Reviews

This film is quite simply the Angelina Jolie show. It seems like the makers of this film just had $110 million dollars to blow and spent most of it on stunts and forgot about the plot. I knew from the first minute that Salt was going to be poor, it just had bog standard spy film written all over it.

This film is clichéd in so many ways. We hear some rubbish about some baby who was alive then dead then alive again and some secret Russian spy program. All of this is just stupid and complicates the plot. Most of it though is just Angelina Jolie doing stunts . For the first half of the film all that really happens is that Evelyn Salt makes some makeshift explosive, scales some buildings and jumps about on some lorries. I have also never seen Russians depicted in such a stereotypical manner. They just drink vodka and carry machine guns around.

The storyline then just gets more stupid. For instance, we find out that although at first the Russina president was confirmed dead he was actually just paralyzed by her husband's spider venom. How convenient that he discovered a spider with the capabilities to do that. I'm sure also that many doctors would make that mistake of confirming a president dead. There are more revelations such as another one of the CIA agents also being a Russian mole who of course ends up fighting Salt. However, as always Angie saves the day by saving the world from nuclear war when the missiles are 99% ready.

This film is just badly thought out. OK, it may be entertaining on some levels but this is limited as the storyline is so bland. If you're not an action fan, I would definitely advise you to stay away from this film.

When I saw this film's trailer I have to say I was not too excited about seeing it. I thought to myself how could the tale of a man being trapped by a rock be thrilling. But i was proved wrong. Danny Boyle has once again outdone himself. His creativity has turned something which could have been very average into a great piece of cinema.

I loved this film from the first second to the last. The first quarter of an hour or so before Aron (James Franco)gets trapped is as well made as the rest of it. Although arguably having little relevance to the main plot this prelude perfectly shows Aron's buzzing character. The majority of this film though takes place in the canyon where Aron gets trapped. From this point the audience is thrust into a thrilling battle for survival. James Franco expertly portrays the emotions of his character who at first thinks its crazy that he has got himself into his situation but who then quickly realizes that he will have to fight for his life.

We slowly see Aron's degression into a delusional state as time goes on. Boyle cleverly interjects memories from Aron's life to both take a break from the character's ordeal but mainly to give more depth to his character. We both see positive memories such as scenes with his Dad when he was a child but also negative memories such as with his former girlfriend who says he will be lonely forever. There is one great scene where he pretends to be on a morning talk show which shows his anger, idiocy and ability to make jokes in his horrific situation all at once.

As his desperation increases we see him being freed from the rock in a storm however Boyle quickly makes it apparent that this was just a dream or a delusion emphasizing the reality of his situation. Then finally he has to decide whether to die or cut himself free. In a scene realistic but not too gruesome we see himself hack through his own arm in agony, finally after immense pain freeing himself (this time for real)from the rock.

This film concludes by showing the real Aron Ralston who said himself that this film was so realistic it could have been a documentary. It is definitely a must see, both Franco and Boyle deserved Oscar wins.

Being a big Tarinto fan I expected a lot from this film and I was not let down. I've read many reviews which slate this film but I believe that these viewers have not understood what Tarinto was trying to do when making Death Proof.

I somehow felt so transfixed to the screen when I was just watching a group of girls having a casual chat in a car. I don't know how Tarinto does this but his screenplay is always spot on. Most scenes in this film actually have little relevance to the actual plot but if anything this adds to the beauty of it. The characterization was also very good. Kurt Russell's haunting and creepy character Stuntman Mike is perfectly juxtaposed with the girls in both parts. His eeriness helps to create tension which finally explodes when his psychotic behavior is fully shown in a typically gruesome Tarinto scene where he kills all the girls in a horrific car crash.

The second segment is similar in many ways to the first. Zoe Bell (a stunt woman often used by Tarinto) makes a great appearance playing her daredevil self. Again, much of this segment is filled with a lot of casual chat, but that is definitely not a bad thing. I'm sure that many of you had a shock when you realized that this half actually started black and white showing how engulfed you all were in this film. This half, contrasting to the first has a very different conclusion. The last twenty minutes or so had me on the edge of my seat as Stuntman Mike tries once again to kill a group of girls with his death proof car. However, this time he has Zoe Bell to contend with who somehow clings on for life whilst performing "ship's mast" and in the end we see him meet his sorry end.

When I read the plot summary for this film i thought Super had potential to be a good film. The plot seemed quite similar to Kick Ass which I really enjoyed but just after a few minutes through Super I discovered that it lacked any quality at all.

There are many bad points to this film. Firstly it is so unnecessarily violent in a way which is possibly meant to be funny. As well as this the screenplay is poor, I felt especially that the bad guys were very bland and clichéd. The acting is also not really up to scratch.

Although the first half of this film was not too bad even though there were some ridiculous scenes (e.g. the one with the worms cutting Frank's head open) it was the second half that let it down. The introduction of one of the most annoying characters in the history of film, Boltie, helped to turn an average film into a poor one. God knows why she was so obsessed with a middle aged man, an obsession which eventually lead her to pretty much raping him in an awful sex scene. I was relieved that she finally got her head partially blown off in the climax of the film. A climax which contained most of the violence and meant I couldn't really take the film seriously.

To conclude, Super is a poor film even though it was entertaining at some points.

Since the age of 6 I've gone to the cinema to see every one of the Harry Potter films and I have to say they have all been entertaining. And it was this foundation of previous movies that meant I was gripped when seeing this. However, I have to say I expected a little more.

Everything seemed a bit predictable. I wanted more twists in the story and although there were a few I felt that the plot was not as good as in some of the previous films. Perhaps this was down to the director Yates or maybe Rowling was at fault for writing a story which although fans wanted, could have been better. Yes, revealing Snape's past was interesting and there were a few other good things about the plot but the story seemed to come second to the visual aspects of the film. I have to say some things were even stupid; for instance sending the whole of slytherin to the dungeons didn't seem a reasonable thing for professor mcgonagall to do and I thought the seem with Dumbledore could have been a lot better.

My main criticism though is left for the end of the film. Harry's victory over Voldermort could have been a bit more impressive. As well as this, going 19 years into the future and seeing all their children going to Hogwarts for the first time was simply not good enough to conclude this great series of films. Giving Harry and Ron a beard did not make them look 40 and Hermoine and Ginny just looked the same!

However, enough of the criticism now... Although my rating of 8 may seem a bit generous after what I have said, I rated it 8 because it the film was spectacular. I was enthralled throughout the by the visual effects. The battle scenes were amazing and though I have had a dig at the plot, the fact that this is a Harry Potter film made up for that. This film could not have possibly been bad being what it was and I did leave the cinema with a smile on my face.

Finally, the acting which I has been slightly poor in the past (mainly because the children were young) reached is peak in the this film. As always Ralph Fiennes was the perfect villain and all the other adults were very good, I particularly thought Maggie Smith(Professor McGonagall)was very moving.

This film is definitely a must for all Potter fans.