Red Sparrow is a 2018 spy-thriller film directed by Francis Lawrence who worked with Jennifer Lawrence (the star here) on a couple of the Hunger Games movies, but this is a very different beast. Jennifer Lawrence plays Dominika Egorova (in, it has to be said, a not entirely convincing Russian accent), and Joel Edgerton, Matthias Schoenarts and Charlotte Rampling star as the film's secondary characters. This one is a pretty big departure from what Lawrence has done in the past, although it has to be said that she's making some pretty bold career choices. I'm not the first one to say that, and for a good reason: it's true. After last year's Mother! it appeared as if she was trying purposefully trying to appear in more "mature" films, and believe me, it doesn't get much more mature than Red Sparrow. The film plays out like one of those schlocky exploitation from the seventies, in that there's sexual violence, sex, violence, torture, and all manner o
My Little Pony: The Movie is a 2017 animated musical children's film based on the popular TV series My Little Pony: Friendship Is Magic. It was directed by Jason Thiessen and stars Uzo Aduba of Orange is the New Black fame and Emily Blunt. It tells the story of Princess Twilight Sparkle, the ruler of of Equestria (or Canterlot? Honestly, I just can't tell from watching the film.) The problem is, the festivities are interrupted by Tempest Shadow, a scorned unicorn with a broken horn that wants revenge. So, the unicorns have to go on a quest to destroy Tempest Shadow and the person behind all of it, the Storm King.
The first thing to say about My Little Pony: The Movie is that you have to judge a film which is specifically aimed at children with a very different set of criteria to others. The second is that there's a different between family films (think Toy Story, the more recent Lego films), and films which are designed for kids. That's what My Little Pony: The Movie is. So of course, I went into it expecting not to like it because I'm about as far removed from the audience it was made for as possible.
The only way I can judge a film like My Little Pony: The Movie is on three things: is it engaging? is there a theme, even if it is simple? does the story actually make sense?
I mean, look - I understand that a kids film will have a less complex story than most, but this one takes it a little bit too far. I know there's a bad guy, and I know there's a few good people who try to fight him, but I don't understand anything else. I don't know why Canterlot, specifically, is being attacked. I don't know how some of the unicorns were turned to stone. I don't know why the ponies have to go and see a group of hyppogriphs to save the place. I've never seen the TV program, and for all I know it could be explained in that, but I was completely baffled.
On top of that, the art design and animation in this film is pretty horrible. It's nowhere near as bad as things like Foodfight! but a lot of the foreground stuff is pretty difficult to look at, and most of the time the background either has very little detail or is just an explosion of colour that makes you want to shield your eyes.
Which brings me to the musical numbers in this film. Given the fact that things like Baby Driver and La La Land were released fairly recently, My Little Pony: The Movie's songs feel pretty lacklustre. Even the Sia song is pretty boring, and I can't remember how any of them went. Maybe the songs appeal to kids, but they didn't have a lot of charm from my perspective.
The script is full of empty platitudes too, that I don't think would appeal to kids because the characters in the film are paper thin. There's no way to discern between them other than their colour. For kids to be engaged with a film's message, they need to care about the characters, but I don't think children would be that invested in what happens to the ones here.
Honestly, the best thing I can say about My Little Pony: The Movie is that it'd most likely keep its target audience occupied for its running time (about 90 minutes), but just barely. Even if it does entertain them, I can pretty much guarantee the majority of kids would forget about this within an hour. If you're a parent thinking about taking their children for a day out at the cinema, do them a favour and take them to see Captain Underpants or The Lego Ninjago Movie - I can pretty much guarantee they'd have a lot more fun watching either of those.
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