The Girl on the Train (2016)

‘The Girl on the Train’ follows Rachel (Emily Blunt), an ex-PR magnate who has descended into alcoholism after the breakdown of her marriage to Tom (Justin Theroux) due to his affair with real estate agent Anna (Rebecca Ferguson). She rides the train into the city each morning for ‘work’ (hence the creative title) and observes the lives of those in the suburbia that she so craves, all the while downing vodka in a clear drink bottle. She focuses on one couple in particular, Megan (Haley Bennett) and Scott (Luke Evans), whose seemingly perfect existence she lives vicariously through. Rachel flies into a fit of confused rage after witnessing Megan kissing a man who isn’t her husband, gets insanely drunk and decides to pursue Megan – only for Megan to disappear in suspicious circumstances that night. Rachel can’t remember a thing about the night’s events, and so begins the insanely convoluted plot of this film – based on the bestselling novel by Paula Hawkins.

This wasn’t quite as bad as what the critics are saying, but it definitely had issues. The graphic nature of the violence was fairly difficult to watch, and I didn’t find the atmosphere all that enjoyable. The overall plot, however, was compelling and it was effective in capturing and maintaining audience attention. The whodunnit nature of the mystery took interesting turns, and culminated in a satisfying plot twist that had just a fair amount of surprise – but was hinted at in a fairly heavy-handed way throughout the feature. I also had issues with the decision to tell the beginning of the story from three perspectives, and then completely abandon this later, as it diminshed some of the film’s mystery and wasn’t reflective of the outsider aspect of Rachel’s character. This format may have worked for the original book, but it didnt translate to film and it would have been better to keep the audience in the same state of ignorance as Rachel – not this weird, uncommitted limbo that we were stuck in.

The characters in the film were relatively stereotypical archetypes. This affected the believability of the movie, as either the characters’ actions were too dull or the twists were completely nonsensical in terms of the personalities featured. Perhaps if the acting, specifically with regards to Theroux, had been slightly more inspired or complex it might have worked out. This is, of course, with the exception of Emily Blunt. She made us empathise with Rachel despite her ill-judged behaviour and unbelievable plot arcs, and completely elevated the quality of this film.

All in all, ‘The Girl on the Train’ was an interesting murder mystery that offered a social commentary on suburbia extending beyond the, dare I say, overdone plot. Blunt shone above the mediocre dialogue and direction, and I’ll give it 3 out of 5 popcorns.

(Photo courtesy of IMDb)

Suicide Squad (2016)

Here we go, you say, another voice adding to crowded mishmash of opinions about this film. The film that, despite garnering a measly 26% on Rotten Tomatoes, has been welcomed with relative box office success and will, undoubtably, spurn a number of spin-off movies featuring its underwritten characters. But alas, here’s my opinion on the movie that’s divided us all.

Suicide Squad is a DC Comics film, centered around some of the brand’s most iconic characters. The movie sees Harley Quinn (Margot Robbie), Deadshot (Will Smith) and a bunch of other “bad to the bone” super villains who band together to protect the city from a confusing mess of CGI known as Enchantress (Cara Delevigne) and her brother, roused from an ancient relic. The squad are lead by Rick Flagg (Joel Kinnaman) and are the brainchild of Amanda Waller (Viola Davis), a high-ranking government official with questionable intentions. We are also treated to glimpses Jared Leto’s interpretation of the Joker, whose method acting we’ve all heard plenty about, and that’s about enough I can tell you about the plot – because that’s about all I understood.

Honestly, the film started off well, in my opinion. The fitting soundtrack creates an atmosphere worthy of this sort of genre, and instilled excitement for the next couple of hours. We were slowly introduced to each character, though some got a far better treatment than others (looking at you Harley and Deadshot), in entertaining montages. The opening minutes set the film up quite nicely, and allude to it having the potential to act as an enthralling character study nestled amongst blockbuster explosions and minimal dialogue. The film’s comedic elements work well in the first half, while the formula’s still new, and the characters are exciting prospects for the rest of the film.

Then it all fell apart. Intelligent writing was sacrificed for lacklustre battle sequences and tiring conflicts between the characters – ones that are recycled continously throughout the piece. The menacing ‘villain’ became a laughable floating entity with nonsensical intentions, and complex characters were reduced to one-dimensional robots that only appeared to serve a specific purpose in the film, or to evoke a specific emotion from the audience for a couple of seconds. With the marketing of this movie being so focused on the anti-heroic tendencies of these characters, you’d think the filmmakers would steer further away from blatant attempts to forge a connection between the audience and the majority of those featured in the film. Either create a film with characters so bad they’re good, focus on the legitimate conflicts that arise from their nefarious intentions and let chaos ensue, or criticise the government’s tendency to brand the misunderstood as the dangerous and make us all root for the underdogs – not attempt to do both. It was confused, messy and a panicked response to the backlash arising from Batman vs. Superman, and fell victim to the excitement generated by fantastic advertising campaigns.

All in all, I enjoyed portions of the film and there were some phenomenal acting performances from the major players. However, the film descended into a mess over the second half, where the contrasting storylines melted into an uninteresting gloop, and the majority of the characters were severely underused – including the Joker himself. I didn’t regret the experience and it was slightly better then what the majority of reviewers are saying, but the final product was a rather painful contrast to the year-long hype that it generated.

I’m going to give this film two and a half out of five popcorns.

(Photo courtesy of IMDb)

 

Batman vs. Superman: Dawn of Justice (2016)

There was so much hype surrounding this feature and, despite the overwhelmingly negative reviews, I paid to watch it. It couldn’t be that bad, surely? The premise itself was slightly odd, but it had all the ingredients for an iconic action extravaganza. I mean, two of the most powerful superheroes in the DC Universe face off!

I don’t know what happened. All the major plot elements were lost in solid chunks of narrative that were difficult to swallow. The darkness of the film was pushed to such a great extent that the joy was almost completely drained from the story, resulting in two hours of utter boredom before the heroes even met. It might sound harsh, but there was no connection forged between the characters and the audience, leaving me completely ambivalent to the outcome.

The plot moved at an incredibly slow pace and the lead up to their physical battle was almost excruciating, with only slight glimmers of action. The resolution of their conflict has also been ridiculed by many, and rightfully so. It made sense in theory, but it should have been alluded to more in the film or treated with more gravitas – for it seemed flippant in the context of the dialogue occurring beforehand. Batman’s resolute anger towards Superman, which made a little bit of sense, was shattered with a single word. Though Superman did, inadvertently, touch on a major aspect of Batman’s moral fibre, the strength Batman had exuded throughout the course of the film was far too flimsy in that scene. The scene itself also felt remarkably out of place – when the action was what many viewers paid to see.

The dialogue was forced and the two attempts a humour fell flat, leading to two forgettable performances by the leading men.

The film wasn’t all terrible though. There were some brillant acting performances – Gal Gadot was promising as Wonder Woman and Amy Adams gave another standout performance as Lois Lane. I also think Jesse Eisenberg was perfectly cast, though he has been a topic of controversy amongst dedicated fans. The film also had some artfully shot sequences to highlight the importance of pivotal moments, especially with the flashback to the death of Batman’s parents.

In the end, the film lacked the heart, charm and humour that I have come to crave in superhero films. The running time was also ridiculously long and left me pondering all that I could have achieved in 2hrs and 33mins. Considering the crazed excitement surrounding this film, it was a total disappointment – one that left me unenthusiastic about the future of DC films under the helm of the same director, Zack Snyder. My fingers are crossed for Suicide Squad, thankfully directed with David Ayer’s (hopefully) different vision. 

I give this snooze-worthy drama masquerading as a superhero blockbuster one out of five possible popcorns.

(Photo courtesy of IMDb)