Almost ten years ago now, a green ogre called Shrek first appeared on our screens, turning traditional fairy tales on their head with their modern, tongue in cheek reinvention of the genre that allowed both kids and adults to enjoy them. The result was a funny and inventive smash. Shrek 2, the follow up, was arguably even better, but then the franchise ground to a shuddering halt in the mind achingly awful disaster that was Shrek the Third. So where now for the 4th (and presumably final) instalment?
The answer is to return the start, Back to the Future style. Or It’s A Wonderful Life, if you were born before 1981 or watch films at Christmas. And the result is pretty good – if not exactly a return to form, it’s a damn sight better than Shrek The Third and is genuinely enjoyable to watch.
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In cinemas across the country on May 14th, Ridley Scott’s imagining of Robin Hood promises action and adventure as the title character is reincarnated, Doctor Who-like, for another outing on celluloid.
But what makes this version of the classic story different to the others before it, most recently the much loved or loathed, (depending on your perspective), and undoubted cheese-fest that was Robin Hood: Prince of Thieves.
And what of Ridley Scott’s direction? Will this latest historical/martial epic mark a return to the highs of Gladiator, or another muddled and disjointed failure like Kingdom of Heaven.
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Even the most infrequent cinema-goer cannot have failed to notice the spate of comic book adaptations that have taken over our screens over the past few years. Where once you had just Superman and Batman, a whole cannon of comic book heroes have made the transition from page to film reel over the last decade, the likes of Daredevil, Fantastic Four, Men of X, Spider and Iron, not to mention reboots of the afore-mentioned Superman and Batman.
Now, almost all comic book adaptations follow a set formula – namely, ordinary Joe/Peter/Bruce acquires/inherits superhero powers, faces an almost equally super-powered nemesis, deals with his inner demons, vanquishes said Nemesis and then returns the situation neatly to where it had begun to await the next adventure. Even the much-vaunted “The Dark Knight”, whilst exploring some more shadowed aspects of being a superhero, adheres to this formula.
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How do you go about deciding on your favourite film? It’s likely that the first film that comes to mind is something you decided on a while ago and haven’t thought over for a while, or something you watched recently that you remember you enjoyed. Does that make it the one?
And what should be the criteria? When I started thinking about this, I immediately came up with five or six candidates. Then I realised I was trying to ignore the blockbuster (Avatar, Star Wars, Titanic etc), or the traditionally more niche favourites (see Garden State, Eternal Sunshine) to try and show I’d really thought about it and wasn’t picking the obvious.
Then, trying to stop myself doing this I looked at the list of films that sprang to mind. They were all great films, to be sure, but my favourite film of all time? The film I was going to nail my cinematic preferences to the internet mast with. Was I really considering these ones?
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