Birdman o (La inesperada virtud de la ignorancia)

With all due respect to Eastwood's American Sniper, the academy actually got it right with this pick for best picture. Every actor and actress in this given the space to breathe life into characters, every monologue and dialogue hits like a ton of bricks, every scene tries to get towards some fundamental truth of human nature only to have the next scene undermine that character and that purported truth. It's amazing that in the era of comic book universe movies that something like this can get made at all. An absolute must see before you die movie.

Despite the near-universal acclaim from critics, 'Birdman' very much divided audiences to a quite extreme degree. This division is very much understandable, 'Birdman' has a great many merits but not everything will work for everybody.

To me 'Birdman' was an excellent film. Maybe not quite as good as the hype suggests, but nowhere near deserving of the many 1/10 votes when its merits are a great many that some people seem to have not acknowledged. Although, from personal opinion, a little over-hyped, 'Birdman' ('Gone Girl', 'The Grand Budapest Hotel' and 'Whiplash' were also personal favourites, and 'Boyhood' was also better than given credit for considering the amount of hate it's garnered) was a 2014 highlight and a worthy Best Picture winner.

Not everything in 'Birdman' works. Some of the pace is a touch frenetic in parts of the second half and not everything feels quite as tied up as ought with things left a little loose.

However, 'Birdman' is an exceptionally well made film, with some of the best and cleverest cinematography of the year, some of the cinematography and editing is so dazzling it's enough to take the breath away. The special effects are also tremendous. Directed by Alejandro González Iñárritu (in the first of his deserved director wins, the best being 2015's 'The Revenant), 'Birdman' is one of the best directed films of 2014 too and shows Iñárritu's immense talent as a director, with breath-taking vision, sense of mood and the ability to make the story as gripping as possible.

The script is fun, thought-provoking and at times touchingly profound. The story mostly, while sometimes thin, is gripping and the characters engage.

Michael Keaton gives his best performance in years, an outstanding performance and perhaps a career-best. Edward Norton is similarly superb, his performance also ranking among his best. Emma Stones charms and delights too.

Overall, very much divisive, with some people adoring or admiring it and others hating it, personally was one of the people who loved it while acknowledging its imperfections. 9/10 Bethany Cox

I absolutely loved the film. From the colors to the amazing camera work and the brilliant performances, it was a masterpiece. However i do believe that some people may find it tiring, nevertheless the movie has its twists and comic reliefs.

A washed-up ex-superhero actor is trying to make a mark on Broadway. Unfortunately, his new found want to make 'something serious', as opposed to superhero films, is challenged by the inability to shake his old persona.

It's a film about Hollywood and its many personalities - the drug-addicted, the mentally unwell, the sexual abusers, the egotistical, the scathing critics, the stars and the has-beens. It's not a topic I particularly care for and I didn't enjoy Tarantino's 'Once Upon a Time in Hollywood' or Alma Har'el/Shia Lebeouf's 'Honey Boy'.

Birdman, however, hypnotised me. You're greeted by snaking, daydream-like single shots that seem stretch forever, one scene flowing effortlessly into another through a combination of clever camera work, editing, and special effects. In short, it's a cinematographic dream. The high-conflict scenes, action, script, and larger than life characters glue your eyes to the screen in this rollercoaster that's effortless to watch. For a film about Hollywood, you'd expect good acting, and it certainly didn't disappoint, whether from Michael Keaton, Edward Norton, or the rest of the talented cast.

Birdman thrusts you into supernaturalism briefly, before thrusting you back to reality. It leaves it up to you how to interpret some key events and this creates division within the audience.

I understand why some dislike the film. I didn't find it meaningful, deep, or clear to what its message was. However, its punchy style was refreshingly new, worked perfectly, and is reason alone for cinephiles to delve into this engaging whirlwind of a film.

Whilst viewing 'Birdman', I spent the first hour of the film trying to decipher my emotions and opinions towards it, what I was watching was a weird, yet wonderful work of art. Truly though, 'Birdman' is a technical masterpiece. Michael Keaton has generally been undermined as an actor (despite a few notable roles as Batman or Beetlejuice) and has instead faced Hollywood picking more acclaimed and popular actors, 'Birdman' however might just be his ticket to an Oscar nomination, and possibly even a win, his performance is mesmerising. Alejandro González Iñárritu has created a truly spectacular character study that arguably features this year's strongest acting performances, alongside a well- executed script, booming soundtrack and a monumental achievement with cinematography from Emmanuel Lubezki in which he attempts a Hitchcockian approach, reminiscent of 'Rope', and displays the story through a seemingly single and unbroken sweeping shot. This is the true definition of a masterpiece.