Dunkirk is a tense and spectacular survival epic with edge-of-your-seat action, breathtaking visuals and phenomenal sound.

The film tells the story of the Dunkirk evacuation in three parts: From land, from sea and from air, intertwining to create a non-linear narrative (A normality in Nolan films) On land, Fionn Whitehead plays Tommy, a young British private who, just like everyone else, wants to go home. He arrives on the beach where British troops are lined up for the evacuation, except that there is no one there to take them home. Hundreds of thousands of men stand, hopelessly, on the beach where German bombers start to attack. In the sea we find Mr. Dawson (Mark Rylance) who begins to take his small boat to Dunkirk, occupied by his son Peter and their teenage hand George they pick up a shell-shocked soiled on their way that begs them to turn back, not wanting to go back to Dunkirk, they begin to see the horrors ahead. In the air we find three pilots, one of whom is played by Tom Hardy, on their way to Dunkirk they come across constant fire from the Germans, as they also attempt to help save the troops on the sea and land.

The film opens up on the streets of Dunkirk where a group of soldiers walk through floating leaflets, warning them that Germans surround them on all sides. We know that there is only one way for them to go, this starts up the tension for the film together with the ticking noise that is constantly building and building, we are rarely ever drawn away from tension. Hans Zimmer’s haunting music makes you hold you breath in anticipation however it is the sound design and editing in the film that makes it for me. You are thrown into the unknown along with these characters; you feel every explosion, every gunshot, every breath; the sound of the planes, the waves and even the silence make it a truly astounding and riveting experience. Although I was impressed with the score I felt at times that the film could have just had the sound design and not had the music mix in with it.

What Nolan does best in this film I feel is show the scale and depth of the event. When we see the beach and troops for the first time it is never ending, it stretches far beyond the frame, it seems the amount of troops are endless and as they stare at the horizon in search for help there is nothing there, just home itself. When the beach is attacked and bodies lie dead, the troops carry on as normal, they know there is nothing they can do, no where else to go, all they can do is wait, it does make for a harrowing sight. The cinematography is striking as well, especially the scenes in the air; Hoyte Van Hoytema captures the dogfight tremendously well between the spitfires and the Luftwaffe. The struggle of having to film with heavy IMAX cameras for nearly every sequence in the film really paid off.

The main criticism I hear about this film is that it offers no character backstory and limited character development and this takes away any emotional core. This is slightly true, this film isn’t very long and telling the story from 3 perspectives means you don’t have time to dive deep into every character we see. This is why I failed to connect with some of the characters; I just wasn’t able to care for them, although it left me shocked while watching I wasn’t emotionally hit. Nolan wanted the film to be as tense and suspenseful as possible meaning he didn’t want to drag the film out to be too long and for you to care about the characters because of the situation they are in. For the most part this works, the suspense is good and you understand the situation they are in but unfortunately it doesn’t work for every character.

Overall, Dunkirk is a good survival film, Nolan opts to tell his story visually with limited dialogue, offering up exceptional sound to immerse you in the fight and striking visuals to show the horror. While the film does lacks some emotional sense towards its characters it only offers as a small adverser.

Wish X-Men was set in a Japanese high school? So do I!

In the world of My Hero Academia, 80% of the earth’s population have developed naturally occurring superpowers, known as “Quirks”. These can be as simple as being invisible or talking to animals or they be much more unique, like the ability to turn the sweat on your palms into nitro-glycerine!

The story follows young Izuku Midoriya. Originally born without a quirk, he is chosen by the most famous superhero in the world, All Might, to be the next line to inherit “One-For-All”, a quirk that boosts your body’s abilities to incredible levels. After gaining this new power, Midoriya must learn to control it in order to fulfil his lifelong dream of becoming a superhero, but first, he’s going to have to graduate.

Seeing as superheroes are quite the regular occurrence in this universe, special schools have been set-up to educate and train the next generation of heroes. Alongside his classmates, Midoriya must prove himself worthy of the power that has been given to him and learn what it takes to become a real hero.

Throughout this series, both Midoriya and his classmates are shown to be incredible examples of how to tap into the potential of a character. We are immediately introduced to everyone’s quirks as we meet them but I find myself consistently surprised by the ways in which they use them and the sheer amount of backstory that keeps being brought to the surface amongst the excitement of heroes battling villains.

Though the series begins like any good teenage based anime does with cheesy comedy and a huge amount of world-building for the purpose of easing the audience in. As soon as we know the main characters, it’s easy for anyone to choose their favourite and stick with them. With a huge variety of character types and style choices, you can’t see the same thing twice.

A personal favourite of mine is Shoto Todoroki, who possesses the amazing ability to control both ice and fire. He is immediately introduced as one of the series main powerhouses, yet his personality is quiet and distant in the first season. It isn’t until the second season that we realise his dark and incredibly violent childhood. Elements like this are what ground what would otherwise be a cast aside children’s programme. Merging comedic characters with those built upon damaged lives, that is why this show crosses the borders of a fast-paced, action filled anime and a dramatic, story based tale of self-discovery and growth.

I would recommend My Hero Academia to anyone who enjoys anime regularly, anyone looking for their first anime or anyone seeking the perfect example of how to keep afloat an entire class of characters whilst still making them all individually thrilling.

War for the Planet of the Apes combines self-conflict, a compelling narrative and stunning effects to create a strong conclusion to a powerful and successful trilogy.

It is rare to create a good trilogy; many have often failed at the final hurdle but the Planet of the Apes reboot series has succeeded. Moreover, the final film stands above the previous two. Dealing with the philosophical themes of conflict and revenge we are taken on the last part of Caesar journey.

The film opens 15 years after the events of the first film, humans walk around quietly hunting for apes with ‘Monkey Killer’ written on their helmets suggesting that peace between the two have all but fallen. This time though the humans have apes on their side, with ‘Donkey’ written on their backs they are deemed lower than they are. The Alpha-Omega faction is lead by the psychopathic Colonel played by Woody Harrelson, who at any cost, will get rid of all apes. Caesar played by Andy Serkis is still the same, having gone through vigorous pain inflicted by the humans he is still forgiving, wanting and offering peace.

This film is a slow burner; if you are expecting action scenes after action scene this is not it. The film focuses more on the conflict inside of Caesar; from the previous films we built an understanding of who Caesar is but after a horrific incident Caesar begins to question himself. He needs to be leader that the apes require however his hatred takes over, diverting him down a different path. We are reminded of Koba who is a counterpart to Caesar in the earlier films, Caesar doesn’t want to become Koba and he simply does not want to let hatred control him.

Woody Harrelson plays The Colonel, a ruthless leader who is fixated with wiping out the apes, he strongly believes that Humans are the dominant race and that is how it should always be. We can see the similarities with Colonel Walter E. Kurtz from Apocalypse Now, the way The Colonel is lit, his beliefs as well as his looks. We understand his reasoning behind his actions, although sad it is The Colonel that epitomises hatred, we see that he will never change. This is what Caesar has to fight against physically as well as mentally in himself.

War for the Planet of the Apes offers a spectacle of storytelling and character struggle, the visual effects and cinematography are stunning and the performances are gripping. The battles are within the characters nevertheless the film still has edge of your seat action and when it happens it is spectacular.

Overall, War for the Planet of the Apes is one of the strongest films of the year; Matt Reeves has done exceptionally well in his direction of creating a visually stunning epic and it is refreshing to see a great conclusion to a trilogy.