Wednesday 31 October 2012

Star Wars Episode 7!?

The news broke this morning that Disney have just bought the Lucas Film company and plan to make a new Star Wars film ready for a 2015 release. This of course sparked Internet outrage and as a massive fan of Star Wars I don't know whether to be excited or annoyed at the prospect of a 7th film in the franchise.

A lot of people are complaining that Disney will ruin the franchise but if you ask any major fans they will probably agree that the image of Star Wars was ruined when they released the first prequel. So why would they know go and make a sequel to the original trilogy?

Well for one reason we will no longer have George Lucas involved, or at least not in a directorial or producing role.In fact he is only going to be an outside contributor which kind of means he won't have much input. Which means we can get someone new to create a Star Wars film, including making a script which doesn't have bland and crappy dialogue. Now we can get some new fresh ideas to help restart the franchise and hopefully bring back the glory of when the first 3 films were released.

Where they go with Episode 7 is anyone's guess. Will Mark Hamil reprise his role as an older Luke Skywalker? Probably not. But hopefully Luke will play a background role in the new film, perhaps bringing him alive through the technology they used to create another Jeff Bridges in Tron Legacy. Will any of the original cast be back, who knows? I for one am anticipating where they hope to go with the new film.

In terms of who should be directing, I don't have a clue, there are the obvious choices like Joss Whedon and JJ Abrams, but I doubt that will happen. My guess it could be someone like Jon Favreau or Mathew Vaugn (could this be the reason he left the new X-Men film?). Whoever it is though will have a massive amount of pressure on them to create a Star Wars film that fans and critics alike will enjoy. May the force be with them.

When it comes to the script, I say hire one of the guys who wrote the well reviewed Star Wars novels or comics, surely their ideas would make a lot of sense in the development of the series.

I don't really see why making a new Star Wars film is a bad idea, surely this just help make the franchise live longer and hopefully become one of the biggest ever. I for one feel like a child again at the prospect of seeing another Star Wars film. In fact I am even more excited for 2015 as Disney will have hell of year, what with The Avengers 2 and Star Wars Episode 7. They are sure going to make a load of money! Lets hope both films are of excellent quality as well though.

2 and half years until a new Star Wars film, didn't expect to hear that this morning... What are your thoughts on a new film in the franchise? Please comment below.

Thanks for reading!

Monday 22 October 2012

Ruby Sparks

I am a sucker for romance films with some kind of genre twist, I wrote a whole case study about it for my media studies course! So when I heard about Ruby Sparks I knew it was a must watch and that feeling was solidified when it got such good reviews in the states, but now it is out cinemas over here in the UK and after the screening I was glad it had hit all expectations, but still took twists that I had not seen coming, making it different from any other romance I have seen before.

It's been six years since the directorial team of Jonathan Dayton and Valerie Faris brought us the incredible Little Miss Sunshine, it has been long awaited there next project and it was definitely worth the wait. Ruby Sparks is about a novelist struggling with writer's block and finds romance in a most unusual way: by creating a female character, Ruby, he thinks will love him, then willing her into existence. The script for the film was ironically written by Ruby Sparks herself, Zoe Kazan. Zoe Kazan is also the real life partner of Paul Dano who plays the novelist Calvin. No wonder the two of them had great on screen chemistry!


The directors had a host of stars to play with in this film, such as Steve Coogan, Antonio Banderas and Annette Bening, they are all great fun even though most of them don't get that much screen time. Though it is Dano and Kazan who make the film work, not that we were expecting anything less. Has Paul Dano ever had a bad performance?



The story in this film is great, it's kind of sci-fi element creates a lot of fun to be had and a lot of thinking about morals and life from the audience. The script is great and there are some really great lines that make you think about your own life and relationships and brings a great new perspective to them. What makes a perfect girl? Would you change anything about your partner? These great questions are asked over again throughout the film and depending on what kind of person you are, shapes how you feel about the characters. I found myself switching sides a lot throughout the film.

I love the theme of morals and doing the right thing, the film reminded me a lot of my favourite film Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind, there were a lot of things similar to this. Though the film was less arty then Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind it did however go much darker, much darker then I thought it would and this was just emphasised by the unnerving soundtrack.A scene in the final act also feels like it has come from a horror film, but don't worry this isn't all doom and gloom, in fact it is quite a feel good film by the end of the rolercoaster ride of a journey. A journey enforced with an incredible cast, script and very natural visuals that almost make this film feel as if it was real.

The film unfortunately is not as good as Michel Gondry's masterpiece, neither is it as good at the directors previous work Little Miss Sunshine. It is not a bad film but it did not grip me in the way the other two did. It is still however, up there with a lot of the best romance films and is definitely another contender for best films of the year, that is why I am rating Ruby Sparks a  4/5.


What did you think of the film? Genius or pretentious? Another great indie romance or just another quirky girl love story? Please comment below!


Thanks for reading!

Monday 1 October 2012

Stick With Me

Hello readers! I am sorry it has been a long time since I have posted something on my blog but I have been spending the last week moving and settling into Falmouth University. Due to this new transition in my life, things may sometimes get a bit slow on the blog, but don't worry, I'm not giving up yet! Doing a film course at university, hopefully means that I will learn new things about the subject which I can share with you guys, maybe even new films which I have been shown which I can advise you all to watch or avoid!

Now this post isn't really film related but I do have some goodies in store for you, including reviews of Moonrise Kingdom and Looper if I can get to watch them this week! Also next month is the 1st Birthday of my blog, so hopefully some more great stuff will be getting posted then as well!

I apologise again for the site being slow on posts, but I leave you know with some very funny videos I have come across which I thought you guys might enjoy. Thanks for sticking with me!