The Theory of Everything (James Marsh, 2014)

The problem with biographical films, when judged against original drama, will always be that we simply know what will happen. This can be offset to a degree by being about a figure whose story is shrouded in some mystery or controversy, but when, as here, the focus is on someone who we effectively know everything about, there isn't really anywhere for the drama to go. Besides this, The Theory of Everything also has to grapple with several other challenges: firstly, making theoretical physics engaging for the lay viewer, and secondly having a protagonist who can effectively not move or emote for half of the film.
No solution is really found to the first hurdle except for the customary oversimplification, with advanced maths reduced to lots of visual metaphors of black holes, invocations of time itself as some kind of omnipresent/non-existent god and a soundtrack that hardly takes a breather in cajoling us towards the desired sentiment. So it's as well that the second and more essential element is handled a great deal better. Eddie Redmayne as Hawking does his humanly best with the role, bringing both an impishness and a stubborn defiance to the character that remain constant from the precocity of his student days through his long years of physical decline, to the extent of reaching the biography actors' hallowed land where the portrayal starts to supersede the real-life person in our minds.

6/10

The Last Days on Mars (Ruairí Robinson, 2013)

The surface of Mars is getting to be terrain so well-trodden it will probably come as a bit of a yawn when we finally get there. This effort, which squarely disappeared under the radar of the viewing public, has the by now customary supernatural slant, but takes it to a ridiculous extreme which some kind of lurgy turning the crew of the astronaut base into zombies. And that's your lot. Thankfully Ridley Scott redresses the balance somewhat with this year's The Martian, which realises, like Gravity, that the real-world based hard sci-fi model can be quite awe-inspiring enough without resorting to standard horror or wondrous alien culture tropes.
In the meanwhile, Liev Schreiber needs to take a good hard look at his career; he's criminally wasted on these things.

3/10

Avengers: Age of Ultron (Joss Whedon, 2015)

Well, having the continued presence of Joss Whedon at the helm for the second time does mean a continuity of sorts and a modicum of wit which seems to have charmed critics, but this is a lumbering beast with even more lead characters and even more sub-plots under the 'more is more' philosophy, which means that no single one gets room to breathe. Furthermore, James Spader doing the voice of the genocidal robot Ultron - given a woolly motive about wiping out mankind to save the Earth - is no substitute as a villain for a proper actor like Tom Hiddleston in the first round. To cap it, the fights, while they may be competent popcorn, have given up all pretence of explaining what business mortals have on the same team as gods and the like. Just because it's kids' stuff, it doesn't have to be quite so throwaway.

4/10

The Babadook (Jennifer Kent, 2014)

An Australian take on the interminable demonic domestic possession genre, The Babadook is elevated above the norm by two factors. Firstly, it largely spurns the usual descent into spinning heads, torrents of blood and religious mania, choosing to cultivate disquiet instead. Secondly, it has real emotional content; the relationship between the widowed mother and her young son is not just a peg to hang the horror on but the heart of the story. Any parent whose frayed nerves are sorely tested by their offspring will empathise.
Of course, it does wobble in the final reel as these things are wont to do, uncertain as to when to stop the screaming and shocks, but just about manages to stay on the rails to a genuinely unusual end scene.

6/10