Justin and the Knights of Valour

[prettyxcool]

Unoriginal story (seriously, how many times can they recycle the same story?), weak script, bland characters. The 3D was fine though.
Few chuckles along the way but overall a very poor flick (from a grown up point of view anyway)
5/10

Sadly, I completely agree. I love my animated films and am always very easy on their rating but this was just so dull! And for it's 90-odd minute length it felt like it was waaaaay too long. Too many characters, too many things going on back and forth which meant that in the end the storyline as whole just didn't do anything for me. I saw all the scenes/characters that were there to provide comic relief but none of it was able to get a laugh from me today. Very disappointing and I struggled to stay awake. 5/10

Totally agree with both Celini and C-T. I struggled to keep awake, kept nodding off, felt long, lovely jeanelle gave me a sweetie, so managed to keep awake by sucking on the sweetie. Thanks jeanelle. Really disappointing as I saw the trailer and it looked deceivingly good. However, the big manly guy next to me chuckled and giggled all the way through, woohing and wowing as well, a big kid? Nah, he probably don't get out much and has not seen any better animations. 4/10

I joined jeanelle right at the front second row on the left hand side to grab some photos of Saoirse Ronan and Antonio Banderas's intro at the beginning but the spotlight was so bright that all I got was a white fleck where Saoirse Ronan is as she is so pale anyway, so I crept out of the second row and sat on the steps in front of them, so managed to get one good shot!

Well, I was also going to say that watching a 3D film not from seats in the centre of the screen but to the very far, far right of the screen was fine, but there was not much 3D to test it out!

The fun in the foyer was definitely for under 7's. The fun really started when they started the sword making, which was rather good though as the swords were really nice. Also the mini iMovie, when that got going, was also rather good as they got the children to act in front of a green screen which they then overlay it with monsters so they either look like they were fighting them or screaming or running away in horror. Apparently it will be uploaded on the BFI Family Film Youtube, but the whole thing was a very, very slow process, and the Mac kept hanging and he had to keep rebooting.

The storyboard comp was really nice and they quickly gave out prizes before the stars intro. When I checked twitter after the film, it turns out the UK premiere was at Mayfair Hotel earlier.
http://www.film3sixtymagazine.com/index ... re-photos/

[Sunny Saver]

To be honest, I would have preferred if they hadn't bothered with Antonio and just got on with the film, given it was supposed to start at 12pm and he didn't come till 12.15pm. Who's bright idea was it to have a preview at lunchtime????

[Rainey]

To be honest, I would have preferred if they hadn't bothered with Antonio and just got on with the film, given it was supposed to start at 12pm and he didn't come till 12.15pm. Who's bright idea was it to have a preview at lunchtime????

Maybe it was scheduled to start after the premiere prettyxcool mentioned above, we had to wait for him to come over from there.

[prettyxcool]

To be honest, I would have preferred if they hadn't bothered with Antonio and just got on with the film, given it was supposed to start at 12pm and he didn't come till 12.15pm. Who's bright idea was it to have a preview at lunchtime????

Maybe it was scheduled to start after the premiere prettyxcool mentioned above, we had to wait for him to come over from there.

The interviewer said they had to rush to catch a flight after our intro, so they had to be quick, so it seems we were lucky they could stop by on their way to the airport! But do agree not a great idea to have film starting at noon, and no snacks and drinks available beforehand. BFI do not allow drinks and food in their screening rooms, so that may be the reason.

When I went to exchange my print-out for proper tickets, there were three queues, those collecting tickets (presumably brought), comp winners and SFF, hence SFF had all the seats in grotty rows. But I do like NFT1 screening room, the seats are really, really comfy!

[jeanelle]

When I went to exchange my print-out for proper tickets, there were three queues, those collecting tickets (presumably brought), comp winners and SFF, hence SFF had all the seats in grotty rows. But I do like NFT1 screening room, the seats are really, really comfy!

At the beginning I was a little concerned about the grotty row/side position but really it wasn't a problem, it was the film that was the problem! And the usual uncomfortable glasses for unnecessary 3D. Not even that much 3D, the backgrounds were mostly flat. It was all quite pretty to look at but compared to the great animations we've seen it looked pretty low budget. I sat back and let it all just wash over me. I'm glad it wasn't an early start and it was nice to see the FMUKers out in force. The always lovely pxc abandoned her friends to come and keep me company so I had a good time.

[prettyxcool]

When I went to exchange my print-out for proper tickets, there were three queues, those collecting tickets (presumably brought), comp winners and SFF, hence SFF had all the seats in grotty rows. But I do like NFT1 screening room, the seats are really, really comfy!

At the beginning I was a little concerned about the grotty row/side position but really it wasn't a problem, it was the film that was the problem! And the usual uncomfortable glasses for unnecessary 3D. Not even that much 3D, the backgrounds were mostly flat. It was all quite pretty to look at but compared to the great animations we've seen it looked pretty low budget. I sat back and let it all just wash over me. I'm glad it wasn't an early start and it was nice to see the FMUKers out in force. The always lovely pxc abandoned her friends to come and keep me company so I had a good time.

Well, I could not let you sit on your own jeanelle, also it meant I could be closer to get some shots! .

Yes, I had a good time too despite the disappointing film, as I managed to catch up with mandmc10, bevvy and her lovely grandchildren, who had all grown so much, rainey and her lovely children too, ritamistry, sunny saver, and funthing, and celine and c_t briefly. Those 3D glasses were absolutely useless, too big and heavy and just kept falling down!

[martadelas]

Talk about two hours I can never get back. The interviews before (late! now that's a bit rude) were pointless and it really was a struggle to stay awake. When the glasses felt uncomfortable I took them off ... and there seemed to be no difference, so why even bother with 3D. Not one stand-out character I could like or dislike properly, no interesting story line, twists or jokes. All in all a movie that felt way too long and way too dull.
The only good thing was the company. And the comfy seats, but then they made staying awake that much more challenging.

3/10

[RAZORBACK]

Went to a Saturday morning screening & found this to be an incredibly uneven movie. There were some individual scenes that were really quite inventive & visually I had no issues with it but most of the (vocal) performances were terrible.

Excluding Mark Strong, pretty much everyone in the main roles seemed very robotic and as for supporting characters I wouldn't be surprised to hear that they'd grabbed random people off the street to do the voices for those.

However, I did find myself getting drawn into the story as things progressed and liked that there were some quite dark themes (albeit with a candy coloured coating) running through it so was surprised (especially as I'd seen the reviews on this thread) that this ended up being a relatively positive experience .

Overall I view this as a missed opportunity and although I wouldn't recommend it to friends etc I have to say that it did just enough to scrape a 6/10 from me...