Now, during this past year, I didn't get as many opportunities to go to the theater to see a lot of movies and those that I did see I really enjoyed, so I can't really do a best and worst list of movies I saw as there just aren't enough entries for either. There's also the fact that I tend to be a pretty good judge of what movies I'm going to enjoy over which ones I'm going to ignore. Very rarely have I ever gone to see a movie that I was disappointed with by the end credits (*cough cough* Frankenweenie *cough cough*). 'Scuse me.
So, for this blog, I'm going to be going over the movies that I did see that came out this past year and just giving my basic thoughts on each of them. Something to note is that I'm not limiting it just to theatrical releases. Part of this being because one entry was the second sequel in a series that had the first 2 released in theaters, even if it was just a limited release. Because of that, I give this one entry a pass.
Additionally, I'll try to keep things spoiler-free for the most part, but I make no promises. Finally, these movies are ranked in no particular order aside from when they were released. So with all that said, let's not waste any more time and just dive right into it.
I. Kingsman: The Secret Service.
Certainly one of the wackiest movies I've seen this past year, Kingsman is described by many people as a James Bond movie if it were directed by Quentin Tarantino and, in all honesty, it's pretty hard to argue with that. Directed by Matthew Vaughn of Kick-Ass and X-Men: First Class fame, this movie is action packed while at the same time working well as an over the top comedy.
This movie openly makes fun of the conventional spy-thriller tropes and even has Samuel L. Jackson as the villain who has both a lisp and gets really queasy at the sight of blood, which is even funnier when you take into account that he has a henchwoman named Gazelle who has bladed prosthetics for legs that she uses to slice up her enemies.
The action is a lot of fun to watch ranging from thrilling and engaging to downright goofy to match the offbeat tone of the film. Unfortunately, not a lot of the characters got that much development in the movie, Gazelle being one of them which is disappointing as I would've liked to get a bit more of her backstory. Pretty decent and enjoyable film with a sequel set to come out in summer of 2017. Hopefully, it'll be just as good.
II. Ex Machina.
One of the more thought-provoking movies on my list, Ex Machina is yet another movie dealing with the concept of AI and where technology might eventually be headed. The acting is very solid, only dealing with a select few actors throughout the film's entirety and all the characters are very engaging.
The atmosphere of the movie is very tense and unsettling, constantly keeping you invested in finding out what's going to happen next. Another thing that I feel I must mention is the design of the AI herself, Ava. Despite the fact that she's mostly seen in her android form, I had no problem believing that she really was there, the CGI on her was that impressive.
Also, the ending, though I felt it dragged on for quite a bit, felt very Shakespearean or Frankensteinian. It's quite tragic. The only downside I could think of is that it doesn't seem to offer that much new in regards to other AI centric movies that have come out before. Still, the movie was enjoyable and I hope that come Oscar season it'll get plenty of nominations and, possibly, wins.
III. The Avengers: Age Of Ultron.
Going right back into the topic of AI, we have The Avengers: Age Of Ultron, the follow-up to one of the biggest superhero movies since The Dark Knight. A lot of people were really disappointed by this movie and felt that it didn't live up to the hype of its predecessor, but, in all honesty, I felt like this movie was just as good as, if not better than, the first movie.
Now I did like the first Avengers movie when it came out, but as the years have gone by since first seeing it, I've come to feel like it's a really overrated movie. I mean, 92% on RottenTomatoes? Like I said before, I liked it, but it wasn't that good. In fact, I think the reason why Age Of Ultron is ranked lower was because they realized that maybe they were a bit too lenient towards the first one that they felt they needed to balance it out with a lower rating.
There's plenty of good moments to find in this movie with the introduction of new characters like Quicksilver and Scarlet Witch, plenty of character development, and even fun interactions between members of The Avengers. There's one scene in particular where there's a party at Stark Tower and the back and forth between everyone involved feels very genuine and amiable like you want to be part of that party.
One of the major props that I have to give this movie was what it did for Hawkeye. In the first movie, I thought that Hawkeye was the weakest, most bland, boring member of the team until I saw what development he was given in this movie. Finally, I absolutely loved the music in Age Of Ultron, done by longtime favorite composer of mine Danny Elfman and Brian Tyler. The music just adds soo much depth and emotion to this movie and I feel like this is what brought Elfman back into my good graces after he did the music for Fifty Shades of Grey.
However, the main villain and his whole plan are really kind of weak. Marvel seems to have a real problem with creating interesting villains. Aside from Loki, there hasn't been a good villain in a Marvel movie. Hopefully they'll be able to do better come Phase 3.
IV. Inside Out.
While the idea of personified emotions living within your head is certainly nothing new, Pixar was able to bring this idea to life in a fun and inventive way with Inside Out, easily one of my new all time favorite Disney/Pixar movies. There's just soo much imagination and creativity that went into this movie and it all shows very clearly when you watch it.
Pixar is known for having a pretty rocky past few years with movies like Cars 2 and Monsters University not really doing that well critically and so they really needed a successful movie to get people back into their good graces which they definitely did with this movie. The voice acting is perfect with actors Lewis Black, Bill Hader, and Mindy Kaling (among others) voicing the emotions going on in an 11 year-old girl's mind.
The animation is all bright and colorful to match the tone of the movie and they actually come up with creative ideas for how memories are stored, how different emotions handling the control panel affect how the person is feeling, and which memories define who we are as people.
However, even though the movie is pretty bright and colorful for the most part, it also doesn't shy away from some of the darker, more emotionally tense moments like when certain memories are lost and they don't come back. Finally, what was really great about this movie, especially in today's culture, was its revelation of the importance of Sadness. This is especially important as there are many occasions where Sadness is viewed as something negative, in fact the character of Joy has that outlook throughout the film's majority, but this movie shows that Sadness does have a place in life.
This is just such a great movie that, if I'm being completely honest, I feel should be nominated for Best Picture Oscar it's that good. Go watch it now if you haven't already.
V. Hotel Transylvania 2.
It's no real surprise that Adam Sandler has been getting a pretty bum rap over the past several years, but the Hotel Transylvania movies, I can easily say, are some of his best work in a long time. I saw both movies in theaters and I was laughing my ass off all throughout (except for during the softer moments that dealt with a character's turmoil).
Directed by legendary animator Genndy Tartakovsky, famous for such work as Dexter's Laboratory, Samurai Jack, and The PowerPuff Girls, this movie does a very good job with showing the relationships between its members while throwing in some great comedy. The animation is soo colorful and is constantly moving with often hilarious results.
Similarly to the first movie, Adam Sandler does a great job voicing Dracula. I know that at first he may seem like a terrible choice for the role, but he just completely disappears into the character. You'd almost never know that it was him voicing Dracula.
The only problems that I had were that, without giving anything away, the movie starts to go down this one path of a character accepting that a certain change might not end up happening, but then, after this character has learned their lesson, it decides "Hey. Let's just give him that happy ending he wanted". That was kind of annoying (P.S. Kung Fu Panda did something similar). Additionally, the character of Vlad, voiced by Mel Brooks, was kind of a "take him or leave him" character. I personally didn't have a problem with him but I know others who might have.
In the end, I say the Hotel Transylvania movies are harmless and serviceable. There's nothing wrong with showing it to your kids and even some teens and adults might enjoy it. But if you hear anyone being like "OHMYGAWD!!! Hotel Transylvania is an abomination to kid's movies!!! It's the cancer of animation!!!" you just tell them to shut the fuck up and get off of their pretentious high horse because this isn't even close to scraping the bottom of the barrel when it comes to kid's movies. I have seen far worse animated movies than that. I saw The Legend of the Titanic. (shudders)
VI. My Little Pony: Equestria Girls - Friendship Games
This is the movie I was talking about earlier when I said that the 2 predecessors were given a theatrical release, even if it was limited, and any of you out there who are fellow Bronies or Pegasisters probably saw this movie coming if you know how closely I follow the show and movies. Before I begin talking about this movie, I feel like I should give you all a little background into my Equestria Girls viewing experience.
The first Equestria Girls movie I only saw in March of 2014 after watching the first 3 seasons of Friendship Is Magic off of Netflix and, despite the fact that a lot of people hated it, I thought it was O.K. Nothing great but still passable. The most enjoyable parts of the movie are when you see Twilight trying to learn how to function in her human body and they are hilarious. Additionally, the songs were a lot of fun to listen to and I still listen to them even now.
The problems that a lot of people had with the first movie I didn't mind (for the most part). The characters are still the same characters I grew to love from the show, just human. The character of Flash Sentry (one of the most hated characters in the fandom who many derogatorily refer to as "Brad". God I hate when they do that), despite not having much of a personality, I thought was a pretty decent, stand up guy. He actually helped Twilight out of a problem and I was like "Good for you man". The climax, which one person compared to what it would be like if you were watching High School Musical and then the ending cut to a battle in Narnia, I thought was pretty entertaining and I felt like I had a good understanding of it where most others were confused.
But the movie still had problems that I couldn't overlook like the plot being very unfocused and all over the place. Also, the villain, Sunset Shimmer, was awful. She was just a terrible, terrible antagonist. I would be glad later on when she's reformed and actually gets some good development in the sequels because she was a tough character to endure.
The sequel, Rainbow Rocks, I felt was much better. The villains, The Dazzlings, were plenty of fun to watch, the songs were memorable and catchy (as I type this, I'm singing "Better Than Ever" in my head), and I really loved the climax of the movie, which had a very strong Scott Pilgrim VS. The World vibe to it (this came after I saw the epic Season 4 Finale that had a battle epic enough to put DragonBall Z to shame).
Plus, like I said before, Sunset Shimmer receives great character development as a reformed villain trying to overcome the demons of her past and she comes soo far in this movie getting to the point of being accepted. By my opinion, Rainbow Rocks is the superior Equestria Girls movie.
Friendship Games has plenty of things that make it better than the first Equestria Girls movie but still keep it from reaching that pinnacle that Rainbow Rocks reached. To be completely honest, I went into this movie with pretty low expectations as the plot seemed to revolve more around Canterlot High's version of the Olympics (the Friendship Games even happen once every 4 years if you can believe that) against rival school Crystal Prep Academy which wasn't as interesting to me.
After seeing it, though, it was entertaining. The songs that were featured were great as usual and I really enjoyed how each of the members of the "Humane 6" had a foil character from Crystal Prep. For example, Applejack, the Element of Honesty, has a Crystal Prep counterpart who is unbelievably blunt in everything she says and Fluttershy's, the Element of Kindness, is a bipolar chick who starts off talking in an obnoxiously sweet manner before changing her tone to a more aggressive and annoyed one.
Plus, just like Rainbow Rocks, Sunset is given more development as she finds herself trying to figure out a problem unassisted. There was even a moment in the movie where she angrily snaps at one character, almost like she's reverting to her old self, but it's almost justified as she's concerned for her friends' wellbeing which is being constantly put in danger by this character. At the end of the movie, Sunset even takes part in somewhat of a role reversal from the first movie that was plenty entertaining.
But there were some areas of this movie that I had problems with. The first being that a character creates a device that's supposed to collect magic, but she has no way of controlling it, so why the flying hell does she keep bringing it with her? Also, the climax, while I still enjoyed it, I felt was resolved way too abruptly. But the biggest problem I had was with the villain, Principal Abacus Cinch.
This character is the worst. She's even worse than Sunset Shimmer in the first Equestria Girls movie. She's just the stereotypical head of Crystal Prep with the tie and the puffed out chest who just looks down her nose at everyone else and is obsessed with keeping the school's reputation as winners. One of her lines in the movie was "... it doesn't matter if Crystal Prep wins or loses. The important thing is that we are expected to win because Crystal Prep has a reputation." That just caused me to facepalm. I was just like "Oh god another one of these characters."
Speaking of reputation, ya ever count how many times they use that word throughout this movie? I swear you could make a drinking game out of it. Some even have. Another huge problem that I had with her was the fact that she blackmails one of her students to take part in the Games. DUDE!!! Do you realize how super illegal that is? You can go to jail for that shit. The only good thing that I can say about Cinch is that she has a pretty cool villain song with "Unleash The Magic" full of ominous chanting and a pretty epic buildup with a nice payoff, but aside from that, she's a terrible character.
Many people have problems with the Equestria Girls movies because they say that it's a cheap cash grab to sell more toys. But I'm just like, "Oh yeah. And I'm sure that Transformers, G.I. Joe, Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles, and countless others aren't like that at all." People seem to forget that products like these are part of a business which is going to need to grow if it's going to remain sucessful.
Another complaint is that people are like "Well now that they're human, people can have dirty thoughts about them" and I'm just like "Have you been online lately and seen what people do with them as ponies?" While I don't condone any of this, I have to agree with my buddy Andre when he said that "... making them human or not making them human is not going to stop people from 'Rule 34ing' all over that shiznit". Every fandom has a dark side to them if you look hard enough. No fandom is perfect. As for me, if they decide to make more sequels out of the Equestria Girls series, I'll still watch them, although I'm mostly looking forward to their big screen theatrical release in November 2017.
VII. The Hunger Games: Mockingjay - Part 2
Now we go from Friendship Games to Hunger Games. LOLZ!!!!!!!! Many of you most likely saw my review for this movie earlier in December so I won't focus as much on this. All that I can say was that this was a fitting end to a great franchise (at least until the inevitable prequels) that I had just started to fall in love with a few short years ago.
Everything gets wrapped up perfectly, every plot thread is resolved by the time the end credits roll around, and, like some of its predecessors, it dives into the tortured psyche of our main characters all while displaying great camaraderie among them making it all the more tragic when certain characters don't make it out alive.
Even with Lionsgate announcing the possibility of them doing prequels, I feel like it's almost unnecessary. The original saga is perfect as it is and anything else would just feel like a quick cash grab. But anyways those were just my thoughts about it.
And finally...
VIII. Star Wars Episode VII: The Force Awakens
This is yet another movie that I did a review on a few short weeks ago and, now that I've let some time pass since seeing it, I feel like I can give a much more in depth look at the movie instead of just singing its praises. Not that the movie was bad by any means. I just feel like I can be a little bit more critical about it.
Looking back on it now, I can see a lot of the criticisms that people have with the movie in the sense that it mostly seems to copy a lot of elements from A New Hope like the robot with secret plans, the young naive main character, the mentor figure, the giant evil base that can destroy planets, it even borrowed a bit from The Empire Strikes Back with its revelation of one character being related to the main villain. To quote a popular sketch,
However, even with it borrowing elements from the original trilogy, there are 2 things that I can say in support of it. 1. They changed enough stuff around to make it interesting. Sure we've seen the Death Star destroy a planet, but the First Order's Starkiller Base is literally a planet itself that has enough power to take out entire star systems from a great distance away.
2. I feel like incorporating these elements from the original trilogy was a smart move on JJ Abrams part. He knew how much people had a hatred for the prequels and so he brought this movie back to the basics as a way of showing that this franchise was in capable hands, hitting all the right nostalgia marks to put audiences at ease, that way it would be set up perfectly to embark on new territory in the upcoming sequels in the following years.
So when all is said and done, Star Wars Episode VII: The Force Awakens is still a great film deserving of all the praise and attention it's getting and I look forward to where this saga will go in the near future.
And so those were my thoughts on the movies that I saw this year and, if you've seen any of these movies, what were your thoughts on them? Additionally, since I'm positive that I left a buttload of movies off of here, what were your thoughts on some of the other movies that came out this year? Feel free to comment below and I hope you guys have a Happy New Year. Later.
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