Movie Reviews: Solo

Solo: A Star Wars Story is the newest offering from the new batch of Star Wars films. Despite reviewing well, it's not done very well in the cinemas. It had a lot of problems during filming, including the lead actor, Alden Ehrenreich, needing an acting coach due to bad performance. They also changed director half way through filming due to creative differences and loads of it had to be reshot. I think these stories, coupled with The Last Jedi not being very good, and the last Star Wars film only coming out a few months ago put people off going to see it. Or perhaps it's a wider problem with the cinema industry in general. Our cinema has halfed its prices lately to encourage more people to come in. It's great for us, of course, but also a little concerning. All that being said, I did enjoy the film. The acting coach clearly did his job well, and I enjoyed all the performances, especially Donald Glover as young Lando. The story works well for the most part and there are some cool scenes, like a futuristic train heist and the surprise return of an underused character from the prequels. Speaking of underused characters, this film has one too. An underused crime boss centipede lady who's sensitive to sunlight. She was cool, for her minute of screen time. There was also a funny droid, as usual, this one voiced by a woman and very into rights and freedoms for droids. So that's something new. I do feel like the end had too many twists though. One would have been fine, not the six or seven we were thrown. I also think that this film didn't particularly look like a Star Wars film. I suppose it could be argued that this doesn't particularly matter in a wide galaxy, with lots of different things going on. I also wasn't too keen on what they did with the Kessel Run. It just seemed like what they did with it didn't particularly fit with what we already knew about it, and as if they just wanted to include it for the sake of covereing everything we know about Han Solo, rather than because it really fits into the story. But on the whole I enjoyed it and would recommend it. I think it's a shame a lot of the fans didn't come out to watch it.

Book Reviews: A Web of Air

Philip Reeve's Mortal Engines quartet is one of my favorite series of all time.   It's about a post-apocalyptic world where cities are mobile and travel across the world eating each other.   A Web of Air is the second book of the prequel series.   The first book, Fever Crumb, told the story of how London became the first city to become mobile.   At the end of the book, the main character, Fever Crumb, runs away with two orphaned children.   When the second book opens Fever and children have joined a travelling theatre and Fever is their lighting technician.   They reach a city which seems to be in our Portugal.   It's been built in an ancient bomb crater and the buildings are on rails and slide up and down the walls.  Along with people the city is home to a race of super-intelligent seagulls called angels who have learned to speak human language.   Fever meets a reclusive boy called Arlo who is experimenting with flying machines.   Fever decides to help him.   The two make great progress. but enemies don't want the project to succeed.   Arlo and Fever move to a more remote island to work and incorporate some ancient technology into their machine.   They succeed (and fall in love) but their enemies ultimately catch up with them and their flying machine is destroyed.  Arlo feels betrayed by Fever and disappears.   At this point Fever's parents catch up with her and take her back to London.   So not what you'd call a happy ending. 

This book's strength lies not in the story, or in the characters, but in Philip Reeve's imaginary landscapes.   Though brilliant, Fever is not a particularly likeable main character.   This is because of her engineer's upbringing.   She has been taught to be cold and logical.   Despite knowing this about her I still find it hard to empathise and warm up to her.   However, I loved the idea of the city in the bomb crater, the moving buildings and the talking seagulls.   Very original and creative.   A good read, but still not as good as Mortal Engines, or Larklight, Philip Reeve's steampunk series.

Film Reviews: Star Trek, Into Darkness

I was a huge Star Trek fan when I was younger, but haven't watched the series in years.   The original series is the one I've seen the least of, so I went to see the previous Star Trek film without much idea of what to expect.   I loved it!   It was very different to the Star Trek I remembered, and I loved the new incarnation.   So I was very eager to see this sequel when it came out, and overall I was impressed.   It had the same sort of flavour as the last film, with impressive visuals, spunky characters, great jokes and lots of nods to the original series for the fans.   Like its prequel, it was also a film for everybody, not just one for the fans, which I thought was great.   The plot is slightly on the forgettable side, but the visuals, script and acting more than make up for it.   Again, Kirk, Spock, Sulu, Chekov, Bones and Scotty are brilliant, and Benedict Cumberbatch is, of course great as Khan.   He's everywhere at the moment, isn't he?   And I loved Spock yelling Khan! at the end!   Even someone like me who has never seen Wrath of Khan knows what a famous scene that is and can appreciate what they did with reversing Spock and Kirk's roles.   I do think, though, that it isn't quite as good as its predecessor.   Still great though, and I hope they make lots more!

Film Reviews: Soylent Green

A classic movie that I only just got round to watching.   I really enjoyed this one.   For a start it's got Charlton Heston in it (yum yum).  It's a 70s sci-fi film with a difference.   A lot of sci-fi films from the 70s look unbelievably dated (with the obvious exception of Star Wars, which is still BRILLIANT!), but this one doesn't, mostly owing to the fact that it didn't try to look to look "futuristic" in the first place.   It's about a dectective called Thorn (Heston) who is investigating the murder of a high-ranking official in the Soylent company, which makes processed food from sea algae, which feeds the majority of the population.   The chain of events leads him to a Soylent processing factory where he sees human remains being processed into Soylent Green.   The rumours are true; the oceans are dead and have stopped supporting algae.   The discovery is too much for Thorn's assistant, an old man who remembers what the world used to be like.   He goes to a special clinic to die, and is played music and videos of how the world used to be before it got so hot.   He dies happy.   The film still works today because it's still chilling to watch, as people sleep on the streets and in the stairwells and queue up for water and Soylent Green.   It's poignant in today's world of global warming fears, strained resources and rapid population growth.   Seeing people get excited about luxuries such as a stick of celery and a tomato and air conditioning reminds us of how much we take for granted and what we could lose.   It also, shockingly, has young and beautiful girls in it who are referred to as "furniture" (they come with the key) for rich men.   Horrible.   A good and thought-provoking classic movie, but not exactly a feel-good film.