Three early summer films at the cinema.

In the early summer I saw three of the season's biggest films....

Iron Man 3

Marvel continue the adventures of Tony Stark (played by the always watchable Robert Downey, Jnr.) and his superhero alter-ego, in the first film post the mega event that was The Avengers and it's multi million box office take last year. Director Shane Black, a newcomer to the Marvel universe, gets Tony out of his technological comfort zone (and of course into Christmas - a time of the year he loves to film!) and therefore the famous suit for a lot of the running time. This allows the character to plan beyond his usual way of getting out of scrapes, and gives the film an edge. The visual effects are up to the usual high standard, and there are some nice one-liners. The character of the Mandarin was wonderfully realized by Ben Kingsley. Good twist there! Also great to see Gwyenth Paltrow as the lovely Pepper Potts, who gets into a suit this time. I found the film very enjoyable, far better than the rather average Iron Man 2, and am not surprised its the highest grossing film of the year (so far!)

Iron Man 3 poster art.

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Oblivion

Tom Cruise on the Oblivion poster.

In this science fiction film set in the near future, after a nuclear war against invading aliens named the Scavs has been 'won', Tom Cruise plays Jack, an engineer, tasked with patrolling and protecting an area of the blitzed planet where vast power plants have been set up to create enough energy from the sea to fuel a space trip that has been designed to save what remains of humanity. His masters (based off-world with the remaining human race) check in with him and his colleague and lover (played by the lovely Andrea Riseborough) everyday to set missions and check if they are still "an effective team". All is going well with their quiet sky-based life, but odd things start happening when Jack investigates a crashed patrol drone...and finds out that not is all what it seems on Earth, especially when he finds an old crashed ship containing Julia - a woman that haunts his dreams (played by the stunning Olga Kurylenko.)

    Tom is his usual dependable self in these type of roles: playing the concerned everyman who becomes the action hero. What I do like about him is that he seems to have passion for all of his film projects, particularly SF-based stories, and this enthusiasm flows into his performance. The film's real strength is the look and feel that the director Joseph Kosinski brings to his films (similar to his previous hit, Tron: Legacy.) His style fits somewhere in-between Stanley Kubrick and James Cameron. The special effects are beautiful; with flawless CGI and camerawork, the visuals have a cold quality, echoing those in 2001: A Space Odyssey. The empty Icelandic landscape that is used portray a future USA (with amazing CGI enhancements of ruined cities) does look fantastic. Kudos to the design of the ships and robots. Also, worth noting is the astounding sound design; it was amazing in the cinema, especially when the flying drones are on screen.

Andrea Riseborough as Victoria.

    The film plays (for the most part) like a 1970's bleak sci-fi film, which I appreciated being a fan of many of those productions (such as Westworld and A Boy and His Dog etc.) Maybe the film could have been tightened up in the mid section, and some reviews have said this film is a case of style over substance, but for me the films worked nicely and features some fine action set pieces. Some elements of the plot are rather silly and didn't face up to much scrutiny, but overall this a solid sci-fi tale with a satisfying conclusion. It does look amazing, having been filmed using the new Sony CineAlta F65 4K cameras. Certainly worth catching on the big screen.

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IMDB


Man of Steel

Superman returns! After a few years away from the silver screen, Zack Synder (300, Watchmen etc) brings us a rework of the world's best known comic book character. This reboot is an origin tale, showing how Kal-El gets to Earth and becomes a superhero and saves Metropolis from his nemesis, General Dru-Zod (played with threat by Michael Shannon here.) The style of the film is nearer to the recent Dark Knight films from Christopher Nolan (a producer) - it has a darker, more sombre feel and look compared to the upbeat Superman: The Movie (1978), with a soundtrack by Hans Zimmer to match. Henry Cavill slips into the cape very well, I was impressed with his performance, as he really looks the part and does the standard American accent well. A good cast, and for the most part a pretty exciting film, although I felt the use of over-blurred CGI shots was a let down in some of the action scenes. Of course, once again we get a city totalled at the end!

Henry Cavill as Superman.

Official Site
IMDB

....next up is Guillermo del Toro's Pacific Rim (a film I've been excited about since it was announced as I *love* giant robots and monsters) ...and a bit of Alan Partridge! A-haa! :)