Protecting The Private Life

I can’t think of a single thing to fault this movie on. By every objective and subjective measure I use to judge films, Ironman 3 gets full marks on everything it aimed for. When a scene gets even remotely close to cheesy, the PERFECT line of dialogue is hilariously delivered to elevate the scene to new levels. Robert Downey Jr. cranks his wittiness up to 11, and I swear Ben Kingsley was using some kind of captivation magic whenever he was on screen. Even the child actor was hilarious, without losing the innocence child actors sometimes sacrifice. This movie found a perfect balance of humour, seriousness and action. And man that action – intense, original, beautiful. The greedy nerd inside of me would've loved to see a few more seconds of each of the new Ironman suits, but I realistically couldn't have asked for more. 10/10

This movie represents the untapped potential of original sci-fi movies. Sure, we've got cool new Star Trek movies and stuff like Prometheus, but seeing some truly original sci-fi is all too rare. A great soundtrack by M83, kick-arse acting from Tom Cruise, and an AMAZING aesthetic reminiscent of “Moon” is a pretty unbeatable combo. The plot got a little contrived about 3/4 of the way through – not to mention some annoying (though inconsequential) plot holes – but recovered nicely before the end. Oblivion successfully caters to the masses while earning the respect of sci-fi fans – not an easy thing to do. 9/10

For a movie with an excellent premise and an excellent conclusion, Trance didn't really seem to capitalise on it. The middle occasionally felt like it was adding in needless complications just for the sake of trying to appear more "trippy" than it really was. What struck me as odd is that after all this effort to make the plot and marketing "trippy", the visuals were decidedly lacking in anything unusual or unique - it honestly felt like the DoP and director were just on autopilot for this film. This is all made more disappointing by the fact that it's directed by Danny Boyle of "Trainspotting", "28 Days Later", "Sunshine" and "127 Hours" fame. It should be said however, that in the hands of an ordinary director I definitely wouldn't be as critical as I am being now - Trance is by no means a bad (or even average) movie. I was simply hoping for more. 7/10