I think its fair to say that over the past year my "hype" for movies has died down to a depressing level. The last film I was hyped for was Rogue One and with that film being a massive disappointment I feel myself not looking forward to any upcoming releases. Sure there are films I want to see but I am not hyped more cautious especially with Blade Runner 2049 which was a film I was hyped for before I saw Arrival now I fear for what it may be. Although I do think there may be other factors at play.
Marketing has started to annoy me, with some films hitting you over the head with trailers to the point where you don't want to see it and others leaving a trailer so late that you start to suspect that the studio has little faith. I can no longer trust trailers especially with Rogue One's trailer flat out lies and with every trailer looking and feeling the same it has got to the point where I would rather go into some films blind. Not to say that all trailers are bad but the fact that it seems that every trailer must have a "wow" moment or a pop song just ruins the point of a trailer, in my opinion a trailer should feel unique to a film or franchise essentially a sales pitch for the audience but with everything being the same there is no individuality and it does ruin the hype.
Another factor that ruins hype for me is other people, that may sound selfish and to an extent it is but when I hear and see other people getting insanely hyped for a film it does put me off depending on the film. The best example was The Force Awakens, I doubt we will ever get a film as anticipated as this ever again but I had to take days off from college leading up to it purely because I would have become very angry at certain people because it would be nothing but people hyping something that in some cases they have no reason to be hyped about. With The Last Jedi trailer I am less hyped for that film, not because it was a bad trailer it is fine and the film will be better than Rogue One but having the masses "analyse" the trailer and theories it becomes too much and when you start to see past it and know that a lot of these people probably don't really care about Star Wars its a shame.
Hype can be important and I do feel that over the last couple of years we have lost the good type of hype in favour of this trendy hype where young teens are hyped for Jurassic Park sequels and comic book characters they didn't know until the popular culture demanded a Wikipedia search, whereas I want more of the big movie hype, for better or worse a Batman Vs Superman hype. Blockbusters need to feel like events again and sadly to me they are starting to not be important anymore. There is a new Pirates of the Caribbean that should be a big deal but it feels small and it does not help that the trailer makes it look an uninspired CGI mess.
So I just want to know where the hype went or has hype finally died and been replaced with this "faux" hype a weird trend where you have to hype everything. I hope I can be hyped again and to be honest the sooner we get to The Last Jedi or Blade Runner the hype probably will spark I just don't want to be mad at movies anymore.
Written By
Ashley Harvey
Monday 24 April 2017
Saturday 15 April 2017
The F8 of the Furious - Review
I just wanted to say that F8 of the Furious is a far better title than Fate of the Furious. Expecting a Fast film to be objectively good is the wrong way to view these films. F8 is not a good film but it is so dumb and fun that its poor direction is forgiven because I can not be mad, its Fast and Furious 8.
Prior to seeing F8 I re-watched half of Fast and Furious 6, I say half because that film is rather unbearable to watch, but I can certainly say that F8 is better than 6 but can not hit the heights of 7. If you saw the trailer and was interested then certainly go see it, its not a waste of 2 hours like some other recent cinema experiences.
From a film making perspective this is rather poor, it just lacks in some areas and the use of CGI does lessen the set pieces to some extent. In a film about fast cars doing crazy stunts, you should always try and strive to make it look convincing but the film does look cheap when it comes to the CG. This is not a major problem just a tiny nitpick but why does the CG fire look like its from an early PS2 game, I just find it funny that a film with a massive budget looks rather cheap.
Holy shoot this film is colourful, its so jarring watching a film in the cinema and it having vibrant colours, this film is rich in colour from the opening scene in Cuba. When the film is using actual cars and real stunts it does look good but the effect is diminished when compared to the janky looking CG.
The performances are what you would expect, Vin Diesel is stale, The Rock is a bit too much of a smart-ass, Michelle Rodriguez is annoying to look at and the rest of the cast are actually alright giving over the top performances without going too far except one person... Tyrese.
This being a Fast and Furious film, the soundtrack is loaded with hip/hop and it makes the film so dumb, in the best way possible and having the hip/hop contrasted with the subpar Mission Impossible plot makes the entire film so laughable but if you are taking this seriously either you have a low IQ or you went into the wrong film. The score itself is lacking in some places, generic thriller music does not live up to the stupidity of the Fast and Furious series, where a Bad Boys II bass heavy score would have benefitted this film immensely.
Overall I can't stop anyone from seeing this film but I have no need to, its a blockbuster that feels big and a worthy cinema experience. Dumb fun that has problems but overall its not something you would regret watching. I would like to add that the submarine sequence is rather good and Tyrese Gibson is the Jar Jar of these films.
7/10
Written By
Ashley Harvey
Prior to seeing F8 I re-watched half of Fast and Furious 6, I say half because that film is rather unbearable to watch, but I can certainly say that F8 is better than 6 but can not hit the heights of 7. If you saw the trailer and was interested then certainly go see it, its not a waste of 2 hours like some other recent cinema experiences.
From a film making perspective this is rather poor, it just lacks in some areas and the use of CGI does lessen the set pieces to some extent. In a film about fast cars doing crazy stunts, you should always try and strive to make it look convincing but the film does look cheap when it comes to the CG. This is not a major problem just a tiny nitpick but why does the CG fire look like its from an early PS2 game, I just find it funny that a film with a massive budget looks rather cheap.
Holy shoot this film is colourful, its so jarring watching a film in the cinema and it having vibrant colours, this film is rich in colour from the opening scene in Cuba. When the film is using actual cars and real stunts it does look good but the effect is diminished when compared to the janky looking CG.
The performances are what you would expect, Vin Diesel is stale, The Rock is a bit too much of a smart-ass, Michelle Rodriguez is annoying to look at and the rest of the cast are actually alright giving over the top performances without going too far except one person... Tyrese.
This being a Fast and Furious film, the soundtrack is loaded with hip/hop and it makes the film so dumb, in the best way possible and having the hip/hop contrasted with the subpar Mission Impossible plot makes the entire film so laughable but if you are taking this seriously either you have a low IQ or you went into the wrong film. The score itself is lacking in some places, generic thriller music does not live up to the stupidity of the Fast and Furious series, where a Bad Boys II bass heavy score would have benefitted this film immensely.
Overall I can't stop anyone from seeing this film but I have no need to, its a blockbuster that feels big and a worthy cinema experience. Dumb fun that has problems but overall its not something you would regret watching. I would like to add that the submarine sequence is rather good and Tyrese Gibson is the Jar Jar of these films.
7/10
Written By
Ashley Harvey
Saturday 1 April 2017
Beauty and the Beast (2017) - Review
I am not sure on my stance on this new wave of Disney live action films, on one hand Cinderella was rather decent whereas Beauty and the Beast felt lacking in most areas. Now I understand that this film was not made for me nor was i expecting much and yet I still feel this film made too many mistakes for it to be considered good. Taking these established Disney films and turning them live action does create a strange situation where someone could take the source material and expand on it and someone else might try to recreate the film scene for scene.
I have not seen the animated Beauty and the Beast neither did I have any real knowledge about the story itself but this film does feel like there is something missing and in other aspects there is too much shown its a real dilemma that this film has. Lets start with the casting, for me this was a major misstep using established actors in the live roles. Its hard for me to watch Emma Watson and not think of Harry Potter especially when the film takes place in a castle, it was rather distracting and I felt her performance was lacking and I cant tell if that is a poor script or faithfully adapted from the Animated film because she felt lifeless to me. Everyone else is ok nothing special other than Kevin Klein as the father, he was the only character that had any character. I would like to use this film to say how much i hate hearing the British accent in films, its really distracting and just annoys me but I am not using that as a negative towards the film.
With the recent controversy surrounding Mass Effect: Andromeda facial animations it was rather distracting watching the Beast and how awkward the mo-cap was, throughout the scenes with the beast I was reminded of Tim Curry in Legend, it would have been far more beneficial to have had that over the awkward cgi. Sometimes the green-screen was distracting at points and the castle felt too small for how "grande" it is supposed to be.
The music is not too bad but the score itself was not that impressive and I can assume that the musical numbers are all taken from the animated version so overall I have nothing important to say about the music other than its there.
Overall it really does not matter what I have to say because this film will make the money and the majority of people will think its "magical" when its rather shallow and small. It is not anything special and it wont change your life but its harmless and its going to entertain the masses. I don't want to always be negative but they make it so hard for me not to.
6/10
Written By
Ashley Harvey
I have not seen the animated Beauty and the Beast neither did I have any real knowledge about the story itself but this film does feel like there is something missing and in other aspects there is too much shown its a real dilemma that this film has. Lets start with the casting, for me this was a major misstep using established actors in the live roles. Its hard for me to watch Emma Watson and not think of Harry Potter especially when the film takes place in a castle, it was rather distracting and I felt her performance was lacking and I cant tell if that is a poor script or faithfully adapted from the Animated film because she felt lifeless to me. Everyone else is ok nothing special other than Kevin Klein as the father, he was the only character that had any character. I would like to use this film to say how much i hate hearing the British accent in films, its really distracting and just annoys me but I am not using that as a negative towards the film.
With the recent controversy surrounding Mass Effect: Andromeda facial animations it was rather distracting watching the Beast and how awkward the mo-cap was, throughout the scenes with the beast I was reminded of Tim Curry in Legend, it would have been far more beneficial to have had that over the awkward cgi. Sometimes the green-screen was distracting at points and the castle felt too small for how "grande" it is supposed to be.
The music is not too bad but the score itself was not that impressive and I can assume that the musical numbers are all taken from the animated version so overall I have nothing important to say about the music other than its there.
Overall it really does not matter what I have to say because this film will make the money and the majority of people will think its "magical" when its rather shallow and small. It is not anything special and it wont change your life but its harmless and its going to entertain the masses. I don't want to always be negative but they make it so hard for me not to.
6/10
Written By
Ashley Harvey
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