War Horse
Dir: Steven Spielberg
2011
***
I'm a huge fan of Michael Morpurgo's War Horse having read it only a few years after it was first published, it's a cherished childhood memory but I'm probably a bigger fan of the theatre production. I love the way the story is brought to life using puppetry (for want of a better word as it is a little more advanced than puppetry) and I reccomened anyone who can to go and see it. I'm not completely surprised by what Spielberg has done with his adaptation, if I'm being honest I thought it would be worse. The assembled cast is impressive, a who's who of contemporary British talent, apart from Jeremy Irvine who can't act, but everyone else does a fine job. It's pretty predictable that Spielberg went to Richard Curtis for the screenplay, seeing as he is the only British screen writer in existence (*Groans*). The story is there, it's just that it's needlessly sugarcoated to the point of sickly, it's so heavy handed it's hard to take seriously. The CGI and blue-screen are also overused, it's funny really that he seems to be taking advantage of the recent success of the theatre production but is also showing why it is superior. The bearded one is getting old and tired and really needs to come up with a good idea of his own instead of pillaging other people's.