The story is based around a world where our basic emotions are personified by characters that excel in those emotions, so you have Sadness (voiced by Phyllis Smith), Fear (Tony Hale), Disgust (Liza Lapira), Anger (Lewis Black) and Joy (Amy Poehler) who has the hardest job of all reigning in all these potentially destructive emotions. Now it wouldn’t be a relevant story without the addition of some new emotions and characters that mirror our times.

Mirroring real life, anxiety (Maya Hawke) joins the party and really throws a monkey wrench into the proceedings as does embarrassment (Paul Walter Hauser) envy (Ayo Edebiri) and last but certainly not least ennui (Adèle Exarchopoulos). These new emotions add to the war raging inside young Riley Andersen’s (Kensington Tallman) head. Riley is at that stage in life where those emotions can develop their strongest grip, the early teen years.

Even though Riley comes from a stable loving family she still falls prey to those conflicting and contradictory emotions. The film’s journey is about her finding the strength to put those wildly ranging emotions in check. This is done with consummate filmmaking skill and falls right into Pixar’s wheelhouse of amazing visuals and strong storyline ethics. If only life’s hard lessons could be this much fun in real life.
Rob Hudson
www.facebook.com/DisneyAUNZ/

The year is 1963. Retired sheriff George Blackledge (Kevin Costner) lives on a Montana ranch with his wife Margaret (Diane Lane), their adult son James (Ryan Bruce), his wife Lorna (Kayli Carter) and the couple’s newborn baby Jimmy. Their home is humble but happy, until one bright autumn morning when tragedy strikes—James dies of a broken neck when thrown from his horse. Three years later, his widow Lorna marries Donnie Weboy (Will Brittain), a young man with strong ties to his North Dakota clan. Margaret’s worst suspicions of Donnie’s dark side are confirmed on a visit to town, when she witnesses him strike both Lorna and her grandson.

Margaret is deeply alarmed when the newlyweds pull up stakes in the middle of the night, leaving town without saying goodbye. She resolves to track the couple down and to bring Jimmy home to live with her and George. Unable to dissuade headstrong Margaret from her mission, George reluctantly agrees to the journey and to helping her rescue the boy—and Lorna. But the violent and controlling Weboys, headed by uncompromising matriarch Blanche Weboy (Lesley Manville), won’t allow the Blackledges to reclaim their loved ones. George and Margaret are left with no choice but to fight for their family, no matter how great the cost.

Focus Features presents LET HIM GO starring Kevin Costner, Diane Lane, Lesley Manville, Kayli Carter, Booboo Stewart, Jeffrey Donovan, Will Brittain, Ryan Bruce, Adam Stafford, Bradley Stryker, Will Hochman. Written and directed by Thomas Bezucha. Based on the novel by Larry Watson.

Let Him Go will be released in Australian cinemas November 26!
www.facebook.com/UniversalPicturesAU

Elsewhere, Jason Momoa is actually able to make the Aquaman character seem cool and fast forwarding Wonder Woman’s arc allows Gal Gadot to act more naturally. It’s still at heart a comic book movie and this finds everything in overdrive, even the final battle is so over the top as to defy description. The CGI graphics are more moody and less photorealistic than other franchises and this gives the film its own look and feel.

One of the few minor letdowns is in the character of the Big Bad and without giving away too much, they are just a bit too generic. The balance between the recruitment and formation of the Justice League is finely sequenced but the final reel and its big battle is the film’s least successful element.

Also be warned DC has now fully jumped on the Marvel bandwagon and make sure to stay until the very end so as not to miss the coda at the end of the credits.

Rob Hudson
www.facebook.com/JusticeLeagueOfficial

Together, Batman and Wonder Woman work quickly to find and recruit a team of metahumans to stand against this newly awakened threat. But despite the formation of this unprecedented league of heroes—Batman, Wonder Woman, Aquaman, Cyborg and The Flash—it may already be too late to save the planet from an assault of catastrophic proportions.

JUSTICE LEAGUE is directed by Zack Snyder and stars Ben Affleck, Gal Gadot, Jason Momoa, Ezra Miller, Ray Fisher, Henry Cavill, Jeremy Irons, Amy Adams, Diane Lane, J.K. Simmons.

JUSTICE LEAGUE releases in Australian cinemas on November 16, 2017!
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Arthur Curry aka Aquaman

Barry Allen aka The Flash

Victor Stone aka Cyborg

Diana Prince aka Wonder Woman

Bruce Wayne aka Batman

But despite the formation of this unprecedented league of heroes—Batman, Wonder Woman, Aquaman, Cyborg and The Flash—it may already be too late to save the planet from an assault of catastrophic proportions.

JUSTICE LEAGUE is directed by Zack Snyder and stars Ben Affleck, Gal Gadot, Jason Momoa, Ezra Miller, Ray Fisher, Henry Cavill, Jeremy Irons, Amy Adams, Diane Lane, J.K. Simmons.

JUSTICE LEAGUE releases in Australian cinemas on November 16, 2017.
www.facebook.com/JusticeLeagueOfficial

With Batman versus Superman, however, it’s not quite so easy to see the conflict as they are both clearly on the ‘hero’ side of the equation. But director, Zack Snyder, does a reasonable job of pulling this together by tapping into a problem that many viewers had with his prior film, Man of Steel.

Batman, like many of us, heavily resents the heavy public toll resulting from Superman’s urban clash with General Zod. This is understandable but when Batman determines to kill Superman in response, whoah, that’s a whole different level again and Snyder never quite convinces why two honourable superheroes would wish to assassinate each other. Not even a zero tolerant Megacity judge with a penchant for police brutality went there!

In contrast with popular opinion, it seems, I quite like what Snyder is attempting with the Superman tale. It’s a fascinating prospect to put this extra terrestrial Man of Steel into a contemporary setting and look at how, in all likelihood, the public would react to an alien with almost limitless power. In messianic fashion, some would surely revere this figure, but the bulk would treat him with suspicion and fear of what he could do to us were he to turn ‘rogue’.

This is very close to the line Christopher Nolan took with his Batman films, of course, (and it’s notable that Nolan is a producer of Snyder’s Superman films) but Snyder is not the storyteller that Nolan is and the result is a Superman film that is grubbier than even Nolan’s Batman. Indeed, Snyder’s rendering of the Batfleck is just plain nasty and psychotic as he steamrolls through Gotham, branding criminals with his hot iron knuckle batdusters. Snyder has taken Nolan’s balanced grubbiness – and Watchmen-ified it. Substitute Superman for Mr Manhattan and Batman for Rorschach and you pretty much have it.

But while this tone may be passable in Gotham, it sits a little less comfortably with Metropolis. Superman is a messiah figure and dragging him through a Gotham-like quagmire of corruption and dishonour besmirches his brand to its detriment. It’s an uneasy and uncomfortable mix for our Kryptonian white knight and Snyder only narrowly gets away with it.

On the whole, I quite like Batman vs Superman: Dawn of Justice, (I even saw it twice) but I like it more for the ideas that Snyder is attempting to relate rather than his success in reaching that goal.

Stuart Jamieson
www.batmanvsuperman.dccomics.com