Reviews

This is an original, brooding, and sometimes sinister film.

First, the technical stuff. It's all extremely good. The acting is exceptional. Gyllenhaal is brilliant as the psychopathic lead, who sometimes exhibits moments of calculated exploitative warmth towards his vulnerable employee to make him do what he wants. He is a cynical manipulator, only interested in absorbing any information he can to get ahead and make money. He has no scruples. There are several moments where one expects him to do something human, but he never quite gets there. Some of the directorial and acting magic here is in making you think he might get there.

Rene Russo is scorching as the beautiful but cynical TV director. When I was watching I didn't realise it was Rene Russo, and I was curious as to who this fantastic actress was. I was surprised when I read it was her because she owned the role so effectively, I just saw her as a unique character. The relationship between the two leads is the best part of the film. Just as Gyllenhal manipulates his employee in a two dimensional way, Russo uses Gyllenhal in a much more subtle way. The power dynamic between these two excellent actors is tense and smouldering throughout. They are an excellent couple.

Everything else is great. Cinematography, sound, atmosphere are all bang on, The world that this film is set is our world, but it feels darkly dystopian due to the way the story unfolds and the subject matter.

This is a story about our society and about us. It's about what we are willing to demand, then observe and consume. In a free marketplace of ideas where we can absorb any information that we wish to, no matter how extreme, it explores how that environment can be ruthlessly exploited and indeed manipulated for gain by those with no morals, no scruples and no humanity. There are lessons in this story for law makers, counter terrorism practitioners, police and academics. Do you ever feel manipulated by what you watch? Then watch this film.

I've never come close to leaving a Star Wars film in the cinema before, but today I found myself, thirty minutes in, shaking my head, facepalming over and over at this film. To some extent this is a film of two halves. A bad half and a terrible half. The first half is, without doubt, the worst half of any Star Wars film ever made. The pacing is horrendous. It's all happening too fast, the scenes, the dialogue, the action. It's too much. None of it makes any sense. Everything just seems to happen to enable the characters to go on an aimless adventure from planet to planet before the finale. It's absolutely atrocious and aimless.

I was actually angry at what I was seeing. From cheesy cringeworthy laboured dialogue, to utterly ludicrous plot contrivances, to stupid action scenes and camera angles. Everything is wrong. This is fan fiction on steroids with an unlimited budged.

The second half of the film is better, but it's still terrible.

I guess you get the gist of what I think of this film, but I'm going to list a few little things that made me facepalm in this film to give you a sense of the awfulness:

• Kylo and Rey are basically constantly connected and talking nonsense to each other and even fighting through their meta connection. Of all the things to bring from the Last Jedi, it shouldn't have been this.
• Teleporting items through the force is a thing now. This is used as a critical plot enabler/contrivance *TWICE*. I kid you not.
• A kiss between Kylo and Rey at the end. I was literally screaming internally "DONT KISS, DONT KISS, DONT KISS!" They kiss. Of course they do.
• Using the force to drag back a space ship rocketing off into space.
• Stupid robot overload. C3P0 and R2D2, and to an extent BB8, used to work because there was balance. They were used sparingly, with care. Now it's just relentless and irritating.
• Lightspeed is now, apparently, something you can just use to bounce around, like changing gears, to escape the baddies. This is used in the opening scene, and it's god awful. I was facepalming.
• Bringing dead people back to life with the power of the force is now something that everyone can just do. Happens twice in this film. Apparently it's pretty easy, so the prequels shouldn't really have happened as Anakin was clearly no biggy if he couldn't do the old "lay on hands" on Padme. Kylo and Rey can both do it!
• Force lightning now blows up and/or disables entire space ships and space fleets.
• Star Destroyers are now mini Death Stars and can take out planets!
• The baddies appear literally everywhere the goodies go, almost like clockwork. It's dumb.
• Apparently Rey is important after all.
• If you're wondering how the hell Palpatine managed to survive ROTJ, don't worry your little mind. Just know that he did!
• Luke's parts are again sparse and badly written. I love Mark Hamill so much but it pained me to see him used badly... yet again.

That's all I can remember at the minute.

Despite all this, the absolute last scene made me emotional, because I've come to like Rey. However, I'm not letting that quite nicely done final scene divert me from the rest of the film, which was shoddy, rushed, incoherent, hot garbage.

Every Star Wars fan will want to see it. Some might like it. I was quite surprised to hear some people clap and say "that was awesome" at the end of the showing I just attended. Fine, everyone is entitled to an opinion. It's my opinion however that everyone involved in this film, shouldn't not be allowed anywhere near Star Wars ever again.

This felt more like a bad Marvel film than the finale to a nine stage era-defining epic, that some of us grew up loving, and still hold dear. See it. You have to. But don't expect to be anything other than disappointed at the end except for the fact we might have closure now, before we move on to something well planned, well written and competent. Here's hoping.

Really disappointing. This viewer found himself struggling to stay awake about a third of the way through this picture. I had to jump around the seat a bit to stop myself getting a bit too comfortable and drifting off.

If a film is going to deliberately sacrifice excitement and drama for scientific accuracy and a sense of foreboding, it really shouldn't only go half way. Ad Astra is at pains to emphasise the sluggish silence of space, and the tortured introspections of an emotionally stunted protagonist and his connection to his father, which is good, but it is all horribly undermined when you have Brad Pitt clambering into a rocket through a hatch as it's taking off, and succeeding.

For every glorious expansive shot of planets and space travel, or interesting psych evaluation, there is a baffling plot contrivance that feels artificially implanted into the film to add some sense of excitement or tension. The most obvious culprits are the space monkeys, the moon pirates and the race to sneak onto the rocket already mentioned. Without these bits shoehorned in, the film would be really dull, but possibly more consistent. With them, it feels terribly incoherent.

There are some interesting elements in this story. Space is what this story is sold on, but it's really a human story about men and obsession. Unfortunately, this really interesting thematic isn't given time to breath. Brad Pitt follows his father into space and, like his father, ends up killing people he regards as inferior in pursuit of a larger goal. This could be read as a story about family, legacy and the fact that all of us, to some extent, are tied to the paths of our parents. If the director had focused on this and not been sidelined trying to make it more "cinema-friendly", we might have had a winner. Instead it falls a bit flat and while you're trying to mull over the implications of Pitt's psychological state and deep connection to his father, you have rabid unexplained space monkeys tearing someone's face off. It's a little bit jarring.

A confused film that could have done with identifying what it wanted to be, before it was made. As it has turned out it's a bit of a mist mash and unsatisfying. Add in a fairly unconvincing main plot line and it's all a bit of a let down.

Seeing this film on IMAX was a real thrill. The spectacle was worth every penny spent. Outstanding acting, interesting characters, gorgeous cinematography and plenty of laughs.

So why 7 stars?

This film doesn't really have a plot. It feels like an interesting snapshot into the lives of a few interesting characters in the late 60s. It's Tarantino, so everything is beautifully shot obviously, and quirky obviously. There's also lashings of extreme violence... obviously. It's just missing something significant to knit it all together into a coherent narrative. I'm still not quite sure what the point of Margot Robbie's character was, other than to exude stunning beauty and optimism.

This film feels a tad self indulgent, as if there's an undercurrent of in-group know-how about it all, a nudge nudge wink wink towards film history nerds, that might escape many of us who aren't in the film industry and don't live in Hollywood. In other words, most of the audience.

In saying all of that, I enjoyed every second of it, but I was as much enjoying another dose of Tarantino's film making mastery, as enjoying a coherent story with a beginning, middle and end. It feels like Tarantino on freestyle mode, not worrying too much about having things hang together. Just putting a few interesting snippets of film together, with brilliant and beautiful actors, in a fairly loose way without bothering to connect it all. Why does it need to be connected? Maybe it doesn't...

A brilliant but slightly unsatisfying journey into late 60s Hollywood craziness. Maybe 7 is a little bit harsh in this one but 7 it is.

I feel very conflicted writing this review.

Normally after a Star Wars film, I'm simply planning my trip to see the film again. I'm filled with a childish glee and cannot wait to experience the ride again. Now this does not always last. I now basically hate The Last Jedi despite loving it on first watch. I'm also very unsure of the Force Awakens. I love Rogue One though and I think I like it more as I see it more.

I feel no desire to see this film again.

There was nothing obviously terrible in this film, such as the horrible jarring "jokes" in The Last Jedi, or Jar Jar. In fact, it's all very competent. The acting is a bit shoddy here and there, there's some clumsy plot development and there are some twists shoehorned in for the sole purposes of setting up a sequel, but aside from that, everything seems pretty competently executed.

So what's wrong with it? I'm not even sure. I found that I was not invested in the story or the characters. Not at all. Whereas with Rogue One the gravity of the situation ensured high intensity drama despite us ultimately knowing what happened, in this film I didn't really feel anything was at stake. I found the entire Kessel run part of the film utterly predictable, over the top during the escape, and ultimately unconvincing. It all felt too contrived to fit the famous reference.

I think another part of my boredown was the entirely linear plot. Normally, with Star Wars films there are several high importance events happening simultaneously, building to a crescendo. Here you're just following one path of a story you already basically know the end result of. Towards the end I was almost begging for a Rogue One Vader moment as the film felt like it was just running out of steam. The unexciting moment that came felt out of place and awkward to me, as did the idea of Han donating all of his cash to start the rebellion. For me this devalues his triumphant day saving return at the end of a New Hope.

There were some moments I loved here such as the Chewie Han meeting. I thought it was really nicely done, but there is nothing I feel I really want to go back for. In the Last Jedi I will always want to watch the Snoke throne room scene due to its exhilarating moments and utterly awesome choreography. That is despite the Last Jedi being inherently flawed. Here, I can't think of a single stand out scene I want to see again.

The saddest part for me in watching Solo, is that I have zero desire to ever see any of it again. It's not terrible, it's just boring and predictable. Oh, and the Han Solo actor did a good job. I thought his performance was convincing but it couldn't save the film for me.

I felt moved to write this review after having watched two war films in the past fortnight. First of all, I witnessed the event that is Dunkirk in IMAX. Then after chatting about Dunkirk, I had this film recommended to me by a work colleague who said it was one of the best films she had seen in a while. I watched it at home on a quiet Friday night. As I was pondering what I had witnessed in Hacksaw Ridge, I thought I would check to see how IMDb compared the two films. I was quite stunned to see that they were scored very similarly.

Whilst I do not intend to conduct a full and detailed comparison between the two films, I feel some comparison is warranted because they must be equally good with such similar scores? Right? Wrong.

Dunkirk is intense, gritty, utterly convincing, beautifully directed, creative, challenging, packs stunning cinematography and realism, and is a physical and mental roller-coaster of tension, hope and terror. There are no blood and guts because they aren't needed. The director is more sophisticated than that. Hacksaw Ridge is a disjointed simplistic and linear film that spends an extraordinary amount of time on a wafer thin conscientious objector story-line before dumping you unceremoniously into a completely unrealistic orgy of frenzied war porn. The bodies fly through the air comically; heads explode; hapless troopers shoot at each other whilst leaving their valueless heads left hanging over the top of trenches like sitting ducks. *Spoiler* many lose their stupid heads. Both sides charge like crazed maniacs through a hail of gunfire, grenades and flamethrowers and then we all wonder how so many ended up dead. Every now and then we cut to a jarringly terrible CGI cut-scene of a few navy battleships bombarding the battlefield. This is all interspersed by our gun-shy hero charging around rescuing everyone in a feat of human bravery that would be more appropriately placed in the latest Marvel "release".

Doesn't sound too bad you cry? Well, you only get to this madness after we are made sit through an hour of tediously clichéd love story surrounding the simplistic half baked-ideas of a slightly creepy lead character who doesn't want to use a gun because a) his Dad was a nutter and b) he likes to parrot the ten commandments. There is no real attempt to asses the arguments for or against conscious objection here. It's ethics and morality for idiots. For a complex or interesting examination of conscientious objection thematics, one will need to go elsewhere. The jewel in the crown of this saccharine first half is an unnerving cinema scene where the stunningly beautiful nurse is bowled head over heels by the relentless glassy eyed stare of a drooling yokel. *Top tip lads*; if you go to the cinema with a girl on a first date, don't sit staring at the side of her face, with your tongue hanging out, droning at her in a slightly deranged Deliverance-esque voice "... yer the most bootiful thin av evur seeeeeeeen, hyuh hyuh hyuh". *Spoiler* this will not lead to a successful outcome for you. Here however it works a treat and the stunning nurse falls madly in love with our dim-witted protagonist. This is the level of realism we are dealing with in this film.

I must caveat here that I know this is based on a true story and do not want in any way to cast negative aspersions on the actual person this story is based on. I cannot imagine in any way that what we are seeing here is in any way close to how he behaved, or thought. I'm sure he was not a fool, but unfortunately that is how he is portrayed in this film. This is undoubtedly partly intentional; to portray his conviction as a simple and noble thing, but this never really hits home as it's never really clear exactly where the conviction came from over and above a few random events in his childhood.

If you want to see a movie portraying war in a realistic, convincing and entertaining way, go watch Dunkirk. You mind find yourself intellectually stimulated! You wont argue with its gritty realism and simmering tension even if you normally have a penchant for blood and guts. If you like Transformer films, and/or enjoy sitting on your porch rocking chair caressing your beloved shotgun, you'll probably prefer Hacksaw Ridge.

Despite my obvious dislike of this film ultimately it is watchable, and the frequent jarring moments (roughly every 30 seconds) where you think "what a load of nonsense that would never happen" didn't prompt me to turn it off. Possibly because I paid to watch it. The contrast between these two recently released war films that both hold an 8+ score on IMDb could not be more stark. Much as I would like to give this a 1 star to help remedy the obvious rating injustice here, I will give this film what it deserves, an average 5/10.

This is a serious Star Wars film that primes the watcher for the greatest movie trilogy ever created.

I've read a lot about Rogue One over the past week or two. I've seen it 3 times, twice at IMAX 3D and once in normal 2d. I've read some pretty cutting criticism, and seen some overly friendly reviews. I'm naturally a critical person and I was worried for this film, primarily because the director Gareth Edwards made a film that I didn't finish despite having paid a cinema entry ticket; Godzilla. I left halfway through.

On my first watch of Rogue One, I briefly fell asleep halfway through. Admittedly I had *ahem* had a late night the evening before... Christmas drinks. I think it's fair to say that this film has some flaws and one of those flaws is a flaw that it shares with Godzilla. It suffers from a slightly bloated mid-section. It's not a major flaw, but a flaw nonetheless. Other flaws include the slightly forced fan service; the inclusion of C3PO and R2D2 felt a tad annoying and pointless, as did the addition of the "Cantina ruffian" in Jedha. We don't need this in every Star Wars film. We really don't. These are minor issues.

This film is packing the greatest 45 minutes of action yet seen in any Star Wars film, and the rest of the film is simply an elaborate set up for this crescendo. It's a long time since I had to suppress an urge to punch the air in public, but there I was witnessing the Rebel fleet exit hyper space above Scarif - to the tune of John Williams Death Star attack music - as they arrived to support the Rogue One mission on a crazy suicide, all-or-nothing attack to get the plans on the planet below. It's exhilarating, hair-raising stuff that felt like the arrival of the Riders of Rohan at the fields of Pellenor, except... it's Star Wars. A great moment.

Every Star Wars fan knows the end result of this story, but the tension as the attack gathered pace was beautifully crafted by the director, ensuring that although we all know what is coming there is still a room full of tension. There has been criticism of the character development in this story, but these criticisms feel vapid to me. Enough time was given to understand the motivation of all of the motley band of Scarif attackers. We didn't need to understand every single life nuance of Boba Fett to enjoy his character in Return of the Jedi so why do we suddenly need it here - that's not what Star Wars is about. What we do get is a tragic story arc for every character, all of whom gather under the banner of the Rebel alliance. They all have different histories, motivations, and reasons for being there, but it all comes down to the urge to fight back against a clear evil.

They all make the ultimate sacrifice to give their cause a chance, and I found it exhilarating and life-affirming, sad but uplifting.

The musical score does the story justice in the absence of John Williams, plucking at the heart strings when "Star Dust" breaks at the sight of her father, not seen since childhood, and lifting you on a wave as the action scenes unfold, with a stirring new Imperial theme as we see Vader foiled at the end staring after the Corellian Corvette that makes off with the plans.

Many of the reviews I have seen have spent a lot of bandwidth moaning about quibbles, like the use of hardware seen in other films (RLM tediously spend a lot of airtime complaining about the use of At-Ats), or the fan service references, or the effects on Tarkin or Leia. These additions are not simply cheap attempts to give one positive reinforcement, but feel to me more like successful attempts to make this film fit with the feel and atmosphere of the original trilogy. I think this is done very successfully indeed.

This film feels like a genuinely excellent addition to the original trilogy. It's serious in a way that the Force Awakens sometimes wasn't and it felt to me like a Star Wars film aimed towards an adult audience in thrall to the original films. So that's a hell of a lot of people. I think Gareth Edwards did brilliantly, and this is a more fitting addition to the films than the Force Awakens. Don't get me wrong, I really enjoyed the Force Awakens, and will do so again, but am fully aware of it's slightly infuriating imperfections and occasional cartoony feel. Rogue One has none of this.

The story is serious, emotional, fun in parts but never cheesy, exhilarating for the last hour, and it achieves a staggering amount in sending us off to a New Hope with a fresh but heart-warming perspective. If anything, it does what I thought would be utterly impossible, and it makes the original Star Wars: A New Hope beginning feel even more serious and dangerous. It crystallises the vicious threat posed by Vader, and grounds the vulnerability and desperation of the Rebel alliance more than any previous film. It sets up the arrival of Luke Skywalker and his sister in a way that I never expected.

Well done Gareth Edwards, and thank you!

*Thematic Spoilers below*

First of all, I want to get my baggage out on the table here. I played WOW for years and it's the greatest video game ever made, bar none. In recent times I've stopped playing. The game has lost its way but given my history with the game there was no way I was going to miss this film. My girlfriend simply refused to watch it with me, so I had to sheepishly go to the cinema on my own. I could feel the judgement.

Anyway, onto the film. I was never bored watching this film. I enjoyed it and think it is reasonably well made. The effects are outstanding, and it ambles along at a good pace. So why the rating of 6?

Well, it's hard to really pin down what's wrong with this film. I think one of the primary problems is that one never really engages with the characters, any of them, and there are a lot.

The grand thematic elements of the story that Duncan Jones had to tell aren't that great, so he had a difficult job on his hands to make this thing interesting.

The great parts of this story are rooted in the characters and their relationships (forged over years in the lore of the game), so the characters had to be sculpted well, and we had to be made to love them. This is no mean feat in 2 hours. That's where the film just completely misses the mark. Through the film several main characters die, and I felt nothing on each occasion.

I believe that the film just suffers from having too many characters that we barely know, whereas it should have 2 or 3 that we deeply understand, and come to love and root for. Then when they succeed or fall, we feel it.

All in all, this is a decent film. WOW fans will enjoy it, but I don't think there's a huge amount there for anyone else. I really hope that the film does well enough to enable the follow up, which I hope is the story of Arthas. Sadly, I don't think that will happen.

I am so happy to say Star Wars: The Force Awakens, is every bit the sequel that the original trilogy deserves.

Like many Star Wars fans, I went into this film with a degree of trepidation after the "jar"ring experience of the prequels. The prequels weren't just bad, they were turgid. Jar Jar gets all the blame, but he is just one symptom of a wider malaise. Those films have terrible acting (from world class actors), terrible CGI, an appalling script, and are riddled with bad slapstick humour, dollops of awful cheese, and a romance that would fit perfectly into a cheap lunchtime TV soap opera. If only they had just made Anakin likable we might have had a real tragedy... and all those bad things might not have mattered, as much. But that's an argument for another day.

SWTFA gets what the prequels got horribly wrong, wonderfully right. The CGI is used sparingly but effectively. The script is good, and it gives the actors something to work with. There is real humour - more than I expected for a Star Wars film, but it feels right.

The story itself will be criticised given the many similarities with Star Wars IV: A New Hope, but I feel this is already overblown and eventually people will see SWTFA for what it is... a much needed refresher for the Star Wars universe that breathes new life into a familiar but new story using characters we deeply love.

Almost all of the new characters strike home. Rey is an amazing figurehead played staggeringly well by newcomer Daisy Ridley. I'm sold on Rey already. This 30 something man will follow her into battle any day. She's going to be to every little girl, what Luke Skywalker was to boys of my generation.

Finn brings humour and humanity. He's flawed and scared but loving, loyal and funny. He's sometimes bumbling but always ready to fight. Finn will bring what has been lost by the tragic end of Han Solo, and maybe a little bit extra.

Adam Driver is staggeringly good as the enigma Kylo Ren, the flawed petulant nemesis trying to stay loyal to the dark side despite being from a family of the light. His journey was brilliantly contrasted with Rey's. I can't wait to see these two clash again.

Oscar Isaac oozes raw screen charisma as Poe Dameron the best pilot in the RESISTANCE.

Of the old cast, I was worried and half expecting another Indiana Jones-esque cringefest. Thankfully they all fulfil their allotted roles admirably. Han Solo has the most stuff to do and he does it well. It's Han, it's really him, and not a bored actor going through the motions.

After the first watch, I really liked it but rated it 7.5/10. After the second it's up to 9. The blend of humour is right, the story works, but it all seems to fly by (always a good sign).

The minor criticisms I have are around the Spaghetti Meatball CGI monsters; the occasional over-the-top cheesy line "That's one helluva pilot!!!"; and the lack of context for incinerating 5 planets. This is all small fry though. SWTFA is a brilliant film. I am highly wary of being biased on this, so I was interested to hear my girlfriend purr "That was completely amazing!" as we left the cinema. Good sign - she's not really a Star Wars fan but does like to make Chewbacca noises. I'm sold, bring on 8. I'll buy JJ a pint if I ever see him.

Mad Max: Fury Road is an absolute cracker.

This film will grab you by the scruff of the neck and take you through a relentless journey of carnage, and by the end of it you will probably need a lie down. I know I certainly did.

In preparation for going to see this movie, I re-watched the originals, but there really is no need. Mad Max starts here. The originals will now feel like a barely noticeable gentle breeze on a warm summer's day, compared with this crashing hurricane of mayhem.

The movie is filmed beautifully, and the set pieces and action shots are utterly outstanding. None of this would matter if they didn't create the perfect atmospheric backdrop, but they manage that beautifully and neatly in the first ten minutes of the film. All of the characters are introduced, and the world feels real. It feels convincing. It feels utterly terrifying.

Then it sets off on a car chase and it doesn't let up for 110 minutes. There are explosions, moments of extreme violence, the odd moment of wit, a despicable villain, thought-provoking sub-themes, and it all adds up to a wonderful film.

More please.

How could a film with a talking raccoon be bland you ask? Well, they did somehow manage it.

This film was recommended to me by a colleague, whose word I trust. I watched it on an average HD TV screen and appreciate that this may have diminished the impact of the effects.

I found this film nondescript - and I was more captivated by the dinner I was eating while watching it. In fairness, it was a cracking curry with succulent tender chicken that melted in my mouth. The accompanying sauce had a lovely buttery tang to it that complimented the meat beautifully. This film didn't really stand a chance.

The start was good and I was rooting for the film after a nice opening where our protagonist lost his mum and got kidnapped by aliens straight after. It just never really takes off after that. The relentless wise cracking jokes come thick and fast but none of them are particularly funny. Think 10 jokes for the payoff of one slight titter.

The story ambles along with a highly original plot about an evil scary person seeking out an object of unfathomable power (oh by the way if you're one of those people that don't "get" things, this is sarcasm. The plot isn't original. It's bloody tedious and the same plot as 95% of every other sci-fi films and fantasy adventures) - with the goodies trying to stop him. The action scenes came at us non-stop, just like the wise cracks, but it is all shoulder shruggingly typical of every other action film in existence.

There are a whole variety of wafer thin "characters" that we meet along the way. There are also lots of clichés, a horribly unconvincing and contrived romance, and a ludicrous end.

I'm honestly at the point where seeing films like this with a rating of higher than 8 leaves me utterly baffled. Does IMDb collectively have zero taste? This film is the "Masters of the Universe" of 2015. It's eye candy for the intellectually bankrupt adult, or the easily amused child. At least Masters of the Universe had Skeletor. That's a baddie I can really get behind.

I convinced my sceptical girlfriend to watch this, and my credit in the film picking stakes took a huge hit. After it ended, I got that scolding "told you so" look, and what could I say? She was right. This is rubbish. Don't believe the hype.

* Contains Spoilers * This is what you get if you take all the elements of the Lord of the Rings films, put them all together, but then forget to weave it all together with a convincing and coherent narrative.

What a disappointment! I am a huge fan of the Lord of the Rings trilogy but the Hobbit trilogy has really struggled to recreate the type of epic magic of LOTR. It was always going to be a difficult task, as the LOTR trilogy is epic to begin with - the plot lines are clear, and there are three books to neatly transform into three films.

Someone... somewhere... along the way, decided to stretch the story of "the Hobbit" out over three films - no easy task. When they realised there really wasn't enough content for that, it seems that they just decided to make lots of stuff up. In my opinion, that's fine, as long as it works (some people will understandably seriously disagree on this point). Sadly, it doesn't quite work here.

Return of the King has the type of once-in-a-generation film scenes of the Riders of Rohan charging into the fields of Pellenor, for example. This is the type of film moment we all remember but it wasn't just plonked into the film out of nowhere. This moment was carefully set up over the three films (books) to such an extent that it is one of the most exhilarating moments in any film ever. In this film, we have the "Eagles" arrive to save the day along with a load of erm... animal/people things, but at no stage do we understand why any of this has happened. It just does, and the day is won. And it falls a bit flat. It's as the narrative that got us to this final film wasn't quite right. And this is explainable, partially by the fact they strayed so far from the original story.

The character development is also sadly lacking across these films. I think we were supposed to fall in love with the seven (or however many there were) Dwarfs throughout these films, but I can barely remember a name of a single one of them apart from King Thorin. The makers rely heavily on transplanting established characters from LOTR into this picture to move things along, to such an extent that I am astonished they didn't toss "Baby Frodo" in right at the end. It all feels a little contrived and almost reminds you of the Star Wars prequels where much loved characters were shoehorned in for the sake of making the audience say "oh yes, I know that face".

Legolas, Saruman, Galadriel, the guy from the Matrix. They could all have just not been in this film and it wouldn't have made much difference. Oh actually, that's wrong I nearly cried my eyes out over the heart wrenching side-story about Legolas' mother. Not. (Or was this a horrible set up for a new film based on Lego? Ugggh).

This was not a terrible film, but it hardly comes close to the lofty standards set by Jackson himself.

This is one of those films that almost gets there, but consistently falls short all the way through.

It's hard to put your finger on what it really is about this film that isn't quite right. The acting is decent, the visuals are fine - and on some occasions very impressive, and the story is sort of interesting. But none of it really feels convincing.

The film tries to do too many things at once and therefore doesn't quite hit home in any specific area. There are several significant story arcs here.

Firstly you have the relationship between the protagonist (Damon) and his childhood sweetheart. There is a little bit of time devoted to this relationship but it ultimately comes across as very superficial indeed. This relationship binds the main characters together to some extent but you never quite feel that there is any chemistry between the two. We never really end up caring about either of them, or their "bond".

Secondly you have the interesting spacecraft "Elysium" orbiting above Earth. This should really have been explored much more deeply. There are lots of ideas here that are relevant to modern life and the disparity of wealth that we have in the world. The "haves" and the "have nots". You have parallels with issues of immigration where people will take any risk for a better life. You have the wilful separation of those with money and those without, and the draconian enforcement of law for the masses through an automated and touchy group of robot law enforcement machines. But all of this stuff just ends up becoming a flimsy background to the next bit...

And that is of course the devious computer programme designed to help the failing business of... some guy, by installing a new person in charge of the Elysium space craft. It's just a bit silly and hard to buy into yet this issue is what it all revolves around.

Prior to watching this, I did not know that this was made by the team behind District 9. I thought that was a great film, and it really did strike home. I think the major difference is that this film takes itself a little bit too seriously, has almost no humour, and doesn't convincingly tackle the themes it addresses in a meaningful way.

A fairly pedestrian film, which is surprising given the cast. I wouldn't really recommend this but would also avoid saying it's bad.

This is an enjoyable film. Everything is coherent and well produced, the scenes flow nicely into each other and the relationships feel real.

The problem is that the plot is blatantly signposted for you from an early stage. You are literally bludgeoned over the head with "this girl is going to get kidnapped" from a very very early part of the film. As a result, the relationship that is central to the emotional hook of the movie, mentioned above, feels a little forced. You know what you are being prepared for. The girl is getting kidnapped, so the film is trying to make you care about this fact, in the lead up to that event. It just felt a bit contrived to me.

My only other minor criticism is that the actors are a bit too type-cast. You can tell from the opening ten minutes which actors are going to have been involved in the kidnap, because the actors picked to play these parts look like "baddies" - the Dad and the attorney being the two primary culprits. Is there really any need for this? Especially when you aren't supposed to know the person is involved until the end. Could the film not have benefited somewhat from the Dad being cast as a lovable teacher type rather than the slimy gangster type? I was well aware that Daddy was going to be involved in the whole operation from the moment I laid eyes on him.

Other slight criticisms are deserved in the gratuitous but brief love scene between the Mum and Dad. It just felt utterly pointless and out of place to see her take her top off and it also not in the spirit of the movie - as their relationship really wasn't important. Also, the 3/4 times that Debussy's Clair de Lune was tossed into the mix also seemed slightly odd.

I am nitpicking a little bit with the above, as overall the movie is competent and tells its story well. It's a solid film that will satisfy those looking for an uncomplicated dose of Saturday night entertainment.

This is the best ghost film of all time.

In this film, you won't find blood and guts, cheap scares, or clichéd setups where you know exactly what is coming. You will just find a claustrophobic and disturbing presence - a happiness sapping looming malevolence that will scare your socks off.

That horrifying woman, who appears sporadically throughout this low budget masterpiece, is a more terrifying spectre than anything I have seen in any other horror film. She doesn't even need to do anything - just her look... her stare is enough to send a chill right through my body. And that's the beauty of this film. It gets the atmosphere bang on.

Since seeing this film for the first time many years ago, it has been the absolute benchmark of quality for every horror film I have since watched. Nothing has yet come close.

The only other film that gets anywhere near is the original Wicker Man (another fantastic film).

If your idea of a scary film is the slasher horror style so beloved by Hollywood, then this might not be your cup of tea. It is a slow paced film that builds inexorably towards its double-whammy horrifying ending and the sophisticated film viewer will savour every minute.

If you haven't seen this film already, it is a piece of work that you simply must experience. The Harry Potter version doesn't even come close.

This was setting itself up to be one of my favourite horror films of all time for the first half of the film. However, things went downhill in the second half.

Cusack does a great job as our protagonist as the cynical, small-time hack who spends his time debunking ghost stories, knowing that these stories are just PR for the hotels in which he stays. He sells a few books and they get a bit more business - everyone's a winner! His world-weariness comes across really well in the opening stages but everything goes a little bit awry when he gets a postcard directing him to the Dolphin Hotel in New York.

On arriving at the hotel we are treated to a great scene between Cusack and Samuel L. Jackson, where Jackson tries to dissuade Cusack from staying in the room. This scene does a fantastic job of setting up room 1408 in the watcher's mind as we are told about its history, so that by the time Cusack inserts his key into that 1408 lock, the tension is palpable.

The first fifteen minutes in the room is great viewing with the spookiness and fright levels ramping up slowly but surely, but just as the film gets to the fear-sweet-spot, it goes just a little too far and enters into silly/surreal territory which ultimately breaks the atmosphere, and it doesn't ever quite get it back.

This is a film, like so many in the horror genre, that would have hugely benefited from reigning things in just a little as the film progresses. The breaks should have been applied earlier and the spookiness and atmosphere of the room should have been allowed to mature. Instead it just gets a bit too much, to the extent that I lost interest twenty minutes from the end. The atmosphere just dissipated as the vibe went from spooky haunted room to full blown psychedelic acid trip.

It's a bit of a shame as so much good work was done in the early stages of the film, and the production and acting were spot on all the way through.

Some might find the way this film ramps to its crescendo appealing, but I did not. Despite that, it's well worth a watch.

I am huge Alan Partridge fan but despite this, I went into this film with slight trepidation as I don't think I can remember a TV-Film comedy transition that ever managed to really capture the magic of the TV version.

Alas it is the same story again here.

For me, the series of Alan Partridge where he lives in the motel, is one of the greatest comedy series of all time (C*** P*** Partridge), and the follow up series with him living in the caravan is every bit it's equal (Dan!!?). The recent radio shorts are also pretty good.

However, the magic of Alan is missed just slightly in the movie. As is always the case with these crossovers, the cinema transition seems to demand a higher pacing of the comedy along with the more bombastic production generally, and this doesn't really sit well with Alan. You need to be able to watch his every facial expression, and capture every word of his dialogue and just take in the hilarity of his view of the world. Likewise, his supporting characters have all been unique in their own ways, but in this big screen version they have been almost caricatured and stripped of any real wit or supporting merit. Michael is particularly disappointing in this regard but Lynn's involvement is also slightly... pointless and over-the-top when she is used.

I found the whole cinema experience a little bit tiresome and that's the first time I've ever said that about anything with Alan Partridge in it. This is a decent film, and fans will find lots to titter at, but I would be surprised if there is anything truly memorable when we look back in a few months time. Even after first watch, there isn't a phrase I can pick out that will stick in my mind, and that's the really disappointing thing.

The three-quarters full audience of my cinema in SW London seemed to enjoy it but there were no extended belly laughs - just murmurs of laughter spotted throughout, and one almost sensed that we were all collectively colluding in really wanting this film to be better than it actually was by lending our laughs. I'll give it another try on the small screen and perhaps my mind will change but until then, and after first watch, this is a slightly disappointing 6/10.

If you liked Avengers Assemble, as lots of people seem to, much to my general bafflement, you will probably like this as well. They are both essentially the same film. There's lots of fighting, explosions, buildings getting wrecked and expensive and elaborate special effect set-pieces. There's also a wafer thin apocalyptic story to accompany all of this, and lots of characters that you don't really care about, so if the action isn't what you're there for, you really will be watching the wrong film.

There were two reasons I wanted to see this film. Firstly, the words "Christopher" and "Nolan". And secondly, there's the fact that I liked the Superman films when I was younger. They, along with Indiana Jones and Star Wars, were the films I looked forward to watching over the Christmas holidays.

This film is basically a rehash of the original Christopher Reeve Superman film. The story is much the same as the original, except now we have special effects to bring it all to life properly… sort of. The thing is though, spectacular as the set pieces are, there's a curious lack of tension in any of the action. Superman and his nemeses beat each other around towns and cities with reckless abandon, but because they are "Super men" you know they can't really die, so despite the explosions, the collapsing sky scrapers, and the fact that they keep punching each other through walls over and over and over and over and over again, you know that they aren't going to die from this, so you find yourself not really caring. It's just eye candy, but although it looks impressive, I found myself getting very bored of these fights very quickly.

There are some really good parts of this film. The soundtrack and music is chosen well and really gives a "Nolan" feel to the whole thing. Those sweeping epic Batman-esque crescendos echo throughout lending a degree of scale and majesty to what you are watching. No complaints there. The flashbacks to Clark Kent's youth are also quite interesting and lend some depth to the film in the opening stages. We see the young Superman saving people and contemplating the consequences of these actions. This is where the film does actually strike home. These scenes are interesting, and the one where we see his adopted father (Costner) accept his own death rather than let Clark reveal who he is in front of a watching audience, actually do have some emotional impact. This is helped by the fact that Costner acts his part with great aplomb and although he is only in a handful of scenes, he manages to create more emotion in his interaction with his (adopted) son, than probably exists in all the rest of the scenes combined.

The film loses its way completely once Zod arrives on Earth and starts demanding things.The film quickly descends into a cheesy special effects snoozer. Awesome if you like watching explosions, but pretty dull if you want something a little bit more than that. Zod decides he's basically going to take over Earth, and terra form it into a new Krypton and sets about this task. Superman and his human buddies hatch a mad plan to stop them. We then witness this plan being implemented and are treated to, amongst other things, squiggly metal snake things chasing Superman around the sky as he tries to thwart Zod. This particular sequence was just horrible. Squiggly metal snake things?! Like... waaaa?

Then finally we get another epic finale one on one fight between Zod and Superman at the end, the only problem being that its exactly the same fight as all the other fights with lots of crashing through buildings and an appallingly anti-climactic moment were Zod threatens a few Museum punters to provoke our hero Superman into breaking his neck. This scene is so poorly executed its almost laughable.

This is the first film that has had Christopher Nolan's name attached to it that has thoroughly underwhelmed me. I know he didn't direct it and perhaps therefore this is an unfair stick to beat it with but unfortunately it's a bit of a lame duck. The kids will probably love it, but I can't imagine many sophisticated watchers finding much of interest here. So, I'm just going to say it – the original Christopher Reeve version, despite its many flaws, is much better.

Yet again I've been deceived by the hype and the flashy adverts. This film simply isn't very good.