BY Our Editor ON 2016-09-18 Jon Favreau’s reimaging of The Jungle Book proves that Disney may be onto something with these live-action remakes The Jungle Book may be the biggest surprise of 2016, because it has achieved the seemingly impossible: it pleased everyone. The original Disney animated movie is sacred to The House of Mouse’s fan base, and despite its dated script, is still seen as one of the greatest animated movies of all time. So when it was announced that The Jungle Book would be the next in line for Disney’s new trend of live-action remakes, fans were understandably sceptical. There’s already been lots of live-action adaptations of Rudyard Kipling’s famous stories, and not one of them is remembered as fondly as Disney’s. After all, Disney’s remakes have only been slightly successful: Maleficent was well received, but that was a reimagining of the Sleeping Beauty story, whereas Cinderella made no impact at all, not to mention the fact that Andy Serkis will be releasing his own version sometime in 2017. The stage was set for The Jungle Book to fail. Instead director Jon Favreau gave us one of the most magical films
BY Our Editor ON 2016-09-17 Star Trek Beyond is a fitting celebration of the franchise’s 50th anniversary, and forges a path for more quality sequels Before the release of Star Trek Beyond, the new film series, masterminded by JJ Abrams, was languishing. The first film took audiences by surprise by rebooting the franchise in a way that connects with the rules of this scf fi universe, and coupled a great cast with superb action, it created an origin story that revived the brand. The second film, despite glowing reviews from critics at the time, is viewed less fondly. Star Trek Into Darkness is seen by some fans as the worst movie of the franchise, an exaggeration because surely that’s still Star Trek V. Abrams decided not to direct the third instalment, instead opting for Star Wars, and in doing so stealing Star Trek’s thunder. He was replaced by Fast and Furious reviver Justin Lin, the man tasked, along with Simon Pegg who co-wrote the script, with keeping the cinematic Star Trek relevant.
BY Our Editor ON 2016-09-17 Nerve provides a fun, if flawed, comment on modern internet culture There a lot of movies that exploit the possible terrors of technology. David Cronenberg did it with Videodrome, Minority Report made touch screens a tool for catching future criminals. Nerve is nowhere near as masterfully made as those films, but its own message of techno-terror may be the most topical story about modern obsession.
BY Our Editor ON 2016-09-14 Independence Day: Resurgence fails to capture the fear, and wonder of the original 20 years is a long time in Hollywood. Back in 1996 Independence Day was one of the defining entries of what we know as blockbusters. The sheer destructive power of Noah Emmerich’s alien disaster movie thrilled, and freaked, audiences, along with a star performance by Will Smith, Jeff Goldblum doing his thing, and, of course, the speech. The film hasn’t aged badly, its humour is still cheesy, we now have “the world’s best extra” gif, and numerous blockbuster franchises that owe a huge debt to it. So did we really need another one? No, we did not. Hollywood has moved on since Independence Day, and taken many of its cues from it. Which means that any Independence Day movie released in 2016 is going to look like a generic summer flick, with the same images of global destruction, but without the multi-coloured superheroes.
BY Our Editor ON 2016-09-13 There are no winners in Batman vs Superman: Dawn of Justice The DC Extended Universe began with the birth of a boy on a dying planet millions of light years from earth. Man of Steel had its problems but one thing was for sure, it new exactly what it wanted its Superman to be: an alien who can bring hope to mankind. Like it’s follow-up Man of Steel’s themes were in direct conflict with its execution. Superman was a symbol of hope, but what Batman vs Superman shows is that he is a symbol of fear as well. Any good work director Zack Snyder had done setting up Henry Cavill’s Superman was immediately undone by his cynical, and decidedly un-comic book world view.
BY Our Editor ON 2016-09-12 Will “Insurgent” Make You Regret The Time and Money You Spent Watching It? After watching the first movie in The Divergent Series, you must have fallen in love with Shailene’s beautiful, long, blonde locks (if you are a lady). However, the trailer for “Insurgent” hinted one harrowing moment – Tris cutting off her beautiful locks.