Micro-reviews - The King's Speech, Harry Potter and a few more...

The King's Speech – an inspiring and emotional story, made me feel slightly patriotic and ever so slightly proud of the our monarchy.

Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows: Part 2 – despite a lacklustre opening, this film brings the series to a dramatic and effective conclusion.

Captain America: The First Avenger – had some good moments and performances, but overall felt like a laboriously drawn-out teaser for The Avengers movie.

Rise of the Planet of the Apes – interesting ideas and a strong plot, weakened by a couple of cringe-worthy moments. Fans of the series will appreciate it.

Tinker, Tailor, Soldier, Spy – superb British cast, labyrinthine plot and excellent production values. A remake that does the original credit.

Warrior – slightly contrived and very sincere, but has gripping combat sequences and a heart-wrenching narrative. A modern American fairytale.

Disagree or agree with my judgements? Comment below with your own thoughts!

I am the chosen one!

Yes, I have been chosen. Chosen to start the next 'Neverending Story Project' Twitter short story on Friday the 27th of May! Sorry if I gave anyone the impression that I am Harry Potter - there is a slight resemblance, but I'm afraid I'm just a simple muggle.

The Neverending Story Project is a writing venture that creates stories by getting one writer to start a story, another to continue it, and then a final person to compose the conclusion. They also create stories through the use of Twitter, tweeting the opening sentence of a narrative and then leaving it up to the followers to finish the tale. And my sentence was chosen to start their next story! The sentence is:

"Take the next left," she ordered. I turned clumsily, clipping the kerb. It's hard to drive with a pistol wedged in your side.

Visit their website for more details, and follow @story_project on Twitter to get involved!

Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows: Part One - Review

Directed by David Yates, starring Daniel Radcliffe, Emma Watson and Rupert Grint, written by Steve Kloves.

Dark times are coming. All across the land of Britain, men and women huddle in shadowy corners, whispering to one another of the inevitable fate that none of us can elude. Every second draws us closer, ticking away the remaining time before the ominous fear will become reality...when we reach the end of the Harry Potter movie saga!

OK, so that was a bit of a dramatic intro, but it truly is a shame when great film series reaches its conclusion. Think of how you felt when the Lord of the Rings films came to an end (bad example: Return of the King had about fifteen endings); it's a difficult thing to come to terms with. Although the first part of Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows does bring with it the beginning of the end, it is nonetheless a thrilling and effective adaptation of J.K. Rowling's insanely popular novel.

HP 7: Part One depicts the outbreak of civil war in the wizarding community, forcing Harry, Ron and Hermione to abandon their studies at Hogwarts as they go on the run, Voldemort's Death Eaters hot on their trail. Harry must follow his task of destroying the seven horcruxes, dark magical items created by Voldemort in a bid to gain immortality. This challenge, given to Harry by Professor Dumbledore before his death, will not be an easy one. As they embark upon their quest, confronting the mystery of the Deathly Hallows along the way, the trio will face all kinds of dangers and trials, threatening their lives as well as their friendships.

After re-watching the entire Harry Potter series so far, it's amazing to see how much the three main actors have grown in their skill and ability. I'm guessing that by now they are pretty much best friends in real life anyway, and so it isn't much of a stretch to portray this on screen. However, this doesn't tarnish the performances of Radcliffe, Grint and Watson in anyway, as they draw you into the fraying relationship between Harry and his best friends. However, it's hard to highlight the three leads in this movie as giving the best performances, when the entire cast is a role-call of the cream of British thespians. If I was going to pick one person who shone brightest for me, it would be Jason Issacs, playing disgraced Death Eater Lucius Malfoy. His portrayal of a broken man who knows he has lost his former status and power is chillingly believable, making you almost pity him.

No doubt there will be those who will cry sacrilege at the choices made by screenwriter Steve Kloves and director David Yates when adapting this novel to the screen, but I agree with their decisions for the most part. I especially liked their choice of where to split the book in two, leaving my taste-buds tingling for the next installment. There were a couple of instances where I felt that tricks had been missed and events mishandled, the blunt addressing of Mad-Eye Moody's death being one example. I felt that the pacing of the narrative work really well however, the drawn-out bleak sections of the story having exciting action sequences interspersed at the appropriate points. I my opinion, this is a very faithful adaptation, with some interesting and effective changes made here and there to made the story suitable for the visual medium. For a more detailed summary of my views on book-to-film adaptations, click here.

Visually, HP 7: Part One is spell-binding (I'm really sorry, I had to use it somewhere!). From start to finish you are sucked into the magical world of Rowling's books, with a mixture of incredible visual/special effects and artistic cinematography. Some of the most beautiful moments of the movie are those set in the wild countryside of Britain, which would feel as much at home in an indie arthouse film as in a fantasy blockbuster. Also worth mentioning are the totalitarian themes and imagery used to depict the Ministry of Magic, now infiltrated and controlled by Voldemort's minions, invoking hints of distopian films such as Nineteen Eighty-Four (1984) and Brazil (1985).

One thing I will admit about this, the latest in the Harry Potter saga, is that the film is definitely intended for those devoted to the previous books and films. There isn't much point watching this movie if you haven't seen those that precede it. I would even go as far as saying that you won't completely understand the plot if you haven't read all the books. Some elements of the story, such as the importance of the wizard Gellert Grindelwald, are included with the assumption that the viewer doesn't require a thorough introduction, which may confuse those less familiar with the series. I don't necessarily think this is a flaw however, because this is the seventh installment of the story, meaning there is a little bit too much to recap at this point. Another small disclaimer; don't take young children to see this movie. It is quite scary at points and contains suggestive and adult themes that are unsuitable for younger viewers.

So, to conclude, my high expectations were very much met by Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows: Part One. The first section of Rowling's epic teen fantasy has been cleverly and lovingly brought to life on the screen, with a wealth of excellent performances and beautiful imagery. I can't wait for the finale, although I feel a tinge of sadness that the end is nigh. However, there has to be a conclusion, even for the Boy Who Lived.

Visit Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows: Part One's IMDb page

If you liked this, then try: the Lord of the Rings trilogy, the Narnia saga, the Star Wars saga and the Twilight saga.

Adapting books to the screen: a brief consideration

With the seventh installment in the Harry Potter film saga being released in the cinema this week, the subject of 'book-to-film' adaptations has been on my mind. It's a topic that is very easily seen in polemic terms, with one camp stating that the book is always superior to the film, and those at the other end of the spectrum saying the exact opposite. However, I think a little more consideration needs to be taken before any judgements can be made.

It is short-sighted to judge the film adaption of a novel by the same criteria as the original text. I get really annoyed when I hear a movie being criticised for 'leaving out' parts of the book; if a literal adaptation of a novel was ever attempted, it would be an extremely tedious and dull experience for the viewer, not to mention the longest film ever made. The director's job when making a screen version of a written work is to put across the essence of the story, using the elements of the book that are most relevant to the visual medium. With some books this task is quite simple. For example, Cormac McCarthy's novels read very much like screenplays and embody a cinematic tone, meaning that the film adaptations of No Country For Old Men (2007) and The Road (2009) easily retain the qualities that made the books so enjoyable. With longer fantasy-based novel's like Harry Potter, the director's retelling has to be much more subjective.

This leads me onto my next point: the role of a film adaptation isn't to provide a carbon copy of the original. Like it or not, but the director has a duty to present their own interpretation of the story, not just regurgitate the author's views and sentiments. When Katsuhiro Otomo adapted his own manga classic Akira (1988) to the screen, he made drastic alterations to the narrative, presenting the version of his story that works best for film. I will admit that I haven't always agreed with the choices a director/screenwriter has made during the adaptive process, but I'll defend to the death their right to make those choices. In a way, the activity of adapting a novel to the screen is just a continuation of the tradition of oral storytelling. As the narrative is passed on by one teller to the next, it is warped and contorted, gradually leaving behind many of the elements that made up its original form. In this case the director becomes just another link in the storytelling chain, passing on their version of the tale.

Don't get me wrong however; I'm not saying that cinematic retellings of novels should replace the original written document. Both are equally valid versions of the story, as long as they told with skill, imagination and integrity. Although I don't like people automatically attacking an adaptation movie, I also detest it when someone states that they won't read a book because they can just watch the film version. This attitude ignores the fact that all films start out as a written document; a screenplay. Without reading, and the imaginative processes it generates, there wouldn't be any films.

There is one situation where I do oppose the adaptation of books into films, and that is when 'Hollywood' gets involved. By this I mean, when studio execs look at a literature masterpiece and only see dollar signs. When this happens all the truth of a text is lost, replaced with the shallow goal of generating the biggest box office success. My example for this phenomenon would be I Am Legend (2007). Richard Matherson's original novel is a horror classic, chilling and inventive, with a really powerful if bleak conclusion. Director Francis Lawrence's adaptation removes almost all of the tension, replacing it with off-the-shelf jumps and scares, and reduces the vampires (yes, they are vampires, not weird zombie things) to unrealistic CGI ghouls. And the altered ending; don't get me started! Without wanting to spoil the story, the film's conclusion has no meaning at all, it says nothing new. But who cares when the film took $585 million worldwide? Isn't that what filmmaking is really about? I'm not so sure.

So in conclusion: not all novel-to-film adaptations are bad, in fact some books feel like they were written to be converted. I think I'm right in saying that Chuck Palahnuik actually acknowledged that he considers David Fincher's version of Fight Club (1999) to be superior to his novel. However, that doesn't mean that reading should now be obsolete; film cannot exist without the written word. I'll let you know what my assessment of the latest Potter adaptation in the not-too-distant future. In the meantime, keep reading AND watching!

My Current Preoccupation

So I realised the other day, I haven't updated y'all on my latest creative project. No, it's not the rebirth of Helvetica Outbreak, Britain's premier d'n'b/metal act, sorry to disappoint.

I had planned for quite a while that when I finished uni I would use my spare time (before I get a proper job) to get a head-start on writing a novel. I was going to adapt my science fiction/noir screenplay for this purpose, but I figured that I've spend almost a year working on that narrative and it needs some time to ferment.

Whilst I was pondering what to use as my subject matter, an article in Christian Marketplace, an industry magazine for booksellers and buyers, was brought to my attention. The article was about the lack of fantasy fiction aimed at Christian teenagers, and how there's no viable Christian alternative to the popular specular fantasy sagas like Harry Potter, Twilight and the His Dark Materials books.

As soon as I read this I had the 'lightbulb flicking on above head' moment of realisation; this is what I could write. I started working on my idea and began writing a couple of weeks ago when I got home from uni. So far I have written 17,500 words, with my target being roughly 80,000 words, depending on how the narrative evolves.

I won't give away too much of the story, as I want to plug the gap in the market before anyone else does, and don't want any idea thieving going on! But I will say that the novel is about a Christian teenager who discovers he has the ability to cross over into the spiritual realm, where he is given the task of defeating the demons which manipulate people to sin the physical world. It's pretty dark stuff, but I figure that's what kids like these days. The protagonist also has to deal with the everyday pressures of being a Christian teenager, but I'm trying to avoid being 'preachy' and just sticking to basic helpful life-lessons, as well as encouraging the reader to develop their relationship with God.

There you have it. Like I said earlier, I hope to be approaching publishers by the end of the summer. We'll have to wait and see if I have any success, but I do really feel that this is something God has placed on my heart and that it is a way I can use my gifts to serve Him and bless others.

On another completely unrelated note, I can't wait to see Inception! It looks like it's going to be amazing. When you consider Christopher Nolan's track record, you can't really expect him to go wrong now. I've watched The Dark Knight over and over and every time I find some new aspect of it I didn't see before. Anyway, I think it's safe to say that Inception is gonna be my film of the summer, if not the year.

Also, on the topic of films, I started watching Princess Mononoke again the other day, and had forgotten what an incredible anime it is. If you like Studio Ghibli movies and haven't seen it yet, go and get a copy now, it is a breathtaking classic. Don't know if it's my favourite Miyazaki film, cos Spirited Away and Howl's Moving Castle are also brilliant; and then there's My Neighbour Totoro, who could forgot that. Any movie that contains a cat that is also a bus gets a thumbs-up in my book!

Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince - Review

Directed by David Yates, starring Daniel Radcliff, Emma Watson, Rupert Grint and Michael Gambon, written by Steve Kloves.

Brimming with darkness and gloom but also a surprising amount of clever comedy, the story of a young boy thrust into an extraordinary world of magic is back this summer, prompting an army excited youths and secretly excited adults to descend upon their local cinema to watch the latest instalment in the escapades of Harry Potter.

The film of the sixth book in J.K. Rowling’s best-selling series of young-adult fiction, Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince follows its protagonist’s sixth year at Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry, where dark deeds are afoot that will change the lives of not only the students at the magical academy, but those of the entire wizarding world, while we muggles (non-magic folk) don’t suspect a thing. As well as struggling with the normal pressures of teenage life Harry (Daniel Radcliff) must discover what his arch-rival Draco Malfoy (Tom Felton) is up to in the upper regions of the castle, knowing that the schemes of the dark lord Voldemort must be involved.

It is not possible or sensible to go into too much detail involving the plot of The Half-Blood Prince, not just in the interest of avoiding spoiling the film for those not familiar with the story, but because so much happens throughout the narrative. Trimming the book’s mammoth story back to a more concise version seems to have been the focus of the film’s screenwriter Steve Kloves, making the plot rely heavily on the assumption that the viewer will have read the previous books in the series or at least watched the films. Although appearing slightly disjoined at points, I feel that the film’s plot rewards those who have invested themselves into the series, getting straight to the point and not covering old ground where possible.

As an adaptation of a novel it is inevitable that comparisons will be made between the original book and the film, the usual one being that the film ‘leaves too much out.’ It is rather short sighted to assume that the film should be completely faithful to the novel. David Yates’ task, which he excels at, was to identify the areas of the novel that were particularly cinematic and show them in a way that the book could not. It is an artistic obligation for the filmmakers involved to use their creative licence and knowledge of the Harry Potter universe to remould and add to the story, to heighten its effect as a piece of cinema. The scene in which Bellatrix Lestrange (Helena Bonham Carter) and Fenrir Greyback (Dave Legeno) attack the Weasley homestead is great example of Yates’ team putting their own touch to Rowling’s story in its conversion to film.

Much is often made of the Harry Potter books and films getting darker as the story progresses, maturing as its audience does. However The Half-Blood Prince achieves something more impressive than being a haunting tale for young adults; it is actually quite funny. The humour present in the film goes beyond the childish slapstick comedy that other films for youngsters would be content with (see the new Star Wars films for horrific examples), employing witty dialogue and perfect timing from the actors. The jokes and laughs work in unison with sinister elements of the story, enhancing the horror of the bloodthirsty curses and evil deeds within the story. However some punches are pulled in the regards to the inclusion of children in the audience, due to the film’s ‘12A’ certificate. For example, in the scene involving the destruction of a bridge in London by dark wizards, no one is visibly hurt, which seems quite unrealistic as the attack is proclaimed as causing a high death toll in the wizard newspaper ‘The Daily Prophet’. The harrowing finale of this section of the series has sparked controversy, being seen as downplayed and at worst unfaithful to the novel. These opinions aside, I see the close of The Half-Blood Prince as a way of sombrely setting the scene for the final two films, where there will be no shortage of battles and chaos.

After eight years working together on the Potter series, Radcliff, Watson and Grint have definitely gained a vast amount of experience as actors, demonstrated in this film. Possibly their strongest performance yet, the three young people playing Harry, Hermione and Ron work together excellently, showing genuine friendship and intense passion in their roles, although Radcliff still hasn’t learnt to smile without grimacing oddly. Also providing a sterling performance is Tom Felton, playing the troubled Draco Malfoy. Felton, who has a relatively small amount of screen time in the previous instalments, rises to the challenge of presenting us with an isolated youth tormented by the evil heritage he dare not disappoint. The all-star cast of British actors who make up the rest of the characters, including Michael Gambon as Professor Dumbledore and Jim Broadbent as Horace Slughorn, all deliver strong performances, and no less would be expected from them.

As with the other films in the Potter franchise, The Half-Blood Prince looks spectacular. The costumes conjure the alternate wizard world adeptly, as do the fantastic locations, especially the chilling Victorian-style orphanage where Professor Dumbledore meets the young Tom Riddle (Hero Fiennes-Tiffin), the future dark lord. Special note has to be given in regards to the Hogwarts School, sorrowfully shown in a way that foreshadows its death as a place of freedom and happiness, as Harry and his comrades will not return as students again after this chapter of the tale. The visual and special effects flawlessly depict the magic and wonder of the series, in particular during the Quidditch match, a sorely-missed aspect of the Potter universe which returns after not featuring in the previous three films.

As well as stunning visuals Nicholas Hooper's score floods the viewer’s ears with aural pleasure. The main theme present in all the Potter films has changed for this instalment, no longer mystical and enchanting but taking on a dark warlike feel, prophesying the epic battles to come in the two final films of the series. Playing on the right emotions at the appropriate time, the music is irrefutably one of the key elements in the film's success.

Aside from a couple of small niggling flaws and the unavoidable issues with plot, Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince is a charming film (no pun intended) that takes the audience to the darker places of J.K. Rowling’s imaginary world. It will make you laugh, cry and definitely jump out if your seat at least once, and will make rereading the final book an irresistible idea in preparation of the final thrilling chapters of the franchise.