Men In Black 3 - Review

Generally the only films I get to see these days are ones aimed mostly at children. I guess that's part of being a parent, and I don't have a problem with that. I'm finding more and more that often the kids films are so much better than those for the adults. So when my two oldest monsters begged to see Men in Black 3, I wasn't too unhappy about it. At least it's scifi, even if very silly scifi.

For me, the Men in Black films are very much 'leave your brain at home' comedy - entertaining and quirky, but not generally enthralling. This one took me by surprise. There was some very serious stuff in it - heart-rendingly so. Be prepared to take a few tissues with you. Frankly I was disappointed with Tommy Lee's performance in this film. Admittedly, he isn't in it very much but his sole contribution seemed to be to look and act more grumpy than ever without really doing much else. I was far more impressed with Josh Brolin's portrayal of the younger Agent K, and I hope he'll return should there ever be a fourth. Tommy Lee very much gave me the impression that he'd done this film under serious duress only. I also wasn't blown away by the villain in this piece - Boris the Animal - although his method of assasination was definitely intriguing and gruesome!

Highlights for me? Well, with Agent J going back to the 60's it was great to see the Men in Black headquarters populated by aliens very much from the B scifi movies of the era - a fabulous touch! There's also a fantastic bike chase with cycles very much on the lines of those from the Clone Wars Attack Cycle (new trilogy) while Boris had a very organic-looking Harley-Davidson-type bike that I half expected to be another alien - sadly not. That opportunity must have bypassed the screen-writer's muse. For top characters - Griffin was adorable! The last of his kind after Boris's species wiped out his planet, this 5th dimensional being was constantly caught in a stream of alternate possibilities and a key character to the main plot. As usual, Will Smith pretty much carried the whole film. While I enjoyed it, even Agent J seemed a little tired of the whole thing.

The ending is heart-breaking. The usual comic finish is there, but it just didn't have the impact of the previous two films. Too much tragedy had gone before. And while it might have tied up all the loose threads, and there was a good twist, it left me sad rather than smiling. The kids loved it though.

Overall I'm going to rate this as a C+. It was good, but not all that I expect of the MIB franchise. It felt as tired as its main characters looked.

The Adventures of Tintin - The Secret of The Unicorn

With the half-term holiday upon us in the UK (and, for the first time, no writing deadlines during school hols) and three children off for the week, entertaining them comes first as writing takes a very definite backseat. First up on the list of events was a Saturday morning trip to the cinema to see the Tintin film. The Odeon cinemas run a Kids Club, usually at weekends but also during the week in school holidays, which means reruns of films for the price of £2.50 a child and accompanying adults free.

Now, my seven year old son is a bit of an enigma. He isn't really 'into' anything, not since he grew out of his Thomas the Tank Engine obsession. So when he saw a trailer for Tintin and announced he'd like to see it, I was surprised. He's never really been that interested in films. As soon as I found out it was the half-term film for the Kids Club, I grabbed the chance to go. I watched Tintin cartoons as a youngster, but wasn't a fan as such, so I was interested to see how the film would go myself. We went with friends - another 7yo boy and his mum - and my nine year old daughter who strangely insisted she wanted to go.

The start of the film does drag a little for the younger ones. Son's best friend announced loudly at one point "Oh, come on, hurry up!" but once the major action scenes kicked off, they loved it. There quite a bit of humour in it which had the whole theatre laughing. There's also a fair bit of violence (including one man shot by machine gun, although this is done behind a closed door so nothing much is seen) but it was carefully done and I certainly had no qualms about my children seeing it. At times you could almost forget it was animation, although in this day and age we do expect any CGI to be brilliant. The story is generally fast-paced - none of it dragged for me - and there's some great touches, like a fight between cranes (the mechanical kind, not the birds) and an Indiana Jones-style chase involving a tank, hotel, motorbike with sidecar, an eagle, a dog and a car - the best bit in my opinion. I was a little worried that Snowy, Tintin's dog, would be portrayed as an almost Scooby Doo-like character, but his 'performance' in the film was believable of a dog without venturing into making him some kind of canine caricature of a human.

All in all, for the fact that both adults and children enjoyed this, I have to give it an A. And at least now I have something to put on seven year old son's present list. :)

My Halloween Celebration.

Hi all! Apologies for the sudden silence that's fallen over my blog. No, I haven't been eaten by pumpkins or anything else appropriate to the season, but I'm deep in edits and with a deadline looming. So, as a very brief tribute to the day, here's my favourite Halloween film!

Inspirations - Scifi/Fantasy Films

Staying with inspirations, these are my top five scifi/fantasy films that I wanted to share with you - let me know if you agree or what your alternative listing is! :)

1.Star Wars. Okay, slight cheat here as this refers to all three films of the original trilogy (and not the later-made prequels). If you want me to stick to the 'rules' then I'd put The Empire Strikes Back in the top slot. For me, this film is 'the Trials of Luke Skywalker' in the finest tradition of testing a young hero, and his struggle to deal with his new-found powers and his dedication to the Jedi religion while still being true to the people he loves. These were the films that converted me from my early love of fantasy to the world of science-fiction. Well, that, and a small crush on Luke Skywalker.<blushes>


2.The Fifth Element. Although I think the story is a little weak and Zorg (Gary Oldman) comes across as one of the most ineffectual villains I know, I love this film. Visually entertaining and with some fab music, it has redeeming features, the feisty and yet fragile Leeloo for one. There's also some great humour in this, and Zorg's crowning moment is his reaction when, having deactivated his own bomb, the device set by the Mangalores activates and explodes. The clip here is the Diva's performance - and it's probably not what you'd expect if you haven't seen the film. I love the mix of classical with funky electronica in this piece. Also evidence that I'm not the first person to have blue aliens, and to do so is not simply 'copying' Avatar. :-/


3.Galaxy Quest. A parody of Star Trek and similar scifi shows, this has some fantastic humour in it, but also rather poignant. If you were famous for a particular scifi role and the show got cut and you couldn't find another job, what would you do? Tim Allen as Jason Nesmith, the actor who played Cmdr. Peter Quincy Taggart, throws himself whole-heartedly into conventions and playing to his fans, only to discover that his 'crew' hate him. Just as he loses faith in himself and everything he's done, a group of aliens who have taken the show as reality - 'historical documents' - seek him out and ask for his help. The show's catch phrase of 'Never give up, never surrender!' is a cry all aspiring authors could adopt. :) The one down-point in this film for me is the death of Quellek. :( Strangely for me, I didn't feel my general nerdiness was being mocked - as scifi geek Brandon in the film says; I'm not a complete nutcase, you know, I understand it's not real. :-P

4.A Knight's Tale. Okay, this appeals more to my mushy side I'm afraid. I love the medieval era and have used touches of it in my writing. I adore Heath Ledger's character in this - a young man striving for his dreams, prepared to take any risk to achieve it, and despite the odd tantrum, he does so with the same nobility of the high-born knights he hopes to emulate. In fact, his behaviour is a darn sight more noble than some of the so-called champions he meets. The use of some classic rock music rather than the more historically-accurate kind makes this stand out for me, and the romantic elements are enough to touch my heart without making me cringe. Sir Ulrich and his lady Jocelyn are well-matched, and his heart-felt belief in himself and determination to succeed are inspiring!


5.The Dark Crystal. I adore this film. For me, it's unique and special. The skill that was needed to make it, the weird and wonderful characters - the whole concept of it. At a time when computerized special effects were laborious and still required the use of models and blue screen, in the early days of animatronics, this film is iconic. To this day, I still collect Brian Froud's fairies, and I even have a couple of the figures - Jen and Kira - that my husband bought me as a birthday present one year. My first full length story was based on this film. Am I gushing too much? :-P


So tell me your top inspiring films, and why they did it for you. :)

The last of Harry Potter?

So, after much too-ing and fro-ing on Facebook, I finally managed to arrange to see the last Harry Potter film with a fellow fan. Wow. I had worried that the film would drag like the previous two, which were tedious to say the least, but this one kind of made up for it. :)

Okay, first a warning - potential spoilers coming up! If, like me, you've already read all the books prior to seeing the film, then you know the story. Of all the films this seemed to follow the book the most closely, although there were certain elements removed, and others that just seemed a bit of a bolt out of the blue or grasped from no-where if you haven't read the book. The story behind the Grey Lady seemed to have been seriously edited or lost along the way, which jarred slightly. The part of Dumbledore's brother, Aberforth, had been hugely reduced. I had considered taking my nine-year-old daughter to see the film, but the final scene at Gringotts seemed far more bloody and grim than I remembered from the book - unnecessarily so. I think probably most Potter followers have already got the idea that Voldemort is a BAD man and I don't believe that needed underlying quite so graphically. It also came as a major relief for Hermione and Ron to FINALLY get it together. I've fretted that ten chapters is a long time to get two of my characters to realize they love each other - seven books to do so appears extreme! And if, like me, you're a bit of a sap, prepare to take a generous supply of tissues for at least one section of the film that almost had me bawling out loud even in a public cinema.

The action is pretty much non-stop and all the familiar favourites are there. The final battle over Hogwarts is impressive and heart-wrenching. Clumsy plant-obsessed Neville turns hero and there's a brief happily-ever-after section at the end.Overall I'd rate this an A and I can't wait to buy the DVD to complete the set. I don't think I'll bother watching Part One of the Deathly Hallows again though.

Facebook Friends and Transformers 3

Not as odd a combo as the title sounds. On Wednesday I met my third Facebook friend in the flesh for the first time, fellow scifi writer Laurel Kriegler. :) As my house is currently in disarray with boxes of stuff everywhere, and flooring lifted ready for new radiators (and because it freaks my husband out a little to find my Facebook friends materializing in our home), I suggested a film and dinner. I don't get to do either of those much these days. So tickets were duly booked for Transformers 3 (in 3D no less!) and Laurel got to meet my little brood of monsters for a couple of hours. :-P



As movies go, it was pretty good. One scene especially reminded me why I love scifi so much over other genres. Sure, you can get car chases with explosions and smashes and gunfire, but how many have cars transforming into super robots that tear up the tarmac and somersault through the air? How many car chases have the hero thrown through the windscreen, tossed over the flaming debris of crashing trucks to be caught by an Autobot on the other side? Of course, spectacular special effects are considered the norm now and no film would be without them, but it still impresses me. Maybe I need to get out more ...

On the whole I'd rate this a good but not fantastic film. I didn't like the use of old black and white footage at the start, however authentic it might be. It seemed a bit rough and patchwork, and I've seen amateur movie makers do a better job. I'm not exactly sure what the point of John Malkovich's character was aside from a little warped comic relief. In fact, several of the secondary characters seemed to be hanging around without much of a part to play in the whole, aside from reminding us that they'd been in the previous film. And I hated the fact that the Decepticons seemed so very invincible in human terms, and yet we beat them in the end with our inferior human technology. The mega-huge Decepticon Shockwave seemed especially impossible to destroy and yet - yep - it was.

Having said that, the overall story line was good. There were a couple of good twists in it (can't tell you what they are as I never do spoilers!). I question some of the comic relief during the apocalyptic scenes at the end, and Witwicky's girlfriend Carly Spencer seemed nothing more than a compulsory glamour token proffering the required terrified screams at the appropriate time. However, the final battle was AWESOME! Leonard Nimoy provides an iconic voice for Sentinel Prime and you can play spot the Star Trek connections. Bumblebee uses a sound clip from Star Trek II - 'your friend' taken from Spock's line 'I am and always shall be your friend.' - and Sentinel Prime quotes 'The needs of the many outweigh the needs of the few.' from Spock's death scene. Alan Tudyk had a very minor role as Dutch but played his slightly deranged character well and John Turturro's character (Seymour Simmons) seemed a bit tongue in cheek as the ex-Sector Seven fruitcake but entertaining nonetheless. There's also the kudos of two real life astronauts (Buzz Aldrin and Bill O'Reilly) taking a part in the film.

The 3D was good for the battle scenes but I wouldn't pay out for it again. Overall, I'd rate this film a B+. Entertaining, visually impressive but the acting and the storyline sucked a little. If you want to know the whole story with spoilers you can check out the Wikipedia entry here.