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The Force Becomes Hated

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By attempting to create the next installment of the Star Wars franchise J.J. Abrams had set himself up for one of the greatest challenges in blockbuster cinema history. The much beloved Star Wars franchise generates a unique kind of elitist fan that will settle for nothing other than the best. That is they want something that is both familiar and revolutionary. J.J. Abrams had realized that it would be impossible to create a Star Wars film that pleases everyone, so instead he just attempted to make what he thought was a good film but also felt like a Star Wars film. Fans want something that feels like the original but a young and forward thinking director like Abrams is needed to pour life back into the series. The themes, lore and characters must be true to what has already been established in Star Wars but the narrative shouldn’t be too close as it can then be criticized for being unoriginal. So often when the original director comes to continue their classic franchise after m
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Going Down Mulholland Drive and Holding onto the Fabric of Reality

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The film that left thousands both bewildered and enchanted remains the ultimate challenge for film writers fifteen years after its initial release. That film is Mulholland Drive by David Lynch, who is a man that as we all know is no stranger to the abstract and surreal. Any expectations that you may have will be broken as nothing can prepare you for this film. I was a latecomer to Mulholland Drive . Initially the film offered me nothing to spark an interest, from a glance I just thought it was another drama. Upon viewing the film I was stunned that I hadn’t seen it earlier but that is the kind of film that it is. It doesn’t try to suck you in, it lets you move towards it. In terms of writing, acting and film techniques there is almost no accessible entry point. There are scenes that may seem inviting and accessible but as the film progresses the conventional sweetness of these scenes is shattered. For example Betty appears as the stereotypical good-girl at the beginning on to reveal
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Can Saul Fill Walter White's Shoes?

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Better Call Saul proves that spin-offs can work. The series is the latest output from Vincent Gilligan who is famous for creating the epic drama series known as Breaking Bad . Breaking Bad gained so much critical praise that it has been widely referred to as a modern classic. That alone has raised the expectations for the follow up series Better Call Saul to almost unachievable heights. Yet despite all the expectations Better Call Saul has been highly praised. With some even saying that it surpasses the phenomenon that was Breaking Bad . As bold as this claim is, the argument isn’t without reason. Breaking Bad is my all time favourite series so naturally I had skepticism around whether Vincent Gilligan could pull off the same quality of series a second time round but still I remained positive and kept an open mind. The end result pleasantly surprised me. It may not have the same impact or originality that Breaking Bad had but Better Call Saul provides an interesting new level
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The Heir to Blade Runner

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In anticipation for Blade Runner: 2049 I recently returned to one of my all time favourite films Blade Runner . It was such a major film at the time and its legacy still continues to this date. That said, I would still refer to this film as underrated. Almost forty years later the film still looks fantastic. The cyber-punk/future noir style has been nothing short of revolutionary. In alignment with that the film had philosophical depth as a result of inspiration from Philip K. Dick. Ever so rarely does a film amount with both style and substance on such a grand scale. Having previously worked on Alien , at the time it felt like Ridley Scott could do no wrong. He earned himself the reputation as the father of dark science fiction cinema. Years on Ridley Scott remains a legend but it feels as though his golden age has passed. He shifted away from the science fiction genre in an attempt to make other big blockbusters (like Gladiator ) and films that would appeal more to the Academy Awa
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The Ancient Fear that resides within the Ring.

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Ring or Ringu as it is titled in Japanese has gone down in history as the cornerstone of Japanese horror. The film amounted in a time when horror was a genre that most of the Western world didn’t take very seriously. Horror had received a punishingly poor reputation for some time. Most people associated the genre with the low budget 80s slashers such as A Nightmare on Elm Street and Friday the 13 th . They were derivative and formulaic films that depended heavily on jump scares for the date-movie audience consisting mostly of teenagers. Darkly surreal and powerful films such as Nosferatu and The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari had become distant relics. However, this was only in the west. Horror has been a massive part of Asian culture for a very long time, particularly in Japan. Ghost stories with the exact same themes and imagery have existed in Japan from the feudal period in the forms of literature and theatre. Ring was based on a novel by Koji Suzuki but that novel was influenced b
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