The Changeover

I really went in to watching this film with high hopes. Teenager discovers she has hidden powers and tries to rescue her younger brother. Story starts off well and had my interest for about 30 minutes in and THEN it fell flat. The actors are actually perfect but the movie tried to form chemistry between the main actor and actress in a way that did not fit with the movie. There was a lack of build up for the audience, I kept waiting to be amazed while the main actress discovers herself but truth is she remained boring until the very end. This movie could have been great, may be lack of funding but something was wrong so therefore i could only give it a 3/10.

McKenzie and Harcourt do an admirable job bringing the novel to a present day setting, with excellent award-winning cinematography. Built on themes of the dangers of 'inviting' trouble upon yourself and/or others, accepting yourself for who you are and the 'magic' within you, and sibling bonds, "The Changeover" is a fine addition to New Zealand's growing film history. Excellent performances are provided by Spall and especially Erana James. James is one to keep and eye on for years to come. It's not among the best of 2017, but it's certainly a well-made film worthy of your time if it sounds like something that might interest you.

Young adult book adaptations into sickly movies have been a thing for a while now, from Twilight to the Host to Divergent to Hunger Games and beyond. Here we see New Zealand have a go at it, and it's the same as the US tends to deliver.

Telling the story of a girl who must face an evil force in order to save her little brother this is a witchy themed thing, and the above description of sickly most definitely applies.

Starring Timothy Spall and Lucy Lawless I'm being a tad generous here, it's a really quite bad film.

You see it's your usual teen angst vs less than normal love interest vs nonsensical convoluted plot hole ridden concept. To make matters worse the two leads are awful! Nicholas Galitzine is your stoic dull mysterious brooding "Hunk" and Erana James is the Kiwi Kristen Stewart and has the acting ability of a brick. The two of them pick one facial expression at the start and continue it for the full duration of the movie.

If you like your schmaltzy teen angst nonsense then you might enjoy this, otherwise steer clear.

The Good:

Spall is oddly on form

Decent soundtrack

The Bad:

So much teen angst!

The two leads have the emotional range of a fart

I like witches, I liked the story, but that was wayyy too long of a movie. It was really boring and it saddens me a bit because this movie had a lot of potential.

Timothy Spall counts for a good 5 of those 7 stars. He plays the sinister bad guy absolutely perfectly.

The rest is...flawed. There are some great moments, great ideas, great little bits of dialogue, but it's so disjointed and with so many bits that take away from the good that it feels a shame.

I don't know if it's the writing, the directing or the editing, but at some point it went wrong and a good idea lost it's flow.

Nonetheless, if you're a fan of the genre, I'd recommend it