Review #1,478: 'Assassin's Creed' (2016)

Despite numerous critical and commercial failures over the last quarter of a century, Hollywood just cannot turn away from trying to capitalise on an industry that continues to out to out-gross them. Video game adaptations have been a thing ever since Nintendo tried and catastrophically failed to bring to life the colourful world of Mario and Luigi with 1993's Super Mario Bros., and it's become a running joke ever since that there has never been, and will unlikely ever be, a decent console-to-big-screen adaptation. But the $1 billion-plus success of Capcom's Resident Evil franchise lingers in the minds of many a studio head, so pretty much every year a new cast and crew are put together to develop a game series with a promise to break the trend. 

While the likes of Prince of Persia and Rampage are perfectly serviceable fluff, they are way overshadowed by the unbearable awfulness of a Lara Croft: Tomb Raider, or a Max Payne, or whatever hot turd Uwe Boll is serving up that month. We have gone through the disappointment too many times to believe it when a director promises to stick to the source material, but eyebrows were raised when it came to the inevitable movie adaptation of Ubisoft's hugely successful Assassin's Creed series, which plunged you into a centuries-old battle between the Knights Templar and a shadowy group known as the Assassins. Not only was Justin Kurzel, director of the truly unsettling Australian drama Snowtown and Shakespeare epic Macbeth, to helm the film, but Michael Fassbender and Marion Cotillard, two of the most respected actors in the business, were also signed up for the leads. Could this be the movie to finally bridge the two mediums and match the success of its source material?

The short answer is no, but by no means is Assassin's Creed a complete disaster. Its main problem is that it depicts two worlds from two different periods in time, but forgets to make them both interesting. We have the Inquisition-era Madrid, where hooded assassins move stealthily through the crowd armed with daggers and their wits, as they attempt to bring down those in power who seek peace in the land through control. The Assassins also long for peace, but peace gained through freedom, and they don't want a McGuffin known as the Apple of Eden, which somehow possesses the power to block humanity's free will, falling into their hands. This war has raged on for centuries, and in the modern era - a glum grey world full of murky corridors and empty rooms - the Templar continue their search for the Apple, employing a new technology that allows people to travel into the memories of their ancestors, to track down the allusive object through the centuries. 

We spend the bulk of the time in the present day, as convicted criminal Cal Lynch (Fassbender) is saved from the electric chair by Sofia (Cotillard) and spends much of his time brooding in his cell over the murder of his mother. I get the feeling that writers Michael Lesslie, Adam Cooper and Bill Collage want to keep you in the dark about who the good guys are here, but as soon as Jeremy Irons arrives with his black turtleneck sweater, you pretty much know how this is going to play out. The plot is an odd mixture of overly complicated and incredibly stupid, and much of the screentime is spent having these characters explain it to each other and the audience, or at least those in the crowd who have never played the game (like myself). When Cal finally straps up and enter the body of his ancestor Aguilar de Nerha, the movie springs into life, although this bleached-out world of questionable special effects and wannabe-Indiana Jones action may have seemed all the more exiting by the sheer dreariness of the alternative. 

Directed by: Justin Kurzel

Starring: Michael Fassbender, Marion Cotillard, Jeremy Irons, Brendan Gleeson, Charlotte Rampling, Michael Kenneth Williams

Country: USA/France/UK/Hong Kong/Taiwan/Malta

Rating: **

Tom Gillespie

Review #1,246: 'Alien: Covenant' (2017)

Ridley Scott's ambitious but ultimately flawed Prometheus attempted to somewhat distance itself from the Alien franchise, or at least the silly money-spinner it had become. While very much set within the Alien universe, Prometheus made a crack at some big themes, particularly man's obsession with meeting its maker, but ended up leaving us with far more questions than answers, with Elizabeth Shaw (Noomi Rapace) and the decapitated synthetic David (Michael Fassbender) leaving to find the Engineer's planet to find the answers to the very questions we are left with. After the success of the brilliant The Martian, Scott seems eager to get back into the familiar stalk-and-eat/impregnate routine of his genre re-defining Alien. Indeed, Alien: Covenant is a direct sequel to prequel Prometheus, but Scott seems more interested in straight-up horror than further exploring the deeper themes of its predecessor.

It's 11 years since the Prometheus expedition, and the spaceship Covenant is drifting through space on its way to a distant planet that its crew and passengers hope to colonise. Two thousand colonists lie in stasis, and only the crew are awoken when a stellar neutrino burst almost destroys the ship. As repairs go underway, they pick up a faint radio transmission from an uncharted planet, which sounds suspiciously like John Denver. Following the death of the ship's captain (played by James Franco, who appears for roughly 30 seconds), the newly-promoted Oram (Billy Crudup), against the wishes of second-in-command Daniels (Katherine Waterston), makes the decision to follow the signal in the hope of finding another habitable planet. When they touch down, they find an alien ship, a sea of extraterrestrial corpses, and the planet's seemingly lone inhabitant, the long-haired synthetic David. Soon enough, a couple of crew members become infected by alien spores, and the rest you already know.

1979's Alien, which still has the power to terrify, has little in way of plot or alien action. Its power comes from the simplicity in which its story unfolds, and the fantastic ensemble of actors bringing to life the human interaction between those brief moments of sheer menace. They talked about shitty working conditions and bad pay, and felt like actual people rather than just the clothes they wore. There was something fascinating about watching these blue-collar types, hundreds of years into the future, and seeing that we haven't changed one bit. In Alien: Covenant, characters are defined by the things they say about themselves or their accessories. One of the first things Oram reveals is that he is a man of faith, as if the audience is too stupid to work out for themselves that the story essentially represents humanity's search for God. Chief pilot Tennessee (Danny McBride) is a cowboy because he wears a cowboy hat and, well, his name is Tennessee. Daniels rocks a white vest and a tough, slightly sad demeanour, so we instantly think of Ripley without any actual character development required.

The film spends most of its time having the characters explain the plot to each other. At one point, a character proclaims that so little of what is happening makes sense, and I refuse to believe I'm the only one to spot the glaring irony in this statement. Characters are introduced and killed off before we had the chance to care about them, while most of the audience will still be trying to figure out how all this 'black goo' fits into the overarching story. Thank the Engineers then, for the presence of Michael Fassbender. He was the best thing in Prometheus, and it's no different here. Doubling as both the American-accented synthetic upgrade Walter and his unhinged, English-accented predecessor David, his scenes are the film's eeriest. Scenery is chewed, certainly, and there is a ridiculous, homo-erotically charged moment I won't spoil, but it's only during these moments that Covenant doesn't feel like a re-tread of every other Alien movie there's been, only done worse. Covenant's main problem is that it is trying to explain and expand on a mythos that doesn't require it. In Alien, the alien arrived without explanation and that was part of its appeal. It was a slimy, unpredictable unknown, and perhaps we now know too much.


Directed by: Ridley Scott
Starring: Michael Fassbender, Katherine Waterston, Billy Crudup, Danny McBride, Demián Bichir
Country: UK/USA/Australia/New Zealand/Canada

Rating: **

Tom Gillespie

Review #1,038: 'X-Men: Apocalypse' (2016)

Following Matthew Vaughn's enjoyable franchise reboot X-Men: First Class (2011) and Bryan Singer's mind-bending follow-up Days of Future Past (2014), the latest entry into the ever-expanding world of the X-Men that began back in 2000 promised - according to writer Simon Kinberg - a scale and scope on such a level never before seen in a superhero movie. While the latest villain to face Professor X and his crew certainly ups the ante by offering the threat of global extinction, X-Men: Apocalypse suffers mainly because we have seen the likes of this before, after all Ultron threatened the same thing just last year in Marvel's Avengers sequel, and Roland Emmerich and Michael Bay have been doing this since the mid-1990's.

Apocalypse just doesn't offer the same sort of unique strangeness that assisted Days of Future Past in being the best entry since X2 in 2003, nor the impressive grip it kept on its large ensemble of super-beings and superstars in First Class. When it all boils down, Apocalypse is simply a tale of good vs. bad, introducing a hefty influx of new characters and old (with many of the latter re-cast with up-and-comers) in the process. The threat facing the wheelchair-bound telepath Charles Xavier (James McAvoy) and his School for Gifted Youngsters this time is the first and most powerful mutant of them all, En Sabar Nuh aka Apocalypse (Oscar Isaac). When we first meet him, Nuh is in Ancient Egypt where he is worshipped as a god. Fearing his power, his worshippers betray him, leaving him entombed within a collapsed pyramid and killing his Four Horsemen.

In 1983, Raven (Jennifer Lawrence), the shape-shifting mutant, is in East Berlin rescuing teleporter Kurt Wagner aka Nightcrawler (Kodi Smit-McPhee) from a human-run underground fight club and its winged champion Angel (Ben Hardy). Erik Lehnsherr aka Magneto (Michael Fassbender) is hiding out in Poland with his wife and child following his attempt to assassinate the President of the USA ten years previous. Charles is still running his school, which has added some interesting new recruits in fellow telepath Jean Grey (Sophie Turner) and Scott Summers aka Cyclops (Tye Sheridan). When Apocalypse re-awakens and decides that humanity has lost its way, he sets about recruiting his four new Horsemen, including Magneto, to help him destroy the world and rebuild it with him as its leader.

Anyone who loved Quicksilver's scene-stealing appearance in Days of Future Past will no doubt appreciate Evan Peters' extended role here, as he is again central to an impressive set-piece that is equally playful, inventive and exciting. For a movie with such a grim outlook at stake, it ironically works best when going about its business with a sense of humour. In the dramatic moments, its fails to offer any real impact, almost completely ignoring any religious undertones that would have made the film infinitely more interesting, and covering familiar ground in terms of Charles and Erik's somewhat rocky friendship. Although Isaac gives it his all, it is the young actors that are the standouts. Turner, Sheridan and Smit-McPhee manage to both channel the actors who came before them and making the characters their own. Hopefully then, the franchise is in safe hands moving forward (there are no signs of it stopping), but for now, Apocalypse is very much a case of same-old, same-old, and not much more than a relatively entertaining way to kill 2 and a half hours.


Directed by: Bryan Singer
Starring: James McAvoy, Michael Fassbender, Jennifer Lawrence, Nicholas Hoult, Oscar Isaac, Rose Byrne, Evan Peters, Sophie Turner, Tye Sheridan, Kodi Smit-McPhee
Country: USA

Rating: ***

Tom Gillespie

Review #986: 'Steve Jobs' (2015)

Since his death in 2011, the world - including those who had never heard of the turtle-neck-sporting tech genius and innovator - has come to learn that the great Steve Jobs was in fact a massive dick. Like every great man, the flaws in his personality have been forgiven or excused in favour of a 'tortured genius' label, but this has not stopped various movies and documentaries cropping up to try and paint a true-to-life picture. Danny Boyle's Steve Jobs, starring Michael Fassbender in the title role, likes to think that his humanity emerged with his advancing years, as he went about literally changing the way we live our lives.

If you're someone who proudly boasts about the lack of a Facebook profile or prefers to stare out of the window during a bus-ride as opposed to staring open-mouthed at your phone, then the tech-worship and subtle hints at the innovations Jobs would go on to create may completely pass you by. I like to think I'm one of those people, but I felt like I may as well be carrying a spear and wearing a bear-skin when the 3G disappeared from my phone the other day. The film's narrative disregards the traditional biopic formula in favour of three 30 minute-plus acts, each set just before the launch of three of Jobs most famous creations - the Apple Macintosh in 1984, the NeXT computer in 1988, and the game-changing iMac in 1998.

Throughout the years, a set of key characters mingle and/or class with Jobs. Headstrong marketing executive Joan Hoffman (Kate Winslet) tries to bring the best out of her boss, but is visibly appalled when he repeatedly denies that he is the father of Lisa (played by Makenzie Moss, Ripley Sobo and Perla Haney-Jardine at various ages), often to her face. Old friend Steve Wozniak (Seth Rogen) asks him to acknowledge the efforts of the Apple II team during his presentation, much to Jobs' disgust, but fails when Jobs is fired by Apple after the failure of the Macintosh. His boss John Sculley (Jeff Daniels) finds himself blamed for Jobs' sacking in the media when he repeatedly stuck up for him and warned him of the repercussions of failing to lower the Macintosh's price.

Fassbender, although sharing little physical resemblance to the man, is outstanding, playing Jobs with a faint (and ironic) disconnection to the world and little grasp of how he is perceived by others. Aaron Sorkin, who is on script duties, goes overtime with the fast and jargon-heavy talk, and the film is rich with his signature corridor-pacing conversations. The decision to condense his key years into three acts offers a fresh take on the usual incident-by-incident biographies, but it also means that characters are ushered into scenes unnaturally to resolve their personal conflict, with Wozniak especially reduced to a conduit for the audience. Boyle's direction is refreshingly unflashy when compared to the senses-rattling Trance (2013), and instead allows his actors and their quick-fire dialogue to breathe freely. It certainly falls short the other biopic of a technological innovator - The Social Network (2010) - but, despite its flaws, it still manages to find a soul within its obnoxious bully.

Directed by: Danny Boyle

Starring: Michael Fassbender, Kate Winslet, Seth Rogen, Jeff Daniels, Michael Stuhlbarg, Katherine Waterston, John Ortiz

Country: USA/UK

Rating: ***

Tom Gillespie

Review #899: 'Slow West' (2015)

The filmmaker's obsession with the Old West never seem to cease, whether it be the rough-and-tumble tales of black vs. white of the 50's, the sweat-drenched stand-off's of the European low-budget efforts of the 60's and 70's, or the revisionist approaches that enjoyed a re-emergence in the mid-2000's, the harsh plains of America's darkest period seem to fascinate every new generation, all of which have a different take on a period that has taken on a mythic quality. Following a couple of successful shorts working with Michael Fassbender, Man on a Motorcycle (2009) and Pitch Black Heist (2011), director John Maclean from The Beta Band makes his feature-length debut with Slow West, a suitably slow-burning and simple tale of lost love, set to the backdrop of violence and a country in unrest.

Scot Jay Cavendish (Kodi Smit-McPhee) is an opportunistic young dreamer who arrives in America in the hope of claiming his lost love. We first meet him at night aiming his gun at the stars, pondering the possibilities of this new land. He then witnesses the execution of Native American's for sport by a gruff Union leader, who is then killed by a skilled bounty hunter named Silas Selleck (Fassbender). Silas agrees to take Jay under his wing, and as their story develops, we soon learn that they are hunting for the same thing for very different reasons. Through flashbacks, we learn that back in Scotland, Jay fell in love with a beautiful girl below his social class, Rose (Caren Pistorius), who could only return platonic love. Along with her father (Rory McCann), Rose fled her homeland after a bounty is placed on their head.

Slow West depicts an America that is simultaneously familiar yet unfamiliar. It is the dusty west of the revisionist westerns of recent years where violence comes as second-nature to its inhabitants, and the mountains and woods are filmed with the same sense of wonder and impending danger that has become synonymous with the genre. Yet, the landscape is also alive with colour and natural beauty, as if the flowers were blooming with as much fruitless optimism as Jay's quest to rescue his love, which is frequently placed in peril by the likes of Swedish bandits or the ever-looming Payne (Ben Mendelsohn), a fellow bounty-hunter in a ludicrous fur coat who clearly shares a history with Silas. The decision to film in New Zealand adds to the sense of displacement, as if Jay imagined the world he read about in stories only to discover that it's only half-true.

Although the film is as slow-moving as the title may suggest, the relatively short running time means that scenes are brisk and the narrative is never boring. It often feels surreal, like Jodorowsky on a mild day, producing some moments of oddball comedy juxtaposed with the spattering of bloodshed. It's also ludicrous at times - though not always in a bad way - and Maclean frequently explores the themes of man at their most primitive done many times before. But the climax is the work of a director with promise, as the bullets fly and walls become smeared in blood, it's a shoot-out that manages to retain control of the drama happening in between, as well as delivering a truly exciting set-piece. Fassbender says little but has the presence of an old soul, and Smit-McPhee, similar to his role in John Hillcoat's The Road (2009), is effective as the sad-eyed child caught up in a world he doesn't fully understand. Perpetually odd and surprising, Slow West is the melancholic work of a director to keep an eye on.


Directed by: John Maclean
Starring: Kodi Smit-McPhee, Michael Fassbender, Caren Pistorius, Ben Mendelsohn, Rory McCann
Country: UK/New Zealand

Rating: ****

Tom Gillespie

Review #818: 'Frank' (2014)

To try and create a film based on or around the life of musician Chris Sievey, frontman of 70's/80's group The Freshies, or his alter-ego Frank Sidebottom, a papier-mache-head donning presenter with a thick Mancunian accent, would be absolute folly. Rather than attempting to create such a redundant biopic, director Lenny Abrahamson, and writers Jon Ronson and Peter Straughan, have used Sidebottom's legacy and traits as a template to toast eccentric (and possibly mad) artists everywhere and condemn the new social media platform which does little to celebrate them.

Young, aspiring and likely talentless keyboard player Jon (Domhnall Gleeson) cannot believe his luck when Don (Scoot McNairy), member of avant-garde group the Soronprfbs, invites Jon to play with them following the mental decline of their own keyboardist. He packs and eagerly joins them, only to arrive in a countryside hut in Ireland where the band are to stay indefinitely to complete their next album. Theremin player Clara (Maggie Gyllenhaal) responds to Jon's inclusion with aggression, but Jon is taken by the group's charismatic singer, Frank (Michael Fassbender), a man who refuses to take off his giant, papier-mache mask or conform to the traditional song-writing process.

As the album gets closer to completion (with Jon growing a huge beard in the process), the band become popular due to Jon's frequent Twitter and Facebook video postings revealing their unconventional recording techniques, frequent outbursts and erratic behaviour. It is from this that the film succeeds in it's satire of an increasingly connected world. The followers start to pile up, and it looks as if their first gig will be well attended. But is it the music the fans are in it for? Or do they simply wish to witness first-hand the collapse of a band so riddled with idiosyncrasies that they have become the subject of blood-thirsty ridicule? Jon, finding himself completely seduced by the attention and becoming increasingly dislikeable, lusts for fame at the expense of art and originality.

At the centre of it all, is Frank himself, wonderfully played by Fassbender (although you wouldn't guess it was him under that mask). His innocence, and clear mental instability, is reminiscent of Daniel Johnston, the schizophrenic singer-songwriter from California, who creates beautiful work in his own unique way, despite the odds against him. Frank, with no trace of irony, asks Jon "why cover anything up?". Frank the character and Frank the movie are, in equal measures, funny, moving, thrilling, and best of all, really fucking weird. A third a celebration of pure, unfiltered art, another a sad portrayal of our sadistic thirst for freak-shows, but most of all, this is a superb story wonderfully told.


Directed by: Lenny Abrahamson
Starring: Domhnall Gleeson, Michael Fassbender, Maggie Gyllenhaal, Scoot McNairy
Country: UK/Ireland/USA

Rating: ****

Tom Gillespie

Review #796: 'X-Men: Days of Future Past' (2014)

After Matthew Vaughn's X-Men: First Class (2011) injected a bit of life back into the X-Men franchise, any further instalments faced the headache of what to do with a bunch of fantastic actors playing the same characters decades apart. Inspired by the 1981 Uncanny X-Men comic of the same name, Days of Future Past switches between a nightmarish, dystopian future overrun by giant sentinels, and the boogie nights of the 1970's. We get the best of both worlds, and thankfully, in his seventh appearance over the course of 14 years as his most recognisable character, Hugh Jackman's Wolverine inhabits them both.

After narrowly escaping a sentinel attack in the near-future, a band of mutants including the returning Iceman (Shawn Ashmore) and Kitty Pride (Ellen Page) meet up with Wolverine, Professor X (Patrick Stewart), Magento (Ian McKellen), Storm (Halle Berry) et al to hatch a plan before the next inevitable attack. Kitty transfers the mind of Wolverine back to 1973, where a young Mystique (Jennifer Lawrence) is soon to assassinate Dr. Bolivar Trask (Peter Dinklage), setting off a chain of events that could result in the apocalypse. The only problem is, the young Charles Xavier (James McAvoy) is depressed and mansion-bound, still struggling to deal with his powers and the loss of the use of his legs. They also need to help of Magneto (Michael Fassbender), who is imprisoned in a plastic cell for allegedly assassinating John F. Kennedy.

For all it's time-travelling gobbledegook, Days of Future Past doesn't spend too much time trying to explain the mechanics behind it. Like Rian Johnson's mind-bending Looper (2012), it recognises the folly in attempting to spell it out for you. When you look at it under a microscope, time-travel makes little sense in movies as it is, so it's best to accept what you're seeing and move on. McAvoy's Xavier even dismisses Wolverine's ramblings as 'future-shite'. This frees up more time in an already packed movie to concentrate on the damaged Xavier, brought to life by another fantastic performance from McAvoy. If First Class was Magneto's origins, this is Professor X's, showing a scared, conflicted and broken man and how he became the father to mutants he is when embodied by Patrick Stewart.

Of all the many mutants on show, some are not given as much time as their name would suggest. Storm, Anna Paquin's Rogue, and most notably, Ian McKellen's Magneto are somewhat left out to dry, while Nicholas Hoult's Beast, Kitty Pride, and a first appearance for Evan Peters' Quicksilver, are more prominent, and thrive in their larger roles. Trask, a rather fascinating villain thanks to the performance of Dinklage, is left undeveloped. We glimpse into his mind and ambitions, but there's little clarity given to his motivation. But with a film this packed with characters, it would take four hours or more to explore them all, and some inspired set-pieces pepper the film at the points where you start to think the plot will make your head explode. The (possibly) plot-hole laden climax aside, it seems like the franchise is as good as it was at the end of X2 (2003), seemingly serving to delete all the poor decisions made in returning director Bryan Singer's absence. Now, the wait for X-Men: Apocalypse.


Directed by: Bryan Singer
Starring: Hugh Jackman, James McAvoy, Michael Fassbender, Jennifer Lawrence, Nicholas Hoult, Peter Dinklage, Patrick Stewart, Ian McKellen, Ellen Page
Country: USA/UK

Rating: ****

Tom Gillespie

Review #702: '12 Years a Slave' (2013)

Practically neglected entirely by cinema, it seems that America is finally holding its hands up in the air; ready to face its utterly barbaric history surrounding the kidnapping of black Africans and the introduction of slavery. Last year saw Quentin Tarantino deliver a sporadically entertaining yet hardly historically accurate depiction of slavery and plantation owners in Django Unchained, but British director Steve McQueen has delivered an unflinching, heartbreaking true story in 12 Years a Slave, an account of the experiences of Solomon Northup (Chiwetel Ejiofor), a freeman living in American who is kidnapped, taken from his wife and children, and sold into slavery.

After a conflict with a sadistic overseer (Paul Dano), Northup is passed on by gentle plantation owner Ford (Benedict Cumberbatch), into the hands of the cruel Edwin Epps (Michael Fassbender). There he finds himself caught up in a conflict between Epps' wife (Sarah Paulson) and fellow slave Patsey (Lupita Nyong'o). Patsey is treated cruelly by Mistress Epps simply because her husband desires her sexually, and Patsey pleads with Northup to end her life. Although coming from an educated background, and being especially skilled with a violin, Northup keeps his past a freeman quiet. But when chance leads to an encounter with Canadian abolitionist Bass (Brad Pitt), Northup sees a chance to communicate with his family back in New York.

For anyone familiar with the work of Steve McQueen, there is no doubting that 12 Years a Slave is distinctly his. His previous films Hunger (2008) and Shame (2011) can be described as works of high art, and while 12 Years a Slave features the long, haunting takes and moments of stillness that McQueen is known for, it is more recognisable as a mainstream film. I certainly don't mean that as a negative, as, given the subject matter, McQueen has to be extremely delicate with not allowing his own artistic preferences to overshadow the gravity of the story. But the film is surprisingly, yet thankfully, unsentimental. There's no big chest-beating moment of defiance or Oscar-grabbing monologues, and in fact we don't really get to know Northup as much as we really should. 

Northup plays the role of protagonist (the film is based on his written account), but this is just one man. His story was one of a precious few to come out of slavery with a 'happy' ending, and 12 Years A Slave extends its focus to the experiences of the majority of slaves, giving the audience a first-hand experience of what it was like to live in this time. In a key scene, Northup stands silent as the other workers sing, and as the realisation of his situation hits home, he defiantly joins in. Patsey's story, if anything, is the more heartbreaking, caught between a drunken, lusty maniac and his contemptuous, jealous wife. In the film's most powerful scene, Epps catches her on the way back from another plantation. When he asks where she has been, she holds up a bar of soap. Mistress Epps won't let her wash. So with his wife encouraging him, he whips Patsey until her back is near unrecognisable. It's one of the most horrendous moments I've ever seen on screen, and it's all caught in one unflinching take.

The performances are universally excellent. Fassbender gets the easier role as the scowling sadist, but it is his character's Christian justification for slavery that most disturbs. Ejiofor is quietly effective in an unshowy role, but it is Nyong'o and Paulson that stand out as two women on completely opposite sides of the social spectrum. When the movie ends, although it climaxes with Northup uniting with his family, I had a strange feeling of dissatisfaction. I realised that this is why 12 Years a Slave is so powerful, as although it offers a kind resolution to a character that suffers an awful amount throughout, there's still the knowledge that this is one man amongst millions, that there has been no real justice for the perpetrators of this barbarism. As the footnotes inform us, Northup's capturers were never punished either, as it wasn't law for Northup to testify against them. It's a lot to stomach, but this is devastating, important cinema.

Directed by: Steve McQueen

Starring: Chiwetel Ejiofor, Michael Fassbender, Sarah Paulson, Lupita Nyong'o, Benedict Cumberbatch, Paul Dano, Paul Giamatti, Brad Pitt
Country: USA/UK

Rating: ****

Tom Gillespie

Review #670: 'Jonah Hex' (2010)

Jonah Hex is a project that seemed doomed from the start. It has all the ingredients for a great movie - a too-cool-to-be-true premise, an extraordinary cast, a rarely seen (in the comic book universe) Wild West setting, and a cult following thanks to DC Comics' graphic novels. But if you look at other movies of its kind - Constantine (2005), Ghost Rider (2007) etc. - it was never going to work. The studio system or just plain bad writing always seems to get in the way. And Jonah Hex is quite possibly the most terrible of them all. Josh Brolin snarls and grunts his way through a solid performance, but he does not manage to save this absolute mess of a movie.

Jonah Hex served as a Confederate solider during the American Civil War. We learn through a fast-tracking prologue that shortly after the war, the evil Quentin Turnbull (John Malkovich) murdered Jonah's entire family, and branded his face with a terrible wound that leaves him disfigured. He is left for dead but nursed back to health by some native Americans, that somehow leave him with the ability to talk to the dead. Believing Turnbull burned to a crisp in a hotel fire, Jonah turns to bounty hunting to earn his living, proving highly efficient at the job. But when Turnbull re-emerges with his mad Irish cronie Burke (Michael Fassbender) and the threat of a terrorist attack, President Grant (Aidan Quinn) hires Jonah to take him out and save the day.

After the quick-fire introduction that zips through Jonah Hex's backstory so fast that you simply cannot care about him, we are introduced to the familiar hooker-with-a-heart Lilah (Megan Fox), who is inexplicably in love with Jonah. They share one scene together with no hint as to why these two characters even like each other (although I'm sure I know why Jonah enjoys visiting Lilah), and are not reunited until the climax when we are expected to give a damn about these two making it through the explosions and gunfire. Writers Brian Taylor and Mark Neveldine (who like to refer to themselves as simply Taylor/Neveldine - oh, please) don't seem to have heard of character-building or pacing, but when you look at their back catalogue then this can hardly be a surprise.

The most depressing thing is that the actors do their best and are largely successful with their cardboard characters, which makes it even more confusing as to how this was screwed up so badly. Nothing is explained properly - how did Turnbull escape the fire that apparently killed him/why do we only see Jonah revive the dead twice/why is Turnbull so pissed at the government? - and the fact that we are simply expected to accept this is offensive. I know, I know, this is a comic-book movie, but the action is so dull and ridiculous (dynamite guns!) that the aspect that we expect to be at least not bad is not there in order for us to forgive its many flaws. If there's one good thing to say about the film, it's that Jonah Hex's prosthetics are good, but the fact that I'm praising the make-up department shows how badly I'm clutching at straws.


Directed by: Jimmy Hayward
Starring: Josh Brolin, John Malkovich, Megan Fox, Michael Fassbender, Will Arnett, Michael Shannon, Wes Bentley, Aidan Quinn
Country: USA

Rating: *

Tom Gillespie

Review #495: 'Prometheus' (2012)

In the past fifteen or so years, there has been plenty of talk of Ridley Scott returning to the world he created in his masterpiece Alien (1979), be it a sequel, a prequel, or a spin-off of some manifestation. Since the early 2000's, Scott has had a script entitled Prometheus, a story that would set out to depict the origin of the Alien species, but along came the dire Alien Vs. Predator (2004) and the project sort of went out the window. But Scott's interest was never completely lost, and in 2009, the script was re-written to form a plot that would be set in the same universe, but following its own story and mythology, and would attempt to delve into humanity's creation, taking inspiration from wall paintings, ancient scripture, and the religions of ancient civilisations.

Archaeologists Elizabeth Shaw (Noomi Rapace) and Charlie Holloway (Logan Marshall-Green) discover an ancient cave painting in Scotland that they believe as final proof of alien astronauts visiting the planet, to be received and worshipped as gods by long-dead civilisations. Forming a map to a distant constellation they believe to hold the answers, Shaw, Holloway and a crew of geologists, soldiers, corporates, and android David (Michael Fassbender), set out on a two-year trip to reach it. When they awake, they wander into a large structure where they find the dead body of a large alien, lying untouched for thousands of years. They believe this to be an 'Engineer' - one of our creators. Unbeknownst to the crew, David takes a sample of a strange black fluid they find covering a set of strange cylindrical blocks and begins his own secret research.

While this has received general unfavourable reviews from the critics, I have admire Ridley Scott's decision to avoid the obvious and tackle a much more existential, thoughtful approach to an ambitious story. After the massive success of the Alien franchise (now a mockery of itself with recent ...Vs. Predator incarnations), expectations would be that the famous beasties would make an appearance to appease fan-boys and audiences wanting to be spoon-fed shit they've seen before. But Prometheus is very much a completely new vision, and Scott has created an old-fashioned space opera that harks back to the philosophical pondering of the golden age of sci-fi, and one that opts for suspense and atmosphere rather than blood, guts and killer aliens.

Yet while the approach is extremely admirable, the film over-reaches itself, struggling to contain the massiveness of its ambition into a feature-length running-time (I would have much preferred a patient, three-hour film), and inevitably becomes a bit of a bumbling mess. It asks far too many questions that it can't (and doesn't) answer, leading to many scenes and occurrences that become downright confusing, and makes some plain odd decisions (why employ Guy Pearce to play an old man? What's with the Janek (Idris Elba)/Vickers (Charlize Theron) sex-talk scene?). Things becomes so baffling, that during its sagging middle section, I found it difficult to work out exactly what the film was trying to be, as the action ground to a halt and Scott's attention goes from one thing to the next, never really falling on a subject as its focus.

If the film has one ultimate saving grace, it would be in Michael Fassbender's phenomenal performance as the android David, who styles himself on Peter O'Toole after spending two years watching Lawrence of Arabia (1962), and appears to know far more that he is letting on. He is so good, that his co-stars suffer in comparison. While I found Noomi Rapace's career-making performance in The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo (2009) to be as excellent as I was made to believe, here, she struggles to make an impact. Her character is bland, and doesn't have the charisma or the action-hero chops of Sigourney Weaver's Ripley to be a credible lead, and Charlize Theron, playing the corporate bitch-in-charge, can't raise her character above that of a faceless stereotype.

However, I found the films philosophical aspects irresistibly fascinating, and Scott takes ideas and theories published in the 1968 novel Chariots of the Gods? by Erich von Daniken, that attempted to apply scientific research to the author's own theoretical studies to argue the existence of alien visitors, documented in artifacts such as the Egyptian Pyramids and Stone Henge, ancient artwork from many global civilisations, and texts including the Bible. It's just a pity the film can't hold this plus the many other plot strands together to make a coherent movie. The visuals are absolutely stunning however, from the cold interiors to the even colder alien landscape, Scott blends gaunt, minimalistic restraint, with stunning explosions of CGI wonder. Hardly worth the wait, but certainly worth your time.


Directed by: Ridley Scott
Starring: Noomi Rapace, Michael Fassbender, Charlize Theron, Idris Elba, Logan Marshall-Green, Guy Pearce
Country: USA/UK

Rating: ***

Tom Gillespie

Review #392: 'Shame' (2011)

The idea of sexual addiction has, at least up to now, been viewed by most as a pathetic way for celebrities to justify their debauchery and sleazy activities. It has never been given a serious portrayal in film (not that I can remember), but this has not stopped director Steve McQueen tackling the subject in his second feature, after 2008's quite sensational Hunger. He approaches the subject head-on, and rather than trying to investigate what causes the problem, he instead shows it for what it is, personified in Michael Fassbender's emotionally damaged Brandon.

Unknown to the people who claim to know him, Brandon has a seemingly high-paid office job and an ocean-view apartment. This life of emotional distance helps him to indulge in his sexual addiction, where prostitutes, online porn, bar pick-ups, and daytime wanks-at-work provide temporary relief for his ever-growing sexual urges. His life of routine is rudely interrupted with the arrival of his equally damaged sister Sissy (Carey Mulligan), who throws Brandon's life upside down. At first the two seem to get on, but after Sissy sleeps with Brandon's boss David (James Badge Dale), and then catches Brandon masturbating, his once-private affliction is revealed.

Similar to Hunger, Steve McQueen takes a very artistic approach, breaking the film up with long moments of silence and panning shots, and in one bravura sequence, the camera follows a raging Brandon as he jogs through the New York night, as the neon-lit city opens up before him. Yet it's the character development and the truly exceptional lead performance by Fassbender that makes the film, as given that Brandon is really quite an unlikeable character, in Fassbender's hands he is sympathetic and tragic, and McQueen's and Abi Morgan's script make him a fully-realised, and utterly fascinating character.

It would be easy to make Brandon one-dimensional, but as the film goes on, we learn more about him. He fantasises about office colleague Marianne (Nicole Beharie) and the two go out on a dinner date. Brandon talks about his inability to understand or maintain a relationship, which perplexes Marianne, yet the two still seem to hit if off. Later, on a second date, the two are tearing each others clothes off, when Brandon seems to look her meaningfully in the eyes, but he is unable to sustain an erection. He tells her to leave, then in the next scene, and not long after his encounter with Marianne, he is having hard sex with a prostitute up against the window. It is clear that any idea of anything remotely meaningful terrifies Brandon, and therefore turns him off.

Sissy is equally as intriguing, but is given much less screen time. Her encounter with the truly loathsome David reveals that something happened in the past, possibly involving both siblings, yet like Brandon, Sissy reveals nothing. Mulligan has already established herself as an effective actress, but her character serves more as a way to develop Brandon, who is in every scene. The two siblings' backgrounds are not revealed so we are left to guess how to the two have become so damaged, but the film is much more effective this way. It can be a hard watch at times, but Shame is a fascinating exploration of a relatively unexplored subject matter.


Directed by: Steve McQueen
Starring: Michael Fassbender, Carey Mulligan, James Badge Dale, Nicole Beharie
Country: UK

Rating: ****

Tom Gillespie

Review #123: 'X-Men: First Class' (2011)

Things were looking good for the X-Men back in 2003. The first film was a box-office success and was a pretty solid blockbuster. Then X2 (2003) came and the bar was raised not only for X-Men films, but for superhero movies in general. Bryan Singer had made an exciting action film that had interesting, fully-developed and endearing characters. Then Singer dropped out in order to make Superman Returns (2006), and for some reason left the job to Hollywood shit-stain Brett Ratner. X-Men: The Last Stand (2006) was an over-populated, lazily directed mess, and Ratner had thought it would be a good idea to cast Vinnie Jones. It seemed to be the closure of the X-Men series, until X-Men Origins: Wolverine (2009) came along and gave a backstory to fan-favourite Wolverine. Even though it was directed by the Oscar-winning Gavin Hood (who directed the excellent Tsotsi (2005)), it was the worst of the lot. Studio interference has made it a bumbling, boring mess of a movie. But still the X-train carries on, and still had the ability to attract rising director Matthew Vaughn.

Set in 1962, it follows a young Charles Xavier (James McAvoy) who is graduating from University and living with his best friend Raven (Jennifer Lawrence). Xavier is seemingly fascinated with genetic mutation that has given him the gift of reading minds, and given Raven the ability to morph into anyone. Meanwhile, vengeful concentration camp survivor Erik Lensherr (Michael Fassbender) is on a mission to find the fled Nazis that led to the death of his parents, and, ultimately, to find Sebastian Shaw (Kevin Bacon), who first discovered his gift for magnetism. Shaw is now on a quest to strike a deal with the U.S.S.R. that will lead to the destruction of America. Lensherr realises he must join forces with Xavier and recruit new mutants in order to fight this threat, and eventually being accepted into a discriminative world.

One of the underlying themes of the X-Men films is the idea of discrimination against the mutants. It is the key thing that eventually lead to Xavier and Lensherr (later to become Professor X and Magneto) ultimately becoming enemies. Xavier feels that the best way to show the human population that the mutants do not pose a threat is to rise above the 'racial' hatred. Magneto takes it as a way to feel superior, and therefore hell-bent on teaching the humans a lesson. Magneto feels deeply about this due to his childhood in Auschwitz, and the death of his parents. This deep-rooted hatred is explored early on in First Class as Lensherr scours Europe killing people on his Nazi list.

This is one of the problems with First Class, as the film is bound to the fate that we as the audience already know. Xavier must lose the use of his legs. Magneto and Raven (later to become Mystique) must become evil. Hank McCoy (Nicholas Hoult) must turn into Beast. The Cerebro must be built. Often the film becomes so insistent in developing these ideas that it loses focus on its own storyline and characters. As a result, the plot can often feel muddled, and the new mutant additions are thinly-conveyed and uninteresting.

The one true masterstoke in the film is the casting of Michael Fassbender. I've long been an admirer after seeing him as Bobby Sands in Hunger (2008), and then go on to make Fish Tank (2009) and Inglourious Basterds (also 2009). He portrays Magneto torn both by anger and helplessness devised from his childhood, and plays it with utter conviction. His early scenes travelling across Europe are the best moments in the film, and makes me wish they had gone ahead with their earlier plans in giving Magneto his own origin movie. McAvoy, however, although possessing a lot of charm, suffers from having Patrick Stewart's shoes to fill. His friendship with Raven is just not convincing.

There's a definite feeling that the film has been rushed. Vaughn's earlier efforts in the fantasy field - Kick-Ass (2010) and Stardust (2007) - flowed, and never lacked in the special effects department. Here, the film seems to frantically pacing for the climax, with no real moments of character development, and some of the special effects don't come near to the standards of other films these days. It is, though, undoubtedly enjoyable. The action scenes don't exactly blow anything out of the water, and don't even surpass the original two, but they are at least fun. I hope if they do make another film, they concentrate on the story rather than looking at the future, and set the foundations for what could become a solid franchise in it's own right.


Directed by: Matthew Vaughn
Starring: James McAvoy, Michael Fassbender, Jennifer Lawrence, Rose Byrne, Kevin Bacon, January Jones, Nicholas Hoult, Oliver Platt, Jason Flemyng
Country: USA

Rating: ***

Tom Gillespie

Review #21: 'Hunger' (2008)

Hunger tells the story of the build up and event of the 1981 Irish hunger strike at H.M. Prison Maze, which was led by Irish Republican Army (IRA) volunteer Bobby Sands. The purpose of the strike was to protest against the British government to recognise the politics of republicanism, and to promote to the general public, an understanding of Northern Ireland's desire for independence from 'British' politics. Sands was previously involved in other prison strikes which were unsuccessful, but it was his 66 days of hunger strike that got Margret Thatchers Conservative government to take notice, and effectively paved the way for Northern Ireland's political independence in the form of Sinn Fein, completely radicalising British politics. During the 66 days of hunger strike, Sands was elected into British Parliament, as M.P. of Fermanagh and South Tyrone.

Directed by artist/filmmaker Steve McQueen, who was previously known for winning Britain's controversial Turner prize in 1999. As usual, the awards create a barrage of the public abuse, with (mainly Daily Mail readers') outcry's stating that this is not art. Most of McQueen's work is film, displayed in art galleries, and are usually static camerawork. The most famous piece that was part of his Turner collection, Deadpan (1997), was a short, one camera shot of McQueen himself, stood static as the front of a wooden building falls down, but McQueen is still able to stand as he stood at the spot where an open window is. This is a recreation of a famous Buster Keaton routine. Hunger is McQueen's first Narrative work. Steve also co-wrote the screenplay with Irish playwright, Enda Walsh, who has subsequently adapted his own play, Chatroom (2010), into a screenplay that was directed by Hideo Nakata. Hunger won the Camera D'Or at the 2008 Cannes film festival.

McQueen continues his previous style of filmmaking, with use of many static shots. The camera very rarely moves. This perpetuates a sense of dread within the prison walls, and completely gives the idea to the viewer of the mundanity of day-to-day living in such a high security prison. In the first half of the film we do not meet Bobby Sands (Michael Fassbender), but are introduced to firstly a prison guard Raymond Lohan (played by Stuart Graham), who we see floating through his day, evidently miserable and probably pretty terrified of the IRA. We are also presented with Gerry Campbell - who is new to the prison (Liam McMahon) - and Davey Gillen (Brian Milligan), who have to share a cell. The walls of the cell are covered in Gillen's own excrement. The sense of despair within these walls is palpable. The prisoner's spend all of their time in these small cells, the only time they're out of these is if they are being beaten, or are forced to the bathrooms, viciously have their hair cut, then are thrown into baths and scrubbed with hard-bristle brooms.

Bridging the first and second acts of the film is (what I think to be the best scene of the film) a conversation between Sands and Father Dominic Moran (Liam Cunningham). In this long sequence, almost entirely as a static shot, Sands tells of his plan to go on hunger strike (whilst this scene could be viewed as heavy exposition, after a practically dialogue-free first half, the script works incredibly well in hiding this, and the conversation seems natural), and this leads Moran to question the morality of this 'protest'. He objects as it is suicide.

The last act of the film shows the deterioration of the human body when it is exposed to the effects of hunger. This causes massive internal injuries to the stomach, blood-sugar and heart rate. Sands is constantly monitored in the prison hospital. This last part is acted incredibly by Fassbender, who clearly lost a lot of weight, and portrays in anguish of his slowly withering, dying body. The film has no musical score, its only sounds are background. This also highlights the full emptiness, and despair of prison life. Despite its serious, and horrific subject matter, the film is one of beauty, the long, static shots, leaving you time to soak up the atmosphere in the mise-en-scene, giving you the sense of mundanity. It certainly is a film deserving of the many awards it got. I just can't believe it took me this long to get around to watch.


Directed by: Steve McQueen
Starring: Michael Fassbender, Liam Cunningham, Liam McMahon
Country: UK/Ireland

Rating: ****

Marc Ivamy