Pharrell Williams

REVIEW: The Amazing Spider-Man 2 (2014)

Peter Parker (Andrew Garfield) is loving being Spider-Man though he does feel guilty about continuing his relationship with Gwen Stacy (Emma Stone) as he feels he’ll only put her in danger. That danger soon arrives in the form of Electro (Jamie Foxx) and as Peter tries to deal with this new threat while still coming to terms with the secrets of his parent’s past, his best friend Harry Osborn (Dane DeHaan) returns to New York.

Watching The Amazing Spider-Man 2 now, knowing this was Andrew Garfield’s last outing at the titular character and the filmmakers/studio never brought to screen the Sinister Six they spent a chunk of this film setting up, is a very funny and kind of a sad experience.

Because by the end of The Amazing Spider-Man 2 you can’t help but feel it’s an extended set up for what never came. There are so many plots in this film and if a few were cut out or even shortened it might have made a more cohesive film and the plots left might’ve been more effective. In the end, there’s a lot of things that felt pointless and repetitive.

Speaking of repetitive, the on and off again romance between Peter and Gwen got old very quickly. While yes, they’re supposed to be awkward teens in love they just kept going over the same arguments about why they should or shouldn’t be together. Garfield and Stone still have great chemistry but there’s only so many times you can watch two people have the same argument or talk at cross-purposes.

Another aspect that felt pointless and dull was all the stuff about Peter’s parents – or rather his father, his poor mum certainly got shafted. There was one minor detail revealed once Peter learns more about his dad but it’s more of a “Oh that’s cool” thing rather than having any major narrative impact. Otherwise, anything to do with his dad seems to say Oscorp is bad – something which was already pretty clear from the first film. In The Amazing Spider-Man you learnt that Peter’s dad didn’t want his research getting into the wrong hands and in The Amazing Spider-Man 2 it just rams that point home again.

Electro is a pretty decent villain. His looks and powers are interesting though (like another character) his decent into villainy felt far too quick, especially because of where he started. Before he got his powers, he was a nerdy guy who was a pushover and idolised Spider-Man so seeing him first of all be scared and overwhelmed by what was happening to him felt true to character. How he changed from loving Spider-Man to hating him so quickly felt more out of place.

Andrew Garfield’s Spider-Man is still one of the best we’ve seen on screen. He’s confident, cracking jokes and poking fun at the bad guys, but the problem is that the attitude bleeds into his Peter Parker. While his Peter Parker is clearly more intelligent than the Maguire version (always like the scenes where Peter is doing experiments to improve his web shooters) he doesn’t seem as awkward, quiet and nerdy.

Surprisingly considering how little screentime and decent character development he had, I once again both really liked and felt sorry for Harry Osborn. Though, I probably would’ve liked his arc a lot more if it was given more time and his decent into villainy wasn’t shoehorned into the end of the film. Also, having Peter and Harry be childhood friends reconnecting is a neat way of getting him back into Peter’s life but there’s only really one scene where you see them bonding and acting like friends before Harry starts to want something from Peter. Cutting out some of the will they/won’t they stuff with Peter and Gwen to give us more scenes of Harry and Peter could’ve helped all three of those characters.

The Amazing Spider-Man 2 just has too much going on and now there was never a third film in this series the flaws seem even more obvious. It’s messy when trying to juggle all these plot threads and while many of the Spidey scenes are great fun and action-packed, there’s a bit of a videogame quality to them due to the CGI.

I’ll end this on a positive, I did like the score by Hans Zimmer and Pharrell Williams, Mike Einziger, Junkie XL, Johnny Marr, Andrew Kawczynski and Steve Mazzaro. Electro’s theme especially was eerie with the whispers underscoring the techno and it really suited the character. 2/5.

REVIEW: Hidden Figures (2016)

hidden-figures-posterThe true story of a team of African-American women mathematicians including Katherine Johnson (Taraji P. Henson), Dorothy Vaughan (Octavia Spencer) and Mary Jackson (Janelle Monáe) who played a vital part in NASA during the early years of the American space programme.

Each of the three leads are brilliant in their roles. They feel like friends who laugh together and support each other but they are also so incredibly smart. Their chemistry is palpable. Katherine is a human computer and can figure out maths that hasn’t even been invented yet, Dorothy is wise enough to get ahead of the game, learn things like IBM computing and make her and her colleagues invaluable to NASA, and Mary wants to be an engineer and while her boss, a Polish Jew, can see her potential, she fights when every door seems to be shut in her face.

The supporting cast is great too. Jim Parsons’ Paul Stafford is one of the mathematicians who doesn’t like Katherine is smarter than him and just about every other man in the room, Kirsten Dunst’s Vivian Mitchell is Dorothy’s boss and Kevin Costner’s Al Harrison is in charge of the division that works out how to put a man in space and bring him down again.

Hidden Figures isn’t a particularly surprising film as it has the same standard formula just about any true story film has – but that doesn’t diminish how brilliant it is. Hidden Figures knows exactly what it is and it doesn’t need huge twists because the history and these women’s lives are interesting enough.

On a purely aesthetic level Hidden Figures is a beautiful-looking movie. The costumes, hair and makeup are brilliant and the soundtrack is full of catchy songs from Pharrell Williams and Mary J. Blige. The score reunites Pharrell Williams and Hans Zimmer and they produce music that’s exciting and heartfelt and fits the time period and the film itself wonderfully.

Hidden Figures celebrates those who history, and society, tends to overlook and shows the power of perseverance and friendship. It is amazing to see a film with three African-American leads who are masters in their field. It’s an inspiring yet also frustrating when you see what these women had to put up with, yet they still wanted to be a part of something amazing and contributed to NASA’s success. Hidden Figures will leave you with a huge smile on your face but along the way you may shed some tears, both happy and sad, and it’s really a great, crowd-pleasing movie. 5/5.

Hans Zimmer Revealed
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The Concert Program

Last night I went up to London to see Hans Zimmer live at the Eventim Apollo in Hammersmith and it was one of the best nights ever.

I love film scores (they are the best thing to listen to when you’re writing a dissertation) and Hans Zimmer has scored some of my favourite films and a lot of his music has become easily recognisable and iconic. So, when I heard that Hans Zimmer was going to be performing his own music for just two nights I knew I had to be there. A manic scramble for tickets on the morning they went on sale led me to (amazingly) get front row seats – yes they were no doubt more expensive than seats further back or in the circle but I’m so glad I paid that money because the seats were incredible.

The show kicked off with a medley of music from Driving Miss Daisy, Sherlock Holmes and Madagascar which were all a lot of fun. Hans Zimmer would talk in between each musical selection about how he got the job of working on the film the music was from or how he got the ideas for the arrangement. One thing that struck me was how charismatic Zimmer was. I know it’s presumptuous but for someone who isn’t necessarily front and centre when it comes to a film he was a great public speaker full or charisma and humour. I suppose while he may not be a lead actor he is the leader of an orchestra and a choir.

When certain films scores were performed I got goose bumps and when The Lion King was performed I got tears in my eyes (it’s my favourite Disney film). The Lion King compilation was kicked off by Lebo M singing Circle of Life – I think that got one of the biggest reactions from the audience. Afterwards Hans Zimmer said that this was the second time (the first being the night before) that Lebo M had performed with him on The Lion King soundtrack since it was first recorded twenty years ago. That made the whole thing even better.

The first half was incredible and finished off with a Pirates of the Caribbean medley which was a lot of fun.

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L-R: Hans Zimmer, Pharrell Williams & Johnny Marr

During the second half there was a surprise appearance from Pharrell Williams. I loved the set up for this. Hans Zimmer said that the string section would be playing something a little different, something classical, which they did for about thirty seconds before the music changed and Pharrell appeared on stage to sing Happy. Needless to say the audience went slightly mad and it was so much fun.

Then Pharrell joined Hans Zimmer to perform Electro from The Amazing Spider-Man 2 which was incredible. That music is eerie and manic when a part of the film but when it’s live it makes to ten times more frenzied and brilliant.

The show was finished with a medley of music from The Dark Knight trilogy which was fantastic. When the first notes were played (which sound kind of like bat wings to me) the crowd started to scream.

Hans Zimmer got a standing ovation when it finished and no one sat down until the curtains opened once more – for an encore of music from Inception. That really was incredible and it made the hairs on the back of my neck stand up.

Hans Zimmer is obviously an amazing composer and a talented man playing the guitar, the banjo, the piano, and the drums during the course of the show but his musicians, orchestra and choir can’t be left out. They were all incredible. Where I was sitting I was looking directly at Richard Harvey who plays any type of pipe and woodwind instrument you could think of as well as a keyboard and some sort of harp-thing. Seriously there were at least twelve different woodwind instruments surrounding him including the clarinet and panpipes or various sizes and there were so many instruments that I couldn’t name. The violinists Ann Maria Simpson and Aleksey Igudesman were fantastic with Igudesman putting on different hats to correspond with the film score they were playing – he wore a Roman solider helmet during Gladiator and a deerstalker during Sherlock Holmes. Czarina Russell was an amazing singer, joining Lebo M in The Lion King medley and taking the lead in other songs, she also played the drums and huge pipes that she hit with hammers. Really I could go one and mention every single person in Hans Zimmer’s band because they were all incredibly talented and they all looked like they were having so much fun.

I think I’ve used a lot of superlatives during this post but they are all well deserved. It was honestly the best show I’ve ever been to. I’ve been to gigs and concerts and stage shows but nothing has made me feel as happy and overwhelmed as the concert last night. All the musicians were so talented and Hans Zimmer led them all beautifully. If I ever get the chance to see Hans Zimmer live again (or any film composer live) I am going to grab it with both hands.

Thank you Hans Zimmer for making incredible music and making films sound so much bigger with it. Thank you for a wonderful concert and night I won’t be forgetting in a hurry.

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Hans Zimmer’s incredible band