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Reviews
Gravity (2013)
Nice effects but no story
Sadly this film was all about the nice visual effects and little else. It starts with the main characters already in space and goes from there. There is very little character building throughout the film and the details that are exposed are straight out of the cliché handbook of story lines, this makes it very difficult to engage with the leads with any conviction. As the film progresses the realism starts to fall away very quickly in aide of attempting to drive the story along and maintain interest in the characters and their plight. As a result this means Sandra Bullocks character looks like an incompetent fool for most of the film as she stumbles from one clumsy moment to the next. Her continual incompetence made the film more and more implausible as time went on and quite unbearable as it reached its conclusion - cringe!
There are also some very long drawn out moments that are very close to disconnecting with the audience altogether. About half way through I was bored. I was quite relieved when the film finished and I suspect most of the audience were too judging by the murmurings when we exited the theatre.
Honestly I am shocked this film is getting such high reviews. Did other reviewers see a different film? Sadly this film did not deliver, which is a shame as I suspect a lot of the budget went on the stunning visual effects when more time and devotion should have been spent on a plausible and engaging script.
The Kite Runner (2007)
READ THE BOOK.... very disappointing film.
Having just read the book and a day later watched the film I can tell you I was severely disappointed. To be fair there was quite a bit to shoehorn into the film and as a result the film moved at an amazing pace compared with the book. Plenty was left some of it quite important in my opinion. A good example - Hassan actually had an operation for his birthday present from Amir's father to correct his harelip not a kite! I think because so many of the scenes in the film were very short as they were trying to fit so much into the film there is little time to engage with the characters and have any emotional attachment to them. This made the film almost not caring about its purpose. The emotion of the book never appeared in the film. I was not upset or distressed at all. I should have been. The truth of the tale is devastating. But the actors didn't seem engaged in the weight of their portrayal.
In short PLEASE READ THE BOOK! The film is weak and soulless.