5 Films To Look Forward To In December 2012

1) The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey

This film is set to make a killing at the box office and if it's as good as its predecessor then quite frankly it deserves to. The film tells the prequel story to Lord Of The Rings, and follows Bilbo and a group of dwarves on their journey to the Lonely Mountain.

2) Life Of Pi

Based on the book by Yann Martel, this film follows a young man after he has survived a wreck at sea and his travels with his companion who just happens to be a Bengal tiger.

3) Pitch Perfect

This is a film for anyone who likes things like musicals or Glee, with a competition between two campus singing groups bringing plenty of music and laughs to this teen comedy.

4) Jack Reacher

  

With Tom Cruise back to his action packed self, the film tells the story of police officer in the homicide department who is investigating a rogue soldier who has gone on a killing spree.

5) Seven Psychopaths

Starring Colin Farrell, Sam Rockwell and Christopher Walken, the story follows Marty, a screenwriter in Hollywood, who inadvertently becomes involved in the criminal underworld of Los Angeles.

Tangled (2010)

 I have always been a great lover of all things Disney. Ever since I went to Disney World and walked up to Cinderella's castle down Main Street USA, I have been hooked. Even now, as a 20 something, I still like sitting down and watching a good Disney with all its cheesyness and moral lessons, and just enjoying it (if anyone is remotely interested, my favourite is the Lion King).

  After a particularly disappointing few years from Disney when it comes to animated films (with Home On The Range, Brother Bear and Chicken Little to name but a few), Tangled follows the story of Rapunzel (Mandy Moore), a very very long haired girl who has spent all of her life locked away in a tower after being stolen from her parents when she was a baby. One day, just before she turns 18, Flynn Rider (Zachary Levi) stumbles into her tower and the two begin on a journey to the city to see the lanterns that are released every year on Rapunzel's birthday.

  Tangled is nowhere near as good as some of the Disney classics, such as Aladdin, The Little Mermaid or Snow White, but it's certainly not one of their worst. The classic fairy tale story is told in an entertaining way with plenty of comedy provided in amongst the morality and typical Disney drama. The animation is, as always, brilliant with some of the scenes being genuinely moving.

  The legend that is Alan Menken wrote the music for the film, automatically making the songs at the very least catchy. They may not be able to be counted among Disney's best, but for what they are they are very good.

  Overall, I think this is a pretty good film, and shows that Disney has finally gotten back on track and is on the way to making great animations once again.

The Dark Knight Rises (2012)

  To keep what seems to be an action theme going at the moment, this weeks film at the student cinema was The Dark Knight Rises, the third and finally instalment of Christopher Nolan's Batman series. The Dark Knight is by far and away my favourite superhero film of them all, so this one had a lot to live up to.

  It begins 8 years after the death of Harvey Dent for which Batman has been blamed and has led to him being in hiding and no longer protecting the city of Gotham. However, when a masked villain known as Bane (Tom Hardy) wreaks havoc and threatens Gotham with nuclear destruction, Bruce Wayne (Christian Bale) must put on his cape and cowl and rescue the people of his beloved city. With help from the likes of Commissioner Gordon (Gary Oldman), Catwoman (Anne Hathaway) and John Blake (Joseph Gordon-Levitt), the fight is on.

  Overall, I think this film is really good. Christopher Nolan manages to buck what seems to be the trend of the third film being the worst and has actually kept this film up to the standard of the other two. The action sequences are adrenaline fuelled and are still kept in the rough and ready style of the trilogy with many fist fights and car chases. All of the performances are also kept up to the level of the other films, with Tom Hardy still managing to convey a whole range of emotion even with a mask covering the majority of his face. Like I said, overall a great film.

  There are only a few issues I have with this movie. Firstly, some of Bane's lines were really difficult to understand. I realise that they had to alter his voice to make him sound villainous and all that, but some of Bane's dialogue was incomprehensible, even compared to my dodgy accent. As well as this, I felt that whilst it is good to see Bruce Wayne struggling with his issues and with the difficulties that being Batman brings, this film seemed to focus on this aspect a bit too much for me. The first quarter of the film is spent with Bruce dealing with the possibility he may have to return to being Batman, and another large chunk later on spent with Bruce locked in a prison and recovering from an injury while Bane destroys Gotham. For a Batman film, it seems to have less...Batman.

  However, these should not distract from the fact that, although not as good as the Dark Knight (but I don't think anything could've topped Heath Ledger's performance in that film), this film is still incredibly good and is a worthy final film for an outstanding trilogy.

The Amazing Spiderman (2012)

  On my spare evenings (of which there are more than I would wish) I like helping out at the campus student cinema. It's one of the societies at the university that allows students, and anyone else who wants to brave it, to see recently released films in one of the lecture theatres that has been especially created to transform into a fully functioning cinema. Students get to see some of the best films the industry has to offer (and some of the not so good ones as well) at a fraction of the price they would pay at a normal cinema.

  One of the perks of being a member of this society and helping out on the night is that you get to see the film for free. This can sometimes backfire, like the time one of my friends forced me to stay and watch 'The Tree Of Life' just because I didn't have to pay for it, but more often than not it is definitely worth the hassle of selling tickets to students or winding down the ridiculously large cinema screen to get to see a decent film. So when the cinema decided to show 'The Amazing Spiderman' I thought I would pop along and help out.

  I am not ashamed to say that when it comes to superhero films, I am definitely a fan, but I was quite disappointed by the previous 3 Spiderman films which seemed to get progressively worse as they went along. In my opinion, Toby Maguire was not the right choice to play Peter Parker. There was just something about him that just didn't feel right and the films themselves seemed a bit too...self-righteous, kind of like Peter Parker could do no wrong (I will admit that it has been a while since I have seen the first 3 films so I may be exaggerating their awfulness a bit in my head).

  However, this version of Spiderman was far, far better. The special effects were superb, particularly the 'swinging from the rooftop' parts when the audience views the action from Spiderman's point of view. The plot was more in line with the original comic books and seemed more realistic (if that's possible with a film about a guy with super powers) with Parker making many mistakes along the way and also viewing his new powers as any teenage boy would, with a sense of fun and arrogance. The choice of villain was also good and the pace of the action sequences kept the movie progressing at a good speed.

  Acting wise, Andrew Garfield is a much better choice for Peter Parker than Toby Maguire could ever be and also a much better actor in general. He shows both Parker's awkwardness and Spiderman's confidence really well and the chemistry between him and Emma Stone comes across very clearly. Rhys Ifans as Dr Curt Connors is also good, rounding off what is a great cast.

  On the downside, the film does take a while to get into the whole Spiderman thing with the film makers deciding to retell the story from the very beginning, essentially rehashing most of the first Spiderman film not that long after it had been released. Also for fans of the comic books, this Peter Parker may be slightly too cool.

  Other than that I think this film is pretty good and hands down beats the previous representation of Spiderman on the big screen. Overall, I think this stands up to some of the best superhero movies out there and should definitely be seen by all superhero fans.

Skyfall (2012)

  The other day, I woke up and decided to go and see Skyfall, the new James Bond film celebrating 50 years of the best spy in Her Majesty's Secret Service. I was supposed to be waiting until next week to go and see it with all my Uni friends after the school holidays, but who can wait that long for a new Bond movie?! It's fairly safe to say that Casino Royale is my favourite Bond film, and when I heard reports that this one was even better I simply had to go! So I gathered up my one friend that had the entire day off (ah the student life) and off we went to a tiny cinema screen with our popcorn and drinks and watched with excited anticipation.

  Now for the opinion part. To cut a long story short, I absolutely loved it! The movie starts with an amazing action sequence in Turkey, at the end of which Bond is shot and is presumed dead (although of course he isn't - spoiler!). However, a terrorist attack on MI6 and M drags Bond out of hiding and back into service as a double O. The usual action and adventure ensues with Bond discovering that the villain is attempting to seek revenge on M and it becomes Bond's job to protect her, ending with a spectacular battle between the two men and M caught in the middle.

  This film manages to balance the adrenaline pumping action sequences with a storyline fit for any drama movie. The decision to include a lot of Bond's back-story and set the majority of the film in Britain only made it better for me (I'm possibly a little bit biased), and I particularly enjoyed the way that the relationship between Bond and M was shown with both humour and emotion. 

  The performances by the cast were equally brilliant (I would expect nothing less from a film with Judi Dench in it), but by far and away the outstanding performance of the film was Javier Bardem's portrayal of the Bond villain, Silva. Having seen 'No Country For Old Men' I knew that Bardem could play creepy, and he doesn't disappoint in this film. This is without doubt one of the best and most convincing Bond villains I have seen in a long time, especially from the Daniel Craig films, and the disturbing part is that I can kind of understand his motive behind the mayhem. Silva always seem to be on the edge of sanity but at the same time is completely composed and has a definite purpose. 
  
  Judi Dench is also outstanding, yet again, although I don't think I have had enough time to recover from the traumatic ending to comment on how amazing she is in this film. 

  Of course, this blog wouldn't be complete without mentioning Daniel Craig's performance. I think this is probably his best Bond performance to date. We all know that he can easily carry off the action sequences and the hard man appearance, but Craig manages to show Bond's vulnerable side with equal conviction making it a great performance and making him probably my favourite Bond thus far.

  The whole film, accompanied by Adele's theme song (which makes a lot more sense when you see the film), makes for a pretty good combination. Now I wouldn't be naive enough to say that this is a perfect film. There are some parts in the middle that are pretty slow, some very obvious product placement scenes and there is one particular sequence that involves a Komodo dragon that seems a bit strange. 
  
  However everything else, from the introduction of the new Q and Miss Moneypenny and the nods to previous Bond films, to the suspense and excitement Sam Mendes manages to create from scene to scene, this is definitely a film worth seeing, whether you are a Bond fan or not.