Starring Tom Hanks as puppet maker Geppetto and directed by Robert Zemeckis (Back To The Future), ‘Pinocchio’ is a live action remake of the 1940 Disney classic that follows a puppet that wishes to become a real boy.
This is the next classic to become target to Disney’s live action treatment plan and one I was personally dreading. However, the dread did not come from the idea of whether the remake would be good or not, but from the idea that a lot of the disturbing imagery would now be translated to realistic images. As a child, I found ‘Pinocchio’ terrifying (the donkey transformation scene anyone?) so was curious to see how it would be remade. But, as this is a teaser, moviegoers are only treated to glimpses of various scenes, including a first look at the main characters.
From the teaser, the film looks visually fantastic. The recreations of Pinocchio and Jiminy Cricket, who acts as the puppet’s conscience, are accurate to the original. It has adopted the same technique as ‘Detective Pikachu’ which is to keep their original designs but just create it using CGI and it looks beautiful.
Out of all the live action remakes Disney were, and are, planning, ‘Pinocchio’ is one that I am dreading purely because of how it traumatized me as a child. But, from the 1-minute teaser, it looks visually beautiful and, for the moment, has won me over. But I’m sure the horrifying scenes of the donkey transformation will be just as terrifying in this as they were in the original.
Two months ago, a Trailer Talk article focused on the first look at Ms Marvel, a Marvel show coming to Disney+ this year and was previously announced at last year’s Disney+ Day. Another show that was announced was a show focusing on She-Hulk and, on the 17th of May, the first look was released to a mixed response.
‘She-Hulk: Attorney At Law’ is a Disney+ show that revolves around lawyer Jennifer Walters, who gains Hulk-like powers after a blood transfusion.
Next to ‘Ms Marvel’, this is another show I was looking forward to purely because it’s a show that’s being led by a female character. However, after seeing the trailer, it overall looks decent but tonally confused. From the trailer, it can’t seem to decide whether to be a light-hearted comedy or a superhero show. And, while Marvel have balanced this well in the past, it feels jarring here purely because a more serious tone would’ve worked better. It feels too tongue-in-cheek with some of the dialogue feeling forced.
The CGI on She-Hulk is also jarring. It’s well known by now that Marvel execs kept telling the visual department to make She-Hulk smaller and skinnier as she was ‘too muscular’ originally. However, with a character like the Hulk, Marvel should’ve made her muscular and should’ve watched ‘Encanto’ as an example of how to portray muscular women. The look is especially jarring when placed next to Bruce Banner’s Hulk, who makes an appearance.
But She-Hulk’s actual skin tone looks odd too; her green skin is too bright and shiny and, again, when placed to the Hulk, it looks terrible. However, her bright, shiny tone isn’t as bothersome as the previous point that’s been made.
It’s safe to say I am a little underwhelmed by the ‘She-Hulk’ trailer. While I will give it a chance, it seems tonally confused and Walters’ Hulk appearance is especially bothersome. It also highlights an issue that the whole genre has when it comes to female superheroes. A note to Marvel Studios: watch ‘Encanto’ and learn that it’s ok to make female characters muscular.
After ‘Stranger Things’, ‘Umbrella Academy’ and 20 years of X-Men films, interest in the ‘ordinary people with superpowers’ subgenre are still relevant, and this indie film within the horror genre wants to join in.
‘The Innocents’ is set in the backdrop of the Nordic summer; a group of children discover their newfound physic powers away from the watchful eyes of their parents. But as the famous saying goes: with great power comes responsibility and playtime takes a dark turn.
The film had its UK premiere at the 2021 October Frightfest film festival and was met with positive feedback. And I can see why: it’s a shocking and disturbing look into the naivety of childhood and the accidental, and sometimes violent, consciences that it can carry. However, it is not without some pacing issues.
One of the phrases that has passed around a lot in the film and TV industry is ‘never work with animals or children’. However, it could be argued that the right direction and the right acting can falsify this quote and ‘The Innocents’ is an exception. Due to the core cast being children, they all had the challenge of carrying the viewers through this journey and they’re all fantastic. They seamlessly perform their way through ‘The Innocents’ with ease, but all carry different personalities; main character Ida (Rakel Lenora Fløttum) is quiet but curious about her new surroundings, Aisha (Mina Yasmin Bremseth Asheim) is caring and sympathetic towards Ida’s autistic sister Anna (Alva Brynsmo Ramstad), while Ben (Sam Ashraf) slowly starts to develop a mean streak which is introduced in the first act of the film.
These personalities all make each character unique, until their powers are discovered. The execution of these discoveries is quiet and subtle; Ben tells Ida that he has telekinesis and so they experiment with this power in the woods. There’s no dramatic music or huge reactions to it, making it feel realistic. The children are instead curious by the power and so decide to learn more about it, something that makes sense; children are curious and want to explore everything that they can and, so, they would explore this. The way in which these powers work is done in a smart way and follows the themes of friendships being powerful and important. That is, until the plot takes a dark turn. But the execution of their discovery was done brilliantly; the narrative and nature of the film means that the more grounded approach was the better decision for ‘The Innocents’.
Another way in which ‘The Innocents’ is grounded is through the filmmaking itself. The film is set in an apartment complex, where Ida and Anna move to at the start of the film and this setting wouldn’t look out of place even here in the UK. It’s a relatable ordinary environment and one that is unexpected for a premise like this, making the children’s discovery stand out more and seem more surreal. But the cinematography and lack of score is also what makes ‘The Innocents’ grounded in reality.
The lack of a score means that viewers aren’t swayed into feeling a certain emotion, so the shocking moments feel more genuine and unexpected (one definitely had me covering my mouth). If these moments had had a score, the impact of the scene would be lost. And the film does have a few interesting shots too, most of which are made up of the location being upside down (which is also shown on the film’s poster). Thus, further implying that a strange scenario is occurring in this quiet neighbourhood. These are all subtle moments, and some of them don’t occur often throughout the film, but they help elevate the plot and reflect the strangeness of the premise.
However, if you are going to watch ‘The Innocents’, please note that this is a slow-paced film. While it is nearly 2 hours, it’s comfortable with taking its time in telling the story within. And, while some slower paced films work and are enjoyable, the pacing here didn’t work personally. At times, it did feel like it was dragging its feet just to fit in a shot that served no purpose to the plot. While most of the film was necessary, ‘The Innocents’ felt like it needed another edit.
However, despite the pacing issues, ‘The Innocents’ was a mostly enjoyable and shocking film. The cast had a challenge with carrying this film, but they did it perfectly, with each character being unique. The writing was also brilliant, and themes of the innocence of childhood as well as the powers of friendship were clear and executed flawlessly. It just felt like it needed another edit but, despite that, I would recommend ‘The Innocents’; it received praise at last year’s Frightfest and for good reason.
Despite the release of the recent ‘Resident Evil’ film and ‘Infinite Darkness’, the Netflix’s animated series, the gaming franchise decided it wasn’t done with other adaptations just yet. A live action series has been due to arrive on Netflix for a while, with a teaser poster appearing in the ‘Worth the Wait’ section of the site for the past few months. But, finally on the 12th May, fans were given a first look at the Netflix exclusive series.
Coming July 14th, ‘Resident Evil’ is an 8-episode Netflix series. Set nearly 30 years after the discovery of the T-virus, an outbreak looks to unravel the secrets of the Umbrella Corporation.
Despite its pacing issues and my lack of knowledge with the original game, I found ‘Welcome to Raccoon City’ enjoyable. But, after this film and the animated series, is there really a need for this live action series? Admittedly, it does look like a lot of fun; the tone looks a little tongue in cheek and even replicates the tone of ‘Evil Dead’ at times. Plus, it looks to be a bit gorier than its predecessors.
However, it does also highlight an issue with the zombie genre in general, which is that this, from the trailer alone, doesn’t feel any different than any other zombie film or even ‘Resident Evil’ film. And this is coming from someone who loves the zombie genre. If the show gives fans something different, then hopefully this will be worth the wait.
Or it could just fall into the pile of forgettable video game adaptations; after the successful adaptations that have come out recently, I hope it’s the former.
2009 saw the release of ‘Avatar’, James Cameron’s live action sci-fi epic. With incredible visuals, it became the highest grossing film ever, earning over 2.8 billion worldwide at the time of writing. And, while the story was derivative of ‘Pocahontas’, I found it enjoyable and it utilized the 3D technology, that was popular at the time, brilliantly. But, since it’s release, James Cameron set out to spawn numerous sequels from this, with the second and third film supposedly being filmed back-to-back. And, on Monday, the teaser trailer for ‘Avatar: The Way of Water’ was released.
‘Avatar: The Way of Water’ once again follows Jake Sully (Sam Worthington) as he settles into his new home planet of Pandora. But, when familiar forces return to threaten their existence, he must work with the Na’vi army to protect the planet.
One of the trailer’s biggest positives is that, in its 1 minute and half runtime, it hardly shows any of the film. A lot of the visuals are of the planet, the inhabitants of Pandora, the Na’vi, and the creatures that also live there. And, for a film that seems to have a simple premise, I’m glad that this was, by definition, a teaser trailer. Just like so many of Cameron’s filmography, the visuals once again look amazing. Whether the stories his films are telling are strong or not, it can be agreed that the visual quality is always impressive, and this is no exception. After the financial success of ‘Avatar’, pressure for the sequel to live up to expectations visually was there, and this teaser clearly shows that those expectations have been met and could potentially be exceeded.
Another aspect of the teaser and, by extension the film, that I am excited for is the difference in environment. Like the subtitle suggests, this looks to be set round the beaches and seas of Pandora, introducing audiences to the creatures and tribes that live there. The setting of the sequel will give the film a chance to display different parts of the planet compared to its predecessor, especially now that moviegoers have been introduced to Pandora and the Na’vi.
I originally saw no need for ‘Avatar’ sequels. However, after seeing the teaser for ‘Avatar: The Way of water’, my mind is completely changed. While the previous film was derivative, the sequel has a chance to tell a completely new story as well as give audiences a look at the different tribes and creatures that inhabit Pandora. Furthermore, the visuals look just as incredible as its predecessor so a trip to an IMAX cinema will definitely be on the cards this time round!
I didn’t think I’d be typing this, but I’m ready to return to Pandora.
