Halfang

I had been looking forward to this one since I saw the first trailer ages ago. It really showed some moments of awesome, and it had the potential of being 300-2. However, I was a little disappointed with the pacing (a bit too slow in my opinion) and I was surprised that I wasn't surprised about the ending (if that makes any sense?). Special detail was paid to the aesthetics, with interesting compositions and scene transitions, which is always glad to look at. It has one of the best speeches pre-war that I can remember (you could see that one from the trailer, although it's better on the film), and some scenes have been improved since the trailer (the break-rock-and-unclick-apart effect doesn't exist anymore, and it's now a much better scene). Anyway, it's worth a watch, but it's not the homecoming of the second resurrection of the Greek Gods. Oh, and definitely better than Clash of the Titans.

I just came from the cinema from watching "Shoot on Sight".

I have to say that the tag line cached my attention since I first saw it, being interested in the movie itself, and what was it about. Being a Criminology student, it's not hard to find interesting how people react to racism, and how people sometimes overreact to it. Some good points are made on that respect (when Ali learns about the wife of the "racist" cop, for example).

Now, getting into the movie itself, it looks like a TV-drama. It's not a judgement, it's just an opinion that doesn't either make it good or bad. Some of the plot related elements look a bit forced, in order to make the characters more "popular" amongst the public, I guess. The pace is steady, and the movie doesn't refrain from giving some "shock moments", which I particularly love. This makes the whole thing a bit real. However, don't expect great shoot-outs, people jumping on the air whilst firing two guns, or people shooting to the air and shouting "AAAAH" (see Hot Fuzz). It has action, understand me, but in a more steady way.

However, the important thing about the movie (and basically what I went to see it for) is the plot, and what it deals with. Islamic terrorism is something quite present on British society, and even more present in London, and even talking about it might be seen by some as racism. As one of the characters say, not all Muslims are Islamic terrorists, but all the Islamic terrorists are Muslim. Again, not being racist, just realistic. The film manages to stay in a neutral position, and not failing in a pro-Islams/anti-Islams position (which I feared, to be honest). It is neither a terrorist manifesto, nor an auto-criminalisation of all Muslims. Stays well balanced in very unstable grounds.

I gave it a 8/10. Worth watching.