Spider-Man: Far From Home

I had been cautiously optimistic in the run-up to Spider-Man: Far From Home. I had a similar reaction to the run-up to Homecoming’s release as well, where I didn’t like the trailers and thought there was too much Iron Man in my Spider-Man but then ultimately the film turned out pretty great. Same feeling with the trailers this time around but unfortunately the film pales in comparison to its processor. Read on to find out why.

CAUTION: AVENGERS: ENDGAME SPOILERS AHEAD!

After the events of Endgame and the death of Tony Stark, Peter is feeling the pressure from both the public and his family to become the next Iron Man. He’s still feeling the loss of his mentor and doesn’t really want to have to think about it too much, and with his School class about to go on a trip to Europe, he wants to take a break from Superhero-ing and just be a normal teenager for a few weeks. This doesn’t go to plan as Quentin Beck aka Mysterio, a superhero from another multiverse has teamed up with Nick Fury and Maria Hill to stop the threat of the Elementals destroying the world and they just happen to turn up on Peter’s first leg of his European trip.

My biggest problem with this film is that it’s far from (sorry) just being a Spider-Man film. It’s also an epilogue to Endgame, picking up some of the plot holes created by the Snap (now called Blip) and jokingly tries to sweep them under the rug. Any double bill with Endgame might render the emotional core of that film obsolete… It’s also a sequel to Iron Man, with the big question of who’s going to fill his shoes and despite trying to make Spider-Man his own character they keep making him do Iron Man like things, even turning his villain into one semi created by Iron Man…yet again. And then it’s a Spider-Man sequel, the supporting characters get a few more jokes, Ned probably has less to do and then there’s Michelle, seemingly the MCU’s Mary Jane; she gets fleshed out a bit more here thankfully but be warned, she still doesn’t act like her comic book origins and maybe if they didn't refer to her as MJ we wouldn't have to keep the comparison going.

Taking Spidey out of New York does a lot to establish this as something new within the many films made with him. I admire the originality, I enjoyed the fresh backdrop, but I’d be lying if I said that it still felt like Spider-Man film. You just can’t take the boy out of the concrete jungle… Still, kudos to them for attempting it, it’s still fun and the story overall is quite light and breezy and works within the high school genre it's going for. Everybody looks like they’re enjoying themselves, especially Jake Gyllenhaal who gets to ham it up as Peter’s new mentor, Mysterio. I love Gyllenhaal, he’s great in most things and he brings the spirit of Mysterio to the character despite not being the most accurate to the comics. His powerset also brings about some really stunning and trippy visuals scenes which also allow for some of the best Spider-Man action scenes.

When Peter dons the suit and heads into action, that is where this film soars. When he’s out of it that is where film misses a beat. The emotional core of this film just doesn’t land, which is odd because it doesn’t take much for me to be emotionally invested in Peter Parker, but here I just wasn’t fussed. Even the post-credit scenes on this one, as big as they are, don’t really work with what was trying to be said within the main arc of this film. Everything feels a little too far from (sorry again) the core of the character, and I could forgive it last time because the film was really well done, but here I was less charmed by it. It just never settles into its own, as I mentioned earlier, it’s just trying to do too much when it should just be a Spider-Man film. There’s an element of myself having to grow up and realise that this film wasn’t made for me, and future instalments are not going to be either. Even the audience I watched this with on opening day had a lot lower average age than other Marvel film audiences I’ve seen recently. And if they’re enjoying it then that’s great, the more Spider-Man fans the better. However, there is no doubt that my nostalgia of what Spider-Man is and means to me lowered my enjoyment of this film. Sometimes I can separate my comic book fan brain but this time evidently not.

There’s no doubt it’s a lot of fun and the characters are a joy to be around. The film itself embraces the breeziness of a high school comedy that’s mixed with the aftermath of the stakes of one of the biggest films of all time. Despite the action scenes feeling on point, the story and emotional weight just doesn’t feel like Spider-Man and I’m not particularly excited to see where they go next with it. The further we move away from Endgame and Tony Stark, hopefully, the more Spider-Man starts to settle into his own films. We’ll see but for now, Spider-Man: Far from Home is far from (this is the end I promise) what I wanted but it’s not a total disaster, I imagine most audiences will get a good kick out of it. I’m rating it a 3/5.

Let me know if you think I'm absolutely wrong in the comments below.

Thanks for reading!

Spider-Man VS Aquaman

Another day, another superhero movie, well actually two this time. It's Marvel VS DC, Spider-Man VS Aquaman. Who is going to win? Or are they both just good films? Read on and find out!

Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse

Apart from Miles Morales, the comic books have never made me fall in love with another Spider-Man that wasn’t the original - Peter Parker. Although ‘love’ may still be too strong of a word for Into the Spider-Verse, I actually did want to spend more time with the crazy cast of characters the film put on the big screen. It was a Spider-Man fan’s dream: a film that gives a fresh take on the superhero whilst keeping true to what makes Spider-Man, Spider-Man and opening the character up to the whole world - anybody can be Spider-Man. It’s crazy to see an animated superhero film treated with such love and creative flair, balancing different and unique animated techniques with crazy characters, stylised action and a great story. Through all the weird multiverse stuff that goes on, the film still manages to adapt Miles’s origin relatively faithfully and continues to bring the story back to him and his place in the world as a new Spider-Man. I think it would have been cool to see even more Spider-People - even if just for brief cameos or jokes like the post credits scene (make sure you stay, it’s hilarious!). However, the film still works and is a lot of fun with just handful. It’s so strange to see this work, especially after reading similar comics come out over the past couple years where it hasn’t. We got Spider-Ham on the big screen and it actually worked and hell, this film might even get an Oscar. Between this, the PS4 game, Homecoming and the latest run of comics, Spider-Man really is making a resurgence after a bumpy few years! 

4/5

Aquaman

I think I need to apologise to director, James Wan and DC for being quite negative about this film up until its release. There was nothing in the marketing that made me think this film was going to any good and yet I was proven wrong when I finally sat down and watched the actual film. Aquaman is a weird, bombastic, all over the place, completely out there and absolutely tonnes of fun. Now for the first twenty minutes or so I thought I had been proven correct: the film was full of exposition dumps, melodramatic acting and contained every superhero trope in the book. I can’t pin point the exact moment this changed for me, but I settled into it and the ride the film took me on was one that never really let up. It’s like DC thought they might never get a chance to make an Aquaman film again so decided to make seven in one. There’s so much going on in this film that I’m surprised that it actually flows quite nicely - balancing all the action, story and world building so that it’s accessible and mesmerising all at the same time. The film could have very easily been thrown in with this year's Venom as yet another awful superhero film, yet somehow keeps itself afloat - despite the fact that it contains a slow-motion sequence of its leads walking out of the sea set to a cover of Africa by Pitbull. It’s bizarre that this film works at all really - every idea seems to have been thrown in and yet the bizarreness is endearing - I walked out of the cinema with a massive goofy grin. DC seem to be getting it now - the source material is weird, and we should embrace it, less Disney Channel show dialogue would have been great but the absolute balls to the wall craziness this film gets up to and relishes in is a joy to watch. 

4/5

It's good to see the studios finally grasping that if they want comic book movies to stick around then they need to make them completely unique. These two films came out on the same day, both center around superheroes and both are completely different to each other. Most importantly though, they are both good films. 

What did you think of either of the films? Agree or disagree with my opinion? Let me know in the comments below!

Thanks for reading!

Venom

There’s been a lot of negative reviews for Venom, the new comic book film based off of the villain of Spider-Man, but is it as bad as everyone is saying? NO, YOU’RE ALL WRONG IT’S A MASTERPIECE!!!

Who am I kidding, it’s bad, like really bad. Read on a find out why.

Venom follows Eddie Brock, an investigative journalist who’s trying to take down the head of the Life Foundation, Carlton Drake. While investigating one of Drake’s experiments, Eddie’s body merges with an alien symbiote – Venom - leaving him with superhuman powers and a twisted alter ego.

The film was produced by Sony who have had a bit of trouble with making Spider-Man films over the last few years. With Spider-Man now semi back with Marvel Studios, the company have now gone down the route of making money from the villains of the superhero instead. Now producers Avi Arad and Matt Tolmach have had a boner for the character of Venom for a long time, trying to greenlight a movie since the 90’s and shoe horning him into Sam Raimi’s Spider-Man 3 despite the director’s doubts. I’m going to assume that the producers are like most people who say they “like” Venom but they don’t actually know that much about the character - instead just like how cool he looks. Personally, I don’t think Venom is that good of a character, I find him quite boring. His origin is pretty cool and is well done in the Raimi films but overall he’s not that interesting. He’s just a bit of a zombie Spider-Man and it wasn’t until recent times in the comics with new hosts that his stories became less repetitive. So, as you can imagine, I’ve not been that excited for this film.

Despite my lack of excitement for the character or the film, my interest was piqued by the cast. Tom Hardy plays Eddie Brock/Venom, he’s joined by Michelle Williams, Riz Ahmed and Jenny Slate. That’s a pretty stellar cast and if you’re into your films you might be suckered into thinking that there must be something in Venom that grabbed these high-class actors’ interest. Well let’s just say there must have been a lot of money on the table for this one… Michelle Williams especially looks like she’s so bored with the film and her chemistry with Tom Hardy is so non-existent. It’s uncomfortable to watch. Only Tom Hardy looks like he’s having any fun with character and you can tell that he definitely puts his all into the character - it’s enjoyable to watch and despite the lack of comic book accuracy to the Eddie Brock character. He is actually a solid choice and it would be good to see in a more thought out film. I don’t blame the cast, they all have done and will do better.

So, the film is bad you get that but unfortunately, it’s not even one of those films that’s so bad it’s good. The whole thing just feels so uninspired and dull: the story is choppy and the heroes/villains seem to have little to no motivation for their actions. It takes way too long for Venom to actually come into play and although the film perks up a little when he does, the character just feels messy and incomplete. His powers are all over the place and his changing intentions come out of nowhere. The film feels like it was made in the early noughties, when studios weren’t as sold on superhero films and we got dumps like Daredevil and Catwoman. This film even comes complete with dodgy CGI and messy visuals that disorientate you during action scenes. It’s crazy to think that the producers - having wanted this film made since the 90’s - did not give any reason as to why this film should be made other that it being a cash grab for the suckers who think Venom looks cool and believe they’re in for a more adult take on the character. It’s dark alright but I’m talking more in terms of the lighting.

This film frustrates me because it feels like uninspired and lazy filmmaking personified. No offence to the crew that no doubt worked their butts off to try and make something out of this but it was tainted from the get go. I think it deserves this scathing review because it gives superhero films a bad name. When made with love and effort superhero films can soar - look at Black Panther - but when these films are made with no other thought than greed, well they look like Venom. As a fan of comic books and Spider-Man in particular, I should be the prime target for this film; but I couldn’t care less. I also really don’t care for the Spider-Man Villain universe without Spider-Man that Sony are trying to set up, leave the characters alone.

Venom is not a film, it’s a product. A product that looks cool but when you bite into it, it’s mouldy and makes you ill. So yeah, I’m rating it a 1.5/5. Give it a miss.

So what did you think of the film? Am I right or am I wrong? Let me know in the comments below.

Thanks for reading!

GUEST POST: The Miseducation of Cameron Post

So today I have a guest post coming to you from my friend and work colleague Giordana Russo, who was lucky enough to see The Miseducation of Cameron Post at an early screening and write about for the blog.

Giordana Russo is an aspiring storyteller and screenwriter. She’s a proud geek with a love for films, video games, graphic novels and books; as long as it has an intriguing story and interesting characters. Representation is very important to her, one of her main interests and a strong theme throughout her creative content.

I hope you enjoy her review!

The Miseducation of Cameron Post will be out in UK cinemas August 31^st, but I had the pleasure to attend a preview screening at The Watershed in Bristol, which has ultimately lead to this review, so here we go:

Directed by Desiree Akhavan, the film is set in the early 90s and follows Cameron (Chloe Moretz), a teenager who gets caught kissing another girl, Coley Taylor (Quinn Shephard), at the prom. The aftermath sees Cameron being sent to God’s Promise, a conversion therapy centre, by her very Catholic Aunt (Kerry Butler).

The film is an adaptation of the book written by Emily M. Danforth, it follows Cameron’s sexuality exploration from her early teenage years; the film mostly covers the third act of the book focusing on the conversion therapy, with a few flashbacks here and there to provide context.

The first point I want to highlight is how despite the intense nature of this subject, the film surprisingly manages to create several light hearted and comedic moments throughout its run. This plays positively for the portrayal of the characters, even though they’re in conversion therapy, they are still very much teens and behave as such. I appreciate this element for different reasons: one is that it doesn’t let the film fall into a cliché, it’s not uncommon to see LGBT+ films be overwhelmingly tragic, and although this film has its fair share of drama and tragedy, it’s cleverly balanced by its more light-hearted side. It also adds layers to the characters; the way Cameron deals with this situation changes throughout the films and causes several of these comedic moments.

Talking about characters, they are both a strength and weakness of this film. A range of very interesting characters is presented: Cameron is our protagonist, a girl in the middle of figuring out her sexuality and struggling to do so due to her repressive environment, she ultimately goes along with things even if she doesn’t agree with them. Then there’s Adam Red Eagle (Forrest Goodluck), a fellow disciple (a term given to God’s Promise students). Adam is a Lakota, a Native American Tribe, and his character gives a bit of insight into this culture and how they may view people like him. Then there’s Erin (Emily Skeggs), another very intriguing character, who deals with sexuality and gender identity but is fully committed to changing, she truly believes she’s capable of conversion. God’s Promise founders are themselves interesting, particularly Rick (John Gallagher Jr.), an “ex-gay” who’s now trying to help people who’re going through the same struggles as he did, as he was helped by his sister Lydia (Jennifer Ehle).

So we have a good list of characters, each with their own unique background and personalities, and here’s where the weakness of the film is: unfortunately none of them are explored beyond that initial introduction, least of them is Jane (Sasha Lane), another disciple with dry humour and what seems to be a tough background, but while we know why everyone else got sent to God’s Promise, we never quite grasp why she’s there too, all we can do is guess but if the other characters didn’t get much development, she got even less. I call this a weakness, but it can be debatable as it’s not fully the film’s fault, it is hard enough to adapt a book (or a section of it) in a film that is only 90 mins long, and The Miseducation of Cameron Post is a particularly rich book, as we can see from the amount of characters the film alone has.

Briefly, a few other positive points that I want to mention but won’t dwell on are the cast’s performances, each actor shined in their role, doing their best to bring to life their characters and their complexities and the fact that the film didn’t portray the Catholic characters as caricatures. What I mean is that it’s easy to paint such characters as evil, but in fact these type of people often do believe that what they’re doing is good, something that is taken into consideration in this film and so we get to see them as vulnerable people too, instead of seeing just one side of them. Music is not often used but is strategically placed in significant moments for emphasis and as for cinematography, nothing particularly stood out to me, but it serves the story well with hand held movements used for the same reasons as the music is, together with cold colours to elevate the bleakness of the situation.

The end is quite abrupt; it’s preceded by a few poignant events and what could be called the climax of the film. The problem is that it doesn’t feel much like a climax but more like part of the events that are building up to it. Therefore, when the end comes, it feels quite underwhelming and as if more was meant to come after. So far, I’ve tried not to compare this film to the book, it is an unfair comparison but as both end similarly, I do have to at least say that the book handles the end much better, an end that would’ve worked well even in the film.

Overall, The Miseducation of Cameron Post provides a good point of view of some terrible situations, representation that was long awaited and very welcome, and does so through a balanced use of drama and light-heartedness which subverts a few tropes seen in similar content. It is a very solid film with great performances and witty writing, I personally do recommend this film to anyone and I also recommend the book which contains an even larger and richer world.

Rating: 3.5/5

I hope you enjoyed this guest review from Giordana. If you want to check out more of her work then head over to her YouTube page Nameless Planet. 

Thanks for reading!

Solo: A Star Wars Story

A troubled production, a box office flop (kind of) and mixed reviews…. Solo: A Star Wars Story must be a pretty bad film right? Not at all really. It’s a lot of fun, a good Star Wars story and a lot better than we’ve been led to believe. Read on to find out my thoughts on the film or listen to them on the Cinebois2Cinemen podcast which you can find embedded at the bottom of this review!

Solo: A Star Wars Story is directed by Ron Howard after original directors Chris Lord and Phil Miller were fired off the project- sparking a tonne of reshoots and allowing Howard to take sole credit for the film. It follows the origins of Han Solo when he joins a gang of galactic smugglers. Indebted to the gangster Dryden Vos, the crew devises a daring plan to travel to the mining planet Kessel to steal a batch of valuable coaxium. The film stars Alden Ehrenreich in the role of young Han Solo, he doesn’t do a complete Harrison Ford impression but easily holds the film with his charm and wit. Donald Glover plays young Lando Calrissian, donning more of a Billy Dee Williams impersonation but absolutely nailing it and - with his limited amount of screen time - leaves you wanting more. There a whole host of new characters including Emilia Clarke, Woody Harrelson, Thandie Newton, Phoebe Waller-Bridge and Paul Bettany. They’re all doing great things and - unlike the Star Wars universe’s first anthology film, Rogue One - the new characters are all very interesting, layered and have a level of mystery to them.

With this being a prequel film, it has its slightly more cringey moments; as you learn how Han got his name and his blaster and that line etc… but you also get to see some cool scenes like how he first met Chewbacca, now played by Joonas Suotamo, and he very nearly steals the whole film. Thankfully a lot of these moments are played out near the beginning, allowing the story to just become its own thing, a fun heist film set in the Star Wars universe. In fact I would argue that this film could be enjoyed by anybody who hadn’t seen any of the other Star Wars films. I reckon it would probably get a lot more critical acclaim if it didn’t have the Han Solo name attached to it. Did we need it? No. But I enjoyed it quite a lot as a fun sci-fi film. Despite knowing the outcome for the lead, there are still a lot of stakes for everyone around him and the film manages to have a lot of surprises up its sleeve.

Tonally wise this feels like Star Wars, specifically the original trilogy; groups of characters sneaking around, going undercover and fighting for themselves and the little guy. As a huge Star Wars fan this makes me happy. As a film fan though, there is no doubt that I wanted more from this anthology series, rather than the one off prequels for characters we’ve already seen before. We need to expand the universe: there’s more to this world than Luke Skywalker and friends. I personally would love to see Lucasfilm give out $20 million to several up and coming diverse directors and see let them make a film set within the world. Nothing epic, just small stuff like “Hey, here’s a horror film.”, “a comedy film” or “a romcom” set in the Star Wars universe. I thought that we might have been getting something like that from Lord and Miller’s version of the Solo film. As much as I enjoyed this version of the film, I would love to know if I would have enjoyed their version as much. The film definitely has less comedic moments than you’d expect and is more of an adventure film. However, I still believe Ron Howard was a great choice to have take over the ship.

Another great choice in this film was the music. It wasn’t afraid to use the classic Star Wars fanfare when needed but composer John Powell added his own original scores as well which really fit into the world and sounded amazing when loud on the big screen. He’s be a great choice for future instalments as John Williams has already said that Episode 9 would be his last film. As much as I loved the sound, the visuals to accompany it were not always as good as we’ve seen from recent Star Wars films. Don’t get me wrong, most of it is great but the first half an hour or so is so weirdly dark that you can barely make out some details on the characters face, I felt myself squinting a lot. I thought this might have been a projection problem from my screening but I’ve heard similar complaints from other people. So if anything, don’t go see it in 3D.

Despite the worry and low expectations, I thoroughly enjoyed this one. It’s not the masterpiece that The Last Jedi was (screw you haters) but it is a good fun ride none the less. The great moments outweigh the slightly cringe prequel moments. Star Wars isn’t dead people, it’s very much alive. This film even teases further connections to the expanded universe as well as a thread which might link all these spin off films together. Go watch it this weekend, you won’t be disappointed. I’m rating Solo: A Star Wars Story a 3.5/5.

What did you think of the film? Let me know in the comments below.

And now for the listening section. Thanks again to Danny and Alfie for having me back on the podcast and allowing me to get all nerdy over Star Wars. 

Thanks for reading/listening!

Avengers: Infinity War

Big Marvel fan boy here and although I may have been critical of some of the films in the past, this review will no doubt be full of bias but most importantly: it will be SPOILER FREE. We’re just going to jump straight into things, if you’re a fan you already know the basic premise, if you’re not then a bad space guy is coming and it’s going to take all the superheroes to stop him. It’s 10 years and 18 films in the making… So, what did I think of Avengers: Infinity War?

This is not a film. It is a comic book come to life on the big screen. Everything about it, the tone, the structure and the fantastical mythology made me feel like a child again. It reminded me of the first time I saw Iron Man in the cinemas - the awe of seeing the Nick Fury even tease The Avengers - I never expected this would happen ten years later. I was so blown away by it all, it makes me a tad emotional just thinking about it.

And breathe…

It’s important to recognise that, just because this film blew my little nerd mind, does not mean that it will for everyone else. It’s very long and if you’re not invested by the time the Marvel logo rolls then you’re going to find it exhausting. It breaks so many of the ‘usual’ parameters of what a film should be, it’s pure entertainment made for the one audience that Marvel has spent ten years building. This is not like The Avengers where you could jump in fresh and still understand everything going on, this is a film with 18 prequels, some more essential than others but all hold something that rewards us fanboys in the endgame.

This film is an epic, its story sprawls through the galaxy; the Marvel universe has never felt so big and comic-book-y. And boy does it feel like a comic book. Our heroes are split into different groupings across the galaxy and each group has quite a lot of time at once given to them, to the point where one group may not be seen again for another thirty minutes. To some this may be jarring. To me it felt like each segment was an issue of a comic book, each book bringing the characters closer and closer together until they are all impacting the story at once. The glue of this particular story; Thanos.

Marvel have had their problems with villains before but here they give more time to him than most of our villains. His plan may be typically evil sounding but you really get the sense that he has to do this, rather than just wanting to. Thanos takes his mission as a burden but ultimately sees himself as the good guy. And unlike most fully CG villains, you believe it. This was helped by the fact that he looks incredible, he’s imposing and you really feel like he’s a threat to your heroes whenever he appears on screen. He may not be as charismatic or make us feel as empathetic as others but he truly is one of Marvels best villains. The stakes feel pretty real in this one.

This the first film by Marvel to be fully filmed on IMAX cameras and it shows. IMAX cameras are super high quality and the end result in Infinity War is a really crisp and clear picture, where the colours pop and the CG work (for the most part) is very photorealistic. Added with iconic Avengers score from Alan Silvestri, the sense of scale is truly represented and really makes this film feel like the event it is.

Unless this is the first time reading you’re reading this blog, you know I’m a massive Spider-Man fan; so I’d thought I’d say something about his presence in the film. Marvel continues to make decisions with Spider-Man that don’t always sit well with me. He should have been my favourite character in this film by default but he was not. I enjoyed his part to play but he is still not ‘my’ Spider-Man and yes that Iron Spider suit is still ugly. He has his moments, there’s some great action beats with him and few lines that definitely felt like Peter Parker but the characters I enjoyed most in this film were probably Thanos, Thor, Rocket, Bruce Banner, Gamora and Doctor Strange. That being said, every character gets a moment - even if it’s one action beat or a cool line of dialogue - your favourite character gets something cool to do. The character interactions are great and the unlikely pairings are amazing to behold, even if there aren’t as many quiet moments where we can just see our characters relaxing together like in previous team up films.

As you can tell I was very blown away by this film, not just at the characters coming together but for the sheer scale, scope and awesomeness of the story. I recognise it’s not for everyone but it wasn’t made for a general audience. It was made for people like me and it is not ashamed to be that; a big nerdy comic book movie. This felt like the first time a comic book had been properly visually represented on the big screen and I could not have been happier with the results. I had high expectations and they were exceeded. Marvel have made a film I never thought I would see and it made me so happy, I cannot stop thinking about it. It’s pure enjoyment and I’m rating Avengers: Infinity War a 5/5.

Make mine Marvel.

Let me know what you thought of this film in the comments below.

Thanks for reading!

Double Bill - Pacific Rim: Uprising / Ready Player One

I had a day off by myself the other day so I decided to indulge and watch a double bill of two films I really wanted to see; Pacific Rim: Uprising and Ready Player One. A pretty good pairing as both are sci-fi action films and both were perceived to fail in the run up to their release. They are however, pretty good, find out what I thought about both films below.

Pacific Rim: Uprising

I am a big fan of the first Pacific Rim but unfortunately not many people went to see it in the cinemas; so, when a sequel was announced there was no doubt that it was going to go through some changes. The changes ripped away the grittiness of the lived-in world of the original, making way for a brighter and more colourful setting. The clunky Jaegers have been replaced with newer and more agile versions and the main characters have been replaced with a younger cast, although more in tune with the premise’s anime roots. Despite these rather large changes to the aesthetic of the film, it’s still very enjoyable and although not as good as the first - still a worth sequel. It doubles down on the stupidity of the original and really has a lot of fun with it. There are elements that don’t work, dialogue is not this film’s strongest suit and some of the new characters are unfortunately treated more like objects or are a bit bland. Don’t worry however, John Boyega is the charming glue that keeps this film together. Any problems this film has mostly get forgotten in the great spectacle, something that Pacific Rim still does very well.

3.5/5

Ready Player One

Like many I was worried about Spielberg’s adaption of Ready Player One. The first trailer looked more style over substance with an overload of references to make pop culture fans go “I know that!”. Had the master lost his touch? No and I feel very stupid right now for ever thinking so. The book is not the most loved novel in the world - I haven’t read it but I have heard that Spielberg has been able to take the elements that work and master a greater more resonant story out of it. The world itself is great; not too unbelievable to what could happen as we see video games and virtual reality taking massive steps everyday towards something extraordinary. The film is mainly set in the video game world known as ‘Oasis’; this means the film is pretty much 80% animated and it looks awesome. With it being a video game, the animation does not have to be photo realistic and allows for a lot of creativity within setting and action. And yes, this is also where the pop culture characters are thrown about together on screen as players online avatars. Although reference heavy, it does not take away from the breath-taking action and true heart of the storyline. It’s unlike anything I have ever seen before and really captured the spirit of what it is like to be a ‘gamer’. I also saw it in 3D - one of the first films I’ve seen in this format since Gravity and I must say it really heightened the experience; creating great contrast between the live action and animated scenes. Spielberg has still got it. Go and see this film.

4.5.5

What did you think of these films? Love them, hate them? Let me know in the comments below.

Thanks for reading!