Guardians of the Galaxy (2014)

Directed: James Gunn

Produced: Kevin Feige

Screenplay: James Gunn, Nicole Perlman

Starring: Chris Pratt, Zoe Saldana, Dave Bautista, Vin Diesel, Bradley Cooper, Lee Pace

When I saw the trailer of Guardians I wasn’t too excited. When Marvel resurrected its big players by the form of massive Hollywood franchises, I had at least heard of them; The Avengers, Spider-Man, and X-Men. DC chose to go with big-players Batman and Superman. However, pre-trailer, Guardians of the Galaxy was unknown to me. On top of this, it looked a bit, well, daft. Is that a talking racoon? Is that a talking tree?

Boy, I was wrong, and you are too, if you are considering giving it a miss. Marvel has made its funniest summer blockbuster yet. Guardians of the Galaxy doesn't take itself seriously, and the result being it’s hilarious. It’s funnier than many self-professed “comedies”, and by switching between gags and out-of-this-world action, every moment is thoroughly entertaining.

So what’s it all about? Meet our misfits of the galaxy, the most unlikely band of heroes you will ever meet. Ex-criminals thrown together by mishaps and coincidence to become a thoroughly unwilling group, trying to protect the galaxy from a mysterious orb getting into the hands of Ronan the Accuser.

Chris Pratt stars as Peter Quill, also known as Star Lord (but no-one calls him that). Quill was abducted from Earth as a child in the 80’s, meaning he is perpetually stuck in the 80’s (leading to one of the best soundtracks to have ever featured in a superhero movie). Quill’s moral code is a bit dodgy, but his heart is in the right place, a refreshing change from all recent self-sacrificing superheroes who are concerned with the greater good. Pratt is purely funny, all quips and dancing around the screen (most of the time literally), moving through physical and verbal comedy with ease.

Quill is joined by Rocket (voiced by Bradley Cooper), the aforementioned genetically-engineered racoon, who is obsessed by weapons and money; Groot, who is Rocket’s muscle and has three words during the whole film, which I’m sure was a challenging role for someone as notable as Vin Diesel; Drax, a blue alien caught up with righting the wrongs against him, and more importantly, does not get metaphors; and Zoe Saldana’s kick-ass Gamora, who provides the necessary voice of sanity.

Marvel may have not invested as much into Guardian’s as it has done with its bigger brothers, but that doesn’t detract from the usual Marvel antics, with explosion and colour. This film took you on a trip around the Galaxy that Marvel brags about it in its other films, but we have yet to witness, and it’s just as wonderful and inventive as the hints we’ve previously had.

Just as the film doesn’t take itself seriously, it’s important that you don’t either. Yes it’s a bit crazy, it’s totally silly, highly irrelevant, but mostly incredibly fun.

Rating: 10/10

Divergent by Veronica Roth

Age Group: YA

Genre: Dystopian

Pub Date: February 2012

Publisher: Harper Collins

                                                                            

I totally get the hype! However, I feel like it didn’t quite live up to everything I’ve seen about it. Don’t get me wrong, Divergent was a fantastic book, dull of everything I could have wanted from a dystopian novel: action, drama, and romance, and I really enjoyed it. My Youtube video explains why I didn’t feel it meet my expectations.

Divergent is about Tris, who lives in a world where everyone is divided into “fractions” based on their personality. Instead of choosing the selfless faction she was born into, Abnegation, Tris choses Dauntless, the brave nation. I really liked Roth’s world, I thought it was really clever, and thought-out, and I haven’t seen one like it. I would have liked more explanation about how the system came into place, but maybe that will happen in the sequels. 

The plot, pacing, and writing were amazing. It became addictive: I wanted to read on and on. There was never a dull moment in this book, as something was always happening. As much as the world was unique, I feel that the story wasn’t, but while I was reading it, I frankly didn’t care because I was having so much fun and there was enough twists to keep it unpredictable. The other reason why I didn’t care too much about the plot was because I felt the whole thing was about Tris and her discovery of herself.

Tris was a great female character. I often find dystopian books lose their sense of humour with the doom and gloom, but Tris was pretty funny. And good, and kind, and most importantly, flawed. I felt all of her actions were really true to her character; she was brave, yet not excessively heroic. Most importantly, despite living eons into the future, she was really relatable. She’s just a teenager struggling to find out who she is and where she belongs.

As for the romance? Well Four, Four, Four… It was impossible not to like Four. He’s got that whole bad-boy-with-a-heart-of-gold thing down. He also had great character development and loads of twists in his background. However, as much as I liked Four and Tris, I feel like there could have been some more background or development in the other characters. I would have loved to find out more about Tris’ family, or Christine, or even Eric. Roth created amazing characters, but left me hanging.

I think it’s the lack of connection I had with the other characters which gave me the emotional disconnection with most of the plot that wasn’t directly to do with Tris and Four. And this was the major flaw for me. The only emotion I felt during the whole book was “I’M SO EXCITED WHAT’S GOING TO HAPPEN NEXT”, while other dystopians have provided me with so much more.

Sum It Up: A must-read for dystopian lovers. I really loved the book, thought it was different and action-packed, but didn’t quite live up to the hype for me.

Rating: 8/10

The World's End (2013)

Director: Edgar Wright
Producer: Nira Park, Tim Bevan, Eric Fellner
Writers: Edgar Wright, Simon Pegg
Starring: Simon Pegg, Nick Frost, Paddy Considine, Martin Freeman

The World’s End comes from the eclectic duo Simon Pegg and Nick Frost (Hot Fuzz and Shaun of the Dead), and is the finale in their “Cornetto Trilogy” (using the world “trilogy” in the loosest sense). Gary King (Pegg), a man living in the past, is determined to reunite his old gang (Frost, Martin Freeman, Eddie Marsan, and Paddy Considine) to complete a pub crawl from their youth in their childhood town. However, all is not as it seems in their hometown, and suddenly everything turns, well, a bit apocalyptic.

It was fun, I’ll give it that. Pegg and Frost chemistry and friendship just sizzles across the screen, and there were enough jokes and character to keep it entertaining. I loved how all the characters took individual journeys and the writers were committed to having character development within all the chaos that was going on. But the main problem I had was the trailer had given away its biggest plot twist: the alien apocalypse. This meant I found the rest of the film fairly predictable, until it got to a shocking last fifteen minutes.

Plot aside; it was the characters which really made the film. There was something distinctly sorry and funny about King, who is clinging onto memories of old, and Pegg has never had a better formed character: obsessive, compulsive, and plain deluded, which makes a great comic character. Frost’s role as Andrew was the stark contrast to Gary (he hadn’t drunk in sixteen years), and he provided a clever humour, as well as a balance to everyone. The World’s End really highlighted good British comedy, within the high budget extravaganza. It was less slapstick and more witty, and you can see it shine through the American films in the same genre.

In the end, The World’s End didn’t live up to my expectations. Explosions, robots, and fight-sequences were tossed out every ten seconds and after a while the drinking and fighting got a bit repetitive. It was only the gems in between which saved it. I got that it was meant to be an alien invasion-comedy crossover, but it didn’t make enough sense to be a good alien invasion, and it was so caught up with trying to be one, that some of the comedy got left behind.

Sum It Up: Not as clever as their previous work, but still funny and with a heart. And lots of explosions.

Rating: 7/10

Man of Steel (2013)

Directed by Zack Snyder
Produced by Christopher Nolan, Charles Roven, Emma Thomas, Deborah Snyder
Screenplay by David S. Goyer and based on Superman by Jerry Siegel and Joe Shuster
Starring: Henry Cavill, Amy Adams, Kevin Costner, Russell Crowe
Rating: 12A/ PG-13

So Superman is back, and smashing its way through the box office. With the hype surrounding the film, Man of Steel had a lot to live up too. It was good, but it stopped short of the height it was meant to fly too.

Superman lore is not a new concept of me, and as a fan I was incredibly excited for the film. Disappointingly, for a film so long, the plot was incredibly simple, especially when parts of it are integrated into popular culture knowledge. Superman leaves Krypton, arrives on Earth, grows up on Earth, the bad guy comes, and Superman saves the day… In a movie where everyone knows the general storyline, you expect a few more plot twists. Major parts of the film were given to intense, long action sequences that eventually became tedious, and felt like a rip-off  of certain movies (*cough* The Avengers). In all the time they wasted on that, they could have created a complex plot, especially considering Nolan’s involvement and his clever Dark Knight trilogy.  The saving grace of the storyline was the intertwining flashbacks to Clark’s childhood and his early days before the cape, with the struggle he had with family, choice, and destiny.

Henry Cavill was a good Clark Kent/ Superman, and certainly looks the part, but if he had been given a better script, he could have been a great one. But thinking back on the film, he was barely in it. Half of the film was dedicated to Krypton, Zod, or flashbacks. It seems all he was there was to throw punches around, meaning the character had barely any connection to the audience. But when he did get a chance to make a connection, boy, did he do it well. The fragility within the character was really shown when Clark was restraining himself in his early days or in the moments with Lois. I particularly liked Adams and Cavill’s chemistry, and Adams was a good Lois Lane, feisty and headstrong, if underdeveloped. In fact, all the acting was really good; it was the meagre script which let everyone down.

Gaping plot issues aside, Man of Steel wasn’t a bad film for numerous reasons. It played to the classic, feel-good blockbuster routine: attractive hero, lots of action, and the occasional injection of emotion to lift it up. A quirky feature I did like was that it was more light-hearted than The Dark Knight with the occasional quip here and there. And don’t get me wrong, the action sequences were exhilarating for the first 10 minutes worth. Most importantly, there were rare occasions where script, cinematography, and acting came together to produce something out of this world, which made the dire bits worthwhile.

I would say Man of Steel is worth a watch if you don’t expect too much of it; if you do, you will surely be disappointed. It lacked the fun and wit of Marvel, and the exciting plot of The Dark Knight, but made up in visuals, style, and the occasional glimpse into something great. I wonder if all the fun went with the red pants of Superman’s costume…

Sum It Up: Definitely worth a watch, bound to be a hit for those who like a lot of explosions, but don't expect anything more than a generic superhero film.

Rating: 6/10

The 5th Wave by Rick Yancey

Age Group: YA

Genre: Dystopian/ Science Fiction

Pub date: 7^th May 2013

Publisher: Puffin

I went to an event at Penguin HQ courtesy of World Book Day (thank you!), to see Rick Yancey talk about his new book: The 5^th Wave. Youtube video about that will be up soon. But let’s get to the point here: the book itself.

Do you know how long I have been waiting for a good alien invasion YA novel? Specific I know, but nevertheless true. In a time where I’ve got a bucketful of dystopian novels raining down on me, this book was refreshing.

The 5th Wave tells the story of Earth after aliens, which our protagonist, Cassie, names “The Others”, invade and are attempting to wipe out the human race. It’s do-or-die in this world, but it more feels like die-or-die. We join Cassie as she attempts to keep a promise in a world where you can trust no one. I have to say; initially I was a bit sceptical of the book, mostly because I thought I could predict what was going to happen. I was so wrong. There was enough plot twists in this book to make your mind believe it’s playing mental Twister.

The book is written from several points of view, I’m not going to say who, but I am glad of that because it broke the book up a bit, and allowed you to see the full world from different angles. And boy, it’s a good world. As a science-fiction fan, I was impressed by the plausibility of the scenario and the differences it presented, even if I was miffed by the sweeping generalizations Yancey made of alien stories.

I really liked all the characters. There was something relatable to all of them, and the portrayal of how terror and loss can affect people differently made them and the story realistic. I definitely think the best character was Ben, his views on the world, his sense of morality, and his wit. Cassie had that funny kick-ass girl attitude, which was nice to read, but it was at her moments of weakness and doubt that I liked her the most. I have a slight criticism of the writing, in that Ben and Cassie had the same type of voice at the beginning, which felt like another generalization, but this one of teenagers, but I was pleased as Ben changed over the story, his voice felt like it did too. I loved how Yancey had a different tone to most dystopians, with jokes and attitude, but never losing sight of the seriousness of the situation.

Overall, I loved this book. It kept me gripped right to the end. In fact, I got to the last page and was like “where’s the rest?”. I cannot wait till the next one!

Rating: 9/10
Buy on Book Depository!