If it isn't abundantly clear at this point, my only free time to add to this blog seems to come at the end of the year. No matter. That's when I like to look back anyway, and to that end, I'm offering single-sentence reviews of all the films I saw this year, ranked in order.
Here we go, starting with the worst.
11) Avengers: Age of Ultron - A paltry 2 hour setup to the same ending we've seen dozens of times in these movies (see: Ant-Man).
10) Man from U.N.C.L.E. - Flashy style and great performances from Henry Cavill and Armie Hammer wasted on a film with no plot and no original ideas.
9) Ant-Man - A really cool heist movie becomes generic blah Marvel nonsense in the last act.
8) Spectre - Sam Mendes eliminates any goodwill with a bloated offering that manages to make Christoph Waltz uninteresting.
7) Steve Jobs - A play shot on the big screen that, like the movies above, isn't sure how to find a resolution without becoming generic and uninteresting.
6) Jurassic World - Dinosaurs run around unencumbered, while Chris Pratt does his best to save this sinking ship.
5) The Hateful Eight - Tarantino's eighth film features more hyper-violence and the dialogue we've come to expect, but the importance of the central "mystery" and bloated run time hold this Western back from being great.
4) Star Wars: The Force Awakens - An imperfect tribute to what made the original trilogy great, while also introducing an intriguing new generation of characters.
3) The Revenant - Leonardo's no good, very bad day has a perfectly good point and its performances are spot on, but its story is a complete mess once you get past the beautiful cinematography.
2) Spotlight - An old-timey feeling film that perfectly captures the triumphs and plight of the print journalist without getting bogged down in hero worship.
1) Mad Max: Fury Road - An action movie that isn't, George Miller's movie defies all expectations and keeps you gripped to your seat for two hours.
Still want to see (look for an update): The Big Short, Inside Out, Ex Machina, Straight Outta Compton, Trainwreck
Showing posts with label movies. Show all posts
Showing posts with label movies. Show all posts
Wednesday, December 30, 2015
Tuesday, March 25, 2014
A Sticky Floors and Salty Popcorn Special: Women Superheroes, and Why We Don't See More of Them
I don't think it's a coincidence that this piece from IGN happened to appear the same day Gloria Steinem hit age 80.
We've yet to see a female superhero movie that resonates with both the hardcore comics crowd and the mainstream the way the recent Dark Knight trilogy, Marvel Phase 1 and 2 or even the great Richard Donner Superman movies of the late 1970s and early 1980s have.
Sure, we've seen strong female characters in modern superhero movies, even those with exceptional powers that factor in to the narrative. Scarlett Johansson's Black Widow is a prominent figure not only in The Avengers, but also the two Iron Man films in which she's appeared. Pepper Potts even dons the shell in the latest RDJ/Tony Stark adventure. And you'd be lying if you didn't say there wasn't a depth of character to Anne Hathaway's Selina Kyle in The Dark Knight Rises that surpassed even the sultry performance of Michelle Pfieffer in Batman Returns.
This is all to say nothing of the deathstroke Famke Janssen gave to the X-Men series as Phoenix in The Last Stand, obliterating two of the classic series' main draws in Cyclops and Dr. Charles Xavier.
But every movie that tries to make the female character the lead falls flat. I'm looking at you, Halle Berry and Jennifer Garner. Why?
We can't say it's because of a lack of great source material. The aforementioned Jean Grey and Selina Kyle have provided countless rich storylines over the years. This is to say nothing of the leaps and bounds made in other media around strong, nuanced female characters. As I'm writing, the second chapter of Bioshock Infinite: Burial at Sea is downloading to my Xbox 360. I can't wait to see how viewing Rapture through Elizabeth's eyes will change my experience.
On TV, we've had decades of strong female characters that form the basis of compelling, long-running narratives. Joss Whedon himself ushered in the era, arguably, with his brilliant Buffy the Vampire Slayer series on WGN, or UPN, or whatever the hell the network was calling itself in 2003.
This lends all the more credence to Johansson's request in the above piece for a superhero movie to be made where the female characters aren't running around in their skivvies, staring longingly at the men who will have to come save them (I'm looking at you, Amazing Spider-Man 2).
In a year that could arguably be the greatest showcase for the maturity and universal appeal of the superhero tale transcending its niche audience (if it hasn't already), it's unconscionable that we have to continue to watch our female characters in these films simply play the gams. Johansson's right. Comic book and movie fans deserve more.
We've yet to see a female superhero movie that resonates with both the hardcore comics crowd and the mainstream the way the recent Dark Knight trilogy, Marvel Phase 1 and 2 or even the great Richard Donner Superman movies of the late 1970s and early 1980s have.
Sure, we've seen strong female characters in modern superhero movies, even those with exceptional powers that factor in to the narrative. Scarlett Johansson's Black Widow is a prominent figure not only in The Avengers, but also the two Iron Man films in which she's appeared. Pepper Potts even dons the shell in the latest RDJ/Tony Stark adventure. And you'd be lying if you didn't say there wasn't a depth of character to Anne Hathaway's Selina Kyle in The Dark Knight Rises that surpassed even the sultry performance of Michelle Pfieffer in Batman Returns.
This is all to say nothing of the deathstroke Famke Janssen gave to the X-Men series as Phoenix in The Last Stand, obliterating two of the classic series' main draws in Cyclops and Dr. Charles Xavier.
But every movie that tries to make the female character the lead falls flat. I'm looking at you, Halle Berry and Jennifer Garner. Why?
We can't say it's because of a lack of great source material. The aforementioned Jean Grey and Selina Kyle have provided countless rich storylines over the years. This is to say nothing of the leaps and bounds made in other media around strong, nuanced female characters. As I'm writing, the second chapter of Bioshock Infinite: Burial at Sea is downloading to my Xbox 360. I can't wait to see how viewing Rapture through Elizabeth's eyes will change my experience.
On TV, we've had decades of strong female characters that form the basis of compelling, long-running narratives. Joss Whedon himself ushered in the era, arguably, with his brilliant Buffy the Vampire Slayer series on WGN, or UPN, or whatever the hell the network was calling itself in 2003.
This lends all the more credence to Johansson's request in the above piece for a superhero movie to be made where the female characters aren't running around in their skivvies, staring longingly at the men who will have to come save them (I'm looking at you, Amazing Spider-Man 2).
In a year that could arguably be the greatest showcase for the maturity and universal appeal of the superhero tale transcending its niche audience (if it hasn't already), it's unconscionable that we have to continue to watch our female characters in these films simply play the gams. Johansson's right. Comic book and movie fans deserve more.
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