Jockie Reviews

Dragonlance: Dragons of Autumn Twilight (2008 Video)

Convoluted, lacking characterisation, but contains some charm for fans of the books.

[5/10 · 13 January 2008]

I remembered these books fondly from reading them as a child several years ago, and couldn't pass up the opportunity to see the film version, and it was for me a mixed bag. Whilst the film does remain very faithful to the story and the events within, its severely limited by its 90 minute run-time, the characterisation other than Tanis is lacking, the story simplified and compressed to the degree where the characters hurtle from one event to another, without the breathing space and reflection of the book it becomes very convoluted.

Furthermore the film makers decided to use a mixture of 2d and 3d animation , with the dragons and draconians represented by a dated 3d animation, that makes the fighting sequences look very poor and overall the 3d sections look very plastic. The 2d animation is not much better, moving often jerkily, though some of the characters are drawn quite nicely.

Overall i wasn't very impressed, but since its only 90 minutes its hardly as though its a massive chunk of my life has been lost to it. Id recommend to fans of the books, for a little nostalgia trip and for Kiefer Sutherlands (underused) performance as Raistlin.

Children of Men (2006)

Gripping and moving piece of cinema.

[9/10 · 4 October 2006]

I went to see this at the local multiplex last night and must say that is one of the most satisfying cinema experiences i have had in a long time. I went in with high expectations, firstly as a unashamed sci-fi fan and in particular of dystopian visions (although the daily mail may see this film as more of a utopia) such as Brazil which i consider to be a sort of companion piece to this film, secondly as a cuaron fan who made a Harry Potter film that even i could enjoy and thirdly as someone from England who is tired of the same old genres that we appear to have in this country ie. corny gangster films, kitchen sink dramas and historical adaptations I have to say that this film lived up to all my expectations and then some. Without going into the plot too much it concerns England in 20 years time, with the human race infertile and the outlawing of immigrants leading to a fascist style government. Sound a bit like v for vendetta? well i assure that comparison couldn't be further from the truth because the future displayed in this film felt so grounded in reality and so possible that it made my stomach turn. The performances in the film were almost uniformly excellent with Clive Owen clearly playing the kind of role he was born for and Michael Caine giving a fantastic performance which could so easily could have been ridiculous in the hands of a lesser actor or lesser director.

However the thing that impressed me most about the film was the visual style the hand-held camera and documentary style gives the film a gritty feeling yet also allows for beautiful shots that appear natural and not as forced as in other large productions, *MINOR SPOILER* Towards the end of the film is a major set piece set in a war torn refugee camp that is simply stunning with explosions and gunfire that had me gripped and close to falling off my chair as the world falls apart around the films protagonists. I must stress that this film has to be seen in a cinema with surround sound for full effect as a normal DVD set up will not do it any kind of justice.

A few minor criticisms of the film for me are that some of the lesser characters don't feel very fleshed out and a couple of supporting performances didn't ring true for me (slight overacting). With that out the way i feel the need to stress once more that this piece of cinema needs to be seen in a cinema. Lets just hope we can look back on it in 20 years and laugh at how wrong was.