I have two perspectives regarding this film. On one side I have the fanboy inside of me that wants to say go see it and then bitch about how they should have followed the comic storyline more closely. The other side, which will be giving this review, will be suppressing the fanboy rage to provide a more accurate, unbiased opinion based on the film’s mechanics and portrayal of the characters themselves.

I’m going to start with quoting Stan Lee and stating that “Robert Downey Jr. is Iron Man.” There is no doubt that RDJ has taken the role of Iron Man to a new level with his performance. He has essentially done for Iron Man what Sean Connery did for James Bond by creating a likeness and persona that many others have emulated in their own versions of Iron Man. But while I love RDJ as Tony Stark/Iron Man, he was about the only thing I loved about this film. While I liked a majority of the heroes, the villains were either a bit weak or a bit over the top. I can’t say why I dislike The Mandarin without giving away plot details but I was extremely disappointed in how they developed his character. I’ll just say that he is not the menacing, unstoppable force that is shown in the trailer and I’ll leave it at that. But while his character was disappointing, there were a few other disappointments as well.

There were moments in Iron Man 3 that made me think it was going the route of a high intensity blockbuster but then things would slow down and I thought the focus was going to be character development by exploring more of Tony Stark. While there were bits and pieces of each, there was not enough of either to satisfy me. I kept wanting more of Tony in the suit and in addition to that, an improved and more efficient suit. Instead there were more malfunctions and mishaps with his armor which was clearly attributed to comic relief. While I was patiently waiting for Tony to work out the kinks in his armor, he would tip toe around the events surrounding The Avengers and how he was affected personally but never went into enough detail for it to be pertinent to the film. There were some redeeming moments in the film such as the flight rescue scene which was pure eye candy, the new fighting styles Tony adapts when using his new armor, and just about every other action scene shown in the trailers.

While I did enjoy the mindless entertainment and eye candy moments of the film, I think they just tried to cram too much into Iron Man 3. There were multiple subplots that needed deeper exploration, the villains were either disappointing or not fully developed, and maybe it’s the kid in me, but I wanted more of Tony in the Iron Man armor. I think that the average fan will enjoy the film because I can’t deny that it is entertaining, but it just felt rushed to me and I couldn’t completely remain engaged.

UK Production
Gravity
Budget- $100 million
Box office- $716,392,705
Stars- Sandre Bullock, George Clooney
Genre- scifi, drama and fantasy
Certificate- PG 13
Release date- US October 4 2013, UK November 8 2013
Marketing- 1 minute footage in april at cinemacon for press and exhibitors in late july
showed a 6 minute footage at comic con
The film went on a three late summer festival circuit
The trailer played on various channels at different times, the film had a large target audience
Reviews- IMDb 8/10
Rotten Tomatoes 97%
 

~US Block Buster: Iron man 3
~Budget- $200 million, Robert downey jr made seal for a % f the films takings
~Genre- super hero and action
~Stars- Robert Downey Jr. and Gwyneth Paltrow
These well known actors play a large part in the popularity of the film, these caters are associated with successful films.
~Box office- $1.215 billion for global box office for the year. Each film had a star take $75 million in gross payout. 
~Production- Paramount Pictures, Marvel Studios, DMG entertainment
~Certificate- PG
~Release date- April 14 2013
~Marketing-
~Reviews-
IMDb- 3.5/5
Rotten Tomatoes- 4/5
The Guardian Review -

To use a recondite term in professional film criticism: whoo-hoo! Iron Man 3 is descending on cinemas with an almighty crash, assuming the dramatic-yet-camp landing pose that Tony Stark in his exo-body-chassis favours on arrival: right knee down, right fist in the smashed asphalt, left elbow back, head up. This is luxury superhero entertainment and the director and co-writer is Shane Black, who gave us the excellent Kiss Kiss Bang Bang in 2005. I bow down to Mr Black as the Aaron Sorkin of action comedy; he gets the biggest laugh of the year with a joke about Croydon, with some additional Anglophile kisses blown to Downton Abbey, and what I suspect is a disguised homage to Mike Myers's immortal creation Austin Powers.

And then, showing that Black playfully relishes the Hollywood convention of casting Brit thesps as the bad guys, there is the terrifying middle-eastern terrorist, Mandarin, played with relish by Ben Kingsley. Mandarin is taking to the airwaves to gloat over his various explosions, which appear to happen without bombs. Oddly, Mandarin prefers old-school television for these publicity appearances and has no Twitter account. Meanwhile, Stark has to juggle a tense relationship with his old buddy James Rhodes (Don Cheadle) and beautiful ex-girlfriend Maya (Rebecca Hall).Robert Downey Jr is back, smashing walls and cracking wise as the billionaire industrialist Tony Stark, now out of the closet as Iron Man, living the dream in his future-tech clifftop pad and co-habiting with the beautiful Pepper Potts –Gwyneth Paltrow's excellent, relaxed performance making me wish she spent more time on film sets and less with her nutritional website. As so often in modern superhero tales, Stark's confrontation with wickedness triangulates into a question of two separate evildoers. Guy Pearce plays suave science entrepreneur Aldrich Killian — brilliant, yet unstable and unprincipled in the traditional manner – whose obsession with Stark may arise from a traumatic rejection in his youth, rather like Syndrome in The Incredibles.

Iron man 3 was overall a success, however blogs made by the films viewers were negative. Therefore the negative reviews from the bloggers did not impact the success of the film. Bloggers stated that the film was entertaining at times but did’t fully grasp the attention of the viewer. Iron man 3 was the last film of the iron man  franchise an therefore the expectations were high, the film could not live up to the hype. 

no criticisms of Robert Downey Jr.s performance

Not enough content from the comics 

Overall disappointing

There Will Be Blood

There Will Be Blood
We are told the date it is set in 1898 at the beginning.a long shot, and low key lighting is used in a shot of a man crouched down out side surrounded by rocks with hills an greenery in the background. In the lower right corner of the frame there is a section of what looks like a tent. The man is wearing a blue jumper and brown trousers, he has long untidy hair and beard, this suggests the man doesn't need to look well groomed or that he does not have time/equipment to do so. His face, hands and clothes are dirty, this could signify that the man is poor/homeless and therefor cannot afford to wash, although it could mean that he works in a dirty setting. Diabetic sound of thunder and wind adds to the gloomy outside atmosphere. cold, dull colours (e.g grey and dark blue) are used, this connotes the characters emotions are sad and lonely due to his isolation. Low contrast creates a naturalistic lighting, this is used because the man is sat outside in a real situation. Shallow focus us used to connote to the audience that the character is oblivious to all that is around him apart from his possessions, this could also be about the character being set on a specific life goal or destination. this scene is set in the evening nearing winter, we know this by the characters body language, he has his legs to his chest and arms around his legs to keep in body heat, this could also be distinguished be looking at the dark clouds. The man has a fire to lit, this could be used for both heat and light.
Clean cut to a close up of someones hand chiseling a rock wall. The had looks distressed meaning it has been doing this for a while, it could be the persons job. An orange light is coming from the right hand side and lighting a bit of the wall, looks like a candle meaning the setting is dark, probably underground. High key lighting is used. The rock wall is lit by a white light, most likely moonlight, this casts a shod ow on the hand. This may be used to suggest the rock wall is of importance but the hand is not, therefor the person chiseling is considered unimportant. Diabetic sound of the hammer hitting the chisel and the chisel impacting the rock, quiet non diagetic background music is also used. A Piece of rock falls from the wall, tilt to show the man picking up the rock, follows him back up to standing. Diagetic sound of the man spitting on the rock to clean it, non diagetic music continues. The mans hat isn't in focus as it covers the view of the rock whilst he is cleaning it, the mans arm is in focus to show his arm movements that indicate he is cleaning the rock suggesting the rock is of great importance to the man and the film.

Horror

Horror films go back years but our irrational fear for the unknown, death, loss of identity, alienation, fear of sexuality and vulnerability has been with us for much longer. Horror films use these deep primal nature fears to frighten and panic the audience. However horror films are also made to be captivating and entertaining. We are all emotionally connected to the unknown. horror films change according to the generation and what is happening on the world, for example when hitler was shadowing the world, horror films contained evil men and showed the horror within men, for example a man who was half man half wolf called 'The Wolf Man' and 'The Silence Of The Lambs' In all good horror films, the thrill, fear and horror is suggested in subtle ways to build a story, the villan needs to be defeated and the normality must return to end the film to make it potent, 'Nightmare On Elm Street' for example. The film must be captivating and an opening into the scary world and the dark side of life with forbidden, strange and alarming events because people fear the improbable. Horror is the essence of fear, with all the action, suspense and fear with no real danger. Horror is all about the thrill and the fun, people find it fun to watch disturbing and horrific and images because all of it consists in our imagination, our minds, our dream state.we make ghosts out of shapes in the shadows, and it has been like this for generations. It's been wired into our brains. The fear of story's, the monster under the bed, and the improbable. Science fiction is involved in horror films when a menace or monster is related to a corruption of technology it is also involved when earth is threatened by aliens for example, 'Aliens vs Preditor'. horror is similar to thriller but not the same, both can contain revolting and horrible acts from the killer/mad man. Horror films can also be called, chillers, scary movies or macabre. One of my favourite horror/thriller films is called 'House At The End Of The Street'. A key moment in this film is when we see Carrie Anne trying to escape. Carrie Anne is Ryan's (one of the main characters) little sister. It starts with diegetic sounds of her breathing and a close up shot of her face. They use lighting effects to show she is disabled/on drugs by flickering the lights and flashing them orange, this adds suspense. The shot changes to a long shot and zooms into a medium shot of the character. When the camera changes to show how Carrie Anne sees things the camera goes out of focus and the lights flicker. They use vertical tilt to show Ryan typing, diegetic sound of typing used. Zooms used a lot and cutting between both characters. Panning is used to follow them both running through the woods. The only dialog is from Ryan shouting "Carrie Anne no, no" as Carrie Anne runs towards Elissa's (main character) house where he is alone. There is non diegetic sound in most of the scene. This scene makes me anxious and tense. The character Carrie Anne is unpredictable and we don't know what she is thinking and what her next move is, this plays on our fear of the unknown. The whole thing uses lighting, camera angles, and sound to build the atmosphere to manipulate how you feel.

My favourite film is 'The Dark Knight'
This is my favourite film because I have always been a fan of the batman comics and games so I was very excited to hear about a modern batman with my favourite character, the joker in the film. Heath ledger was a very well known and magnificent actor, so finding out he was playing the joker made it certain he would do an amazing job. This film is packed with good actors (e.g Morgan freeman), classic characters (e.g scarecrow)  and new gadgets including a new bat-suit. This dark knight is an amazing film thanks to dc comics and Warner brothers joining forces.
This film contains action with outstanding CGI effects, there is also romance along with tragedy within the film. Heath ledgers accidental suicide was a huge loss, he won many awards for his extraordinary performance in the dark knight, I find it respectful and positive to watch Heath ledger acting in the film because it is allowing us to see him live on through his acting and films.the quotes that can be pulled from the film make it even more enjoyable to watch  because they are so powerful and thought provoking. I think this film can change your view on the batman and his purpose. I also enjoy how different camera angles are use to show powerful and weak characters. They use an oblique angle to show that the joker is unbalanced and evil, which is interesting. There are a verity of different shots used as well, for example when Bruce Wayne and Harvey dent first meet they use a medium shot as the camera cuts to each character to show who is talking and what the other characters response is. I think it all contributes to the story to make an amazing film. my love for this film has made me buy merchandise and look into some more films with the same directors. The dark knight was very hyped about due to the decisions  made about what to release and at what time would be most beneficial. One of their very successful campaign was when they made up there own newspaper, it was posted on line or could be brought as a hard copy, they made fans earn what they wanted to see. They also sent fans on an enjoyable scavenger hunt to unlock a teaser trailer and image of the joker. Burger King teamed up with the dark knight adding a burger called the dark whopper, showing everyone that the film was going to be a big success. This all added to the excitement towards the film, it also makes it more enjoyable and dramatic to watch.

The Fault In Our Stars

The Fault In Our Stars
It's been said that females have had a huge intact on the success of 'The fault in our stars' the female population has made this film a box office sensation. It was also explained that the success of 'the fault in our stars' will create copy cats of the films fresh idea of a film/story being told from the perspective of an extraordinary teen with a hard life loosing the battle against cancer. The actors raw emotional acting and strong relationship made the film more believable, enjoyable and devastating. The book was both emotional and thought provoking, therefor people who read the book or heard about it were interested to see how it would be converted into a film and still contained good quotes and emotional scenes. Showing little snippets of the film allowed people to create a hype about the mystery and excitement of the film. The books passionate fan base spreaded the word so far that everyone was looking forward to the release of the film. A film that explains how to deal with real life mature problems is a positive thing for teens to watch therefor adults encourage teens and other adults to watch it, this creates success through word of mouth. This film also helps teens realise that people are going through the same/worst situations than them. John green being a well known author helped the success of the film because his own fan base is pretty big, he and his brother vlog together ('Vlog brothers') he has gained a massive internet following. Therefor his followers have more than likely read the books and watched the film. The film was said to be classically funny and insightful. The build up towards the film was huge, they used a verity of advertisement techniques to add to the excitement, they used social networking to tell their following when the tv advert was being released so that fans would be looking forward to that, they also timed it so that the advertisement wasn't realised to soon (because no one would know it was coming out) also making sure ads weren't released to late because then people would get bored.
There was also good timing from the release of the book to the release of the film by leaving the release date long enough for everyone to read the book and once the hype about the book was settling, they released an advert of the film so that everyone would be talking about it again. They also played on the fact that the film and book are sad by making the fault in our stars tissue that you could buy and use when the film makes you cry. The merchandise Idea was very well thought out and planned. They sell neckless' with the well known logo on, and a verity of t shirts with the most memorable quotes on, and they continue to sell. When the film is released on DVD I am sure the merchandise as well as the DVDs will be sold out.

Group Analysis - "We Need to Talk About Kevin"

Group Analysis - "We Need to Talk About Kevin"

The opening shot to this scene shows an open set of doors leading to a balcony. The white curtains are blowing in the wind which could represent restlessness; as the shot is at night. The mise-en-scene in this shot can portray connotations of freedom and the low key frontal lighting can represent holiness and peace. This symbolic lighting can be significant because it can portray a deeper meaning of the storyline. The shot slowly zooms on the curtains and fades to white. This can have connotations of a dream or a vision. The next shot is a birds-eye extreme long shot of people in Spain at a tomato festival which appears to be a flashback. This can have connotations of the past, and how the character that is being focused on is looking back at something. In the context of the story, the character is looking back at something she used to enjoy and reminiscing about the peak times in her life. The long shot is used because it shows the sheer amount of people that attended the event and the diegetic sound, which is people shouting and cheering, tells us that the event brings joy. A slow zoom on certain people in the crowd could tell us that there are people that need to be focused on with a certain level of importance; the main character.

A slow-motion birds-eye mid shot of the crowd shows us how the character remembers this event. It gives us connotations of communal joy and happiness. The colour red is dominant in this scene. This is significant because it can portray connotations love and passion but also death and blood. This is important because it can tell us about the storyline and an insight of what is to come. People jumping around and acting crazy tells us that the event is where people go to express themselves. As the camera pans and zooms to a close up of the tomatoes we can see tomatoes splashing. This could be a sign of the blood that will spill later on in the story.

The mise-en-scene in the next shot is significant because it shows items that are in the room of the main character. We know the last scene was a flashback or a dream because the setting is a dimly lit room and the character is lying down. The contents of the table near the bed have important connotations as they all relate to the storyline. The camera pan of the table shows a red candle, a half eaten apple and a bottle opener. Among other props, these items could show signs of neglect and stress. The bottle opener could signifying a drinking problem or the use of drink to suppress the stress. The half eaten plate of food could signify the neglect and the worry that has extinguished her appetite. The colour red in these close up shots is significant because it gives us connotations of death and blood, much like the tomatoes in the previous scene. The ketchup on the plate of food is a good example of this as it doesn't need to be there but the director has put it there to signify this.

An eye level mid shot is used at the end of this dolly shot of the contents of the table. The woman is shown lying down and the reason for the eye level shot is because it puts the audience on the same level as the character; sympathy is felt for the character because of the difficult position she is in. Very little sound is used in this scene as the director wants the audience to pay attention to the minor details. The sound used is mainly diegetic, the woman crying is the main focus of this scene. Eerie music can be heard in the distance but the audience is assured this is non-diegetic as the character doesn't react to it in the film. It is purely used to set the mysterious tone. A close up is shown of the woman's feet when she stands, this is shown because it gives the audience an idea of how weak she is and how difficult it is for her to stand, physically and mentally. Another reason for there being little sound is because when there is sound, it expressed the action and makes it much more poignant. An example of this would be when the pills are knocked onto the floor, stressing the significance of them in the story.

A long shot is used after the woman leaves the house to establish the location. Another technique used in this same shot is the rule of thirds. The woman is standing on the right third of the screen and the house fills up the rest. This is especially important because not only does it look good but it sets a distance between the character and what surrounds her; giving the audience a sense of mystery. It also subtlety expands the story. The camera shots later on in this same scene are handheld, giving connotations of madness and instability. The mise-en-scene is interesting because although the high-key lighting tells us that the scene should be happy and bright, the blood smeared on the car and the walls of the house tells us the complete opposite. Sound is important in this shot also as the diegetic sound of the birds tweeting and the wind blowing can give connotations of peace which can be ironic as the story suggests that there is no peace.

Another handheld mid shot and pan of the house the character has just entered can give us an idea of what the character is seeing; putting us in their position. The sound is all diegetic in this scene as it stressed the importance of the little girl sitting in the chair. She is singing and this could portray joy and happiness but we know from watching the film that this isn't the case. Smart use of editing and cinematography gives the effect that the woman is in the house but in reality she is just reminiscing about the house with the child in; this is a flashback. To conclude, this scene from the film has an ongoing tone of blood, death and danger. The washed out tone of the other colours in the scene makes the red colour dominant, appealing to the audience and creating this effect.