Movie Review: Moana

Movie Review: Moana

Moana is the story of a teenage girl whose destiny it is to cure her island from the curse that was caused by the demi-god Maui. Throughout the film, Moana learns through self-discovery and realises she is more capable of doing things than she appears to be.  

Moana is a good film. It sends a clear message to all who watch it that by believing in yourself you can do anything you set your mind to. The movie teaches its audience that sometimes not everyone is supportive of the decisions you make in your life (as seen when Moana’s mother helps her flee the island after her father forbid it) but can turn people’s opinions around by believing in yourself and doing what makes you happy – even though it’s a lot of work in the beginning. This is a lesson that everyone can take with them. As life progresses we all must make decisions as to what is best for us in that time period and not what other people may want us to do. This may be one of the very few positive things I found with Moana.

I expected a lot more of the original soundtrack for this film. How Far I’ll Go Is the best song from that film and rightly so. The other songs are shockingly bad, even for a Disney film. Maui’s song You’re Welcome serves as a reason for Maui to gloat about the things he has accomplished and make me instantly dislike him. It has no other purpose than that. The song Shiny was just a filler for the plot to progress. It was pointless and I believe the movie would have been better without it. For the brief arc that the crab was in the movie for it didn’t warrant its own song. Knowing that Lin-Manuel Miranda was one of the composers and writers for the score of the film, I expected much more from it.

The character of Maui bothers me excessively. Most the film is spent having Maui gloat and brag about himself and the rest throwing Moana from things hoping to be rid of her and just being mean to her. As a demi-god, his personality should reflect more on helping and kindness (even though his past is explained) towards humans. When his attitude towards Moana does become positive it has no effect on me, as a viewer, whatsoever! Moana would have been better off by herself at the climax of the film than having Maui change his mind. I feel this character could be improved upon as most of the film is set up so that when he decides to really help Moana the viewer should be happy. I was just more annoyed.

The animation of the film was stunning. It was polished, perfected and a joy to sit down and watch. I like the Easter egg that Disney threw in at 1:02:51 (watch it to figure out what it is) even though an Easter egg like this has occurred in other Disney films its always exciting to see another one added to the collection. This movie will no doubt become a classic in the years to come. I liked it but I didn’t love it. For me, it missed the mark a little bit.  

Movie Review Rating: 3/5 

First Impression: Get Out

First Impression: Get Out

For those of you who are unaware of the horror film Get Out let me give you a quick synopsis of the film. Chris (Daniel Kaluuya) and his girlfriend Rose (Allison Williams) have reached the ‘meet the parents’ stage of their relationship. Rose invites Chris to her family’s house for the weekend. Chris interprets the family’s overly accommodating behaviour as a nervous coping mechanism for their daughter’s interracial relationship. However, as the weekend progresses Chris makes some disturbing discoveries leading him to a truth he could have never imagined.

From viewing the trailer for this film, I wasn’t overly excited to view it. At first glance it would seem like your stereotypical horror film and, for the most part, I was right. The film took a long time to set the story in motion. It introduced all the main characters rather quickly and let the character development progress smoothly throughout the film. The film had some obvious jump scares which did not scare me in any way and left me disappointed more than anything else. The genre this movie is categorised in is horror but I disagree. Personally, I think it’s more of a thriller.

I don’t know why Jordan Peele (Director, Writer, Producer) felt it necessary to include the comedy scenes in the film as I feel they have absolutely no relevance to the plot development or overall film. I feel like the comedic scenes lead to the cliché ending the movie received. However, if those scenes had been left out, the plot could have been further developed and the film could have been granted a more unique ending that would have suited the movie better.

The only good thing about this film was the plot. I was very interested in the plot of Get Out as I have not seen anything like it before. I enjoyed the development of the story and trying to figure out what was going on was interesting. But the plot was let down by the ending. The last 20 minutes of the film were a complete disappointment, in my eyes, as it was predictable was what going to happen. This movie is not one that I would quickly recommend for people to go see. Although the plot of the film is good most of the rest of it is a predictable let down.

First Impression: 2/5 

First Impression: Beauty & The Beast (2017)

First Impression: Beauty & The Beast (2017)

The live action Beauty & The Beast has been a topic of constant conversation since the teaser trailer was released 9 months ago. The excitement has been building and building with every little glimpse of the movie that I got with the official movie trailers since then. I was nervous and excited to see the film as Beauty & The Beast is a Disney classic (the 1991 release is one of my favourite titles from Disney) and I hoped the live action instalment wouldn’t tarnish my opinion of the film, as animations don’t always have a smooth translation to live action. However, Disney surpassed every expectation I had for this film. I can safely say that the 2017 instalment of Beauty & The Beast is now one of my favourite Disney films of all time.

The actors were able to portray the characters effortlessly and brought their own unique twists to the characters. Josh Gad played the role of Le Fou and I thought he was hilarious throughout the whole movie. There were times throughout the film where he was serious but I felt it was never out of place with the personality that Le Fou was known for in the 1991 film. Emma Waston was the perfect actress to play Belle. She played the role confidently and successfully and delivered a stellar performance, she never faltered. Dan Stevens took on the role of the Beast which must have been easy as he spent most his filming days in a grey onesie and stilts to make the CGI effects easier in editing. Nevertheless, his performance was amazing and he brought a new side to the Beast that wasn’t previously seen in the 1991 title. The only critique I have about a member of the cast is Emma Thompson’s attempt at playing Mrs. Potts. I feel like she was trying too hard to match Angela Lansbury’s voice acting in the iconic role as Emma’s accent came across as a bit too Cockney for Mrs. Potts. As she is an English actress I think she could have been a bit more natural when it came to the voice acting for the film.

The script writers were amazing when writing the new script for Beauty & The Beast as they kept the key elements of the original film that made us fall in love with it but changed it enough that it gave us a new insight to the characters and their backstories. They changed certain elements of the enchantress’s curse to benefit the plot of the story, which didn’t impact the overall plot of the film significantly for better or for worse. 

The score was better than ever! The original team reprised their roles for this adaptation and I’m grateful they did. Their work flowed seamlessly from the 1991 film and added in extra verses into all the beloved songs we fell in love with 26 years ago. There were also some unexpected surprises when it came to the score of the film but writing it here would include some serious spoilers so you’ll have to wait till you see the film to figure it out. The only thing I found annoying with the songs was that, in most of the numbers, there was a drawn out pause for some CGI effect or useless choreography. The musical numbers don’t need a pause multiple times during the songs and I don’t honestly know why they would feel the need to include them.

Overall the movie is spectacular. There are very few ways to describe the magnificence of the film in a review. I highly recommend it to anyone who is reading this and if the 3D option is available in your local cinema take advantage of it! It's family friendly and a great excuse to see it if you have kids.
Disney managed to take a beloved classic from 1991 and re-invented it in a subtle but powerful way, securing it a place within our hearts for another 26 years at least.

First Impression Rating: 5/5

First Impression: Logan

First Impression: Logan

I try not to give spoilers for first impression films, as I don’t want to ruin any surprises or plot twists that might occur in the film. For this movie review it will be harder as I disliked the film so explaining why may prove to be difficult.

Before seeing Logan, I hadn’t seen any promotion for the movie whatsoever. No movie posters, no film trailers. Nothing. I was a bit apprehensive about seeing the film. I had a basic, and I mean absolute basic, understanding of the X-Men franchise. I thought I knew just about enough to get me through the film which, to be fair, I did. There wasn’t anything so far-fetched in the film that would require an overly extensive knowledge of the franchise, much to my relief. But having said that the movie could have been a lot better for the plot line they were trying to tell.

The action sequences seemed to go on for way too long. As I’m sure with most X-Men/Wolverine films the action sequences will make up most of the film as it is an action film. In Logan, however, I felt they were repetitive and went on for much too long. As Logan is more about the emotional side of the character than the action aspect I felt that they could have cut down the action sequences and had more time to develop the emotional personality of the character. If they had done this I think I would have connected with the film a lot more than I did.

A pet peeve of mine in films is when there is a bi-lingual character and instead of speaking in English or the primary language of the other characters in the scene they first say the line in another language and must repeat themselves in English. This happened quite frequently in Logan. I find it annoying and a complete waste of time. It had already been established the character did not speak English as their first language but they can speak it. I don’t see the point in wasting time in putting these details in the script when they have no relevance to the film in the first place. In my opinion, its padding for the script and if your script needs to be padded then maybe you need a few more weeks to go and re-work the script.

Overall, I found the film average at best. After checking the reviews for the film (8.7/10 – IMDB, 93% - Rotten Tomatoes and 4.5/5 – Entertainment.ie) I was expecting a lot more than what I got. Maybe it’s because I don't follow the franchise and I don’t make a habit of watching Marvel movies but there are aspects of the film that need to be revisited. The film was ok but I don’t think I’ll ever sit down and watch it again, or any other X-Men/Wolverine film for that matter.

First Impression Rating: 1.5/5 

First Impression: La La Land

First Impression
I recently went to the cinema to see La La Land and I can honestly say I loved it. It’s been such a long time since I went to the cinema and came away feeling the mix of emotions I felt throughout La La Land. Confusion, sadness, joy, anger were but some of the emotions I felt from viewing the film. Before I saw the film, I’ll be honest, I wasn’t expecting much. I didn’t think the movie was going to be as gripping as it was and I wasn’t sure what all the fuss was about. I felt the promotions for the film were lacking as they didn’t clearly state what the film is about. As a result of seeing the trailer on T.V. I had no desire to see La La Land. I thought it might be one of those films I kind of want to see but will probably wait until it’s on Sky Movies. After seeing La La Land, however, I completely understand the following the movie has gathered in the time it has been in the box office.

The soundtrack was exquisite. A soundtrack, I feel, is often one of the most difficult aspect of a film to get right. Do you hire a bunch of artists to record songs to feature in the soundtrack but not the film or do you risk the expense of making a musical for it to flop once it hits the box office. The creative team behind La La Land chose to tackle making a musical and it has paid off, big time. I was sceptical throughout the opening numbers. I thought “what the hell am I watching?” but as the film progressed the musical numbers had me entranced with the characters and the stories they were trying to portray.

I could not imagine two better actors who were suited to the character’s personality traits like Ryan Gosling and Emma Stone. They had undeniable on stage chemistry which had me eating out of the palm of their hand during the film. I felt as though I experienced the highs and lows they faced myself. When the ending of the film brought me crashing back to reality, I felt like I had received a sucker punch straight to my gut but I relished in the mix of emotions the movie left me in.

I may not get the chance to see La La Land in theatres again (and believe me I will try my hardest to make it before it leaves the cinema) but I will wait in eager anticipation to get my second helping. 

 

First impression rating: 5/5 

Movie Review: Frozen

Background
The story of Frozen is a modern adaptation of Hans Christian Andersons ‘The Ice Queen’. True to Disney style there are plenty of catchy songs, love interests and hilarious side-kicks to make this Disney film an all-time classic that will live on for decades to come. The film follows the coming of age of Elsa (Idina Menzel) who is the newly appointed Queen of Arendelle and struggles to conceal her ice powers from her sister Anna. Anna (Kristen Bell) has spent most of her childhood isolated from her only sibling, due to an accident with Elsa’s powers when Anna was a child.

On the evening of Elsa’s coronation day, Anna meets Prince Hans (Santino Fontana) of the Southern Isles. After a catchy upbeat song, Hans proposes to Anna and she accepts. However, Elsa is not supportive of the marriage and reveals her powers to the kingdom, in an attempt to further push Anna away, for her own safety. Frightened, Elsa flees the kingdom and becomes empowered when she realises she is free from her duties as Queen. Arendelle is left in perpetual winter after the Queen’s departure and Anna takes it upon herself to find her sister and bring summer back to the kingdom.

 Rise to Fame

Frozen was introduced to us in November 2013 by Disney. Frozen quickly became the best-selling Disney film in the box office ever, earning $67,391,326 in its opening weekend and an estimated $1.3 billion since then. Due to its huge success in the box office, Frozen quickly became a household name across the globe and merchandise sales were through the roof! The following year, Frozen was nominated for 131 awards and went on to win 74 of those awards, which included the Academy Award for Best Animated Feature Film of the Year and Best Achievement in Music Written for Motion Pictures, Original Song (Let It Go).

Part of what made this film so incredible was Disney’s ability to play on the stereotypical idea that a Disney princess needs to be saved by ‘true loves kiss’, or in Frozen’s case ‘an act of true love’, to break any spell or curse she finds herself bound in. Disney have been slowly turning their back on this stereotype as we can see with previous instalments, such as Brave and to an extent Tangled. 

My Opinion
I, like many of you, have been subject to Frozen many times in my life, whether it be of my own free will or forced upon me by siblings, family members and friends. At first I was just as captivated by the film as most people were and I absolutely love Olaf! But the more times I watched the film there was something that just didn’t make sense. I believe in the attempt to make Frozen something so revolutionary, they failed to correctly identify a villain in the film. I believe that Hans was the most convenient character for the role of villain in the film but it’s not a choice I agree with.

From the moment we were introduced to Hans in the film (17:07) he is shown to be a caring, strong and wise young man who is completely smitten with Anna. In his monologue, which begins at 1:15:47 and ends at 1:16:57, he mentions killing Elsa twice so after he and Anna married they would be the new rulers of the kingdom. This, for me, is where the storyline fell apart. Even if Hans were to marry Anna he would never be a king in Arendelle as Anna is the next in line for the throne, after Elsa. This means that in the event of Elsa’s death Anna would be Queen and Hans would forever remain a Prince as he cannot have the higher title which would be King. He would the royal consort to the Queen and any children they would have would be automatically higher in succession for the throne than Hans would.  

As previously mentioned Hans expresses his intent to kill Elsa twice during his monologue but if he really intended for her to die, she gave him multiple openings where someone else could kill her or she crossed a line that she could never come back from. Take for example 1:12:02 where a guard has Elsa in line with his crossbow and Hans runs and diverts his shot. If he had really wanted her to die he would have let the guard kill her and his hands would be clean of any attempts at murdering the Queen. Throughout this scene and the next scene, he gives Elsa words of advice (1:11:51) and shows her compassion and understanding (1:12:49-1:13:22). Hans’ personality change at 1:15:47 just doesn’t make any sense to me. Instead of trying to establish a real villain in the film, someone with a clear motive for wanting harm to come to the princesses, I feel the writers just took the easy way out. That they could sacrifice the character of Hans so that they could get their message of ‘you don’t need a man to save you’ across to the audience at the end of the film. 

Final Movie Rating: 3/5

Authors Note 
I am interested in hearing your opinions about the movie. Why not comment below? Even if you agree or disagree, or would like to suggest a movie for me to review, I would love to hear from anyone who has taken the time to read my review!

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