Sweeney Todd: The Demon Barber of Fleet Street (2007)

Film of 2012 #12
Some Spoilers

The Tim Burton directed musical starring Johnny Depp and Helena Bonham-Carter as Sweeney Todd and Mrs Lovett who sing and slice their way through London killing people making pies out of the bodies. I had not heard many good things about this film but i thought that I enjoyed Tim Burton and what he does with Johnny Depp and his wife but after viewing this film and really not liking it at all I am beginning to wonder if I just do not like Tim Burton's style or if it is the fact that the Gothic look has been done by him so many times it is just boring.

The story itself is not one I was aware of but appears to be a historically fictional character that has been adapted into film and Musical previously. It involves, Johnny Depp being imprisoned wrongly by a judge that fancied his wife and when he comes out of jail believing that she is dead he decides to take his revenge on those that wronged him. Now why he then decides to kill everybody and make them into pies is strange to me and a twist at the end was so obvious even though I was not paying that much attention and the overall ending I just thought What was the point of that?

Overall I can not recommend this film at all and give it a meagre 1 star, the singing is fine and the acting is comparable but nothing stands out, even though there is a great cast with Timothy Spall and Alan Rickman filling some of the other roles, on the whole very disappointing film and not worth seeing.

Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows Part 2 (2011)

So I went to see the final film of the Harry Potter series, now I am a big one for expectations and have in the past been badly let down because my expectation were far to high for the film, the hype got to me and gave me a hope for something that was not possible. Perhaps it is now that I am older, wiser and have the experience to appreciate good film making but this film, totally met my expectations. It was everything I hoped it could be and it brought forward all manner of emotions from me. I am not embarrassed to say as a 33 year old man I had tears running down my face at a couple of points in this film and I knew they were coming due to the fact that I have read the book twice and listened to the audio book twice. I know the story of the book and love it, the characters are actually good because at times they annoy me, their decisions are infuriating but also they do not just make decisions for the story, there is reason behind their decisions because of the characters that JK Rowling has created over the 7 books.

This is a visual representation of a book and therefore was never going to be exactly the same as the bok but what it showed was that you can make a great film using a source material without destroying the essence of the story and what the book conveys. Yes there are sections changed and different directions taken but in the main it is the same story told in a different format and it holds up. There will be some people that do not like the decisions made, I however love them they work so well. At times during the reading of the book as the series was in full swing on film, I thought there is no way they can make this work on film, I am happy to say that I am wrong.

You are at film 8 in a series, they are all sequels but the story is still strong, the characters are beleivable within the world in which they are set. This is the strongest film in the series and a worthy conclusion to the series and the long years from J K Rowling's original conception of the characters. This is a 5 star film for me and I recommend the investment in all of the books and then the films, it takes it's time but at the end of the road it is such a worthwhile journey.

Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows Part 1 (2010)

preparation for the final part of this saga coming to the cinema I decided to watch the first part again, I think that it is only fair to put all my cards on the table regarding these films and books. I love everything about them, even the worst film or book in the series is still really good to me. I have seen all of the films in the cinema and I own all of the films that have been released, all of the films have been watched more than once as well. So when this film was coming out I was very nervous as the final book is my favorite and the best decision I heard was that it was going to be done in 2 parts.

They captured everything almost perfectly in my eyes, there are a few things they could have done slightly differently that would have been easy enough and just made it fully perfect for me. Watching it again I knew what was going to happen and how they were going to do it and still they emotion bubbled up in me at the points that were sad and the exciting bits. Somehow they manage to make the scenes of risk work and you still feel the peril which is usually lost when you have read the book or seen the film before.

The only real flaw in this film for me as it is the 7th film it is not stand alone, there is so much happening in the books and film that there is little to no exposition so you would have to have invested in all of the previous films. Therefore it is a 5 star film for me and I would recommend it but only if you have seen all of the other installments.