The Giver - Movie Review

Again, WATCH AT YOUR OWN RISK - MASSIVE SPOILERS

Who's in it?

Brenton Thwaites, Odeya Rush, Meryl Streep and Jeff Bridges

What's it about?

In a Communist world that only Kim Jong-Un dreams of, every person born except 'chosen ones' can only see in black and white due to daily medication - a bid to keep "equality". As you can imagine, Jonas is that chosen one.

Any Good?

Watching this movie for the first 20-30 minutes is awful, you're just watching a badly acted and even worse scripted mirror of The Hunger Games or Divergent; then out of nowhere the movie suddenly ramps up in quality and beauty and doesn't stop.

Even from the outset the film is pretty, the high quality black and white style making a nice departure from the usual dull 3D colours, but when the "Receiver" starts to see the colour bleeding into the world, it's absolutely incredible. Subtleties like the colour of his LI's (love interest) hair or even the red of an apple is striking, and the way it continues to slowly fill in the rest of his world makes it my favourite art style since maybe even Enter The Void. 

An example of the art style

The acting in the film is just bad, it's like someone cloned Plank from Ed, Edd and Eddy and gave them roles in a movie, even Jeff Bridges and Meryl Streep aren't good half the time - but with a script like this even Jaysis himself would have a hard time working a miracle of consistent acting.

I don't think I've ever gone from hating something to loving it as quick as this movie. It's story is clichéd, it's script is atrocious, and yet it's incredible. The memories given to Jonas are powerful and actually moving in context, and the bleed effect of colour in only Jonas' view are astounding and well worth a watch just for that.

This movie is that absolutely beautiful woman/man you could easily find yourself falling in love with, and then they turn out to be dumber than a rock. It's stupid, unbelievable and slow-paced, but just for the art direction I love this and recommend it wholly as a visual spectacle alone. There's also one of the most shocking scenes I've ever seen with Alexander Skarsgård - oh you'll know it.

Rating: 

Dawn of the Planet of the Apes - Movie Review

  Who's in it?

Jason Clarke, Toby Kebbell, Andy Serkis and Gary Oldman

What's it about?

When the humans begin to run out of diesel for power generation, Malcolm (Jason Clarke) makes a truce with Caeser (Andy Serkis)and the evolved apes to be able to activate the dam, power the human city and get out of the ape's forest. As you can imagine, it doesn't go well. 

Any Good?        

I never watched the first of this prequel-reboot-sequel for a self evident reason when you read those three words, but I was surprised with the alright-ness of this.

If you even pay the closest shred of attention to the characters you know EXACTLY what would happen - I don't know if that's due to laziness or trying to take a 'critical' look back on the human race. The whole 'apes are the same as humans' is in your face in every decision of the apes which flies in the face of the entire premise of the film series; but I digress. 

Some of the acting is just bad, Malcolm just stands there catching flies when he has something incredibly important to tell the group, like that guy that gets bitten by zombies in every piece of zombie media ever. Malcolm's wife Ellie's (Kerri Russel) entire script seems to have comprised of one phrase - MAAAALCOOOOLM - and JESUS does it grate on the ears after the first time. I'm not sure if bad script or acting, or both, but you'll surely see what I  mean.

While the CGI is pretty fantastic - if unnecessary -  it doesn't save it from bad human characters with no substance in their scripts and a stupidly long run time. There is some heart-wrenching moments (even if the context is whispered in your ear) that can be worth it, including the AWESOME Maurice the orangutan that make it worth a watch if you're into the series.

  Rating: