Gravity

Well, as awards season rolls round for another year, it is really no surprise that the number of 'genre-defining' film releases is certainly hotting up. Gravity is just one of those to be scheduled in the all-important Academy Award lead up, and just one viewing is all that's needed to demonstrate why. Quite simply, Gravity is an absolutely astonishing visual feat. Cinemagoers have long been used to the growing complexity and refinement of computer graphics and special effects in their favourite movies. What is so startling about Gravity is just how much of it falls into that category; as much as 95% of any given shot is probably computer generated (pretty much everything except the faces in the visors). And each and every pixel of it is absolutely photo real.

Gambit

Though the movie shares both a strap line and somewhat of a visual and comic style with one of my favourite TV shows, the con is not really on as much as you'd want it to be in Gambit, the story of a couple of bungling con artists trying to defraud a repulsively bad-mannered art collector (effortlessly played by the inimitable Alan Rickman). In fact, Rickman is more a cherry on the top of a series of rather excellent casting turns, with some of my favourite male actors of the moment completing the cast list in the forms of Colin Firth and Stanley Tucci. Cameron Diaz's unwilling inside-woman from the deep South is the only turn off, though more a fault of the gratingly irritating character than of her acting. In fact, it is more the content of the film itself, feeling more like a Mr Bean sketch than a well thought through heist movie, that provides the ultimate frustration. Though there are certainly some neat touches with the finale, there is a lingering feeling of too little too late, especially as the comedy depths have already been plumbed as low as a sequence involving Colin Firth's trousers, an iron spike, and the outside wall of London's Savoy hotel. The effortless sophistication of Hustle, this most certainly isn't.


I know I'm an annoying cynic, but how much do we think the Savoy invested in Gambit for this kind of placement?

G.I. Joe: The Rise of Cobra

'G.I. Joe: The Rise of Cobra' prompts a few questions as a reviewer, especially as I would imagine that most people are going to have made up their minds pretty much on seeing the title for the first time. Spawned from the Hasbro action figure toy of the same name (notice a trend?) the 'Joes' are an elite military unit, soon pulled into a mission to save the world. Highly original stuff... So, what questions are worth asking?

How does it look? To be honest, pretty good. The special effects are particularly effective, though their presence becomes so frequent that they begin to lose importance pretty early on. That said, one scene that deserves specific mention is a sequence in Paris sequence showing the incredibly realistic collapse of the Eiffel Tower. Not ground-breaking, but certainly of a high standard.

Iron Man meets the 400m hurdles. Look out London 2012, drug testing won't catch this one out...

What about the storyline? Worryingly, 'G.I. Joe' managed to be both predictable and still highly convoluted, which in fairness is quite a trick to pull off. There is really too much going on at once, most of it being highly irrelevant, and seemingly more an excuse to cram in as many effects as possible.

The big one now... is it good enough to warrant a sequel? Evidently yes, although Hasbro and Paramount seem desperate not to repeat the same rather muted critical reception that this film received. The sequel (due out later in 2012), is rolling out action movie big-guns like Bruce Willis and Dwayne 'The Rock' Johnson in an effort to guide 'Retaliation' to box office success. To be honest though, provided the franchise can keep delivering on the Transformers formula, I see no reason for them to stop. One thing for the production team to bare in mind for the future though; as much as Channing Tatum provides a welcome diversion, the heavy prosthetics and enormous face mask means that we don't see nearly enough of Joseph Gordon-Levitt's pretty face. Sort it out.

Green Lantern

I can't admit that I've ever been the comic-book type (as surprising as that may be to some who know me). I just never got into them as a kid, so I'm pretty ignorant when it comes to analysing how faithfully their big screen franchises stick to the things that made them possible in the first place. All that said, I am normally a big fan of the result. Sadly, 'Green Lantern' seemed to fall short of the mark. Though the premise is certainly intriguing enough (intergalactic peacekeepers with the ability to manifest their own willpower), the resulting story is far too convoluted for 'virgin' 'Green Lantern' viewers, yet seemed surprisingly patronising for anyone familiar with the characters and mythology.

Though expectations on visual effects will always be high on a film such as this, the CGI in 'Green Lantern' is genuinely striking in places. Regrettably, there is such an annoying over-reliance on the post-production elements that they do begin to lose their impressiveness rather quickly, and are all too frequently interspersed with less-than spectacular moments, that do little to maintain the illusion.

I must not make a joke about Ryan Reynolds' ring... I must not make a joke about Ryan Reynolds' ring..

Looking back, it's probably easy to be critical about 'Green Lantern' - comic book adaptations always seem to be easier targets for the particularly scathing reviews, which is perhaps a little harsh. In a funny way, they've almost got the toughest job - trying not to offend the vast legion of hyper-discerning enthusiasts of the original stories, whilst simultaneously appealing to a whole new set of fans enough to warrant the studios to finance the all too inevitable trilogy. In the case of 'Green Lantern', I'm not sure it has done quite enough of either to really justify a full franchise, but given the current Hollywood penchant for the Marvel and DC universes, and the fact that we have several more colours to go through (a quick Wikipedia search would suggest at least 5), I have a funny feeling they'll do their best to make this one work...