RIP IT UP MOVIE CLUB: Hanna, Final Destination 5, The Tree Of Life

Hey film buffs,

Another week, another set of movies to be released. This week I’m checking out what should be one of the best spy thrillers to hit our screens in recent years, the latest bloody offering from one of the most prominent horror franchises of the 21st century and a psychological indie flick that I’m sure will have most of us scratching our heads for some time to come.

Enjoy!   

Hanna
Director Joe Wright’s (Atonement) latest collaboration with the talented Saoirse Ronan (The Lovely Bones) looks set to be one of the best spy thrillers of the past few years. Ronan plays the title character, a teenage girl who has been raised by her father (Eric Bana), an ex-CIA agent, in the wilderness of Finland in the hopes of training her to become the perfect assassin.

Sent on a mission across Europe by her father, Hanna is set after by agents despatched by a mysterious intelligence operative (Cate Blanchett). As she continues on her mission, evading and dispatching of these agents, Hanna unearths revelations about her own existence. If you can get past the fact that Ronan was Keira Knightley’s annoying younger sister in Atonement, this looks set to be a movie not to be missed.

Hanna is out on September 1st.

Final Destination 5
Correct me if I’m wrong, but wasn’t the last film in this franchise dubbed The Final Destination? Oh well, not being one to let titles stop them, the crew behind the Final Destination series have decided to continue their race against Saw to see who can churn out the most sequels.

Of course, carrying the Final Destination banner means several motifs are imminent. There will be a horrifying accident (this time it’s a suspension bridge collapsing); a group of people (mostly teens) will survive due to one of them having a premonition; said people will then be killed off one by one, in an increasingly creative and gory style (hello fried eyeballs).

One of the strongest horror franchises of the past decade (there is a reason it keeps spawning sequels), you can rest assured the Final Destination 5 will feature its fair share of blood and gore, while keeping the plot plodding along with a few twists and turns thrown in. Probably not one to bring food along to... especially if you’re planning on seeing it, with all of its gory glory, in 3D.

Final Destination 5 is out on September 1st.

The Tree of Life
Much like the film itself...I really do not know where to start. Having caught an early screening of this at the New Zealand International Film Festival, I am struggling to offer an unbiased preview on a film which has become notorious for leaving audiences divided.

Coming from the mind of Terrence Malick, whose selective directing resume includes Badlands and The Thin Red Line, expectations have been high going into his latest release. Particularly when he has been able to sign on A-list stars such as Brad Pitt (Inglourious Basterds) and Sean Penn (Milk).

The film is based around a family set in the 1950’s, in which the eldest son witnesses the loss of innocence. Or at least that is what it is supposed to be. Enter long periods of nebulae, scenery shots and some CGI dinosaurs, and it becomes quite hard to piece together a narrative, making the 139 minute screening quite the endurance session.

Those who do praise the film say that it is a piece of creative genius, claiming that those who do not like it simply don’t “get it”. Yet there remains a large proportion of the audience who describe the lack of a distinguishable narrative as pretentious and blatant self-indulgence. A popular notion is that with all of the hype around it, it seems like an “Emperor’s New Clothes” mindset has developed: despite the fact that the person does not enjoy the film, they are afraid to criticise it in case they are the only ones who do not “get it”, thus they compensate by praising the film as a masterpiece.

Thus, it forms the conundrum where it really isn’t a movie for everyone, yet it remains a movie that a person needs to see just to make up their own mind. Creative genius or blatant self-indulgence...you decide.

The Tree of Life is out on August 25th.

By Shane Drought