Capture The Flag

Went to see Capture The Flag earlier at the Cineworld in Rochester. As is now usual I rated this film on IMDB and you should see an explanation of those ratings on this communication.

So, let me explain a little more about all this. This was a CGI kids film. It was about a kid who wants to get his father speaking to his grandfather. Both are NASA astronauts. The grandfather missed out on the moon for reasons that are explained much later in the film.

SPOILER WARNING

It would appear that an evil corporate head and owner wants to mine all the H3 on the moon and sell it to countries on Earth in a monopoly. In doing so he tells the Earth that the original landings were faked and that he is going to claim the moon by getting there first. The POTUS decides that an Apollo craft needs to be sent to the moon as soon as possible so that the FLAG on the moon can be saved and ownership of the moon is for all humans.

Grandfather then trains the father in Apollo style techniques using craft that have been mothballed for 50 years. By an unfortunate series of coincidences the grandfather, the boy and his best female friend end up launching to the moon. Big evil corporation head gets there too and starts destroying the previous landing sites [even though he also declared in the film he doesn’t care about that only the H3]. Evil man has managed to launch an entire mining operation to the moon, developed within his own corporation. etc. etc.

I had issues with this film. It’s just too implausible. I know it was CGi and all that but there were many points that irritated me. Space suits that would fit a kid. Having to go to the moon rather than orbit Earth and return. Massive moon mining ship that is developed without anyone knowing about it. Surfing over the moon’s surface. Oh, just so much.

It could have been made a much more enjoyable film if it had been made more realistic. In short, it irked me. Hence the low rating.

The Danish Girl

I recently went to see The Danish Girl at Cineworld in Rochester. We were in screen 8 which means comfy seats and a nice auditorium. Sally hadn’t been in there before and was somewhat shocked at the tables between the seats downstairs and the size of the chairs upstairs. The rail in front of the front row upstairs was slightly too high to allow proper slouching in the seat.

As ever I rated this film on IMDB and you should read my page explaining ratings here.

So, this was a good film. It was very enjoyable and it is surprising how good and effeminate Eddie Redmayne is. This is a film about tolerance and understanding, it has lessons that much of the world could use to understand their population. All these countries with non-liberal views should just fuck off this planet.

So, the film. It’s worth watching. What I would definitely recommend is that you then read the Wikipedia pages about Lili Elbe and Gerda Wegener. The real story is far more interesting than the film and more fascinating. You should also check out this page of Gerda’s art.

Star Wars : The Force Awakens

So, before I start you should be aware that there are going to be SPOILERS in this page. Please go away if you don’t want to read anything about the plot or what I thought about the film.

You have been warned.

As normal I rated this film on IMDB and tweeted my result. You should read this communication about my rating system as it explains quite a bit.

So, I rated this a 10. You MUST be made aware that according to my rating system a film which I will definitely buy or pay money to see again gets a 10. I am going to buy this film on Blu-Ray and I will watch it with my sons. By default this film gets a 10. Not because I thought it was great but because I am going to buy it. Damn.

I went to see this film on Boxing Day [2015] in Milton Keynes. Sally and I went to the 4DX screening, mainly because it would make it more enjoyable for her. 4DX is a cinema system with moving seats, jets of air and water, scents, fog and rattles in parts of the seat.

You can trust me that the experience isn’t really like the promotional picture. It’s quite good fun, it doesn’t add anything to films really. If it’s a good film you won’t really notice the effects and if it’s a shit film then it will still be shit. We first saw Jurassic World in this screen.

If I had to honestly rate this film then I can easily and categorically say it is better than episodes 1,2 and 3. After that I would probably say it is worse than any of the originals, 4,5 or 6.

The film itself looks lovely. It would have been so good if it was the very first film. There wasn’t a great deal of prior knowledge required. I suppose a vague understanding of the family trees would have been helpful but mostly it could stand alone. All of the effects looked organic and the whole feel of the film was one of pleasure for the eyes. Thank god that they didn’t use all the CGI backgrounds, if they did the technology has come on leaps and bounds. The film looked lovely.

Now, here’s the tricky bit. The story itself was bollocks. Yes, it was a Star Wars story and it was always going to make a fuckton of money. But it was a shit story. The further I get away from seeing the film to more annoyed I get at them wasting the opportunity to really add to the Star Wars universe. Let’s just take some of the plot bit by bit, just indulge me, or if your indulgence is not forthcoming then go ahead and read a random communication within this website.

Orphan (?) girl lives alone on a sandy planet making her living in the desert [episode 4].

Cute robot, who everyone understands, befriends girl [episode 4]. Now this is OK, the whole point of the original was that the film was about the robots.

Droid holds secret plans/map to find something important [episode 4].

Bad man in a mask [episode 4,5,6].

Bigger bad man appearing via hologram [episode 5].

Good girl gets interrogated but manages to resist and not give away secret family history to interrogator who is a very close relation [episode 4].

Pimped up light sabre [episode 1].

Giant spacecraft to destroy large things [episode 4].

Shield of giant spacecraft needs to be destroyed and this can only be done from within enemy system [episode 6].

Girl has to be rescued from big bad spaceship [episode 4].

Girl who has the force looks in a basement and experiences the dark side of the force and foreboding [Luke in the cave episode 5].

Big bad spaceship has to be destroyed by a single X-Wing fighter flying through a trench to get to the centre [episode 4 and 6].

Angry teenage boy is annoyed at his parents [episode 4].

Big bad space ship blows up and rebels celebrate [episode 4,6].

Last Jedi who failed in his training of young Jedi disappears off to far flung planet to live alone [episode 4,5].

Bad man who might be dead but probably got away [episode 4 (kinda)].

So, overall the film is just a rehash of the good films from before. It looks beautiful. The story is terrible. I have more moans and groans and things that annoyed me. I will probably keep getting these over the next few weeks so you might find that I add to this page quite a bit.

Kylo Ren is a spoilt child who needs a slap and his allowance should be removed. What an utterly terrible character. He desperately wants to be like the grandfather he never knew. What a twat. I apologise to the actor who played him but he looked really annoying once he removed the mask. He also looked nothing like his parents. NOT SCARY. He could have at least been seriously disfigured in a childhood accident, there could have at least been some form of credible back story to him.

Rey [which I first heard as Ray and thought “oh, that’s a little odd”], grows up on a sandy planet and then escapes with a droid with a secret map. She then discovers she has the force and learns really quickly to use it to her advantage. I am pretty convinced she is going to be the twin sister of Kylo, she wasn’t aware of who her parents were. Boring. It’s been done before. [Jase has just text to say he thinks Rea will end up being Luke’s daughter which does make more sense than my theory].

I did almost audibly cheer when the Millennium Falcon appeared in the film. But WHY oh WHY did they have to include reference to the terrible and incorrect line about making the Kessel run in under 12 parsecs. Everyone knows that a parsec is a unit of distance. Arrrrrgh. I have just looked at Wookieepedia and they use some awesome apologetics (perhaps as good a biblical twats who try to explain why the incorrect stuff in the bible is true) to justify the use of wrong units in the films. I’m not impressed, it’s a clever argument but it’s made after the fact to justify bullshit (again, like the bible and ALL other holy books). Also the Wookieepedia page claims that you have to use distance because of the problems with relativistic time, well, I’m sorry but if you are going to include a correct reference to relativity then all the Star Wars films have massive time dilation issues. It’s classic apologetics, creating an explanation post hoc and then ignoring other factors.

Why was Luke’s light sabre in a trunk in the basement of a bar on a forest planet? How? What?! Also, Rey found it so the entire Star Wars universe is pure coincidence.

I thought the battle scenes looked very good, however, I am somewhat concerned at the g-forces experienced by the pilots of X-Wings and TIE Fighters. They seem to overcome these without any major tech to help them.

When the star is consumed by the new Mega-Death Star shouldn’t everything pretty much freeze straight away? There wouldn’t be any external source of light energy.

Why did R2 suddenly wake before Luke had returned? He seemed to come to life at a random time. Perhaps I missed it but I’m sure that BB-8 had already been near R2.

C3PO has a red arm. What? The rebel alliance are so tight fisted that they have no replacement arms for a historically important droid who was hand made by Anakin?

The military control base for the attack at the end seemed to look a lot like the base at Hoth. I guess we are to assume that technology hasn’t moved on and that it is the best possible organisation of systems.

Finally, for my initial communication about this film I wish to bother you about the communication system the rebels have with the Mega-Death Star. They seem to have a link to the Empire’s secret base and understand its operational procedure because at the end of the film the countdown to firing and status of the weapon is known by the rebel HQ. How do they get this information in real time? At least in episode 4 the count down was provided by line of sight and Yavin being in the way. It was irritating.

 

 

 

So, here’s the thing. It’s a Star Wars film and it’s better than 1,2 and 3. I enjoyed it. It looked good. It just doesn’t make a great deal of sense and has a stupid plot. I would rate this film a 6/10 if I hadn’t already defined my rating system.

Steve Jobs

So, took a trip, with Sally, to see the film Steve Jobs at the Cineworld cinema in Rugby [or rather on the outskirts of Rugby].

As ever, I have rated this film on IMDb, but you need to see this communication for an explanation of how the numbers work.

Before I start on the film I would just like to mention some ‘ealth and safety gone mad. There was a popcorn making dude working two popcorn machines in an alcove behind the concessions stand. I kid you not he was wearing one of these:

face-maskNow, I’m not sure what the issue is, as the popping cookers are closed while the popping process is in play but this made me giggle, quite a bit!

So, the film. You can read about it and the synopsis and where it all takes place. My opinion of Apple has always been one of suspicion and, although I am an iPhone whore, I am perfectly aware that Apple always steal other ideas and make them that little bit better. I don’t think they really do for originality. They do great design.

As a film this was very well made. I liked the shooting and the actors. I liked knowing a bit more about the history and seeing the characters over time. I did NOT like Steve Jobs. I had already read about him being an arse and this film [I know it’s fiction] largely represented him as an arse. Do I think he was a clever man? Yes. Do I like Apple products? Yes. Do I have to like him or think he was great? No.

This film is well worth seeing. I enjoyed it. Even though Jobs was an arse.

Moomins On The Riviera

I saw this film with my children at the Cineworld in Rochester or it may have been the Odeon in Maidstone. I can’t remember.

The film was largely dull. The social commentary was vaguely amusing. That’s all I can remember.

Mad Max – Fury Road

Went to see Mad Max last night at Rochester Cinema (which is in Strood). I went with Sally and we had dinner before the movie. Well, I say dinner, we ate at McDonalds because we got to the restaurants too late to get food before the movie, mind you it was worth being late.

I rated this movie on IMDB, as I do with all movies I see at the cinema. You don’t get reviews for stuff I watch on the TV though. That would make this site tedious! You should read this communication about my ratings system.

I then thought about the movie some more and I got asked “What didn’t you like about it?”. This made me re-evaluate my IMDB score. So I changed my mind.

So, I should tell you what I thought. I would watch this movie again and that is the main reason for increasing the score from a 6 to an 8. I really liked the way it looked, was filmed and acted. Max didn’t say much, but then, he’s mad. This is, overall, a really enjoyable film.

But there were issues [potential spoilers follow].

The main tribe seem to have mastered modifying cars and trucks and keeping them running in the heat and sand of the desert, but they seem unable to design and build a water distribution device that doesn’t just pour everything in to the ground.

Why did they keep the rig attached to the truck they were driving for all the film. Really? What purpose did they have for it?

The tribes seemed to clear the fallen rocks very quickly and easily without any heavy lifting equipment laying around.

Motorbikes heading for 160 days across a salt lake. That sounds fine until you REALLY think how much food you would need. I’ve owned motorbikes. They run out of fuel after five hours.

If you can suspend the disbelief then this is a gorgeous, great film.

Boxtrolls

Unsually for me I went to see the Boxtrolls at the Odeon Cinema in Maidstone. My normal cinema is the Cineworld at Rochester. As ever I rated this film on IMDB, see this communication for an explanation of my rating system.

I saw this movie on a Saturday morning kids club event. This meant I only paid £2-50 for each of us to go. Overall this was a perfectly well made kids film. The animation was lovely and the whole concept was typical fairy story. My son really enjoyed it. I will point out that I don’t like overly large machines used in films [like the spider thing in Wild Wild West] there are issues with structural strength and manufacture [flying airbases in Avengers] but the one in this film gets a free pass as it was used well.

I’m not sure I’m that fussed about seeing this film again, I expect my children will want to see it. Hence I gave a 6/10. It’s worth a watch with kids.

Avengers – Age Of Ultron

So, I went to see this film last night. As ever I rated this film on IMDB, you should read this communication before moaning about my rating system.

Overall I enjoyed this film. I don’t think it was as good as the first film. The action sequences were perfectly fine although nothing really stood out for me. The buddy aspect of the film was ok but the best parts of that were dealt with in the first film.

Look, this is a solid superhero film and works very well. It is probably better than most of the standalone films that have been released, it just wasn’t as good as the first film. Sorry.

Insurgent

I went to see Insurgent. It’s the second film in the Divergent series [if that’s what they are called]. I rated the film on IMDB, as usual, and you should read this communication for a better understanding of how I rate films, it’s subjective you see. I reviewed Divergent.

I’m not entirely sure this film had a stand out moment. It was a quite pedestrian storyline. I have a feeling it could have been made more exciting, but I may be suffering from YAL overload. You see, I watched Maze Runner recently. It’s probably fair to say that the overall plot of the films are exactly the same. I’m not sure the youth can claim this kind of dystopian future for themselves, but then every generation needs their own films and music to claim. We have to give the youth these views so that they feel empowered to contribute and change the system.

I feel a certain nostalgia for the badfuture films of the 70s and 80s. Granted, we did have a cold war and the threat of death within four minutes [if you were lucky] but we also needed the films to promote social change. The problem as I see it is that the wrong kind of social change happened. I’ve a sneaking suspicion that politics, power and greed gets in the way.

The poor youth of today constantly worried about the extremely low probability of being killed by a murderer [or terrorist as we now call them if they are a little different to us], they must find it very upsetting. Bollocks. It’s been worse in the past. It’ll get worse again.

Anyway, the film was OK. Nothing brilliant.

Chappie

I saw this film last night. As ever I have rated it on the IMDB website, or rather the IMDB app.

I think a little next morning rethinking means that I could possibly downgrade this to a 6/10. If you need to understand my rating system then read this communication.

I really enjoyed this film. Within the last six months I watched District 9, made by the same people and I enjoyed it and also found it a very interesting film given the storylines and location. District 9 dealt with the legal repression of a race of beings in South Africa. I thought it was a great film you can sit and watch or an even better critique of the recent past.

Chappie [apart from having an awful title] was quite similar. Many of the locations seemed very similar as it was films around Johannesburg. The laboratories looked and felt similar. I wonder whether the director has the same location or a very distinct look that he wanted for both films.

I would describe this film as a grown up version of Short Circuit. There was so much about it that I liked. There were some science-type issues that I had, but I am willing to let the film have those technological problems for free. This film is worth a watch, just make sure you put the kids to bed first.

An aside is that there was a couple sitting next to me. Before the film they were talking, I was reading a book on my phone, I don’t watch adverts or trailers. The girl asked why the screen was curved. The bloke responded because it makes it look nice. Now that’s not really the case is it? The screen is curved so that all points on the screen are the same distance from the projector so that the focus works properly. I didn’t interject, that seemed rude but I really wanted to. Also, if you have a question like that why don’t you look up the real answer on the internet and learn something. don’t except any answer you hear, even the one I’ve just given, look it up, find out the real reason.

Focus

So, I went to see Focus, a film with Will Smith and other people. I rated it on IMDB, as ever you should see this communication to explain my ratings.

This was an enjoyable film. It was a pretty standard con movie. There were twists and turns all the way. I very rarely watch con movies more than once, hence this is rated 6 on IMDB. The only con movie I can remember watching more than once was The Usual Suspects, although I guess that’s more of a thriller.

This film was quite good fun. It had all the glamour that you would want and rich people being used. The two main areas of play were New Orleans and Buenos Aires. Both cities looked lovely. Both I think I would like to visit.

The big con was interesting as it involves the world of car racing. There are a number of plot points that didn’t make a great deal of sense but I think I only spotted those because I do like car racing and follow the news and events.

Overall, this film was good.

Jupiter Ascending

Hmmm. Went to see Jupiter Rising last night at the IMAX cinema screen in the Bluewater shopping complex. Even though it was the 19:40 showing the shopping centre was really busy, I just wanted to use a megaphone and shout “go home people”. Well, as ever I rated this film on IMDB, and even more please remember how my scoring system works.

So, I expect that I will watch this film again, probably with my children as an entry into grand science fiction themes. I think we need to call this one fantasy rather than sci-fi though. I quite liked the grand themes and scenery of this film. It was pretty impressive work. The overall story was interesting and a good idea.

BUT. This was not a great film. The acting seemed pretty poor to me and the script was dull. It was like a poor man’s Dune with grand themes of ruling families and expensive commodities. The action scenes were too busy, it was hard to follow or see what was happening. This has been a problem I noticed since Transformers. In that film there was lots of CGI fighting and machines changing but everything happens too quick or too much of it, it’s like they are trying to distract you from the fact that they don’t know what’s going on or how the machines work.

Jupiter Ascending had an awful lot of falling in it.

Overall, this film gets a 6/10 from me but only because I will probably watch it again, not because I thought it was an OK film.

Kingsman: The Secret Service

I saw this film yesterday at Cineworld Cinemas whose iPhone app now uses Passbook and so I don’t have to print out a ticket. Good work Cineworld.

As ever I have rated this on IMDB, but you need to see this communication to explain the ratings.

Firstly, it might be worth noting that I went food shopping before this film with the intention of popping the cold stuff in the fridge at home before heading to the cinema. The traffic was at a standstill to get home and so I ended up eating the ice cream in the car on the way directly to the cinema. Even then, there were road works that meant I was delayed on the A228. I arrived at the cinema at 17:04, the film was meant to have started at 16:45. The luck was in for me as I arrived just as the last advert was playing. The frozen stuff in the car survived as it was pretty cold outside.

I was somewhat surprised that this film was a 15. You don’t tend to get many films that are above a 12A nowadays. For each rating you rise, the overall takings drop.

So, the film was funny, slightly gory, predictable and just bloody good fun. They nearly broke through the fourth wall and I loved the self referencing. This is well worth seeing. I will likely watch this again sometime soon.

The use of Elgar in one of the final scenes was inspired.

Not much of a review or spoilers. Recently I’ve done too much of that.

Selma

This is a belated communication as I saw Selma about five days ago. I normally write up a film quickly after seeing it but this time I was pretty busy on Sunday at the AST competition and so this has had to wait.

So, I rated this a 6/10. In reality it should have been an 8 but then you have to understand my scoring system which is explained here. This was a very good film covering some of the most important issues of the 20th century. It was well acted and well filmed. I would recommend that all go and see it.

Upon reading around the film it turns out that LBJ was more for equal rights than the film makes out. The claims are that the film is not a documentary. Hmm, I’m not sure. If you take something like the civil rights movement and want to make a film about it then I think you have to make it accurately.

While watching this film I was constantly reminded of my main life rule:

Do no harm

The extended version of this is that you can do what you want but make sure you cause no others any harm. This seems a perfectly good rule. It’s essentially the same as my mum’s saying:

If you can’t say anything nice, don’t say anything at all

And also similar to the following quotation from the most excellent Tim Minchin:

Sticks and stones will break my bones but names will break my heart.

There was so much hate in this film from ignorant people who had grown up in a segregated society. The USA is still not mended from these issues. Go see it and then promise to do something good.

American Sniper

I went to see this film last night. Here’s what I thought of it on IMDB:

I think I’m possibly too old for these films. I just wasn’t impressed. It might be that I had already read some reviews and they weren’t very positive or it might be that I’m just a grumpy old lefty.

MILD SPOILERS FOLLOW

I grew up with war films. I thought they were exciting. I thought they generally made war look glamorous. The motives behind wars always seemed justifiable. Then I saw lots of Vietnam movies and you start to realise that war is used by governments to maintain their economic advantage over everyone else. I should probably write another communication about my views on war and killing people. So, back to this film.

A man, who loves his country so much, sees something bad and gets angry, he signs up to be a Navy Seal. He’s a good shot with a rifle. He trains to be a sniper and then gets sent off to war. Along the way he marries a woman. We’ve all seen Navy SEAL training videos, we know what they do and that they are tough. Nothing new there. The training part of the film completely missed all of the important aspects of training. It looked like a video game where the first 20 minutes teaches you how to play the game.

Being sent off to war and then being liberal with the truth means our man gets even more angry at everything and kills plenty of people fighting for their own country. He carries a bible all the time, because god obviously justifies all the killing. His tour fucks him up and when he returns home he’s not the man he used to be. He bears a grudge against a “baddie” sniper and keeps returning to Iraq in the hope of getting the baddie first. Our baddie has a wife and children but we aren’t allowed to know his reasons for being in this war especially as he’s not an Iraqi.

Sniper boy gets more and more disturbed but we aren’t really shown this. We get snap shots throughout the movie but no in depth analysis. We have an Iraqi tour followed by a bit of home life where he’s obviously troubled but it’s all superficial. Finally our boy kills their boy and he wants to come home, he’s done his job. Never mind the Americans that are still getting killed.

In the end our sniper does good and becomes himself again once he helps veterans. We see him talking to a shrink and after a couple of minutes he appears to be normal again. Bollocks. This film was entirely uncritical of any elements of war. It would have been far better had we seen more of the other characters and their fight with normality. also, this film has been compared to The Hurt Locker, which I also thought was shit.

This is essentially a cowboy movie for the modern MTV-editing age where we aren’t allowed to have feelings and thoughts and questions. Did I say, it was directed by a cowboy star? Some of Clint’s movies have been awesome and great. This one was shit.

Ex Machina

Overall, this film is worth watching. Hence my IMDB rating:

As ever, you should see this guide to my ratings.

Firstly I think I should point that there are certain elements of this film that don’t ring true. The single person who invented the world’s most used search engine is also a stunning engineer able to create wonderful human looking androids along with inventing a new medium for the processor which also happens to be AI capable. This is not how I suspect it will be done. However, let’s get over that.

First thing: the house was lovely, a wonderful creation, I hope it’s mostly real.

Second thing: Ava looked awesome, really impressive graphics and design, very organic.

Now, the story line. This was generally good although I was reminded a lot of Blade Runner as it progressed. My mind kept going back to the voice of Gaff shouting:

 It’s too bad she won’t live! But then again, who does?

The story told us to be wary of recluse like figures who are really intelligent. They will use you to fulfil their own aims. Then, towards then end there was a switcheroo which was nice. I liked the manipulation in this film. I liked the simplicity of the sets and the wonderful scenery, although there were random cuts of foliage to remind you we were in the wilderness [which creates quite a few logistical issues for me].

Overall, at times this film may have seemed slow but I think that’s a reflection on modern film making where action is the requirement rather than making people think. This is worth a watch.

Birdman

Right, before I type more I need to collect my cup of tea from the kitchen. Perhaps you can look at this tweet:

So, this is where I tell you what I thought of the film. I really liked it. I’m not sure what the fuck I watched but I thought it was great. I’m going to write this before I go and investigate the film and figure out what happened so that you get a more “raw” review.

I liked the story line. It was quite brilliant casting as Michael Keaton was my first movie Batman and I pretty much still think of him as such. He acted brilliantly. The style of filming with the camera walking around the theatre was great. I loved the sound track although I would say that jazz drumming is not my thing it really added to the film, it made it more simple than a different type of score would have.

The filming or post production was really clever as they removed the camera from the reflections in the mirrors. This made it feel more ghostly as the camera moved around. All the cast were great and I think their performances really made the film.

This whole thing was a great experience. Well worth seeing.

POTENTIAL SPOILERS FOLLOW

I’m not sure if the writer, Raymond Carver, is meant to be fictional or actually existed. It’s something I’m going to look up.

I thought the film caught the paranoia of stage actors brilliantly. Along with their terrible egos. Now, I don’t really know any stage actors, I’m just extrapolating from my days treading the boards.

I’m not sure if the whole telekinesis thing is meant to be real or just a figment of his imagination. I hope it’s real, but then, TK doesn’t really exist!

I’m not sure what the last scene meant although I know what it was.

I am now going to go and read a little about this film. It’s unlikely I’ll post that stuff here. Go read it yourself.

The Hunger Games: Mockingjay Part 1

Just got back from seeing this film. Let’s call it Mockingjay because the full title is too long. As ever I tweeted about this here:

It was ok. In all honesty I got bored pretty much from the beginning. I haven’t read the books and am quite unlikely to. There seems to be a lot of quite successful YAL out there. It doesn’t need my help. Anyway, dystopian futures were done better in the old days. Logan’s Run anyone?

The film livened up towards the end and actually almost became exciting at one point. This series of films have really left me cold.

The Hobbit: The Battle Of The Five Armies

So, I went to see this film at the IMAX cinema at Bluewater last night. I have written about the previous films Part 1 and Part 2 if you click on the links. So, it would turn out that I haven’t written about the first film. That means I have no idea when or where I saw that film. Maybe (seeing it was released at the end of 2012) I didn’t get to see it at the cinema as that was a disaster year for me. I may have seen it at the cinema but not written about it in this particular forum. I just don’t know. I can recall listening to podcasts talk about High Frame Rate from the distant past. Sorry, let’s move on.

This, latest and last, part of the film series was OK. I think my rating of OK just reflects the fact that over the last 15 years we have seen plenty of orc armies fighting the elves and hobbits helping out. The Lord of the Rings films had the element of awesomeness as that sort of thing just hadn’t been seen on the big screen before. For this film to be brilliant I needed to see something new. Overall, this film ended the series perfectly well.

There was quite a bit of wistful staring straight into the camera. The film could have been a lot shorter without all that stuff.

As a hint to the peoples of Middle Earth, if you think you’ve killed a big monster, cut the head off or stab the thing through the heart again. It makes simple battle sense.