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.

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The BFG & Star Trek Beyond

Since I've seen two new films recently I thought I would go and review them both in one post. So below are my reviews for The BFG and Star Trek Beyond.

The BFG

The book and 1989 animated film are very close to my heart. I used to love the story of The BFG  and I remember in primary school when the teacher would roll in the TV and VHS player and stick on the animated film which as much as I enjoyed, also used to scare the crap out of me. When I heard that Steven Spielberg was going to be making a live action adaptation I couldn't wait to see what he did with it.

For the most part I enjoyed this film, its a visual delight and features some great performances. The motion capture and computer effects are really, really good and truly makes this the best live action adaptation of the book we could get. There are a few flaws though and one them is that there really isn't that much of a story here, after revisiting the animated film recently I have found that this has always been the case, I mean it is a short book after all. Spielberg knows this and does his best to keep the visuals at the forefront of the film and hopes that the pretty colours will distract children from its pretty slow paced plot.

What Spielberg also does with this film is take away the fear, although there are some tense moments, you only hear that children go missing as opposed to hearing that a whole orphanage has been eaten and bones left by the window. The world that The BFG is set in is a scary one and it was a world that left an impression on me as child. For better or worse, kids aren't going to be having nightmares about this one.

If you want a good time with your family with a colourful and visually pleasing film then you cannot go wrong with The BFG. I am giving it a rating of 3.5/5.

Star Trek Beyond

I love the new Star Trek reboot films. I know this is not everybody's opinion but I get such a great kick out of them, they are really fun space action adventure films with an amazing cast. Now I should probably point out that I am not a Trekkie and therefore having a lack of knowledge of the original show allows me to look at them in a more open way. Now a lot of Star Trek fans haven't liked the last two movies but the majority seem to have liked this third one, the film I believe to be the weakest in the series so far.

Now don't get me wrong, it's not a bad film, I love that its smaller in scale and you get more time with the characters, but I never really felt like I fully connected with them like in previous installments. For the most part, this film is just a big dumb action movie, it's pretty predictable and has a lot of cool sequences and yes, even motorbike chases however, I did feel these big set pieces were let down by an obvious reduction in the quality of CGI. A lot of the sets and prosthetic's look and feel very real but whenever they cut to something bigger it almost always looked fake and took me out of the film. After watching Into Darkness on the same day I also noticed that the colours were more muted in Beyond and I didn't really like the overall look of the film.

Story wise, it's simple and fun and allows the supporting cast to get more screen time, allowing this to be more of a ensemble film. I did however question the choice of casting the amazing Idris Elba as the villain only to then cover him up in make up and alter his voice. Strange choice but maybe the villain would have been a lot worse without an actor of his calibre playing him.

I didn't hate this film, I just didn't love it as much as the other two. I still really want to stay in this universe and follow this cast on their adventures as I feel they still have a lot of great ones to come. I am rating Star Trek Beyond a 3/5.

Well I hope you enjoyed these reviews. What did you think of the two films? Let me know in the comments below.

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Jurassic World

I binge watched the previous Jurassic Park films recently, and although I have enjoyed the last two films in the series, they never had the special something that made the first film so great. When watching Jurassic World, the fourth instalment of the franchise, it regained some of the magic I felt when watching the first film as a child and really did feel like a worthy Jurassic Park sequel.

Jurassic World sees the Park finally open to the public and apparently has been for some time, because apparently some people aren't that impressed by dinosaurs anymore. So now the park's scientist have come up with a new hybrid, a genetically modified dinosaur named The Indominious Rex, and because this is a Jurassic Park film, things obviously go wrong and the monster breaks out and runs rampage around the attractions. The main cast looks like this; Bryce Dallas Howard, Chris Pratt, Vincent D'Onofrio, Ty Simpkins, Nick Robinson and many other supporting players. At first I was worried at how large the cast was but they were all handled well and had enough screen time to make them seem significant to the plot, in which they all have a hand in moving along at a swift pace.

All the acting is good, I had no problems with any of the cast, even the child actors were strong and believable. The characters were slightly heightened versions of themselves, I have heard many reviews say they were cartoony, I don't believe this to be the case, in fact the familiar character archetypes were one of reasons this film felt a lot like the first to me. The director, Colin Trevorrow, really needs to be applauded for making these characters work and really making this feel like a classic Spielberg film, without ever becoming a full on pastiche of the mans work. There are still quite a few nods to the first film but it never gets in the way of the story.

The special effects are great and although it relies a lot more heavily on CGI then the previous films, it still has a few cool animatronic shots and the computer effects them self do look realistic. After the last week of Jurassic Park film watching, I have decided that there should definitely be more dinosaurs in films these days! It has been way too long a wait for Jurassic World, I didn't even realise how much I wanted to see a new Jurassic film until I saw World. With the park actually being open, it really takes me back to the awe and amazement I felt when watching the first and with it still being pretty scary it really does work some of the same magic from the first, just on a much larger scale. It's not as good as the first but it gets more right then it does wrong.

With the amazing theme tune from John Williams, Jurassic World takes you straight back to Isla Nubar and your childhood. I had an absolute blast watching this film and really didn't expect it to be as much fun as it was. The film doesn't give you everything from the get go and the payoff at the end is really, really awesome. This is easily one of my favourite films of the summer so far! I am giving Jurassic World a rating of 4/5.

What did you think of Jurassic World? Were you as big a fan as I was? Let me know in the comments below!

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War 'Orse

Nobody does war like Spielberg. And who could have thought he could make scenes as powerful and moving as the opening sequence in Saving Private Ryan without blood? I certainly didn't but I was proved wrong! But War Horse isn't all moving and powerful, some of it is just dull and boring.

I think it was a couple of years ago I read the book by author extraordinaire Michael Morpurgo, so I couldn't remember every little detail before seeing the film. I do remember it being an extremely good book though! The story is of Joey the horse who is brought up by farmers son Albert Narracott, when World War 1 comes into the mix Joey is taken by the army to be brought into the fight. We then follow Joey as he embarks on an adventure that takes him all over the front line of the war. Cue the dodgy accents!

The first quarter of the film I admit had me worrying as it was quite dull and a tad cheesy. The only thing that had me excited was the setting which was the amazing countryside of Dartmoor which I have grown up next to for most of my life so I could recognise many of the places on the screen. But apart from that it was pretty boring.

Thankfully demigod Tom Hiddleston and ace detective Benedict Cumberpatch come and pick up the pace of the film and really start to make things exciting. Both actors at the top of their game and Benedict Cumberpath showing off a rather dashing moustache. Cue some powerful scenes of horses charging into German occupied territory. Which really is the highlight of the film.

Then the film goes to the other side of the war as Joey is accompanied by two German soldiers and the a french family. And my god are the accents terrible. Maybe not so much the french daughter and grandad but the German accents are so bad I would rather they had spoke German and subtitled the film! Near the end of the film a German soldier even says 'cheerio'! I have lived in Germany for eight years and I have never heard a German say 'cheerio'.

But besides from the first act and the terrible accents the film is actually quite good and Spielberg really proves he is the master director of war scenes. Unlike the books which are from the horses point of view this film looks at the people surrounding him which really gives a good insight into the characters. the film does stay true to the book but as with any book to film adaption it is not as good but this one is still great and a must see for anyone. You could probably take your gran to this one and she would love it! War scenes are great, everything else is not!