GUARDIANS OF THE GALAXY

Marvel take a risk in adapting one of their lesser known comics, Guardians of the Galaxy (12A), for the big screen. Bringing us five brand new superheroes to love with a whole new universe to protect, do the Guardians live up to the previous Marvel successes?

Set in space, five misfit criminals unite together to protect the galaxy when they realise that the villainous Ronan (Lee Pace) intends to destroy it once he gets hold of a powerful orb. Together wise-cracking, Peter Quill (Chris Pratt), Ronan's former prisoner Gamora (Zoe Saldana), vengeful convict Drax (Dave Bautista), Rocket Raccoon (Bradley Cooper), and his tree sidekick Groot (Vin Diesel) must do everything that it takes to ensure the safety of the galaxy and its inhabitants.

There was much apprehension when it was revealed that Guardians of the Galaxy was to be Marvel's next big adaptation;
 in a world with Spider-Man, the Hulk, Iron Man, and Wolverine (to name a few) there was doubt if Marvel's most unknown comic book characters would be up to scratch. Despite this, Guardians of the Galaxy ends up being a pleasant surprise from start to finish in one of the funniest and most entertaining Marvel movies to date.
With all that has been said, the film could have lacked in characters, cast, and storyline and still been an amazing watch due to the flawless and mesmerizing visuals. Setting the film in space really opens the door to some mind-blowing graphics which Marvel and director James Gunn did not do by half; the galaxy truly comes to life and is fascinating to watch with the 3D effects enhancing an already beautiful backdrop as well as throwing you into the midst of the action.
Love,

Set to the soundtrack of a 1970s-80s mix tape, the film consistently oozes with tongue-in-cheek charm with a constant self-aware humour that balances out the sometimes-cheesy superhero conventions to create a smart, cheeky and well-rounded summer blockbuster without scuppering on the comic book tone.

The five characters that make up the Guardians are a refreshing change to the usual superhero line-up. All five have their own personal motives and are mostly carrying out the mission with the hope of a personal gain. Instead of being the usual savvy heroes who want to spread goodness and make the world a better place, the Guardians are incredibly flawed; they are selfish, self-motivated, gritty and a little bit stupid... And this is exactly what makes them so lovable and the storyline so enjoyable- they just seem real and this ensures that the plot isn't just another recycled comic book plot that we have already seen dozens of times before.

The strong mix of characters are greatly aided by the strong cast that bring them to life; although far from the usual A-List that you may expect from Marvel, the cast are second to none with leading man Chris Pratt especially excelling in the role of Peter Quill. It is sometimes difficult to pull of a character that is constantly cracking jokes and goofing around without making the film look as though it is desperate to be funny, however Pratt brings a charisma to the character that makes the wise-cracking appear genuine and the vast majority of his plentiful one-liners incited big laughs from the audience with none falling flat and, most importantly, never getting tiresome.

Overall, it is clear to see that all of the apprehension that followed the film's announcement was completely misguided and there were no better men for the job than James Gunn and Chris Pratt as together they pave the way for the most dynamic and original superheroes to date. The combination of a great cast, amazing visuals, strong characters and a brilliant, consistently hilarious script together creates what can only be described as the summer blockbuster of 2014!

Guardians of the Galaxy is in UK cinemas from July 31st!

★★★★★

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MALEFICENT

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I have been looking forward to Maleficent (PG) since the concept of the film was announced and if you follow my blog you will know that it was one of my most-anticipated films of 2014. Well, the day to watch it finally came; Was it magical? Yes. Was it beautiful? Yes. Did it exceed my expectations? ABSOLUTELY.

We all know the traditional tale of Sleeping Beauty, but Maleficent reminds us that there are two sides to every story. Angelina Jolie stars as the title character, a magical fairy who turns evil after being tricked and mistreated by humans. In a jealous rage Maleficent curses the new baby princess Aurora (Elle Fanning), but she soon comes to realise that the child may be the only one who can restore peace between humans and the magical creatures.

First and foremost, Maleficent is one of the most visually beautiful films that you will ever see and the use of 3D really makes the magical kingdom come alive. From the fluttering fairies, woodland creatures, and even Maleficent's magical powers, absolutely every aspect of the film is truly pleasurable to watch and will transport you into that world and make you feel like a child again.

Angelina Jolie is striking as the lead role in both appearance and performance. The film is solely focused on telling the traditional fairy tale from the villain's point of view and Maleficent's character development is beautifully told; from her childlike innocence and kindness to the despair and sorrow that she feels when she realises that humans have betrayed her trust. This sorrow quickly turns into bitter vengeance and when she curses the innocent baby Aurora the audience feel Maleficent's pain and are completely on her side. Jolie's portrayal of the character is brilliant in ensuring that Maleficent doesn't just become a fantastical and unrelatable source of evil - despite possessing magical powers she is very human throughout the film and captures the audience's heart and empathy.

Once Aurora goes to live with three fairies in a bid to protect her from the evil curse, Maleficent begins to follow her life more carefully and with the help of her servant Diaval (Sam Riley), a rescued raven who she can transform into man at the mere flick of her wrist, she watches over the princess and finds her hardened heart thawing with Aurora's sweet and loving innocence.

One of the key aspects in Jolie's performance is that no matter how evil she appears to be, Maleficent is

never truly a villain. Whilst she acts maliciously and is full of hatred and anger her softer side is never too hidden away and you appreciate the entire time that she is not a bad person deep down, simply forced into making bad and harmful decisions due to the terrible way she's been treated. On top of that, the character has wit and attitude, yet avoids becoming a cringe-inducing Disney cliche and instead becomes a source of inspiration and the true embodiment of a strong, female character.

Although Jolie is the star of the show, Elle Fanning brings charm and grace to Aurora, a character who is normally considered quite plain and two-dimensional. Although your eyes will never wander off the evil queen for long, when they reach the princess it is just as beautiful to watch. Riley also shines as Diaval, a welcome character that provides an insight into Maleficent's mind who also supports and comforts our heroine as the humans put her under siege.

All in all, I am so happy to say that Disney has exceeded itself in this enchanting tale that will delight both the grown ups and children in the audience in equal measures. Visually stunning to watch, Maleficent transports you into a fairytale realm and Jolie's heartfelt and alluring performance will captivate you from start to finish.

★★★★★

Maleficent is in cinemas now!

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Love,

SAVING MR. BANKS

Always a fan of a good 'real-life story', Saving Mr Banks was one of my most anticipated films of 2013; marketed as the true account of how Walt Disney (Tom Hanks) convinced the author of Mary Poppins, P.L. Travers (Emma Thompson),  to let him adapt her beloved novel into a film for the big screen I was intrigued by the story and excited to learn more. Travers was notoriously against the idea of Mary Poppins becoming a Disney film and it took Walt Disney twenty years of asking before she even agreed to meet with him, and

Travers was adamant there would be no animation

once the film preparation was underway an epic battle ensued between Disney and Travers as she insisted on being involved with every aspect of the adaptation - she was adamant that the film would not include any songs, any animation or any made up words.

I think it is is clear to see who won that power battle.

As well as following Disney and Travers on their journey of creating the movie, the film is made up of many flashbacks of Travers' troubled childhood, particularly the turbulent relationship with her father (played by the brilliant Colin Farrell), thus providing a deep and somewhat emotional insight into why she was so protective of her book and it's characters. Although at times these flashbacks could be a bit emotionally exhausting they were incredibly valuable to the narrative and as her past visually unraveled the audience were able to connect with Travers in a way that would not have been as effective had it merely be mentioned verbally.

However, the main strength of Saving Mr. Banks was without a doubt the incredible cast. Emma Thompson is one of my favourite actresses and her portrayal of the stern, uppity P. L. Travers who is haunted by the memories of her childhood was extremely powerful. Likewise, Tom Hanks as the lovable 'buddy-buddy', all round 'good guy' Walt Disney was brilliantly played and although he didn't have an excessive amount of scenes, the film would have faltered without him as he stole every scene that he was in. The supporting cast can not be faulted in any way - from Ralph, Travers' driver, to the Sherman Brothers - every character had a role to play, nobody felt like an awkward spare part or was left behind and each actor gave a great, well-rounded and human performance.

Julie Andrews with the real Walt Disney & P.L. Travers 

Despite the strong performances and entertaining narrative there were aspects of the film that I found a little difficult to swallow. As this is a Disney film of course it was always going to be on Disney's side - the film concludes with Travers overcome with emotion and jubilation at the final Mary Poppins, when it is renowned that in reality she was outraged by her treatment and the loopholes that Disney had snuck into her contract that undermined the creative decisions they had previously agreed on. As a result Travers refused to let any of her future books be adapted. In fact, Travers was so offended by the way that Disney treated her book that when asked for the rights to make Mary Poppins a West End musical she agreed only on the condition that no Americans were to take part in the production of it.

The sugar-coated, 'happily-ever-after', 'Disney-is-such-a-great-guy' element was a little too sickly and forced when you are aware of  the reality behind the film, but as a work of fiction, and if you allow yourself to let go of the reality and maintain an element of ignorance, the ending was incredibly powerful and when I left the cinema I felt slightly dazed by the emotional roller-coaster that I had experienced as a result of the flashbacks and Travers' fictitious yet heart-breaking reaction to the final film.

All in all, Saving Mr. Banks is a charming and heart-warming film - powerful performances and an intriguing plot make it an interesting and captivating watch. I do recommend seeing it but be sure to take what you see with a pinch of salt instead of a spoonful of sugar and remember that although he is undeniable the incredibly creative man behind most of our childhoods, Walt Disney wasn't truly the 'all-round good guy' as so desperately put across in this film.

★★★★☆

Saving Mr. Banks is out nationwide from the 29th of November

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Love,

DESPICABLE ME 2

 

 Okay, I love Despicable Me, it was without a doubt one of the best films of 2010 and one of the greatest in this generation's batch of children's films. I was so excited to see this sequel and had only heard good things about it until the day before I was due to see it, and this criticism disheartened me. In fact, one review said that it was just plain awful, Agnes is no longer adorable and the minions are hardly in it... Now that I have seen it all I can say to that critic is: What the hell did you watch?!

Despicable Me 2 is completely level, if not a tiny bit better, than the original film and if you are a fan of the first film I genuinely struggle to see what there is for you to actively dislike. I can understand why you might preference the first but there really isn't anything in the second film that is offensive to fans of the first or is really that different in any way. I will admit that yes, Gru is no longer despicable. But this is quite a natural character development that we actually see happen at the end of the first film. Despicable Me ends with Gru being a reformed man, he is no longer evil-orientated but family-orientated and I don't know why anyone would thus go into the sequel and expect for him to have gone backwards as a character and if he had done it would have really turned me off. The fact that Gru is now such a family-man who worries about his eldest daughter dating and throws princess-parties for his youngest is funny and works perfectly, especially in the context of the first film where we saw these changes first begin to develop.

The fact that Gru is less despicable and more family-orientated means that overall the focus of the film is less despicable - gone are the days of trying to be the biggest villain in the World, Gru is now being recruited by the AntiVillainLeague to help catch a new super-villain. Whilst there are a substantial amount of villain-esque scenes (Secret plotting, spying, weapons and gadgets) much of the film is centred on Gru's relationship with his girls as well as a romantic subplot and this is where the biggest laughs come. Personally, i much preferred this angle; it was refreshing and set Despicable Me 2 miles above other children's films. All in all the underlying essence of this film was something that absolutely everybody in the audience could relate to - family. And that is what makes it so great.

The Minions are out in force!

However, don't let this family drivel make you think that Despicable Me 2 has lost the humour that ultimately made the first film. Once again Steve Carell delivers an outstanding performance as Gru and he yet again brings so much life and personality to an animated character that he has definitely cemented himself as one of the greatest voice over performers of our time. As well as Carell's hilarious delivery of Gru, the minions are out in force (and this is reason number one as to why i think the aforementioned reviewer hadn't actually seen the film). The minions are in this film excessively more than the first, and to begin with I was a little wary because I was worried that if this continued throughout the entire film and they became dependent on the minions for laughs then it would become overbearing and the minions would end up losing their charm. However, the film's creators actually manage to strike the perfect balance and whilst the minions did end up making the audience laugh the most, it wasn't in a desperate way. In fact, the minions are the best representation of how clever and well-made this film is - a minion is ultimately a little yellow blob, there seem to be an infinite number of them and they don't even speak a proper language... Yet each minion we are introduced to appears to have its own clear and concise personality and can make an entire cinema filled with grown-ups laugh out loud just by making a noise. If that isn't representative of a well-made film then I don't know what is.

As well as the minions, (and reason number two as to why i think the aforementioned reviewer hadn't actually seen the film) Agnes is even more hilarious, lovable and adorable as she is in the first film. She is in it much more but yet again, not in an over-bearing way and whilst she gets the most attention of the three girls, the other two are sure not to disappear into the background. Agnes is the scene-stealer of the film, I looked forward to her presence and was never disappointed by her little quips and one-liners but I think Edith and Margo are just as necessary to the film's plot and without the three of them together it would not have worked as well as it did.

Agnes steals the show

To conclude, Despicable Me 2 is a testament to the clearly incredible creative team behind it - the characters are perfectly balanced and gel flawlessly together, the storyline was a realistic development to the original and had just as much, if not more,  heart, humour and life about it. Most importantly, the film's creators clearly saw what worked and was loved by the audience in the first film (i.e. Minions and Agnes) and expanded upon them in the sequel - they paid attention to the audience's response and delivered something that they knew would appeal. Usually once a film finds the character that works they are tempted to be lazy in sequels and just exhaust these characters in order to get cheap, tried-and-tested laughs out of the audience (Hangover III i'm looking at you), Despicable Me 2 had the potential to just go the easy way out and solely depend on the minions and Agnes to carry the film but thankfully they had more self-respect as a franchise and respect for the audience than that. Whilst the minions and Agnes are my personal highlights, the rest of the film's overall quality did not suffer in the slightest - Despicable Me 2 is clearly a film that had a lot of hard work, creativity and imagination go into it, it isn't lazy in any way and that is what makes it such a success.

All in all i award Despicable Me 2 with ★★★★★

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Love,

MONSTERS UNIVERSITY

On Sunday I had the privilege of attending an advanced screening of the Monsters Inc prequel: Monsters University (Or 'Monsters College' depending on what side of the Atlantic you are reading this from). The fact that I willingly woke up at 7.30am on a Sunday morning in order to make the 10am screening is representative enough of how excited I was to be seeing this film. Despite liking Monsters Inc it isn't one of my favourite films from my childhood - i always watched it when it was on TV and thoroughly enjoyed it but to me it is no Toy Story and it is not even a film that i feel compelled to add to my 300+-strong DVD collection. I do enjoy it, i just don't love it - if you know what i mean?

Director Dan Scanlon introducing the film

The prequel really appealed to me because it is set in a University and i thought that they would be going down the Toy Story 3 route of appealing to the original film's audience at the age that they are now. Monsters Inc came out in 2001, a scary thought but that is now 12 years ago, much of the original audience will be either at University or have already experienced it and i thought that just as we said goodbye to our toys and our childhood when Andy did, we would be going to University with Mike and Sully.

Although i think this was, at least in part, the intention of this particular plot I am a bit saddened to say that it does not succeed on the level that Toy Story did. Sure, as a post-grad i could relate to the look of the campus and the experience of going off to find yourself but i didn't feel the same nostalgic connection that i did when Andy said that last goodbye to his childhood. I promise i will now try to keep the Toy Story comparisons to a minimum, i just wanted to get across what i was expecting from this film in the hope that as you read on you can understand why I was a bit disappointed by it.

Mike & Sully introducing the film

I've realised I have not sold this film too well in those last couple of paragraphs and that seems pretty harsh, don't get me wrong it is good. There is plenty going right for it - the way the University references (registration, meeting your new roommate, sororities etc.) were worked into the script were very clever and witty and the friendships and basic storyline of how Mike and Sully became the Mike and Sully we know and love was truly heartwarming. We are introduced to some fantastic new characters, my personal favourites being the band of misfits that Mike and Sully eventually join forces with and there are scenes with these characters that are genuinely laugh-out-loud funny. The personal highlight for me though was the inclusion of other characters from Monsters Inc. The brilliant Steve Buscemi reprises his role as Randall and we actually get an insight into why he is so mean and bitter towards Mike and Sully in the first film and  i thought this was a very welcome nod to the original. Other well-known characters also make cameos and this familiarity gave the film some heart and warmth, even though the children in the audience will not understand the sentiment.

I miss Boo :(

One character who was sorely missed was, of course, little Boo. Obviously as the film is a prequel to Monster's Inc it would be totally implausible to include Boo but as she is mine, and many others, favourite character you really did feel her absence. I feel the inclusion of sweet and innocent Boo in a World where monsters thrive on scaring children is what makes Monsters Inc so great, no children play a central role in Monsters University and although if they did I would probably accuse them of being unoriginal, it did seem like something wasn't quite adding up.

I was also shocked to find out that Monsters University is only 110 minutes as it felt like a lot longer. I think because so many twists and turns are crammed into the basic narrative it makes the film drag - at the end of the day, it is a children's film and it is simply not necessary to include so many sub-plots. There were a lot of instances where i thought the film would be ending yet it somehow managed to carry on and the children in the cinema were becoming restless (which ultimately makes watching the film a much less pleasurable experience for the grown-ups!) As well as the constant changes in the plot being inappropriate for children, there is a sequence towards the end of the film that had near enough every five-and-under child in the audience sobbing and screaming out that 'they don't like it'. With all the wit that the film contains it is sometimes easy to forget that the basic premise of Monsters Inc is pretty much terrifying for children; it's an institution where monsters sneak into children's rooms at night in order to scare them! There was a scene where monsters were scratching along the bedposts and jumping out of shadows to make the children scream as loud as possible as well as other scenes where the monsters are being as creepy as possible because this time they need to scare adults... When you think about it there is no wonder younger children were getting so scared and with the absence of Boo, a child just like the children in the audience who is cared for and safe with Mike and Sully, the monsters lack the compassion seen in the original film.

I was also disappointed that the scene i remembered most vividly from the film's trailer, where Mike is turned into a disco ball, was cut from the final edit. That scene intensified my presumption that the film was going to be about Uni pranks and parties and all the fun and mayhem that comes with it, although there were glimpses of some parties the Uni essence was nowhere near as prominent throughout the film as it's trailer made it out to be.

This band of misfits make the film

All in all, I do think it is worth watching as i did enjoy it there just seemed to be something really off-point for me and I can't exactly figure out what it was. There were definitely some really great, funny moments but i think all of the subplots that are squeezed in means that the great moments get mixed in with the not-so-great moments, eventually making the whole film underwhelming. The script is reasonably strong and the characters are well rounded, i think introducing the misfit monsters a little earlier on would have benefited the film greatly as they carry most of the humour and when they are not onscreen you can feel their absence. Definitely be prepared for some fidgety children towards the end of the film and be wary about taking under five's or sensitive children as the last thing you want is your kids having nightmares about the scary monsters hiding under their bed!

 Monsters University is a watchable film, definitely miles away from the rubbish side of Pixar sequels (Cars 2, i'm looking at you) but not even close to the realm of Toy Story 3. Maybe someplace in the middle alongside Toy Story 2... I wouldn't watch it again but i'm glad i did watch it, and if they make a third Monsters Inc I will give it a go, but only on the condition that they include Boo!!

All in all I award Monsters University: ★★★✯ ☆
                                                                                 (three and a half)

Monsters University is out nationwide from July 12th!

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Love,

Amazing Randall balloon