Film Review: The Lion King

"One Day The Sun Will Set On My Time Here, And Will Rise With You As The New King. Remember..."

As per the norm of contemporary blockbuster cinema, the magnificent movie monopoliser that is Disney Studios once again returns to the big screen this week with yet another big-screen re-hash of one of, if not, the, definitive animation story in the form of The Lion King. Following on from the gush of non-existent, if slightly colourful, air of Guy Ritchie's middling stab at Aladdin, Disney's decision to remake a film which positively affected an entire generation of children, parents and extended families, is arguably the biggest stab in the dark yet, begging the immortal question once again of, "what's the bloody point?" With 2016's similarly revived version of The Jungle Book placing director Jon Favreau in the holy graces of Disney forevermore, with a healthy balance of critical and commercial success always a banker for career enhancements, the Iron Man and Marvel Universe star returns to helm a strangely lifeless, annoyingly pointless big screen regurgitation, a movie which is the Disney equivalent of the criminally overrated, Gravity, with it being a movie which yes, looks absolutely stunning on a visual and technical level, but fails to tickle, let alone pull with any force at all, at the heartstrings and leaves you with a violent urge to remove it from your memory as soon as possible. 

With a central narrative which as everyone knows has a strong basis in William Shakespeare's, Hamlet, the 1994 original version of The Lion King was undoubtedly Disney at its' storytelling best, a child's movie which managed to blend Bambi-esque levels of heartbreak with notions of power, greed, redemption and of course, the "circle of life", and with the new version adding thirty more unnecessary minutes to proceedings, the storytelling this time around is much more arduous then it needs to be, and whilst I'm all for development of character in any film, the fact remains that it is extremely hard to bond with animated characters who show simply zero range of expression or emotion, resulting in you viewing the movie in a fashion akin to popping down to your local zoo and deciding to sneer at caged animals whilst doing made-up voices within your own head. With the film on a technical level absolutely breathtaking at times to behold, with the photorealistic computer animation making every single living creature look one hundred percent conscious and breathing, the visual splendour is effective for a period but still at the end of the day, animation, no matter how much nonsense Disney can spread about this version being "live-action", and when a movie's only good parts are the ones simply nabbed from the original, Disney's latest movie is absolute sacrilege, but at least a technically proficient work of sacrilege. 

Overall Score: 5/10

Film Review: Mary Magdalene

"Are We So Different From Men You Must Teach Us Different Things..."

With 2016's Lion a solid and warm-hearted Oscar nominated directorial debut for Australian filmmaker, Garth Davis, expectations remained high for a cinematic second coming, no pun intended, and with the Easter holiday's swiftly approaching, a time in which kids devour chocolate coated eggs with less and less of an understanding each year regarding its' figurative meaning, the release of Mary Magdalene seems naturally apt. Featuring Rooney Mara (A Ghost Story) as the titular follower of Jesus Christ, whose religious and historical actions tend to primarily focus on her bearing witness to the resurrection of Jesus after his crucifixion by the hands of the Roman Empire, Davis' movie unfortunately conforms to the curse of the follow-up album by being a body of work much weaker than its' predecessor, a staggeringly dull and uninspiring let-down which works much more effectively as a medicinal cure for insomniacs rather than a religious spiritual mediation, and whilst I am all for movies which opt for a slow and ponderous sensibility over choppily edited spectacle in the ilk of Blade Runner 2049 and Mara's own strangely hypnotically strange, A Ghost Story, a film famous for a ten minute continuous shot of a character eating pie, Mary Magdalene is unfortunately an example of a film which uses the strategy and fails miserably. 

With an underwritten screenplay which seems to have been typefaced onto the back of a postage stamp, the lack of real adventure or push results in the on-screen transfer from paper to film one which is tortuously painful to endure, with the film lacking both a simple element of life and a substantial capacity for the audience to not only believe that any of the characters are believable but more importantly, interesting enough to care for. With Joaquin Phoenix (Her) cast as the prophetic figure of Jesus, his whispering tone and shaggy-dog hair demeanour results in a performance which manages to come across as the lovechild of Eddie Redmayne in Jupiter Ascending and Phoenix himself in Paul Thomas Anderson's Inherent Vice, and whilst Phoenix normally manages to pull off decent performances regardless of the overall quality of the movie, his performance is poorly directed and staggeringly dull. With two hours of film to burn through, Davis' movie just doesn't offer up a sizeable reason for why it exists in the first place, and even with a slightly interesting concluding contemplation, Mary Magdalene is the cinematic equivalent of a Tesco saver Easter egg; unequivocally bland. 

Overall Score: 3/10

Film Review: Doctor Strange

"Heroes Like The Avengers Protect The World From Physical Dangers. We Safeguard It Against More Mystical Threats..."

Alas, Benedict Cumberbatch has joined the MCU. Surely that alone is a good enough reason to venture to your local cinema and check out the newest Marvel offering, directed by Scott Derrickson, famous for being at the helm for movies such as Sinister and The Exorcism of Emily Rose, whose past forays into the horror genre make it a strangely bold choice in an attempt to bring Doctor Strange to the big screen, a character of whom I can say rather ashamedly I was wholeheartedly unaware of before sitting down and embracing the strange (No pun intended), surreal and slightly bonkers world of Doctor Stephen Strange, the egoistical yet superb neurosurgeon who after crippling his body in a car crash seeks out the powers of the Ancient One in order to regain his strength. Boasting probably one of the best casts for an origin story in the entire MCU, Doctor Strange suffers at times from being slightly too similar to many of its' predecessors in terms of setting out the path of the titular Doctor, yet is supported by a wild sense of originality in terms of effects which boosts the film into territory that can only be classed as one hell of a trippy ride. 

In the leading role, Benedict Cumberbatch brings the tenacity and rigour you would expect from an actor whose portrayal of the world's leading detective has earned plaudits from all around the globe, and whilst the titular Doctor Strange bears some similarities to the character of Sherlock, Stephen Strange is undoubtedly a character in his own right, one which has both the confidence and faith in his own intelligence to be regarded as egotistic yet is fundamentally likeable because of such in a similar vein to Tony Stark, a similarly brilliant mind who too suffers a tragedy and attempts to fix such by any means necessary. In the case of Tony Stark, his own brilliance was the key to regaining his strength with the development of the arc reactor whilst Stephen Strange relies on the wisdom of the Ancient One, portrayed fantastically by Tilda Swinton, alongside Chiwetel Ejiofor's Karl Mordo and Rachel McAdam's Dr. Christine Adams, the love interest of Doctor Strange who has way too little screen-time but does the most with what she is given to form a three dimensional relationship between the two characters. 

Furthermore, Mads Mikkelsen too has an underwritten presence as the enemy of the picture, yet still manages to portray a character who is fearful and ambiguous enough to enjoy when on-screen, a testament to the acting abilities of the film's cast. Where the film does manage to succeed overwhelmingly is in its' Inception-esque effects design which presents the mystical world of Doctor Strange by having gigantic buildings fold in and expand whilst our on-screen heroes and villains fight off against each other through mystical portals which bend the rules of both time and space. Doctor Who eat your heart out, and where the effects are truly tested is during a simply wonderful scene during the film's climax in which the destruction of a city is saved by the reversal of time, all the while the film's characters continue to fight off against each other in a tremendously spectacular fashion. Doctor Strange is perhaps the second film after Guardians of the Galaxy to truly acknowledge the power of the MCU, with its' existence due in part to the success of the films' before it. It's not Captain America: Winter Soldier or Guardians of the Galaxy, but somewhere between Civil War and Iron Man, yet what it is overall is another Marvel success, albeit a slightly strange one. Once again, no pun intended. 

Overall Score: 8/10

Film Review: Triple 9

"To Survive Out Here You Gotta Out-Monster The Monster..."

Of all the epic crime dramas to have graced our screens over the course of the past few decades or so, Michael Mann's Heat is the top drawer example, a film in which many, including Mann himself, have taken note from and subsequently strived to duplicate in usually unspectacular fashion with only a few breaking the mould and stepping out from the shadow of the perfect combination of style and substance Mann's masterpiece undoubtedly revels in. In the case of Triple 9 therefore, although not the perfect companion piece to Heat, John Hillcoat, director of the desolate survival thriller The Road, and the violent crime drama Lawless, has at least attempted to create something that adheres to the stylistic nature of Mann's classic albeit with a dark, twisted and overly gritty core, calling in a A-List cast as it goes. Although Triple 9 carries much more substance than that of the many generic action films released recently, it is a film that plays inevitably and undeniably second fiddle to the mastery of Mann's tour de force, whilst having a much darker and depressing feel, one which may leave viewers with a sense of unwitting desperation.

The storyline, focusing on deception and blackmail between a group of experienced thieves and the Russian Mafia, headed up in sheer scene-chewing fashion by Kate Winslet, is one that is primarily left slightly to the sidelines, with the undercurrent of the groups plan to engage a "Triple 9", a scenario of a downed officer, in order to successfully complete a heist and in turn. release them from their dealings with the Mafia, a secondary outfit, providing a support and a reason for the main aim of the movie; to create the most intense action sequences possible. Although the supposed lack of substance leads to an array of questioning after sitting down and actually thinking about it. Triple 9 can be excused for effectively managing to do what it really desires, with the action set-piece in the film being directed and shot in a grit-filled sense of realism that harks back to the bank heist in Heat, a scene that has been regarded by many as the most realistic action set-piece ever captured on film. Indeed not for everyone, with on-screen violence being ramped up rather unnecessarily, Triple 9 benefits from a fantastic ensemble cast, featuring Casey Affleck, Chiwetel Ejiofor, Aaron Paul and straight from The Walking Dead, Norman Reedus, all of whom impress, yet the film falls short of the sense of mastery others before it have managed to create resulting in a film that is solely for the set pieces, not for the bigger picture. 

Overall Score: 8/10