Review #948: 'The Hunger Games: Mockingjay - Part 1' (2014)

Following in the footsteps of fellow hit book franchises Harry Potter and Twilight (and arguably The Hobbit), the final entry into The Hunger Games series splits the final book in two, no doubt causing the producers to rub their hands together at the idea of doubling their profits while arguing that the decision was ultimately a creative one. While it would be cruel to state that the result is half a complete movie, Mockingjay Part 1 doesn't feel finished because, well, it isn't. So we get a build-up without a satisfying climax, while the action remains suitably thrilling and Jennifer Lawrence again demonstrates why she is the most powerful actress in the world right now.

The Hunger Games - which pitted a member of each of the lower-class districts against each other in a fight to the death - are now over, and full-scale rebellion is under way. Katniss Evergreen (Lawrence) has been whisked off to District 13, where freedom fighters are holed up as they plan to finally overthrow wealthy dictator President Snow (Donald Sutherland). Under the leadership of rebel leader President Alma Coin (Julianne Moore), Katniss is groomed by former Hunger Games Gamekeeper Plutarch Heavensbee (Philip Seymour Hoffman) to be the face of the rebellion and places her in propaganda videos, only Katniss can't act for shit. In the hope of drumming up support, Katniss is sent out into the field with a group of film-makers to witness the destruction inflicted on her people in her absence.

My main gripe with the Hunger Games movies (I haven't read the books) are that the 'good guys' we are meant to root for are little more than a collection of one-dimensional generic heartthrobs. Noticeably lacking charisma are Katniss's two love interests, Gale Hawthorne (Liam Hemsworth), now a soldier in the rebellion, and Peeta Mellark (Josh Hutcherson), survivor of two rounds of the games and now a prisoner of Snow. Out of the young actors on show, it's only Lawrence who manages to sell her character, evoking sympathy as she is forced in front of the camera as a tool of war to spout ridiculous speeches that she struggles to deliver with any earnestness. On the other side, Snow is placing Peeta in front of the camera as he interviewed by TV host Caesar Flickerman (Stanley Tucci) pleading with the rebels to put down their weapons and end the fighting.

The focus on the artistry of propaganda from both sides is one of the most intriguing aspects of the film. Like the themes of class divide and capitalism from the first movie, the way the adult themes are weaved into an action movie made mainly for young adults works well, helping to give the story a gravitas rarely seen in blockbusters franchises. Sadly, scene-stealers Woody Harrelson and Elizabeth Banks are given very little to do as the story struggles to fit them in, but the introduction of Moore as the straight-talking Coin adds class and Sutherland positively purrs his way through his role as the big bad, a character deserving of more development and screen-time. The film is dedicated to Philip Seymour Hoffman, who tragically died during filming, and it's humbling to see the great actor deliver a masterclass when the role doesn't even call for it. As half of a finished movie, Mockingjay Part 1 is as entertaining as it is frustratingly unsatisfying.


Directed by: Francis Lawrence
Starring: Jennifer Lawrence, Josh Hutcherson, Liam Hemsworth, Philip Seymour Hoffman, Julianne Moore, Donald Sutherland, Woody Harrelson, Elizabeth Banks
Country: USA

Rating: ***

Tom Gillespie

Review #947: 'Just Imagine' (1930)

Here's a first for me - a pre-Hays Code science-fiction romantic musical comedy. Just Imagine, directed by David Butler, envisions a 1980 where everybody flies rather than use cars, are given numbers instead of names, eat food and drink alcohol in pill form, and have their life partners decided by a judge. Just Imagine is a true oddity, and should be seen by anybody interested in obscure curiosities or the evolution of sci-fi in cinema. Despite the wonderful Oscar-nominated set design, the film is also very, very bad, plagued by wooden acting, forgettable songs, and some plain old weirdness.

J-21 (John Garrick) is in love with LN-18 (Maureen O'Sullivan), but the fact that he has reached the peak in his field - aviation - is stopping him from achieving greater things. Due to the limits of his field. the judge deciding on LN-18's ideal partner is the favouring smug and loathsome aristocrat MT-3 (Kenneth Thomson) instead. After witnessing a successful experiment to bring back a man, who dubs himself Single O (vaudeville performer El Brendel), back to life after being frozen in 1930, J-21 is approached by a scientist who has perfected a 'rocket plane' capable of reaching Mars, and wants J-21 to be the pilot. Joined by Single-O and his best friend RT-42 (Frank Albertson), J-21 sets out on a mission into the unknown in the hope of becoming a hero and winning the hand of his true love.

Some early moments of Just Imagine are truly wonderful. Riding high above the city in their aircrafts, R-21 parks up next to LN-18 for a mid-air chat amidst the backdrop of skyscrapers. The special effects throughout are wonderfully charming and hold up well 75 years on. These brief delights are sadly few and far between, and the film spends the majority of its hefty 110 minute running-time churning out blandly-filmed song-and-dance routines, including a bizarre number about never killing a fly because it may be in love with another fly, Brendel's tiresome and unfunny shtick, and taking its sweet time to actually get into outer space. When we finally lands on Mars, we are in Ed Wood territory, with scantily-clad natives and plonky fight scenes. It flopped upon release due to the decreasing popularity of musicals at the time (pre-Busby Berkeley), but Just Imagine at the very least deserves to be seen once and never again.


Directed by: David Butler
Starring: John Garrick, Maureen O'Sullivan, El Brendel, Frank Albertson, Marjorie White
Country: USA

Rating: **

Tom Gillespie

Review #946: 'L.A. Confidential' (1997)

Curtis Hanson's L.A. Confidential is a now long-established movie classic, regularly featuring in the various Top 100 lists drummed up by magazines and websites. But despite the impeccable performances from the film's three leads and writers Hanson and Brian Hengeland's firm grip on the labyrinthine plot, something about the film has never quite sat right with me. Don't get me wrong, I still think this is fantastic cinema and I've adored the few James Ellroy novels I've read (L.A. Confidential is adapted from the third book of his 'L.A. Quartet'), but some corny dialogue and flat cinematography weigh down what is ultimately an absorbing character piece.

There are a million stories in the city and it is the job of Sid Hudgens (Danny DeVito), the editor of trashy magazine Hush-Hush, to find them. Celebrity cop Jack Vincennes (Kevin Spacey) works on the side as 'technical advisor' for cop show Badge of Honor and is paid by Hudgens to bust celebrities in all sorts of compromising situations. It's Christmas, and Bud White (Russell Crowe) is buying liquor for the station when he stops by a house and beats on a man for doing the same to his wife. At the station, ambitious young cop Ed Exley (Guy Pearce) is determined to live up to his father's reputation and refuses to be drawn in to the various exploits of his corrupt colleagues. When a group of Mexicans are brought in for assaulting two officers, the drunken officers assault them and the story hits the newspapers.

It's difficult to summarise the plot as the film is always moving forward, putting many pieces into play to the point where you struggle to figure out how it will all link together. The main crux of the film lies with a massacre at a diner called the Nite Owl, where many are killed along with White's ex-partner Dick Stensland (Graham Beckel) and a girl White met at Christmas. She looked beaten up, but Lynn Bracken (Kim Basinger) assured him it wasn't what he thought. Also, with her at Christmas was Pierce Patchett (David Strathairn), a millionaire who runs an agency of hookers made to look like movie stars by plastic surgery. After the incident with the Mexicans, Exley becomes despised by his colleagues for testifying against those involved, particularly angering White after Stensland was shown the door, and forcing Vincennes to testify by threatening his work on Badge of Honor.

Acting out almost like vignettes, the various pieces of the puzzle stay apart for the majority of the film, and it's difficult to figure out what the plot actually is. But the way all these elements ingeniously blend together at the end is the film's main strength. Somehow, Hanson also manages to retain his grasp on the film's trio of complex leads, who are all heavily conflicted and psychologically scarred in some manner. Even Exley, who is a determined straight-arrow, concludes that circumstances often call for one's dark side to be embraced. It's a film noir more invested in the driving force at the core of its central characters than any crime committed, and a crime story more focused on the politicking of the higher-ups and the corruption that comes with it. Despite the occasional wobble, L.A. Confidential is still thrilling cinema 18 years on.


Directed by: Curtis Hanson
Starring: Guy Pearce, Russell Crowe, Kevin Spacey, James Cromwell, Kim Basinger, Danny DeVito, David Strathairn
Country: USA

Rating: ****

Tom Gillespie

Review #945: 'Fantastic Four' (2015)

Unless you have been living under a rock these past few months or pay little attention to online chatter, Fantastic Four arrived with the heavy stigma of delays, on-set bust-ups, last minute re-shoots, and overwhelmingly negative reviews from both critics and the few people that actually paid to see it. Sadly, the film is every bit as bad as you've heard. The Fantastic Four have had a troublesome history, with Roger Corman's infamous 1994 film never being released at all and Tim Story's colourful but soulless 2005 effort getting a panning from the critics, and Josh Trank's follow-up to the excellent anti-superhero flick Chronicle (2012) carries on this trend, getting lost amidst a forced darkness and a tug-of-war of control between director and producers.

The ambitious Reed Richards (Miles Teller) struggles to get backing for his new teleportation device despite the assistance of his dim but loyal best friend Ben Grimm (Jamie Bell). At a science fair, he is finally noticed by Dr. Franklin Storm (Reg E. Cathey) and his adopted daughter Sue (Kate Mara), who are also working on a similar device but are struggling to perfect it. Teaming up with rebellious technician Johnny Storm (Michael B. Jordan) and morbid hacker Victor von Doom (Toby Kebbell), Reed and his crew set out to develop a 'Quantum Gate' which will transport them to another dimension. Fearing their limelight will be stolen by NASA, Reed, Johnny, Ben and Victor suit up and are travel to a mysterious planet covered by a strange energy source. When they return, they are transformed forever.

The young cast do their very best with their often cringe-worthy material, with Teller and Jordan in particular proving charismatic stand-outs. But they are kept apart for the majority of the film and given very little time to bond as a group both before and after the accident that turns them into superheroes. Instead, we get a lot of lonesome brooding and superficial angst during a frustratingly drawn-out build-up, with Mara and Bell given little attention at all. Then the film decides to skip over what is usually the most part of a superhero origin flick - the heroes learning to use their powers - as Reed escapes the compound now controlled by shady supervisor Dr. Allen (Tim Blake Nelson) and the team spending an extended period trying to track him down. After all the procrastinating, the foursome struggle to generate any chemistry at all.

The producers were apparently unsatisfied by Trank's final cut and ordered heavy re-shoots for the film's climax. Never has behind-the-scenes tampering been so obvious in a finished product, as we are given a rushed and confused final set-piece and a film that feels somehow overlong despite a slim 90 minute running time. In a hastily deleted tweet, Twank informed fans that there was a final cut that would have garnered good reviews and improved its terrible box-office return, but we will never know if this is true or not. What we are left with is a limping and unnecessarily grim experience that will hopefully allow the film rights to be passed back to Marvel, who seem to be the only company capable of doing their characters justice. Fantastic Four will no doubt be a irremovable stain on the careers of its talented cast and director.


Directed by: Josh Trank
Starring: Miles Teller, Michael B. Jordan, Kate Mara, Jamie Bell, Toby Kebbell, Reg E. Cathey, Tim Blake Nelson
Country: USA/Germany/UK/Canada

Rating: *

Tom Gillespie

Review #944: 'Inside Out' (2015)

A film will come along perhaps once every few years that has a profound effect on me to the point that I view the world slightly differently than I did before. Inside Out - the majestic and extremely moving latest effort from Pixar - is one of those films. Pixar's back catalogue is a stellar line-up of classics, with even the lesser titles having something going for them, but I believe Inside Out is there finest to date. It's a brave, emotionally complex story that will likely leave some children depressed and adults even more so, but this is mature film-making of the very highest order.

A girl named Riley (Kaitlyn Dias) is born into the world, and her mind instantly starts to develop her core emotions. Joy (Amy Poehler) is first to arrive and forms an instant bond with Riley. Soon enough, she is joined by Sadness (Phyllis Smith), Fear (Bill Hader), Anger (Lewis Black) and Disgust (Mindy Kaling), as Riley's personality begins to develop. Joy rules the roost during Riley's happy childhood, but as the years go by and Riley moves to a new city, the other emotions start to influence her actions. After a minor breakdown in front of her new classmates, Riley struggles to adapt to the changes, and Joy and Sadness find themselves whisked off into the deepest regions of her mind while the others struggle to steady the ship.

Pixar have never lacked visual imagination (they are the great innovators of computer animation after all), and they have worked overtime with Inside Out. What begins as a playful portal into the mind of an immature girl, the setting becomes more layered as she grows. Branches stretch out to reveal various aspects of Riley's personality, core memories are collected and stored in glowing spheres, and there is a literal train of thought that runs throughout the mind. The creativity is truly let off the leash when Joy and Sadness get caught up in the abstract thought region, and find themselves quickly morphing from a Picasso-esque form to two dimensional to nothing more than a straight line. The fearlessness of which directors Pete Docter and Ronnie Del Carmen approach the subject matter is one of the many endearing things about Inside Out.

Along Joy and Sadness's journey, they encounter Bing Bong (Richard Kind), a ridiculous amalgamation of cat, elephant and dolphin with a candy-floss torso, who turns out to be Riley's childhood imaginary friend. As she has matured, Bing Bong has slowly been forgotten, and spends his time watching old memories. Providing welcome comic relief as well as providing an insight into a more innocent and care-free time of Riley's life, Bing Bong may just be Pixar's most ingenious creation. Well aware that his time may soon be up as he is forgotten completely, he selflessly aids Joy and Sadness (as well as hindering their progress with his constant bumbling). He is an immensely loveable but ultimately tragic character, and Pixar gracefully avoids intensely pulling the heart-strings in favour of something more emotionally honest, achieving a harder gut-punch in the process.

If you go in expecting a cuddly family movie then you may be disappointed. The opening third is more interested in developing its vast, intricate world and developing the bond between the host and her emotions than delivering prat-falls and goofy voices. The human brain is a wonderful, fascinating place, and Inside Out revels in exploring its endless possibilities. It also teaches a thing or two about how we work by lumping Joy and Sadness together, two complete opposites of the same spectrum who could not exist without the other. Children's movies have always leaned towards pure escapism, a world in which true horror is either non-existent or easily defeated, but Inside Out shows us that its normal, healthy, and ultimately inevitable, to experience sadness. I don't like to throw the term 'masterpiece' around, but this is the closest Pixar have come to pure perfection.


Directed by: Pete Docter, Ronnie Del Carmen
Voices: Amy Poehler, Phyllis Smith, Richard Kind, Bill Hader, Lewis Black, Mindy Kaling, Kaitlyn Dias, Diane Lane, Kyle MacLachlan
Country: USA

Rating: *****

Tom Gillespie

Review #943: 'Planet of the Vampires' (1965)

The crews of two giant interplanetary ships. the Galliott and the Argos, head to an unexplored planet shrouded in fog and mystery after intercepting a distress signal. When landing the two crafts lose contact with each other, and the Argos, lead by the experienced Captain Markary (Barry Sullivan), lands safely after some brief but heavy turbulence. Upon arrival, the crew of the Argos inexplicably attack each other, with only Markary able to resist the strange urge to kill. After they've been knocked out of their trance-like state, they travel to the nearby Galliott to find the entire crew either missing or dead. They bury the dead they find and set out to explore the vast wasteland, but Tiona (Evi Marandi) keeps having visions of the walking dead.

Though far more experienced in horror, gialli and sword-and-sandal pictures, the great Mario Bava turns Planet of the Vampires into the most gorgeous sci-fi of its era. The planet, Aura, is desolate but strangely beautiful. Using bold primary colours and going overtime on a smoke machine, Bava infuses the planet with a suitably otherworldly atmosphere, which helps distract from the relatively formulaic plot. The director's love for horror can barely be contained as the crew start to rise from the dead. Placed in makeshift tombs and wrapped in a plastic sheet, they rise like blue-faced ghouls. Free from any distracting edits and backed by Gino Marinuzzi's eerie score, it is the most visually arresting moment in the film.

It often gets cited as one of the inspirations for Ridley Scott's Alien (1979), though Scott and writer Dan O'Bannon claim to have never seen it prior to making the film. While Markary and his crew's discovery of giant humanoid skeletons does bring to mind the space jockey found in Scott's masterpiece, the two share little else in common. Behind the visual splendour, Planet of the Vampires suffers from a cheesy script and wooden acting, the common bane of the B-movie. Aside from an exciting set-piece involving an escape from a locked room having its oxygen sucked out, the film is actually quite plodding when it forces us to spend time with its collection of cut-out archetypes. Beautiful, certainly, and perhaps inspirational, but mark this amongst Bava's more mediocre efforts that are still worth checking out.


Directed by: Mario Bava
Starring: Barry Sullivan, Norma Bengell, Ángel Aranda, Evi Marandi, Stelio Candelli
Country: Italy/Spain

Rating: ***

Tom Gillespie

Review #942: 'John Wick' (2014)

Ever wondered what The Matrix's bullet-stopping Neo (Keanu Reeves) would be like in the real world? He would probably be like John Wick, the eponymous former assassin of co-directors Chad Stahelski and the uncredited David Leitch's refreshing action movie, which puts coherency back into set-pieces and polishes its simplistic premise with buckets of style. There's a key scene in the middle of the movie where Wick sledge-hammers his way through the concrete floor of his basement to reveal a hoard of buried weapons. He is literally digging up his past, and is symbolic of the films refusal to have its protagonist brood over heavy themes and its willingness to simply let him get down to business.

That business, unfortunately for a gang of Russian mobsters, is of a highly skilled assassin. Mourning the recent death of the woman he left his life of crime behind for, John Wick receives a puppy, who his wife arranged to be sent to him upon her death, At a gas station, the cocky Iosef (Alfie Allen) - the son of a mob boss - spots Wick's '69 Mustang, and when Wick refuses to sell, Iosef and his cronies break into his house, kill his dog, and leave him battered and bloodied. Iosef's father Viggo (Michael Nyqvist) finds out and begins to contemplate the inevitable - Wick's warpath of revenge and the death of his son. Taking residence at a hotel that caters for men of his ilk, Wick finds himself waste-deep in the life he thought he had left behind.

There's a lot of joy to be had with the boldness of John Wick. Operatic, overblown and featuring a scene of Viggo muttering a tale of the boogeyman to himself in a room lit by a roaring fireplace, it transcends its straight-to-DVD plot with some outlandish and truly thrilling set-pieces. Free of shaky-cam and rapid editing, Wick shoots, stabs and strangles his way through an endless Russian hoard, and allows a flowing camera to capture his ass-kickery. Reeves is at his best when he says little, and he's virtually silent here, delivering a performance of endearing sullenness. It is by no means a great film - it's hampered by genre conventions and a wafer-thin plot - but you certainly get what you came in for.


Directed by: Chad Stahelski
Starring: Keanu Reeves, Michael Nyqvist, Alfie Allen, Willem Dafoe, Adrianne Palicki, Ian McShane
Country: USA

Rating: ***

Tom Gillespie

Review #941: 'Theorem' (1968)

The bourgeoisie have long been a target for many of the great European film-makers. They were an object of fascination and humour for Luis Bunuel and were often portrayed as outwardly repulsive by Rainer Werner Fassbinder and Jean-Luc Godard. In Theorem, Pier Paolo Pasolini ponders whether they are beyond hope and redemption, so far removed from our society that they are now of a different species altogether. The film begins outside of a factory, where the workers gather outside trying to understand why the owner has fled, leaving the entire company in the hands of its employees. They seem angry while a news reporter tries to comprehend the situation.

In an upper-class Milan suburb, a wealthy family are informed of the imminent arrival of a stranger by a enthusiastic postman. The man, known only as the Visitor (Terence Stamp), suddenly appears at their home seemingly without reason, and immediately begins to affect the family and their maid. He stops the maid (Laura Betti) from committing suicide, soothes the son (Andres Jose Cruz Soblette) of his anxieties, eases the fears of the opposite sex of the daughter (Anne Wiazemsky), seduces the sexually repressed mother (Silvana Mangano), and nurses the seriously ill father (Massimo Girotti) back to health. He vanishes as quickly as he appeared, leaving his subjects in various states of bewilderment and enlightenment.

Is the man God, the devil, or both? Ultimately, this question doesn't really matter. It's clear that the Stranger is a divine presence, but it's the effect he has on the unwitting family that is the most fascinating. The maid, a humble woman of low birth, returns to her village and is worshipped as a saint, and even appears to levitate at one point. The bourgeoisie family, however, start to slowly implode, climaxing with the father stripping himself naked and wandering into a desolate land. The Visitor seems to unlock their potential, only they - the maid aside - are unable to handle such divinity brought to them on a human level. The final scene includes a scream that may be ecstasy or pure terror, but Theorem doesn't make it that easy to unravel. This is a complex and fascinating work by one of the Italian masters, and one that will have you trying to pull apart its themes days after you have watched it.


Directed by: Pier Paolo Pasolini
Starring: Silvana Mangano, Terence Stamp, Massimo Girotti, Anne Wiazemsky
Country: Italy

Rating: ****

Tom Gillespie

Review #940: 'Critters 2' (1988)

The first Critters (1986) movie was one of the best in an abundance of Gremlins rip-off's to come out following the release of Joe Dante's classic in 1984. It was amusing, entertaining, satisfyingly bloody and whizzed by in a fast-paced 90 minute running time. The titular Critters or, to give them their proper name, Crites, were also a memorable creation -  tiny balls of fur with nasty teeth and the ability to shoot poisoned darts from their back. They are cuddly enough to be oddly cute but with a face only a mother could love. The surprisingly modest box-office takings established Critters as a franchise, and the sequel arrived just two years later.

Unsurprisingly, Critters 2 is little more than a re-hash of the first movie, with the terrorising creatures attacking the same town again and coming up against their arch-nemesis Brad (Scott Grimes), who apparently had his ear pieced and grew a mullet between films. Brad's celebrity status in the town catches the eye of the slight-older Megan (Liane Curtis), but Brad just wants his friend Charlie (Don Keith Opper) back. Still teamed up with bounty hunter Ug (Terrence Mann) somewhere in space, Charlie's spaceship detects Crite activity back on Earth, and so they return to destroy them. Soon enough, the Crites have bred beyond count and are munching on everything in sight.

The biggest disappointment with Critters 2 is the sheer lack of imagination. The first movie had enough wit and self-awareness to create something bolder, the like of which was done in Gremlins 2: The New Batch (1990) and its bat-shit crazy, anything-goes climax. The creatures too, are easily propped behind a variety of counters so their puppeteers can operate them with ease, while the first movie at least demonstrated some creative puppet work. The humour is goofier and more obvious, and the climactic set-piece involving a giant ball of combined critters attacking a garage packed with fast-food, just fails to hit the mark. It's certainly an easy watch, but there's little here to excite.


Directed by: Mick Garris
Starring: Scott Grimes, Don Keith Opper, Terrence Mann, Liane Curtis
Country: USA

Rating: **

Tom Gillespie

Review #939: 'Jurassic World' (2015)

Following the calamity of Joe Johnston's Jurassic Park III in 2001, the beloved Jurassic Park franchise was in danger of throwing away its massive potential. After 14 years of rewrites, recasts and director-swapping, the long-awaited fourth instalment arrives with anticipation and high-expectations, and the park is finally open to the public. Now sitting happily as the third highest grossing film of all time, it would seem that the world is still fascinated by dinosaurs, but Jurassic World knows its audience won't be content with the beasties that came before, and has gone for bigger and scarier. By creating its own dinosaur, the formidable (and ridiculously-named) Indominus rex, it certainly achieves this, and also serves as a commentary on corporate and consumer greed.

20 years after Dr. Alan Grant gazed upon the sights of Isla Nublar for the first time, Jurassic World is the planet's biggest theme park. Brothers Gray (Ty Simpkins) and Zach (Nick Robinson) head to the park to stay with their aunt Claire (Bryce Dallas Howard), who is the operations manager. With audience demand on the increase, Claire has overlooked the development of the next big attraction, the lab-created Indominus Rex, which possesses high intelligence along with a collection of attack and defence abilities wound into its DNA from other animals. Navy veteran and velociraptor handler Owen Grady (Chris Pratt) thinks its a bad idea, and upon his inspection of the indominus pen, he notices claw marks on the walls and the creature nowhere to be found.

Jurassic World still very much follows the formula of what came before - characters arrive, think they're safe, and are soon fleeing and screaming from a variety of giant lizards - but at least director Colin Trevorrow has moved the story on. While throwing in a few new elements, it covers a lot of themes covered in the first movie, with a corporate bigwig (Vincent D'Onofrio) hoping to play God for his own - albeit less innocent - means, and ignoring the warnings of an expert with a better understanding of nature, while children who may just be wiser than their elders find themselves in mortal peril. Yet there is a certain charm to the film's nostalgic elements, and the set-pieces - which range from the exhilarating to the ridiculous - finally feel deserving of John Williams' iconic score.

You could pull the film to pieces if you're looking for plot-holes (how would a dinosaur bred in captivity, regardless of its intelligence, know to rip a tracking device out of itself?), but the indominus, despite its McGuffin status, is a suitably nasty antagonist, casually committing genocide as it carves its bloody path towards the tourist centre. Anyone who loved Jurassic Park for its science may be disappointed, as all sense of reality goes out of the window - this is a movie where velociraptors team up with humans to fight a greater threat. But as a film of pure spectacle, it's massively entertaining. It's well aware that it is pandering to a young audience brought up on quick-fixes and everything at their fingertip, and makes a point of this by showing hordes of snot-nosed kids running around the park lacking any sense of wonder. Will humanity ever learn? Unless the plan is to set its recently-announced sequel in a world where man and dinosaur live together in harmony, I guess not.


Directed by: Colin Trevorrow
Starring: Chris Pratt, Bryce Dallas Howard, Ty Simpkins, Nick Robinson, Irrfan Khan, Vincent D'Onofrio, Jake Johnson, Omar Sy, BD Wong
Country: USA

Rating: ***

Tom Gillespie