging and a desire in the viewer for Part Two to get released as quickly as possible.

As should be expected from a film with a $150 million plus production budget, the technical execution of Mockingjay Part One is first-rate. Catching Fire cinematographer Jo Willems returns for follow-up duties and, as Mockingjay Part One & Part Two were filmed back-to-back, will also be back on board for the final installment of the franchise. Willems’ lighting and camera work captures the changing mood of the story, as scenes are generally darker and colours more muted than the first two films. Alan Edward Bell also returns as Editor and is joined by Mark Yoshikawa, both of whom are also working concurrently on Part Two. Other key carry-over personnel include Production Designer Philip Messina, Set Decorator Larry Diaz and the very talented composer James Newton Howard delivering another strong musical score.

TheHunger Games: Mockingjay Part One does a great job of creating a stand-alone film that entertains and never feels as if it’s a slave to what will come in its follow-up installment. This is no mean feat and a credit to the film’s producers. Fans of the series should feel extremely satisfied, while non-fans can sit and enjoy a well-crafted movie that provides another vehicle for Jennifer Lawrence to, once again, showcase her tremendous talent. It’s going to be a long twelve months waiting for the finale!

Interstellar (2014) - Film review by www.screenfantastique.com

Interstellar is an intriguing piece of film-making. It’s full of ideas and ambition, but is let down by parts of the film-making process that aren’t able to translate that ambition. Christopher Nolan (The Dark Knight Trilogy & Inception) delivers a movie that makes people work for their entertainment, eschewing an effects-driven extravaganza in favour of characterisation set in a near-future world on the brink of agricultural collapse. It uses the structure of classic science fiction films such as 2001: A Space Odyssey and Close Encounter of the Third Kind to convey its message, which some viewers may find too on-the-nose. It’s a strong but compromised work of speculative science fiction that is a calculated risk by the director to deliver a cinema experience that doesn’t just spoon-feed the audience every narrative outcome.

Somewhere in the near future, humanity’s demand upon Earth’s resources has taken its toll. There is not enough food to feed the planet’s population and desperate agricultural practice have expelled too much nitrogen into the atmosphere. Climate change is taking a brutal toll, as dust storms become major weather events and crop blight is marginalising food production. Matthew McConaughey plays Cooper, a former NASA pilot & engineer who has become a corn farmer in order to do his bit to help humanity struggle on. The appearance of a strange phenomenon in his home lead Cooper and his 10 year old daughter Murph (Mackenzie Foy) to the covertly-operating NASA lead by Professor Brand (Michael Caine) and his daughter Amelia (Anne Hathaway). Brand convinces Cooper to pilot a mission that will allow an intergalactic expedition to find humanity a new planet to call home.

Jessica Chastain's characater of Murph witnesses the devastation of crop blight first hand throughout the second half of the film as she returns home to the family farm in search of answers to questions of universal importance.

Interstellar was co-written by Nolan and his brother Jonathan. The pair certainly brushed up on the “great science fiction movies” before they sat down to write this film, as there are nods to the genre’s past great littered throughout the film. Cooper and Amelia are joined on their mission by Doyle (Wes Bentley) and Romilly (David Gyasi), along with TARS, a robot voiced by Bill Irwin. Whether it was intended or not, this segment of the movie feels like 2001: A Space Odyssey. Nolan’s dedication to making sure that the space travel appears and feels to be scientifically accurate is similar to the same dedication paid by Kubrick when he was making his masterpiece back in the mid-1960s. Those who have seen 2001: A Space Odyssey will also find it hard not to draw comparison between TARS and HAL-9000.

The story also addresses the passage of time associated with space travel and cleverly uses it to link back to events on Earth, as an older Murph (Jessica Chastain) joins Professor Brand in a bid to solve a mathematical equation that will help NASA to defeat gravity itself and launch massive ships from the planet’s surface in order to save the planet’s population. Murph’s visit back to the family farm to her brother Tom (Casey Affleck) highlight the situation is more desperate than ever, as the dust storms are never-ending and the clogged atmosphere is suffocating people to their death. The Nolan brothers do not shy away from the question of mortality throughout the story, as a number of important characters do not make it to the end of the film. It’s an example of Nolan’s calculated risk that the audience will accept, in a story that spans several decades and has an interplanetary space mission central to its premise, that life will play out the same for his characters as it does for all humans.

The search for humanity's new home is complicated when the crew of the Endurance discover the secrets of previous missions.

At its core, Interstellar is a story about faith and love. Not the feel-good romantic comedy stuff; more the power of connection that two people can have between them that transcends all other matters in the universe. Cooper and Murph are the embodiment of this connection in the film. McConaughey is rock solid as Cooper. He’s both a superman and an everyman and the character is not an easy sell, but McConaughey’s passion when he talks about Cooper’s children’s future make him relatable as a parent and believable in his delivery. Jessica Chastain impresses again as the older Murph and her performance injects emotion into the story at a point where technicalities of the plot could have completely overwhelmed the story. Anne Hathaway as Amelia is miscast and lacks the dramatic punch to match it with McConaughey. Nolan’s acting talisman Michael Caine looks similarly out of his depth. The director has used the veteran actor in every film since he has made since Batman Begins and it’s unusual to see him turn in a performance that doesn’t hit the mark. John Lithgow, Casey Affleck, Topher Grace and David Oyelowo all appear in the film, but none have a great deal of screen time to do anything other than get through the lines and keep the story moving.

A lot of attention has been paid to the technical production of Interstellar, especially Nolan’s use of 35mm film and IMAX technology. A number of the scenes were filmed using IMAX cameras, but it ended up becoming quite distracting. The clarity of the 35mm footage on the bigger screen lacked resolution and Nolan’s selection of IMAX shots did nothing to improve the story. Hoyte Van Hoytema was Nolan’s cinematographer on Interstellar and the film looks different to the five films that Wally Pfister has done for the director. Given the poor box office result of Pfister’s directorial debut Transcendence, it would not be unreasonable to suggest you should never mess with a winning combination.

Director Christopher Nolan and Director of Photography Hoyte Van Hoytema filming with IMAX,

Another element that does not work for Interstellar is its musical score. Hans Zimmer is a wonderful film music composer and he has provided Nolan with great accompaniments to his previous movies. The score for Interstellar is not one of them. The signature theme – Our Destiny Lies Above Us – is a moving piece of music in itself, but the manner in which it is cut into the film becomes increasingly jarring the longer the film runs. It’s especially overwrought in scenes where the crew of the Endurance spacecraft are tested to their physical and mental limits. It’s but another example of the film-making process not quite matching the ambition of the story.

It’s easy to say that this is not Christopher Nolan’s best film, but it is a comparison borne of a body of work not matched by any other director over the last decade. Nolan sets very high standards. Interstellar is an extraordinary piece of film-making by comparison to the great majority of what makes its way onto cinema screens. Viewers need to be prepared to think to enjoy this film, but it doesn’t come with an in-built automatic satisfaction button that can be pushed at the end of the film to make sure it’s everything that’s wanted or desired.  

John Wick (2014) - Film Review by www.screenfantastique.com

John Wick is the most smashing action thriller of 2014! Its premise is based on the simplest of ideas: revenge. Keanu Reeves stars as John Wick, a former underworld figure who has been transformed by love and has distanced himself from his past and it’s by far his best performance since the off-beat 2006 Phillip K. Dick adaptation of A Scanner Darkly.

In John Wick’s opening montage, the audience see Wick’s world come quietly unravelled through a series of scenes that end with the death of his wife from a terminal illness. At his wife’s funeral, the audience are given their first insight into the man Wick once was with a visit from his old friend Marcus (Willem Dafoe), who’s just checking in to make sure that he’s “alright”. It’s a short scene but establishes very early the deliberate economy by which John Wick has been made, as this brief exchange of dialogue establishes the relationship between Wick and Marcus and its importance later in the film.

The night after his the funeral, Wick receives a puppy; a final gift that his dying wife had arranged to help him deal with his grief. He quickly develops a grudging affection for the dog and the pair head out in Wick’s 1969 Mustang to do errands. While at the local petrol station, Wick crosses paths with three punks, one of whom wants to buy his car and then makes a wisecrack in Russian about his “bitch” dog. The punk who makes the remark is Iosef Tarasov (Alfie Allen), the son of a New York Russian crime boss. The audience gain another insight into Wick at this point as he counters Iosef’s insult in fluent Russian, brushes him off and leaves the young punk somewhat confused by what’s just happened.

Later that night, Iosef and his two friends track Wick back to his house and break-in. To teach Wick a lesson, Iosef kills his dog and then steals his car. Iosef, not realising with whom he has messed, takes the Mustang to Aurelio (John Leguizamo), the owner of a vehicle cop-shop controlled by Iosef’s father. Aurelio immediately recognises Wick’s car and tells Iosef to get the hell out, laying a punch on him in the process. Later, Aurelio receives a phone call from Viggo Tarasov (Michael Nyquist), Iosef’s father, wanting to know why Aurelio punched his son. He informs the crime boss that Iosef is responsible for killing John Wick’s dog and stealing his car. Viggo knows the fuse has been lit and that hell is about to arrive on his doorstep.

From this point, the story rarely takes a moment to catch itself. Derek Kolstad’s screenplay continues to provide the viewer with the salient amount of exposition to care for Wick while creating multiple set pieces that allow Reeves to take full advantage of the physicality of the role. Reeves has never been highly regarded as a ‘actor’ and nothing in John Wick will change any of the preconceptions that movie-goers may have about him. The great benefit for Reeves in this film is that it’s the action, not the acting, which makes his performance and the film successful. Reeves is fantastic in the action sequences. His movements are purposeful and economical; making it very easy for the camera to track his every movement clearly. John Wick co-directors David Leitch and Chad Stahelski are both experienced stunt choreographers who have worked with Reeves on The Matrix, The Matrix Reloaded, The Matrix Revolutions and Constantine. Based on the results of what they have delivered with John Wick, both Leitch and Stahelski clearly understand the combination of style and economy required to deliver an all-out action thriller.  

Beyond their leading man, Leitch and Stahelski have assembled an outstanding team of actors and movie-makers for John Wick. Michael Nyquist, as Viggo Tarasov, has the hardest job in the film; balancing his desire to protect his son while, simultaneously, admiring Wick for his ‘unique’ approach to getting things done. Ian McShane has a small but important role as Winston, a man of influence within the criminal underworld of assassins and hit-men. Adrianne Palicki injects the second half of the film with sultry antagonism, as her character – Ms Perkins – breaks the code of the assassin’s profession in an effort to claim the contract Viggo has placed on Wick. Lance Reddick adds an element of mystery & mythology as the Manager of the Continental Hotel, a neutral-zone for assassins in New York on “business”, as does David Patrick Kelly as Charlie, a man who runs a very unique cleaning business.

John Wick benefits greatly from very strong cinematography by Jonathan Sela and a pumping soundtrack from Tyler Bates & Joel J. Richard. The visuals and the soundtrack combine to add an extra layer of style to the film that is completely unexpected and pleasing to both the eye and the ear. Jonathan Sela is a relatively young film-maker, but he has already been director of photography on a number of large scale movies including 2013’s A Good Day To Die Hard and has worked with feature film director John Moore on two other occasions lensing Law Abiding Citizen and Max Payne. Much of John Wick takes place at night and Sela provides a lighting palette that is very effective at communicating the sub-culture of crime and assassins, with the use of red and purple highlights against grey, smoke-filled garages, nightclubs and hotels.

Recent entries into the action thriller genre, such as Denzel Washington’s TheEqualizer, have attempted to intellectualise their protagonists and make them sympathetic for the sake of audience fulfilment at the end of the movie. John Wick doesn’t bother with this approach. It uses a simple premise and then unleashes an almost non-stop barrage of violence that only comes to end when Wick himself decides that enough is enough. It’s an excellent action film and a great return to form for Keanu Reeves.

Poltergeist 2015 - Reboot update at www.screenfantastique.com

http://www.screenfantastique.com/poltergeist-2015.html

One of the more intriguing reboot movies due for release in 2015 is Poltergeist 3D, based on the classic 1982 film directed by Tobe Hooper and produced by Steven Spielberg. Older movie fans may remember the urban myths surrounding the original film where it was rumoured that Spielberg took over directing the film part the way through production when it became clear that Hooper wasn’t up for the job. Poltergeist 3D is directed by Englishman Gil Kenan, who has two previous feature films to his credit – Monster House (2006) and City of Ember (2008). Much like the original film, an older, experienced film-maker is on board as producer in the form of Sam Raimi. As far as specialist horror film makers go, they don’t come much more experienced than Raimi, whose credits include the classic Evil Dead trilogy, Darkman and Drag Me To Hell. That’s not forgetting his mainstream feature film career that includes the first Spider-Man movie trilogy, as well as his extensive TV resume with long-running series including Xena: Warrior Princess and Hercules: The Legendary Journeys.

Story details have been vague, up to this point, but it’s hard to imagine that Poltergeist 3D is going to stray too far from the formula that made the original film successful. The movie’s Facebook page has dropped a few hints suggesting that it’s the same premise just with more horrific mayhem channelled through 21^st century mediums such as smart phones and iPads. There’s also a suggestion that, in this new film, the entire neighbourhood will be affected, as if the entire Desperate Housewives street was built on the cemetery; not just one house! The screenplay is by experienced writer David Lindsay-Abaire, whose body of work includes Robots (2005), Rise of the Guardians (2012) and Sam Raimi’s own Oz The Great & Powerful (2013). What we do know is that, once again, we’re going to see a little girl drawn into the maw of a nasty parallel dimension where all manner of horrors await.

The on-set atmosphere during principal photography looks the part!

Kenan and Raimi have assembled an eclectic cast for Poltergeist 3D headlined by the versatile, but seemingly always kooky, Sam Rockwell, who plays Eric Bowen, the father-role played so well by Craig T. Nelson in the original 1982 film. Mad Men and United States of Tara co-star Rosemarie DeWitt plays Amy Bowen, the mother; while Saxon Sharbino and Kyle Catlett take on the role of siblings Kendra and Griffin. All eyes, however, will be on young Kennedi Clements who plays Madison Bowen, the ‘Carrie Anne Freeling’ equivalent character played by Heather O’Rourke in the original Poltergeist trilogy. Sadly, O’Rourke was just twelve years old when she died, suffering complications from Chron’s Disease, but she will always be remembered for her role as ‘Carrie Anne’ and the fantastic delivery of the now much-quoted “They’re here” line.

Behind the scenes, a serious slate of talent has been employed to bring Poltergeist 3D to the screen. Spaniard Javier Aguirresarobe serves as the film’s director of photography and brings a wealth of experience from over four decades of film-making in his homeland as well as his work on international productions such as The Others (2001), The Twilight Saga: New Moon (2009), The Twilight Saga: Eclipse (2010) and Blue Jasmine (2012). Aguirresarobe is a serious talent and is key to bringing both the creepy atmosphere and stunning shots required to sell the film’s supernatural story premise. Hyphenate film-maker Jeff Betancourt has editing duties on the film and his experience as a director and producer on horror film and TV shows should help provide the right kind of pacing Poltergeist 3D will need to sustain itself through a running time that should be somewhere between 95 to 110 minutes.

On the effects front, Kenan has brought in two really experienced guys to handle this crucial piece of the process for a film such as Poltergeist 3D. Michael Innanen is the movie’s special effects supervisor, in charge of the practical work that needs to happen on-set; while Ariel Velasco-Shaw is in the visual effects supervisor, overseeing the elements that need to be included after principal photography has been completed. Innanen’s body of work includes movies such as Kick-Ass (2010), the 2011 re-make of The Thing and the reboot of Robocop (2014). Velasco-Shaw has worked on several of the Final Destination films, as well as Exorcist: The Beginning (2004), Jonah Hex (2010) and six episodes of the break-out Fox TV horror show Sleepy Hollow.

It sees all is in readiness for Poltergeist 3D with the mix of talent both in front of and behind the camera. While highly unlikely, given the calibre of film-makers leading this production, it would be a shame if Poltergeist 3D doesn’t expand upon the original 1982 story in same way. Sure, horror fans want to see a combination of thrills, scares and gore, but it can’t be derivative of the original. Gil Kenan, David Lindsay-Abaire and Sam Raimi have had the chance to make this reboot one worth remembering. In just over nine months, we’ll all know if it’s been worth the wait.

Poltergeist 3D is released in Australian cinemas on July 23, 2015.

Check out the trailer for the original Poltergeist from 1982 ...

John Wick - New trailer and images at www.screenfantastique.com

http://www.screenfantastique.com/john-wick.html

Keanu Reeves returns to screens at the end of this in John Wick, a straight-down-the-line action revenge film that sees the title character forced to use his none-too-savoury skills as a former hitman avenge the memory of his dead wife. Reeves hasn’t had a good time of it this year, as the action fantasy 47 Ronin was pretty much dead on arrival at the cinema. John Wick is a much more contemporary story from relative newcomer Derek Kolstad, whose previous credits include a couple of R-rated direct-to-video efforts for 80s action star Dolph Lundgren. John Wick is co-directed by David Leitch & Chad Stahelski, two stunt specialists who have graduated to feature films.

The action revenge film is becoming a very crowded market place, with Liam Neeson and Denzel Washington head-lining with the likes of the Taken trilogy and TheEqualizer, which seems certain to have a follow-up after its better-than-expected box office result. JohnWick has some pretty serious talent supporting Reeves … Willem Dafoe, Ian McShane, Jason Isaacs, John Leguizamo and Bridget Moynahan all make appearances. The trailer for John Wick sees Reeves as less intense than either Neeson or Washington, but the bullet count appears to be high and there’s as much going on as any self-respecting action fan would want to see from a film that is looking to replicate the great action flicks of the 1980s.

John Wick is being released throughout Australia on October 30, 2014. 

Tomorrowland - First Trailer released

Tomorrowland is a feature film adaptation of Walt Disney World's famous attraction, much like Pirates of the Caribbean. The film stars George Clooney, Hugh Laurie and Britt Robertson. The film is directed by Brad Bird, who has overseen great animated & live action adventure films such as The Incredibles and Mission Impossible: Ghost Protocol. 

The screenplay is by Lost, Prometheus & Star Trek Into Darkness writer Damon Lindelof. The story sees Britt Robertson's Casey Newton come into contact with a special pin that transports the person who touches it to a "secret place where nothing is impossible ..." Clooney plays Frank Walker, a boy genius who has lost his way as he has grown to adulthood. Walker offers Newton the chance to "change the world" if she's prepared to go with him to Tomorrowland. 

The film opens on May 22, 2015.

Dracula Untold - Film Review

Dracula Untold is a stylish straight forward action melodrama. Its story uses Bram Stoker’s legendary vampire tale as its source, but the film serves as a prologue to the novel; delving into the life of Vlad Dracula before his transformation into the feared creature of the night. Luke Evans is Vlad, Prince of the Eastern European state of Transylvania, a man who was conscripted by the Turkish Ottoman Empire as a young boy and became the most ferocious warrior in all of Europe and the Middle East. Having served the Turks, he has returned to his kingdom, married and started a family. Vlad is forced to take extreme action when the Turks return to his kingdom and demand a thousand young men for their armies and demand that Vlad’s son Ingeras, played by Art Parkinson, become a royal hostage in the court of the Turk’s Sultan Mehmed, played by Dominic Cooper. Vlad finds his answer in the dangerous caves of Broken Tooth Mountain where he comes into contact with a supernatural creature, the Master Vampire played by Charles Dance. The Master Vampire strikes a deal with Vlad. He can have the power of a vampire for three days to defeat Mehmed’s army. If he can resist the temptation of human blood, he will return to being a mere mortal. If not, he will be transformed for eternity.

Luke Evans as Vlad is the key to the success of this film and, at times, he comes up short in his emotional range. He is very good in the film’s action sequences, but is never quite convincing in his role as a father. There’s a genuine desire to bring the Matt Sazama and Burk Sharpless screenplay to life, but Evans and Art Parkinson don’t quite nail the father-son relationship. Sarah Gadon, as Vlad’s wife Mirena, fares a little better as her part in the story becomes the catalyst for Vlad to forsake everything in his effort to salvage his family and his kingdom. Dominic Cooper, however, comes up very, very short and is miscast in the role of Mehmed. For a character that is supposed to be a feared Turkish Sultan, Cooper struggles to bring any menace or sense of intimidation to the role. His fights with Vlad are an anti-climax, as he spouts off more like a James Bond super-villain than the conqueror of Eastern Europe and the Middle East. The most praise is reserved for Charles Dance, as the Master Vampire, who brings his theatrical flourish in a scenery-chomping role that adds a new dimension to broader vampire mythology. It’s of interest that Dance’s role as the Master Vampire was referenced various materials for the film as being the debaucherous Roman Emperor Caligula, but this is never mentioned in the film. The Master Vampire makes references to how he was tricked into his fate and there is a narrative under-current that suggests Vlad is a pawn in a bigger game.

First-time feature director Gary Shore brings a lot of visual style to Dracula Untold. The Irishman’s background in directing television commercials has served him well and the tone of his film hearkens back to the 1986 Russell Mulcahy film Highlander. Like Shore, Mulcahy transitioned his music video and television commercial experience into feature films. The film’s Director of Photography is Jonathan Schwartzman, who is no stranger to lensing big-budget motion pictures. He served as DP on The Amazing Spider-Man reboot, has worked with Michael Bay on Armageddon & Pearl Harbor and went straight from Dracula Untold to Colin Trevorrow’s Jurassic World. The combination of Shore’s enthusiasm and Schwartzman’s experience creates a film that is as good to look at as anything that has come out so far in 2014.

Dracula Untold is not without its problems. Besides the unconvincing relationship between Evans and Parkinson as well as the problems with Cooper’s casting, the plot is under-developed. Too much of the film feels as though it’s been done before and better; especially Francis Ford Coppola’s 1992 version. The biggest problem with Dracula Untold is that it falls into the same trap as another recent release The Maze Runner. Studios are always seeking to establish the next major movie franchise and that make sense because the revenues from successful franchises are invested by studios to develop new film projects. The challenge with the relentless pursuit of a franchise strategy is the impact on a film’s plot and narrative. The Master Vampire is an example of this in Dracula Untold. Not only is he there to give Vlad what he needs, the Master Vampire delivers explicit dialogue in order to establish a broader vampire mythology for additional films. It’s both presumptive and ambitious on the part of the film’s producers and distributors that they believe the film will perform solidly enough to warrant further instalments. It’s a trend that also is somewhat conceited, as it take the audience who turn up to see Dracula Untold for granted.

By no means is Dracula Untold a bad movie. It’s stylish and its set-pieces are well staged. Horror fans may be disappointed by the relatively small amount of blood that is spilt, but vampire fans will enjoy the effort the film’s production team have made to create a gothic romanticised version of Dracula before became legend. 

Annabelle - Film Review

Annabelle is the latest offering in the long-running line of horror thrillers inspired by the Japanese New Wave Horror era of the late 1990s and early 2000s that saw the release of films such as Ringu, adapted in the US as The Ring, Dark Water, Pulse, Audition and Ju on; the original version of The Grudge. Australian-raised James Wan took the Western horror genre and gave it all new life with 2004’s Saw, a film whose story and tone borrowed heavily from the Japanese New Wave. It’s no surprise to see Wan’s name on the credits of Annabelle, as this new film is a follow-up to Wan’s massively successful horror offering from 2013, The Conjuring.

Annabelle is set in the same universe as The Conjuring, serving as a prologue to the events that would take place in Wan’s film. The screenplay, by specialist horror scribe Gary Dauberman, takes place in late 1969 and cleverly weaves into its narrative the fear that gripped Los Angeles in light of the Tate-LaBianca committed by Manson Family members in August that year. The story introduces a young couple, Annabelle Wallis as Mia & Ward Horton as John, who are devoted Catholics expecting their first child. Mia and John’s life is thrown into turmoil when their next door neighbours are murdered in a frenzied attack by two intruders. John is attacked by one of the intruders when he goes to his neighbour’s to investigate, but the other intruder, a female, manages to slip into Mia and John’s house. The woman, who seems possessed by some unworldly force, tells Mia that she likes the antique doll that John has bought her as a special gift to help finalise her collection. The woman is soon joined by her cohort and the pair viciously attacks Mia. John, realising his wife is in mortal danger, rushes back to their house to save Mia. By this time, the police have arrived and shoot the male attacker. The female attacker rushes into the adjourning soon-to-be baby nursery and commits suicide; her blood running from a gaping neck wound down into the eye socket of the antique doll. From this point forward in the story, some serious demonic intimidation takes place.

It’s hard not to compare Annabelle to The Conjuring because of the narrative link between the two films and, unfortunately for this latest movie, it’s never quite as menacing or atmospheric as the latter. Despite a good set-up and use of the historical references, Dauberman’s script is unable to sustain its intensity and relies too heavily on clichéd narrative tropes to drive suspense. In the time-honoured tradition of the “lone female going somewhere alone in the dark”, one set-piece sees Mia leave he new-born baby alone in their apartment to and put some cardboard in the couple’s basement storage lock-up. Even movie-goers not familiar with the horror genre will find it difficult to believe that the character, after several extremely unusual occurrences in the couple’s apartment, would leave their child alone and venture off alone … Having said that, the ensuing scene in the basement and malfunctioning lift will give viewers pause to think next time they’re alone in a lift as to what they may be confronted with when the doors open!

As far as performances go, Annabelle Wallis & Ward Horton are a cute couple up on the screen, but are pretty wooden in their delivery. They play their characters with a mixture of nerdy cluelessness that wears thin after it becomes clear that they’re in real danger. Annabelle Wallis picks up the tempo in the final act; benefiting greatly from the arrival of Alfre Woodard’s character of Evelyn. Woodard brings a combination of jittery resignation to her part that help to legitimise the torment that Mia has been suffering. Tony Amendola as Father Perez comes in and out of the story but plays a role in helping both John and Mia to try and understand what they are truly battling against. TV character actor Erik Ladin is the film’s other most notable actor in the role of Police Detective Clarkin. It’s only a small role, but his character plays a vital expository role in helping Mia to understand the background of the attacks from the beginning of the film and their connection to events later in the story.

Experienced cinematographer John R. Leonetti takes the directing reign on Annabelle, having served as Director of Photography on The Conjuring for James Wan. Leonetti’s inexperience as a director goes some way to explaining the woodiness of his two leads, but his framing of scenes is excellent and he, along with cinematographer James Kneist, manage to get the most out of their set-ups. Annabelle’s film editing is somewhat of a let-down, as Leonetti and Film Editor Tom Elkins miss some opportunities to ramp up the scare-factor. One sequence with Tony Amendola’s Father Perez could have been one of the great car ride sequences, but it falls flat as the shot selections and pacing are too short and sharp to build the kind of nerve-twisting tension that Dauberman’s screenplay was aiming for. One of the highlights of Annabelle is its desire to depict the late 60s as faithfully as possible and it’s a credit to the whole production that the film achieves a level of visual authenticity that makes it stand-out in this department.

Annabelle will, without doubt, have its fans. The film’s connection to The Conjuring will make sure of that. It’s a solid piece of horror-suspense film-making that delivers enough scares to make it worth the price of a movie ticket without being a truly great entry into the genre. 

The Giver - Film Review

The Giver is a very odd movie. It features a couple of very appealing young actors in Australia’s Brenton Thwaites as Jonas and Odeya Rush as Fiona; the film’s leads. It has the presence of Jeff Bridges and Meryl Streep in key supporting roles. It even has a small role for singer Taylor Swift designed, no doubt, to appeal to the young adults who buy her music. The film is directed by Phillip Noyce, another Australian with a wealth of film-making experience dating back to the 1970s, who has directed some great action thriller movies. It’s based on the controversial but very successful book of the same name, written by author Lois Lowry. Yet, The Giver lacks focus and feels too much like a series of scenes tied together by quick-cuts of home movies that serve to fill the space in places where it should be creating its own dramatic moments but, instead, relies on stock footage to convey the emotion it wants it characters and its audience to feel.

The challenge of adapting The Giver into a movie is highlighted in the visualisation of the drab, emotionless, colourless, homogenous society in which the bulk of the story takes place. As with many young adult science fiction stories, this one is set in a dystopian future where some kind of “climate event” has forced the creation of a large-scale secured community, where individuality is not allowed, the inhabitants are drugged and the government of “elders” rule by way of pseudo-martial law. The setting is a variation on the 1976 Logan’s Run movie and it would not be surprising if the owners of the Logan’s Run copyright took legal action if ever they see The Giver, the similarities are so pronounced. One of the opening scenes comes so close to plagiarising the opening Carousel sequence from Logan’s Run that it’s concerning that somebody else’s intellectual property could be so easily infringed without consequence.

The tedium of the film is reflected in the tedium of the various cultural ceremonies that are depicted, including one where the “children” – Jonas, Fiona and their friend Asher played by Cameron Monaghan – become “adults” when they are allocated their responsibility within the community. Fiona is nominated as a care-giver for the young, while Asher, in a way too on-the-nose set-up of “he’s the bad guy”, is selected to become a drone pilot. (It’s a pretty ham-fisted piece of analogy that criticises America’s use of the type of technology in the real world.) Jonas, however, misses out and is left standing on his own after his other 149 classmates have all received their job allocations. Meryl Streep, sleep-walking her way through the role of Chief Elder, announces that Jonas will become the Receiver; the most important role in the community. Watching on is Jeff Bridges as the current Receiver, who will instruct Jonas and transfer the knowledge of the outside world and past history to him.

It’s all very cliché and by-the-numbers film making. Moments where obvious tension should exist, there’s none. Scenes where the viewer should care whether or not Jonas will succeed in becoming the next Receiver fall flat and fizzle to nothing. Perhaps the bland setting of the film itself somehow infected the production with an inertia that made it difficult for any of them to energise their performances to a point that makes the film’s 100 minute running time of any real interest to the viewer. Jeff Bridges gives yet another gruff performance that has become his stock and trade in recent years and, in this role, has a serious case of the ‘Marlon Brando Mumbles’. To make matters worse, screenwriters Michael Mitnick and Robert Weide introduce a sub-plot for Bridge’s character that is so poorly executed that it only serves to confuse the already-struggling narrative drive of the film. The manner in which the film has been edited together leaves a very definite suspicion that important story material was left out; much of which was exposition to help the audience understand how Thwaites and Bridges’ characters are able to communicate the way they do and to provide a more detailed account of the meaning behind the film’s ending.

The Giver also commits the movie-making crime of not providing the audience with a clear-cut resolution to the story it’s trying to tell. Admittedly, this is a carry-over from Lois Lowry’s novel and if Christopher Nolan had made The Giver perhaps the ambiguity of the ending may have been more meaningful because of what had preceded it. Phillip Noyce is no Christopher Nolan and The Giver is not Inception. Those familiar with Lowry’s other books already know the fate of Jonas, but the way in which the film presents its ending feels like a cheat because it leaves the impression that The Giver’s producers are trying to create a franchise for future adventures. The problem with this approach is that it takes the audience who have paid good money to see a self-contained movie with a self-contained story for granted. More and more movie makers are trying to achieve “franchise” success with their movies but it creates schizophrenic story-telling because the plot gets hi-jacked by story points that are not related to the film’s narrative. The Giver is an example of this, although not quite on the same scale as The Amazing Spiderman 2.

The Giver is an underwhelming addition to the growing sub-genre of young adult dystopian science fiction and, unfortunately, has been released at a time when more superior versions of this type of film have either just been released or will soon be released -The Maze Runner and The Hunger Games: Mockingjay Part One.