Dr Louise Banks (Amy Adams) is an expert in linguistics who is haunted by the tragic death of her young daughter. She mopes from her lonely home to the university where she teaches seemingly with as little human interaction as possible; but on finding her classroom nearly empty one morning she soon learns the news that strange craft from another world have descended upon Earth and obviously everyone is a bit caught up in the excitement and/or fear of the situation.

Dr Banks seems relatively unmoved though and happy to watch from a distance until Colonel Weber (Forest Whitaker) shows up at her door looking to recruit her as a translator for the incomprehensible communications the military have managed to establish with the mysterious visitors. She pairs up with Ian (Jeremy Renner), a mathematician, and the two of them set out to decipher the alien language and figure out just what these travellers want whilst the rest of the world squabbles on the brink of war over what to do about them.

This film is very much my kind of science fiction. I love big sprawling sci-fi as much as the next nerd but this kind of small scale soft sci-fi is definitely something I can’t help but enjoy, and in fact this movie hits very closely to another fandom of mine, H.P. Lovecraft. Yes I’d say this is the closest we’ve ever seen to a modern day Lovecraft adaptation, and that includes any movie that’s actually directly based on his works.
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If I’ve lost you, H.P. Lovecraft is the creator of the Cthulhu mythos and wrote a wide range of stories that are technically fantasy horror but more often than not read like surrealist science fiction, treating magic and the unknown like sciences we don’t understand yet, but not in a lazy Marvel way, more in a highly thought out complex way. He allowed his works to exist in the public domain, taking no copyright, because he wanted people to use his ideas and basically anything in this genre is probably influenced by him in some way.

;Arrival' definitely is under this influence, this is high concept stuff and once the full understanding of that kicks in and we begin to see all the pieces fit together it transcends well beyond it’s humble beginnings. But whilst it might take a moment to wrap your head around these details the film does linger on the reveal a little longer than necessary, which is actually the films only real problem. Don’t get me wrong I liked this film a lot and loved seeing all the secrets come together, but the movie does meander and seems to get distracted with backstory and asides that don’t appear overly relevant.

So the movie pads it’s run time with Dr Banks taking a bit too long too process everything, but it’s still really interesting and she isn’t being slow on the uptake so much as she’s in absolute shock and awe. Buried in that a subplot about some of the soldiers supervising them freaking out and deciding that maybe the aliens need a dose of violence to show them whose boss disappointingly hits it’s climax and then just sort of goes away, and maybe a little of the Dr Banks show could have been sacrificed to flesh out these elements.

Having said that this is definitely Dr Banks story, for more reasons than I can reveal here, and without giving too much away it all pays off in the end. I’d love to discuss this further but it would take far too long and spoil the entire premise of the movie. If you can’t tell this movie was a pretty easy sell to me, it hits several of my pre-existing fandoms, but still trust me that if you like high concept sci-fi you’ll get that a good dose of tension and intrigue as well, though you may wish the movie was a half hour shorter.

If asked about Japanese animation, the majority of people would no doubt point to Studio Ghibli as the forerunners of commercially and critically successful releases. As with Pixar in America, they have become synonymous with deep and visually stunning films that are rarely matched, much less surpassed. With the arrival of writer/director Makoto Shinkai's 'Your Name', however, that might all be about to change.
 
Already taking Japan by storm and breaking records along the way, 'Your Name' is the story of city boy Taki and country girl Mitsuha... two unconnected teenagers who find themselves mysteriously united through their dreams.

In recent decades, animation has come a long way - both in terms of technical capabilities and in the more emotionally resonant stories they tell. In everything from the 'Toy Story' franchise and 'Up' to the aforementioned Studio Ghibli films and 'Inside Out', there has been a more pronounced balance between spectacle and heart, allowing them to transcend demographics.

It's a balance that not only shines bright in 'Your Name' but occasionally eclipses that of other animated films that stand in its wake. Though many will not yet be familiar with the name Makoto Shinkai, he is no newcomer. Having written and directed numerous works, it is a balance that he has truly come to master before stepping into 'Your Name'.
 
And it shows.
 
Though packed with enough wit and laugh-out-loud situational humour to keep people of all ages amused, 'Your Name' never shies away from its deeper themes. Themes which include everything from the disparity between life in the country and life in the city, the coming-of-age and burgeoning sexuality, love, loss, and the clash of ancient tradition against the back-drop of a modern world. It's all there, coming together to form something not so much the fantasies that Studio Ghibli creates but something more akin to Magical Realism.

It is, unfortunately, not without its faults. The plot is unashamedly complex at times, even from the outset, with an opening scene that proves more baffling than intriguing. Though the rocky start eventually smooths out, bringing clarity to what came before, it still requires more attention than most younger viewers would afford it. Especially with no truly odd and colourful characters to distract them. The occasional musical interlude may serve to fill that void, but seems a tad more ill-conceived and jarring than it does a stirring accompaniment.
 
Regardless, 'Your Name' remains an astounding accomplishment! A visually stunning, often hilarious, and consistently heart-wrenching exploration of life and love across all boundaries. 

When it comes to his daughter Seek Woo isn’t neglectful, he’s just one of those workaholic Dads who is perhaps a little more selfish than the average person and doesn’t really know how to relate to a ten year old girl. He and his wife are separated for undisclosed reasons and Soo-an is missing her mother desperately. For her birthday she asks that she can visit her in Busan even if she has to go by herself and after much anguish and with great reluctance her father agrees. They board the KTX train from Seoul and so their journey into hell begins.

You see unknowingly Seek Woo is actually saving his daughter as he and the other passengers of the train are inadvertently fleeing an industrial accident that is rapidly turning the inhabitants of Seoul and indeed much of South Korea into a horde of ravenous zombies. Unfortunately the virus has found it’s way onto the train and whilst they slowly learn of the country collapsing around them the passengers find they must fight for their lives and hope that somewhere along the line they find safety. Seek Woo is about to learn he has to be a better father and person in the harshest way possible.
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You might know this movie as that South Korean zombie film people like me won’t shut up about and it definitely lives up to the hype. I went in excited for this film (often a dangerous prospect) but I was not disappointed, in fact my expectations were exceeded, and as neither a fan of horror or zombies this is saying something. My DVD collection in this category pretty much consists of the original 'Evil Dead' and 'Shaun of the Dead', but will soon include 'Train To Busan' as well.

Our cast is a relatively typical cadre of disaster movie cannon fodder, Seok Woo is our average man just trying to keep his daughter alive, there’s a tough heroic type guy trying to protect his vulnerable pregnant wife, a pair of teens working out their feelings for each other, an old lady who doesn’t stand a chance, and a selfish panicky jerk whose bound to get several people killed before he gets his comeuppance, but the slightly predictable nature of this set up just doesn’t matter. The characters are all well rounded and sympathetically flawed (except the jerk, he can suck it) and even the expanded cast, because there’s a whole train load of people to deal with here, are more than just victims in waiting, the horror of the outbreak feels real and terrifying even as it spreads through the nameless crowd.
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It’s also nice to see a zombie movie where the zombies are a real threat. I know that sounds weird but most of the time the problem in a zombie apocalypse seems like the other people who are stuck in it with you. Here the zombies are a relentless terrifying horde turning people into a rabid frenzy, you really get the sense that all they want to do is kill, and not for any purpose just because they need to. It’s scary and the mechanics of it are played out familiar enough that they don’t need to waste time explaining what’s happening to us, but also with a couple of interesting new twists that fit neatly into the story and add to the tension in some extremely well crafted set pieces.

I honestly can’t praise this film enough, I absolutely loved it. It is the perfect blend of humour, action, emotion and horror; never being too heavy on any one but performing each with grace and ease. Dong-seok Ma as a man protecting his pregnant wife is easily the most kick-ass character in this genre you’ve seen since Woody Harrelson in 'Zombieland', except that Woody was playing it for laughs and here you’re completely invested in the characters struggle, fearful for his survival, torn up over his anguish and cheering at his heroism.
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If you’re a horror fan and a zombie movie fan in particular I don’t know why you’re even asking me if you should be watching this film, just get out and see it. And if you aren’t but are curious you should still get out and see it, I don’t think you’ll be disappointed.

Melanie (Sennia Nanua) lives happily in a secure bunker with a gang of other children. They are watched over by soldiers who make sure the children are locked in their rooms or strapped securely into wheelchairs whenever they leave them to attend classes. Despite Melanie’s cheerful disposition the only time the children seem to have any relief is in the classes of Miss Justineau (Gemma Arterton) when she interrupts the curriculum to read them fantastical stories of greek mythology and the like.
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However, Miss Justineau’s emotional attachment to the children is frowned up on by the strict Sgt Parks (Paddy Considine) and cold clinical Dr Caldwell (Glenn Close) who view the children as monsters and test subjects respectively. You see the country (or perhaps the world, I don’t think it was ever fully explained) has turned into a dystopian nightmare that is linked to these children in some way and the bunker is one of the last safe places, but not for long.

What’s really going on here is not exactly an intricate mystery, and I’m fairly sure it’s been spoiled by the trailers and advertising (plus it’s based on a book so the story is out there), but there’s an interesting reveal and build up through the course of the movie that’s fun to see even if you know where it’s going. Suffice to say this is a zombie movie, sort of, with a unique feel and surprisingly original plot considering the genre.

That being said we do largely end up plodding through the zombie movie checklist, ticking off set pieces one by one, to the point where at times it starts to overshadow the originality. We sort of have a very unique and a very cliche story playing out at the same time, fighting over each other for screen time, and frankly I thought it was a bit of a mess. The bits I liked I really liked, but the rest was the same old same old and I can find better scares and better action in other similar movies easily.

The characters work well together, they really endear themselves to you and their arcs feel natural, helped of course by the fantastic cast, and the ambiguity of the hero/villain dynamic is much deeper than you would normally get in this kind of movie, it will genuinely make you think. But clever as it is I can’t help but feel the movie could have been more even though I can’t put my finger on what exactly I mean by that. More stylised perhaps, more world building, I don’t know it just felt like the movie was missing something, not quite reaching it’s potential.
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Without any spoilers the film starts to go a bit Lord of the Flies at one point and I think I’d rather have seen that play out than the atypical survival story of the name cast.

Tonally I didn’t think the film held together, I was never entirely on anyone’s side and wasn’t always clear when scenes were supposed to be happy or sad not really knowing whose motivations I was supposed to be sympathising with, which goes double for the ending as I’m really not sure what the movie wanted me to feel about that. There’s a fine line between ambiguity and confusion and I feel this story is horribly balanced upon it.

So a unique and interesting story trapped in the confines of one of the least unique and interesting genres to create a weird hybrid of the two. It’s a good film, a horror film for people who aren’t particularly into horror films you could say, which should be ringing my bell but for whatever reason it didn’t quite draw me all the way in.

In 1999 Heather Donahue set out with a camera man and sound recordist into the forest of Maryland in search of the Blair Witch and none of them were ever seen again. Today (I assume we’ve moved forward to present day, the camera equipment has certainly been upgraded) her brother believes she is alive in the woods thanks to some shaky footage that has cropped up on YouTube and sets out to wander the woods looking for her despite how stupid that plan clearly is.

Luckily for us his friend Lisa has decided to make a documentary about it and with two other friends in tow they set out into the woods to find the mysterious house where the first movie concluded filming everything as they go. And thus we set out on a retreading of the original story updated for the modern age and with an actual budget, complete with an opening text screen telling us that like the first this film was assembled from footage found abandoned out in the woods, so we know the trip doesn’t go too happily for our campers.

Technically this is a sequel to 'The Blair Witch Project' but from a practical standpoint it’s a remake. We’re following basically all the same plot points but with real money involved and some actual special effects. Don’t get me wrong, I’m a big fan of the original Blair Witch Project, perhaps more so as a concept than a movie, though I think the movie itself still holds up. At the time I was completely consumed by the never before seen viral online marketing campaign (I was a computer kid), I rushed out to see the movie and loved it, I even own all the video games (that’s right, there’s more than one Blair Witch Project video game).

The point I’m making is that I thought I was the target audience for this new Blair Witch and it turns out I kind of wasn’t. This film is very much an introduction to the franchise, and it’s a really good one, that they might make more of these has me genuinely curious. 'The Blair Witch Project' may have begun a trend of found footage horror that at times can be a little unwelcome but when it works it works and it’s pretty solid here, with a few wrinkles.

Firstly, despite the modern day update of all the equipment we’re not really seeing anything new. They have a drone camera but it spends most of the movie crashed in a tree, which was a somewhat disappointing waste. In addition, 'Blair Witch' is a little more cinematic in its shot composition whilst still retaining the raw feel, but more than once we find ourselves caught in the full rawness of characters shaking the camera all over whilst something it would have been really nice to see happens just out of shot. Or a camera is set up to record something and you can sort of sense something spooky that’s about to happen and you tense up in anticipation, but then it doesn’t happen. Which is weird.

The lip service connection to the original really is meaningless but there’s nothing inherently wrong with that and I understand why they did it. They needed an excuse to get the cast out in the woods without the need for much, or indeed any, explanation required. In that regard this varies from the original, there’s no need for all the complex world building mythos that the original had we’re just straight into the woods for scary shenanigans.

And said shenanigans are very well done, a distinct upgrade to the original with an array of interesting set pieces though in truth the movie doesn’t really come alive until they find the house and I kind of wish we had spent more time there.

Unfortunately it was at this point that I realised there were no stakes, we were just marking time till the film could end. This wasn’t a problem in the original because it was so unique but we’ve seen the “idiots go wrecklessly into scary place, idiots never seen again” movie a dozen or more times now and I’m not sure we needed to see it again. Like I say, this is a movie for a new audience, not a seasoned one. Having said that there is a very nice twist at the end that is made even better
​because the movie doesn’t make a big deal out of it and I liked that very much.