Movies I Didn’t Review in 2014

As I previously mentioned in my Ticket Stub Archaeology posts, I save the ticket stub from every movie I see. As much as I try to shame myself into getting my act together every time I see a movie in theaters to sut down and write a review of it, even just for my own reference, some movies, for various reasons, slip through the cracks. So, at the end of the year, here, very very briefly, are some of the films I forgot to review:

Boyhood

How could I not review the movie everyone was talking about this year? The answer: laziness. Boyhood: It’s as good as everyone says, and surprisingly actually a little bit better. It’s a story about growing up, but what you don’t expect is the detail to character that’s put into the protagonist. He’s not just a boy, he’s a unique boy, and by the end of the film you really feel like you know him as a real person. Certainly worth watching, even if it does feel really long.

Top Five

Meh. I laughed a bit, but even though I’m usually a fan of Chris Rock, this one didn’t really hit the mark for me. The few places where it tries to go deeper than just its jokes are interesting, and I liked the characters, but it needed a bit more of something to really enjoy it. If you’re a Chris Rock fan, or just want to watch a comedy, I say go for it, but I’d wait for it to hit Redbox.

The President

The President is a Georgian (country, not state) film that won the top prize, the Golden Hugo, at the Chicago International Film Festival. It tells the story of a dictator of an unnamed country and his grandson as they attempt to flee the nation they once ruled after it is taken over by revolutionaries. Timely, powerful, and visually amazing. My only problem was that, in the second half, the events of the story lose some of their impact and become rather repetitive, but it ends on a strong note with one of the most striking and affecting final scenes I’ve ever seen. Simply fantastic.

Evolution of a Criminal  

Ten years after being arrested for and serving time in prison for robbing a Bank of America, filmmaker Darius Monroe returns to his hometown to examine the impact of the event on the victims, his accomplices, and his family. It’s completely unique, in that it tells the story of a teenage boy falling into crime, rehabilitation, and the impact it’s had on his life from the perspective of the criminal himself. It’s a great portrait of not only Darius, who I was lucky enough to see speak after the screening, but how criminality is created in our country. Go watch it if you get the chance.

Guardians of the Galaxy

What’s wrong with me? Seriously, am I broken? I think I’m the only person I know who didn’t like this movie. I fully understand that, when it comes to superhero movies, the plot usually is the weakest element, but in this movie the plot was so weak it managed to completely lose me on everything else. Of course I liked the characters, because who wouldn’t like the characters, but the movie didn’t add up to anything more than them, and just left me unable to enjoy it. Maybe the sequel will be better, but until I was going through my ticket stubs I had completely forgotten I even saw this movie.

Movie Review: Captain America: The Winter Soldier

Oh, Marvel. Oh, Captain. Oh… Captain, my Captain. 

Captain America is my favorite member of The Avengers, and though it wasn’t the best structurally, I probably enjoyed his Phase 1 movie the most for its adorable 40’s nostalgia charm. As such, I probably had a bit more to gain and a bit more to look forward to from this movie than, let’s say, major fans of the Iron Man movies did. I was really looking forward to seeing Steve Rogers again, and also Black Widow, who I thought was really underdeveloped in Iron Man 2. In order to balance out this review some, I’m going to try something a little bit new for me and do it in list format, starting with the things I liked and then covering the things I didn’t like.

What I Liked:

Characters:

All of the characters from previous Marvel movies got a lot of screentime and development in this movie. The characters didn’t just do things, they had actual arcs and journeys and grew as people beyond where they left off in Avengers. This was also a strength I thought Iron Man 3 had, but in Winter Soldier Black Widow’s development really stood out. She didn’t have much to accomplish in her first appearance in Iron Man 2, and even though Avenger’s gave her a personality, she didn’t have as much of a chance to stand out simply because of the size of the cast in that movie. In this movie, she has a lot of scenes one-on-one with Steve which allow both of the characters to show who they are in their element. They make snide comments, they joke, they try to poke at each other’s baggage, and I felt we got to learn a lot about them both from the way they were put together in this story. 

As for Captain America himself, I liked how they didn’t go too far into the “Man Out of Time” storyline, since they kind of missed their chance with that in The Avengers, but they gave us enough of it to be satisfying. Instead, they actually gave us more time to see his personality, already pretty well developed, as it fits into a modern, non-superhero fighting team context. I especially really liked the way they handled this with his relationship with the Falcon. Speaking of…

There was one point in this movie where I was sitting there thinking, “Wow, I wonder if little kids could get anything from this…” Then, immediately after that thought, The Falcon has a scene where he is dodging airborn missiles with his mechanical bird wings. And I was like, “Oh!” In other words, I really liked the Falcon (his name is Sam, by the way). Sam is introduced as the first non-Shield, non-Super person Steve befriends in the 21st century, and even though he obviously becomes a hero later in the movie, I liked the relationship with him and a seemingly normal ex-army guy working for the VA. Their personalities mesh well, they have a lot of funny back and forth, and I really look forward to more of their team ups in the future. 

Oh, right, the Winter Soldier. The one from the title. We’ll get to him. But I liked his design?

Themes:

Making a modern action movie with themes about mistrust of the government, spying on individuals, drones, and government infiltration by terrorists is by no means unexpected or mind-blowing, but I do appreciate that is is somewhat more daring to do this in a movie titled “Captain America” (and some type of Winter Soldier or something). The incorporation of the references to the modern day with current American fears about government control mixed with just enough comic book unreality to make them fantastical gave a nice balance and an interesting tone. The movie allowed itself to touch on the heavier issues, but was enough of a comic book movie that it could do so in a broad, optimistic way that would have otherwise seemed pandering. 

Oh, and yes. The villains are literally using aerial drones. Okay, they’re not drones, but they’re not trying to hide the inspiration.

The Action: 

I have some mixed feelings on the action in this movie, but what did really stand out to me was how brutal it was. A lot of things get destroyed, and a lot of people get killed in the crossfire. I’m not a hundred percent sure what made it more intense to me than, let’s say, Thor 2, but I think it was the angle from which the action was filmed. I hate shakey cam, but in this movie they used it pretty effectively (and somewhat sparingly) to make you feel like you were watching it from ten feet away. It also has somewhat to do with who they showed getting caught in the crossfire. There’s a part near the end when a bunch of people are called upon to “fight for their freedom”, and even as you’re hearing them being called to action you see a lot of them being killed. The extras don’t really have any “hero immunity”, and it was actually pretty striking.

Okay, now it’s time to movie onto

What I Didn’t Like:

The Amount of Storylines:

I loved the Falcon, and I’m intrigued by The Winter Soldier. The only problem is, neither of these characters has much of a connection to the main plot! The Winter Soldier is an assassin for/agent of the main baddies, okay. Functionally, he’s more of a subplot. The Falcon is interesting, but he really doesn’t get enough time to develop as a hero, or as a friend to the main characters. If the movie had moved more of the Winter Soldier subplot to the end of the movie, as a teaser to the third movie that is already going to feature him, or removed Falcon to save him for the next movie, the plot would have had more time to develop and felt a whole lot less cluttered. 

Lack of Humor:

One of my favorite elements of the first Captain America movie was how it managed to have a lot of humor, both from it’s snarky characters and its situations, while still dealing with character development and dramatic action. In the sequel, though there are a few funny scenes and gags, the tone remains fairly serious throughout. It may work for some people, but I like my Superhero movies to be a little more balanced on their humor and their drama. 

Some Tonally Weird Nonsense:

Most of the movie has a great, consistent, “Trust No One” kind of tone to it, but there are a few moments for which that tone just does not work at all. The big reveal of who the villains are working for would be great, but the device used to reveal it, even though I can totally see it working in a Marvel comic, feels incredibly bizarre considering the realism that the rest of the movie is aiming for. There is also a bit of a deus ex machina that is incredibly predictable, and I thought that, with the serious tone they were trying to go for, undermined their purpose a bit. 

Complete and Utter Nonsense: 

Okay, I know I know I know, this is the most nitpicky thing. but there is a scene where a character gives Black Widow’s birth year as 1984, and then, two scenes later, she mentions that she used to be in the KGB. WHEN WERE YOU IN THE KGB? THE KGB WAS DISSOLVED IN 1991! Thing is, they didn’t even HAVE to say she was in the KGB! We could have all suspended our disbelief and gone on happily thinking that she was from some other super Russian spy agency, but NOOOOO. You had to make it explicitly the freaking KGB like this is 1985, and now it’s just stupid. 

Overall, besides horrible KGB references, I can’t really say I disliked this movie. The tone was off to me, and they really should have left either Winter Soldier or The Falcon to the third movie, but I enjoyed watching it a lot, and it didn’t let down the Marvel Universe. Would I have liked better? Yes, definitely, and I really hope that they give the third movie maybe just another re-write or something to keep it from having the bugs that this one did. Did I hate it? No, not at all. It tried a lot of things, it succeeded in most of them, and it left me wanting more from The Avengers: Age of Ultron. 

Movie Review: Thor: The Dark World

Ah, Thor. My old enemy.

Because of my strong feelings about the first Thor movie (detailed here) Thor: The Dark World had some pretty high stakes for me. Would the movie be able to incorporate the awesomeness that is The Avengers, and leave behind the bullshit that was its first installment? Would my enjoyment of the movie be hindered by nitpicking and my general dislike of the Thor universe that has been instilled in me?  Would my odd mixture of happy anticipation for an Avengers sequel and dread for a Thor one make any movie both disappoint and exceed my expectations?

Well, no. Thor: The Dark World isn’t really big enough, serious enough, or important enough for any of that to matter. And I am very much okay with that.

The Dark Elf Malekith, years before Odin took the throne of Asgard, sought to return the universe to darkness using a weapon called the Aether. He was defeated and the Aether was buried underground. Now, at the convergence, a time that comes every five thousand years when the boundaries between the nine realms blur, he is seeking out the Aether in it’s current host body, that of Jane Foster.

The scope of the movie, I definitely felt, is more “TVish”. The story is fairly small, it continues from where the last one let off, and the stakes aren’t significantly higher than those in the previous installments. It’s weird to say, but I don’t actually count this as a mark against the movie. A lot of the time sequels (Spiderman and Pirates of the Caribbean are good examples) try to raise the stakes exponentially with each installment, which tends to stretch the premise of the original and take the series too far out of its depth. The characters who we originally liked seeing solving problems on their own merit have to rely on magic or deus ex machina, because the story has become too big for them. Thor: The Dark World, for all its universe ending threats, is on a smaller scale: There is a villain, Thor has to defeat him with hammer beating and help from his friends, and the audience is able to follow along and suspend their disbelief enough to just enjoy the story. Especially in this movie, this allows for a lot of other good character interaction and jokes, without having to rely too heavily on a plot for guidance.

When I say the character interaction is the best thing in this movie, there’s really one thing that comes to mind. Yes, Natalie Portman and her intern (and her intern’s intern) on earth are fun to watch and engaging while they try to solve the mystery on their own, and Thor and Odin have a good conflict going on between them, but what I really mean is Loki. Loki, imprisoned after the events of The Avengers and called upon for help by Thor, is the best part of the movie. I was really relieved by this, because it was the thing I was most looking forward to while simultaneously dreading. Loki was my favorite part of Avengers, but my least favorite part of Thor. This movie finds a medium between the two, still giving him plenty of jokes to make and evil betrayal to do, while keeping up with his “You’re not my real dad!” plot from the first. The strength of Loki as a villain is that he is so very untrustworthy- whether he’s helping or hurting, it’s hard to know his exact motive or whether he has a greater plan he’s working on. I didn’t feel it so much in Thor, and slightly more in The Avengers, but they got his ambiguity just right in this. My only complaint was that his motivations and his resulting actions seemed like they were almost out of order, as though some scenes were moved around in re-writes. His arc could have been a lot more cohesive, but I was mainly just sad he wasn’t onscreen more. Tom Hiddleson as Loki is just fun to watch, and I hope we get to see a lot more of him in the future Marvel movies.

Many of my problems with the first movie came from the directing, and most of them have been corrected in this movie. The sets, especially Asgard, feel a lot less like sets. My heart sunk at that first CGI shot of that stupid pipe organ, but over the course of the movie they definitely made it look more like a city, with action taking place in more than three rooms and flying scenes showing a lot of individual architecture. The acting is toned down a bit as well, to what I thought was a huge advantage. There’s a lot less ARGDAFLARGH screaming from everyone, and a lot more quiet dialogue scenes that reveal character. I didn’t think much of the action in the original either, but the action climax of this is SO COOL. It’s just cool, and innovative, and I don’t think I’ve seen an action scene like it in a movie before. My inner ten year old and my outer film critic were clutching each other and squealing with glee over how cool I thought the final action scene was.

As much as I enjoyed a lot of the movie, I don’t count it in the same league as The Avengers or the other recent sequel Iron Man 3. Scene by scene everything is great, but the narrative arc holding it together never really gels. The justification for character growth was weaker than it needed to be, and I would have really appreciated a stronger subplot with Thor and Loki’s relationship after the events of the previous two movies to carry through the story, or stronger conflict in Jane’s storyline. The villain gives a broad frame to be filled in to the story, but there needed to be more emotional webbing to fill it in.

I definitely enjoyed Thor: The Dark World more than I enjoyed Thor, and will happily admit that it is a good movie. The movie doesn’t rise much above just being fun and entertaining, but for what it is it’s worth seeing. If you liked The Avengers, or just like superhero movies in general (like me) it’s a must see, but it’s not one of the strongest of the Marvel movies. I liked it, I’d watch it again, but I think some parts of it could have been stronger.

But Thor still sucks.