Reviews

An absolute classic: 'Psycho' deserves its reputation as a masterpiece of cinema. It's a truly thrilling, expertly made film that will keep you gripped, guessing and tense; it's an experience to watch, and should be seen all at once (as Hitchcock famously insisted) without spoilers.

There is so much to love about this movie. The narrative is amazing; it breaks all conventions, grips the audience like a vice and refuses to let go, and will keep you tense, guessing and thrilled for its entire runtime. Its twists are truly amazing. The cinematography and direction is, of course, phenomenal. There is so much symbolism, so many little signposts throughout, and it's all shot and directed beautifully; it's an amazing viewing experience. The acting is stunning (the script equally so). Anthony Perkins as Norman steals the show and truly becomes his character; with that incredible direction and script, Norman becomes the soul of the film. The score by Bernard Hermann is a trademark of 'Psycho' and is the icing on the cake, adding so much to the film and the experience (Hitchcock said Hermann was responsible for 33% of Psycho). The film is just a masterpiece, and if you so wanted you could talk about every scene's success in great detail.

I think a lesser-discussed part of 'Psycho' that I find really interesting is its constant symbolism (especially through a Freudian psychoanalytical lens) and the way Hitchcock broke the audiences' perceptions of cinema to bring something truly shocking and revolutionary. The film is rich with symbolism, used expertly not only for purposes such as foreshadowing and metaphor, but to really unpack the characters - specifically, Norman Bates. 'Psycho' was released in 1960, in the midst of the Hays Code, when antagonists were primarily black and white characters who had to be looked down upon and punished for their evil deeds; yet Norman's character is very layered and interesting, and the audience does not grow to hate him outright. Hitchcock uses constant symbolism to draw an 'antagonist' who is torn apart by real internal conflict. To slip into some psychoanalysis, he makes Norman so compelling and fascinating by having him plagued with intense conflict of his id, ego and superego. In the parlour scene, a stuffed owl is almost always framed above Norman: it symbolises his superego's presence, which is personified throughout the movie by his mother. After spying on Marion changing for his id's gratification, Norman's superego ('mother' half of his mind) shames him for his looking on another woman, convincing him that his mother would be terribly jealous, which drives him to kill her. The film is absolutely packed with this sort of fascinating symbolism. On the topic of Marion's sudden death, I admire 'Psycho' for how it truly broke audiences' subconscious ideas for how a story was meant to play out. Hitchcock shattered all expectations the audience has for stories and the protagonist during this twist, propelling the film forwards into a state of intense tension and uncertainty, achieving an amazing tone and grip on the viewer. If you get people out of their seats in the cinema, running up the aisles because they can't quite comprehend how the film breaks conventions, you're doing something right.

The only issue I have ever taken with this movie is its conclusion, where things are explained in explicit terms to the audience; I admit things do need explaining, and of course this scene will come cross as heavy-handed upon rewatches, when explanations are unnecessary - but still, I've always felt the film's final twist could have been explained in less certain terms, with a little more finesse. I am also curious as to how things would have looked without the Hays Code in place (though Hitchcock's style shines in the way he creates this terrifying masterpiece without graphic violence or any other terribly immoral things that might corrupt and tarnish the glorious American people).

This film is truly a classic masterpiece, phenomenal in every aspect of film-making. It is a thrilling movie that will keep you hooked and stay with you for a long while. It's truly groundbreaking.

When I read Stephen King's novel 'IT' I found it a conflicting experience. I loved parts of it so much so that I couldn't put it down, whereas I found other areas egregiously dull. To generalise this experience, I found the children's half of the book amazing and the adult half... not so much. This isn't a book review so I won't talk about what went wrong in the novel, but I do think a lot of what doesn't work for 'Chapter Two' can be traced back to the source material; a lot of the gripes I have are also present in the written counterpart. That being said, the lower quality of this source material does not excuse the lows this film manages to reach.

There is very little to enjoy is this movie. There are one or two scary scenes that I like, such as the scene where It takes the little girl at the sports game which showed how seductive Pennywise could be, or the brutal opening scene which established a dark, great tone (that was absent from the rest of the film). From a production standpoint the film is... fine. The acting is mixed, the cinematography, direction and such is fine, and the effects are... not awful for the most part.

There's really not much to like about this movie. First of all, this horror movie is utterly void of horror, with maybe one or two exceptions. It is the perfect example of everything wrong with modern horror; it relies on constant jump scares, ridiculous looking CGI, repetitive, mindless, overused horror tropes, and never fails to actually build an atmosphere of suspense, tension, or fear. The audience will never be scared except in the hollow wait for a predictable jump scare. Scenes such as the fortune cookie monsters, the naked grandma Beverly encounters, and the axe-wielding giant, while based off the source material, come across as ridiculous and comical. And you might say this film is aiming to be more lighthearted, perhaps a dark comedy, which is a valid point - it's also another issue. The humour in this movie never lands and only serves to detract from the tone; you can write a funny horror or thriller movie, but when the comedy is dismal and detracts from the core of the film, there are major issues. It's the same invasive bathos that movies such as 'The Last Jedi' are plagued with. The tone and feel of 'Chapter One' and the book are both gone, and this movie has nothing of its own to offer. This haywire tone is not helped by the fact that it's almost THREE HOURS long. Now I can see why the movie is so damn long; Stephen King's 1000+ page novel is sprawling, and the movie does try to stay true to the story King wrote. The adults' part of the book spends a lot of time delving into nostalgia and the past too, but while the book spans 1000+ pages and built the reader's relationship with Derry and its characters over countless hours, 'Chapter Two' comes after a two-hour film, and that's it. It's like the movie is trying to live off a sense of nostalgia that does not exist. Five hours is not enough time to comprehensively cover a book the length of 'The Lord of the Rings', and in trying to follow King's narrative as closely as possible the movie struggles to get any depth (and in some points without reading the source material it can come off as incomprehensible). The adults are separated for the majority of the film, and thus the movie does away with any potential for any sort of character growth; this happened in the book too, but the movie only just scratches the surface so it comes across as almost a random selection of badly produced horror scenes spliced together. Essentially the movie wants to be the book, but is a messy, boring shell of it. I'll take the ending as an example. Stephen King is not known for writing good endings, and the book's climax is just wild; it's too long (spending maybe twenty pages just describing the weather as a storm breaks out over Derry), and goes in some really REALLY strange directions - but it stayed true to King's vision. It was weird and in my opinion it was substandard, but at least it was explored to its fullest extent. The method by which the adults in the movie finally defeat It is hardly described and thus illogical; it renders the earlier plotless rest of the movie even more useless, comes across as comical, ridiculous and unsatisfactory, and leaves the audience feeling not much at all but shock at how bad the effects are.

The movie is disadvantaged by the source material, but still has no right being as bad as it is. I've seen it twice now, and will never watch it again.

It's hard to talk about this movie as a standalone film because so many issues' roots come from other areas of the sequel trilogy, and it's impossible to go into what makes it so awful without spoilers, so I'll be doing neither. Admittedly the task wasn't easy for JJ Abrams considering the state the trilogy going into this final episode (a state of which he is not innocent), but the final product Disney gave us as the 'ultimate conclusion' to a nine-movie saga spanning four decades is nonetheless embarrassing.

I will start with what I liked (very briefly, because it is dire). The acting is fine despite an awful script, some of the humour lands (though the movie is plagued with bathos and wants to be a Marvel film), some of the concepts like hyperspace jumping were cool, and the effects are good. There are few and minor things to appreciate, and that's about it.

There is so much wrong with this movie it's honestly impressive. First of all, the script is just horrendous. The dialogue is clunky, cheesy and overly-expository; a lot of it sounds no better than that of the prequels, though where George Lucas made everyone sound like droids, Abrams makes every character talk like a cheesy, quippy, Marvel-esque joke-machine. And the script is the least egregious part of Abrams' bad writing; far worse is his McGuffin-hunt of a plot, which unfolds at a breakneck speed that leaves no time for such trivial things as character arcs/development, emotion, or intelligent storytelling. The ENTIRE plot (and I mean the ENTIRE plot) consists of our 'characters' hunting down arbitrary objects that lead to further arbitrary objects, finding success only in coincidence and plot convenience: they just so happen to be saved by Lando Calrissian, who gives them all the information they could ever ask for; they just so happen to fall into an underground cave in which lies the exact object they need for their mission; it just so happens that when they lose something vital to the plot, they can just withdraw the information from C-3PO's mind... (etc, etc). It's arbitrary event after arbitrary event after arbitrary event for the ENTIRE runtime. There is no overarching plot beyond this coincidental Easter egg hunt. Each event is five minutes long, scarcely related to anything before or after. And the entire time they are chasing ARBITRARY objects, facing arbitrary little threats. It is formulaic, too fast for thought, and incredibly dull. And these are just structural issues; these are not even the biggest of problems. Far bigger, for instance, is that the entire premise of the movie is ridiculous, lazy, and frankly stupid. So Palpatine came back... off screen. Ignoring the issue of him even existing in this movie, the fact that this galaxy-altering event happens OFF SCREEN and is just mentioned by a single character (and a title crawl) in passing is ridiculous. And the movie NEVER explains how he's back. Last time we saw him, he got reduced to atoms, and now he's somehow alive and well and everybody just accepts it in an instant. The execution of his return couldn't be worse, but the fact that he even returns is equally ridiculous. It again shows the dismal planning this trilogy had; Abrams set Snoke up as the big bad in the first film, then Ryan Johnson killed him in the second film and left the sequels without a conventional villain, so Abrams panicked and took the easiest (and worst) way out, reviving Palpatine. The Emperor's return did not have to be awful, if it had been slowly built up in a sensical way since 'The Force Awakens', but in the context of the series going into the final film it was a terrible decision to make. I would like to add that Palpatine's plan is just absurd; he wants Kylo to kill Rey, but then it turns out he NEEDS Rey to come back to power (lucky Kylo failed isn't it?) and somehow he's built the biggest fleet of Death Star star destroyers ever, then it turns out he can just suck their souls out like a bloody dementor so that's convenient. I truly believe something special could have been done with Kylo Ren stepping up to the pedestal as the big bad, considering the conflict within him (and it seems like Johnson was pushing for Kylo to take that role), but it would not have been conventional and Abrams didn't have the courage. That's another key issue with this film: the amount of time it spends retconning 'The Last Jedi'. Episode 8 was controversial for sure, but to be so cowardly as to go back on half the creative choices of Johnson is honestly pretty offensive. Abrams might have had a different vision for the trilogy but that shouldn't give him the right to go back on so much; dozens of things such as making a lazy retcon of Rey's parents and the Skywalker lightsaber, completely sidelining Rose, even jumping forwards in time so that the status quo is that of 'The Force Awakens' and the events of 'The Last Jedi' are rendered almost insignificant. By the time Abrams has undone 'The Last Jedi' he has run out of time to tell his own story. The movie is just so lazy throughout its entire runtime in almost every regard. The film has HALF A DOZEN takeout deaths: Chewie, C-3PO, Rey, and Kylo Ren all supposedly die at one point, but turn out to be alive (or In the case of Kylo are brought back to life... I would also like to add that Kylo has THREE takeout deaths in ONE MOVIE before actually dying). Not a single of these is executed well; in Chewie's case we are shown through dramatic irony that he's alive within about two minutes of his 'death' and I WHOLEHEARTEDLY believe this is ONLY so the movie doesn't have to lose its absurd pace dwelling on things such as emotion and character reflection. Chewie's supposed 'death' happens when Rey concedes to the dark side out of anger, and this dance she has with the dark side is another poorly done aspect. Most of the allusions we get to a potential fall for Rey are spoken in clunky dialogue (you like to tell don't show, Abrams) but the threat of her turning is not only never real, the audience does not CARE because none of these characters are real people; we aren't attached to them in the slightest. If you want to have a genuine storyline in which Rey flirts with the dark side, you can't make her 'kill' a close friend the first time she uses it; you have to make her find success with its destructive nature, you have to make her enjoy using the dark side so she is tempted to fall from the light. These hollow characters all act and talk the same, and have no arcs of any description. We get a whole host of new characters who offer absolutely nothing to the story. Rey's arc is incoherent, her character non-existent, and she's constantly making nonsensical decisions such as walking out into the desert on her own for no reason; Leia is an NPC zombie (and I think she should have died in VIII during that Mary Poppins scene; it would have much more sense thematically, and for Kylo's character); Poe is useless and without an arc, and Rey and Finn and for some reason constantly getting annoyed at him for doing illegal things, when they've all done those things constantly in the past; Finn is basically just Poe at this point, and any interesting character points explored in the movie (such as Finn's meeting other defecting stormtroopers) are under-explored to the extreme. The only character who had any sort of coherent arc was Kylo Ren, but even then I feel that it was poorly executed as he never establishes himself as a threat, makes idiotic decisions, fails miserably in his plans with Rey, and then just has a random pep-talk with Han which brings him irrevocably to the light side... The humour is also a huge issue in this film, and I touched on it earlier; they clearly wanted to make their own quippy Marvel dialogue and humour, but it does NOT work and just brings the stakes down awfully. As the final conclusion to a 9-film saga, it is incredibly underwhelming. It doesn't even feel like there is a war going on in this film, and the big dramatic battle that occurs at the end is unearned and feels disingenuous. Say what you will about Ryan Johnson, at least he didn't feel the need to stretch that Death Star laser threat more and more every film in an attempt to create higher stakes. I am aware this review is getting stupidly long, and while there's so much more to say about the film I think I've covered the majority of the most offensive overarching issues.

So yeah, this film is bad. Real bad. There's very little to like about it, and mostly it comes across as a lazy, boring and frankly ridiculous conclusion to a great franchise.

This movie is no masterpiece. It will entertain you like any other average horror movie. It has some really quite interesting and unique elements to it, while a significant amount falls flat on its face. The filmmaking here is good, not amazing: average. It's got fine cinematography, fine acting, fine camerawork, etc. From a filmmaking standpoint it's fine. Keep in mind I'm yet to see the sequel - which really shouldn't matter, because if a movie (especially the first in a series) can't stand alone then that's an issue.

Where it excels is in its individuality (which is ironic, because I think a lot of its issues are pronounced most when it does fall into overused tropes and clichés). I will have to get into spoilers to fully explain my thoughts. I love how the 'monster' is not black and white evil. I love the doll Brahms; he makes for a fascinating love-hate and mutual reliance relationship between protagonist and antagonist. I love the concept of our hero, Greta, trying to appease and growing to care for Brahms. I grew fond of the doll too. The scenes of her treating Brahms like a person, genuinely caring for him, were cute and unconventional. And yet Brahms is terrifying, and that fear never leaves the film even in these lighthearted moments of momentary tension release. This affection for our 'villain' also makes for an entertaining, tense dynamic and climax as Greta tries to keep Brahms happy while these external forces are putting us on edge. It's a unique concept for a movie like this, and it really works. The climax is half just trying to keep a baby happy (but if it cries then things get deadly) and I loved that, and I think that should have been the entire climax. Brahms was the main highlight of the movie for sure. Another specific thing I loved was how Greta reacts to the situation; it is realistic compared to most horror movies. Her reaction is not too dramatic and nor is it too nonchalant as with many movies. I like how much it messes with her (although all of the scenes in which she questions whether Brahms is doing things or whether she's just going mad fall flat, because the audience obviously knows it's Brahms; if this was meant to be dramatic irony, it didn't work).

I do have some complaints. And one of my biggest issues is how all that I loved about the movie is pretty much scrapped the moment Greta's caricature abusive ex smashes the doll. That characterisation of and relationship between Greta and Brahms is gone in an instant - and with it, that unique, suspenseful dynamic that gave the movie its spookiness. The meathead that comes charging out of the walls to brawl for twenty minutes is not scary in the slightest. From what I've gathered, this 'real' Brahms had been controlling the doll the entire time? Then WHY is he suddenly so irrational and irredeemable? He knows that Greta and Malcolm don't want hostilities, but after killing the ex, this Brahms charges after them for the remainder of the climax. The movie ceases to be scary, it ceases to be interesting, and it ceases to make really much sense. This new Brahms could be a rhinoceros and it would hardly be different; I understand why they did it, I just think it was a stupid decision to make Brahms still have his physical body. It ruins the suspense and it ruins everything that was unique. And when the movie is not being unique with its hero-villain relationship it is at its worst. The worst parts of this film are when it descends into typical PG13 scares for the sake of adding more scares: when Greta has a dream sequence (a trope overused to within an inch of its life), or when she gets stuck in the attic. On the topic of boring, we have Malcom and the ex whose name I don't even remember. The ex is insufferable and one dimensional, acting as a plot point rather than a character. He's not interesting at all and all the tension he brings is actually only really brought by Brahms' presence. And Malcolm is just boring. He does nothing all movie, he's not funny or likeable or charismatic, but somehow he and Greta fall in love.

I love parts of this movie and think other parts are really disappointing. It's definitely worth watching, and could have been really special with some changes. It still is special, but is dragged down significantly by some aspects.

I love this show so, so much. It's got a perfectly balanced tone and I've been hooked since season 1. You can't help but binge it. I can't even describe the fondness I feel for this show and its cast and characters. Keep in mind that I think this show is very close to perfect; it's one of my very favourites. But there are flaws, and if I speak more on flaws than strengths it's because it's easier to critique something that try and explain what makes it so amazing.

I would call season 1 pretty much as close to perfect as you can get. It might not bring anything groundbreaking to the table from a storytelling perspective, but that doesn't prevent it being a masterpiece. It's impossible not to fall in love with all these characters, who all have real depth and feel like real people, of course helped by the amazing chemistry and cast (even the child actors are doing a terrific job here). Even characters like Steve, originally drawn as a typical jock bully, have space to grow and shine in this show. Season 1's storyline is gripping the entire way through. The demogorgon is genuinely terrifying and it's so gripping to watch the characters stumble and shine through the struggles. The show managed to capture a mood and sense of awe and magic that is truly unique and beautiful.

The second season is in my opinion the most forgettable so far, but by no means the worst. I think the quality is very consistent (much more so that season 3 and 4, if not reaching the same highs), except that Lost Sister episode which was boring, felt completely out of place, and whose storyline was thankfully dropped. I think the magic of season 1 is lost in the following seasons, which isn't to say they aren't amazing; they just don't feel quite as special. Season 2 might be the least standout for me, but I think it has less flaws that 3 and 4 and it still tells an amazing story with amazing characters. It upped the anti from season 2 in a natural way that I think worked really well. It introduced important and fun concepts like the Mind Flayer, and characters that matched those of season 1 like Max, Billy and Bob (whose death was heartbreaking; this season is emotionally charged and I love it). It also gave us Dustin and Steve, the BEST combo.

The third season I think is where flaws start to crop up more often. That's not to say I don't love it, because I really do. I think the root of the flaws come from the continuously widening scope. But I would still give this season an 8/10 because I still love it. It continues to branch on this amazing gripping story and shows us the characters we've fallen in love with. Again it perfectly balances tone, with lots of cute moments, drama and horror, and genuine emotion. Dustin and Steve shine as usual, as does the new Robin. Billy's sacrifice is gut wrenching and beautiful. Hopper's 'death' was not pulled off convincingly, but his letter to El was still amazing. I loved Alexei and his death was heartbreaking. Will's breakdown was very compelling. However, while I love this season there are some things I do not like. First of all, Erica... the actress is doing a great job but in my opinion Erica was just straight up annoying the entire season and really REALLY dragged down the trio of Dustin, Steve and Robin. Her inclusion in such a major role bothered me a lot and really staled that part of the season. Hopper's character also takes a hit this season for me. He is kind of just an asshole to everyone for not much reason, and he does sort of learn past this but I just feel he loses a lot of his compassion from the previous seasons, mostly taking the action hero role. The characters are still the best part of the show but there are getting to be too many of them, and some are being dragged down. The widening scope also leads to some silliness and a lapse in the realism and tone of the first two seasons. The kids are invincible now apparently, breaking into a top secret Russian base and defeating an enormous body snatcher mind flaying monster. Yes, one of our characters has super powers but the rest are just ordinary kids or adults and they're starting to become a little too powerful. Some stakes are being lost. Season 3 is also where the show stops being scary in my opinion. We might fear for our characters, but CGI flesh monsters are not scary. It might be more violent and darker in 3 and 4, but the actual horror is gone for me. But yes, I do love this season so so much. I still love this show so so much. Overall it's still an amazing show.

Season 4 is amazing. It is really and truly leading up to an amazing conclusion for the series, and I think it's above seasons 2 and 3 for me. There are more flaws than those first two seasons but it reaches amazing heights and I LOVE it. Vecna is an amazing new villain (and that storyline and plot twist with 001 was perfectly executed, thrilling and entertaining). The characters are again amazing, the storyline thoroughly gripping. I love the new characters and plot. The raw brutality of this season is gripping, and seeing the demogorgon again got me and my girlfriend cheering. I love how it's all being pieced together, all building to a spectacular conclusion. I do still have gripes, but overall I think season 4 is proving to be near perfect. My biggest issue is again the scope: characters are shunned, the realism is being lost, and things are definitely overblown in places. For example, Joyce and Murray's escape in the plane is comical. The California gang are MAJORLY shunned and do almost nothing all season once El is taken (has Mike done really anything meaningful since s1??). El's classmates are completely over the top caricatures. The demogorgon is suddenly beaten by a stick with a little fire? These things do add up, but overall I am loving this season so much.

The show is just a masterpiece, and while I think it does have flaws (especially in later seasons) it's still near-perfect and is building to a thrilling conclusion.