Before Midnight

IMDB
First time viewed: Yes
Current Release: Yes
Watched With: Kate

I really love this series. I saw Before Sunrise many many years ago when I went through a Richard Linklater phase and was just fascinated that a film where there's pretty much just two characters talking could be so engaging. When they announced a sequel, Before Sunset, years later I was sceptical because the first film had such a nice open ending that could just be ruined. But the team really came through and again made something pretty special.

They are the great love affair of independent cinema. And now we have a third, and possibly final, chapter in their story. This film feels like it has a much more definitive end than the last two. It's wonderful to spend time with these characters again and see what the last 9 years have dealt them. For purists, pretty much any imagery is considered spoiler, but there were still surprises for me even after having read other reviews and seeing the trailer.

The relationship has changed greatly, this is a very different situation this time. It's a little more tense but even through it all you can easily see how much these two mean to each other. It's funny and a little sad and so wonderfully naturalistic. I loved it. I need to go back and watch the other two, it's been far too long.

Man Of Steel

IMDB
First time viewed: No
Current Release: Yes
Watched With: Tyler, Belinda, Paul

Write Up.

Back in Perth for this screening that I got tickets to months ago. The film didn't change my mind about any of my feelings the second time through.

World War Z

IMDB
First time viewed: No
Current Release: Yes
Watched With: Clint

Write Up.

Whilst in Sydney I took the oppertunity to FINALLY see something on a REAL IMAX screen. The biggest screen in the world no less! I made sure to see a proper IMAX formatted film earlier in the day, the Hubble space telescope documentary. Crazy awesome seeing 3d projected from duel 70mm film. Especially when there's hairs or specs on the old prints that show up in one eye but not the other. I want to see more IMAX!

This film was screened digitally and even though it only took up a small portion in the centre of the screen, you could still see the 2k resolution wasn't standing up very well to that size. Fascinating though.

Man of Steel

IMDB
First time viewed: Yes
Current Release: Yes
Watched With: Clint

Preface, my local cinema gifted me plane tickets and hotel accommodation to fly to Sydney to the red carpet Australian premiere of the film where Russell Crowe, Henry Cavill and Zack Snyder introduced the film, all for being "one of their most valued customers." Not too shabby.

As for the film itself, well I'm a little conflicted about it but overall I think I liked it? I've never liked superman, I never watched the older films as a kid. He character always seemed a bit bland. In this retelling of the origin story they do their best to make him a conflicted character with internal struggles, but he still seems a bit bland to me.

There are some very nice design elements and the fx are suitably awesome. It's an impressive looking film but I don't think anyone was going to fault the film technically. (Aesthetically, I'm a little tired of Snyder's high contrast desaturated colour palettes but I won't hold it against the film.)

The final action sequence is a big spectacle. It's almost numbing though, it seems to never end and the flippant disregard for the horrific collateral damage caused by two superhumans having a punch-out is kind of alarming. If it is something that is part of the sequel, well then that's fine. But as a stand alone it feels irresponsible.

That brings me to another niggling point, I feel like we all know the origin story of Superman and while this is slightly revisionist it's another example of a hero not becoming the character the public know and love until the final minutes of the film. So In that sense I guess Man of Steel is an appropriate title as this is not yet a Superman film.

Michael Shannon as Zod just made me giggle. I love him and hearing him deliver ridiculous comic book lines with all the intensity he can muster was delightful, if not a little silly.

There was a Tornado! Points for.

Henry Cavill looks great with his shirt off. Points for.

I liked they got rid of Lois Lane not knowing Superman's secret identity upfront. She wouldn't be a believable investigative reporter if she couldn't recognise someone with glasses. However I really don't think they should have tried to cram in any kind of romantic relationship between them, it was so forced and did not work at all, save it for later guys, one story at a time. 2 hours and 20minutes is long enough.

There's plenty of nit-picking to be done, (why is their display technology based on shifting geometric metal when they can quite clearly generate a photorealistic holographic Jor-El? Why was there a genesis chamber on the buried ship at the Earth outpost when they clearly state that they abandoned searching the stars before they started growing Kryptonions?) but none of that really matters. It comes down to this: I enjoyed the visuals and the spectacle but I was never emotionally engaged. 

Epic

IMDB
First time viewed: Yes
Current Release: Yes
Watched With: Tyler

The world this film created was just gorgeous. The detail in the textures and lifelike animation is stunning, the lighting is sumptuous and the camera movement and use of 3D in impeccable. I'm running out of adjectives. But really it is the most beautiful and well shot 3D animated movie I've seen since Rango.

Now if only the story was a little more interesting. They have an impressive voice cast of some very well known and distinct voices, that often precluded me from seeing the character rather than just the actor doing line readings in a voice booth. Neither of these two issues should be a problem for the younger generation though, so I expect them to eat it up. They'll probably even like Aziz Ansari as an extremely annoying comedic relief slug.

The action sequences are very well choreographed and feel appropriately epic, however with an all encompassing title like that I don't think any scale the film was conceived at would be appropriate. (They of course mean epic in the David Lean sense, not the traditional Bertolt Brecht, although imagining that is hilarious.)

There is a musical number in the middle of the film. I was worried for a second there but they cut out of it pretty quickly and hilariously.

This looks like a very expensive production. And they even make a note in the credits of how many jobs the film created and put money back into the economy... Okay. Good for them. The result is admittedly a very entertaining and beautiful looking riff on Fern Gully for the new generation. Worth a look.