Grave Encounters 2

Alex Wright (Richard Harmon), a video blogger and aspiring horror film maker, becomes obsessed with the movie Grave Encounters. His obsession leads him to an apparent conspiracy, suggesting that the film was not a series of special effects and made up scenarios, but that the events actually happened and the crew of the show died in that building. Desperate to learn the truth, Alex enlists the help of his friends to break into the building where it was filmed and expose the cover up by the studio. However, they quickly regret the decision as they realise that the ghosts are indeed real and that they have found their latest victims.

Finally, we have another hand held horror film to blast through. I am a massive fan of these sorts of horrors and even though a lot of them are incredibly dull, pointless and terribly made (see Episode 50 and Apollo 18), there are some absolute gems out there that have taken my nerves and finely shredded them into microscopic fibres (see [.REC] and The Tunnel). The first Grave Encounters fell on the good side of the spectrum, providing some great scares wrapped in a brilliant premise. I was thoroughly impressed with the film but when I heard that there was a sequel, I thought long and hard before actually deciding to watch it. We’ve seen horror phenomenon such as Paranormal Activity and Saw ruined by unnecessary sequels that are just made for the cash grabbing studio execs. Grave Encounters was nowhere near as big of a success, so a sequel was always going to be a surprising development, no matter how good the film was. Nevertheless, here we are with part 2 and I have to say, well, it didn't really impress that much.

The film takes a while to get going, as we get to know the various students and how they inevitably love to party and drink a lot. It’s fairly standard stuff for the first half an hour or so, with some cheap and cheeky scares thrown in by simply showing various clips of the first film as Alex watches it. It’s a silly way to get some scares into the film, and I almost stopped watching because of it, as those weren’t original scares crafted from the events in this film, they were just cheap reruns. However, we eventually start unravelling the mystery of the unnamed insane asylum, and it starts to get creepy from there on in. There are brief moments of weirdness throughout the first half an hour as we suspect that something other-worldly may be pulling Alex towards his inevitable demise, but there’s nothing really substantial to scare us or keep is glued to the screen. It’s only when they eventually get to the asylum that things (obviously) start to get messed up.

In the pursuit of proving/disproving the cover up, we see the plucky students set up cameras in all the hotspots from the first film, and then things quickly go wrong as the ghosts make themselves known. Herein we find our first problem, as we get the same sort of scares as we did in the first film. True they stop resorting to using clips of the first film, but they are treading very familiar territory and don’t seem to make any sort of effort to do anything remotely new with it. This is probably my biggest complaint of the film, in that they have a whole complex of buildings to explore and they decide to explore the same one, rather than seeing if any of the others are haunted. You can see why they chose to go back, but there’s so much scope for new scares here that’s just wasted. We do get a couple of new treats, such as an ill advised trip into the nursery ward and a dramatic escape attempt, but overall there’s not a lot of great new material to get our nerves rattled. When the scares do happen though, they are a little overdone, especially on the effects side of things. Ghouls and ghosts with weird shifting faces are quite creepy but when you have the scared protagonist pointing the camera directly at what they should be running away from, the moment is lost. Horror, for me at least, is all about what you don’t see. Obviously these film makers don’t share the same viewpoint, as we’re given lengthy shots of horrifying ghouls, which become less scary the more time they’re on camera. In horror films, less is more, but here, we get everything!

I was initially planning on giving this a fairly positive review as when I came out of the movie, I thought it had been a lot better than I was expecting. But now I'm not so sure. I will admit that some of the film had me hooked, especially when they reveal something that triggers the final act. There are some interesting characters, only 2 of them mind you but it’s more than most horror films have nowadays, and the film certainly has enough plot twists to keep you at least a little interested. Now as I said, I was planning to give this film a good review, and to be honest, I still might, because it is nowhere near as flawed as some of its competitors (I refer once again to Episode 50), however, everything about this film is watchable, until the final 15 minutes or so. With one huge splash of special effects, the final act falls flat on its face and renders the whole film ridiculous and completely over-the-top, which was never really the aim of Grave Encounters. It’s something that actually tips the balance for me, as the sheer stupidity of this blunder puts the whole film in a completely different light, it makes it a film that’s just trying too hard to be big, loud and impressive, but just ends up looking dumb and stupid and for all it’s good ideas and interesting story development, it’s just not enough.

A promising sequel idea falls flat because of a few repeated scares and a terrible event in the third act. There’s a lot to like here, but it’s outweighed by the downright stupid stuff, making this a disappointing horror movie. Score: 4.0/10

Rise Of The Guardians

After 300 years, Jack Frost (Chris Pine) is getting fed up of no one being able to see him. He keeps questioning the man on the moon (who put him on earth in the first place) as to what his purpose is, until one day he is taken away to the North Pole to meet The Guardians. Consisting of Santa Claus (Alec Baldwin), the Easter Bunny (Hugh Jackman), the Sandman and the Tooth Fairy (Isla Fisher), the Guardians keep watch over the children of the world, making sure that they still believe in them. But now, a dark force from the past is beginning to resurface, and the Guardians need Jack as their new recruit to help them destroy it before the children stop believing.

This film had never really been on my “must watch” list. Despite the fairly positive reviews and the relentless ad campaign, I didn’t really have a burning desire to see what looked like a run-of-the-mill family flick. Nevertheless, after my Dad raved about this film, my curiosity was spiked and I sat down with the rest of my family to see if this was anything to actually get excited about. In parts, I could see why my Dad had raved about this movie, but after the end credits had finished rolling, I largely wondered what all the fuss was about.

The idea behind the film is actually a rather good one, taking the regular ideas of mythical characters like Santa Claus and the Easter Bunny and giving them a more modern and funky twist. The film makers have obviously spent a lot of time making sure each character looks and feels right, and there’s no denying that the characters all feel fully fleshed out (even Sandman, who doesn't say anything). This is one of the films strong points, as if the characters didn’t feel as alive and vibrant as they do, then the rest of the film may have fallen apart completely. The voice actors do a pretty good job at keeping their characters alive, with particularly funny turns from Hugh Jackman and Alec Baldwin. There are some duff notes in there, especially from Jude Law, who plays bad guy Pitch Black. Law just sounds odd when trying to put on his best menacing voice, which is a shame because the bad guy is actually quite creepy and sinister, but Law’s voice doesn’t really do it justice. On the other hand, we have a great turn from Chris Pine (who you’ll recognise as Kirk from the new Star Trek films), who plays Jack Frost with a great deal of passion. I’ve seen Pine in a few films now, and it’s clear why he’s becoming such a big star, as he’s able to work with all sorts of material and pull it off well.

However, we very quickly move on to the bad points of this film. First, there are the action sequences, which are just too ordinary. I’ll admit they are fast paced and beautifully realised, but there’s nothing particularly amazing or jaw dropping about them. There are some great ideas and set ups for brilliant fights, chases and perilous situations for our characters to get out of, but it feels like the writers just hold it all back at the last minute. I got myself all ready for something ridiculous and over the top, but instead all I got was standard and basic action scenes, which all felt very much on the rails. Sure there were some “WOW” moments, Jack and the Pitch facing off in the sky and the introduction of Santa’s sleigh to name but a few, but the writers seem reluctant to give us more ridiculous and instead give us more small scale action.

There’s also the slight problem with the pacing. For the most part, the film moves along at rather a brisk pace, introducing new plot elements and situations at regular intervals, but once it gets to the final series of events, the film sputters and struggles to go anywhere. Maybe they felt as though they hadn’t made a long enough film, so they had to try and make it longer with different battles and encounters, but what it translates to on the screen (for me at least) is a stop-start finale that frustrates more than it entertains. It could have been grand, epic and jaw droppingly brilliant, but instead it’s just like the rest of the film, ordinary and fairly bland. Disappointing to say the least.

It’s fun at times, but the action sequences aren’t as fantastical as they could be, and the finale suffers for it. The voice acting is just good enough to stop this film sinking below the average mark, but I can’t help thinking that this should have been so much better. Score: 5.0/10

REVIEW: The Hobbit: An Unexpected Journey

Bilbo Baggins (Martin Freeman) leads a peaceful and quiet life in the Shire, but when an old wizard named Gandalf (Ian McKellen) introduces him to a band of Dwarves, his life is quickly turned upside down. The Dwarves, led by the fearless Thorin (Richard Armitage), enlist him in their quest to take back their fortress home, buried deep inside a lonely mountain. The fortress was forcibly taken by the demonic dragon Smaug, who now resides there amongst a mountain of golden treasures. As they set off for the fortress, they quickly realise that they are not the only ones heading for the fortress, and that dark forces are hunting them.

Now I should preface this review by saying that I have never read the book. In fact, I've never read any Tolkien, but according to some, I'm not missing out on much. I have however, seen the live action films that Peter Jackson made some years ago (though I haven’t bothered to sit through all the extended cuts yet). Now whilst I was curious about The Hobbit being made into a film, once I found out it was going to be another 3 films, I quickly lost what little interest I had. So, why did I end up seeing the film? A good question, because after seeing it I'm not really sure what all the fuss is about.

After initially watching the film, I sat down to look at the respective lengths of all the LOTR books and how they translated into film running time. A pointless exercise really, but Jackson has come under heavy fire for deciding to turn this book into 3 films. The first part of Jackson’s new trilogy comes in at 169 minutes (2 hours 49 minutes), with the book being 310 pages. Right here is where we have the first problem. The LOTR books have a total of 1571 pages and a combined theatrical running time of 558 minutes (I'm excluding the extended editions, because I'm not really that bothered about them). Doing some basic math (which is probably wrong) we find that we get through 2.8 pages per minute of film. That was for 3 books, but here, we’re roughly looking at a third of a book. That’s about 103 pages. Over 169 minutes, that means we’re only getting through 0.6 pages per minute of film. Ok, pointless maths bit is over, and it basically boils down to me saying that this film is extremely long and really doesn't have enough material to pad it out with.

There was a common joke about the LOTR films that they were basically tourist adverts for New Zealand, and the same jokes could pretty much be made again, except this time it’s nowhere near as funny. If I were to guess, I’d say a good 10 to 20 minutes of the film is just made up of long sweeping shots of the gang walking/running across various parts of New Zealand. Of course it looks very pretty, but that’s not really what I came to see. I came to see a Hobbit, some Dwarves and a Wizard, fight off hordes of monsters on a quest to take back their fortress from a powerful and evil dragon! Instead I get to see the many and varied natural wonders of New Zealand. Over 3 films. Which will probably all be just under 3 hours long. Cheers Peter Jackson. Even when we’re treated to an action scene, where some Orcs relentlessly hunt down our plucky heroes, Jackson can’t help but pad it out with many long, sweeping shots of the gang running across the same bit of countryside, in different directions...HOW EXCITING! As you can guess, it quickly gets very tedious.

If Jackson insists on padding this film out to within an inch of its life, then he could have at least attempted to pad it out where it would have been entertaining for the audiences. For example, why is there no fight between the Goblin king and Thorin/Gandalf? Why is there no fight between Thorin and the White Orc (technically there is, but it’s over in 10 seconds)? Actually, why is there hardly any fighting at all! When there is a fight, it involves everyone, and it’s incredibly hard to tell what the hell is going on! I was in a constant state of “hang on, which Dwarf is that? Where’s (random character) gone? How did that enemy get over there so fast?” any time they decided to draw their swords and take down something vaguely evil in their way. It’s an ugly mess of swords, shields and screaming and it doesn't make for entertaining cinema.

Moving on, we come to a big problem I have with the Tolkien world in general. Name dropping. Too many times during all the films, there will be characters involved in conversation and they will start spouting stuff like “You remember A, son of B, brother of C and second cousin of D”. Neither B, C nor D will have been seen at any time, but this name dropping immediately makes character A infinitely more important, because of the greatness of B, C and D. There are numerous incidents of this happening in The Hobbit, and it means absolutely nothing to a regular movie goer like me. Of course it must mean worlds to the fans, but it just becomes yet another annoying feature that drags me out of the magical world this film could potentially suck me into.

However, for all the bad points this film has, there are some rays of hope shining through. The special effects are incredibly good and the film does look spectacular. The Orcs and Goblins look particularly creepy, and add a much needed sense of menace to this otherwise docile film. The frame rate problem is noticeable, but it didn't hurt my eyes half as much as watching a 3D film. The acting is good, Martin Freeman gives it his best and Ian McKellen seems to enjoy himself playing Gandalf again. The likes of Ian Holm, Cate Blanchett and Hugo Weaving are all welcome and add a little bit of variety and familiarity to the film, but overall the acting is just ok, nothing spectacular. The one thing I do remember fondly from the film is Gollum. No, really, he’s actually good in this film. The LOTR Gollum did start to get a little annoying after a while, but this time around he’s more feral, violent and dare I say it, scary! He’s let down slightly by the lengthy riddle scene, but his dual personality, his violent nature, and his obsession with the ring are brilliantly highlighted in this film, and Andy Serkis plays him perfectly. I'm hoping he will be in the upcoming sequels, because this new take on Gollum is one of the best things about the film.

Another great thing about the film? The White Orc. I can’t remember the actual name of him (and I don’t really care that much to be honest), but what I do remember is that this guy is an almighty bad-ass  As he quickly becomes the main bad guy of the film (Smaug, who’s Smaug?) we’re treated to a dark and purely evil villain, who’s brilliantly animated and manages to pull the waning attention of the audience (or me at least) back into the film. I actually liked the White Orc so much; I started praying that Jackson wouldn't kill him off, like he was the Darth Maul of Middle Earth. Thankfully they didn't and he lives to hopefully get more screen time in the next two films.

I feel like I'm running out of steam and that this review may have to come to a slightly abrupt end. I don’t think I've said all I need to say about this film, but that’s going to have to do. One thing’s for certain, this is definitely going to be one of the biggest film franchises of the next few years and now I've seen one, I have to see them all. I'm not really happy about that though.

Filming a third of a 300 page book always seemed like a stupid idea, and the results are as expected. Jackson’s introduction to The Hobbit is dull, overly long, confusing and just nowhere near as exciting and thrilling as it potentially could have been. Incredibly disappointing! Score: 2.9/10