Space Jam: A New Legacy

 This review may contain spoilers!

 

Space Jam: A New Legacy is a soft reboot to 1996 cult classic, Space Jam. In this film we see LeBron James as an overbearing father who isn't open to the avenues of fun his son pursues. However, when a rogue artificial intelligence kidnaps Dom, LeBron is forced to play a virtual basketball tournament with some unlikely allies to get him back. The film does manage to match the tone of the original Space Jam feature with an overtly serious basketball player stumbling around cartoon antics and learning how to find fun through the game. Beyond that I liked watching the Looney Tunes animations and some of the editing and transitions that pay homage right back to the original feature. There were elements of this feature that actually managed to come across as a love letter to the late 90s family films.

 

Sonequa Martin-Green, who played Kamiyah James, is stunning as this fierce and protective matriarch; Martin-Green has this strong presence that makes her a role you don't want to mess with and a convincing backbone for her onscreen family. Rosario Dawson, who voiced Wonder Woman, is perfect as this bold heroine; Dawson delivers this cameo with sincerity and compassion making for one of the best scenes in the film.

 

However the best performance came from Jeff Bergman, Zendaya, Gabriel Iglesias, Eric Bauza, Candi Milo, Bob Bergen and Fred Tatasciore, who voiced all of the Looney Tunes. These roles are the dependable light aspects of the feature, comedic and full of energy. I think any moments with heart that feel real are the ones in which these cartoon characters are at the centre. Watching the crazy antics of these roles, seeing familiar rivalries and friendships make for a nice nostalgia trip.

 

Space Jam was never really a good fun, it became a cult because of how quirky and camp the late 90s film actually was. Space Jam: A New Legacy is harder to see as a future success at this point because it matches the original for a lot of its goofs and narrative moments. Yet worse than this is just how much gratuitous self-indulgent praise there is for LeBron James and Warner Bros. The entire film places LeBron on a sort of pedestal, only really taking the time to critique his parenting skills as a fictional spin for the sake of the main narrative. Warner Bros. as a movie studio is treated as a setting and entity that is akin to the lifeblood of the film; weirdly the main bad guy is a sentient computer programme who works for Warner Bros. directly. The main story is very simple: LeBron is a bad Dad who doesn't like his son making computer games, the pair get sucked into a virtual world and LeBron has to play basketball to get his kid back. This simple theme around placing family first is extremely basic and never handled in a way that is deeply explored. More than that placing the entire film around a big sports star who stumbles as a protagonist makes this feature difficult to watch from start to finish. The cinematography is extremely blocky, leaning on big wides rather than trying anything too creative. The special effects for the film are rather poor; the Goon squad in particular have lousy designs and the Looney Tunes being made CGI figures wasn't a great move. The score for the film is not something worth remembering and the soundtrack is a compilation of hype pop and hip hop that does little to boost the quality of the film.

LeBron James, who played himself, does have the ability or experience to lead a film like this; James isn't able to dig deeper for those big emotional scenes that the film depends on. Don Cheadle, who played Al G. Rhythm, really pushes things far over the top for this antagonist role; it's a confusing performance because sometimes it feels like he takes things seriously and at other times the complete opposite. Cedric Joe, who played Dom James, plays that rather typical kid in his father's shadow character; yet Joe plays it in a thin way so that when he flips back to his Dad's side it isn't this big impactful moment. Khris Davis, who played Malik, seems to have been written as some sort of background comic relief; but Davis really does not have the comedic ability to make this role land. Ceyair J. Wright, who played Darius James, is a background supporting figure in the fictional James family; kind of pushed into a position of propping up his onscreen Dad and brother but achieving little else.

 

As camp and corny as the first film with more of a self-congratulatory message both for LeBron James and Warner Brothers. I would give Space Jam: A New Legacy a 1.5/10.

Gunpowder Milkshake

This review may contain spoilers!

 

Gunpowder Milkshake follows Sam, a young assassin whose hitman mother abandoned her when she was young and who has been raised by the same organisation her mother worked for. When a sense of moral righteousness steers Sam off target while on her latest mission she finds herself blacklisted and hunted by those she worked for. The film thrives upon how well it delivers multiple fight sequences, the choreography for the massive third act library fight scene is a particularly inspired piece of stunt work. The score for the film is one of my favourite things about it; it has a nice rebellious energy that really spirits into these big action pieces. I found that the soundtrack had a nice vintage homage that matched up to the aesthetic of the film.

The best performance came from Carla Gugino, Angela Bassett and Michelle Yeoh, who played Madeleine, Anna May and Florence respectively. These three are impossible to separate in relation to one another, what you get here is a trio of characters who are interlaced in their performances. I loved seeing these 'librarians' confer and debate amongst one another to maintain their munitions front; this was one of the most entertaining aspects of the Gunpowder Milkshake 'world'. Gugino was the kind-hearted librarian, she was very empathic and folded many of the characters into shelter. Bassett was the bold leader of the trio who fiercely represented and defended the library and those within. Yeoh was the rational and highly intelligent librarian with a killer edge in how she engaged with opponents. These three actresses played strongly to the lack of realism in this feature and managed to make a really engaging trio.

This was a film that wanted to be something new and unique but really just across as something bizarre and corny. Gunpowder Milkshake really has quite weak world-building that doesn't really explain well how things connect; locations like the library, the hospital and the diner exist and entities like the Firm and McAlester's gang but none of these are linked well together. The film feels more like an aesthetic piece; trying to capture the spectacle of new action epics like Atomic Blonde or John Wick but falling woefully short with a confusing narrative. There is a clear love letter here to 50s/60s aesthetics with locations like the diner or the bowling alley featured prominently while the entire film is pitched to a very film-noir, Sin City-like tone. It is such a jagged thing hearing this very corny, over the top dialogue peered with a tone that doesn't really blend well into a lot of very modern visuals. There is an idea here that is undeniably creative but fails to actually meet its ambitions. The story around Sam being abandoned by Scarlet is sloppily delivered and there is no surprise when Scarlet is introduced back into Sam's life and the tension between the pair evaporates in no time at all. As a protagonist Sam is hard to like from an audience perspective; she kills an unarmed defenceless thug at one point and by killing Emily's father you struggle to really accept the film pitching her as a heroic figure by the end of the feature. The pacing is extremely slow for an action film, the film is terrified of showing action in its first act and then proceeds to open the flood gates to multiple long action sequences that needed to be cut up a bit more. The cinematography and editing paired together mean this isn't the most visually appealing film; the shots are very blocky and the cuts are only slowing the pacing further.

Karen Gillan, who played Sam, shows little range as this particular protagonist; her stoic closed off demeanour fails to evolve from the beginning through to the end of the film. Lena Headey, who played Scarlet, matches Gillan with a very emotionless role; this is a character who you do not really believe she has remorse for leaving her on-screen daughter behind. Paul Giamatti, who played Nathan, is a very reedy businessman character that Giamatti doesn't put a lot into; his expressions of concern or frustration had no impact because he didn't push much into those moments. Ralph Ineson, who played Jim McAlester, is your typical baritone gang boss antagonist; Ineson's grating attempts at intimidation and weird feminist speech in the final act make this a hard role to watch. Michael Smiley, who played Dr. Ricky, is a weird minor antagonist; watching Smiley huff into a laughing gas mask for half of his scenes made me cringe. Chloe Coleman, who played Emily, is still a bit young to have developed much range; seeing Coleman quietly dish out the moral conscience of the film means those messages are never strongly delivered.

This is probably going to be the corniest film boasting the worst dialogue that I'll see all year. I would give Gunpowder Milkshake a 2/10.

 

Black Widow

This review may contain spoilers!

Black Widow  is the 24th feature in the MCU and a direct sequel to Captain America: Civil War. In this Marvel adventure we get a glimpse into Natasha Romanoff's spy background and the family of Russian spies she lived with as a child. The film then brings us to just after the events of the Sokovia Accords and we watch as a fugitive Black Widow is forced to reconcile with her former 'family' and stop the villainous Red Room from crafting more brainwashed Black Widows. This film starts out as a well mapped modern spy thriller, with real cloak and dagger fights at safe houses or a dark espionage-based antagonist in the shadows. Yet the film also knows how to lean into those classic Marvel elements of storytelling; the light sisterly bond between Natasha and Yelena or the hilarious introduction and breakout of Red Guardian from prison. These elements all come together in a very action-heavy final act that watches all the new characters masterfully woven together into these intricate fight scenes and impressive set pieces. I enjoyed seeing the contrast between how good Natasha had become as a person versus how twisted the world she was from is. The cinematography of the film is extremely appealing and worth raving about, the entire Budapest sequence immediately comes to mind when I say this. The special effects for the feature look wonderful, but for a nice change of pace it is the stunt choreography that truly transports me into this fantastical story. The score for the film is a high octane spectacular while the soundtrack boasts an eerie James Bond-esque intro to a cover of 'Smells Like Teen Spirit'.

 

Scarlett Johansson, who played Natasha Romanoff, leads this film with absolute class and experience; watching Johansson tread the line between the moral high ground she occupies now and the darkness her life used to be is great to watch. Rachel Weisz, who played Melina, is a much more restrained role who initially seems reluctant to become attached again to her 'family'; Weisz plays the stoic scientist type well while also dealing her character's dry wit excellently. David Harbour, who played Alexei, is very much a role that steals the show in a number of scenes; this role's arrogance and desire to live out his glory days makes him one of the real comedic delights of the film. Ray Winstone, who played Dreykov, is quite a chilling antagonist; seeing the callous indifference he has for the horrors he has wrought or the free will he has taken is rather dark.

However, the best performance came from Florence Pugh, who played Yelena Belova. This role is rather special because the film has a sense of Johansson's Natasha handing the torch to Pugh's Yelena; so there is a lot of expectation around this performance. It is immensely hard to walk out of this film disliking Yelena I find, she has a very youthful energy and this kind of excitement about being free in the world after her brainwashing is removed. This comes through a lot in the sisterly relationship she forms with Johansson, watching the pair lean on one another and then switch to bickering is a fun dynamic. I also think there is some interesting pain hidden by Yelena that we get to see steadily come out over the course of the feature. She was the only member of her 'family' who was unaware that their time in America wasn't real and so not being able to hold onto those connections really destroyed her. Yet seeing Pugh depict Yelena healing from this and reuniting with her dysfunctional spy family is truly a storyline that is right at the heart of this film.

For a film titled Black Widow there isn't a strong emphasis here on giving Natasha much of a final journey. This film is essentially closure for the role and her handing the torch over to a new cadre of MCU characters like Yelena or Red Guardian. Johansson does excellent work throughout and this is a highly engaging film but you don't really gain anything new in respect to Natasha. Everything she has achieved in previous films is just repeated in this one. I also think the film likes to move very fast after the first action scene has gotten underway. We move from one high intensity action sequence where the stakes are high to another. The film only really slows down when the family comes together, I actually think the film would have benefited spreading out the time we spend with these new characters so that the audience can build a rapport with them. I think having this big mysterious sub-plot around Natasha thinking she had killed the leader of the Red Room and his daughter in the past was a little bit obvious and something the feature never put much effort into paying off. Finally the film ends by teasing that Black Widow may well be facing serious repercussions with the law while her 'family' escapes, but the film does a lazy time jump to avoid explaining how she ever really got out of that mess. That truly felt like an abrupt way to close out the film and wasn't as satisfying as it could have otherwise been.

Ever Anderson and Violet McGraw, who played Young Natasha and Young Yelena respectively, were on two spectrums of poor young performers; Anderson just played straight to indifference while McGraw went to young and hapless stereotype. O-T Fagbenle, who played Mason, was the dull yet present tech man with an answer to most solutions; Fagbenle could've been any number of performers and this role would never have gotten much more interesting than it was. William Hurt, who played Secretary Ross, gives his usual gruff cameo but to little impact; I don't think this role has been exciting since his return in Captain America: Civil War. Olga Kurylenko, who played Antonia, is wasted in what really amounts to a minor amount of time in this film; the feature never really wants to engage with Antonia's story too much so they probably should've just left this antagonists as a stunt person.

An absolutely action-packed and well-performed adventure that makes for a nice, if not modest, send off for the original female Avenger. I would give Black Widow a 7.5/10.

 

Escape Room: Tournament Of Champions

This review may contain spoilers!

 

 Escape Room: Tournament of Champions is the sequel to 2019's Escape Room, in which a group of random people find themselves trapped in a series of life or death styled escape rooms. In this feature our two surviving heroes, Zoey and Ben, are trying to hunt down the evil corporation who trapped them and find themselves once again tricked into a series of deadly escape rooms. However, this time the group they find themselves with have something in common: they have each survived Minos' torturous escape rooms before. What I liked about this film was how it actually expanded on the story of the original film; having someone infiltrate Zoey's life in order to place her in the perfect escape room, examining how each of the former champions came from 'themed' groups and seeing how much more intricate the escape rooms were designed in this particular feature. I think a lot of these drove what made this film a more updated take on the survival-horror genre. The cinematography and special effects for the feature do well but aren't much to rave over, the high stakes scenes are well captured and the fake background effects look to be an improvement on the first film.

 

Thomas Cocquerel, who played Nathan, gives quite an interesting perspective as a jaded priest who survived his own escape room experience; watching Cocquerel play with the notion of struggling faith in the face of sadistic life or death struggles is one of the better aspects of the film. Holland Roden, who played Rachel, is this real tough as nails survivor type who works extremely well for this type of sequel; Roden feels like a capable contestant and she is extremely tough in the face of overwhelming odds.

However, the best performance came from Logan Miller, who played Ben Miller. The way this role builds on from the sequel actually feels well developed and thought through. Miller plays strongly to the character's loyalty and bond with Russell's Zoey; the pair continuously trust and lean on one another for support after surviving a traumatic experience together. I liked how we still see Ben as such a reluctant protagonist, he is severely scarred from his previous experience with the escape rooms and has a significant night terror scene in the film. Watching Miller competently handle the escape rooms reminds us why Ben was a survivor in the first film, yet he is never capable of seeing through the puzzle like Zoey does; ultimately making a pawn for Minos to use. 

 

Escape Room was a film I enjoyed because it toyed with a solid set-up, intriguing escape rooms and a great cast of characters. This film had a lot of similar qualities to the original, though it traded a good set-up for making the world-building richer. But ultimately my biggest gripe with this sequel was that it wasn't confident enough to do many new things. The start of the film really pushes our cast of characters together quite abruptly and in a manner that is difficult to really believe in. Pair that with a lot of will they, won't they romance subplot between our two leads and the beginning of the feature was decidedly less engaging this go around. Once you get past the feeling of a more production-heavy sequel the issues in the second act are exactly the same as the first film. The story takes a back seat and we watch as the characters experience the escape rooms, then survive with a member of the group dying per room. The final act gets contrived when it brings back a presumed dead role from the first film who has secretly been behind all the pain and misery of this film. It's a poor twist that muddies one of the finer roles from the original feature and guides the film to another ending that begs the audience for a third outing. The score for this film is even less appealing than the first feature, droning when the stakes get high but offering little else in terms of range. 

Taylor Russell, who played Zoey Davis, has lost what made her protagonist so engaging somewhere between the original and this film; Russell's role struggles with conveying a range of emotion especially in the big scenes where she is meant to display grief. Indya Moore, who played Brianna, is one of the more generic expected roles from this genre; Moore doesn't work outside of the traumatized victim who reacts with fear rather than logic to the danger around her. Carlito Olivero, who played Derek, is the tough type with little thought for his actions; I found Olivero to be another performer to play towards type rather than character. Deborah Ann Woll, who played Amanda Harper, is a pale reflection of her original take on the character; this cowardly hollowed out figure is a far cry from the traumatized soldier served up in the first film.

A sequel that never achieves more than the previous instalment but which is salvaged by a decent production design and some fresh story elements. I would give Escape Room: Tournament Of Champions a 4.5/10.

 

Luca

This review may contain spoilers!

 

 Luca is a charming story set in the Italian Riviera detailing the friendship formed between a young girl and two 'sea monsters'. Watching this film felt like watching a folk tale or fairy tale come to life before my eyes, this was the sort of feature that quietly presented itself to you and never once begged to be watched. I watched Luca because I found myself drawn deeper and deeper into the story being woven in front of me; much like our two fish-folk protagonists steadily grew immersed into the human world. The film is very much a light fantasy tale coupled with a coming of age story, a group of young kids from various backgrounds become friends and work together to overthrow the town bully. The twist here is the message behind the film; how we deal with that which is different. Our two main characters are both fish-folk, however they become human in appearance when they are dry on the surface. This leads to an interesting story about how humans treat that which is different to us with fear and hostility, while also teaching us the value of why such behaviour is wrong. The beautiful friendships at the heart of this film feel so rich with emotion and the connection between them all is so strong that I can't imagine any audience member who wasn't choked up by the train station scene. The Italian Riviera is already a location viewed with a lot of reverence, but this film really sculpts it into this magical place. The detail paid to the design of the buildings, the little dockside, the cobbled streets or the rolling hills grounded me in that setting perfectly. In fact as a whole the animation is very pleasing to watch, with cute yet detailed character designs paired with stunning visual environments. The score for the film is a lovely blend of either Italian music or music from Italian artists and it couples with every scene exactly right, crafting an atmosphere that helps draw you further into the world of Luca.

 

 Jacob Tremblay, who voiced Luca Paguro, is wonderful as the protagonist for this film; Trembla makes you see things as full of wonder and has such a vibrant way of expressing all the new things his character is experiencing. Jack Dylan Grazer, who voiced Alberto Scorfano, is a lot of fun as the carefree and adventurous best friend; the hurt he expresses at feeling phased out of the growing friendship between Luca and Giulia is one of the strongest parts of his performance. Saverio Raimondo, who voiced Ercole Visconti, is a brilliant antagonist for Luca; his boyish arrogance and wild need for validation and praise mark him as a dangerous bully to the three heroes. Maya Rudolph, who voiced Daniela Paguro, makes the classic Disney Mum role an actually interesting character; Rudolph presents a mother who is fiercely protective and determined to track down her son by any crazy antic necessary. Marco Barricelli, who voiced Massimo Marcovaldo, is such a likeable father figure in spite of his gruff intimidating introduction; Barricelli presents a tough man who has a big heart that extends to the trio he comes to be the caregiver of. Sandy Martin, who voiced Grandma Paguro, is quite a fun minor role; Martin comedically deadpans this very intelligent role who seems to know where events are going before they happen. 

However, the best performance came from Emma Berman, who voiced Giulia Marcovaldo. This character zooms into the story with such fire and energy that it's hard not to love the role instantly. Berman voices a young girl who views herself as the underdog, the misfit of the town with no friends and a bad nickname. Yet she still seems so full of life and determination; she is ready for any challenge, be that bullies or the big annual village race. The easy charm Berman presents makes this character come across as friendly and caring, she welcomes the two fishy protagonists with open arms. At the end of the day Giulia puts herself on the line for those she befriends and loves and that's what makes her the undeniable heart of this film.

Luca starts in a rather slow way, detailing the divide between the surface world and the underwater fish-folk setting. The problem with this is that it doesn't really tread any new water; our protagonist pining to know what 'up there' is like shares a lot of comparative traits with a number of films. Disney even already had its own famous underwater pining hero in The Little Mermaid's Ariel. While the two stories are both vastly different, the beginning really does nothing new. Watching Luca get told not to go up there by any means while he steadily begins to sneak off feels familiar but when the narrative finally has the courage to break from the underwater world we receive one stunning piece of animated cinema.

Jim Gaffigan, who voiced Lorenzo Paguro, is a pretty generic take on the bumbling Dad character; Gaffigan is often in a scene to be the butt of a joke or to give a voice for Rudolph to bounce off against.

A beautiful love letter to coastal Italy and a visual fairytale that will undoubtedly live to become a classic. I would give Luca an 8.5/10.

The Hitman's Wife's Bodyguard

This review may contain spoilers!

 

 The Hitman's Wife's Bodyguard is the sequel to 2017 audience-favourite, The Hitman's Bodyguard, a feature that capitalises on Reynolds increasing expansion into the world of action-comedies. In this follow-up, bodyguard Michael Bryce finds his career in tatters after working hit hitman Darius Kincaid and decides to go on a self-help bender in Capri. Unfortunately, things don't go as planned when he is pulled back into the chaotic world of, well, world saving by Darius' wife, Sonia. The pair go on a personal mission to rescue Darius which spirals into a race against time to stop all of Europe's power grid being decimated by terrorist, Aristotle Papadopolous (yep, that's really his name). What the film lacks exceedingly in plot it does make up for with some key moments of comedy; often the more chaotic the dialogue and the ideas are the more jokes manage to land well. The cinematography for the film is actually very slick for almost the entirety of the time; the action looks a step up from the first film and there are only a handful of dialogue-based scenes that don't look great. The stunt work for the film is stunning, there is a massive quantity of vehicle-based work that actually looks and moves great.

 

Ryan Reynolds, who played Michael Bryce, takes a while to find his stride back into the character but is once again a pretty solid protagonist; Reynolds has fun with being the straight edge to Jackson and Hayek's more unpredictable performances. Morgan Freeman, who played Bryce Senior, is such a fun reveal as the father who welcomes his son in need home; Freeman plays well to both the caring side of his role and the effective elite bodyguard aspect too. Frank Grillo, who played Bobby O'Neill, is very entertaining as the loose cannon Interpol agent; Grillo's intense lack of interest for the roles and pining for his Boston home made him a fine new attachment to the cast.

However, the best performance came from Salma Hayek, who played Sonia Kincaid. Hayek was the sort of character who stole the show despite her lack of screen time in the first film, so capitalising on that character in the sequel might be the smartest thing the writers ever did. Hayek is absolutely wild in this film, every colourful insult you could ever think of is not enough to cover the long list of strongly delivered barbed quips we get in this feature. The fun thing with Sonia is that you can never quite predict how she'll act or react in a scene; she can be an extremely affectionate wife one moment, a bezerker with a gun and a jealous cussing lover the next. Hayek really has fun with her role's desire to be the mother and the complete lack of knowledge around what that role entails. This is a character who is a joy to watch and Hayek is carrying the comedic talent of the movie consistently.

Sometimes you watch a sequel that was clearly greenlit without there really being much of a plan or story in place for what the sequel should be or look like. The Hitman's Wife's Bodyguard follows a lot of the same character relationships and narrative beats as the last film without ever really finding the fun or joy behind those moments. Bryce and Kincaid had this excellent love/hate rivalry turned friendship in the first film but in the sequel all of that has been stripped away to build up to the same exact same end result. The overall villainous plan of a Greek terrorist destroying all of Europe's power grid except for Greece, in a bid to restore the nation as the heart of civilisation gets very convoluted. The film just really has no interest in its own story or how said story is delivered, for that reason we get very boring Interpol agency characters hamming out the plot against the villain while our heroes bicker over their respective personal journeys. Darius and Sonia wanting to have a kid together feels like an uncomfortable joke which definitely ends in a bad punchline. More than that, seeing Bryce, the protagonist, being so tired and disinterested in being involved in everything going on around him actually doesn't work in favour of the film. Having both Bryce and the Kincaids as reluctant heroes makes the audience feel disconnected from the stakes of what we're watching. The soundtrack for the film felt like an amateur playing darts, there were a couple of really funny tracks but most of the music missed the mark and failed to lend humour to a scene.

 

Samuel L. Jackson, who played Darius Kincaid, looks almost bored to be in this film and you can't really blame him; Jackson's character doesn't actually get anywhere near as much to do in this film and has even less time spent examining his character. Antonio Banderas, who played Aristotle Papadopolous, is a dreadful antagonist every step of the way; not only does the character have exceedingly shallow motivations but Banderas is far from convincing as a Greek national. Tom Hopper, who played Magnusson, is the generic henchman antagonist this time around; Hopper's role is styled as the perfect bodyguard which makes for a very two-dimensional performance. Caroline Goodall, who played Crowley, is the overseeing Interpol head who deals exposition with little emotion or interest; Goodall's emotionless delivery makes her just as interchangeable as the other two head intelligence actors from the first film.

 

It can be hard to generate a good action-comedy sequel and this film fails spectacularly with a dull plot and a cast that doesn't seem very engaged with the feature. I would give The Hitman's Wife's Bodyguard a 4/10.

The Conjuring: The Devil Made Me Do It

This review may contain spoilers!

The Conjuring: The Devil Made Me Do It is the third Conjuring film and the eighth instalment in the Conjuring universe. Here we loosely follow the real life events surrounding the possession of David Glatzel and Arne Johnson; the latter whom is arrested for murder and pleads defence by possession in a court of law. As far as this particular film goes it opens really strongly, featuring an exorcism that not only goes badly but sees Arne offer himself to the demon possessing David. It's a very harrowing moment in which our heroes, the Warrens, are rendered powerless in the face of darkness and for a fleeting moment the Satanic forces of the occult seem like the most powerful tey have ever been. Yet beyond that moment the real strength of the film is the depiction of Ed and Lorraine's relationship, the love and strength they find in one another coupled with the trust that comes with is right at the core of what makes these films and these characters worth coming back for. The cinematography also looks great, framing key settings richly and setting the stage strongly for some of the spine-tingling moments.

 

Ruairi O'Connor, who played Arne Cheyenne Johnson, is very good at playing this kind and self-sacrificing role; O'Connor's character goes from a rather happy figure to a young man who seems tortured by the evil he has taken on.

However, the best performance came from Patrick Wilson and Vera Farmiga, who played Ed and Lorraine Warren respectively. As the films have gone along the work these two do together can't simply be described as roles performed by individuals; this is the extraordinary work of a brilliant acting duo. That has never been more evident than in this feature, the fourth time we see the pair in a major starring role. Patrick Wilson plays the most physically vulnerable take on Ed Warren we've seen yet. In this film we see Ed's heart damaged in an exorcism gone wrong, leaving him permanently debilitated for a large section of the film. Wilson does a great job of showing his protagonist struggling to keep up with his on-screen wife and hurting over his inability to truly be of service in the investigation. Farmiga on the other side takes on more of an active investigator role in this feature. She blends her role's otherworldly visions with an active drive for the truth at the heart of their investigation. Watching Lorraine extend herself deeper into the urgency of their mystery while Ed struggles to keep up and is plagued as a victim of the antagonist. The relationship this pair has constructed is very tender and they bounce off one another with such a loving effortless display that you can't help but be drawn in by this leading duo.

A problem I've noticed about these Conjuring films as they've gone along is that they have really departed from the horror genre while still trying desperately to make you believe they're scary. Films like The Conjuring 2 and The Nun lost their credibility as scary features the moment they pivoted away from horror and into cross-genre pieces is where quality was sacrificed. The Conjuring 3 is exactly the same, opting to be more of a supernatural crime-thriller than a genuine horror film. In fact when the film does pretend to go back to its horror roots the elements are very generic; you have the usual jump scares, levitating possessed people and litany of props being yanked around by invisible forces. The plot itself is really badly constructed, the possession of Arne feels quite sudden and he is really propped up to be this overly sympathetic figure. Then as the film decides to delve into a sort of criminal investigation there is only so far it can go until it has to relate things back to a mystery antagonist. The Warrens are pitted against a Satanic female antagonist who has been crafted as a sort of evil Lorraine Warren. This very basic rivalry and the fact the threat becomes significantly more human takes a lot of the high stakes right out of the film. The editing used throughout is rather predictable and doesn't do anything fresh from previous films; while the effects often seem crude in their design. The score for the film is barely present and the soundtrack might ground the audience in the 80s but it never suits the type of film this is.

Sarah Catherine Hook, who played Debbie Glatzel, falls right into the heartbroken family member who doesn't know how to deal with the supernatural evil; Hook's work at being the lovelorn partner of O'Connor's Arne isn't very convincing either. Julian Hilliard, who played David Glatzel, is a prett stereotpical kid being possessed b demon role; if anything Hilliard never manages to get quite scary enough for those key possession scenes. John Noble, who played Kastner, was both a bizarre performance and a bizarre role; Noble really grated out the delivery of his lines and never seemed to scrounge up any emotion even for his character's big parental reveal scene. Eugenie Bondurant, who played The Occultist, is the antagonist who essentially lessened the quality and scare factor of the film; by introducing a human as the true threat while also giving Bondurant next to no character motivation to work with it is no surprise this was an underwhelming villain. Steve Coulter, who played Father Gordon, is constantly in these films but never manages to make much of an impact; his attempts at portraying the on-screen acquaintance and friend of the Warrens is stiff and devoid of meaningful emotion.

The Conjuring series has really lost itself at this point, I could barely recognise this as a horror film most of the time. I would give The Conjuring: The Devil Made Me Do It a 3.5/10.