Review #1,469: 'How to Train Your Dragon: The Hidden World' (2019)

Loosely based on the series of books by Cressida Cowell, the How to Train Your Dragon series has grown to become the jewel in the somewhat small and dusty crown of Dreamworks Animation. With Pixar killing it near enough year in, year out, the adventures of reluctant Viking leader Hiccup (Jay Baruchel) and his trusted Night Fury pal are the closest thing that Dreamworks have ever come to the quality and visual splendour of its most fearsome rivals. If you've kept up with the series since its debut in 2010, you'll have watched Hiccup grow out of his father's shadow into a battle-scarred warrior and forward-thinking frontiersman, who brought a close to his tribe's never-ending war with the dragons to discover the fire-breathing beasts actually make for useful and loving friends. The second instalment veered into incredibly dark territory, signalling a maturing tone that matched the protagonist's transformation from nervous kid to an innovator destined to change the lives of his people forever.

The third and presumably final entry into the series, The Hidden World, doesn't darken the tone further - it is still a kids' film after all - but you get the sense from very early on that we are heading inevitably towards an emotional parting of ways. Hiccup and his friends continue their quest to rescue captive dragons and bring them back to the village of Berk to live in harmony with humans. The problem is that they've become so good at their search-and-rescue missions that their home is now overcrowded with the lumbering beasts. Hiccup believes their only hope lies in 'the hidden world, a mysterious and possibly make-believe haven at the edge of the world spoken of by his late father Stoick (Gerard Butler). But cracks start to appear in the young chieftan's plans when his dragon and best friend Toothless happens across a Light Fury, the female of his species. Wild and distrusting of humans, the female bolts from Toothless' advances any time Hiccup shows his face to help, and it becomes clear that if he is ever to see his best bud happy, he must also let his dragon run free.

As ever, there's a dragon-hating antagonist to jeopardise Hiccup's plans in the form of renowned hunter Grimmel the Grisly (F. Murray Abraham), whose own mind-controlled dragons have the ability to vomit acid and melt pretty much anything in their wake. He certainly looks and sounds cool, but Grimmel shares much of the same motivation as the bad guys that come before him, and the character really symbolises the film's overall reluctance to dig that little bit deeper. For me, How to Train Your Dragon 2 really stepped up the game for this franchise, but it feels like returning director Dean DeBlois is happy to ease off the accelerator and ride this trilogy-closer out. If this were practically any other series, The Hidden World would be a delightful surprise, offering up great moments like the opening night-time raid and the sight of Toothless clumsily attempting win over his potential mate, the latter proving to be one of the most charming and heart-warming scenes of the entire trilogy. But with the knowledge of how great this could have been, The Hidden World is a disappointment, fizzling out with an ending that undoubtedly satisfies, but when compared to the emotional wallop of, say, Toy Story 3, plays it rather safe.


Directed by: Dean DeBlois
Voices: Jay Baruchel, America Ferrera, F. Murray Abraham, Cate Blanchett, Gerard Butler, Craig Ferguson, Jonah Hill, Christopher Mintz-Plasse
Country: USA

Rating: ***

Tom Gillespie

Review #1,450: 'Mowgli: Legend of the Jungle' (2018)

Whenever a director needs to lend a computer-generated character a much-needed dramatic weight and dimension, Andy Serkis is all but guaranteed to be at the top of anybody's list. The actor took the breath away as Gollum in The Lord of the Rings and again as the magnetic Caesar in the rebooted Planet of the Apes trilogy. So it makes perfect sense that his directorial debut would be motion-capture heavy, with the master himself playing one of the CGI characters. Adapting Rudyard Kipling's novel The Jungle Book has long been a passion project for Serkis, and the film, which was originally entitled Jungle Book: Origins, was scheduled for a 2016 release and set to compete against Disney's own remake of their 1967 classic. To allow more time to work on the special effects, the release date was pushed back to 2017, and then to 2018. As Warner Bros. seemingly became concerned at the idea of a potential box-office bomb, the distribution rights were eventually sold to Netflix. 

This transition to the small screen works both for and against Mowgli: Legend of the Jungle. Although he has voiced his delight at Netflix acquiring his film, it's difficult to believe that Serkis wasn't disappointed that such a personal project wouldn't be seen on the big screen. On the other hand, this has allowed for a much darker tone, and thus bringing it closer to Kipling's original text, without any concern for classification. It's a 12A on Netflix, but I feel the censors may have requested some cuts for a cinema release, and probably rightfully so. This doesn't feature any song-and-dance numbers or King Louie, and the once-cuddly Baloo the sloth bear is now a scarred brute with a Cockney accent. The story is familiar enough, with an orphan boy being left to die in the jungle before being carried to safety by the wise black panther Bageera (voiced by Christian Bale). A wolf pack takes him in, and the boy grows up to be Mowgli (Rohan Chand), only the wolves are never quite convinced of his importance and the man-cub struggles to find his place. 

All is relatively happy until the fearsome, man-killing Bengal tiger Shere Khan (Benedict Cumberbatch) arrives to kill Mowgli, who he feels threatens the very jungle itself. Cumberbatch is far more terrifying than Idris Elba's incarnation, and the effects work is rather astonishing. This level of quality is not maintained however, as for every jaw-dropping close-up of Bageera's face, there is a wolf that looks bizarrely unfinished. And this unevenness runs throughout the film, not only with the special effects, but also with the tone. Serkis' attempt to deliver a different take on the story is admirable and warranted, but the darkness occasionally veers into outright horror. The climax of the film is shockingly brutal when compared to the lighter moments before, and the fate of one of Mowgli's close friends is one of the most disturbing things I've seen for a very a long time. It's undeniably jarring, and will likely scar any unsuspecting children watching for life. While Serkis may struggle to find the perfect balance, it's a bold piece of work by a thoroughly underappreciated actor that at least strives to grasp the deeper themes within the story.


Directed by: Andy Serkis
Starring: Rohan Chand, Christian Bale, Cate Blanchett, Benedict Cumberbatch, Naomie Harris, Andy Serkis, Peter Mullan, Matthew Rhys, Freida Pinto
Country: UK/USA

Rating: ***

Tom Gillespie

Review #1,260: 'Thor: Ragnarok' (2017)

One of the fairest criticisms aimed at Marvel's now 9 years in-the-making Cinematic Universe is that mastermind Kevin Fiege has worked out the perfect superhero blockbuster formula and has stuck with it. It's a cookie-cutter approach, so much so that entries like Iron Man, Ant-Man and Doctor Strange seem almost indistinguishable on paper. The MCU has now raked in over $13 billion at the box-office, so it's clearly doing something right. But recently, Marvel have deliberately selected directors capable of leaving their fingerprints, such as Ryan Coogler being handed the task of tackling the Africa-set Black Panther (due next year), and Kiwi filmmaker Taika Waititi - a choice met with both confusion and sheer excitement on its announcement - to handle the Norse apocalypse. Although I enjoyed 2011's Thor for all its Shakesperian campiness, 2013's sequel The Dark World was mediocre at best, and the God of Thunder was in major need of a kick up the arse.

In fact, the sight of 'the strongest Avenger' receiving a boot up the backside wouldn't look out of place in Waititi's bright, 80's-inspired cosmic wet-dream. Marvel's have always peppered the heroics with humour and sight gags, but Thor: Ragnarok represents the first time they have opted for full-blown comedy with an occasional action scene in between. Waititi was clearly hired for this very reason, and anybody who fell in love with vampire comedy What We Do in the Shadows and last year's surprisingly touching Hunt for the Wilderpeople will find plenty of laughs here. The director's goofy, playful sense of humour can be found all over Ragnarok, and anybody concerned that this will be to the detriment of taking the film's end-of-the-world premise seriously can be rest assured. Characters are offed or mutilated without pausing for breath, and the climax changes the universe of the MCU forever. The good guys also face their most formidable threat yet, the Goddess of Death herself, Hela (a striking Cate Blanchett).

We first meet up with Chris Hemsworth's Thor as he lies chained-up and imprisoned by fire demon Surtur, after having spent the last two years travelling the cosmos searching for those pesky Infinity Stones. When he finally arrives home, he finds his mischievous brother Loki (Tom Hiddleston) posing as their father Odin (Anthony Hopkins), allowing Asgard's many enemies to gain more power as a result. They travel to Earth and, with the help of Doctor Strange (Benedict Cumberbatch), locate their father, who is apparently waiting to die in Norway. He warns his sons that Ragnarok is coming, as is their sister Hela. After a skirmish that sees the hammer Mjolnir destroyed, Thor is blown into space and lands of Sakaar, where most of the universe's garbage ends up. He is captured by scrapper Valkyrie (Tessa Thompson) is forced to become a gladiator for the amusement of the Grandmaster (Jeff Goldblum). Here he meets his old friend Bruce Banner (Mark Ruffalo), who has been in Hulk form for the past two years and clearly enjoying his life as a celebrity warrior.

Waititi promised a buddy road-trip through the cosmos and that is exactly what we get. Hemsworth has always had a gift for comedy and he is given free reign here, with the bulk of the dialogue made up of improvisation. Ragnarok is truly daft and care-free, even finding the time to squeeze in jokes about masturbation and a wormhole called 'The Devil's Anus'. The director himself also shines on camera as well as behind it, lending his voice to the gently-spoken rock monster Korg, who steals every scene he is in. There are weaknesses: Not all the jokes land, and Blanchett's Hela comes across as a one-note distraction from the events on Sakaar, where Thor, Loki, Valkyrie, Banner and a Jeff Goldblum at his most Goldbumiest are having a much better time. But when Led Zeppelin's Immigrant Song kicks in near the end, you'll be too busy punching the air to care about such flaws. Very much like how The Winter Soldier finally nailed Captain America after a stumbling start, Ragnarok elevates Thor from the runt of the litter to one of the leaders of the pack, reminding us just why he's called the God of Thunder.


Directed by: Taika Waititi
Starring: Chris Hemsworth, Tom Hiddleston, Cate Blanchett, Tessa Thompson, Mark Ruffalo, Jeff Goldblum, Idris Elba, Karl Urban, Anthony Hopkins
Country: USA

Rating: ****

Tom Gillespie

Review #966: 'Cinderella' (2015)

Kenneth Branagh's live-action re-telling of the famous Cinderella story does not attempt to offer any kind of fresh spin on one of Disney's most beloved movies. Where the likes of Snow White and the Huntsman (2012) and Maleficent (2014) played out well-worn fairytales from a different perspective, changing the entire outlook of the tale in the process, the 2015 version of Cinderella alters very little and adds even less. The real stars of the movie are the set and costume design which, with the exception of Cinders' rather drab ballgown, are sadly the only hint of magic on show here.

Ella (Downton Abbey's Lily James) lives happily in her peaceful kingdom with her loving mother (Hayley Atwell) and kind father (Ben Chaplin), who teach her of the existence of magic from a young age. After her mother takes ill, Ella is told to be courageous and kind with her final dying words. Years later, her father attempts to fill the void in his life by marrying the recently-widowed Lady Tremaine (Cate Blanchett), who brings her two deplorable daughters Drisella (Sophie McShera) and Anastasia (Holliday Grainger) to his home to live. When Ella's father also dies on a business trip, the Lady Tremaine reveals her dark side, dubbing the young girl Cinderella and forcing her to live in the attic while tending to their every need.

While the 1950 version can be forgiven for its rather old-fashioned patriarchal ideas of young girls fantasising about marrying rich and escaping the blandness of their existence, times have moved on and such an over-simplification of an entire gender in modern film-making really has no place. The moral message of showing kindness is of course eternally relevant, but James, aside from having a naturally sweet demeanour, injects very little personality into her character. The bulk of the first half is made up of trying to develop these themes, but without any songs to distract or cutesy animals to provide the chuckles, the narrative seems to move along with the urgency and excitement of an ITV Catherine Cookson adaptation.

It only really kicks into gear when the Fairy Godmother (Helena Bonham Carter) shows up to help Cinderella on her journey to the King's palace, where the Prince awaits every maiden in the land as he searches for a wife. Although the pumpkin transformation looks very nice, her other creations - including two unfunny lizards - are rather grotesque creations unworthy of a bippity-boppity-boo. Game of Thrones' Richard Madden plays the prince blandly but handsomely, while the long-awaited dance with his Princess-to-be lacks the magic of the cartoon version. Ironically, the Prince finds himself in the same situation as that of his most famous role, Robb Stark - promised to one but insistent on another - but there is sadly no bloody massacre at the end of it all to liven things up. Aesthetically lovely but ultimately soulless.


Directed by: Kenneth Branagh
Starring: Lily James, Cate Blanchett, Richard Madden, Helena Bonham Carter, Nonso Anozie, Stellan Skarsgård, Sophie McShera, Holliday Grainger, Ben Chaplin
Country: USA/UK

Rating: **

Tom Gillespie

Review #801: 'How to Train Your Dragon 2' (2014)

The Hollywood sequel is a fearsome thing. Most notably in recent years, we have seen an endless supply of re-hashes and cash-in's based on it's predecessor's success, commonly to disastrous effect. Animation especially - or even more so, Dreamworks animation - have churned out drivel with no heart; their only intentions being to offer something to parents that will keep their children busy for 90 minutes and to fill their own wallets. Take a bow, then, How To Train Your Dragon 2, which not only capitalises on the first film's charm, off-beat humour and dazzling dragon battles, but deepens it's mythology and expands it's world, while at the same time offering a visual spectacle to delight the kids and pose some extremely grown-up questions to the adults in the audience.

Five years after the townsfolk of Berk were given a lesson in allegiance and acceptance by unlikely hero Hiccup (Jay Baruchel), the Viking village thrives with domesticated dragons. It's chieftain, Stoick (Gerard Butler), has named Hiccup his heir, but the one-legged adventurer is not ready for the responsibility and would much rather be exploring the surrounding areas on the back of his dragon, the Night Fury Toothless. His relationship with the feisty Astrid (America Ferrera) has developed into a romance, and his friends fight over the attention of Ruffnut (Kristen Wiig). While exploring one day, he comes across an island decorating in strange ice formations, and is attacked by dragon-catcher Eret (Game of Thrones' Kit Harington).

Eret tells them about the warlord Drago (Djimon Honsou), who is amassing a dragon army after learning how to bend the creatures to his will using violence and intimidation. Hiccup and Astrid escape and ride back to Berk to warn the others, and learn that Stoick knows Drago and that he is a madman not be reasoned with. Hiccup, however, feels different and rides off on Toothless to treat with Drago but instead comes upon another hidden island, where dragons live in harmony under the influence of a colossal Alpha dragon known as a bewilderbeast. Also living on the island is environmentalist Valka (Cate Blanchett), Hiccup's long-lost mother.

Cleverly written without heavy lessons on morality and impeccably voiced by a star cast, How To Train Your Dragon 2 stresses the importance of finding your own place in the world. The film could easily have been some kind of eco-crusade, but instead questions whether the human race reserves the right to bend it nature to our will, or if we are a mere significance who have a duty to preserve it, or even if nature is a tool which we can use to serve the greater good. This is startlingly darker than it's predecessor - humans and dragons die - and even questions whether war can be just. Drago is a psychopathic tyrant - can these men be bargained with, or should they simply be wiped out? Thrilling, emotional and extremely thoughtful, this beautiful-looking sequel is the possibly the biggest surprise of the year.


Directed by: Dean DeBlois
Voices: Jay Baruchel, Cate Blanchett, Gerard Butler, Craig Ferguson, America Ferrera, Kit Harington, Djimon Hounsou, Jonah Hill, Kristen Wiig
Country: USA

Rating: ****

Tom Gillespie

Review #751: 'The Monuments Men' (2014)

It's rather difficult to spot a George Clooney-directed movie. He's riffed on the Coen Brothers, Billy Wilder and Alan J. Pakula, without ever settling on a style of his own. Of course, there's nothing wrong with taking inspiration from masters of their craft, but there's something undeniably empty about Clooney's output (the excellent Good Night, and Good Luck (2005) excluded). His latest, a light-hearted, men-on-a-mission World War II romp, is quite possibly his worst yet. It wants to be a war movie of old - a breezy, patriotic adventure best enjoyed on a rainy Sunday afternoon, but ends up being awkward, saddled with an awful script penned by Clooney himself and frequent collaborator Grant Heslov.

After successfully convincing the U.S. President to assist in maintaining the cultural heritages of the countries ravaged the war, Frank Stokes (Clooney) is given the go-ahead to round up a crack team and enter Europe to save the art looted by the Nazis. Stokes and his friend James Granger (Matt Damon) quickly gather the team - which consists of Richard Campbell (Bill Murray), Donald Jeffries (Hugh Bonneville), Walter Garfield (John Goodman), Jean Claude Clermont (Jean Dujardin) and Preston Savitz (Bob Balaban). Granger heads to occupied France and hooks up with spy Claire Simon (Cate Blanchett), who believes the team are out to steal the art for themselves, while the rest of the group split up with various objectives.

Artistic licence has obviously been taken here, and there is no problem with that for the sake of both entertainment, and bringing the valiant efforts of those involved in the real Monuments, Fine Arts and Archives Program, to people's attention. The undeniable greed of the Nazis (they hoped to open the Fuhrer Museum to home their loot) and the merciless destruction of any work produced by Jews, shouldn't be hard to convey to an audience. Yet, somehow Clooney struggles to make us care. Perhaps it's the cheery casualness of it all, or the fact that the film is nothing more than a few scenes lacking context where the cast mess around without letting us in on the joke.

This is Clooney as Steven Soderbergh, clearly channelling his experiences on Ocean's Eleven (2001), but lacking the ability to control an ensemble or pen a script that helps establish each character. On paper, the cast is of the highest quality, but in the film, they are all basically the same person. Everyone is 'the funny guy', yet no-one is funny. Without any feeling of a consistent threat throughout the film, it's hard to care, so Clooney lumps in an 'I think I've stepped on a mine' scene near the climax which cries of desperation. If this had been made 50 years ago with, say, Henry Fonda, this would probably be a classic. But this is 2014, and The Monuments Men is one of the biggest disappointments of recent years.


Directed by: George Clooney
Starring: George Clooney, Matt Damon, Bill Murray, Cate Blanchett, John Goodman, Bob Balaban, Jean Dujardin, Hugh Bonneville
Country: USA/Germany

Rating: **

Tom Gillespie

Review #238: 'Hanna' (2011)

11 year-old Hanna (Saoirse Ronan) lives in the wilderness with her father Erik (Eric Bana). He teaches her to hunt, fight, and basically fend for herself. As Hanna grows restless in isolation, she puts in motion a plan that the two have seemingly been planning for years. She pushes a button, alerting CIA agent Marissa (Cate Blanchett) to their whereabouts. While Erik leaves, Hanna waits and is captured. After being questioned, Hanna kills who she believes to be Marissa and escapes her prison. She finds herself in Saudi Arabia where she befriends a hippy-ish English family, where is pursued by Marissa and her hired goons.

If the story of a young, jail-bait assassin kicking the arse of anyone in her path sounds familiar, it would be easy to make comparisons to Chloe Moretz's Hit-Girl in Kick-Ass (2010). But this is a very different animal. Where Kick-Ass was cartoonish and over-the-top in its (very enjoyable) gory action scenes, Hanna takes more of a dramatic route, combined with characteristics of a modern-day fairytale. This approach works both for and against the film, as although its approach is individual and quite refreshing, it is also confused and often slapdash in its execution.

I'll start with the good, which there is plenty of. The cast is splendid - Bana and Blanchett are long established solid actors with an impressive backlog of films so they do what is expected of them. Blanchett hams it up with a ridiculous Southern American accent, and she manages to out-sexy her performance in the recent Indiana Jones And The Kingdom of the Crystal Skull (2008). Ronan, who so impressed in director Joe Wright's excellent Atonement (2007), strides confidently through another great performance, mixing steely coldness with a wide-eyed innocence as she struggles with this brave new world full of televisions, lights and kettles. And Tom Hollander, a seemingly strange choice for a heavy, is amazingly horrific as a crowbar-wielding, transsexual strip-club owner with a liking for terrible tracksuits.

While I was expecting an all-out action film before pressing play, I was pleased with the way the film told Hanna's story. Instead of filling it with action scenes, it takes it's time to show Hanna's discovery of the world, and sweet friendship with Sophie (Jessica Barden). When she joins Sophie's parents Rachel (Olivia Williams) and Sebastian (Jason Flemyng), she discovers boys, dancing, and what she has longed for the most - music. Her father regularly read from an encyclopaedia so she can learn the things of the world, but music cannot be truly described in words, and this is one of the main reasons she initially chooses to leave her sheltered life.

Joe Wright, traditionally more at home with period pieces such as Atonement and Pride & Prejudice (2005), struggles with the action scenes. While they are accompanied by a thumping score by The Chemical Brothers, he never really finds a certain style. Sometimes it is fast hand-to-hand to combat filmed on shaky-cam like the Bourne (2002-2007) films; sometimes the camera will be swirling all over the place; one time it is filmed in ultra slo-mo like an operatic tragedy. Wright even attempts something similar to his one-shot Dunkirk scene in Atonement, tracking Bana from a train station into the underground where he disposes of a gang of agents. While it may sound good to differ the style, it does unsteady the tone of the film, especially when played against the quieter, more tender moments.

Hanna is certainly interesting and I would certainly recommend it to anyone looking for something a bit different from the usual action film, but ultimately it becomes nothing more than an appealing oddity. Ronan is certainly an actress to watch, and Joe Wright will have done no damage to his growing reputation here, and will undoubtedly go from strength to strength.


Directed by: Joe Wright
Starring: Saoirse Ronan, Eric Bana, Cate Blanchett, Tom Hollander, Jessica Barden, Olivia Williams, Jason Flemyng
Country: USA/UK/Germany

Rating: ***

Tom Gillespie