Elysium

In a genre where an ‘apocalyptic earth’ setting is becoming both hugely popular and horribly overused, director Neil Blomkamp is trying his luck with Elysium his second sci-fi release after the immensely popular ‘District 9’. Having an intelligent eye for storytelling seen in his previous film, Blomkamp prefers to link the sci-fi storyline with a relevant current affair as to bring the story close to home and give it a subtle moral message. Whilst he certainly gives this a good go with Elysium, he finds himself getting carried away towards the end with an over indulgence in CGI and general stupidity.

Set in the year 2154, where earth has been reduced to ruin, burdened with disease and poverty and the human population work primarily for the rich, living on a utopian paradise modelled on a floating space station. After learning protagonist Max (Matt Damon), has only a few days to live after a radiation accident, he revisits his violent past in order to seek the superior medical aid of ‘Elysium’ whilst aiming to bring the distorted worlds to equality.

Beginning with real vigour and enthusiasm, Elysium spent little time procrastinating as it quickly introduced us to its dazzling and highly innovative world. Soaring overhead the fresh, organic world of Elysium brought stunning visuals which seamlessly merged both real visual sets as well as CGI. Frequently in awe of the films creative flair, it rarely follows linear sci-fi stereotypes being instead in favour of a storyline with more intelligence and class. Quickly establishing a self-made personality for itself, the grungy yet realistic tone of the film resulted in immediate engrossment as well as quick connections to the down-trodden protagonist. Played perhaps ‘by the book’ by Matt Damon, the protagonist Max showed to be dense and meaty initially only to wear thin towards the end, suffering from a lack of characterisation and real personality, a path which not only this character follows. Starting stupendously strong and intelligently, Elysium slowly depleted in brain cells as it transcended into idiocy and typical Hollywood flavourlessness. Plot strands become quickly contrived as the film runs out of fuel with no help from the half-hearted performance of the main antagonist, Jodie Foster. Performing with a bizarre and jarring accent throughout, she made little effort to beef out her already thin character resulting in little care for her character and her fate. Taking over as the real villain was the highly different Kruger, played by the fantastic Sharto Copley who induces so much passion and enthusiasm into his character that results in the audience overwhelmingly resenting him. This hatred for the villain makes each action scene seem much more passionate and thrilling as we really get behind Max and his good intentions. This entwined with a lack of shaky camera footage, makes each action sequence highly enjoyable and gut-wrenchingly disgusting with gratuitous violence being used sparingly to thrill the audience.

Elysium is quite far from perfect; however it is far superior to many recent sci-fi’s of little creative merit. Copley makes the film, giving it an almost 80’s feel with truly evil one liners as well as a ridiculous caricatured persona which never fails to thrill. Blomkamp has yet again created a highly enjoyable sci-fi possessing both brains and brawn, it’s just a shame he couldn’t withhold his excitement which spiralled out of control towards the end with idiotic and explosive style.

7.5/10- An intelligent, if overindulgent sci-fi.

Calum Russell 

Kick-Ass 2

Following the recent influx of sequels and hard driven franchises, 2010’s cult classic release of ‘Kick-Ass’ has earned a follow up film promising to replicate it’s predecessors success. Shocking audiences three years ago with its gratuitous comic violence combined with its foul mouthed underage actors, it soon built up a considerable following earning cult status due to its relatively small scale production. As with all sequels, their primary (yet very much disclosed) purpose is to rake in the profits made from fans of the predecessor who know what they’re getting in for and this applies all too well with Kick-Ass 2. Containing vast pop culture references as well as a noticeable ‘Hollywood gleam’ of indulgent CGI, Kick-Ass 2 attempts to appeal to everyone yet inadvertently appeals to no one.

 

As we pick up from the well rounded ending of its predecessor we join Kick-Ass (Aaron Taylor-Johnson) trying to blend back into high school all whist maintaining his superhero alter-ego, joining him is newly appointed ‘partner in crime’ Hit Girl (Chloë Grace Moretz), who now craves acceptance in High school after years of home schooling. After events transpire and Hit Girl finds herself unable to fight crime, Kick-Ass finds a superhero team named ‘Justice Forever’, led by the eccentric Colonel Stars and Stripes (Jim Carrey) but when super villain the ‘Motherfucker’ (Christopher Mintz-Plasse)demands revenge on Kick-Ass for the death of his father, the team meet their match.

Admirably boasting a very different plot from its predecessor, this is about the only dose of originality present in the film with the remainder of the running time desperately attempting to replicate the success of the original, resulting in disaster. With an established unique style the 2010’s Kick-Ass was a thrill to watch, witnessing justice fuelled eccentrics taking down the sinister enemy, however here this is turned on its head as we watch the bad guys horrifically murdering the good guys, and quite understandably it’s no fun at all. With horrific violence being used throughout, many sequences of Kick-Ass 2 felt oddly disturbing as comic violence would play out to a childishly offbeat soundtrack in a ‘real world’ environment. The films tone is so desperately obscured that its identity crumbles, thinking it’s a serious and bleak superhero film one minute, then the next changing to supposedly thrilling unjustifiable comic violence, when the audience simply isn’t ‘in the mood’ following scenes of such depressing realism. Such action scenes are no doubt executed with considerable style and are very well choreographed despite their loud and unwanted presence. The tonal balance isn’t aided by a jarring ‘coming of age tale’ surrounding hit girl which undoubtedly provides for some of the best scenes and laughs of the whole film, but which also however provides for some of the worst and certainly the most whimsical. One in particular containing washed up x-factor contestants ‘Union J’ was poignantly awful, summarising in one 3 minute scene the failure of Kick-Ass 2 being unnecessary, boring and just damn awkward.  

Doing very few things to keep its audience stimulated, Kick-Ass 2 is a lame attempt to find box office success and similar cult status. With tonal infrequencies running underneath the film throughout, Kick-Ass 2 simply doesn’t work and suffers from indulging in a multitude of irrelevant sub plots as well as using gratuitous violence to tell its already bleak story. Being very little fun at all, Kick-Ass 2 is simply too serious for its own good.

4/10- Frequently disturbing, Kick-Ass 2 is tonally indifferent and constantly confused.

Calum Russell

The Conjuring

Being the cheapest and most highly profitable genre, the quality of horror films has quite noticeably deteriorated over time becoming increasingly nonsensical and clichéd with only a handful of directors recently attempting to revitalise the genre.  Quickly becoming one of the most prolific horror directors of the 21st century, James Wan is one of these creative enforcers as he returns with The Conjuring the original and supposedly true story of a sinister haunted house. Whilst it may not have the most original and exciting of premises, it certainly exerts enough passion and genuine intelligence to

make it linger with the audience long after they’ve exited the screen and make them tremble in an empty house.

Based on one of the many cases of paranormal investigators Ed and Lorraine Warren, this is the first to include them within the film as key characters. Initially exploring the back story behind the couple’s carer with the introduction of a sinister demonic china doll, we are soon shifted into the lives of the ‘Perron’ family through a perhaps hackneyed and patronising use of on screen text desperately persuading us to believe the films realistic legitimacy. In an orderly fashion we’re shown to a family of six as they move into a new country house only to discover that it holds darker forces. Despite the clear use of an overused formula, The Conjuring does an excellent job in introducing original material to create intelligent scares for its audience instead of the cheap ‘jump-scare’ which so many films indulge in. Such scares are present but are used sparingly and to good effect after a sufficiently built scene of tension, through this the film creates far more effective prol

onged moments of terror that linger as appose to momentary moments of fright.

Remaining however are the classic clichés of the genre, giving a heavy load to a film which would otherwise be hugely impressive. The general stupidity and unrealistic actions of each character along with the classic clichés of mirrors as well as animal noises used as jump scares ultimately put a muzzle on the film preventing it from being as scary as it should’ve been as every forthcoming scare was predictable and dull. Furthermore, as is the issue with a multitude of horror films, The Conjuring makes the mistake of showing too much when far less is far more effective. Whilst the ‘terrifying faces’ are creditably made with prosthetics (and wisely so) the more we see the ghoul and the longer the camera lingers, the more the audience becomes desensitised to its horror and it instead becomes an offbeat source of relaxing humour.

Whilst it may be riddled with horror clichés and subsequent mild stupidity, The Conjuring still proves to be hugely unsettling through its original material and also with the aid from the directorial prowess of James Wan and as well as the believable and enthusiastic performances of the whole cast. The Conjuring knew its source material extremely well and rarely went over its head and indulged in irrelevant areas, with slightly unexpected turns along the way James Wan concretes himself as a veteran of the horror genre, creating a film so unsettling and subtly terrifying it will stay with you for weeks.

8/10- An excellent formation of horror elements both old and new despite its unoriginality.

Calum Russell

The Wolverine (in a nutshell)

 Due to 'the wolverines' poor initial attempt at 'solo stardom' in 2009 with 'X-men origins: wolverine', this newest release is barely pressured by its predecessors success and therefore thrives in its creative freedom. Boasting heavy comic book visuals and action scenes, the wolverine manages to turn ridiculousness into enjoyable fun, with even the most idiotic of action scenes thrilling audiences. Doing little to stray from it's linear path the story is relatively bland and in need of some sort of 'spanner in the works' or at least some more serious darker tones to compliment it's heavy '12A' nature. Towards the end an appropriate yet not so surprising twist appears adding fuel to the dwindling fire which quickly loses momentum during the floppy third act. The lackluster characterisation of the annoyingly un-intimidating villain does not help the lack of threat in the final scenes as 'Viper' a poisonous mutant woman makes comical lizard noises as she runs around in circles. Hugh Jackmans performance allows for some moments of truly engrossing action, with his passion for the character being transparent throughout,
allowing the character to flourish within an entertaining yet realistic persona.

6.5/10- Hugely enjoyable comic violence make this a welcomed surprise.

Calum Russell