Harry Potter and the Deathly Disappointment

Ok, now I am a pretty big Harry Potter fan. Mainly of the books rather than the films, but I still invest a lot in the films whenever they get released. They tend to be lacking for the main, but I always like seeing what I read and imagine from the books blown up on a massive scale on the big screen. Now from watching the eighth and final instalment of the saga in the IMAX, I have to say I felt very underwhelmed by the whole experience. I have tried to put a bit of distance between the viewing and writing this blog, in a hope that my observations would be less reactionary. However I feel that time has done little to subdue my discouragement with this film. There may be some spoilers further down, but as usual, I will just rant at you as things pop into my head about the film.

So overall the film felt half baked. I have spent the last 6 months defending the slow pace of the first part of Harry Potter 7, advising my friends and colleagues that the reason it wasn't the broom flying, spell casting extravaganza of previous Potter films, was that it was all building up to the second part, which would be a cacophony of magical mayhem to satisfy even the most discerning Potter-phile. I was wrong. The pacing of the film felt extremely stunted. It didn't build to a natural climax. Instead had a maelstrom of offbeats and haphazardly placed dueling sequences. although there was far more wizardry tan the first part, it seemed that it was squeezed in between the rest of the film, so that you didn't get to revel in the more exciting parts of the film.

For example the battle sequence of the attack on Hogwarts. Now in my mind this was going to be an epic clash of good versus evil on a Helm's Deep scale, from Lord of the Rings: The Two Towers. Instead there were a few firework looking spells, some disorientating camera moves distracting from what was going on, and Harry and Co. running by exploding masonry, alluding to a much more interesting event happening just out of shot. Which it appears there was. After the first phase of the attack, Harry walks through the Great Hall, and spies all manner of characters dead on the floor. And we didn't see any of it. Tonks and Lupin, lying holding eachothers' hands, but not a glimpse of their grand final hurrah before death. After spending ten years building up these characters so that they worked on screen as well as they did on paper, just to have them lying on the cold floor with no attempt to let them leave on a high was really disappointing for me.

The one person we did get to see die was Bellatrix Lestrange. Now her final battle against Molly Weasley is notorious throughout the world of Potter fans, as Molly drops the 'B-bomb' all over Bella. But even this was robbed of importance, as the entire duel took up no more than 10 seconds. I saw the fight happening centre stage, a ring of people around them as the fight got more and more heated and extravagant, until the eventual demise of Bellatrix. now I know I am starting to allude to the various ways that I would have shown this film, and I know that the main reason I have an issue with this film is down to my affinity with the source material. Ah well, its my Blog, so I am probably going to continue in this manner anyway.

Fumbling of cherished parts of the story aside, there were a handful of redeeming factors in this film. anything where Alan Rickman was involved was amazing. From the get go he has been the epitome of what Severus Snape should be to me. His ability to honestly portray a character who we really cannot tell his moral leaning until the final denouement, still had me believing he could go either way, even though I knew before the film his true allegiances. The revelation of Snape's past and involvement with Harry's mother throughout, was touching and intriguing at the same time. It still required a slight more detail to show how Lily Potter turned from Snape to James Potter, but was by far the most developed piece of the film.

Another redeeming factor was some of the cinematography. as I have mentioned before, a lot of the battle sequences felt a little over complicated and confused the detail to which you could see the events on screen, but the wider establishing shots  of the castle, Hogsmeade and the Forbidden Forest were beautifully handled, and manged to regain some of the grandeur that a film looking to tackle a franchise of this size should be looking for. Harry, Ron and Hermione gliding across a London skyline on a dragon's back was particular stunning by subtly blending the familiar with the magical.

But in all the film couldn't be saved by these points. there were many things that were left unexplained, or relied on knowledge of the books to fill in the gaps. this is something in film adaptations that I don't like. It is one things to have little homages to the source material, that fans can pick up on. But to rely on this for larger facets of the plot seems to me to be putting too much onus on the viewer. The biggest thing that went unexplained, was also the point in the film which I knew I wasn't going to be able to look back on it favourably. When Harry is entering the Forbidden Forest to face off against Voldemort for the final time, he slowly walks into a clearing, with him on one side, and a platoon of Death Eaters and Voldemort on the other. Oh, and one addition, Hagrid. Hagrid goes to bellow at Harry "What are you doing here?!". No Hagrid, what the hell are you doing there! For someone who hasn't even been mentioned for the past two hours, only to turn up for no other reason than to look sad and carry a tiny Harry back to the castle afterwards, I feel he has no right to casting any aspersions upon anyone else for their reasoning for being there. As anyone who has discussed the film with me in person will know, this line is my least favourite thing about the whole film.

So I know that my disillusionment with this film is most likely my own doing for having such high expectations after loving the books so much, but it can't be helped that I feel let down by the finale to the Potter saga. Nonetheless, I still feel that considering how much of the final book they got out of the way in the first part, they did not make the most of the stellar material they left themselves with. Handled differently, and with the flow of the film managed better, this could of at least satisfied as the final instalment, but instead left you wishing they hadn't bothered with the film, so at least in your head the film could still have been as limitless and emotive as the book. And I won't even go into the '19 Years Later' scene...


Happy viewing...

I Am Legend...wait for it...dary!

I have recently taken to going though my back catalogue of films looking for something to blog about. It is through this random trawling that I came across a film I haven't watched in ages, the post apocalyptic film that is I am Legend. now, although this is strictly speaking a zombie film, it is one of a far more dramatic vein than most that I watch. Part of this is due to the time setting, being in a far more established future, 3 years after the infection has broken out. Also it focuses on a solitary character, Robert Neville, and the day-today of his life surviving a zombie-esque virus outbreak.

By focusing on the human element of the story, and narrowing the perspective to just one character, we are able to fully explore the psyche of our protagonist. The level to which we can empathise to Robert, is a testament to Will Smith's acting chops, as he has very little dialogue. This is because he has no one left to talk to, save for his trusty dog Sam. The interaction between Robert and Sam is heart-wrenching to say the least. As the film develops, we see more and more how much isolation has affected Robert's ability to cope with his daily routines. Frequently he has whole conversations with Sam, leaving pauses for response that only he can hear.

The desperation of Robert's scenario is shown at its peak with the death of Sam. After three years of no company but one man and his dog, the loss of this ever faithful companion, leaves him desolate, and seeking conversation with mannequins to fill the void. We see Robert talking to mannequins at earlier points in the film, but it always has a sense of levity to it. Like he is happy to throw idle chit chat at inanimate objects just to keep himself occupied. But when he confronts one mannequin, after Sam has died, and he weepingly begs them to say "hello" back to him, we get to see the cracks in sanity burst open through his awareness that he is alone.

Smith's performance throughout the entire first half of the film is enough to carry the whole piece on merit. But I feel that the second half does a lot to reduce that effort in the beginning. My main concern is with the portrayal of the 'infected'. While the majority of zombie based films will settle for slapping a bit of blood and make up on a person to give the effects of death, I often find myself wishing they had added a little more to it. In this case I wish they had taken some more away. The infected are almost entirely computer generated, and so have that crisp smooth look of being digital, in a film where the major strength so far has been the realism of Smith's acting. It leaves the monsters of the piece looking a little cartoony, and depleting their impact on screen when they are present and getting up to all sorts of mischief.

But as I said, this detail is more of a by-line in the film, when compared to the soulful and melancholic presentation of Robert by Smith. He has adopted an odd squint and grimace that belies his thoughts, and adds depth to the character, as if showing his constant state of anxiety and paranoia that the day he is currently living out could be his last. So we see him roaming around the empty city streets of New york, hunting game, farming crops and scouting for supplies, to show how by creating his own normality within an abnormal circumstance, he is able to keep those anxieties at bay as best he can.

Speaking of the deserted streets of New York, this is something that is truly a spectacle to see. I cannot even begin to comprehend the logistical nightmare of blocking off areas of Manhattan for some of these shots. Although you know it must have been done most with CG back-drops for the wider establishing shots, it does nothing to remove from the grandeur of the images. A sky line and city we are so used to seeing in popular culture as being the city that never sleeps, being transformed almost literally into an urban jungle is so profound, that it has to be viewed to be appreciated.

So the film as a whole is watchable, but not unmissable. If you are a fan of Will Smith, and I can't imagine many who aren't, then it is definitely worth watching for his performance alone. Keep an eye out for a cameo from his daughter Willow "Whip My Hair" Smith too. As a zombie film, far from the standard, an an interesting new perspective on the genre. But if it is something a little more gratifying in the zombie department that you are after, I would recommend sticking to the classics.

Happy viewing...

Feminism, with sexy results...

Please refrain from too much shock at the timely publishing of this post. As I said before, my aim to update more regularly is wholly serious, and in light of this, I have chosen to blog about a gritty and emotional drama named Sorority Row. It tells the tale of five sorority seniors and their triumphant tale of discovery as they cope with covering up the murder of a sixth student after dumping her in a mine shaft. Well, I may have given it too much credit to describe it as a gritty emotional drama. I imagine that boob-filled teen slasher would be more appropriate. Either way, I watched it, and here are some words that relate to it.

As I said, the premise is that in the light of trying to cover up the murder of one of their friends after a prank goes awry, in order to save their college careers, we fast forward to their graduation 8 months later, when people who know about the secret start getting picked off by a mysterious killer dressed in a graduation hooded cloak, with pimped out tyre iron.I know what you are thinking, this has to be the greatest film of all time. But not so much. the five main characters are painfully two dimensional, even by slasher flick standards, and the plot doesn't even try to give them any depth. There is the shy, retiring nerdy girl who wear glasses and has red hair, so is obviously an out cast the other girls keep as a pet more than anything. The slutty blond who will perform any kind of sexual act if it offers her the chance at some pills, booze or free magazine. The blond bitch who is the powerhouse behind all nasty comments and dubious cover stories. The less bitchy brunette, who has a change of heart halfway through in an attempt to make her appealing. And the strong willed bad-ass lead, who opposes the whole notion of covering everything up, but goes along with it after a weak attempt at blackmailing her to keep schtum. So there are the players, lets hit the plot!

Well, not much to hit there. It follows the standard slashed formulae of them getting picked off one by one, including a few incidental characters along the way, whilst trying to figure out who is in the hood (dead friend?!?) until the big reveal, defeat and escape. Apart from a few choice nods to other slasher greats - the opening shot of the sorority house patio is a dead cert for the one outside Drew Barrymore's house in Scream - there isn't much new here, other than attempting to up the anti with the reveal by making it the least plausible character we have met, and creating a massively convoluted reason for their killings. But more on that later.

Now I am not really having a go at the actors in this film. To be honest with the level of scripting here, they really have done the best they can with the source material. Briana Evigan, of Step Up 2: The Streets fame, holds up well as our indignant hero, but the plot requires her to flip back and forth from righteous to conceding and hating the girls to loving them, that it is hard to give credibility to her moral character. But in the beginnings of her career we all know the obligatory slasher film is almost a certainty by this point. And at least she got to do a bit of dancing in the opening sequence. By far the best role is had by Carrie Fisher, who plays house mother 'Mrs Crenshaw'. Although as equally as shallow a character as the rest of them, she plays her with a certain swagger, that make her funny to watch, but fully aware this woman is a total bad ass. A shotgun toting bad ass at that. With a permanent pout on her face, and a 12-gauge in her hands, she is every serial killer's worst nightmare.

Which brings us to the killer. not the most unlikely character to chose, the boyfriend of the female lead. Though it may suggest a few too many viewings of Scream during the "research" period. But give him a valid motive, and we'll let it go, and enjoy the climax. When they couldn't think of a valid reason for him to be killing all these people, they kind of went for a bullshit one. Apparently, he is so in love with Briana's character, that when he found out about the cover up, rather than talk about it with her directly, or go to the police, he thought it would be a good idea to kill everyone who knew about it, bar her, so they could run away and live together without anyone ever being able to tell the big secret. Makes perfect sense. Just because two wrongs don't make a right, doesn't mean twelve won't do the job!

All that aside though, we do have to remember that this is a teen slasher film. And in light of that, and all the other swarms of similar films out there, it does have it's redeeming features. The deaths are very good and imagination for the most part. Bottle down the neck and flare to the face are especially graphic. And the cinematography is generally good, with smooth transitions and decent pace kept up with some quite kinetic shots to stop the predictable plot from slowing the whole thing down. As far as these films go, it is certainly watchable. Probably best in a room with a bunch of you mates, laughing at the over the top deaths, and enjoying it as entertainment more than goosebumps inducing thrills and spills...and boobs, don't forget the boobs...

Happy viewing...

Paris: I like you as a friend...

So, it has been a while since my last post, but with the summer weather has been far more difficult to find time for write! But I am going to be dedicated to trying to post more regularly in the future. So for my first foray in the world of film blogging in this painfully close summer of ours, I am going to be looking at an ensemble piece called Paris, Je'taime.

Now I must admit, that when I picked up this film from the shelves of the my local HMV, I didn't really know about it. I saw Natalie Portman on the back cover, and thought I would give it a go. I'm a Port Fan, don't judge. But when I began watching I found the content to be a lot more diverse that I anticipated. Expecting some kind of Love, Actually type of affair, based in France's capital with all the cliches that come along with it, I was happily surprised to find that the film was actually a collaborative piece of work, comprising of 20 segments to be set in the varying districts of Paris. All of which hold the central theme of love, in all it wondrously complicated dimensions.

Rather than run through all the segments piece by piece, I thought it best to highlight some of my favourite pieces, and show a bit of the diversity of the shorts that are on display. One of the opening shorts called "Quais de Seine", was the first to show me the levels to which this film as a whole was pandering. It was not going to be about superficial or stereotyped movie romance, but about the barriers, complexities and surprising nature of it. This particular short focuses on three young Parisian boys, ogling women by the Siene and shouting out come ons that would make a builder blush. After some time watching their adolescent antics, we follow a young Muslim girl who has been overhearing their musings, who falls to the ground as she walks away. while two of the boys laugh it up a her expense, one (the most emotionally developed of the trio I imagine) rushes to her aide to help her up. Palms all scuffed with stones, the young girl cannot reassemble her head scarf, an so he clumsily yet tenderly helps her. He later then goes to the local mosque where he knows she will be to see her again, only to be interrupted by her grandfather. After a moment of uncertainty, they walk away together discussing the history of Paris. Although this may seem like a standard setting for boy-meets-girl romance, the conflict of race between the two star struck lovers, shows how these boundaries are not insurmountable in the face of love. And being directed by British director Gurinder Chadha, you can see that she wanted to represent the more modern people of France, as a place where national identity has overcome things such as skin colour or belief, but surpassed this to being about people who love where they are, and who they are.

For the segment "Tuileries", we are welcomed into a piece directed by the Cohen brothers. As enjoyable in a 5 minute short as they are in feature length films, the brothers manage to portray a lonely and confused tourist waiting for a train come to life with this energetic and melodramatic tale. The man, played to mute comic perfection by Steve Buscemi, is waiting for the Metro, while flicking through his travel guide to Paris. Mistakenly catching the eye of a woman across the tracks in the middle of an embrace with her beau, leave him the pawn in their ever increasing battle of the sexes to enrage the other. Buscemi's silent confusion whilst frantically flipping through his guide book for answer in order to avoid this catastrophe, uniquely highlights the confusion that an outsider has to this strange world of romance and lovers. And only by having himself involved with this young couples argument, can he begin to feel the passion of the city, more than he could through a guide book. but he is ultimately left on the floor covered in Mona Lisa postcard, with little or no more understanding of what has happened. Only that knowing smile of the portrait to make him aware that he just felt some of it.

Rather than ramble on about the many other fantastic shorts that this film comprises with, I will close with just one more. The segment entitled "FaubourgPortman, but I feel that her role is more of a catalyst for the director to show this perception of love through the experiences of this young Parisian man.

As I said above, there are far more shorts that are noteworthy, but I do not have space for here. But other highlights include a film noir take on a vampire story, climaxing with two vampires feeding off each other, showing the symbiotic nurturing and devastating effects of intense passion. And some far lighter shorts that show how two miserable mime artists find each other and fall in love. The film as a whole manages to comprise a broad and varied representation of what it is to love, whether it is through discovery, loss, lust or an accumulation of experience. For someone looking to watch a romantic film with a bit more depth, that focuses more on the different faces of romance rather that swooning women and chivalrous men, I would recommend this as one to watch.

Happy viewing...