Byzantium Trailer

UK Release Date: 31st May 2013.

Stars: Neil Jordan (director), Gemma Arterton, Saoirse Ronan, Caleb Landry Jones, Sam Riley, Daniel Mays, Warren Brown.

Plot: Residents of a coastal town learn, with deathly consequences, the secret shared by the two mysterious women who have sought shelter at a local resort.

This British attempt at cashing in on the popular vampire series at the minute seems to be a bit of a cross between Dracula and Interview With a Vampire. Will it be as successful as either of those? Probably not, even if it is directed by the same person as the latter.

I don’t really get it. Sometimes it’s set in the present, sometimes it’s in the past? Flashbacks I could understand but the fact Ronan is on the beach with loads of people from the eighteenth century, what’s going on there?

I’m sure all will be revealed, the action scenes look pretty decent and I’m sure the story will all be explained throughout the film. Gemma Arterton is a great actress and I enjoy most of the things she is in (Prince of Persia was poor though by anyone’s standard) so this might be worth a watch.

What to Watch – March 2013

What a fantastic month for films. You’re going to have some tough decisions to make when deciding what to go see in the coming weeks!

 

Arbitrage – 1st March

Arbitrage sees a Golden Globe nominated performance from Richard Gere as a powerful magnate desperate to complete the sale of his trading empire whilst trying to cover up a horrible accident that puts his career and life at risk. Gere is supported by a fine supporting cast including the likes of Susan Sarandon, Tim Roth and Brit Marling.

 

Stoker – 1st March

Here we have a bit of a creepy looking horror/thriller film featuring Nicole Kidman and Mia Wasikowska. Stoker is the last film to be produced by the late Tony Scott and the script was ranked number one on the list of the best unproduced scripts doing the rounds in Hollywood back in 2010. And who is the script written by? Wentworth Miller!?! Yes, Prison Break‘s very own Michael Scofield.

 

Oz: The Great and the Powerful – 8th March

Despite apparently being the third choice for the role as the title character early reports suggest that James Franco is the perfect man to lead this journey into Oz. Accompanied by three witched played by Mila Kunis, Rachel Weisz and Michelle Williams (two very good actresses) this looks to be an epic and beautiful journey.

 

Side Effects – 8th March

There’s not a lot to say about this. It features two very successful stars at the minute in the forms of Channing Tatum and Rooney Mara accompanied by the improving-with-age Jude Law. Side Effects looks like one of the most exciting films to hit the screen so far this year.

 

Jack the Giant Slayer – 22nd March

Bryan Singer is returning to the X-Men series for the next installment but this is his latest CGI clad film based on the story of Jack and the Beanstalk. This is Nicholas Hoult’s first attempt at being a leading man in a big budget Hollywood flick but whether he has what it takes or not I am unsure.

 

The Host – 29th March

We didn’t have to wait too long for a Twilight replacement to come around as Stephanie Meyer’s other novel The Host is now adapted with one of the best young actresses around, Saoirse Ronan, in the lead role. An alien invasion film with a difference.

From Stephanie Meyer: ‘The Host’ Trailer

UK Release Date: 29th March 2013

Stars: Andrew Niccol (director), Saoirse Ronan, Diane Kruger, William Hurt, Jake Abel

Plot: A parasitic alien soul is injected into the body of Melanie Stryder. Instead of carrying out her race’s mission of taking over the Earth, “Wanda” (as she comes to be called) forms a bond with her host and sets out to aid other free humans.

With Twilight finally coming to an end, four years too late by my reckoning, producers have decided upon the timely release of The Host, based on the novel written by the same author as the camp-ire series: Stephanie Meyer.

When the first teaser trailer was released I will admit I was a little bit excited to see The Host, it looked like something different, an alien invasion with a little bit of a twist. Now that the full length trailer has been released we can see what The Host really is: another desperate love story aimed at naive teenage girls who are bound to get caught up in the horror that is on the screen before them.

It does seem like The Host will be more of a serious attempt at making a good film though with pretty big names among the cast and with it being fronted by Saoirse Ronan, a wonderful young acting talent who has a huge career ahead of her. Andrew Niccol (director and screenwriter of The Host) is the writer of The Terminal and The Truman Show while he has directed Lord of War and last year’s In Time so there is some potential in the project behind the smokescreen of teenage romance.

I Just Missed Your Heart – Hanna (2011)

Hanna is an American-European action thriller revolving around a 16-year-old who was raised by her father to be the perfect assassin after she is dispatched on a mission across Europe, tracked by a ruthless intelligence agent and her operatives.

Saoirse Ronan plays the sixteen year old girl at the centre of the movie and back in 2011 she was nominated for a number of awards, quite rightly, for her portrayal of the assassin. Right from the opening hunting scene you get a real sense of Ronan’s acting abilities and you know instantly that this is going to be a great performance from her. Hanna’s father, Erik Heller is played by Eric Bana and although he puts on a pretty convincing accent for his part in the film there is something very off putting about his on screen persona; this could be attributed to his character’s past but I think unfortunately it comes down to Bana himself (who I am not a fan of anyway after seeing him in The Hulk and being almost bored to tears watching The Time Traveler’s Wife). Cate Blanchett plays the villain pretty convincingly, she does seem like someone who you could really hate. And there’s a lovely moment where Jason Flemyng decides to pop up and inject a bit of humour into the film that is largely unexpected.

Hanna is quite a step away from what director Joe Wright is known for; he previously directed Pride & Prejudice and Atonement. His direction, however, is one of the most interesting aspects of the film. Every shot is clearly well thought through and the film just looks like a wonderful piece of artwork, the visuals are very very good. There is a sequence early on where Hanna, after thinking she has completed her mission, breaks out from where she is being held and her escape is so visually stimulating its incredible, the camera work, the effects: everything is detailed perfectly and it is a very fun sequence to watch. The film also has an underlying theme of fantasy and fairy tale (one of Hanna’s only forms of escapism comes in the form of a Grimm fairy tale book) and you really get a sense for that whilst watching. It’s not ‘in your face’ so much but when you notice it it really adds another layer to the film itself.

I would have liked to have seen more fight scenes and more action because at some times it did become quite dull and things seemed to take longer than perhaps they should have (Hanna’s friendship with the British girl she meets almost seems irrelevant) but when the action did take place and fights happened they were choreographed excellently. Eric Bana takes on four men in an underground car park type place and it is shot and fought really well. As for being a thriller it is good to see the seeds planted for the revelations at the end quite early on but I do think more back story would have been helpful to let the audience connect with the characters better.

Overall a very good film, the directing and the acting helps to overcome the sparse action sequences.

My Rating: 7/10.

‘The Host’ Trailer

UK Release Date: 29th March 2013.

This is the first trailer of The Host, based on the novel by best selling author Stephanie Meyer, who also wrote the Twilight series of books that have dominated teen cinema for the last couple of years.

The plot is a lot different to Twilight, instead of vampires we now have aliens. Alien beings from another planet have invaded the earth and have begun to take over the bodies and minds of humans. Melanie Stryder’s body has been inhabited by one of the “souls” named Wanderer, but she refuses to fade away.

The film is being led by Saoirse Ronan, a young and upcoming actress who has received critical acclaim over and over again for her performances in Atonement, The Lovely Bones and Hanna. So the casting of Ronan in Stephanie Meyer’s latest adaptation is surely set to guarantee big box office takings.

Of course, this is only a teaser trailer and it does well to get the story of the film across. The images of the eye over and over again, as being the key to human soul, really add to the effect of human bodies being taken over by these aliens. I’m not too sure about the use of a series of stills of people who have all been inhabited as it just comes across as a little sloppy, but then again, there isn’t going to be any footage they can turn into a trailer at such an early stage so perhaps it was the best option.

The trailer may not get new fans too excited for the film but as for people who have read the book, I think they will be very excited at the prospect of this.