Poltergeist (2015) Review

The Poltergeist remake is the latest addition to a quickly expanding group of poor and unimaginative horror remakes. It's hard to look at any remake as a standalone film without making comparisons to the original. It would have been more exciting to see a sequel years on from the original, like The Town that Dreaded Sundown (2014) and Scream 4 (2010). Maybe we could have seen Carol Ann grown up with kids of her own and seeing the story develop in that way. But no, this 2015 remake regurgitates the exact same story from the first but in a contemporary setting. 

Modern aspects add nothing to the film. Mobile phones, drones, and GPS systems are used and the only way they actually contribute to the story is that we get to see inside the other world as a camera is flown in on a drone. Do we really need to see what it looks like where the child goes? It just looked like a CGI zombie movie. Some things are better left to the imagination. We don't see inside in the original because we don't need to. 

The original 1982 Poltergeist was written and produced by Steven Spielberg, and we can see that evidently in the qualities of the film. He describes E.T. the Extra Terrestrial (1982) as a suburban dream while Poltergeist (1982) was a suburban nightmare. We see a Reagan-era family growing up in American suburbs and it was probably easy to relate to that in 1982. The 2015 film fails to possess these same qualities as we see the struggling family move into a really big house. All of the character are difficult to engage with from the beginning. 

On the topic of qualities, there is some pretty poor CGI in the original, but it adds a sense of charm to it and makes it feel like an 80's classic. This obviously cannot be reproduced in the remake, but the CGI in place was just boring and annoying. This is going to be a problem with the new Ghostbusters film if it ever happens. On top of all this, jokes are recycled from the original film, and that might generate a laugh or two, but it still offers nothing new. It relies heavily on jump scares to make the film seem scary, but it only made it feel like a Blumhouse film. 

The evidence of lazy writing and general film making is so clear throughout this film. The original can't be surpassed so why bother making a remake? It's a lazy method of generating money for movie studios. Original films like It Follows and Unfriended have been released this year and that's really exciting to see, but the Poltergeist remake is a setback for the horror genre. If anything good can come from it, remakes might stop getting made. Revisit the original at home instead of wasting your money on this film.

Oh, and a blue flatscreen has nothing on a static television set, but I guess that epitomizes this remake.

1/7 

Tomorrowland: A World Beyond (2015) Review

Before I begin to talk about Tomorrowland, it is probably important to note that I am a huge fan of Disney theme parks. I love all of the old documentaries about Walt Disney's vision of Tomorrow, his plans for Epcot (a utopian city in Walt Disney World that people could actually live in, but never got built) and the general retro-futuristic idea of the future that existed in the 1960s. Tomorrowland is an area in Disneyland theme parks that is modelled to that 1960's concept, and this film is based on this same idea.

I think it's important to realise that these retro-futuristic ideas that existed during the space age are not naive or even tongue-in-cheek, but they actually reflect the values of the people who lived in that era. Space missions were being launched and people honestly believed that jet-packs and robots were not too far away. Tomorrowland is a special place because it is built with those honest values and is not a replica. This film showcases these values too, but it does replicate them, naturally. It makes a solid comparison between the optimistic view of the future then and the pessimistic view now, and how that view can have a negative affect on society. David Nix (Hugh Laurie) turns the camera back to us in a memorable scene and asks us what we're doing to make the world a better place.

The film makes more social commentary in this regard as we see this future utopia in ruins, maybe suggesting that what could have been has been ruined by society's negative mindset. Director Brad Bird creates wonderful visual imagery to portray the utopian Tomorrowland that could exist. The main problem for this film is the confusing story line. It is hard to follow, not because it is cleverly complex, but because it just doesn't really make much sense. A lot of questions go unanswered and the ending feels a little bit lacklustre. The whole idea has a lot of potential but it doesn't hit hard enough when it needed to.

In terms of performances, all three of the main characters (George Clooney, Britt Robertson, Raffey Cassidy) perform their roles nicely and are well cast. Clooney's character is engaging and probably relatable for people that grew up in the 60's era. What this film lacks is a real antagonist. Instead, we have half of one who doesn't seem too evil and doesn't even really know what he's doing wrong. A real sense of evil would have added so much more depth to the story line and lifted some of the confusion.

Without spoiling the film, badges are given to those who have the ability to make the world a better place. The audience is confronted with another reflection of themselves. Do I get a badge? Do I deserve a badge? The film succeeds in terms of trying to restore and reproduce those old values and inspire the audience to have a positive outlook, but fails in terms of telling a story. It was an enjoyable film nonetheless and the visuals were wonderful throughout, but I'm not quite sure who the target audience is. It is supposed to be a family film but it is too complex for children and there are too many childish jokes for adults.

4/7

Daredevil Season 1 (2015) Review

I shouldn't really be writing a review about Daredevil for two reasons; 1) it's a TV show and 2) I'm not a big fan of superheroes. But good ratings and free time led me to watch it anyway. There are no spoilers, for those who haven't seen it or aren't finished yet.

This show is going to be compared to Christopher Nolan's Batman trilogy because it is similarly dark and not particularly aimed at kids, whereas most films that Marvel produce are. This follows in the footsteps of other superhero stories being made into television shows, like Flash, Arrow and Gotham. I haven't seen any of these shows but none of them were as attractive as Daredevil to me before even seeing it, so Netflix did a really good job of marketing this show.

The chemistry between the three main characters is really strong from the get-go and makes them all feel really relatable. I had to keep reminding myself that Karen and Foggy didn't know that Matthew was Daredevil, so maybe that wasn't emphasised enough. For those who don't know (not really a spoiler) Matthew Murdoch/Daredevil is blind, and the show explains superbly how he reacts to his surroundings. The camera work and editing really portrays his level of hearing and sense of touch. It wouldn't feel believable if he moved so coordinately without an explanation, but in the early episodes you understand that he has enhanced hearing which allows him to act the way he does, so it is justified when he moves and fights that way for the rest of the season.

In terms of performances, Vincent D'Onofrio (Wilson Fisk) really stands out above the rest. An insight is given into this villain's back story and you can understand why he acts the way he does. There were moments where I was really surprised to find myself sympathizing with Fisk and somewhat rooting for him. This does not, however, take away from the heroes of the show. I didn't want the bad guy to win or lose but still wanted the good guys to win, which allowed be to sit back and enjoy the show. It was really refreshing to not have to hate the bad guy like in most stories like this, and I think D'Onofrio did an excellent job in playing Wilson Fisk.

Lastly, the action scenes throughout the season are  neat, well coordinated and most of the time, pretty ferocious. The choreography is good because no one is ever standing around waiting to be punched, and it looks like some stunt people took some really heavy hits in order to get the scenes looking right. That said, A lot of these scenes got pretty repetitive and I found myself longing for more intense moments rather than fight scenes, but it had a good share of them too.

Not to be missed.

5/7

Unfriended (2015) Review

"Why don't they just turn off their computers?" is the question that never even crossed my mind while watching Unfriended, despite a lot of people saying it after watching the trailer. It was a question that was always going to be asked with a film like this but it was addressed without much notice quite early on. The premise of the film is that a group of friends are being messaged by a dead girl they went to school with and six of them ultimately get trapped in a chat room with her. The entire film takes place on a computer screen, there are no external shots at all.

I really enjoyed this aspect because it is not something I have seen before and so it had a lot of novelty on the big screen. When I see a computer screen I feel like I am in control, and it drove me nuts not being able to flick between the windows, but in the best way possible. I felt like I was missing something in the Skype window because it was minimised and needed to remind myself that I was not in control of what window was open.

The group of six friends had really good chemistry despite not being in the same room together. There was a true closeness between the group, like in groups in Scream and Friday the 13th, and it was intriguing to see this achieved in such a peculiar environment. You can see some relationships beginning to develop between characters and you begin to forget that they're all sitting in front of computer screens.

Without giving too much away, the film has a few too many silly bits and there were more moments where the packed cinema laughed than there were silent and suspenseful moments. I think that watching this movie on a laptop would have been a completely different experience, and I might have been more inclined to turn it off. But it was an unusual and refreshing experience seeing it in the cinema.

Unfriended deserved credit for its originality. It's a new generation being applied to the horror genre, but the interest surrounding it is purely novel. The film has felt doomed in my mind since I first heard about it. It could either be terrible or be good and create loads of terrible sequels or spinoffs. I wouldn't want to watch another film like this because there are not enough variables to make a similar film interesting, and while it wasn't terrible, I can only hope that it can be left now as a standalone film.

4/7