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Chris_Halpin
Reviews
Fighter Pilot: Operation Red Flag (2004)
Fake and forced
I was excited at the prospect of watching Fighter Pilot: Operation Red Flag, thinking that it would be a genuine documentary. How wrong I was. The saccharine sweet narration can be rather vomit inducing at times, however in places it is delivered in a dull, lifeless monotone. The documentary aspect of the film is very shallow indeed as it simply glosses over things and never really actually educates or demonstrates anything, we are just treated to some very basic facts figures over the top of some visuals that are, admittedly, stunning.
Some of the cinematography is excellent and I would love to be able to say make the whole experience worthwhile however it suffers from bad editing and staging and a lack of continuity making it obvious that many shots were filmed in various locations nowhere near Red Flag, and during some of the dogfight sequences it's hard to keep track of who is who as the aircraft keep chopping and changing between shots so you have no real idea who is flying what.
There is an excessive amount of pyrotechnics used to stage various explosions making the whole affair feel rather fake and forced. Ultimately this isn't a documentary and it isn't a film. It doesn't educate and it doesn't entertain, and it feels like a huge missed opportunity given the access the film crew had to the Red Flag exercises.
Beowulf (2007)
Average at best
Bad to average unfortunately. Takes great liberties with the source material (read pisses on them from a great height) but is watchable as a brainless action flick (although brainless action is really not the point of the original Anglo-Saxon text). I imagine it'll be quite a big hit at the cinema but it just didn't float my boat. The CGI was fantastic, although it failed to convey the sense of emotion that real actors would; in some scenes you are left wandering as to what the characters are supposed to be conveying by their rather bizarre computer generated facial expressions. The score has a few great tracks but is nothing exceptional. To be completely honest if you are genuinely interested in the Anglo-Saxon "real" Beowulf then check out Beowulf and Grendel with Gerard Butler. If you want a brainless action fest based loosely on the events in the source material then check out 13th Warrior with Antonio Banderas.
I Am Legend (2007)
Fantastic film, well acted with a great plot.
I have just returned from seeing I Am Legend and I thoroughly enjoyed it. Admittedly the CG monsters were a bit iffy in places but it didn't detract from my enjoyment of the film. The only two needless parts were a rather steroid-laden Will Smith gets his kit off to exercise (for the ladies I presume?) And the gratuitous car porn a-la the Shelby GT-500 that wasn't used apart from a few shots in the opening of the film. It was exactly what I wanted from a post-apocalyptic film and I really thought it did a much better job with the source material than The Last Man On Earth and The Omega Man. I felt the ending was logical and well placed and came at just the right time and Will Smith did an excellent job with the role, particularly the scenes hinting at the on-set of humanity. The twist was intact as well although I know a lot of people seemed to miss it.
I'll definitely be picking this one up on DVD and really look forward to watching it again. I can understand why there is a lot of criticism about the film, if you go in expecting a zombie flick you'll be sorely disappointed, and you'll also be left a bit despondent if you expect typical Will Smith action man/tongue in cheek adventure. It does leave a lot to the imagination and it asks more questions than it answers but that's exactly what I like from a great film, I hate cheesy dialogue and daft comments that have been forced into films just to explain things that the audience really should be able to figure out for themselves ("we learned earth's languages from the world wide web" a-la Transformers springs to mind"). In my opinion it's a solid 8/10, although a lot of people in the cinema seemed to think differently from what I could overhear when everyone left the auditorium. That said I thought 28 Days Later (another post-apocalyptic zombie style film that springs to mind) was abysmal and everyone I know seemed to enjoy it. I can't put my finger on exactly why but it seems to be a real "love it or hate it" marmite type of film.
The Golden Compass (2007)
Poor fantasy at best
The film starts with so much promise but fails to deliver. Some top notch actors try their hardest but the real problem lies with both the source material and the child actors. The latter sometimes make the film have that "school play" feel with some...(read more) awful dialogue, and the former just doesn't make for an interesting or well thought out world. The concepts behind the universe in which the film is set are simply too daft to take seriously as they overstep fantasy (and even camp fantasy) to become completely bizarre and badly thought out. Admittedly most of my criticism is levelled at the book and the universe the author has created but that obviously affects the film as a whole, with source material this poor a film should never have been attempted.
Transformers (2007)
Brilliant.
WARNING, SPOILERS CONTAINED WITHIN.
Very much in the spirit of the original, and my observation is that the prime audience is people like myself who grew up on the Transformers. Almost everyone left the cinema with big grins on their faces (the only ones who didn't were the few ladies who had clearly been dragged by their significant other), I haven't seen such a contented cinema audience in such a long time.
I was surprised at the amount of comedy in the film as well, but it was well done comedy that didn't detract from the overall experience. There was some excellent comedic timing so it all worked rather splendidly, and they knocked the comedy on the head at the mid point when things started to get serious.
The CGI and action scenes are simply superb, second to none. The US armed forces in particular seem to have worked very hard with the cast and crew to make this a memorable film as well, I don't think I recall an action movie with such a large military involvement. That said there isn't an overuse of CG and it never comes across and being ladled on too thickly like a lot of recent films.
The autobots are just delightful, they've been characterised wonderfully. There are a few snippets of dialogue that will make anyone who grew up on the Transformers have a nostalgic giggle of delight. Peter Cullen's voice acting really makes Prime stand head and shoulders above the rest, although Megatron is superbly voiced. Starscream is actually fairly menacing rather than being all whiny and nasal, one of the only critiques I can level is that some of the decepticons all seem a bit "samey", almost like Stormtrooper syndrome. When the action kicks off it's hard to tell who's who whereas the autobots are all bright and colourful so it's easy to tell.
The movie ties up most of it's loose ends but sets the scene for the next film. My only major concern is that those who haven't really got an inkling about Transformers will miss a lot of the "feeling" of the film, but then I suppose you pay your money and take your chances.
Incidentally there is a glimmer of a love story but it's all hinted at and never really gets pushed to center stage. Although the movie has to kick off by focusing on Sam the movie is all about the Transformers, they really do take center stage when the scene setting has all been done. No gripes from me to be honest. In fact the love story is quite often used as the butt of the jokes, which suits me fine. One of my main concerns was that there would be a major love story arc messing up the ass kickery.
As a film I'd give it a definite 8.5-9 / 10. Because of the subject matter I'll plump for 10/10 because I'm hopelessly biased.