So I went to see this film on a whim, without looking into it or having taken much notice of its publicity since it was released I was completely surprised to see 'HAMMER' as the titles rolled. Hammer Films stand alone and so already my expectations were set high for this film, however I was disappointed.
The qualities of this film that did shine through the vague, sometimes senseless plot were the sound design, production design, costume and locations. The locations were well sourced, however I feel that they weren't used to their full advantage. Due to the time period of this film (1970's) it is easy to spot that the DoP is relentlessly trying to avoid road markings/signs/modern day scenery in order to capture the unmistakable and well known buildings of Oxford. However this ended up in bad composition and dodgy angles in my personal opinion, it was too obvious.
The sound design was what really gave this film the edge it needed, very subtle, a lot of common techniques used but it served its purpose and I truly did jump! However one criticism would be that it was too overpowering at points and the levels were quite unbearable.
The production design and costume were again on par and served their purpose, however there really wasn't any aspect that impressed me throughout.
The plot from the beginning I feel is muddled. Brian (Sam Claflin) I feel is just thrown into the story blindly, we don't have a sense of his life or background (Briefly mentioned in conversation with the Professor). Again with the remaining characters I feel that their persona's are loosely built and lacking. This made me lose interest at points and I felt that the Professor's generic character was overly-cheesy and quite annoying. Over all the plot is almost thrown down and the loose ends don't tie up in places of relationships.
The films basis is clever and the subject it was inspired from is truly interesting. However I feel that the vision was lost through the lack of really engaging with the characters at the writing stage. The passion in this film was lost through the desperate desire to include every piece of information that led to the end reveal.
The qualities of this film that did shine through the vague, sometimes senseless plot were the sound design, production design, costume and locations. The locations were well sourced, however I feel that they weren't used to their full advantage. Due to the time period of this film (1970's) it is easy to spot that the DoP is relentlessly trying to avoid road markings/signs/modern day scenery in order to capture the unmistakable and well known buildings of Oxford. However this ended up in bad composition and dodgy angles in my personal opinion, it was too obvious.
The sound design was what really gave this film the edge it needed, very subtle, a lot of common techniques used but it served its purpose and I truly did jump! However one criticism would be that it was too overpowering at points and the levels were quite unbearable.
The production design and costume were again on par and served their purpose, however there really wasn't any aspect that impressed me throughout.
The plot from the beginning I feel is muddled. Brian (Sam Claflin) I feel is just thrown into the story blindly, we don't have a sense of his life or background (Briefly mentioned in conversation with the Professor). Again with the remaining characters I feel that their persona's are loosely built and lacking. This made me lose interest at points and I felt that the Professor's generic character was overly-cheesy and quite annoying. Over all the plot is almost thrown down and the loose ends don't tie up in places of relationships.
The films basis is clever and the subject it was inspired from is truly interesting. However I feel that the vision was lost through the lack of really engaging with the characters at the writing stage. The passion in this film was lost through the desperate desire to include every piece of information that led to the end reveal.