Trip to the Movies

I have had a great week of cinema experiences! I saw The Muppets, Ghost Rider: Spirit of Vengeance and Chronicle (in that order). If we were going in order of enjoyment I would say The Muppets, Chronicle.....................................and Ghost Rider.

The Muppets is really smart, funny and happy. If you like the characters already and you like Jason Segel and Amy Adams you will have a great time. It’s highly enjoyable with only perhaps the song ‘I’m having a me party’ and to an extent the ending leaving you less than engaged. Don’t forget due to John Lasseter’s Disney Short initiative, you also get the Toy Story short ‘Small Fry’ before the movie even begins. Sadly the projector was broken at the Cineworld O2, so it kept freezing and three quarters of the way through the film they had to stop it for ten minutes to reboot the projector. However we did get complementary ticket vouchers for our troubles.

Ghost Rider wasn’t good, and it was a shame because there were promising things about it. The effects are much better than the first film and some of the camera work and visual style is interesting e.g. having black backgrounds randomly during live action scenes. Nicholas Cage’s crazy acting is good but the rest of the time it’s strange in a bad way.  The story is quite generic and lags quite a few times leaving you bored. You may be thinking ‘but isn’t Idris Elba in that?’ (Who stole his scenes in Thor), but his lines are just as terrible as his French accent.

Chronicle is a low budget sci-fi movie about three teenage boys in Seattle who get superpowers from a hole in a ground at a party. It’s a really good watch and you don’t really miss big budget effects, and it is a good reminder that there are things more important, definitely a recommended watch. Although as an animation and vfx student I shouldn’t be saying that, I mean they must be great as lots of money is spent on them!

Busy Fun Times

It is a busy term with lots of course work and working for the university as well.  We have just had our February open day, which was pretty cold but despite the weather still busy. Taking people on tour of the accommodation luckily meant I got to go inside a few times. I feel a bit jealous of all the prospective students getting excited about coming to university with their degree’s ahead of them, it is a great time and coming out of the other end can be scary.

I was lucky enough to get tickets to Shrek the Musical for my birthday which I have now seen. I was in the centre of the fifth row and I have never had such a good view at a musical, I was very excited. The show is really enjoyable. If you are hoping for it to be exactly like the film and have all the same music you may be disappointed. The songs are written for the show and they make a few interesting additions for the story, as well as those necessary to make it work on stage. However if you are open to having fun, Nigel Harman as Lord Farquad is hilarious. Also, if you are a musical fan you can spot the references to other shows like Wicked and Lion King (this one is hard to miss).

I haven’t been to the cinema recently but do have two impending trips. One to see Chronicle, the director is apparently tipped to reboot the Fantastic Four series on the basis of this film’s success alone. And also The Muppets, which is going to be my Valentine’s Day viewing, I am looking forward to it (I am not evil; my boyfriend wants to see it even more than I do!).