The Jungle Book - Oo-oo-oo I want to be like you-ou-ou!

Not sure if you heard but The Jungle Book came out this last weekend and it is making more than a distant drumbeat among movie-goers. Opening weekend receipts topped out at over $100 million and with 94% of critics and 92% of audiences giving it a thumbs up on Rotten Tomatoes you can be sure word of mouth will spread quicker than a jungle fire and the money will keep rolling in for some time with this one. 
So the obvious question is whether it matches the opening hype and whether it's worth the trip to the big screen. And let me just come right out and tell you - if you have seen the original (you know, the classic from 1967?) - well this is better...in just about every way.
The beautiful, rich and stunning imagery is awesome and I know that the word "awesome" seems like a bit of a modern and casual word but it truly is...awesome!
The cast is perfect and I am going to say cast because while someone told me that this was a film full of computer generated imagery (CGI) I didn't see it and I don't believe it. I was watching the real Mowgli with real animals that somehow talked and I understood them and they were real! It was all so real. You will be terrified by Idris Elba's Shere Khan because he is a real tiger and he is standing snarling and scheming in front of you. You will fall in love with Bill Murray's older, wiser but still bumbling Baloo. You will be bowled over by Christopher Walken's King Louie and hypnotized by Scarlett Johansson's entrancing Kaa and impressed with the smooth, serene sleekness of Ben Kingsley's Bagheera. But still the star of the show is Neel Seethi's Mowgli. He somehow just is Mowgli - young and naive and scared and brave and clumsy but clever as he makes his journey through the jungle from man-cub to man.
Award season is a long way away, with many contenders to come but Jon Favreau and his team just outdid a classic by recreating just enough familiar imagery from the original and mixing it with the best technology and craftsmanship and imagination Hollywood has to offer today.
I'm just imagining, somewhere in the old archives, the original can be heard playing on an old projector. And there in the dark, in the flickering frames, deep in the jungle, the faint echoes of old King Louie can be heard singing homage to this masterpiece of a movie, "Oo-oo-oo want to be like you-ou-ou"...

Go see this movie, go see it in all its glorious colour and 3D, go and enjoy what movies were made for! This is a family experience, a movie experience, an experience no-one should miss.

Batman v Superman: Doesn't do it Justice!

OK, first of all this movie is not as bad as a lot of critics made out. It is watchable and decent popcorn fare. I didn't dislike it but that being said I didn't love it either. A lot of what I'm about to say is likely personal preference but for a spoiler-free review, here goes. 
 

Firstly, Lex Luther is too wimpy and flimsical ( I think I just made that word up - a hybrid of flimsy and whimsical). Jesse Eisenberg is playing a slightly deranged Mark Zuckerberg. I don't like it for Lex Luthor. It's not the Lex Luthor of the comics to me. Sure its decent acting but it is just bad casting. Jesse Eisenberg does not fit the profile of Lex Luthor and so we end up with a Lex Luthor who is more Joker than Lex Luthor - madly delirious rather than megalomaniac schemer.


Then there is Superman. Director Zach Snyder continues the analogy of Superman as a Messiah or a God but now the world of Metropolis is starting to question whether they really need him.  That isn't a bad direction to take the underlying themes if it weren't for the fact that with this Superman it seems more and more justified. Superman is supposed to be the Captain America of DC comics - his goodness was always his true power - but Zach Snyder is making him almost Hulk angry and unlikeable!
 
Gal Gadot as Wonder Woman does just enough to impress the traditionalists and the feminists but I can't help wonder if she may have been better served being introduced in a solo movie first rather than here as a competent but constricted cameo.

Finally, Ben Affleck as Bruce Wayne is ok but I love him as Batman - he brings a lot more weight and physicality to the dark knight. Batman was always dark but most movies have made him more flashy playboy than a tortured vigilante (that being said I always enjoyed Bale as Batman but after seeing Batfleck maybe it was Nolan's universe I enjoyed more than Bale himself).  
Many will say that this movie is a little too serious for a genre that has thrived on Marvel's quipping and recently went through the roof with Deadpool's fourth wall sarcasm. The lack of both the Joker and the Riddler who were originally rumored to be in this movie speaks volumes to Snyder's intent to stay ultra-bleak but in the many wandering-through-fields-brooding-taking-itself-too-seriously scenes you can almost hear the Joker whispering "Why so serious?".




Again its not that the movie is bad but you just come out feeling like you got less than you hoped for. In short Dawn of Justice doesn't do it justice!



I think it's worth it for the new Batman, the fight scene between Batman and Superman and for Wonder Woman.
I'd give it a 7-7.5/10

"The Witch" - A Horrifying Deconstruction of Faith

Let me first admit that "The Witch" is a very well made indie horror movie from first time director, Robert Eggers
The lighting in particular stands out, with Eggers using natural light in his shots wherever possible. This not only helps create a haunting visual with its fading light and flickering shadows but also creates an authentic feel for this 17th century Puritan tale of witchery. And in many ways this is a welcome return to the old style horror that relied on cinematography and dialogue to create its tension and scares. But idle movie-goers beware, this is a wolf in sheep's clothing. For though it looks like a horror movie, and passes as a horror movie at first glance, in reality this is a scathing condemnation of religion and specifically, Christianity. The true horror here is the gradual realization that this movie has been subtly constructed to deconstruct and then tear apart a belief in Christ and religion.

Ralph Ineson as William in "The Witch"

The father of the family, William, is clearly set up as a type of Christ. With long hair and full beard accompanied by sad and haunting eyes, Ralph Ineson as William, creates a perfect Renaissance image of Christ. Additionally, from the opening scene where he challenges the established religious authorities, to a scene intentionally reminiscent of the last supper and on to the intercessory prayer scene where William prays that he might take upon him his family's sins, "The Witch" is laced with these moments designed to remind us that William represents Christ. His family represent his faithful followers.


Ultimately, for all his bravado and words, William's faith is shown to fail him and his family. In a scene some Christians may perceive as more horrific than any bloodied body or witch scene, William's daughter, Thomasin (played with just the right balance of innocence and potential sinfulness by relative newcomer Anya Taylor-Joy) tells her father that he is a hypocrite and a liar and that he is useless at providing for his family, he can't farm, he can't hunt and that all he is good at is "cutting wood". This stark assessment of her father serves to reveal the key theme of Egger's movie - that Christ is merely a carpenter and not the Son of God and not the Saviour and helpless to help his children.

Furthering this anti-Christian theme, Eggers shows this originally faithful family overtaken by an ever-increasing sense of despair as evil envelops and surrounds their once-hopeful family.

One might argue that Eggers is merely commenting in general on how religious extremism breeds evil and this message is certainly found within the eerily subtle frames of "The Witch" but its focus on William as a type of Christ is a clear message to all that Eggers wants us to believe that there is no hope in Christ.

It is telling that the movie was intentionally marketed to the Satanic Temple and its followers as a film that would resonate with those that live life "minus the God element".

From a movie-making point of view The Witch is a fantastic debut and quite possibly deserves it's Sundance director prize. As a Christian, I find it's message truly horrifying.