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I never would have expected this but Michael Bay of all directors has managed to create a genuinely great science fiction story with a consistent cyber-punk aesthetic, interesting story, and some admittedly over the top but ultimately entertaining action set pieces. Considering this director has repeatedly shown that he's got little to no understanding of how human being act, creating emotionally stunted human being with purposefully child-like outlooks who are forced to face up to the reality that they exist only to be abused and taken advantage of by the rich and powerful, in the name of greed; that was a challenge I never would have expected him to live up to. This is hardly new concepts, it's a downtrodden repressed underclass of people breaking the shackles of their oppressors and fighting back against corporate greed story; it's a classic and in many ways that's what makes this work so well. The two main characters are particularly well written and the subtle hints of a romance sub-plot are handled both with restraint and dignity, which was especially shocking. This film is great fun and I thoroughly recommend it to everyone, but anyone who enjoys action, sci-fi, or particularly the cyberpunk sub-genre; this is a film you're absolutely love.

A film marketed as a sci-fi horror but with so little of both that it comes across as boring, far too slowly paced, and at times insultingly pretentious. There where at least some interesting concepts in this film but it felt extremely cheap and without focus. Really, if felt like someone just followed Scarlett Johansson around and filmed her as she **** about in Scotland for a bit, only with the caveat that no-one would recognise her. The vast majority of the film has no dialogue, and there are way to many lingering shots where nothing happens except Scarlett stares at a wall, out of the window, at the ocean etc. for sometimes up to a minute or more. Yes, there is an ending that will explain at least some of what happened, but there's far too much left unexplained in an attempt to maintain mystery. The only positive I can say about this film if I'm brutally honest, is kudos to the director for convincing Scarlett Johansson to give us three long scenes of full frontal nudity, including one that actually systematically pans around her body as she clenches in the nude. For any red-blooded heterosexual men, that scene will be reason alone to own this on DVD, but I can save you the trouble now and tell you 16 minutes, 59 minutes, and 1h 17mins. Those are the times for her nude scenes... fast forward through everything else.

An interesting sci-fi film with a great premise and particularly inventive use of set pieces with rather decent special effects backing them up. Ultimately this was a fun film that was only really let down by the rather clichéd romance sub-plot, that while resolved well and used to good effect in the final act, ends up being rather drawn out in the middle of the film and lead to some rather hammy lines. If the concept of exploring the concept of teleportation sounds interesting to you; this is worth a watch, particularly as they attempt to have the ability interacting with physical laws and use it in way the stereotypical super hero film usually doesn't. Ultimately this film was great fun and I'd thoroughly recommend it to sci-fi fans. The special effects are well put together and decent acting from both Samuel Jackson and Jamie Bell make this feel genuinely tense and exciting at times.

I went into this not sure what to expect but found it to be a pleasant surprise. This re-imagining of the classic story, while actually closer to the book, manages to set a tone quickly and keep everything fun and lively all the way through. The child actor playing Mowgli was exceptional and really held this film together, while certain nods and small bits where attention to detail was particularly high, made me feel shockingly engrossed. There where some unfortunate concessions. In order to make this kid friendly the film glosses over anything that would be realistically gruesome, but the jungle still feels threatening at least. The casting of Scarlet Johansson as the snake Kaa was an interesting choice, and I can see why the song "Trust in me" was relegated to playing over the credits as it would have slowed the pace of the film and left younger children bored. Hopefully a directors cut will put in a scene where the song is placed into the film itself. The slightly selfish nature of Baloo works really well, and makes him oddly more endearing and funny. Ultimately this is a great family film and one I recommend whole-heartedly. It was great fun and, while the CGI can be a little distracting at times, it's rarely a big problem. Even adults should enjoy this.

This film started out interesting and had the potential to be something quite memorable, but ultimately it proved itself to be boring and drawn out and somehow lacking in major plot points. People would knowingly say vague statements to each other throughout and I was thinking that perhaps there would be a reveal at the ending that would retroactively make all those scenes seem powerful and impactful but there wasn't. I never would have expected to say this, but this film was badly in need of an exposition dump, if only to explain what the motives, goals, and knowledge base for the characters actually is. I go to the cinema to be told a **** story, not to be shown some loosely connected nonsense and be expected to invent the potential story in my own head. To be more specifically critical, the acting was largely wooden, the ending was extremely disappointing and anti-climactic, and the religious cult aspect was totally wasted; built up, forgotten about, brought back briefly, then resolved off screen... the hell?! This film was an frankly an absolute mess.

I've enjoyed most superhero films to date, and I could be categorised as a fan of the genre. Still it's remarkably easy to screw up this genre and the character of Deadpool is one few people understand. Thankfully this is the one time they got him perfect, the humour was on point, the action needlessly gruesome just for the hell of it, and the tone immature in all the right ways. While the storyline is nothing special, it's consistent and a good adaptation of the source material which is all you can really ask for. The action was clearly limited due to budget restraints meaning the film had to maintain a small scope and really only manages two action set-pieces throughout the whole film. This could have been detrimental pacing wise but they make it work, even if the film does drag slightly in the middle. Really whether you enjoy this film will come down to whether you find the character of Deadpool funny or not. Honestly, I'm not normally one for low brow comedy and often find it insulting to my intelligence; but occasionally there's a method of delivery which works perfectly. TV shows like 'Bottom' are a good example. Deadpool works. Almost every joke from the crude to the absurd was timed perfectly and the juxtaposition between it and the action made for a thoroughly enjoyable films and one of the best films of the year so far... it's early days yet, but I expect this to still make peoples "Top 10 films of 2016" lists. Highly recommended.

With the "young adult" genre swelling I've started giving these films far more consideration; particularly following Divergent. The fact that Chloë Grace Moretz was playing the lead was a major factor as I know she's a pretty decent young actress. This is another case where I was pleasantly surprised and I'm starting to disassociate films with the "young adult" moniker. Yes they're all given from a young adult or teen perspective and usually have shared themes of, "coming of age" but so do many films. 5th Wave may have these things but it feels like a sci-fi survival film first and foremost. The alien invasion in this film is played very well and the pacing is particularly well designed, with no single scene dragging on or feeling rushed through. The story felt well balanced and was easy to follow while also feeling like it had multiple threads going simultaneously. The little action it has is thrilling, there's a real sense of desolation and desperation at times, and the sense of tragedy is heightened by the fact that the largely teenage survivor base we follow are too naive to realise just how screwed they are. A fun film with aspects that should appeal to anyone, I can recommend this easily to most without reservation. Unless you're so detached from your youth that you can't remember what it was like to think like a teenager, the characters remain fairly easy to relate to and the story is consistent and without any major plot holes.

This was one of the most bitter wastes of time I've had in the cinema in years. The story is incoherent, the characters are flat and uninteresting, with motivations that are barely explored or explained, and the action scenes are too zoomed in, too quickly cut too, and too dark to make out. The entire film felt like a massive let down and it's sincerely put me off from watching any other DC film; which is a shame as I quite liked Man Of Steel. For more specific issues; the reasoning behind why Batman and Superman are fighting, and why they stop fighting and join forces is about as flimsy as it's possible to make it. The character of Lex Luthor makes no sense at all, with no clear motives, no indication of the super-intelligent businessman; he's more like a contrived and poor attempt at recreating The Joker from 'The Dark Knight'. Finally the constant dream sequences at the beginning threw the films pacing out entirely and made it feel pretentious and cheap. With an atmosphere that is a desperate attempt at being "grimdark" for the sake of it, this film felt like it didn't know how to have fun. This is Batman and Superman for Christ-sake, if you can't make them fun you don't know what fun is! It was insulting, boring, and is a waste of time and money. Avoid this film.

Marketing this film as a horror film was a major misstep and will likely account for much of the negativity this film received. It's actually a period drama/thriller that's very entrenched in the puritan movement to USA in the early 16th century. If this time period doesn't entice you, or you find it hard to relate to other cultures, you'll find the film thoroughly uninteresting. If however you can enjoy something a bit different, there's great acting, good tension, and some shocking scenes in this film that will mean it'll have some lasting value at least. It's not a bad film, far from it, it is however an acquired taste and won't be for everyone.

I've never been a big fan of Star Wars, but I can appreciate the style of the franchise. It's got a certain gravitas to it that is very fun. This film does have that gravitas, and throughout much of the film I enjoyed the scenes for what they where. The acting was far better than the franchise usually gives off but that's not saying too much. The action scenes where well shot and exciting. The characters where at least moderately interesting. It's a film I could describe as the perfect popcorn nonsense flick. You can't however think about this film too much and doing so has severely dropped it's rating in my mind. A second viewing was enough to heavily highlight the flaws in this film, which has one of the most nonsensical plots ever. The so called "science" in this film is laughably bad, and even suspension of disbelief can't save it. The way the plot so closely mirrors Episode 4 while also actively trying to one-up the film every chance it gets leaves a bitter taste in the mouth. It's a film that feels mean-spirited at times. If you're a fan of Star Wars, this is a safe entry into the franchise with some good scenes and spectacle that you'll enjoy, but if you want a cohesive story and consistent world; this is the worst in the franchise so far. The flaws in this film are flaws with the core storytelling so if you're not a fan of Star Wars, the more you think about this film the less favourably you'll see it. Some films age like fine wine, this one will age like bread.

While this film is well shot that's about all I can praise this extremely long winded and boring film for. While the opening was interesting, and the first half-hour gave us an incredibly visceral war scene that is frankly a piece of art in and of itself; the rest of the film was just torture-porn of the worst kind. Leonardo DiCaprio did a good job here but that's not enough to save this film. The films plot can be summarised as, "nature beats up Leonardo DiCaprio for two hours while he's near death after he gets mauled by an unrealistic looking CGI bear". This is pretty much the only key event in the film and the rest is just a long drawn out torture scene as we watch poor Leo grimace and strain at the camera for hours. It's almost painful to watch and not because you're sympathising with the character, but because you're not interested in watching someone languish in pain for yet another run-on scene. Honestly, I would question the emotional stability of those who enjoy this, as I feel it would take some pretty entrenched sadism to get pleasure out of watching this.

I made a point of seeing lesser known films this year, this being the first of the limited release films I saw and honestly, if it wasn't for my unlimited cinema pass I'd have felt extremely cheated by this film. The film starts out with an interesting concept, building up these kids that have the ability to move through space; in effect teleport. It's an interesting contrast to the very realistic and grounded tone of the film, as there's nothing else supernatural or sci-fi happening, and no attention is really drawn to the fact that these kids teleport. They start a sub-plot where the father is abusive to the kids only for... nothing. That's the entire film. The build up these two disparate topics and then the film just ends. There's no resolution, no arc, not even any real drama or intrigue. They establish the basic themes only to have nothing at all happen. They could have reduced everything in this film down to about 20 minutes and it'd make for an interesting opening to a film, but as it stands it's a drawn out boring film, that have an interesting concept, and makes you feel cheated when it does absolutely sod all with it. A total waste of time.

As a fan of the series so far I went into this film with a little apprehension. It's usually the third film that they tend to screw things up but honestly, this exceeded my expectations in every way and was a delightful watch. The introduction to sci-fi elements felt quite natural and the exploration of eugenic-themed politics was done with shocking subtlety. Unlike the previous films, that felt like they their settings lacked explanation, Allegiant explains enough that you feel you understand where everything is and what's happening, without making it obvious whether certain conspiracies or opinions are correct. The overall message isn't clearly for or against genetic modification either, which means it doesn't feel like the film is pushing it's political ideals at you, nor is it's politics a clear allegory for something in modern politics; though it could be interpreted that way. This is good as it means you don't have to be of one political persuasion to enjoy it and it could so easily have gone that way. So far this franchise has been a happy surprise for me as following films like Hunger Games and Twilight, I had presumed that the "young adult" adaptations where all going to be cringe-worthy. This franchise however had been consistently good and I look forward to the next one.

Tarantino has again managed to make a limit in location work well, as a traditional western is locked down to largely taking place in a single building during a snow-storm. This makes for something that feels both familiar and new, and it's the interactions between characters that truly brings the film alive. The mystery elements keep you guessing and the high concept action, when it does happen, contrasts the silent tension of other scenes. There's a build and release to this film which is very enjoyable and it's something I will likely re-watch many times over. Much like previous works, such as Reservoir Dogs, the limits placed on this film actually ended up being it's strengths as it gave the film a grounding that drew me in.

I went into this film without any knowledge of Cloverfield and from what I've heard that was the right choice. Eschewing the "found footage" style of the previous film, this is instead, a more traditionally shot psychological thriller and one of the better ones I've seen in a long time. With great pacing, fantastic acting, and a simple but well explored story I found myself on the edge of my seat throughout. The film manages to bring tension to simple scenes and explores our perceptions of others, our ability to trust, etc. multiple times. You'll find yourself questioning everything and repeatedly changing your mind as you watch this film, not knowing what to believe. So far this is my favourite film of 2016, and I've seen pretty much everything that's come out this year so it's up against some stiff competition.