'Alien' Trailer Put Together Like 'Prometheus'

Really short blog, but this trailer has been making the rounds on YouTube and I thought I'd share it here. Pretty cool stuff.

To view it, just click here.

A Review of the Filums of 2011...

This is my new blog site for all the stuff I want to do with media, in particular films (because if I'm really honest, that's where my passion lies).

I've had loads of fun recently writing my Newly Qualified Teacher (NQT) blog, which is where I blog (aka. vent all the bad things) that happen as I try and get myself through my first year of teaching. You can find the blog by clicking here: English & Media NQT blog.

So while you enjoy those pieces of genius from my brain, I'm going to start off my shiny new "filum" blog with a review of 2011 - the good, the bad and the just plain ugly.

Of course, I will only include films that I have actually seen, so by no means is it an extensive list. Also, a best/worst list is also very subjective, so if you disagree with my opinions, please tell me!

I think I'll try and start on a positive. Here's what I thought was good about 2011:

5. Rise of the Planet of the Apes

Now, by no means am I a 'Planet of the Apes' fanatic, but I found the prequel to be very well put together. It also helps that I find James Franco to be a brilliant actor - if they make a thrilling biopic of my life, I want him to play me!

Not to also mention that this film brought back Andy Serkis doing what he does best - motion capture for a Computer Generated Imagery (CGI) character (firstly in 'Lord of the Rings', then in 'King Kong' and now in this!)

The biggest thing going for this film probably was the CGI - in my opinion it was breath-taking and a perfect example of when CGI is used for the good in films (see 'The Thing' prequel in my list of the bad for when CGI is used badly).

4. Thor

I like comic book films, I really do. When the "Marvel" logo flashes up at the beginning of a film, I'm more than likely going to enjoy the next two hours of my life. Thor was no exception. The film had comedy (Thor having to get used to modern day Earth), horror (the creatures attacking Thors home realm) and romance (Thor falling in love... ahhhh).

I'll admit, I wasn't really up to date with the legend/story of Thor, but this film had me hooked all the way through. The cinematography (the way the film looked) wasn't too bad either, but maybe it had a little too many canted/dutch angles (that means camera angles that are on a tilt if you're not too sure)!

3. Scream 4

I'll admit it, when I first saw Scream 4 at the cinema I came out feeling a little bit confused. I liked it... I liked most of it, but some parts of it were so crappy that they stood out amongst anything else (any scene with Anthony Anderson and the lack of suspenseful chase scenes).

The fact that many of the younger members of the audience were also coming out of the cinema saying, "That's crap, it wasn't even that scary!" made me smile - they obviously weren't aware that this series is in the horror/comedy/spoof genre.

However, upon repeat viewings of the film I've come to realise that this film is quite clever - it's jabs at remakes and over-the-top endings is actually wittier than I first thought.

2. Attack the Block

A british sci-fi/horror film that features chavs/rude-boys and ruddy great big aliens with sharp teeth... yes please!

Although I wasn't really scared during any part of the film (I don't think that was the point really) I found myself engrossed throughout. The reveal of the alien pheromones attracting them all to Earth was a bit dialogue heavy, but that's just a minor film geek nitpick in an other wise brilliant film.

1. Super 8

I love this film. Love, love, love it. No amount of over-using lens flare from JJ Abrams can deter my love for this film. It's perfect in almost every way... well, except probably the ending. Now, that's a bit of a weird thing to say, considering the ending of a film is the thing you usually remember the most and if the ending is bad, surely you should dislike the film?

Not in this case. The alien is built up so well - the tension in the petrol station scene and the electrician working on the power lines is brilliant. The child actors took me right back to 'The Goonies' and the emotion built up in the sub-plot of the two children caught up in their Father's hatred for each other was really touching.

Basically, the reveal of the alien is a bit disappointing. But, to me, the alien isn't really the main focus of the film... as weird as that sounds.

Honourable mentions:

Immortals

A pretty decent swords and sandals epic. Reminded me of '300' - never a bad thing!

Final Destination 5

OK, so it's the fourth sequel in a franchise that has pretty much milked the cow dry. But, it knows exactly what it is - a cheesy teen slasher film that relies on the gory death set pieces. The ending was also a pretty cool twist that brings the franchise full circle back to the original film - I guess they will ruin that with another sequel though...

Paul

I really didn't think I would like this film, but I found myself laughing out loud at many different points of the film. It was a bit silly, but what do you expect when a film has a talking alien?

Now, moving onto the bad (and some ugly mentions)...

5. The Hangover: Part II

Quick, we need a sequel to a film that did really well at the Box Office.

Change the location, but keep everything else the same.

There... we have our sequel!!

It was just a lazy film. A really, really lazy film.

4. The Inbetweeners Movie

Listen guys, this film was bad. Real bad. I love the television show. Well, I loved Series 1, most of Series 2 and little bits of Series 3.

The film was just a bit... blah. The parts when they were at home was brilliant stuff - back to season 1 type stuff of the television show. However, as soon as they got to their foreign destination, the humour and jokes started to fall flat. The crazy dude who was holidaying on his own - what was the point? Simon selling all of his clothes - really? Jay having a little bitch fit and falling out with each other - hmmm.

The whole second act of the film just really dragged out and then the ending of the film was so abrupt, it just didn't feel like it was a proper ending.

3. Pirates of the Caribbean: On Stranger Tides

No... just no. The first film was really entertaining and then along comes all of the sequels. If the first two sequels weren't bad and confusing enough, they then had to throw in another one. The mermaids were pretty cool, I'll give them that, but that scene made up about 5 minutes of the whole film. The rest of it was some half assed attempt at trying to recapture the magic of the original film (in 3D!!!!!!!) and it failed.

2. Cowboys & Aliens

Nothing happened in this film. Nothing actually really happened for about 40/50 minutes. Then the female character is suddenly revealed to be pivotal to the plot (I won't give away what she does, but it's stupid) and there was no real clues or indication about it before-hand. It's like the writers just suddenly needed something to jump-start the plot into going somewhere.

Also, how could Cowboys win against Aliens. Really?

1. The Thing (Prequel)

It kills me to put a horror/sci-fi film as the worst film of 2011, but I can't help it. This film was bad.

Bad, bad, bad.

The characters were paper-thin. The CGI was terrible. There was hardly any tension - just when you started to guess/doubt yourself if someone was the thing (alien), they then transformed into the alien straight away.

The ending was a nice setup to one of the best horror/sci-fi films ever made (John Carpenter's The Thing), but it's really not worth watching the whole film just for the final 2 minutes.

(Dis)honourable mentions:

The Twilight Saga: Breaking Dawn Part 1

I haven't seen any other Twilight film. Then, I saw this one. Werewolves and vampires fighting, count me in. Vampire pregnancy and a girl agonising over if she loves a vampire or a werewolf, count me out.

Transformers: The Dark of the Moon

This film had two pretty crappy films before it to contend with ('Transformers' and 'Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen'), but it still managed to be an incoherent mess in itself. Michael Bay... tuh.

Bridesmaids

Was this film funny? Was it really that funny? I think I missed every single joke in this film. The part when they are trying on dresses and then have food poisoning was quite funny, but it was just toilet humour. I think I'm too old for that now...

Bad Teacher

What the hell was this film? Cameron Diaz and Justin Timberlake like dry humping? OK...