REVIEW: In The Heart of the Sea (3D version) (12A)

In the Heart of the Sea is a biographical movie based on the sinking of the Essex, an American Whaling ship from the 1820's. Set in "present day" 1890's-odd, writer Herman Melville (Ben Whishaw) visits one of the survivors of the Essex. This leads to a flash back story about the whaling industry of 1820's America and of a gigantic whale that caused the sinking of the Essex.

Initially wanting to keep the story to himself, a now old and sad Tom (Brendan Gleeson), eventually relents to the personable Herman Melville and tells his story in great detail of the brave first mate, Owen Chase (Chris Hemsworth) and the fresh new captain under his first command, Captain Pollard (Benjamin Walker). the boy Tom (Tom Holland) is on the boat with these two commanders and sees the events through the eyes of a teenage boy and how dangerous and exciting whaling can be. Once the story concludes, a whistful Herman Melville says he has enough material for a story, but says he won't put everything in it. And, if legend is to be believed, that very story was the inspiration for American literary classic, Moby Dick.

Firstly, this movie was watched in 3D and I was really impressed with the 3D effects in this movie both in "present day" and in the flashbacks. The special effects are fantastic - especially with the see creatures and the boats. Ron Howard directs this, and the camera angles and swishes really have you feeling right in on the action. There is a right amount of suspense and desperation and the film really grinds home the difficult job whaling was back then.

Hemsworth's character is brash but noble and is clearly the hero of the piece. Previously, we spoke about Hemsworth in Black Hat which I found a bit lacking and I thought it was a bit of a miscast. However, he does well in this movie and plays a strong hero type - something his physique and booming voice are capable of doing.  At loggerheads with him is the Captain, who comes across as more of a hindrance than a bad guy - promoted only by nepotism and allowing him to skip rank over the more experienced Chase.

Overall the movie is a good one, with plenty of action and interesting sequences. I can imagine this is the sort of movie that excels in 3D rather than 2D and the soundtrack suits the action it accompanies.

If you fancy something a little different and fancy a time travel back to the 1820's - you won't do bad with this. it's quite good. In The Heart of The Sea is out on Boxing Day, 26th December, 2015.

POPSCORE: 7/10 

What am I talking about? In the Heart of the Sea film

Where can I find out more? https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/In_the_Heart_of_the_Sea_(film)

If you like this try: Jaws, The Perfect Storm, Titanic, Castaway

Anything else?

Chris Hemsworth (who plays Thor in the Marvel universe) stars in this movie alongside Tom Holland (who is due to play a teenage Spiderman in the new Marvel universe, Captain America movie in 2016!)
This is also based on a book called In The Heart Of The Sea by Nathaniel Philbrick.

REVIEW: Jurassic World (12A)

Jurassic Park is back!

Kind of!  It's been 20 odd years since Hammond exclaimed - "Welcome... to Jurassic Park!". What ensued was a worldwide madness for dinosaurs and you couldn't move an inch before a rubber Velociraptor or a plastic Tyrannosaurus was in your face. I'll admit I'm a bit geeky when it comes to dinosaurs and really fell in love with the first movie. It was the first book that I read that I couldn't stop reading too. It was recently released in 3D at the cinema and I went once again to see it in it's glory with Chris - and it stood the test of time - even the special effects (and I'm not talking about the 3D stuff) were still holding up really well. It was the only film in the 1990's I went to the cinema to see more than once - which was unprecedented for me. So I'm lucky enough to have the original fresh in my mind but how did the new one do? My favourite character, Ian Malcolm was not in it, and neither was Dr Grant, Ellie Sattler or the two Hammond grandchildren Lex and Tim.

Jurassic World (not quite Jurassic Park IV) is a follow on from the previous 3 in the series but it's not really Jurassic Park IV and not quite a reboot - it's like just a bit further on in time, I guess like we are as the audience. Peppered throughout the movie are references to the first Jurassic park movie and some homages too.

Chris Pratt (Guardians of The Galaxy) stars as Owen, a zookeeper of sorts with an affinity (or respect) for Velociraptors. He has been working with them to be able to follow his order and have them as you would a bird of prey. Some people mistake this for him having tamed them, but he says that he hasn't - it's just a matter of mutual respect. A bit like birds of prey. Meanwhile, bonny redhead Claire (Twilight & Spiderman 3's Bryce Dallas Howard) has her nephews visiting for a few days at the theme park - which has gone from strength to strength since the madness that ensued with Hammond's original idea. However, it has been running pretty good so far until the admissions are starting to wane - so the owners decide to create their own genetically modified dinosaur -  the Indominus Rex - a cross breed of... a lot of nasty stuff including a velociraptor and a cuttlefish. Better keep it away from Ulysess Klaue from Age of Ultron then!

As the I-Rex (it sounds like an Apple product now) learns and develops and is intelligent enough to challenge even velociraptors, it is proven that it is a very dangerous dinosaur indeed. However, when it breaks loose from it's paddock - every one on the island is in danger and it's up to Owen and Claire to help the guys on the island and save the day.

The movie is a great homage to its predecessor and does it just as well. The special effects are fantastic and the 3D is good. The new dinosaurs are spectacular and the velociraptors aren't quite as scary as the first one but still deadly. 

The movie has a lot of homages to the first movie and even some sequences echo the first one - but I won't go into too much detail as it will spoil the movie if you haven't seen it. But if you look carefully you'll see Mr DNA make an appearance and there is a shop called Winston's that's named after special effects legend Stan Winston who worked on the original JP (and a multitude of other movies besides).

This movie has it all, action, excitement and ... dinosaurs. If you like a good action adventure with amazing special effects you could not do any wrong. In this day and age, and the success this film has, I feel that there will be a lot more dinosaur movies after this one - but let's hope they maintain this quality because if they do, Marvel will have competition on their hands in the blockbuster movie stakes.

Jurassic World is at the cinema now and is rated 12A.

POPSCORE: 9.5/10

What am I talking about? The movie Jurassic World

Where can I find out more? http://uk.jurassicworldintl.com/
If you like this try: Jurassic Park, Jaws, Shark Attack 3 (maybe)
 



If you're at Waterloo Station this week -
check out the display of the Velociraptors.

REVIEW: Avengers: Age of Ultron (12A)

Oh my goodness! It's finally here after three years of waiting and one of the most hyped up, advertised and eagerly anticipated movies that I have ever experienced in my life. Avengers: Age of Ultron is here, in the UK, now.

 

Let's start with a quick catch up - after phase one and the absolutely astoundingly marvellous amazing Avengers Assemble in 2012, we moved into phase two. But let's not forget the constant battling and grumbling between all the heroes. Then everyone's mind was blown as they all worked together, we saw the Hulk in action and everyone went home happy and felt the need to binge eat shwarma's. I wonder if there is any link to the fact that once this movie hit the cinemas, a load of shwarma shops appeared in my local town?

 

We started with the not-bad-but-not-brilliant Iron Man 3 with Tony Stark facing repercussions from his Battle of New York experiences and the Chitauri invasion masterminded by Loki. Fast forward and we had Guardians of the Galaxy which was a risk but a hit, and then the critically acclaimed Captain America: Winter Soldier. Now we have this - but how did it do?

 

I've read a load on the internet about this movie - Loki is in it, an Avenger dies, there's no post credit sequence, there's no teaser sting after the first bit of the credits, this, that, the other. I can tell you some of those are true and some are just rubbish. The bit where they say Stan Lee's cameo is awesome is true though - especially if you are clued into the Marvel universe.

 

The movie centres around Tony Stark and his worry over the events of New York and, in an attempt to protect the world,  he decides to try and create a defence mechanism to protect from potential invaders as he feels the Avengers, for want of a better term are "hopelessly outgunned."  His response to this is to create a robot defence using ideas from J.A.R.V.I.S and the power from Loki's staff (which was nabbed from him back in Avengers Assemble) with the help of fellow Science Bro, Bruce Banner.  But, while the Avengers are partying downstairs, the experiment he left to boil goes a bit awry and creates Ultron. Ultron is a sentient robot taking Tony's idea of saving the world to the nth degree by concluding that, to save the world, is to cause extinction of the human race. When Ultron crashes the party and the other Avengers find out Tony has been tinkering without their knowledge, this leads to a bit of a conflict between the team and also gives Ultron time to leave and start his world domination plans. The rest of the movie is all about stopping him.

 

The movie is fantastic and I can't take that away from it. From the beginning strains of the orchestral Avengers theme introduced to us in the first movie, to the fighting and CGI effects, this film is a visceral beauty. There are some unbelievably amazing shots and sequences which really stretch the imagination and the first 15 minutes or so is the Avengers kicking butt like they did in the New York battle of AA in 2012. Even some of the sustained shots of all the Avengers fighting individually are carried through with gusto and this is where the film really shines. But if you think that battle was immense - and it was - then there's a canny few others to ogle at. The Hulkbuster vs Hulk battle was amazing, and the finale was too. However, every single time there is a battle where there is people there is a massive emphasis on protecting the people and elaborate evacuation procedures. There's a few scenes were innocent bystanders are caught in the battle and an Avenger saves them at the last minute.

 

We also find out a lot more about the characters though some of it was probably unnecessary. Hawkeye gets a meatier role, and we find out a lot more about him and there is a hilarious sequence where all of the Avengers have been caught under mind control except him and he says something along the lines of "not this time, been there, done that!". There's a lot of comedy in this film, and there was a lot of laughing out loud in the cinema over it, but as the action moved on quickly your laugh when kind of haha -ooo as something exciting happened. I'm not entirely sure of Chris Hemsworth's comic timing, but Thor has a lot of comical lines too which makes the film quite enjoyable. Hulk gets lots of screen time too - and this is a good thing. There is also a similar joke like Loki's "ta-da" in Dark World, and the punching of Thor by the Hulk in AA in this movie too. And speaking of Thor there is an on-going joke over his hammer which I found amusing.

 

The soundtrack, story and special effects in this movie are second to none. The actors reprise their roles fiercely and the new additions to the team - namely Quicksilver, Scarlet Witch and The Vision fit in rather nicely with the rest of the cast. Having such a large set of main characters is difficult but they even managed cameos from Agent Carter, Heimdall and a little bit of support from War Machine and Falcon. It seems that this movie has got everyone together for a bit of a party and it's nice to see some of the old faces appear.

 

So what do I think? Well, I've been hyped to the max with this movie and I have been waiting 3 years for this and admittedly Avengers Assemble set the bar very high. I really liked the movie and think it is great but something about it was missing and I don't know what. Maybe it was that for all that James Spader was awesome as Ultron, he wasn't as fun as Loki. Or was it that we've seen all the surprises that we can and now it's about telling the story? The first movie teased and teased the Hulk and we didn't see him do his stuff until the very end. We didn't see the Avengers come together until the very end and when they did it was mind blowing. This movie they are already together and are fighting right from the off.

 

In summary I really liked this movie, but I think it just fell short of my stupidly high expectation, but then again, who cares as it's a worthy addition to the Marvel universe. I need to see this again and I'm sure I will get to see more of what I missed as this movie has so much in it that is practically a treasure trove of Marvel stuff. Go see it yourself and make your own mind up - regardless it is action packed to the rafters and is a fantastic ending to phase two. Jeez, I can't wait for phase three.

 

Avengers: Age of Ultron is out now in the UK and comes out May 1 at all good cinemas in the US.

 

POPSCORE: 8.5/10

What am I talking about? Avengers: Age of Ultron
Where can I find out more? http://marvel.com/movies/movie/193/avengers_age_of_ultron

If you like this try: Avengers Assemble (2012), any other marvel Movie really

Anything else?
This is actually not the end of "Phase 2" of the Marvel Cinematic Universe or MCU - Ant-Man is.
This movie features Andy Serkis as Ulysses Klaue who has links to Wakanda (a clue to a movie in Phase Three perhaps?)
This film references Disney's Pinocchio
Kevin Fiege stated that there is a homage to Star Wars' the chopping off of hands in every Phase Two movie and this one is no exception.
There IS a sequence a few minutes into the credit sequence so don't leave as soon as the credit roll. Honestly, it's worth it.  

REVIEW: Blackhat (15)

Director Michael Mann returns to direct Thor's Chris Hemsworth and cast in this gritty, if confusing, spy techno-thriller - Blackhat. Hemsworth plays hacker Hathaway, released from prison on the promise that he will use his set of skills to track down a hacker who has been gaining financially from the stock markets. Of course, as Hathaway and co look deeper into the mystery there is a bigger plan at work. 

I found the movie itself very distracting as there was a lot of wobbly camera work and extreme close ups of the characters. Some of the editing was confusing too - one minute they are in America the next they are flying to Hong Kong for some reason. The reason is revealed once they are there and it all makes sense. Hathaway is released from prison on the pretence that he helps the authorities track down this other hacker genius and is on tag - a very lenient tag that enables him to traipse around the world. I'm sure, if that was in England, he wouldn't get much past his front door.  Most of the movie is focussed around Hathaway and his friend from college Chen Dawai (who happens to be both a computer whizz and an agent for the authorities) and the sister of his friend who is a rather stubborn but very beautiful Chinese lady called Chen Lien.
The tension between Hathaway and Lien is so obvious from the offset that it's no surprise when they end up getting together. One of the most random moments in the movie is where her brother opens the door and finds them in bed together and says that they need to get a move on as the bad guy is making his move. As Hathaway and  Lien pull their clothes back on, in the next scene, when they are in a helicopter, Hathaway and Dawai talk as if the previous scene had never happened and is asking if they are together. The dude just saw them in bed together! Why did he have to ask?!
Still, the movie is a decent enough attempt at the espionage, hacker techno thriller, but it could have been so much better. I have a lot of respect for Chris Hemsworth but although his acting wasn't bad I still see him as Thor, as a super hero, as a rough and tumble sort. In this he plays a hacker and his physique, looks and general demeanour don't lend to well to this role and it's asking a lot to believe that's who he is. There is only one scene where he is involved in hand to hand combat and handles himself really well - and that seems to fit him. The rest of the movie he is running from place to place avoiding gunfire and relying on other people to do the fighting. Although it makes it more realistic I guess, I think making this movie with him as some sort action hero might have made it a lot more exciting. Still, that's not the movie it's supposed to be.

Although this is about as far away from the Avengers as you can possibly get it still made me chuckle when at some point in the movie one of the characters mentioned that they should "hammer down" - I'm not sure if that was supposed to be an in-joke or not. And secondly, more brazenly, Hathaway hacks a program called Black Widow. I'll leave it at that.

Overall, it's a fairly bog standard thriller with nothing amazingly good about it, but nothing amazingly bad about it either. It's decent enough to pass the time if you fancy something a little different. Massive kudos to Chris Hemsworth though for trying something different - when his time as Thor is up he will need to do other stuff and it's good to try other projects.
Blackhat is rated 15 and is showing at all good cinemas now.

POPSCORE: 6/10

SECOND OPINION:

Chris came to see it with me and he says:

Blackhat is a somewhat taut thriller which does tend to loosen up in places, however there are just enough twists and explosions to keep seasoned filmgoers interested.  An excellent first-date type movie, it was directed by Michael Mann (director of the 1st ever Hannibal Lecter movie Manhunter) and some excellent scoring by Harry Gregson Williams.

Verdict?  6-7 out of 10.  Stylish and appealing, some room for improvement regarding plot and suspense but Hemsworth does a good job in taking himself away from his Thor typecast showing he can act and pull off the looks that certain scenes require. - POPSCORE: 6-7/10

What am I talking about?  Blackhat the movie
Where can I find out more?  http://www.blackhatmovie.co.uk/
If you liked this try: Hackers (the one with Angelina Jolie from the 1990's), Swordfish, The Net