Over the course of October, I shall be watching one horror movie a day and reviewing it right here for your reading pleasure. I haven't seen any of the films I'll be watching before and you can find the full list here.
Adapted from the story by George Langelaan (also the basis for the 1958 version), The Fly tells the tale of Seth Brundle (Jeff Goldblum), a scientist who is clearly exceptionally brilliant, but also a bit socially inept. He's been working on a teleportation device that he manages to convince journalist Veronica Quaife (Geena Davis) to see. She witnesses it working and decides to follow Seth as he continues his experiments, the pair of them developing a romantic relationship at the same time. In a drunken moment of hubris, he decides to use the machine himself, not realising that a fly has entered the pod with him; the transportation process fuses them at a genetic level and Seth slowly finds himself transformed.
I've already done the Darwinian thing in the earlier review of Invasion of the Body Snatchers (incidentally also starring Jeff Goldblum) so I won't do it again too much here, but a large part of the anxiety that grew out of The Origin of Species was to do with humans being aligned with beasts. Monsters in fiction often depict this by presenting a corruption of humanity; think the vampires who can transform themselves into animals and werewolves to name the two most obvious examples. Transformations have also been used to explore humanity and the loss of it in other literary works, the most obvious of which is probably Franz Kafka's Metamorphosis, in which poor Gregor Samsa is transformed into a large insect for no real reason.
That's the work that probably comes to mind most whilst watching The Fly, but the idea of the bestial corrupting the human body and destroying it is in there too. David Cronenberg not only operates at this level, but also within the very late 20th century world of health scares and viral epidemics. The transformation into the fly is not only a corruption of humanity, but a betrayal of the human body itself. Seth compares his ongoing plight as a transformative disease, eroding him like a cancer. Veronica's pregnancy too taps into fears surrounding that particular experience, though thankfully I've never heard of anyone actually giving birth to a maggot baby, but what she experiences is invasive and just as unpredictable as the Brundlefly.
I like to think of myself as having a fairly high tolerance for body horror, but the fingernails and teeth scenes even managed to defeat me. Watching it before a meal time was not the best idea I have ever had. There were goosebumps and queasy feelings. In fact, that reaction pretty much sums up my response to the film. The effects are so impressive, particularly the make-up work with Goldblum in the latter stages of Seth's transformation. There's a tangibility that can only be achieved practically and it aids every aspect of Goldblum's performance, transforming himself physically as the make-up allows whilst retaining, at all times, the semblance of humanity that is needed.
It's the human element that makes the more outlandish moments in the film work, but it takes a while for the film to find it. The relationship between Seth and Veronica happens too quickly to feel invested in it straight away and as such, Seth's drunken jealous moment feels like it comes out of nowhere. Cronenberg is clearly interested in getting to the meat of the story far more than he is in setting it up, but as the film progresses, it's understandable why he does it. The transformation is the interesting bit, not only visually, but thematically as discussed. Post-transformation, the urgency in Seth and Veronica's relationship suddenly works as well as the ease with which it starts to fracture.
I'm not sure I'll ever want to watch it again or at least for a long time, simply because I'm still feeling pretty nauseous over an hour after it finishing, but The Fly is a fascinating piece of film-making that ties into a long tradition of using the monstrous to explore the human, albeit in new and certainly ickier ways.
- Becky
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As year draws to its close, we’re due to embark on yet another journey to J.R.R. Tolkien’s Middle Earth. All of that thanks to director Peter Jackson and The Battle of the Five Armies, the third chapter of his The Hobbit trilogy. In what is supposed to be a final film ever set in his fictional land (unlikely!) our Dwarven, Elven and Human characters are entangled in a massive conflict over the control of Erebor and hearth stored under the Lonely Mountain. Friendships are being tested, blood being shed, lessons learned. Virtually everything one can expect from grand finale like this.
It is, of course, naïve and unrealistic to expect that this film will rectify and reverse everything wrong about two previous chapters. Indeed, The Battle of the Five Armies suffers from many of the sins these films were plagued by – choppy narrative, bloated running time, an unnecessarily excessive use of computer graphics, uneven pacing. However, what where it does exceed is in its increased focus on single narrative, probably for the very first time in The Hobbit trilogy. It feels less scattered around, largely due to it being set mostly in one location. The board for ensuing conflict was set already by The Desolation of Smaug and there is no exposition as such. And that is something quite new for Peter Jackson’s Tolkien adaptations.
Another strong point is an emphasis on character development and interactions, an ingredient criminally absent from both An Unexpected Journey and The Desolation of Smaug, save for a few cursory elements. In The Battle of the Five Armies, the execution of those elements might still be somewhat clunky but at least it’s there. Both Richard Armitage and Martin Freeman rise to the occasion and provide their characters with some emotion. Bilbo, curiously underused in a series of films revolved around his character, finally gets to fulfil a role in those and adding some necessary good-natured hobbit warmth into the grim plotline. At the same time, Armitage gets to expand upon both gloomy and warm aspects of Thorin Oakenshield as he’s battling his inherited greedy sickness. The usual suspects Ian McKellen is always a joy to watch on screen and his Gandalf definitely doesn’t disappoint, as expected.
What doesn’t work quite so well, however, is the battle spectacle itself. While all Tolkien-based films used CGI heavily to help enhance epic struggles portrayed on screen, there is a sense that The Battle of the Five Armies was filmed almost entirely in front of green screen. Gone are the breathtaking and lovely landscapes of New Zealand. It’s hard to care for an hour of swarming animated characters fighting other animated characters, with occasional shots of live actors swing a sword once or twice. There’s hardly any drama or tension in that and Middle-earth feels smaller than ever.
What’s even more frustrating, it turns out that many plot points and characters from previous two films were introduced for absolutely no reason. Sylvester McCoy, so prominently featured as Radagast in An Unexpected Journey, barely makes a cameo in both subsequent films. Same with Mikael Persbrandt’s Beorn. One has to wonder why Peter Jackson even bothered including those two, given their contribution to the overall story is quite minimal and could have been achieved in more efficient ways. On the other hand, the completely new Elven character of Tauriel, as played by Evangeline Lilly, could have used an expansion. Fortunately, Luke Evans’ Aragorn-inspired Bard the Bowman and Lee Pace’s Thranduil get a lot more screen time this time and this film is so much better for it.
Technically, The Battle of the Five Armies is adequate but strangely unpolished in some areas. Many of the effects seem unfinished and unconvincing, especially the opening fiery destruction of Lake-town and climactic confrontation between Thorin and pale orc Azog. The musical score by Howard Shore, such a crucial ingredient of The Lord of the Rings, is an accomplished and intelligent as ever but feels lost and neglected in overcrowded sound mix. Editorially, this film feels a bit awkward and uneven, as did the previous two. It will be interesting to see if the extended cut, due late next year, will change that.
The final chapter in Peter Jackson’s six-film series is ultimately successful in its basic entertainment factor but it falls short as a piece of epic fantasy cinema. The ultimate failure of The Hobbit trilogy is not as painful as the one suffered by Star Wars fans a decade ago but there’s an undeniable sense that something went terribly wrong in the development process. Still, strong performances from excellent cast and significantly tighter and focused narrative make up for many shortcomings.
- Karol
