Enders Game!!!!

Enders Game.

Sci-fi films have been coming thick and fast this year and this an adaptation of Orson Scott Card's book is another one to add to the list. Set in the future it sees the human race devastated by an alien attack, with a future much bigger attack imminent the government seeks out a young mind to lead them. 

Andrew 'Ender' Wiggin (Asa Butterfield) is a young demure character who is nothing but tormented every day while on the program. Being shunned as an outcast he struggles to socialise with his other cadets and is soon kicked off the program as he didn't make the grade to advance to the next level of training. Finally back home he is visited by Colnel Graff (Harrison Ford) and Major Gwen Anderson (Viola Davis) who decided to recruit Ender to come back as he showed great potential. 

As Ender again struggles to fit in he finally finds a friend in Petra (Hailee Steinfeld) with whom he trains with and strikes up the one true friend he can rely on. Moved onto lead his own Dragon Army he finally starts to earn the respect from his fellow cadets and again shows promise working on tactics in practice sphere's and also impressing Colonel Graff in simulation alien attacks. 

Ender of course has psychological problems to overcome as well, vivid dreams and a relationship with his sister Valentine (Abigail Breslin) that is constantly strained with long periods of lost contact with her. He not only has the moral dilemma of what he should do during the finally battle with the alien race but also what the aliens are trying to tell him in his dreams. 

Showcasing what is a more younger style sci-fi film it is an interesting take on the future of the human race when an alien race threatens to attack. Asa Butterfield plays Ender really well and brings across a very confused and conflicted but strong character who values his family alot especially his sister. 

I have to say the ending was to be desired it just felt too up in the air and no particularly nailed down but it was an overall goo film. The special effects were great and brought the film to life, a better more elaborate back story for the alien race would have made the film more interesting but then sticking to a story from a book and not deviating from the text can be hard to do. 

An overall good sci-fi film that showcases alot of younger up and coming actors with an interesting future of the human race.

7/10.

Elysium!!!!

Elysium.

I have to say this is a film that has been speculated ever since director Neil Blomkamp's released his first major film 'District 9' which was to be highly rated by critics at it's take in the future. With people speculating that this film was a sequel to District 9 and then some saying it was a prequel, speculations quashed it was announced to be an entirely new story. 

Set in the future we see how the rich and the poor are divided, the poor living in the squalor on Earth and the rich living on a huge floating space station called Elysium. With humans living in the poorest of conditions day to day it is a battle to survive and obviously soon enough something has to happen to make the people snap. With the rich living on Elysium everything is perfect for them, clear skies, good food, instant "medi-pods" to instantly heal people, their lives are perfect. 

As we enter the we see how a simple worker Max (Matt Damon) works for weapons manufacturer and soon enough is caught in a radiation chamber and is given five days to live. So his only option to live is to get himself to Elysium and to one of the medi-pod's so he can be cured of his radiation. This idea he needs friends in high places, deciding to do a favour for a black market friend Spider (Wagner Moura) Max is giving a metal enhancing suit that will make him stronger, faster and more powerful in exchange for hijacking a executive of Elysium who lives on Earth and stealing some information off him via his brain. 

With Max deciding to take on this task he is up against a formidable foe as the head of Elysium Delacourt (Jodie Foster) sends her best mercenary Kruger (Sharlto Copley) to take him out once and for all. As Max and his fellow crew try to get to Elysium certain situations change and the group are even more desperate to get to Elysium but will they make it there?

This film does feel like the best of this years major sci-fi releases, Oblivion and After Earth being these other two films released this year. Elysium just feels more relate able and something that is not confined to just two or three characters as you have a whole race of people relying on these renegade people wanting to change and stop the social split on Earth. The whole idea and premise is great, poor VS the rich and how they are both split morally is clever and really brings that urge inside you to side with one or the other. 

Matt Damon is a great character but to me he just isn't too grounded, obviously he's not a fighting character like we've seen from Jason Bourne he's just a normal guy trying to do good. Sharlto Copley is the polar opposite of his character in District 9 as he plays a psychopathic mercenary and has some interesting ways to take people out. Jodie Foster just comes across as a little bit too cold and doesn't show too much emotion but then again her character is a stern faced executive so she has to be like that.

A great and really enjoyable sci-fi film that really does make you think about the whole social class system that we have in the world and how it could end up being in future years. The special effects are impressive and There are certain things I'd like to have seen like a bit more time spent on Elysium and maybe another character thread involving someone from Elysium and their views on people of Earth. Copley's South African is thick and at times can grate but it doesn't matter as he's a more physical character. 

For a film set in the future it scarily shows a realistic view of what the future might be and the way things could go with a massive social split. Thought provoking and definitely entertaining.

8/10.

Pacific Rim!!!!

Pacific Rim.

I have to say I am kind of biased when it comes to reviewing this film because of one reason, Guillermo Del Toro. The ever so imaginative and amazing director of some of my favourite movies from Pans Labyrinth to Blade 2 to Hellboy 1+2 he is an amazing creative genius in my eyes.

So anyway onto Pacific Rim which is GoT's first major budget film in five years and in which has been a long time coming. With a sneak peak trailer being aired at Comic Con in 2012 fans have been waiting to see the giant Jaeger's and Kaiju's in action and battle it out on the big screen in all it's glory. 

Set in a world where a rift opens up in the Pacific ocean and giant Kaiju monsters come through the rift and decide to attack the city's around the world as Sydney, Manila and China are all attacked in a matter of months which calls for decisive action. As the country's of the world call a truce to fight a greater evil together the Jaeger program is put in place to build giant mechanical robot's to fight the Kaiju's and to stop them from destroying the world. 

As we see our first two characters on screen Raleigh Becket (Charlie Hunnam) and his brother Yancy Becket (Diego Klattenhoff) are alerted to a Kaiju attack they must deploy their Jaeger Gyspy Danger and kill the Kaiju. As the brother's fight the Kaiju at first the brother's are cofident but soon enough catastrophic events take place and Gyspy Danger is soon enough flat on it's face on a near by beach defeated with an injured Raleigh. Fast forward a couple of years and we see Raleigh working on the Canadian Kaiju defence wall, now not a Jaeger pilot he moves from city to city to keep working and his mind of that catastrophic event.

Soon enough the Kaiju's are becoming stronger and are breaking through the defence walls like knives through butter and so the government has no choice but to close and shut down the Jaeger initiative. With their leader Stacker Pentecost (Idris Elba) given only a time frame of funding for another six months he must find a way to stop the Kaiju's once and for all and quickly. Visited by Stacker Raleigh makes the decision to re-enter the Jaeger initiative and pilot Gyspy Danger once more with a new co-pilot Mako Mori (Rinko Kikuchi). 

As we see the process of finding his co-pilot the rivalry between Jaeger pilots and the imminent danger of the Kaiju every day it is a race against time for the team to finish this war. As day by day more Jaeger's are taken down and destroyed by the Kaiju the team is cut down to just four Jaeger's. The Australian speedy fighting Striker Eureka piloted by Herc Hansen (Max Martini) and his son Chuck Hansen (Robert Kazinsky). The three armed Chinese all fighting Crimson Typhoon piloted by the Wei Tang triplets (Charles, Mark and Lance Luu). The heavyweight Russian Cherno Alpha piloted by husband and wife Lt. S+A Kaidanovsky (Robert Maillet and Heather Doerksen). 

As the pilots fight the Kaiju's out in the world the Shatterdome (home of the team) scientists try to work out how the Kaiju work and how they communicate. Dr Newton Geiszler (Charlie Day) and Gottlieb (Burn Gorman) work together to try and learn about the Kaiju, even approaching Hannibal Chau (Ron Perlman) a back street underground Kaiju dealer in parts the try to find out information to defeat the Kaiju anyway possible. 

With the imminent threat of a high class of Kaiju to come through the rift and destroy the rest of life on earth the team must form a plan and follow through quick but what will happen?!

Overall a great film especially if you love Transformers, Godzilla and the whole Gundam Wing franchise as this film has a great mix of all three with some massive fight scenes added on top. The Jaeger's on screen look daunting and yet powerful and forceful, the Kaiju look again massive, impressive and at times scary as well. I could go into detail about the lighting and how well it was used, the sound effects and little touches of western spurs chinking on boots to how impresive the sets look but I could be here for hours. 

The characters were believable and really brought the story forward, a downside was that of Stacker Penetcost as he just felt a little bit too overly cold in my opinion and the film could have slowed down a little bit in order to take all the information in. But I have to say this is impressive film making from GoT and I really hope that we don't have to wait another five years for another film from him.

So if you want to see a film with massive robot's versus giant Kaiju monsters with an emotive underlying theme then check this film out as it is in my eyes an amazing film that is not to be missed. Welcome back Guillermo Del Toro........Pacific Rim 2 now, PLEASE??!

9/10.

After Earth!!!!

After Earth.

For what looked to be a great ensemble of producers,director and actors, After Earth looked promising and the trailer boasted a visually stunning landscape and yet another take on Earth in the future.  The film itself reads to be a Smith family orientated film outing with wife Jada Pinkett Smith in a producing role her younger brother Caleeb Pinkett producing and Will Smith producing and writer of the story the whole family is involved. Let's not also forget that Will Smith and his son Jaden Smith are also starring in the film, the only person not involved with the film is Will's younger daughter Willow Smith. Obviously the directing role is given to director M. Night Shyamalan whose film credits are of either hit films or films that have completely flopped so lets hope this is a hit for him. 

The film starts showing that the earth was hit by a environmental cataclysm so all humans left to inhabit another plant called Nova Prime. Jump 1000 years later and you see chief ranger Cypher (Will Smith) leading the fight against the monsters (Ursas) who threaten to take over Nova Prime . Learning how to suppress his feeling of fear called 'ghosting' he is able to be undetected by the Ursas and trains his other rangers to do the same thing. 

As we see his son Kitai (Jaden Smith) training to be a ranger just like his dad he doesn't make the grade and soon enough convinced by his wife Faia (Sophie Okonedo) Cypher takes his son on one last mission before he retires. As the father and son are on the aircraft it soon enough crash lands and Cypher is badly injured from the crash and Kitai is left to travel to the tail end of the craft to send a distress beacon to save them both.

The rest of the film is pretty much a basic storyline of how the son fights giant animals on Earth and finally learns how to ghost and fight off an Ursa he finds a beacon and sends the beacon into the atmosphere saving himself and his father. END. As you can tell I just gave away the whole film be to be honest I've done you a massive favour as the film itself is quite awful and another film to add to Shyamalan's list of failure films. The storyline is slow and doesn't keep you hooked or interested with the overly stupid quotes from smith like "take a knee" is just aggravating. With one scene where Cypher tells his son a story his accent changes from southern Texas to Jamaican to English and back to American it just doesn't make sense and confused me. 

The acting is wooden as Jaden Smith plays Kitai like a spoilt brat who doesn't want to do anything his father says, it's like a reality TV version of "At Home with The Smiths". Will Smith himself is just stern faced, maybe that's because his character controls his emotions well but he's just cold. And of course this has to be the film where Will Smith has been sat down for most of the film and his character is not really needed at all. 

The only upside to the film is the clever internal decor of the space craft with a mixture of wood and fabrics mixed with metal it shows the potentially futuristic renewable designs of space crafts. The weapons and technology are impressive with a single weapon that transforms the blade into other blades and can split in two is clever. 

Overall it has to be the worst film I've seen this year, at a measly 100 minutes it's short and sharp and leaves a very bitter taste in your mouth and you won't get the 100 minutes of your life back either. If you want to go and see this film at some point then by all means do so but just let me say this "I told you it was rubbish".

2/10.