OJ's Movie Review - The Cloverfield Paradox

Time for J.J. Abram's unorthodox franchise to return for another curious outing.

So The Cloverfield Paradox is the third film in the anthological series, following 2008's Cloverfield, and 2016's 10 Cloverfield Lane. I have to say I've been keeping my eye on this film for a while and I knew that marketing would be unusual like the others but to release a 30-second teaser at the Superbowl and then drop the film on Netflix a few hours later was not quite what I expected.

   I'll start with what I enjoyed. The Cloverfield Paradox boasts a pretty good cast, I genuinely enjoy seeing a lot of the people here. After seeing Captain America: Civil War, I was really impressed with Daniel Brühl's performance and here in this film, I once again enjoyed seeing his acting, this time as physicist Schmidt. David Oyelowo I think is a great actor and have followed his work since I really noticed him in Jack Reacher. Elizabeth Debicki and Chris O'Dowd, again, I thought did really great in their roles; O'Dowd is usually the funny man character so I was worried how he was going to fit in this sci-fi thriller but he really worked, still being used as the comic relief but in a genuinely entertaining way and fitting in with the context of the events. Our main hero is played by Gugu Mbatha-Raw, and although I had to scan her filmography to realize I had seen some of her previous work, I really thought she did a good job here and enjoyed her performance.

  Now, it's fairly known that this film used to be a completely singular film called God Particle and that during production it was taken over and converted into a Cloverfield entry. Now I have problems with this concept in itself but as it seemed to work out for 10 Cloverfield Lane, I hoped the same would be true here. But no. What has ended up here is that a standard, but pretty good, sci-fi film has been injected with extremely forced Cloverfield connections. All the scenes and plot elements that occur on the space station I really enjoyed, there were genuine creepy moments, really tense action sequences and interesting concepts. But all throughout we kept cutting back to this guy on Earth whose whole role was to remind you that the movie was taking place at the same time as the 2008 film. These scenes and an exposition dump at the beginning just felt so forced that it really let it down. 

I really want to be onboard for the Cloverfield franchise and the first two films I thought were average and fantastic, respectively. And here I really liked everything to do with what remained of God Particle, but if Paramount keeps hijacking films during production and forcing them to be part of this, then it's just going to get even messier. In the end, I'll say I was ultimately disappointed but wasn't at all bored during the film and I was entertained for the most part so I'll give it...

7/10

OJ's Movie Review - War For the Planet of the Apes

Apes together, strong.

Well, here we are, a conclusion of sorts. I absolutely loved Rise of the Planet of the Apes; it's a film unlike anything I had seen before.  Dawn was one of the most intense, edge-of-your-seat experiences I'd ever had in a cinema, and now is the third part of Ceaser's personal trilogy. How did it go?

  I'll start off by just saying how much the apes look like actual real animals. Seriously, the CGI improves with every film. There are moments where if you told me that was an advanced animatronic head on screen, I would believe you. There's one particular shot of Maurice the orangutan where I swear it was like watching a close-up in an Attenborough documentary, they are that real. So that in itself blows me away. Of course, along with the expert VFX team, you have Andy Serkis and others doing their performance-capture work as the apes; the emotion and acting they manage to portray is incredible and a thrill to watch.

   Moving onto the story now, I have to say, the plot is what lets it down for me. For a film that contains the phrase "War for the Planet", the story is a very contained and inconsequential narrative that has no real bearing on the world as a whole. Sure, it has major points in Ceaser's life and the life of his tribe and what they have to face, and as a story there, it was a suspenseful, brutal, incredibly well-scored and acted film. But in terms of what I feel I had been led to expect, it dropped the ball for me. If I accept what the film is about though, and look directly at the what the plot was, even then, although it's not a bad film, it's completely unoriginal. What transpires from the second act onwards is everything we've seen before in films where a group of characters must escape somewhere; it hits all the beats of that genre and the only change it offers is the fact that it's with apes; which, to be fair, is a fascinating visual and I will never grow tired of seeing how the apes are depicted in this franchise but because Rise and Dawn were so different from anything I'd seen before I was not expecting this film to be so familiar.

  I mean there are more aspects about this film I liked a lot, including Steve Zahn's character, some of the little easter-eggs and callbacks to the 1968 film and Michael Giacchino's score, which were all great, and I'm not saying this is a bad film, it's just very unoriginal and falls into some cliches every now and again.

   In the end, War For the Planet of the Apes is an incredible step-up in film-making itself with the directing, acting and what VFX is capable of but for me personally the story was a let-down and I very much hope there is a next entry after this as I feel there is more to tell.

7/10

OJ's Movie Review - Inferno

Look, I haven't read the books so I won't be one of "those people"; I'm viewing this purely cinematically.

Tom Hanks returns as the symbologist Robert Langdon in the third adaptation of Dan Brown's books again directed by Ron Howard; this time he must solve clues and escape organizations to save the world from a deadly plague. I always enjoy these sorts of films, National Treasure, Sahara, The DaVinci Code - they aren't credited for their quality but there's something about the ancient codes and puzzles genre that entertains me so I was expecting some enjoyment from Inferno despite it not being one of my most anticipated films of the year.
   And true to form, Inferno did give me Tom Hanks running around beautiful Europe solving clues but not quite as much or at least not as interesting as the previous two films; Inferno didn't really focus on the problem-solving tropes of the genre but gave us more action set pieces and character relationships, which is OK in itself but not what I came to Inferno for.
  The cast of these films though are always a highlight. Tom Hanks is one of the best actors of our generation so it's great seeing him on screen again and does some top notch performances, especially at the beginning of the film. He's joined this time by Felicity Jones who is more than adequate at playing the young attractive sidekick and has some good moments with Hanks. Another highlight to join is Irrfan Khan, I really do enjoy watching him in films since I was first introduced to him in Life of Pi, he is a unique presence in this film as the head of a shadowy organization and gives some welcome comedic moments here and there. Ben Foster, whose work I'm not as familiar with, plays the antagonist somewhat and was a convincing billionaire bent on ending half of humanity for the greater good. Apart from those the rest of the characters were fairly wooden and uninteresting which may be due to how they are introduced or lack of screentime.
  A major positive of the film though is the third act which is a tense sequence of events scored brilliantly by Hans Zimmer. The whole film is shot very quick-pace and some shaky-cam which didn't always work and the beginning was a little unsure on what to focus on but in the climax it felt natural and it worked.
   In the end I enjoyed both The DaVinci Code and Angels & Demons a little more but all three films are higher-average at best with Inferno being the weakest.

6.5/10

OJ's TV Review - Stranger Things

Ah, it's been a while since I had a good binge watch.

Stranger Things seems to have come out of nowhere, I had never heard of it right up until they released the trailer last month. So if you didn't know, Stranger Things is a Netflix original series created by The Duffer Brothers and is set in 1983 Indiana where a young boy goes missing in a small town where strange things are happening and an unusual girl shows up. 

   So right away, this setting is genius. I never lived in the 80s but after this I really feel as though I was there, they didn't bang you over the head with it shoving pop culture references at you every minute but just how they dressed, their hair, the posters on a bedroom wall, it all seemed so natural and not gimmicky at all. The movie Super 8 did this to a certain degree and I enjoy that movie but Stranger Things seemed to make it more real to me. What added to it especially was the music, from the opening credits to the score itself, the use of synth music worked excellently to bring you this mysterious, fascinating and yet nostalgic atmosphere; so all-in-all they really did well with the setting and time-period and will definitely be checking out the soundtrack, all of which served as a brilliant backdrop to the plot.

   As I said, a kid goes missing; it's something we've seen many times in television and film but because it is such an urgent, fearful, disturbing event you are instantly following the case because you want to know what has happened and you want to see him back; so from the very first episode I was hooked and I was staying. Now the series is only eight episodes and I think that's a good thing; a lot of American shows have upwards of twenty and sometimes that can lose momentum and become very episodic, which works depending on the nature of the series, but I do enjoy a lot of British shows where they usually have between six and thirteen episodes negating the need for fillers and can concentrate on a good script. Here the Duffer Brothers have crafted a simple but very well written story that feels more like a movie; each episode follows on instantly from the previous with no recaps or 'Next Time' trailers so if you were to watch Stranger Things, a binge is required. The also know when to show things and when to not, they spent their budget wisely and paid wonderful homage to the Hollywood of that time giving you visuals reminding you of things like The Goonies and E.T. These callbacks also never detract from the plot and fit the story well; also despite the 80s adventure inspiration, Stranger Things isn't necessarily for the Spielberg audience with one or two darker moments scattered here and there.

  Now I can't do this review without mentioning the cast. Winona Ryder and David Harbour are really well cast as the adult leads, from the desperate mother who still holds out faith to the driven police chief taking on mysterious government agents. The rest of the cast are largely unknown including the main kids but they were so talented. Millie Bobby Brown and Finn Wolfhard being highlights having to display complex emotions and intelligent arcs. I wish I could mention all of the cast because they were so good, from Joe Keery as high school jock Steve to even the teacher Mr Clarke, each person had a life and character you were invested in.

   In the end Stranger Things is a really well made original series with some of the best cast, music and writing I've seen in awhile that also has some surprisingly good humour that made laugh out loud. I really hope the series gains traction because I can see the cast and crew going places, as well as a possible season 2.

10/10

OJ's Movie Review - X-Men: Apocalypse

A superhero franchise that's lasted sixteen years without being cancelled or remade! Surely that's some kind of record.

   So X-Men: Apocalypse is either the third, sixth, or ninth film in the series depending on how you're counting and stars James McAvoy, Michael Fassbender and Jennifer Lawrence returning for a third time while bringing in new cast such as Oscar Isaac, Sophie Turner and Tye Sheridan. The basic plot is that an ancient, powerful mutant known as En Sabah Nur has awoken in the 80s and wants to "cleanse the earth" of the weak and so the X-Men must stop him.
    As a whole, I like the X-Men franchise; despite it's bumps I've always felt it's had it's own vibe and personality and is different enough from other comic book universes such as the MCU and the not-so-connected DC properties. X-Men: Apocalypse continues in this and although shares similarities with other movie plots still feels like an X-Men movie. The stories we witness in this film are some of the finest we've seen in the franchise. The two biggest characters we've been following for years of course are Professor X and Magneto and each of them are so well-developed and incredible characters you know exactly what they are feeling and why they are where they are. Magneto's arc in this film is a highlight and from one particular scene in a forest you are hooked on his story and understand why he's doing the things he is. Professor X is great as the leader and strong-minded force who keeps the X-Men together and he really has some great scenes, especially towards the end. Another story in this movie is of course the one of the titular character himself, Apocalypse; his backstory in Ancient Egypt alone was a thrilling and well executed event and when you really see what he can do in the 80s I found him to be the most powerful and best villain they've had in the franchise. Just his voice, and mannerisms are so dark and menacing you really feel like he is an unstoppable threat.
    Apart from those three, other character highlights were the young Jean Grey, Cyclops and Nightcrawler who fit well into the story and I really enjoyed seeing them, and then of course Quicksilver returning from Days of Future Past doing much more in the movie including one of the best scenes of any superhero movie, beating that of his previous. Everyone else did OK but weren't really used as much; Jennifer Lawrence's Mystique doesn't do quite as much as she has done and never has her own 'action piece' as it were and then three of the horsemen, Psylocke, Angel and Storm each had one particular shot that was cool but mostly stood around until the climax where they still didn't have too much screen time.
   Effects wise, all the powers and abilities looked fantastic. There was a lot of CGI and green-screen during the climactic battle and for me personally I thought that all looked just fine. There were one or two specific shots which weren't particularly good in my eyes but that was it.
   Some problems I had with the movie was that, as I said, some characters didn't really have much screen time and/or didn't really do anything at all (looking at you Jubilee) and then another thing isn't really a problem as it is the ninth X-Men-related movie but X-Men: Apocalypse requires you to know and remember quite a bit of the past films and this universe in general, so it makes it almost inaccessible completely to the general movie-going audience and unless you've seen at least five of the other films a lot will go over your head and seem out of place. And as a final negative point there were two scenes in particular that pushed the 12A (PG-13) rating to it's limits which will be fine for a lot of people but I think some will be quite surprised at how dark they went.
   Other than that X-Men: Apocalypse is a really powerful and thrilling superhero movie, and for me one of the best in the series, not quite beating First Class as my favorite.

7.5/10

OJ's Movie Review - 10 Cloverfield Lane

Title, poster and trailer all revealed two months before it's release? I think I'm OK with that.

So 10 Cloverfield Lane stars John Goodman, Mary Elizabeth Winstead, and John Gallagher Jr. The basic premise is that a woman wakes up in an underground bunker where she is told that a chemical apocalypse has made the air outside toxic. That's all you need to know, that's all you want to know. So, let's get into my review...while sidestepping pretty much everything about it.
  First of all I have to give props to the director, Dan Trachtenberg; you've not heard of him? That's because this is his first feature film. I mean seriously, I hope this guy goes on to have a long and successful career. 10 Cloverfield Lane does not look cheap or amateur in any way despite only having about a $15,000,000 budget; he really only had three rooms to film in so it made for some really claustrophobic and uncomfortable moments, and even with a limited setting don't be surprised if your heart starts beating a little faster and tense up. As a summary of my introduction to Dan Trachtenberg: I think he's going places.
  Acting-wise; wow. John Goodman plays 'unstable' exceptionally well; when he's around you're trying to work him out and figure what his deal is and when he wasn't on screen I was just thinking "Where is he. Where is he". Mary Elizabeth Winstead is fantastic as well as this woman who suddenly wakes up not knowing where she is or what's going on; but she wasn't some helpless wimp, she had a bit of knowledge which I think made things realistic. John Gallagher Jr. did well in his role as well; I'm not familiar with his work but he did absolutely fine as his character Emmet. So on an acting front I can't really fault it.
   Now with the plot, I'm not going to spoil anything because I think the less you know before going in then the more you'll enjoy it but if you're hesitant because you haven't seen 2008's found-footage film Cloverfield which has been called "a blood relative" or something, don't worry at all; while a connection is plausible 10 Cloverfield Lane is completely stand-alone. The narrative of this movie itself I think is very rare but utilises some familiar imagery which make for a thrilling experience because you do not know what's coming next.
  As a conclusion, I really enjoyed 10 Cloverfield Lane and it's refreshing to see this sort of originality and an upcoming director.

9.5/10

OJ's Movie Review - The Martian

Last time we saw Matt Damon he was stranded on a planet in Interstellar, now we get to see him...oh wait.

So The Martian is Ridley Scott's latest film and stars Matt Damon as an astronaut left behind on Mars by himself because his crew thought he was dead. Going in I wasn't sure what to expect, I thought what can you do for two hours on a desert planet? Well, it turns out that it's something good because The Martian is one of the best films of the year.
   I mean seriously, this movie is so good in so many ways I couldn't believe it. The cast, first off, were amazing, you've got people like Jessica Chastain, Chiwetel Ejiofor, Sean Bean, Jeff Daniels and of course Matt Damon; they all do an amazing job in their roles, you couldn't fault them. But obviously one man has to carry the movie and Damon does it brilliantly, playing a man completely alone, isolated on an entire planet having to use only the stuff that was left behind and his own intelligence to survive, incredible acting there, especially with some of the darker moments when you can see this man is about to break but carries on relentlessly.
  The story is also a fascinating one, there wasn't any point where I was bored watching The Martian; you mostly wanted to be with Damon on Mars watching him do various things as it was both thrilling, exciting, relieving and funny, yes that's right, this film is hilarious, it's just a fantastic script, the movie handles it's comedy really well and some parts are just so uplifting and makes you smile. The Earth scenes are entertaining as well, they didn't drag at all, watching these NASA guys trying to work out if they can actually save this Mark Watney from Mars and balancing that with handling the press and media it makes for some good acting and screenplay.
   One other thing that surprised me was the music, the original score was amazing and adds real feeling to the scenes and then I'm not going to spoil it but you are going to remember the soundtrack and songs they use in The Martian.
  The only negative I can say I had with this film was just the opening, I felt that from the very start to when the crew actually leave Watney on Mars it felt a little off or choppy and just wasn't as good as the rest of the movie but that may just be me, it didn't bother me too much because that's only like ten minutes of set-up.
  In the end I loved The Martian, it's definitely one of the biggest surprises for me and like I said, one of the best films this year.

10/10

OJ's TV Review - Heroes seasons 1 - 4

With Heroes Reborn airing this month I decided to take a look at the much-discussed Heroes, something I'd heard a lot about but never seen.

Being a big science-fiction fan and common Internet-user I'd heard about Heroes from various places
and I knew the general gist but never really had the opportunity to watch it. Thankfully, Netflix helped out with that.
 So season 1 to start obviously and the general opinion is that this the best season. They're not wrong. Season 1 of Heroes is absolutely brilliant, I love it. It introduces a bunch of characters straight out the gate all with completely different backgrounds and lives and most importantly, powers. As the season progresses they slowly start to connect and it all builds up to really nice, satisfying conclusion. All the actors in it are really well cast, everyone is playing the everyman, the normal person, who wake up one day with an extraordinary ability, which is really fun to watch. Zachary Quinto plays the main villain Sylar who is a really good bad guy, his presence and scenes are really thrilling and threatening. A truly unique piece of television.
  Season 2 comes along with only half the amount of episodes. Although the mystery was intriguing and some of the new characters were fun to watch; overall I felt it was a little underwhelming. Because season 1 was so good, season 2, although wasn't a terrible season, just didn't quite stand up to the first, possibly due to the limited number of episodes and a very similar story-arc due to a writer's strike.
 Season 3. Oh my, what can I say. The third season of Heroes is an absolute mess. The plots were all over the place, it was if the season didn't know where it was going. They'd start one story arc in an episode and then two or three down the line they'd end it quite abruptly with hardly any satisfying resolutions. Some of the people we'd come to know and love suddenly either lost their powers or did things completely out of character which made for a lot of episodes where I just sighed. I struggle to think of positives for this season; I mean there was the odd good episode and a few guest appearances I enjoyed but for the most part, it was like a bad fan-fic.
  Season 4 thankfully started to pick up, they focused on a new character Samuel and his mysterious carnival which drove the series arc and that was actually a really entertaining thing to watch. A bunch of new characters were introduced who were good and some of the ruined ones of season 3 fell into the odd appearance which was a good move. Still not quite as good as the first season but in terms of quality I think it was better than the other two.

So in conclusion, I'm glad I watched Heroes, even if the quality was a bit up and down, the characters were so interesting to me and I adored the various pop culture references the show gave (mostly from the character Hiro). It was truly a roller coaster ride in many ways and a show any sci-fi fan should watch.

OJ's TV Review - Falling Skies season 5

The end of the war has come; and what a ride it's been.

So the fifth and final season of Falling Skies has aired. For four years we've watched the Mason family battle against the Skitters, Espheni, and even themselves. I really enjoyed the first two seasons, they are definitely my favourite, the third season I feel is the weakest and season four was good but the main story arc was uninteresting. 

  The plot this time follows on from the last season where the Espheni are very scarce due to now having no big communicator thing on the moon; this means that the Skitters are like wild animals eating anything they can find and attacking randomly, this provided a few cool scenes and action-packed moments but it took away their threat almost, in past seasons some were quite individual and even intelligent whereas now they are mere cannon fodder for the humans. The episodes this season focused the human characters problems; there wasn't really a story arc that wove all the episodes together, just a few two-parters and they has self-contained plots; these were OK as you got to see a bit of a civil war and then one of the main characters broke away and started a tense story which was all entertaining but for a final season I think we wanted to see more alien stuff. 

   In the end the finale I think has disappointed a lot of people but for me I really enjoyed it, I mean there were some flaws which I wish they hadn't done but overall I was satisfied with the way it ended. Falling Skies has been a great series and I've enjoyed watching it as a whole.

7.5/10

OJ's Movie Review - Jurassic World

I've been waiting for 14 years, some people have been waiting for 22, well...now its here.

Jurassic World, finally the fourth Jurassic film is in cinemas. It's about a new theme park that finally realized John Hammond's dream of a dinosaur zoo; but because its now been open a while people are starting to get bored and so they create a new dinosaur mixing various DNA.
   Now let's start off with the good stuff. The world building is amazing, you go round this theme park and you believe this could be a real attraction, the way they show off buildings and exhibits its like a Disneyland promotional video so I really liked that. The whole look of Jurassic World was just really nice visually. Another thing I enjoyed was the new dinosaur itself, called Indominus Rex; it looked powerful, creepy and threatening every time you saw it; its abilities were also interesting and so it was great addition to the franchise and it contributes to my most favourite part of the film which was the third act - a real gem of a sequence in there. Of course, Jurassic World is a sequel and it knows it; although there were only a few references to the first film in the dialogue, and something special which I won't spoil, most of it's callbacks were through the music which sounded awesome. The soundtrack fits so well in the franchise its amazing, some of the beats, some of the instruments definitely were inspired to not only Jurassic Park but I think I heard The Lost World in there also which was fun. But the callbacks didn't stop there, which brings me to the negatives...
  Jurassic Park had a lot of iconic scenes and in Jurassic World it recreated one or two which gave you some nostalgia and you smiled at the obvious reference, but then it did it again, and then some more and it started to teeter on the edge of ripping-off; thankfully I don't think it did but I did have quite few moments where I noticed and was like "Wait, that looks just like...". So if you haven't seen the first film or not seen it in a long time, you might feel out of the loop when the shot builds to something you know should be important. Another thing that I wasn't a fan of was that there was too many characters; this film is flooded with various characters who all have their own back-story and B plot that it sometimes drags away from the main thing; the two kids for instance were given a line of back-story which was never touched upon again and the human antagonists were basically there to leave strands for a sequel. There was just a lot of unnecessary story.
   In the end, Jurassic World is a fun film. It's entertaining to watch but it just doesn't have the charm and wit of Jurassic Park, it tends to fall more into monster-movie somewhat which is fine, but just so long as you expect a cliché or two and some very cheesy scenes (such as catching a fly in mid air with your hand). But seriously though, it was great to go back to this franchise!

8/10

OJ's Movie Reviews - Jurassic Park 2 & 3

I already reviewed the first Jurassic Park when it came out in 3D, so now in preparation for Jurassic World I'll look back on the not-so-fan-favourite sequels.

After one of the most popular blockbusters of all time Steven Spielberg adapted the second novel,The Lost World: Jurassic Park. It brings back the character of Ian Malcom played brilliantly by Jeff Goldblum and goes to the Site B of Jurassic Park with a team to study how the dinosaurs have been living since the disaster of '93. Although not as good as the first film, The Lost World isn't actually that bad; the special effects and animatronics still hold up to today creating some convincing dinosaurs both with the old favourite's T-Rex and raptors and a whole bunch of new ones. Also the soundtrack I really enjoyed as well, John Williams is one of the best composers in the business and here he creates some memorable scores again.  As regards to the plot, it can be a bit jumbled at times and some of the pacing is off but it's fun to see the locations they go to on the island and of course who didn't love that Tyrannosaurus rampaging through San Diego? Overall in my opinion it is my least favourite of the franchise but it doesn't deserve a lot of the hate it gets.

Next up we have Jurassic Park III which has original character Alan Grant take a couple of people on what he thinks is a tour of site B; obviously all does not go well and they get stuck on the island. Although the plot has little complexity to it and is basically a slasher-film with dinosaurs, I really enjoy Jurassic Park III. I think it has more of an abandoned facility feel than the second film did with all the over-grown jungle visuals and sets; these work really well when showing the super-intelligent raptors which make for some thrilling and suspenseful scenes. And yes, I love the Spinosaurus! I know people hate the fact it killed a T-Rex but I think the addition of the Spino makes this film more unique and diverse. In the end it's the sort of film you can sit back with some popcorn, turn your brain off and watch dinosaurs eating people.

So those are my thoughts on the two sequels and you can read my review of the first movie by clicking here.

OJ's TV Review - Doctor Who: Last Christmas

Moffat, you haven't redeemed yourself yet, but your on the right path.

So the end of 2014 brings us Peter Capaldi's first Doctor Who Christmas special. It's about a group of scientists trapped on a polar base in the North Pole because of weird alien creatures. To start, I love anything with a premise like that so I knew I was probably going to enjoy this; and I did!
   'Last Christmas' was a really good, solid episode. The plot was really engaging and smart, it had some real good suspense and creepiness. The feel of the episode definitely had vibes from the Alien film (which is acknowledged) and also things like The Thing and even Inception I'm all on board for that and loved the callbacks, so plot wise it was one of the best, except maybe towards the end it started to cross the line but not too much.
   For the characters, this was a good episode, the people on the base seemed realistic and normal, The Doctor has definitely settled into the role and had some great lines of dialogue with Clara who I don't really like but she was good in the episode. And of course Santa Clause himself and his elves. Now, I don't celebrate Christmas but seeing Santa and the Doctor interact was one of the funniest things this year, They did a few back and forth banter which was great and there are definitely some things about Santa we don't know, so maybe a return...? In the end I thoroughly enjoyed the episode and look forward to what series 9 has in store.

9/10

OJ's Movie Review - The Maze Runner

A young adult novel being adapted to film? Never had one of those before...

  So yes, The Maze Runner is the latest in a genre that tries, and sometimes succeeds, to get teenagers to give their cash. I've watched trailers for them over the years but then I learnt about this film and it actually sounded interesting; I haven't read the book so this review is going off just what I saw in the movie.
   To start off, the storyline, it's about a guy who finds himself in a large field surrounded by a giant maze, and he's not the first to appear there, there is a whole community that has been built by these young adults who have also had their memories wiped and are in this field. This film certainly gave you the feeling of isolation, the CGI was pretty good for the most part so the walls and the maze looked awesome, the plot had few good twists, although maybe some were a little predictable, and for at least the first two acts it was a solid movie, it had tense chase scenes, strong characters and I enjoyed it. Some of the dialogue was a little hard to swallow, nobody could seem to answer questions straight forward, it was always a vague command or statement.
    Of course there has to be a resolution to all this and that becomes the last 20 minutes or so. Without going into spoilers, I was a little surprised how after the revelation the entire tone of the movie changed; some people are going to hate it, I'm on the fence currently but it just seemed odd; especially the fact that they were almost to the point of looking at the audience and saying "Please let there be a sequel!". Apart from that though I enjoyed The Maze Runner's mystery and thrilling dark moments and the I couldn't really fault the special effects so from me, this movie gets:

6/10

OJ's TV Review - Falling Skies season 4

This is not a world I would like to live in.

So TNT's Falling Skies has reached it's 4th season, where can they go now? Well if you remember last season we were introduced to the character of Lexi, a human-alien hybrid and daughter of Tom Mason; this year she is grown up due to her extra terrestrial DNA and she is the main plot of the season.
   When the season began various characters were quickly thrust into one of four story arcs; I felt this was weird, I thought that each story arc was going to drag over the whole season and then meet in the finale. Fortunately that isn't what happened, although some of the arcs were interesting they dispersed with them around episode 5 and it got into the main focus of Lexi. Now Lexi did have a solid and complete story, but I, and I know others do, didn't really care. Lexi just never caught my interest, she never did anything which I really wanted to follow. Her story does allow us to see some new things concerning the Espheni though and that was cool to see; the series definitely looks like it has had a budget rise. All the main characters were on top form though, and we even had to say goodbye to some; a couple of new faces joined as well and they were fun to watch. After all that though I'd say it was an improvement on the last season with a good finale cliffhanger but still not quite as good as the first two seasons.

7/10

OJ's Movie Review - Dawn of the Planet of the Apes

This movie is actually the definition of intense.

I've been looking forward to this film for while, back when I watched Rise of the Planet of the Apes I thought that it was such a well made movie and looked forward to where it was going. Now I finally get to see what has become of Ceaser and his tribe, and boy did I.  Dawn starts off showing us an average day in this society the apes have built up in the last 10 years; and that just to start off was fascinating, the shots you see, the feel of it all is just unlike anything you've ever seen. Soon after you start getting the plot, the humans need to get to a big dam to restore power but the forest of the apes blocks their way. Now through the various interactions between apes and humans you are holding your breath just hoping for both their sakes every single meeting between them goes well, you can feel the power of such a sight of these apes and how scary they must be; even within the ape tribe itself you see trust issues start with one of the apes - the incredibly freaky-looking Koba. You can also see from the humans apocalyptic camp how they're getting so desperate you know that the climax isn't going to be nice. Now with this story you may start predicting certain events but after jut a few more scenes you realise the plot is going a completely different way, there were most definitely a few surprises in there for me, so as whole, the storyline was fantastic. The actors themselves, well, who can fault Andy Serkis, the king of motion-capture does an excellent job, I love how realistic this apes moved and look, just great; the humans although weren't bad actors I just wasn't as involved in their lives as I was the apes, I had been with Ceaser longer so these new people we had to like just were OK, not bad but nothing special.  Of course I have to touch on the special effects, the CGI in this movie was out of this world, some of the things you see I probably couldn't distinguish between physical prosthetics. The feel and tone of this film is so unique you come out the cinema thinking 'wow'. The only critique I have is probably that there are one or two cliché events or lines of dialogue but in the end Dawn of the Planet of the Apes was AWESOMENESS.

OJ's Movie Review - X-Men: Days of Future Past

Do you realize that since the release of the first X-Men film both Spider-Man and Superman have been rebooted, twice?


First it was a trilogy, then there was a prequel, and then a separate prequel, and then a spin-off from the trilogy and now we have... a reboot? X-Men: Days of Future Past is the 7th movie in the X-Men franchise, a franchise that's been on our screens for fourteen years; it's had some ups, it's had some downs, but it has certainly been a unique series. This year we get to see not only the original cast but also the refreshed younger cast. Of course the film involves time travel but this time it's quite different from mainstream sci-fi time travel, the movie doesn't dwell on it too much, if at all; the main focus is definitely the characters, I noticed two or three times that it showed more character interactions and dialogue than previous X-Men films, I mean of course there are the fight sequences and the big special effect scenes but the story definitely drove it a lot. Talking of the story I heard going in that this movie fixed every continuity error of the past films and was like a huge refresh; now after seeing it I was a bit taken back by how they did it; they do in a sense fix all the problems but in quite a big way, that's all I'll say not going into spoilers. One thing that did fascinate me with the movie was the look and feel, the parts set in the future, although not many, were for me the highlight, they were the most action-packed and the most emotional; the past has those things too but not as strong I don't think, although I did enjoy when they made it look like scenes were filmed on an old 70's camera. Obviously it was great seeing all the cast again and each one did a fantastic role, Hugh Jackman will always own Wolverine and although he took a bit more of a backseat in this one he still is entertaining to watch. In the end, I don't think it is the best X-Men film ever but I'D SEE IT AGAIN.

OJ's Movie Review - Godzilla

Story, visual effects and all-round feel of the movie have improved drastically since the 1998 version, but still fans aren't happy?

When I first heard they were remaking Godzilla I thought to myself that the Roland Emmerich one wasn't too bad and that there were better films to be made. Of course I was using memories from my childhood sitting on the sofa watching a huge dinosaur-thing smashing around New York. Come to 2014 though and through various leaks, posters, announcements etc. I'm starting to get into the Zilla mood, and then one day I saw the teaser trailer. The best trailer I've ever sen in my life. That brought me on board for definite. So after seeing the movie and hearing how divided the fans are I was a tad disappointed, not by the movie, just how many didn't like it. To me this new Godzilla was a very atmospheric movie, the feel of it can sometimes send shivers down your spine, the sounds it creates and the music by far make it what it is. The film also grounds itself into realism too, don't go in expecting Pacific Rim, this is very different regarding execution, it doesn't show Godzilla every five minutes, it focuses a lot on the human story, almost as if the giant destructive forces of nature now appearing were like a back-drop. That I think that is where it lost a lot of its fans; I myself thought it was interesting way to go and didn't mind it. Don't get me wrong you do see full shots of Godzilla and what he does which are some of the best scenes in cinema, the CGI is barley worth mentioning as of course it's going to be fantastic. As a film critic though I do have to share my negative points and that was that one or two times there are instances where unrealistic things happen concerning locating a massive creature (or lack of) which do take you out of the movie. Other than that and what I would say quite an abrupt ending Godzilla 2014 was TIME WELL SPENT.

OJ's TV Review - Person of Interest season 3

I don't know why this series isn't getting more popular, it is absolutely fantastic.

Person of Interest has finished it's third season. Last time we had the evolving plot of the corrupt cop group called HR. That story arc carries on into this quite heavily and comes to a climactic end mid-season. I think they finished it well and at the right time before it got to annoying and weighed down; the results of the HR plot affects the series quite a bit and although it surprised me I felt it has a powerful punch to any long-time viewer. In season 2 a character called Root showed up and became a sort of antagonist to the series; this time round though she is less of a villain and more of an obstacle that keeps appearing and then as the series progresses she comes more of a main character and also evolving into what you could call an ally to the team. In the end I really like her character and she adds a lot to the series. The main team themselves have some brilliant episodes, each member has a huge revelation or a big dive into their story arc. During the latter half of the series, two story arcs rise up concerning the machine which eventually come together to make an awesome finale, they did the end so well and so climactic I honestly had to check if there was a season 4 being made (there is) because the whole premise now has changed and that is very exciting.  One thing I can say is that Person of Interest does emotion really well, some of the scenes and the way it's shot is so well done it makes you the love the series more and more. Another thing it does well is definitely the humor, the comedic timing of this is fantastic, quick one-liners or a bit of dry humor really do make the series an enjoyable piece of entertainment. All-in-all with all these brilliant elements mixed in I think season 3 is the best season of Person of Interest and I'm giving it was TIME WELL SPENT.

OJ's Movie Review - Junk Head 1

A 30 minute short-film uploaded to YouTube - better than some big movies I've seen at the cinema.

So it's not a major feature film or anything (but hey it has an IMDB page) but I really had to review it Junk Head 1 is AWESOMNESS. because it's just an amazing piece of art. The creator if it, Takahide Hori, took four long years to make it because he has a full-time job so this was done on late nights, and busy weekends - but the work he has put into it is incredible. The basic plot is that in the distant future mankind begins research on clones that live underground in search of lost genetic information so they send one little guy deep below the surface. The film itself has very dark, atmospheric feel to it. The sounds, visuals and everything are all really eerie and creepy; and then some scenes are very thrilling and heart-racing. It's all surrounded in mystery as well, you never quite know what actually happened all those years ago and with the story you never know whats round the corner (literally). But it's not always dark, there's humorus scenes in it too, quite a good mix actually of humor, horror, and then some fun scenes too because the music is really cool. So I think for a 30 minute film created in four years
  After it was uploaded, Takahide set up a campaign for $100,000 to make a 60 minute sequel. If he gets that then he'll quit his job and work full-time on the Junk Head 2. Unfortuanatly it ends on Febuary 28th and the contributions arn't going up to high; but if you want to donate for the next Junk Head film then here's the link: http://igg.me/at/jh2

Watch the full film on YouTube thing HERE.

OJ's TV Review - Sherlock series 3

Dare I say?....... BEST SERIES EVER.

  Wow, Sherlock is back, I mean back! He jumped off a building, hit the ground and then he's just BACK. For two years the Internet has come up with 1000 different theories and then along came 'The Empty Hearse' and fandom imploded. The first episode of this series was excellent, it made fun of what people have said, it gave viewers it's own fan fiction and was just what BBC's Sherlock should be - funny as ever, thrilling as ever, enjoyable as ever, I mean they upped the stakes a bit in the first episode but boy was it good. Then along comes episode 2 and this just borders on stand-up comedy, 'The Sign of Three' is hilarious from beginning to end, it has crime scenes obviously, cases to solve and all that but not quite the way they've done it before which has seemed to split some fans but I enjoyed it. And then of course is the third and final one; 'His Last Vow', what can I say? At the time of writing this it's been less than 40 minutes since it finished and I'm still in shock. Every Sherlock series has a cliff-hanger and I was worried it would't quite stand up to the first two but this is equal, if not better. All in All series 3 was a brilliant ride; I love how everything links together, how each title references basically one line of an episode and just how it looks, the visuals, music, actors everything - pure genius. Sherlock's third run really is: AWESOMNESS!