Isaac's Film Reviews

I'm still betting on you. Full review by Isaac Handelman Suzanne Collins’ Hunger Games trilogy appeals to an extraordinarily wide audience, across all ages and both genders. As an indirect result, the film adaptations of The Hunger Games trilogy need worry about only appealing to a very slim audience; those who read the book. The Hunger Games films are not successful for their appeal outside of the literary fanbase. The films are successful because the literary fanbase of The Hunger Games is flat out enormous. The majority of those who pay to watch The Hunger Games: Catching Fire have either read, or are in the company of a person who has read, its source novel. As such, the filmmakers behind Catching Fire hold in their hands both a virtue, and a vice. Their virtue is that they only must worry about appealing to those who are familiar with their source material. Their vice is that the sort of rabid fanbase possessed by The Hunger Games trilogy demands a faithful recreation o...

Back in action Full review by Isaac Handelman If Iron Man 3 can be described as an anomaly on an otherwise strong track record, then Thor: The Dark World is the majestic recovery. Helmed by rookie director Alan Taylor and faced with the task of being the first solo sequel in the Marvel Cinematic Universe sans the Iron Man series, The Dark World has plenty of obstacles to overcome. And it manages to conquer expectations, not by some drastic formula alteration, but by evolving from its predecessor(s) in a natural way; it’s bigger, it’s bolder, and it’s better than ever before. As The Dark World opens (spoilers for the first two minutes of the film follow), viewers are introduced to the Dark Elves, an ancient race that ruled the universe before the creation of the Nine Realms of Marvel fiction. Led by the devious Malekith (Christopher Eccleston, a capable actor who is unfortunately confined largely to delivering scary-sounding lines in a fantasy language), the Dark Elves tried ...