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Reviews
Westworld (2016)
Really?
If you really want to know Westworld then watch Yul Brynner shoot the guests in 1973! This ratings chaser from HBO is a let down, especially as the concept is potentially enormous. I will assume you have watched the original movie with its tight execution and sharp structure. Now compare it to this. Okay its TV, it wont be the same, but the flaws in the pilot are all ones the original movie/story didn't have: bad writing.
This shown feels jumbled and confused. We yo-yo back and forth from the wild west to the 'Dollhouse' factory that runs the place for seemingly little reason. It tries to setup the characters but they are so vacuous in purpose I don't believe them. Intriguing and mysterious scenes appear and fade away with little consequence. The character who seems to love our female protagonist doesn't make sense and appears from nowhere (was he a guest? How's that work?)The people running this Victorian Disneyland seem strangely unbelievable. I'm now waiting for more Dollhouse references. I don't actually know how to describe this... its a mess.
Of course this is a commentary on life, consciousness and sentience; Bladerunner meets the wild west, but it feels like other ideas blended up together for no fundamental reason.
I can only hope it gets better. It can't actually get worse.
PS Ed Harris good, Brynner did it better.
Cherry Tree (2015)
Lazy impersonation of a horror film
Cherry Tree was the opening film for Frightfest 2015 and I can only conclude the festival organizers wanted to get it out of the way asap.
Filmed in Ireland (strangely with very British sounding cast) Cherry Tree attempts to shock the viewer with a coven of nasty witches that are stuck, sort of kinda, under a Cherry Tree plagued with witch friendly centipedes. After occasionally lubricating its roots with the blood of locals boss witch, who teaches hockey to teenage school girls, plans to get one teenage girl pregnant with Satan's brat then kill aforementioned brat under the you know what. Supreme witch powers will then follow.
The teenage girl happy obliges in the hope said witch will cure her poor dad's cancer. However, this under age mum quickly finds herself in a heap of 'Rosemary's Baby' trouble.
The first real clue as to how bad this film is are the slow motion shots of town landscapes to pad up the feeble script. This is a hodge podge of horror concepts shoe horned into a truly indolent movie. The dialogue is terrible, the character behaviour implausible and the whole story seems to me a lazy supernatural 'giallo' copy.
At the Frightfest screening the highlight of the film was the Director, entering just after a hyperactive Jonathan Ross intro, proceeding to catapult a big rubber centipede into the audience. If I new what was to come I'd have left then and there with a favourable impression of said person. This film was like watching George Lucas remake an Argento classic "Attack of the Clones" style.
Why this was Frightfest 2015's opener is a real surprise. Maybe someone stumped up the money to make this an event movie for them. Much better films have followed at Frightfest 2015 I'm pleased to say.
The only reason I don't rate this 1 is the lead actress (teenage girl) was half decent. However I suspect she wants to forget this as quickly as I do.
Franklyn (2008)
A Noble Failure
Franklyn advertises itself as an intriguing sci fi head twister. But those twists are just too few and far between. Most of the commentators here have identified the problems with this film but I still recommend Franklyn. Why?
For most first time film makers Franklyn contains all the pitfalls that should be avoided. But the irony is Franklyn is a great idea that dies through amateur film making. Good movies are, most of the time, simple and quick. Even if the idea is sophisticated the rendering of it should not be. But Franklyn's script is the primary fault written by a first timer who's not noticed its errors.
The author hasn't identified the important parts of his story. Preest, his father and Emilia are the centre of the film but instead we get a massive wtf Milo subplot and trips to see a mystically pointless hospital janitor. "Meanwhile City" works and while we can always compare it to Bladerunner we shouldn't. Ridley Scott didn't invent the dystopian metropolis Fritz Lang did. And as a metropolis for characters to move through it function's superbly. We just never see them move through it enough!
Preest's fantasy city is where the film should focus, Emilia should feature here somehow yet Eva Green's too busy playing Milo's imaginary girlfriend instead of opposite Ryan Philippe. And then when you do get in the city it's too brief and becomes a dull soap opera moping around London. I've no problem with duel reality (similar to Identity) but like that film it became all too one sided.
The trick to good screenplay is simple: learn to spot the errors before you spend £10 million on them. Then, as Hitchcock said, directing a film is simple: have a good script when you start. Of course we then realise it isn't that simple
I've also experienced a small production where the first time writer/producer (not me) clung too much to their ideas and defended the mistakes rather that address them. A script can be about anything but it must not contain 'code' than makes the movie machine seize up. The character and events of Milo are a prime example. Suppose we dump this waste of space and just push Emilia and Preest closer together, give them more to do in Meanwhile.
I wanted Franklyn to work but it didn't. The script was rushed (it was based on a short story by the director) and was never good enough. But the fact it got made is a triumph albeit for all the wrong reasons. I will happily add Franklyn to the shelf with Dune, Dark City, etc despite its list of well meant errors.
PS One commentator here suggested the music and photography were poor. This is hogwash. Both were impressive for a small budget film.
The Dark Knight (2008)
Convoluted farce
I loved Batman Begins. It advanced from Burton's shallow fun and brought him reality. Naturally I expected yet more from Goyer and Nolan. Boy was I wrong.
This "movie" is a nerdy fanboy jerk fest. The hype it has received is so unjustifiable that it can only be the product of Warner marketing and fanboy Internet manipulation; no film can go to #1 on IMDb in 48 HOURS without prior orchestration.
While a final reckoning between Batman and Gotham's lowest is inspired the story becomes a mess of plot lunacy. The Joker's great but I was dumbstruck to watch the camera suck off Ledger's performance to wallpaper over plot chasms, generally shallow characters and a complete lack of the Dark Knight himself. Where is Batman in this movie!? He is nothing, a playboy billionaire on a yacht who wrecks Lamborghini's in a vain attempt to prove he's a hero. He didn't prove it to me one shred. Batman Begins reveals Wayne as a tortured soul making the world a better place for the memory of his mother and father. His moral code here was impossible to track. He mocks other vigilantes with high school quips about hockey while they get murdered (along with many) for what they believe. Isn't what they believe what he believes? Claims he mustn't kill (comic lore) as its immoral but happily jams shut a police interrogation door so he can beat six bells out of the Joker. It seemed to me that Gordon and Dent with the placid Ms. Dawes were in the moral front line while Batman lurks in shadows. All Mr. Wayne contributes are ridiculous gizmo's for epileptic action scenes. Batbike's tripping trucks like Skywalker tripping an ATAT, cell phones become security cameras, Gatling guns that rebuild bullets so we can scrutinise fingerprints for no good reason, another bat-suit, Lamborghini's & yacht lounging, need I go on?
The worse effect of this is do you even need Batman? Consider a film with Gordon and Dent fighting alone against the Joker's criminal nihilism. They battle and win only for Dent to be consumed by his war against evil. Sounds good? I was watching that fine movie until they wrote Batman into it! And when the Batman spoke at all it was digitised alligator gruff tone that made me laugh. The story ricochets everywhere. Hong Kong, a Gotham come Miami and through multiple plots until you're just enjoying the cinematography during another action yawn. After two hours I could not care who did what or why, least of all Batman. This film resembled an over hyped episode of "24", complete with real-time "waronterror" inspirations, to such a degree I wondered if Jack Bauer would make a better Batman. At least he would have been at the forefront of events a little more. For a superhero the Dark Knight was an amoral superflop. The culmination of this movie's propensity for absurdity it the arrival of Two Face. His injury from some of the Joker's mountain of bombs is ridiculous. No human being could come close to surviving this let alone check out of a hospital to roam the streets for revenge. But it was done for the comic owner's need to make the silly real for fans and ultimately that's what this film is about.
Dark Knight's biggest error is its script editing. It seems most of the writing is done by the Nolan brothers with just minor input from Goyer. Has the studio let the Nolan boys run amuck? Every idea they have come up with (or stole from "24") is crammed into this film until it explodes. Some don't rate Goyer but he has more experience writing and may have controlled (a few must be his) the absurd elements and kept pacing sensible. This film is also far detached from Nolan's previous work (Prestige, Momento) and is either a poorly conceived sortie into action adventure on his part or the studio's yanked the rug from under him. It does appear Warner's sponging off Ledger's unfortunate demise with him receiving TRIPLE screen time from Batman. Bale also seems bored when he performs. He has always liked deep complex characters to play so I suspect he was also unimpressed with the script.
Batman Begins was outstanding but IMHO The Dark Knight lets its predecessor down in spectacular fashion. I won't say don't see it. Do and make up your own mind. If you are one of the happy, brain washed masses that love The Dark Knight because Warner/DC says you should then enjoy. However, I am not one of them. Sorry Bat fans.