The Hunger Games: Mockingjay Part 1 Review

I have a complicated history with The Hunger Games series. I haven't read the books, with my introduction to the series being the first film, and I hated that film. I found it to be incredibly derivative, poorly directed and many of the characters were completely forgettable and I had no intention of carrying on with the series. Then, after reading so many positive reviews, I decided to give the series another chance with Catching Fire and my opinion of the series completely reversed. Every single problem I had with The Hunger Games was fixed in Catching Fire, it was well directed, the ideas it introduced flowed a lot better with the story and the new characters introduced were incredibly entertaining. Now with Mockingjay Part 1, the series has continued its upward trend in quality, creating my favourite one yet.

The Imitation Game Review

I don't think there was anyone more important to the world of technology than Alan Turing. His research has been incredibly important for the development of artificial intelligence and his work at Bletchley Park was the forerunner to the modern computer age. Even in the world of film Turing's influence cannot be denied, notably the idea of the Turing Test to determine whether something was human or a machine being the inspiration for the Voight-Kampff test in Blade Runner. Now a film has come out about the life of Turing and, whilst it is a brilliant film, there are a few problems holding it back.

Interstellar Review

All throughout the year, Interstellar has been my most anticipated film. Nolan is my favourite director working today and has made many of my favourite films, mainly The Dark Knight, The Prestige and Inception, so of course I was hyped for this film. Warner Bros clearly had a lot of trust in Nolan as they gave a multi-million dollar budget to Nolan and the rights to 2 franchises to Paramount (Friday the 13th and South Park) to a completely original film with no opportunity for sequels and no marketing options, which also raised my excitement for this film. Then I read a few reviews, that were pretty negative and I started to get a little bit worried, then I saw Interstellar. Whilst it didn't quite meet my incredibly high expectations, this is still a brilliant film, continuing Nolan's streak of having not made a bad film (in my opinion).

Nightcrawler Review

Over the past few months, we've seen a number of films come out looking at the state of the modern media. From comedies like Anchorman 2, to action films like The Hunger Games, to thrillers like Gone Girl, there's been this prevailing sense of how the media exploits certain stories and relies more on shock than facts. No film has made this more prominent though than Nightcrawler, probably the best thriller that's been released this year, and I'm including Gone Girl.