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Ex Machina

Ex Machina uses the sci-fi medium of the future to explore the creation of a perfect woman. Putting forward the question, what can be artificially created? Consciousness, love and life are all examined in this film. The innocent thrust into this situation is Caleb (Domhnall Gleeson), a programmer for Blue Book, the near future's dominant search engine, who is summoned to the research facility and retreat run by his boss, genius mogul Nathan (Oscar Isaac). In a luxury home that goes into lockdown, the inhabitants are Nathan, his maid Kyoko (Sonoya Mizuno ) and Ava (Alicia Vikander), a striking mix of moulded female form, glowing blue cables and a digital brain. Similarly to Blade Runner creates a cautionary tale about Playing God and does so through a chilling relationship between Caleb and the robot Ava. Garland does a magnificent job of foreshadowing and allusion throughout the film and the mis-en-scene of the film is cultivated through a minimalist scape and setting. Ex Machina gets a haunting 4/5 stars.

Straight Outta Compton

F. Gary Gray's Straight Outta Compton is a story of outsiders turned insiders, creativity and conflict, rivalry and respectability. Despite the controversy that has sometimes surrounded the founding figures of West Coast rap in the mid-1980s, this comes across as a deliberately conventional musical biopic. there are two sides to this film that make it enjoyable but also make it lackluster. The soundtrack is simply astounding their old music coupled with the new soundtrack “Compton” released by Dr Dre for the film in conjuction with the action of the film is breathtaking, full-on and dramatic and the actual story they are telling is an extremely powerful one, about the struggle discrimination and animosity they received throughout the time. These two factors really lay the foundation for a successful film, however, a lot of the delivery is lost through poor casting and acting. Many of the actors in the film lack experience and it shows the delivery is often week or unconvincing and the acting nervous in a sense. For this reason Straight outta Compton gets 2/5 stars

Mad Max: Fury Road

Mad Max: Fury Road is the first film from George Miller since 2011’s dancing penguins cartoon Happy Feet Two, and his first live-action project since 1998’s Babe: Pig in the City. Two words spring to mind: "pent up".

The movie is set in the near future. There are no cities or civilizations left. The landscape is dying of thirst; water—known as Aqua Cola—is severely rationed; and other resources, notably gasoline, are hoarded and tussled over like scraps of food. Max (Tom Hardy) is a survivor, like everyone else, and, as we join the stream of action, he is captured and hauled into servitude at the Citadel. Max is soon joined by a new acquaintance, Imperator Furiosa (Charlize Theron) and the film is driven by the chase between Immortan Joe and the escapees.

The film provides a surreal landscape and full-throttle soundscape, which provide the film’s backdrop of whirlwinds and dust-storms, marry surprisingly well with the predominantly practical stunt work. The world of Mad Max has always been welded together from bits of whatever was lying around, and the films’ brilliance has always been in their welding – the ingenious ways in which their scrap-metal parts were combined to create something unthinkable, hilarious or obscene, and often all three. Mad Max Fury road gets 5/5 stars.

Now You See Me

Now You See Me (2013) is a flashy and enjoyable thriller directed by Louis Leterrier. Leterrier cleverly combines a heist movie with a twisty thriller, providing his audience with a pleasurable and entertaining movie. Now You See Me centres on an officer (Mark Ruffalo) pursuing a group of the world’s greatest illusionists, The Four Horsemen (Woody Harrelson, Jessie Eisenberg, Isla Fisher, Dave Franco). The Four Horsemen’s performances involve audacious heists of large, immoral corporations- their earnings are then dramatically returned to their audience.

Leterrier develops the story line while providing the audience with amusing illusion scenes that combine the delights of a real life magic show with intriguing and essential plot elements. There is an obvious demand and expectation for illusion and magic tricks, and Leterrier delivers on this. This being said however, audiences must be willing to take a leap of faith and believe some of the farfetched scenarios.

A surprising revelation towards the end of the film adds to the audience’s pleasure. While the exposure was handled a little clumsily, it still achieves what it set out to. All cast members help elevate the already strong story line, each creating an interesting and indispensable character. Now You See Me is a sleek, glamorous bank-heist-meets-thriller film that entertains the audience from start to finish. While Leterrier leaves some questions unanswered and some of the antics are fanciful, if audiences go into the movie with a trusting, almost child-like, mindset they are guaranteed to enjoy Now You See Me.

The Last House on the Left (2009)

In this 2009 remake of The Last House on the Left, David Iliadis revisits Wes Craven’s 1971 original horror-thriller, recreating similar ideas and scenes. Craven’s original The Last House on the Left managed to shock 1971 audiences, confronting them with crude images.

Iliadis’s storyline is very undifferentiated to Craven’s. Mari (Sara Paxton) and her parents are visiting their lake house. Meanwhile, dangerous criminal, Krug (Garret Dillahunt), escapes police custody with the help of his girlfriend and brother. Mari and her wayward friend Paige (Martha MacIsaac) decide to go back to a new friend, Justin’s (Spencer Treat Clark) apartment. Justin turns out to be Krug’s son and the dangerous foursome abduct the girls.

Iliadis presents the audience with highly violent scenes. With a much more desensitised audience than Craven’s 1971 cinemagoers, Iliadis had a more challenging task in creating a shock factor. In order to do this, he presents the audience with a distressing, lengthy rape scene. While this scene is likely to be a bit much to take for many, it is successful in making the audience squirm.

Iliadis’ remake is fairly successful. It recreates all of Craven’s original successes, however it offers little more than this. Because of this, it could be said that Iliadis’ revamp is unnecessary, as it does not offer any new significant insights. Iliadis does however implement clever camera work that assists in story telling. Overall, Iliadis’ The Last House on the Left is a strong imitation of the original, rather than a recreation.

Divergent

Divergent is intelligently brought to life on the big screen from the director who brought us "Limitless" and "The Illusionist." Are we seeing something of similar essence with the "Hunger Games" series? Yes. However, my personal take was that the characters were more engaging and the plot was as well in this film. Shailene is excellent at the helm, and really brings forth a convincing portrayal of a heroine battling in a world where chaos and tragedy envelope the characters. Her graceful emergence from shy personality to dominance is done cleverly and really speaks to her ability as an actress. Theo James is also exceptional in the co-pilot role and almost effortlessly seems to pull off the bad boy with standards persona. I can write this piece while honestly saying that I was not bored during the entirety of the film and was pleased to see this film do such an excellent job at developing both the plot and characters involved in it. Highly Recommend.