Eddie the Eagle, Warcraft, Pete's Dragon and London Has Fallen

1: Eddie the Eagle

This small-scale, endlessly affectionate biopic has all the hallmarks of a cheesy sports anime: an underdog no-hoper who has the establishment against him defies expectations to win the affection of the world, and while not rising to the top of his sport – rather an impossible feat against people who have trained their whole lives – fulfilling a childhood dream and competing at the highest level. It works so well as a formulaic sports story that it’s amazing so little had to be added to the true story.

Of course, this is not a realistic docu-drama. There’s a shameless exaggeration of characters and adversaries, especially Tim McInnerny’s Olympics official. Taron Eagerton, who was not particularly likeable in The Kingsmen, is much better as Eddie, an inherently likeable buffoon, Hugh Jackman adds real gravitas to his washed-up, fictional coach character, and there are great cameos from Christopher Walken and Jim Broadbent. Handsome Edvin Endre from Vikings also gets to deliver a fantastic little monologue with really nice clock imagery as top ski jumper Matti Nykänen.

Watching the movie, you know things weren’t so simple. Eddie didn’t just go to a training camp specifically for ski jumping and recklessly endanger his life until someone helped him. He didn’t have a father who always discouraged him until finally being won over. Obviously he didn’t try the 90m jump for the first time in his life in the Olympics. But it doesn’t really matter. It’s meant to be a fun and silly tribute to a fun and silly story, and in that it succeeds very well.

2: Warcraft

Having a bit of an addictive personality, I stayed well away from the time and money sink that is World of Warcraft, and thus I don’t know much about it. I could probably have told you it’s a high fantasy set in the world of Azeroth and that the bad guys are collectively called the Hoard, but that’s about it.

I actually quite liked the look of the Warcraft trailer, though, enjoying the fact that it didn’t just present a Tolkienesque world of good humans against evil orcs, instead focusing on some orcs who have a nobler purpose than just conquering and pillaging. That said, it’s a pretty straightforward overall plot, with conquering and pillaging at its heart.

This is an unashamedly over-the-top fantasy story, with wizards doing proper flashy magic, orcs smashing things with hammers and dwarves busily crafting weapons. Unfortunately, everything is too tried-and-tested, so there are no surprises beyond the limited attempts to make a sympathetic orc character. A lot more of that angle would have worked better, but the fact is that the orcs are simply born killers who intend to conquer everything.

This isn’t going to bring new fans to the game, and I doubt it will start a whole new franchise – though plot elements were left hanging to tease that possibility. It would have been much improved by something to chip away at the polish, a sceptic or a cynic or a buffoon. Everyone was just too earnest, playing their roles so dispassionately.

Oh, and I didn’t even recognise Glenn Close.

3: Pete’s Dragon

I’ve never actually seen the original Pete’s Dragon, but I believe the intrigue in the original revolves around whether Elliott the dragon is real or not. No such question here, but by the looks of it they did away with any but the barest resemblance to the original in any case.

Unfortunately, what results is a story that has nothing new to offer. It owes a lot to Flight of the Navigator, E.T. or even Digby, the Biggest Dog in the World in the kid-and-strange-companion-hunted-by-adults, and I’m sure there are plenty of other examples.

I was mostly bored by this remake, perhaps because I hoped for some psychological ambiguity, only to get a remake that replaced a campy original with a new plot that was nonetheless entirely unoriginal.

4: London has Fallen

I watched this only because it was the sole vaguely interesting-looking film short enough for me to watch on the jaunt between Seoul and Tokyo, though I suspect it was only that short because it had been heavily censored. I never saw Olympus Has Fallen but I don’t think it was necessary to know Gerard Butler was a tough guy in the Bond-Bourn vein and he has to protect the president.

Honestly, what I wanted from this film was to see London blown up. Not just Big Ben, but a whole variety of familiar landmarks. Not because that’s what I want in real life, of course – but because it’s always fun to see places you know in this kind of action story. Here, a huge terrorist attack at the state funeral of the UK Prime Minister dispatches most of the world’s most prominent leaders – with only our heroic US president to be protected by his tough, mostly bulletproof bodyguard and a few disposable allies.

Nothing smart and strewn with cheap effects but the initial attack was fun to watch.