Since Disney's animation renaissance, that started back in 2010 with Tangled , everything they've been putting out has been consistently very good, from the Oscar winning Big Hero 6 to the box office smashing Frozen . None of them, however, have been as good as Zootropolis . Obviously, Zootropolis delivers on the essentials. The animation is as beautiful as you'd expect from a studio like Disney in 2016 and the character and location design is some of the best I've ever seen. I thought that the city of San Fransokyo in Big Hero 6 was stunning, but Zootroplis is on another level. There's huge attention to detail throughout, with design choices as small as trains having different sized doors for different sized animals, or big as the city being split into multiple different environments. The level of creativity on display here is on par with some of Pixar's greatest work. Everything else is just as high quality as the animation. The script is incredibly fa...

The Force Awakens was supposed to be bad. It's the seventh film in a franchise, following on from three films that were not well received and is (technically) a Disney sequel. I have now gone to see it four times. Technical Brilliance As far as fundamental filmmaking is concerned, The Force Awakens surpasses any of the previous Star Wars films. It's by far the best written Star Wars film, not that the bar was set particularly high. Still, it's a surprisingly witty film. Aside from the odd line of obligatory exposition, dialogue is very snappy, fast paced and unexpectedly funny. I've probably laughed more in this film than I have in many so-called comedies. While it's not exactly Aaron Sorkin level, J.J. Abrams’ fantastic directing and the actors brilliant delivery, as well as the tight, fast paced editing do help to elevate it. Speaking of the editing, The Force Awakens is also much better paced than any of the other Star Wars films. It's constantly ...

Poor Return of the Jedi . Poor, poor R eturn of the Jedi . Having to follow up from Empire Strikes Back has to be possibly the cruelest thing you could do to a film. Unfortunately, thanks to Empire ’s fantastic cliffhanger, something had to be done about it and that something would always be expected to top Empire . Does ROTJ succeed in doing that? No. Does that make it a bad film? Not at all. Everything You've Come to Expect ROTJ is very much still a Star Wars film and therefore has all the benefits you'd expect from one. The outstanding practical effects, makeup, costume and set design, are obviously still present and are just as much of a joy to look at as before. We're introduced to even more aliens, including the rather polarising Ewoks (although I personally have no problem with them) as well as Jabba the Hutt, someone we sort of saw in A New Hope , but I'm not counting that scene as it was a later special edition release and doesn't feature any o...

On an entirely surface level, Hail, Caesar! is a really silly film. The sets are bright and colourful, the characters are bombastic and larger than life and the plot is completely insane and all over the place. If you take a closer look, however, it's much more intelligent than it initially comes off as. Yes, the sets are bright, but their attention to detail is so fantastically minute, you're totally convinced that this is the 50's. The fake film sets are also just as convincing and the films themselves could easily pass off as authentic, if it wasn't for the 21st Century actors populating them. They are obviously slightly exaggerated, for the sake of satire, which probably resonates more with those familiar with retro cinema than regular filmgoers. It's also shot brilliantly by cinematographer Roger Deakins (who was recently Oscar nominated for his work on Sicario ), who manages to make the film feel like something that's not only set in the 50's, bu...

After the massive success of the first film, it seemed logical to make a follow up. Unfortunately, George Lucas, due to the amount of work and stress involved in making Star Wars, really didn't want to do it again. As a result of this, Lucas just wrote the story. He didn't direct it this time, he didn't even write the screenplay. Fortunately, however, this all worked entirely in Empire Strikes Back 's favour, because Empire Strikes Back is, without a doubt, the best of the original trilogy and quite possibly one of the greatest pieces of mainstream cinema ever. Boundless Imagination In Empire , you once more find yourself exploring some of the most exciting, unique and vibrant locations and meeting the most bizarre creatures and characters, just as you did in A New Hope . This time, however, everything's even more exciting, even more unique, even more vibrant and even more bizarre. We start off on Hoth, a freezing cold desert planet littered with humongous cave...

The most difficult part of writing this review was deciding whether or not to refer to this film as Star Wars or A New Hope . Being born a long time after the film came out, I've always known it as a A New Ho pe, but I'm obviously aware that to a lot of people it is Star Wars and no amount of special editions will change that. I still haven't found an answer to that question and I have literally no idea where I'm going with this, so I think I'll just shut up and get on with the review. A Tangible Galaxy, Far Far Away If you watch A New Hope after watching the prequels (which I did last time I watched it) the first thing you notice is how real everything feels. The super revolutionary reason for that is because it is real. In the '70s there was no CGI, or at least not in a way that would be able to sustain an entire film, so instead the filmmakers actually built the sets. I know, what a ridiculous idea? Against all the odds, however, A New Hope looks abs...

THIS REVIEW CONTAINS SORT OF SPOILER-Y DETAILS. I MEAN, EVERYONE KNEW THESE DETAILS BEFORE THE FILM EVEN CAME OUT BECAUSE OF THE ORIGINALS, BUT IF YOU HAVEN'T SEEN THOSE EITHER AND ARE VERY GOOD AT AVOIDING STUFF ON THE INTERNET THEN YOU MIGHT STILL NOT KNOW THOSE DETAILS. I DON'T REALLY KNOW WHAT I'M TALKING ABOUT ANYMORE, BUT THIS REVIEW MAY CONTAIN SPOILERS. THERE YOU GO. After two underwhelming Star Wars outings, audiences were really hoping that Revenge of the Sith was going to be the film that fixed everything. After all, it was the big one, the whole reason the prequel trilogy existed; it was time for Anakin to turn to the dark side. Unfortunately, Revenge of the Sith didn't exactly fix everything that was wrong with the prequels, but it was still a bit of an improvement. Not that that's saying much. The Bad Bits Revenge of the Sith , despite doing a lot of things right and making a lot of things better, still suffers from a lot of issues that plag...