La porte magique

I love a good sci fi and fantasy film, so I decided to give this a try. I'm glad I did, because it wasn't bad, but it wasn't anything like I expected.

The British tend to like their buffoonery, and there was simply too much of it in the beginning. Sam Neill could never be described as cute but that's what they were trying to make him be.

The story was also difficult to follow. The Humphries had me completely baffled until very close to the end.

Considering Jim Henson was involved with this I thought the goblins were very poorly done. Also some of the sets were great but some of the characters not very well defined at all.

Overall I didn't hate it and I watched it from start to finish in one go. But it was very slow to start and just wasn't polished enough to understand, so by the end I only just realised what I had watched.

This is a somewhat contradictory movie.

Unusually, I chose to watch it on impulse, out of the blue, with no prior knowledge of what it was about, other than it had an intriguing title and a good cast.

From the first few minutes and on to about 45 minutes, the script, apparent plot, and acting successfully draw you in.

Everything is set up for The Portable Door to be some intriguing, mind binding, psychological, thought provoking film for adults.

You are being taken from the seemingly innocuous streets of London to witness what goes on behind the doors of a mysterious company run by people, Waltz and Neil, whose stated intent is the secret control of the masses, and to sell that ability to the highest bidders.

Burton's confusion but initial happiness in getting a strange job in this mysterious company is well portrayed, as is his discovery of his hitherto unknown 'other world' abilities.

It feels like a very dark, sci-fi, adult Alice in Wonderland equivalent, with The Portable Door being the entrance to anywhere possible, as per the rabbit hole.

Then, just as you sense this film can really take off into deep and intriguing mind games, something happens.

To me it suddenly changes direction, backs away from being grown up, and the second half goes completely the opposite, dumping all the careful build-up, the mystery, the intrigue, and the subtlety of leaving you wondering where is this going!

And for me that is why it seems the whole first half, of potentially a great attention grabbing movie, appears to be dumped in the bin.

It's as if halfway through making it, the director was told that the studio had now given permission for a good CGI budget to be available.

So now they had to spend it.

And that is why, the film suddenly changes from an interesting subtle mind drama to an all out, in your face, no mystery, flashes, bangs, wallops, villain chasing goodie with loads of odd other creatures hanging around kids fantasy movie.

So the last half hour or so is what you expect to see anywhere else, and therefore the end result is pretty obvious from way out, rather than being a last minute cliff-hangar.

I enjoyed the first half, but disappointed with the second half.

So much potential for a really intriguing film, and then it all reverts to a flash, bang, wallop, CGI action film, which chucks all the great acting of Waltz and Neill early on, out of the window.

IMPORTANT!!!

Right at the end of the last credits featuring all the CGI creators etc.., there is a clip of a final scene showing Burton, as the character Carpenter.

What happens in that scene is strangely a precise summary of what I have written above - so much potential, but at the end not much achieved.

So do watch right to the end.

It's a fitting summary added by the Director - very telling!

Paul Carpenter is desperately looking for a job. After a most unusual interview he ends up hired in a company, but he neither knows what they do nor does he even know his duties. Then, two lowly newcomers , Paul (Patrick Gibson) and Sophie (Sophie Wilde), at J. W. Wells and Co., a mysterious firm based in London, uncover a plot by their CEO to disrupt the ancient magical world with modern corporate practices. Nasty villains Humphrey Wells (Christoph Waltz) , the CEO of the company, and middle manager Dennis Tanner (Sam Neill) are disrupting the world of magic by bringing modern corporate strategy to ancient magical practices

There are some similarities to 'Harry Potter' and ¨Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them¨sagas in this solid fantasy with adventures, magic and imagination. ¨The Portable Door¨ is the first book in Tom Holt's J. W. Wells & Co. Series, made up of eight books: The Portable Door (2003), In Your Dreams (2004), Earth, Air, Fire and Custard (2005), You Don't Have to Be Evil to Work Here, But it Helps (2006), The Better Mousetrap (2008), May Contain Traces of Magic (2009), Life, Liberty, and the Pursuit of Sausages (2011), The Eight Reindeer of the Apocalypse (2023). Following a fascinating first 30 minutes the movie loses impetus as the writer struggles to spin it out towards two-hour length. Patrick Gibson and Sophie Wilde star in this magical film playing two interns become increasingly aware that their mysterious employers are anything but conventional, discovering the true agenda of the vast corporation; alongside the winner of two Oscars for best supporting actor Christoph Waltz (Django unchained) and Sam Neil (Jurassic Park) performing two charismatic villain chiefs. This likeable quartet of protagonists are well accompanied by a wonderful supporting cast, such as: Damon Herriman , Demi Harman, Rachel House, Miranda Otto, Chris Pang, Arka Das, and Jessica De Gouw.

It displays a thrilling and enjoyable musical score by Benjamin Speed. Likewise , a brilliant and colorful cinematography by Donald McAlpine. Along with stunning state-of-art special effects and creatures from Story Bridge Films and The Jim Henson Company. The motion picture was professionally directed by Jeffrey Walker though borrows heavily from other known stories. Craftsman Jeffrey Walker at his debut feature film, but he has directed a number of episodes of popular TV series, such as: The Artful Dodger, Bones, The Clearing , Blue heeler, H2o, Lambs of God, LA to Vegas, The Clearing, Home and away, Dance academy, The Elephant Princess, The young rock, Wild Boys , Angry Boys, among others. Rating: 6.5/10. Well worth watching.

Why do people who have read the book ever bother to view a film they know from the outset they will hate because - insert whiny voice- "it's not like the book". Why not save yourself the agony.

As a counterpoint I have read the book, and thought this adaptation was most enjoyable. You can't really describe anything without spoilers. Ut it bowls along with a great sense of humour -mfor some of which paying attention is rewarded.

If you haven't read the books give them a go as there are seven in the series and explore the idea in greater details. This will be good should get round to making a sequel.

I'm baffled a bit by the other reviews and was nearly going to not give this movie a go but I'm so glad I did! I watched with the whole family and even though it was longer than most movies my kids would sit through, they loved it.

It was so odd in times that it actually made the movie more fun to watch- there were several times we were laughing out loud at the fantastic weirdness of it all!

I'm someone who watches a movie almost every night and visits the cinema weekly and found this a really enjoyable watch so I would definitely give it a go if you're thinking about it and don't worry, all those things that seem odd in the beginning end up making sense in the end!

A great film - well done!

P.s I didn't find the movie that dark, there are a couple of scenes that might be a bit scary that my youngest (5) was a little worried about initially, but ended up being fine with.