SpuffyWeb Sadly Over-hyped

Lawbolisted Powerful

Nayan Gough A great movie, one of the best of this year. There was a bit of confusion at one point in the plot, but nothing serious.

Roman Sampson One of the most extraordinary films you will see this year. Take that as you want.

meganfothergill-76333 Unfortunately I started reading the series of book this movie is based on around 2005-2006, and was horrified to know they were turning it into a movie because it's one of my favourite books of all time. Well they completely ruined it, the only things being true to the books is that the characters of John Gregory, Thomas Ward and Mother Malkin exist, and that the theme of the story is dealing with her once she is freed. Basically everything else is different, down to the characters motivations, backgrounds, and sometimes even very existence (Kit Harrington's character is dead before the book even starts, and he dies to a completely different type of creature). Beyond that the movie is poorly written, badly directed, and lacks the depth of character and lore you find in the book (a 200 page novel for 9-12 year olds, it's not like it's The Stand or some big epic). They could have done so much better, but chose not to for who knows what reasons. TL;DR The movie is probably not worth your time unless you want a very bad LOTR spoof. Go read the book, it'll take you like 2 hours max.

blrnani ... out of frustration at the missed opportunity. The biggest complaint has to be laid at the feet of Jeff Bridges, with his ridiculous pseudo English twit accent. I don't know where that came from, but perhaps he thought anybody called Master Geoffrey must have been an English twit, but even then he only manages a caricature. And this has become an annoying habit of a once good actor with a reputable legacy, as shown in RIPD and True Grit - you can't play The Big Labowski in every role! He isn't helped by his character's bipolar disorder either. The film opens weirdly, with apprentice Kit Harrison calling him to answer the ringing bell summons. But instead of saying "I'll just finish my drink and then we'll be off", he pointblank refuses, prompting a local bully to demand he do his duty. That leads to a fight, the sole purpose of which is to demonstrate our hero's ability to defend himself with no more than a tankard. The bully vanquished, he then pours his unspilled drink over him, then leaves the tavern, chastizing his apprentice for not warning him the bells were calling out. It could have been senility, or his repeatedly confirmed alcohol dependence, or depression at being the only survivor of a noble order of 1,000 knights, but we learn, as Bridges takes us on the rollercoaster ride of his character's emotions, that he was once in love with the evil villain, but married someone else and then betrayed her again after she murdered his wife in a fit of jealousy. This is clearly a couple to keep one's distance from, were it not for the fact that she plans to conquer the world and rid it of humans. He has an equally fanatical devotion to ridding it of witches, so something's gotta give! Therein lies the interesting promise of the film (beyond the talented cast). At heart it should be an Arthurian quest to rid the world of evil, but that noble quest has been subverted into a 'racial' battle. But then a love story arises to rebalance everything, since Barnes and Vikander both have witch mothers who married humans out of love (tho' he doesn't know that at the beginning, despite the clues). Julianne Moore plays a convincing villain (which may well have won her the Kingsman 2 role she played so well). We're not quite sure whether her turning to the dark side was prompted by her betrayal by Bridges or he turned against her after she showed she was turning, but by the time we meet her she's fully committed and relishing it, to a degree that even her sister (Vikander's mother) finds disturbing. She brings lots of allies to her cause, which provides some very effective SFX, as they can all change between human and animal. Indeed one wonders how the humans can possible survive and mystified at the end as to how they actually won. It comes as a shock to see Moore, having murdered her beloved sister - because she stopped her murdering Vikander (who opted for her new love's cause) - meekly turn away and hide in a corner, despite the blood moon being at its height and supposed to make her supreme. It surely can't be the loss of the amulet, since she was pretty awesome even before she got it back. Maybe it was sadness that Bridges preferred to die than rule the dark side next to her. He confesses "I love you once", she appeals to his mercy, but none is forthcoming and so she threatens to haunt him - so the feud can go on and we can get sequels. The lovers also decide to go their separate ways but will surely meet again, another hint at a sequel. Indeed the abundance of sequel hints also becomes annoying. Arny only needed to say "I'll be back", but this one has no right to feel that confident - especially if Bridges insists on hanging onto that stupid accent!

alindsay-al This film has had allot of negative reviews but I gave it a shot and yes its pretty bad. The premise of the film sees a witch hunter get a new apprentice in order to stop an army of withes. Jeff bridges character was quite fun in this film but he had a lack of depth to his character and at Times it was a bit hard to understand him. Julianne moore was also pretty good in this film as the villain witch even though her character also lacked depth. Ben barnes plays the apprentice in this film and he is just so dull and we are never given a reason to even start liking this character. Also even though Alicia vikander is a good actress there is just no chemistry between the two and it really hurts the film. The story is really basic and lacks any depth to it or its characters. The script is poor as well with no drama or humour added to make the film fun. The style has some pretty fun action scenes but also has an over reliance on cgi that come across poorly. Overall this is a poor film that doesn't hit the levels it should.

catcam-54410 Having just read all thirteen of the Spooks books, and loved every word, I am disappointed in this film version which has been dumbed down in both plot and characterisation. This could have been a brilliant film, showing shades of good and evil, showing characters with inner depths and divided loyalties, but it is not. It's just another sword and sorcery offering with a tired narrative. It brings nothing new to the genre. The tension, menace and darkness of the books are lost here. What makes the story of Tom Ward so thoroughly enjoyable is the back drop of the dark north west of England landscape full of old legend, terror and harshness. Tom Ward is portrayed as a boy in the books, but is an older youth in the film. This changes the relationship with Alice completely. Less glossy monster scenes and more sustained menace might have improved matters. I think you have done young people a disservice here if you do not think that they can be absorbed by anything other than special affects and zany get outs. You never for one moment worry for Tom, and fear for his life and soul. Such a shame.