scottemery

The first thing that struck me about this film is the colour pallet and the styling of the surroundings. Its very dark with most of the film being set at night and even in the day the bleak Scandinavian snow almost looks darker than it should. This adds to the feeling of isolation you get from the protagonists life. Oskar is a young boy with few friends and not much to help him at home. His parents are split and though they are friendly they seem preoccupied and do little to help Oskar with his bullying problem. The first few scenes really set the tone for the movie as we watch Oskar stabbing a tree with a large knife, miming what he would like to do to his bullies. Soon into the film we see the second main character walk into Oskars life, Eli. She arrives in a taxi with an older man and they both move in next door. She talks to Oskar one night while he is out pretending to stab his bully and says they cannot be friends but soon enough they start up a friendship. The two leads do a fantastic job of portraying two young, shy friends getting to know each other and when it becomes more supernatural you can see that they have really thought about there roles and show skill in portraying what feels like realistic reactions to their situation. The other actors also do well as they add to the gritty feel of the town whilst also giving a larger feel of isolation to the children as they go about there "important" lives. The amazing thing to note about this film though is the perfect mixing of two separate stories. On the one hand you can say it is a Gothic, gory horror with some good set pieces and some scary scenes and on the other it is a love/friendship story between two 12 year olds. It seems like a hard job but you really do get the two distinct sides of the story done very well. There is no let up on the horror and yet they somehow have moments of genuine affection seen between the characters which really get to you. There's not much you can say against the film and the feel of the film is what astounded me the most. You somehow find a way to connect with these two characters, pushing past the supernatural to the real heart of the story which is the finding of some love in an cold, isolated town. There is one thing i'd like to mention about this point though. There is a part of me which thinks whether this vampire stuff is all part of this boys imagination. You can see that he has an obsession with crime and then all of a sudden this girl turns up and kills these men gruesomely and helps him with his bullies. I'm unsure about whether I'm right or not but you can understand him adding this little bit of the supernatural to escape his reality.

I remember thinking when I first starting writing this review "I hope I spelt that right. Actually I don't care it was rubbish" Its like someone had an idea and just thought that was enough. It trys to be slick but just isn't.

Im going to start with the biggest problem. WHY WHY WHY did they cast Bruce Willis. Miscast. He doesn't make sense in that role. That character doesn't even do anything remotely important to the story and at the end (**SPOILER**) he writes a book which is a bestseller and wins the Pulitzer prize.(**SPOILER end**) I cant see how anything he could of wrote (they tell you ZILCH) and I cant see what it could have been about. So basically the storyline that involves Bruce Willis is mainly useless.

Tom Hanks is also a bit rubbish. But Morgan Freeman is good, did well in a poor film.

The story seems to be neither comedy nor drama but does try to show message but thats all. Genre less.

The last film I gave this rating (transformers 3) I didn't review due to what I call the WHAT DID YOU EXPECT policy. Rubbish acting stupidly cheesy and no plot oh but the billion dollar "action" scenes were decent 3/10

To start off I would like to mention this in terms of the first two films in the Alien series. This film is a game changer, it still has horror elements of the first but explores so much more than the originals, with the first two basically exploring only the mother-child relationship. It discusses similar concepts to Blade Runner with the idea of what makes us human, beautifully played out in a scene between David(Micheal Fassbender) and Charlie(Logan Marshall-Green) over a pool table. It also sticks it's foot into the fear of death, the idea of meeting our creators and also looking at how faith can be defined.

I think Michael Fassbender is an absolute genius. His performance as a robot with the ability to understand human emotions while not actually having them is superb. You can see that each scene is meticulously thought out, with his character being so very close to being a human but not quite. This is exactly where his character should be and in some parts you start to wonder if the makers of David-8 gave him too much curiosity and whether he has actually gained independent thought. This then raises questions in your mind as to whether we as humans really are that special and you're stuck in this perfect creation of thought made by the David 8 character. Even forgetting the one I have already mentioned there are so many scenes I could pick out, but i'll force myself to just have two. The first being where David discusses what he would do if he were set free when talking to Shaw (Noomi Rapace), and the second is not even in the film. The promo for the introduction of the David-8 model is the shortest film I have ever seen that is worthy of an Oscar nod. Fassbender crying and at the same time explaining how he can not feel emotion is amazing. If he doesn't win an Oscar for his acting in this film (whether it be lead or supporting is up to Ridley Scott), then we need to seriously give the Oscar voters a re-shuffle as they have to understand that sci-fi should be respected genre.

Also on the subject of Oscars this should have one for Cinematography. I don't think I know anything that looked as good as this, I mean actually stunning shots that when you look at them you just marvel in there creativity and detail. From the surface of the planet, to the amazing sets below the surface and then there's the interior of the ship which looks immaculate and beautifully futuristic. In the original two the feel of the films were always tight, cagey making you feel trapped, the fact that this moves to a larger, more grand scale and still manages to create fear is impressive. The visuals used in creating different characters is also brilliant, with perfect design and some interesting ideas working together to make the best looking film I have ever seen.

I would say there are two scenes that are memorable for this film in terms of reminding me of the shock of the original chestburster, not in the same way but new creative ideas. Obviously I can't mention them but there's one towards the end which is part-fight scene and the better one comes around 2/3 the way through and I would love to tell you how amazing it is and how it makes you feel so claustrophobic, but I know that would ruin it for you so i'll just imagine it in my head. The 3-D is pointless and I don't know why Ridley Scott wanted it that way but I suppose for once the 3-D doesn't actually ruin it which is the best 3-D will ever do for me.

On the negative side there are two or three issues with side characters not really being developed. I felt that Meredith Vickers(Charlize Theron) character was not developed enough and I felt another 10 minutes worth of scenes would of helped to awaken her character more, though she still proved to be interesting. Also the rest of the supporting cast could of done with a bit more time on there characters but I must say that this does not mean any of them acted poorly, they just didn't have the options available. Guy Pearce's character had many scenes cut from the movie apparently, which I again would of liked to see more of not only to advance his character but the depth of meaning behind the film as well. Also I would like to say that while the film trys more it is not as good as the first two on the characters or feel. The fear created in the first and thrill created in the second is here but not quite to that standard. On a another small but bad note I would like to mention a ridiculous scene towards the end… But I can't, you'll see it anyway you can't miss it, just think doughnut.

To round this off i'm going to mention why I think a few people don't like the film and why I think it is personally the best film of the Alien franchise. The real problem I think people have, but don't mention, is to do with the ending of the film. It ends openly and while this may annoy people a lot, it is what absolutely necessary. The film cannot answer all the question's it poses because whatever answers it gives would not be grand or anywhere near true enough to give the question any credit. This film is made to make you think, not to answer the questions but to put those thought's in your mind. This is why I believe this film to be better than both Alien(8) and Aliens(8) as it actually explores something fundamental to us all, that quest for the answer to "the" question.