Justice League: Film Review

Justice League: Film Review

Cast: Ben Affleck, Gal Gadot,  Jason Momoa, Amy Adams, Ezra Miller, Henry Cavill, JK Simmons, Jeremy Irons
Director: Zack Snyder

The Avengers had it after numerous build up films, and while Suicide Squad signalled DC's intentions to let the baddies have all the fun first to cinematically buck the team-up trend, it was perhaps inevitable that the squad team up event would ultimately arrive.

And that it has now - albeit more with dramatic deja vu and some moments that genuinely engage and amuse among the appallingly executed and shonky CGI - should come as nothing of a surprise to those who've been following the rapidly-bloating superhero genre.

Following on from Snyder's much-derided Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice and the critical success of Patty Jenkins' Wonder Woman, Justice League arrives with a degree of weight of expectation to see if DC can properly launch a squad franchise for future incarnations. (Though baffingly, Jason Momoa's Aquaman will get an origins film after this one releases).

With Superman dead after the tussle with Batman, the world's awash with chaos, with an increase in terrorist events and general hoodlums.

As if that's not enough, Batman's wandering around in a kind of funk, awash with ennui and with hair flecked with grey - even Alfred (Irons) wryly notes at one point that one misses the days when the biggest problems they faced were wind-up electronic penguins.

Diana Prince (Gadot, a little less wooden this time around) is faring a little better, protecting those in peril and persuading Bats that they need more people on their team to help combat a growing problem, which threatens the world and as usual, involves a MacGuffin.

Enter Ezra Miller's Barry Allen aka The Flash, the quip machine and nerdy heart and soul of the piece. His touch of levity doesn't go too far a la Thor Ragnarok, but signals DC's intentions to perhaps add a degree of humour.

Sadly, he's the only one of the new additions who's not saddled with reams of exposition for their introduction - unlike Ray Fisher's Cyborg, and Jason Momoa's Hawaiian influenced Aquaman. Their involvement isn't so much shoe-horned in, but clearly laden with necessity that could have been cleared up in an origins film.

The main issue with Justice League isn't so much that DC's pulled together something that feels like a revamp of intentions for the DCEU, but more that due to superhero cinema overflow, feels like a rather unfortunate piece of deja vu, that suffers once again from a lacklustre villain and definite feeling of lack of threat to all. It certainly undoes some of the good work done by Wonder Woman in terms of narrative and execution.

A series of cubes that threaten the world - pretty sure that was in an Avengers film.
A series of flying insect creatures that threaten the world - again, pretty sure that was in an Avengers film as well.

The sense of deja vu in this heroes assemble film is almost stifling, it feels like much is an identikit of all-too-familiar elements and tropes.

Its denouement is perhaps its weakest point, a muddled mess of CGI weakness that feels dark, muddied and narratively laughable thanks to its deus-ex-machina.

And while for a DC effort, there's no denying this is a massive step-up in terms of delivery and signalling of intent, it never quite reaches any highs that you'd hope for, and settles more for a run-of-the-mill middle of the road blockbuster that's let down poorly by badly executed CGI and a rote plot.

Ultimately, while there are parts of Justice League that show the DC universe is righting itself, there are not enough of them on show in the film among the dullness that pervades. There's no denying Justice League is the creative leap that DC wanted, but there's also a persistent nagging feeling that the genre is reaching the end of its shelf life, and this should-have-been hit-it-out-of-the-park piece is more a film that never managed to convince itself to reach for greatness.

The Killing of a Sacred Deer: Film Review

The Killing of a Sacred Deer: Film Review

As darkly black as they come and as uncomfortable as you may expect from the director of The Lobster, Yorgos Lanthimos, The Killing of a Sacred Deer is an unmissable experience.

In other hands this could easily have been a horror, but under Lanthimos' unswerving eye, it's his usual combination of both the weird and also the devilish, which cause you to squirm uncomfortably in your seat. As demonstrated with The Lobster and Dogtooth, Lanthimos has a way of creating a world that's self-contained and populated with a veneer that doesn't quite feel right, but feels drily plausible.

A heavily-bearded Colin Farrell plays heart surgeon Steven, whose journey begins post-surgery discussing the banality of a new watch that he needs with his colleague. As they stalk the halls of the immeasurably clinical hospital where they work, Steven talks in a staccato robotic turn of phrase, with the inane sounding incredibly offbeat, almost as if a robot synthesiser programme has followed a series of sub-routines and thrown out something that could pass for conversation.

Steven's life appears fine - he has a wife Anna (Nicole Kidman) and a daughter and son. He also has a friendship with a young boy Martin (Dunkirk star Barry Keoghan) that seems a little unusual at best.

But as the black humour and the film plays out, that relationship with Martin becomes key to proceedings as retribution, guilt and Greek tragedy begins to bite. To say more is to spoil the reveals of the film, which come gradually and powerfully as it unspools.

Lanthimos isn't interested in moralising in his latest - and it's clear that pretty much everyone has something to hide in the film, giving it a dangerous edge and a warped sense of desperation. As Martin's obsession grows, the long slow shots that Lanthimos injects into the film and the darker edges become almost unbearable, blessing proceedings with a quite horrific dread that spreads malignantly and quickly.

Many spend time remarking on Steven's hands in this film and how clean they are. It's a delicious irony that they're anything but, and with Farrell's cool veneer losing its grip the more it carries on, the film's more absurdist edges actually become more plausible and all the more horrific because of it.

If Farrell and Kidman are unswervingly staunch, it's Keoghan's malicious Martin that impresses most. With a cold, clear sense of warped logic, his path to the punishing plays out with an underplayed edge; his calmness makes everything seem that more sinister and disquieting.

Ultimately, The Killing of a Sacred Deer is a bold film - it pushes some buttons excellently, but Lanthimos knows when to hold off, when to hold his nerve and when to put the audience through the wringer. Much like The Lobster set things with a bittersweet off-kilter feel, The Killing of a Sacred Deer is truly knuckle-clenching. Like a master, Lanthimos leads us to the final destination and we arrive at it, breathless and wrought with the horror of the ride. It's compellingly grim cinema at its dark unpunishable best. 

Tulip Fever: Film Review

Tulip Fever: Film Review

Cast: Alicia Vikander, Dane DeHaan, Christoph Waltz, Cara Delevingne, Holliday Grainger, Jack O'Connell, Tom Hollander, Judi Dench
Director: Justin Chadwick

Forever destined to be known as the film disgraced Hollywood producer Harvey Weinstein left on the shelf for 3 years and also the first film to be released by the Weinstein Company post Weinstein's spectacular fall from grace, Tulip Fever is something of a tonal mess.

Future Tomb Raider star Alicia Vikander stars as Sofia in this period piece set in 17th century Amsterdam as the tulip market grows feverishly. Similar to the stock market, there's a great trade to be had in bulbs and speculation, and Sofia finds herself in the middle of it when she escapes the convent she's in by agreeing to be married off to Waltz's merchant.

With pressure to conceive, Sofia is found wanting and Waltz's Cornelis decides to commission a painting of the two of them from upcoming artist Jaan (DeHaan). But an illicit affair grows between the pair, culminating in tragedy for everyone in the house - including Grainger's maid and confidante and her lover (O'Connell).

It's hard to know exactly what Chadwick (The Other Boleyn Girl) wanted to do exactly with Tom Stoppard's mashed together screenplay.

From period drama, romance, farce and finally on to inevitable tragedy, the film flip-flops so badly and bounces between different genres that you get cinematic whiplash watching on.

It's not like any of the cast (with the exception sadly of DeHaan and Delevingne who prove to be the weakest links here) give it anything but their best and throw themselves into it with gusto. But a lack of coherence and cohesion proves to make this narrative bulb wilt and wither as its inevitable formulaic tropes are systematically ticked off.

Inevitably what emerges from Tulip Fever is a Carry On style drama film that even Shakespeare would have dismissed as too light for his attention.

And despite Vikander's continuing allure and dramatic chops for every role she takes, the film's fatal flaw causes the whole house of cards to come crashing down around everyone's ears.

Assassin's Creed Origins: PS4 Review

Assassin's Creed Origins: PS4 Review

Platform: PS4
Developed by Ubisoft

The tenth Assassin's Creed game to emerge blinking into the light is the first to take a break from the annual publishing release schedule - and it's actually quite an enjoyable one.

Set in ancient Egypt and placing you in the role of Bayek, the game's protagonist and the people's protector as change sweeps into Egypt. But as ever with Assassin's, there's more going on behind the scenes than you could realise.

Eminently playable (though still with the quirks of glitches that always blight these games), Assassin's Creed Origins is a stealth game that benefits from a greatly wider open world that's full of side quests, characters and moments that impress.

Mixing in elements of Destiny's weapons, Far Cry's progression system and previous Assassin's games, Assassin's Creed Origins manages to take all these all too familiar elements and processes them into their own beast.

With an engaging more personal story at its helm too, Assassin's Creed Origins involves you from the beginning as opposed to other iterations of the game which felt simply like they've placed you in a world and forced you to get on with it.

Weapons increase as your experience in the game does, which helps greatly, and the desire to progress is aided by the fact side quests are more entertaining than a necessary grind. It also helps that you can gain XP by smart use of the skills upgrade - upgrading more practical double points ability first rather than cooler ones actually pays off long term.

Graphically, the game looks great - even if occasionally riding your camel into walls is a real possibility and having half of it stick into the wall while the other half runs becomes a bit of a norm. The open world looks impressive and when you're raiding tombs (yes, there is that) the light flickering within and depth gives it a sizzle that looks good.

With a streamlined story and a massive world to explore, Assassin's Creed Origins actually gives you more the more time you spend within. It pays off immensely and reminds you why the games in the franchise work when everything gels.

Ultimately, a year off may have paid dividends for Assassin's Creed Origins - it's one of the best without a shadow of a doubt.

Win a copy of Una on DVD

Win a copy of Una on DVD

Thanks to Madman Home Entertainment, you could win Una on DVD starring Rooney Mara and Ben Mendelsohn.

Fifteen years earlier, Una ran away with an older man, Ray, a crime for which he was arrested and imprisoned. 

When she comes across a photo of him in a trade magazine, Una tracks him down and turns up at his workplace. 

Her abrupt arrival threatens to destroy Ray’s new life and derail her stability. 

Unspoken secrets and buried memories surface asUna and Ray sift through the past.

Una is available on DVD right now

To win a copy, all you have to do is email  your details to this  address: darrensworldofentertainment@gmail.com or CLICK HERE NOW!

Include your name and address and title your email  UNA!
Competition closes November 16th

Win Your Name on Blu Ray

Win Your Name on Blu Ray

To celebrate the release of the anime smash hit at the box office, Madman Home Entertainment is giving you the chance to win Your Name on Blu Ray.

Mitsuha and Taki are two total strangers living completely different lives. 

But when Mitsuha makes a wish to leave her mountain town for the bustling city of Tokyo, they become connected in a bizarre way. 

She dreams she is a boy living in Tokyo while Taki dreams he is a girl from a rural town he's never been to.

What does their newfound connection mean? And how will it bring them together?

Your Name is available in shops to buy now.

To win a copy, all you have to do is email  your details to this  address: darrensworldofentertainment@gmail.com or CLICK HERE NOW!

Include your name and address and title your email NAME!
Competition closes November 16th

Ingrid Goes West: Film Review

Ingrid Goes West: Film Review

Cast: Aubrey Plaza, Elizabeth Olsen, O'Shea Jackson Jr, Wyatt Russell
Director: Matt Spicer

A satire on the social media loving generation and a dark drama as well, Ingrid Goes West is the cautionary yet all too familiar tale of Ingrid (Parks and Rec star Aubrey Plaza).

Obsessed with a woman she's never met other than through Instagram, Ingrid's institutionalised after pepper spraying the woman at her wedding because she never received an invite. Upon release and with the spectre of her mother's death licking away at her background, Ingrid forms a new obsession with Elizabeth Olsen's Taylor, an Insta-celebrity whose life appears perfect.

Ingratiating her way in, Ingrid becomes firm friends with Taylor after moving out west to be near her....

In many ways, Ingrid Goes West is a Single White Female for the Insta-generational millennial on the go.

For those opposed to social media, it's a satire on the reality behind the filters, and while it loses its bite later on (bar its last scene), the film's desire to showcase the vacuousness of Taylor's life with Ingrid's borderline depression is a strong step for the Hollywood game to take (particularly in this ongoing war of Influencers and strategies).

As the soulless and lost Ingrid, Plaza is perfect, both encapsulating he dizzying highs of the social recognition and the gnawing desperation of the ignorance; she pulls off this indie with veritable aplomb and makes Ingrid both a nuanced, empathetic and yet obscene human being as well.

A breezy Olsen makes Taylor both empty enough and appealing, and while Russell gets some good lines as her beleaguered husband, who wants the earlier version of his wife back before she was an internet celeb, Straight Outta Compton star O'Shea Jackson Jr brings subtle life to the neighbour who's got an attraction to Ingrid.

While Spicer makes the film quite dark at times, this BFF dramedy has some serious bite and commentary to the social media generation and the divides within. A warning perhaps to the vacuous generation and the phone-obsessed millennials, it may fall short in its final 20 minutes, but all in all, Ingrid Goes West deserves to get more than just a social media thumbs up.