Archive Review - EDDIE THE EAGLE (2016)

*Salvaged from some notes found in one of my old notebooks.  These notes would have been made at the latest the day after originally seeing the film.*

High Flyer 

Eddie the Eagle is a biopic released in 2016 and stars Taron Egerton and Hugh Jackman.  It is based on the true story of skier Michael Edwards as he strives to represent Great Britain in ski jumping at the 1988 Winter Olympics.

It is a very positive, inspiring film all about how self-belief, perseverance and hard work will help you achieve your dreams.  It's a message audiences have been subjected to many times by now, but thanks to such compelling, mostly fleshed out characters, it is still very engaging and charming.

(The only negatives are rather nit-picky).  Jackman's character Bronson Peary, Eddie's trainer, is a former professional skier, disgraced because - he didn't take the sport seriously enough?  Additionally, he is completely fictional, created solely for the film.

Also, in the film, Eddie stays at a bar whilst at a training camp in Germany.  He is discovered by the bar owner sleeping in a cupboard, with no prior introduction, though she allows him to stay due to her being physically attracted to him.  Questionable reasoning, but at least Eddie had a place to stay.

These criticisms certainly do not detract from it being a very inspirational, feel good film.  Though, as Edwards himself has said himself, much of the film is highly dramatised and "around 20% accurate" to what actually happened.  However, in adaptation, artistic/creative licence must be taken for the sake of entertainment. It is still a great, fun film.     

*Originally given an 8/10 score.* 

   

    

Ranking the Live Action TRANSFORMERS Movies. Worst to Best - Number 3

3. TRANSFORMERS: REVENGE OF THE FALLEN (2009)

“Sam Witwicky leaves the Autobots behind for a normal life. But when his mind is filled with cryptic symbols, the Decepticons target him and he is dragged back into the Transformers’ war.”

- IMDB Transformers Revenge Of The Fallen

Revenge of the Fallen is, in the eyes of a lot of people, terrible.  For me though, it is a nostalgic mixed bag and the first Transformers film I was truly hyped for.

For me it has its moments.  The score by Steve Jablonsky is once again beautifully epic, the CGI is incredible and some of the action set pieces, such as the opening Shanghai fight, the forest battle and the final fight in Egypt, are exciting. 

However, it is bogged down with some stupid, unfunny, crass humour and annoying characters (both human and robot).  Leo Spitz, Sam's college roommate, has no character arc at all and should have either been written out of the story after the first hour or gone through some character growth by the end of the film.  As it is, he is there for "comic relief", making a fool of himself in failed slapstick comedy and literally screaming in fear.

Then there is the issue of two of the new Autobots - twins Mudflap and Skids.  Criticised for being racial stereotypes, they bring nothing to the film other than a misjudged attempt at comic relief and two new toys for Hasbro's tie-in toy line.  They were received so poorly in this instalment that they were omitted almost completely from the franchise's third film (almost, since they were included in tie in comics, books, the toy line and can still be seen in their vehicle modes, albeit briefly, in the background of one of the shots early in the film.

The film was in pre-production during the time of the Writers Guild of America strike, so the story and character development definitely suffer for that.  It is a basic plot of the Decepticons searching for a Cybertronian MacGuffin that will end the world and the Autobots, with the help of Sam Witwicky (Shia LaBeouf), have to stop them. Sam's character arc involves him getting to the stage in his relationship with Mikaela (Megan Fox, who has somewhat improved acting-wise since the last film) where he can tell her that he loves her.  His mother and father make a return, with them learning to cope with their son leaving for college, on his way to face the world on his own whilst also being caught up in this alien war..

At the age of fourteen-going-on-fifteen, Revenge of the Fallen was the perfect Summer action blockbuster for me and, at the time, I probably favoured it over the first one.  This is no longer the case, but it is still mindless background noise if you are doing something else, that you can pick and choose to watch your favourite moments.  Also, director Michael Bay still seemed to actually care at this point, so it is far better than Age of Extinction and The Last Knight. 

KNOCK - A Short Horror Film - Directed and written by James Roberts

A teenager is home alone, scrolling through social media when he comes across a chain-mail post that he doesn't share...

This is a short film I made for my University course.  Not everything went to plan, but I'm happy enough with how it turned out. 

If you watch/have watched it, thank you.