Movie: 3D The Hobbit: The Desolation of Smaug

First up, I want to say that I haven't read any of the books, Hobbit or Lord Of The Rings, and I really have no interest in the whole Lord of the Rings universe. I did enjoy the extended versions of the Rings movies though, and I saw the first Hobbit, which I found tried to include a little too much story.

I wasn't a big fan of the first Hobbit movie, but that being part one of a trilogy, I suppose they needed to introduce all the characters, and set up the plot for the second movie. Therefore the second movie hits the ground running, and doesn't really stop for nearly three hours. As Laurence Kasdan says in the Star Wars documentary, part two of a trilogy is the most interesting part, because that's where everything goes to hell. And this movie is a roller coaster ride all the way through. Like I said, I have no idea how the movie is different from the book, and I don't really care. I just care about how this movie stands up as a movie, and I found it pretty good fun all the way through. I've read some reviews on IMDB, and there's a lot of criticism going on. I thought some of them were quite harsh, considering it's basically a Saturday morning cartoon action movie, although a couple of story things seemed strange (Why were the Elves protecting the dwarves from the Orcs, after the Dwarves had escaped from the Elves dungeons?...) It appears that Peter Jackson has taken great liberties with the basic story in the book. I don't have a problem with that. A book does not work as a film. The best you can hope for is that the film is a decent summary of the book.

One thing I did like with this film that I didn't like in the first one was the look of it. When I saw the first one, the image was extremely sharp, and reminded me of one of those old seventies video taped TV shows. I found it quite hard to watch (And it was my first 3D movie, so maybe my brain wasn't trained for it yet). Fortunately, this second movie is a lot softer. It's still sharp video, but it now looks closer to regular film. The screening I went to was supposedly in HFR (High Frame Rate), but what exactly is that meant to give you? I honestly didn't notice any difference to a regular 3D movie.

The ending was quite abrupt and unexpected. It would have been nice to have a bit better lead in to the next movie.

Movie: The Railway Man

Boy, how lucky can you get? The two most recent movies I've seen are probably the best two I've seen all year.

I saw Philomena on Sunday, and today I got to see The Railway Man.

I went to the 9.30AM screening of Railway Man (awfully early to see a movie I know) and there was still a healthy crowd. I have to say it was not what I was expecting. I thought it was about a guy on a train who runs into an old enemy, but it couldn't be any further away from that scenario.

The story concerns Eric Lomax, played by Colin Firth, and his treatment at the hands of the Japanese during the construction of the Burma Railway. It is quite brutal in a couple of places. but nowhere near as graphic as the book that the film is based on, which does not spare any detail. That's a good thing, because portraying the violence would have distracted from the core of the story, which is about Eric dealing with his demons.

This film is a joint Australian/British production, and I believe the film was made possible with some Australian tax concessions, so as an Australian taxpayer, I'm claiming part ownership of this film, and expect a cheque soon for my share of the profits....

I believe Nicole Kidman was not the first choice to play the part of Patty Lomax, but now I'm convinced she was perfect for the role. I fell in love with her for the time the movie was on. Colin Firth was excellent as the older Lomax. There was one scene near the start of the film where he awakens from a nightmare, and lets out the most harrowing scream I think I've ever heard in movie. It was chilling.

There's an actor in this movie called Sam Reid, and I was convinced I was watching the comedian Robert Webb. They are absolutely identical, and was cheering on Robert Webb for taking the chance on a dramtaic role. Alas, as I found out later, it was not him.

The only part of the movie I didn't really like was the very rushed meeting and marriage of Eric and Patty. It seemed to all happen in about 10 minutes. It probably would have been better if the movie started off with them already married, skipped the whole rushed romance thing and jumped straight into the core of the story. Other than that, the film is brilliant.

Movie: Philomena

I've been to a lot of movies this year. So many that my local cinema palace has upgraded me to a VIP. I find it funny that it took almost to the last day of the year to get to probably the best movie of the year (in my humble opinion). Sure, Pacific Rim was pretty spectacular, but Philomena is the movie that stays in your mind  for much longer afterwards.

Firstly, I am a huge Steve Coogan fan. The guy's a genius. 24 Hour Party people is one of my favourite movies, even if some of the facts have been mixed up a little. In fact, Steve Coogan is the only reason I had any interest at all in Philomena. I was very excited to see that he wrote the script as well as playing the lead role. I had faith that he would inject just the right amount of humour into the dialogue, and he does. There was quite a bit of laughter from the good sized audience. They even laughed at a line in a particularly dramatic scene that I didn't think warranted a laugh.

A word of warning to Catholics. This movie is quite critical of the past behaviour of the Catholic Church. I myself was brought up in the Catholic religion (I completely rejected the entire thing many years ago now), so I was quite comfortable with the criticism (I agree with most of it. In the distant past they were guilty of some heinous crimes).

The plot is genius. If you don't know the basic story already, Steve plays an out of work journalist looking for an idea for a book. Nobody wants his Russian history book idea, so he reluctantly decides on a human interest story. He meets Philomena, who fifty years before, had done the wild thing with a boy, and got herself in the club. The nuns take her in, but sell her baby to some Americans. Steve the journalist agrees to help find her son after all these years. Of course, both the journalist and Philomena are changed by the journey. It's a riveting story, and each little bit is revealed as the story progresses. The twists and turns are fantastic. I'm a Sherlock Holmes/Agatha Christie/Jonathon Creek buff, and this script is worthy of any of those three, with the added bonus of it being based mainly on truth.

I'm sure glad I didn't read the book before seeing the movie. I just wonder how different the movie is compared to the book. No doubt there are differences, there always is. I really would like to read the book now to get the full story. It looks like it could be better than the movie.

The acting is terrific. Steve is great as the journalist, but Judy Dench is brilliant as Philomena. I smell an Oscar nomination.

Movie: Ender's Game

This is a very entertaining movie. Not at all what I was expecting. It's quite a deep film that raises some very philosophical questions.

I knew practically nothing about this story before I went to see it, other than it was based on a popular science fiction book (I'm not really a novel reader, except for perhaps Dan Brown and Alan Dean Foster).

The story is set in the future, many years after a mysterious race, who turn out to be insects, although we never see any in actual combat. It brings back memories of one of my favourite films, Starship Troopers. They are both militaristic films, and in both the Earth is in danger of being over run. However, in Ender's Game the major cast members are all 14 years old, except for Harrison Ford, Ben Kingsley and a few others. So it is a bit like the junior version of Starship Troopers.

So, in the beginning, the Earth is attacked by a race of insects, who are driven off by a hero. Jump forward a few years, and those very same invaders are about to try again. Now this is the fun part. Because of video games, in the future the best people to lead the army and defeat this evil enemy are teenagers. Yes, you read that right. Apparently there aren't any mature age career soldiers who are up for the challenge. That statement brings up waht may be the films only real problem in my mind, and that's the tone. This is a dead serious film, when it probably would have been better with a slightly lighter touch. That's not a criticism though, because I still really like the film. I may just have the wrong idea about what teenagers respond to these days. Maybe my demographic is the the wrong audience for this film.

There are a few twists in the plot, which were surprising to me at least, but I haven't read the book, so I don't know how different the film is to the book. Those twists may be in the book.

I was amused by Ben Kingsley putting on a South African accent, and then I read that Gavin Hood, the director, is a South African, so I assume it is some kind of in-joke by the actor (or maybe it's a tribute). Gavin Hood, incidentally, also made another film that I quite like, X-Men Origins: Wolverine.

I like the cast in this movie. Asa Butterfield plays Ender, and he does it very well. I didn't realise he was in a movie called Hugo until I looked him up on IMDB (I have the DVD of Hugo, but I didn't make the connection. I'm not a big fan of Hugo). There was one actor who really caught my attention, Moises Arias, who plays a bad guy. Well, maybe not a truly bad guy, maybe over ambitious is a better description, who locks horns with Ender and gives him a hard time. I won't say how that ends, but it's a big turning point in the film. And of course, when is Harrison Ford ever not good? Oh, and don't forget Ben Kingsley of course, just to round things off.

I just had a look at BoxOfficeMojo, and it looks like Ender's Game is not doing great at the box office (87 mill return on $110 mill production cost). I have to admit it doesn't greatly surprise me. I did mention that I thought the tone was odd, so maybe other people are finding it hard to decide if this movie is really for them. It's not really a little kids adventure (like Sharkboy and Lava Girl), and a lot of adults would find it slightly silly (14 years olds saving the Earth from a killer race of giant insects?...), so this film may find it difficult to connect with the right kind of audience.

No doubt it will be more popular on DVD and HD TV. The sound is great, and the CGI is very good, although the anti-gravity floating still looks like people on wires (Sandra Bullock and George Clooney were much better at floating in Gravity). I particularly liked all the battle room sequences, despite the slightly dodgy floating.

Movie: 3D Gravity

First of all, I wasn't ever planning to see this movie. Sandra Bullock and George Clooney floating around in space for an hour and a half? It didn't seem a very promising storyline to me. Anyway, Sunday afternoon, and I just wanted to get out for a while. I had a look at what movies are around, and of the ones I hadn't seen yet, nothing really grabbed my interest. So I had a look at IMDB, saw that Gravity has made about half a billion dollars already around the world, and decided to have a look anyway, just in case all those people were right, and I was wrong.

By the way, just before the movie, I saw an interesting trailer. Russell Crowe playing Noah. Just relax and try to picture that in your mind. It's nice to see Emma Watson back in the movies. I actually like her, and feel sorry for her because of the whole Harry Potter thing. How would you like that hanging around your neck for the rest of your career?....

So, back to Gravity.

This is a great movie. Not at all what I expected. Totally unbelievable of course, but that doesn't matter. The story was contrived as an excuse for great visuals. Hardly any character development. I still have no idea who George Clooney's character was. But this is Sandra Bullocks movie all the way. For most of it, she's the only one in it. I hope that's not giving too much away. And in some parts she's hardly wearing any clothes. I guess that was so they had something titillating for the marketing materials. The whole floating in space thing is done exceptionally well. I suspect that this time they had no need for the vomit comet like they did in Apollo 13, and everything was done with an old Apple Mac and a bit of blue cloth stuck on a wall.

The 3D was a little disappointing. It didn't stick out like it usually does on this type of movie. That may have been because of the smaller screen I watched it on. I wanted to feel like bits of space junk were going through my eyeballs at high speed.

So, there you have it. Sometimes a film will surprise you, and this one did. Not much substance, but great fun, exceptionally well crafted.

Movie: 3D - The Day Of The Doctor

You may well ask yourself why I would bother going to see a movie that was already on TV a few days before. That's easy to answer: 3D and surround sound. That makes a big difference, at least to me. I am a huge fan of 3D, so I'll gladly go to see anything in 3D really. Anyway, I never actually saw the ending of the movie (or the very beginning for that matter) when it was shown on TV, so at least going to the cinema to see the whole thing was a new experience for me.

So, this particular movie is part of the 50th year anniversary celebrations of Doctor Who, which had the unfortunate distinction of first being shown around the same time that President John F. Kennedy was shot. Of course, nobody was paying a lot of attention. Through a bit of fortunate insight, the BBC repeated the first show a week later, thereby starting the global tsunami that is Doctor Who.

This movie brings together three doctors to save the world, yet again. There are plenty of references to past (and future) doctors, and as is the case with nearly all time travel based movies, it has a convoluted plot until all the bits start to assemble themselves near the end.

There are some mighty big scenes in this movie, which means they either had a lot of money to spend, or they found some clever high school kid to knock up a few bits on his Apple Mac for a bit of extra pocket money and a new iPhone. Either way, it looks spectacular. The 3D is pretty good: subtle, just the way I like it. The way the Dalek's eye stalks poke out of the screen at you was a nice touch.

We get a glimpse of the next Doctor after Matt Smith, although you only see his eyes. And there is one memorable cameo towards the end. This is a very worthy celebration of the current status of Doctor Who, as well as a great tribute to Doctors past.

Young Kookaburra...

I saw this young Kookaburra in the park today, and couldn't resist dragging out the camera and snapping a couple of happy pics: